Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

22 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

MR. WATKIN WILLIAMS'S FAREWELL}…

ECCESIASTICAL.

MR. GLADSTONE AND WALES.

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WAR PREPARATIONS.

ROUMANIA.

GREECE.

MR. BRIGHT ON THE PROSPECT…

THE FLINTSHIRE VOLUNTEERS.

WELSH RESERVES.

THE PROSPECTS OF THE CONGRESS.

RUSSIAN PREPARATIONS.

AN ARMISTICE IN THESSALY.

INSURRECTION IN .ROUMELIA.

DESPERATE ENCOUNTER BETWEEN…

THE REPRESENTATION OF THE…

LORD ABERD ARE ON CHARITY.…

A CLERGYMAN ON THE WAR. PARTY.

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

A CLERGYMAN ON THE WAR. PARTY. A remarkable letter by the Rev. John Oakley, one- of the most estimable of the London clergy, has appeared; ia the Daily News. His main object in writing, he say-e, is To protest my conviction that a great majority-l should think; avast majority-of the clergy of the Church'of England arei averse from war, not as always inherently wrong, but as being in the supposed case uncalled for by any interest of man,, er Europe, or England least of all-as involving ungenerous and ungrateful meanness to the Power which we practically led into war, then left to fight alone, then tried to deprive of all credit for her self-sacrifice, and of the cliief part of her modest material gains and as fraught with serious peril to ourselves and to the whole present settlement of Kia-opean Christendom. Dealing, then, with the conflicting influences which tend to keep the clergy silent, he passes on to Take note of the significant fact that the main body of the followers of Mr. Gladstone's lead the last two years have been the educated upper middle class—reinforced, of course, by con- spicuous thinkers of all classes, such as the Duke of Argyll, Mr. Chrlyle, and Mr. Froude—and the serious and thoughtful leaders of the artisans, who command the nearly solid vote of their whole class. On the other hand, "without disparaging ability and worth like Lord Salisbury's," The chief strength of the war party lies h the two classes who never think or take a really serious view of any- thing-the swells of the clubs ancnsalons, and the of the gutters and the publics, and includes, wir tever else it includes besides, all the least worthy and estimal, elements of English society. If one could make these Ie do all the fighting for us, if it must be done, the case i;iight be rather different. But that they should have the disp.wil of the lives and. earnings of the workers and thinkers o'e country is a heavy aggravation of the injury of their getting their way, in silence on our part, as they are claiming and striving to get it, too probably with success. And it is this- monstrous claim that the clergy, as I think, have a special responsibility to protest against and resist. It is utterly independent of party politics. It is a .question of right and wrong, and of the place of generosity and Christian sympathy in the public, and especially in the foreign, policy of a professedly and actually Christian nation. And even if it was as cmtain as it is doubtful that Conservative politicians have any meaning beyond a merely Conservative meaning iR their. claim-to be considered the friends of the Church," then if this were the price of their patronage I think we should still say- Fiat justitia, and let the Church take care of herself. As one who isstilVquite ready to spend his small strength in battling for the Established Church as the existing and the only conceivable form of a corporate national confession of Christ, I must say that recent events have done more than any argument to make me attach importance to Nonconformist views, as such; on this or any other point of public policy. To put it strongly—If their instincts and convictions have led them, as a body, to take a manifestly and avowedly Christian line towards the Christian national ties in the East and towards the Christian nation which has just delivered them from their Pagan oppressorsand if our instincts and prejudices, on the contrary, have led us, as a. body,, to do exactly the opposite which body is to be taken as best representing the Church of Christ in England ? Coming from a clergyman of Mr. Oakley's school,, this is one of the most remarkable declarations we have met with for a very long time. It shows the extraordinary effect of the present crisis upon the minds of serious men, who find themselves face to face with a great calamity and a great crime. Can we not (says Mr. Oakley in conclusion) almost hear the echo of a prophet's voice as we make ready, sick at heart and weary with our quarrels, for our easy and indifferent observance of Good Friday, at this terrible tÏIue ?-"Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness; ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? Is it to bow down his head as a bullrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him ? Wilt thou call this a fast and an acceptable;day to the Lord ?' Is not this the fast that I have chosen; to loose the bands: of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke 1"

LLANIDLOES. LLANIDLOES.

----------U----LLANGOWER.

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