The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-09-23 00:00:00

THE BISHOP OF MANCHESTER ON THE

PROSPERITY OF ENGLAND.

- -----
On Saturday afterie ti, the Bishop if Manchester
t,ok part in a harvest thanksgiving at Christ's Church,
near Preston, and wimmistereil the right of
confirmation tits number if young persons.
In the course of his sermon Dr. raster alluded to the
cause which had brought them together to thank
God, for the abundant harvest He had granted to
them, not only in that part of Lancashire, but in
a great part id England. It scented to him that
there was no nation under heaven that had a
juster cause of thankfulness to God for unnum-
bered mercies than this natima of England. They
tr. compare their lot with that of other na
tions ; their condition now with the condition of
conquered France, and it may be alto with the
condition it 'conquering Cermany, which might be
pleaeed with it. 4 great conquests. hit if they were to
go through Germany they would see many a village
where the tears of the widows and the sighs I if the
fatherless would tell them what a ruthless twourge war
had been. There the many industries were paralysol,
, instead of being, as they now saw them in Lamaddre,
with every sign of reviving industry and prospereto

trade. In Germany they would hod A nation which
would have work for many yearn to come to replace
itself again into that state of prosperity in which
it was before the late terrible war arose. They
thanked God for it that no foreign foe had trod
the soil of England for many hundred yearn; they
had been permitted year by year to garner in the
harvest again and again in fulness, the abundant
frnits if the soil, and yet they dale not say that all
that WAS gi. en to them because of their righttainsness,
but it was wholly owing to Goil's care and mercy. He
wished that they would realise that national blessing
more aikspudely than they did, and he wished that each
one of them would do more to form more fully the
national character. Some people said that the national
character of England amongst the peoples of the earth
hardly stood so high now as it once did, and that their
civilization bad male fearful inroads upon their virtues
of truth, honesty, purity, and patriotism. When they
real of Prussian colliers willing to do and suffer fur
their country, English pail& could understand that
they conceived the country had a right to call upon
them. England, however, did not call upon her children
for such a sacrifice as that, though at this moment
it was tree that her soldiers in the South of England
were giiiig through a mimic pageantry of war, but
happily it was only mimic ; its guns were not filled
or charged with And ; its cartridges were blank, and
no fran would lose hislife except through some unlucky
accident which could not be foreseen in those =am-
vres. He fervently hoped that the day would be far
distant when they would be called upon to resist the
invader, or to seal forth their regiments really in anus.
The nation, however, calks I upon her children to hold
her name dear, and her Onions tradition, civil amid
religions liberty, not only for tide generation, but for
those to come ; to be jealous of England's honour, to
maintain is true spirit of her institution ; and it seemed
to him to be an occasion like that, when they were
called together, wit so 111110, as was said now, as
tuembein of this or that community, but as members of
the great civil society of the nation, they bad all reason
to thank God for the benefits poured upon our land ;
awl it also seemed lto him that Oh an occasion like that
they should realise, or try to realise. their membership
in a great civil and religious colon ilmity„