DUTY OF CHRISTIANS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14825, 31 October 1911, Page 5

DUTY OF CHRISTIANS.

DR. GORE ON LABOUR UNREST. A STRIKING.. LETT „ - -a, OUR ' c i ,T COKIiESrONDESrr.j London-, September 22. Dp. (Jpm, who in the last ten years has been Bishop of Worcester, then of Birmingham, and new of Otfora, has written an intensely interesting letter of tarewell to the clergy and city of Birmingham Diocese Dr. Gore dwells upon the unrest in the 'labour world, and his remarks cannot fail to interest the social reformers of a progressive country like New Zealand. Ho says there is 0.13 special sense of failure which' weighs upon him, and _ which he cannot keep to himself. " I feel, ho continues, "that among the objects which 1 most seriously set before myself that there is no one in which I have failed more signally than in stirring among churchmen in general a sense of their duty to contribute to the social and industrial reconstruction of our nation. There is a profound sense of unrest and dissatisfaction among the workers. Recently society has been deeply alarmed at its symptoms. I cannot but believe that this profound discontent is justified, though some particular exhibitions of it are not. The longer I have lived in this great industrial centra the more I liavo felt that, as Christians, wo are not justified in tolerating the conditions of life and labour under which a vast mass of our population is living. '' We have no right to say that these conditions are not remediable, and that we have no right to expect that they will do remedied until Christian hearts and Christian heads energetically demand and insist that they shall be altered. " Social science will help us to avoid mistakes; hut only the real love of man can give the needed impulse to effective reform. The preventive lack of equipment for life among the young, and later the insecurity of employment and inadequacy of remuneration and consequent destitution, or semi-destitution, among so many of our people, ought to inspire in all Christians a profound and passionate determination to devote themselves to the reform of our industrial system. " I cannot but pray from my heart that my successor may bo enabled to bring home to churchmen generally a deeper sense of social obligations.'®