The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-06-13 00:00:00

j THE REVOLUTIONARY TENDENCIES
OF THE AGE.

On Sunday morning the Bishop of Manchester
preached at St. James's Church, Bolton. Selecting as
his text Proverbs xxv., v.l, his lordship asked his
congregation not to take the desponding view of human
nature which was the foundation of some theologies.
Human nature was capable of being raised, and that
by agenciea which were neither fantastic nor dreamy.
A rench philosopher had said that we had reached
the highest stage of development which we were ever
likely to reach in this world. This was all a
dream. There was no warrant for it that he could
see. Neither could he (the bishop) find any founda-
tion for other theories which held that man, as he
came from the hands of God, was an uncultivated
Ravage, and that the whole history of humanity
from that time to the present had been one of a
continuous uplifting of the race from the low
state in which it was made to its present condi-
tion of almost perfection. One could see a won-
derful contrast between the civilised and the savage
man; but the cis ilised man might degenerate once
more into the savage, and even into something
worse than the savage. When one read the past
histories if Athens, Corinth, Antioch, Ephesus,
Alexandrfa and Rome, how they sank from the highest
state of civilise-ion into utter degradation and de-
pravity, one was not tempted to lay too muoli stress
on the so-called necessary laws of human develop-
ment under which it was supposed certain social
problems had been discovered by the wise men of the
19th century, as being evolved. We must all feel that
society around us was full of explosive materials.
We had read the history of the story of the
French revolution of 1763; we had read the story
—we almost witnessed the scenes passing before our
eyes, so vividly were they described—of the Paris
Commune; and it was not impossible—he did not say
it WM likely—that explosions of a volcano, like tothat,
may unless God's Providence watched over WI, take
place even amongst ourselves. He did not know that
any one had a particular right to be satisfied with
society in England as it was just now. A gentleman
who had recently returned to this country after being
absent from it for some years had expressed himself as
startled and frightened by the social phenomena that
he saw around him. As in the days of Augustus,
which the poet Horace had described, rich people
seem to think that happiness in life consisted in riding
in yachts and in driving four-in-hands--so it was now ;
and the question that thrust itself on the mind of this
earnest man was, What would be the end of all this;
And yet, thanks be to God, one knew and felt that
everywhere- -in Bolton, Manchester, and London—
there were noble men and women rising above this
utter animalism—this low sensualism, and who did
endeavour to realise that they had a duty to dis-
charge to God and man. Though philosophers
might make het:twelves merry at the expense of
Christianity, and though clever writers might run
down so called sectarian schools, and think it is the
height of enjoyment to ride on the box of a four-in-
hand or sail in a yacht, thes9 were not the things that
would save society and discharge mares conscience to
God. Men and Women that went throh the world
with blinkers over their eyes, shutting out the 119 infill
sights around them or stopped their ears with
wool so that they might not hear the cry
of the fatherless -these wiauld not keep England
from sinking into a state that might be an imita-
tion of that of Athens, Corinth, Antioch, Alexandria,
or Rome. In conclusion his lordship made an earnest
appeal for support which would enable the neighbour-
in schools to be completed. He deprecated the spirit
of sectarianism which would teach a child to hate a
Roman Catholic or a Dissenter, and said that in plead-
ing for a scriptural education he pleaded for an educa-
tion based on revealed principles—love to God and
man, which was set before them with such power by
St. John.