Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1879-11-21
IRRELIGIOUS LONDON.
Million of People Who Have no
Church and Want None.

The working classes OF East London
do not 90 To church or care about rellg-
ion in any way. But no one explains, or
even mentions, the most striking fact OF
all, that no movement, or cry, or prayer
comes from the other side; that these
vast masses of English folk, male and
female, no more ask for clergymen, or
churches, or religious teaching OF any
kind than fishes ask for fishermen. We
should all hear it fast enough il they
did: indeed, it is difficult to imagine, If
all these myriads wanted the tuition
they are SO eagerly asked to want, what
the volume OF the consequent roar
would be. Suppose they resented the
absence OF work, or call for clergymen
as they would call, if they were made
uuately supplied, for publicans. The
sound would never cease from the ears
of West London until the demand were
granted and Government wOul ! be dis
tracted bv its own weakness TO comply
with the request. The mnltltudes, how
ever. remain quiescent. No crowds rush
through Pail Mall demanding ministers
of religion and carrying banners with
PITY the Churches no meetings are
held in Victoria Park 10 denounce the
yiilainOus mOnOpOlists OF the means OF
grace. nor are public meetings held 10
see If the want cannot be supplied by an
infinite collection OF pence. You never
even meet men calling in the street,
We've got no clergy to teach u.s.
Here are more than a million OF people,
upon whom circumstances Land what
used to be called in Catholic countries
an interdict, silencing all bells, with,
drawing all priests, shutting all sacred !
buildings, and not one in a hundred .
cares nor is one in ten so much as fully |
aware OF the difference between the re- |
zion he lives in and the rest o. the !
world. IL is this which strikes us as so |
wonderful and so little noticed. How
does it happen that here in London, in
the richest and most civilized OF capt. |
tals, peOpled by q race perhaps as good |
and certainly as respectable as any 9th
or, the want which sOCiOlOglSts say Is the I
most instructive Of humanity Is SO little |
ielt--or, for we must not forget that
conceivable reply, appears TO be little |
felt. Here are million Of people, ialrIy |
ied, fairly intelligent, fairly orderly, who !
-, en- TO care as little about the great |
ro,llem Of the whence and whittier
=, the animals do, or the fishes, to have /
mn ceiling at all about it, no desire Tor |
INV t,rm Of worship or mode o! eN-
WIRES ,ing religious feeling, no fear that |
# thew .1eglet . 1t utterly anything VIII |
I,ppen 10 them. No other people eN-
.ept the Chinese seem to be III that |
frame of mind. ii East London were |
addicted 10 Odd AsreSies or 10 strange /
forms of wors hip, q were SEeptlcaI or |
Or given 10 indoor rehg- |
ION or to the worship Of goodness when |
prevails i'm some parts * Germany, ~ /
would be intelligible; but the continual |
apatby of millions on the subject, last /
i'm, for generations, and never disturbed |
svreut by efforts from without, IS surely |
very strange. There are Sceptle> IN East 1
London. and fierce scepucs. hut the !
body of the people are not Sceptles, have |
none of the sort of irritable dislike OF I
y.ri,,ion and tine clerical order shown IN .
Paris and Berlin. a very small proper
tjo. will declare themselves lnhdeiS, /
paglapS rs small rs the proportion |
smCrr the private soldiers, among whom /
such 8p announcement Is the rareSt Oh /
events They have TO declare their |
faith on joining, and in the great garrI- /
son of Malta a chaplain who cared about /
the matter found that in four years only |
one man hal asked TO be recorded as an |
infdrl Tae officer presiding, greatly |
surprised. AK ed the man twice. and /
twice reoeivel the same reply, and en-
tered him A. N ember OF the Church OF |
England" aWh. II else could do? he |
asked. i'm answer TO sudden remon-.
STRANGE: There il no congregation OF
them
Five siNths Of as pc ople in the East
End, ii forced TO listen to ordinary re-
lgious or moral teachiu, =, raise no Cd
lection, feel no objection and 90 away !
neither asserting nor a lSsentlng nor /
without irritation, Out
wanting no more Of it and not disposed
to give even pence for its purchase:
They do not care. Nor do we hear oil
much superstition. There is often
good deal OF downright superstition
among the "Pagans' OF country places,
a great deal Of fear oil the unknown,
great reliance on old practices in defense
against evil powers, but in East Loudoh
superstition Sc ems as dead almost as re-
religion. You would no more see a
horseshoe or. door than an oratory IN
q,