Show i j yr y r A ll llon ilni no church at tint Xon Loui loo jaaj 21 working laynea ot east alvn lion not go to church or dins for religion in any way but no one explains or even mentions most striking fact of all that no move or cry or prayer comes from alo other that chefe viat of english folks male and female no more ask for clergymen chur chesi or religious teachings of any kind than fishes ask for fiah crmen we should all hear it fast enough if they did indeed it is difficult to imagine they are so eagerly asked tuition to want what the volume of the consequent would be suppose they only resented the te of religious teaching as they would the absence of work or called for clergy men as they would call if they were inadequately supplied for publicans public ans the sound would never biase from the ears of west london until the demands wera granted and gohei would bo distracted by its eagerness to comply the ro guest the multitude however remain quiescent no crowds march through pall mall demanding ministers of religion and carrying banners with pity the churchler Chur chleo no meetings are held in victoria park to denounce the villainous monopolists of the means of grace nor are public meetings held to see if thov mit cuir not be supplied by an infinite collection of pence you never even meet men cabling in the street weve get no clergy to teach us I acre are more than a million of people upon whom circumstances have lud what used to bo called in catholic countries an interdict silencing all bells withdrawing nil priests shutting all sacred buildings and not one in a hundred cares nor is one in ten so much as fully aware of the between the region in which lie lives in and the reat of the world it is aliis which strikes us as so wonderful and so little noticed how does it happen that here in london in alie richest and most civilized of capitals peopled by a race perhaps as good and certainly as respectable as any other tho want which sociologists ray is alio most instinctive of humanity is so little felt or we get eliat conceivable reply appears to be so little felt here arf a million ot people fairly fed fairly intelligent fairly orderly who seem to care as little about the great problem of the whence and whether as the animals do or tho fishes to have no feeling at all about it no for any special form of worship or mode of expressing religious feeling no fear that if they neglect it utterly anything will happen to them no other people except the chinese seem to be in that frame of mind if east london were addicted to odd here sies or to strange forms of worship or were skeptical or superstitious or given to religion or to alio worship of goodness which prevails in somo pans of germany would be intelligible but alie continual of millions on lie subject lasting for generations and never disturbed except by efforts from without is surely very strange there skeptic in east east london and fienco skeptics the body of the people are not skeptics have none of the sort of irritable dislike of religion and the clerical order shown in paris and berlin A very small proportion would declare themselves infidels perhaps as small ns ho proportion among tho private soldier among whom such an nn no is the rarest of events they have to declare their faith on joining and in the great garrison of malta a chaplain who cared about alie matter found that in four years only one man had asked to bo recorded as an infidel alie officer arr siding greatly asked the man twice and twice received alio samo reply ercil him as 11 member of the church of england what else could I do lie asked in answer a remonstrance theres no congregation of them of all the people in the east end if forced to liston to ordinary religious or moral teaching baiso no objection fed no objection and go away neither assenting nor dissenting nor moved entirely without irritation but wanting no more of it and not disposed to give even pence for its purchase they do not barc nor do wo hear of much superstition there i often a good deal of downright superstition among alto pagans of country places adeal of fearon tho unknown a great reliance on old practices in defense against evil powers but in ewt london superstition beams as dead almost as religion you would no more dee a horseshoe on the door than an oratory in tho bouso |