Letters to the Clergy on the Lord's Prayer and the ChurchRuskin, John
Religion
Letters to the Clergy on the Lord's Prayer and the Church
Ruskin, John
Church of England -- Clergy; Lord's prayer; Ruskin, John, 1819-1900 -- Correspondence
This Letter, after endorsing the expressions of the preceding one, deals
apparently with Capital and Labour. The clergy, if not required to
divide the inheritance among their brethren, or to actually serve
tables, are, taking "Property is theft" as their text, to resolutely and
daily inquire how the dinners of their flock are earned. The gist of the
Letter seems to be that the worker earns and the capitalist steals his
dinner. It is really possible that the clergy do constantly speak the
truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the truth's sake,
even though they may not subscribe to all the articles of some peculiar
schemes of social science, nor hold some singular doctrines as to
political economy. Doubtless were they to assimilate their conduct to
that of an injudicious district-visitor, they would have to take a new
view of "life and its sacraments," whatever this expression may mean.
It would seem as if the writer had yet to learn that a Christian Church
may exist teaching the most dogmatic definitions of doctrine, binding,
even in this respect, burdens on men's shoulders grievous to be borne,
while its members may be patterns of self-denial in "offices of temporal
ministry to the poor." He does not appear to regard with favour the
"Evangelistic sect of the English Church;" if this is intended for the
"Evangelical" sect, Charles Kingsley could say, in a certain place, of
its founders, "They were inspired by a strange new instinct that God had
bidden them 'to clothe the hungry and feed the naked.'" Yet these men
thought that "justification by faith only" was the Gospel they were "to
carry to mend the world with, forsooth."
LETTER XI
This concluding Letter calls but for slight remark,--of many portions we
feel _O si sic omnia_! That there is much sorrowful truth underlying the
unmeasured denunciations which have gone before few will care to deny.
Few there are who will not pray to be kept from the evils which the
writer discerns, and against which he inveighs. Such will be the first
to regret that the Letters, as they read them, seem to fall short of the
fulness of the Catholic Faith. "The holy teachers of all nations:" was
our blessed Lord but one of them? There is nothing in the Letters to
show that "the full force and meaning" of Gospel teaching is concerned
with anything beyond wealth, and comfort, and national prosperity, and
domestic peace. Preaching the acceptable year of the Lord is something
more surely than an invective against usury.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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