The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-06-30
The English Church and the Poor.

| Under heading somewhat similar
this We find in o recent number Of tn
New York Sun an article containing SOM
pertinent questions addressed to the sp
preaching Psn.Anglican Conference to b
held in England. It asks these gentlemen
some Of them enjoying princely revenues
what they are going to do shout the grow
ing sentiment of alienation from them, Of
distrust towards them and of actual hatred
for them, on the part of the working classes
The great majority of this population, says
the Sun, neither attend the services of the
national Church nor believe in its teach l.
ings, yet they have to support its clergy
whether they want to or not. They, there
fore, look on that clergy as their enemy
and long for the day when it will be abol-
ished.
Under such circumstances the San thinks
1t would be wife for these great spiritual
pontentates to leave aside temporarily the
interesting discussion of rubricsl questions,
and try their hands at the great social
problem of the day. These spiritual In
minaries have been faithfully urging upon
the lower classes that 1t is their duty to be
contented in the station to which it has
pleased God to call them. Now, says the
Snn, let them seriously consider whether
1t is really "the will of God that Hodge,
the farm laborer, and Jones, the weaver,
should be what they are and live as they
do" That is, is not the Church partly re-
sponsible for their moral darkness and is
not society responsible for something of
their social debasement and discontent7
The Church should always teach men
resignation to the temporal evils of which
this life can never be entirely free, bat che
should be beyond the suspicion of her.
self causing or contributing to those evils.
If a man sees his friends seriously at work
to assist him in his troubles, he believes in
the sincerity of their philosophy when
they try to console him, but his confidence
in their doctrines may not be 30 implicit II,
far from relieving him, their exactions act
ually form one of the heaviest items in the
burden he has to bear. When gentlemen
of aristocratic lineage and associations are
living in all the magnifcence and luxury
of the most fashionable and wealthy world
ings, and when the poor are kept at as re-
epectful distance from their dignified
presence as from that of some royal per-
sonage, what difference does it make
merely to call them bishops7 Authority
is always burden to those subject to it,
and will certainly be hated unless associa-
ted with acts of protection and benefcence
and love. A very grand gentle man called
"Biehop" may think himself wonderfully
condescending, if he stops his very grand
carriage end four to tell Hodge, across the
hedge; My good man 1 hope you are
content with your lot and pay your
church rates punctually. But Hodge, with
all his seryile show of reverence will thinkIto
himself that the former would be better
without the latter OF the 1--WE thiRes refer
red to.
If the Church would hold on to the con-
fidence and affection of the poor, it muet
go to them where it finds them and not
wait for them TO come; it must go to their
novels and sit at their hearths it must
take them by the hand and counsel with
them over their miseries and woes. But
how can this be tffectually done by q
Church which has no religious Orders, no
Franciscans, no Benedictines, no Sisters of
Charity, of Mercy, no Little Sisters of the
Poorf The true Church, having her mis-
sion from on high, knows how to divide her
work and select her instruments. She can
send her chief Pontiff to arrest the conquer
ing progress of a barb king, or her name
less daughter in the humble garb of relig-
ion to pick up the little waif of humanity
that has been abandoned by it's mother and
left to perish.
Aud if the mighty of the earth oppress
their weaker brethren, has the Church no
one to stand forth like the prophet of old
and say even to royalty on its throne: Thou
art the mani Is the Church to sit serene
ly by and witness the enforced debasement
of her childrenR She is indeed an unnatu-
raj mother, if, clothed in silks and velvets,
she joins gayly in the festivities of the