Fors Clavigera (Volume 5 of 8): Letters to the workmen and labourers of Great BritainRuskin, John
General
Fors Clavigera (Volume 5 of 8): Letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain
Ruskin, John
Aesthetics; Conduct of life; Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century; Social problems; Working class -- Great Britain
In the second place, while it is unquestionably true that many
clergymen are doing what Mr. Headlam complacently points out their
ability to do,—sacrificing, to wit, themselves, their souls, and
bodies, (not that I clearly understand what a clergyman means by
sacrificing his soul,) without any thought of temporal reward; this
preaching of Christ has, nevertheless, become an acknowledged
Profession, and means of livelihood for gentlemen: and the Simony of
to-day differs only from that of apostolic times, in that, while the
elder Simon thought the gift of the Holy Ghost worth a considerable
offer in ready money, the modern Simon would on the whole refuse to
accept the same gift of the Third Person of the Trinity, without a nice
little attached income, a pretty church, with a steeple restored by Mr.
Scott, and an eligible neighbourhood.
These are the two main branches of the charge I meant to gather into my
short sentence; and to these I now further add, that in defence of this
Profession, with its pride, privilege, and more or less roseate repose
of domestic felicity, extremely beautiful and enviable in country
parishes, the clergy, as a body, have, with what energy and power was
in them, repelled the advance both of science and scholarship, so far
as either interfered with what they had been accustomed to teach; and
connived at every abuse in public and private conduct, with which they
felt it would be considered uncivil, and feared it might ultimately
prove unsafe, to interfere.
And that, therefore, seeing that they were put in charge to preach the
Gospel of Christ, and have preached a false gospel instead of it; and
seeing that they were put in charge to enforce the Law of Christ, and
have permitted license instead of it, they are answerable, as no other
men are answerable, for the existing “state of things” in this British
nation,—a state now recorded in its courts of justice as productive of
crimes respecting which the Birmingham Defender of the Faith himself
declares that “in the records of no age or nation will any tales be
found surpassing these in savagery of mind and body, and in foulness of
heart and soul.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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