The Labor enquirer., 1888-01-21
THE BISHOP.
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cious eeneralities. and have not
dared to denounce your individual
sins. And all this time there mas
been going on around me- in this
huge CITY and throughout the land,
the surging, toiling life OF hu-
manityethe sorrow. the suffering
the poverty, the disease the sin
and the shame which ] realized
but dimly as something altogether
apart from my own existence but
for which | at last see clearly you
and I have, up to the present time,
been mostly to blame. We and
our class have kept back by fraud
the hire Of the laborers who have
reaped our fields, we have lived IN
pleasure on the earth and been
wanton, We have nourished our
own hearts while we have starved
the bodies of those to whom we
owe the very bread we eat and
the clothes we wear, and now we
are condemning and killing at our
very gates the people whose in
articulatc cry is entering into the
ears of the Lord OF Sabaoth,
whose faithful servants we pretend
to be.
My fellow citizens, know not
how it may be with you, but for
me this carelcs, selfish life has
ended. Little by little | have
awakened to the fact that all my
days have almost entirely neg
lected my real duty to my fellow
men, and at last | have come to
know that my proper place is not
here as we'll paid bishop of a
church which, in its present con-
dition, is utterly opposed to every
thing which Christ taught, but
among the poor to whom he de-
clared that the gospel should be
preached, among the laborers
whose hire we have kept back by
fraud. Too long have ! neglected
the miserable social facts of our
so-called Christian civilization,
to long have | spoken to you
smooth things, and cried peace
when there was no peace. | have
known by repute that there was
misery among our people, starva-
ton in our mid4 and prostitution
in our streets; bpt hitherto | have
taken these as something for
which you and ] were not respon-
sible, but which were really due to
the inherent wickedness of human
nature. But now have learned
that our pleasures and our wanton-
ness have been built upon these
hideous foundations, and having
learned this, as you may also learn
il you will, | have resolved that
from this Christmas day my new
life shall begin. To-day lay
down my robes, ! give up my
bishoprick, my palace and my in
come; ! resign my seat in the
house OF lords; give up the
pleasures OF society and of the
world, and at last | take my place
as a man among men.
1t is, | know, a bold step that !
have taken, but | have fully
counted the cost. Resolved no
longer to live on the labor of
Others, | shall probably have to
Join the great army of the unem-
ployed. Tomorrow | shall at
tempt to preach my first sermon
to them in Trafalgar square from
the same text that | have used
here to-day and it is likely that |
shall pass tomorrow night in a
police cell. But there shall be
no worse off than Jesus Christ
would be if he attempted to enter
this abbey now, for he would be
arrested and locked up as a vaga-
abond without visible means Of
subsistence. To you and to your
class he would simply be a laborer
whose subsistence you have kept
back by fraud. To the abolition
of that fraud and of the misery
and degradation which result from
il ] shall henceforth devote my
life. 1t will be no easy task, not
nearly so easy as being bishop of
London. but the reward of a good
conscience and of noble worL ,v.,,