"The Bishops Refuse Duty."

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 12936, 29 November 1909, Page 2

TO THI EDITOR. Sir, — With your pei mission I would like to point out that the article under tho abovi heading, contains suggestions that jie not warianted. Hie aiucle in question says pretty plainly, that it the bishops do not vote on the Budget it wil lbe because it is what the editor pleases to call \i poor man's Budget," \\ nether it caji bi'iir that name remains yet to be seen, .is capital is required to employ labour. Uiereiore it is said, they will oppose 't beuance it is likely to be beuelicial to the "tuiler and moiler." It it is the intention ol the writer to let the labouring man think that he only is a "toiler and moiler" lie lrf decidedly wrong, ior many an cml.i iyer oi labour is m a worse position, uas all the anxiety an eni] loyee is tree irom, and olten ha.s to work harder than the employed. 'Iliei'L 1 is also the suggestion that i lie church (winch iioed in a general way jneans all Christian teaching), is unfriendh to tl'c wuiu'i 1 , when it «ays "Labour has otU'ii dcclaicd that the Church has no sympathy with it." I would ask the woikiii» man to think ior hiniaell, and not be i ained away by such an untouuded assertion. Ihe article speaks oi the bishops tfd "ininiitoro of Christ," and all these who do any work as Christian ministers in I heir w.i ri arc against sin, in any denomination, are ministers ol Christ, too. Is .t not, a iact that the minister ot Chr'st m this or any other country are the iriendg of the working man? To whom do tlity go in tiouole, .sickness, and distiLho' Is i*^ not to the minister of their church? aid do not all Christians combine and vie with one another in helping them in any adversity r and although they do not sound a tiumpot b^iorc them, yet numberless ) eople always kno-v where they can hnd a protector and iriend. I remember, too, that that great bulwark of English liberty, the inundation wheicon our freedom js built, was obtained under the leadership oi the tli^n Archbishop of Canterbury, and since Hien, many a wise law and humane institution has come from Hie same source, not only of the Church of England, but Irom all other bodies of Christians who have always been ready at the call ol duty to do service for their fellow men. Thereloro the Church is not uuhicndly to tl>c working man. — I am, etc., F. \V. WHIBLEY. Weber, Hawke's Bay