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-----A SONNET ON SORROW.I

Uanettes, .&c.__,

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SOnITHING FOR YOUNG ' FOLKS.

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ST. DAVID'S DIOCESAN CONFERENCE.

BISHOP OF RIPON AT ALBERT…

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BISHOP OF RIPON AT ALBERT HALL. THE FORCE OF MORAL CHARACTER. ELOQUENT, STIRRING AND SCHOLARLY ADDRESS. There was a crowded and enthusiastic gathering at the Albert Hall on Friday even- ing. Every seat was utilised, and many were unable to obtain admission. The hall had been beautifully decorated by Messrs. Ben Evans and Co. Lord of Heaven and Earth and Ocean" having been sung with much heartiness, Rev. Chancellor Smith offered up prayer. The Lord Bishop of St. David's presided. The Bishop of Ripon (Dr. Boyd Carpenter) was enthusiastically applauded on rising to address the crowded assembly. The enthusi- asm of the reception drew from his lordship the remark that this was his first visit to Swansea, and that he had been impressed by their temperature in two senses of the word— outside damp and inside warmth. In the hymn, "Lord of Heaven and earth," refer- ence was made to their national priviliges. The interests of a great people were bound up with every possible influence which could be brought to bear upon the rising genera- tion. One of the great elements of the maintenance of national character was the influence of religious life. A great many mistakes had arisen in people's minds because they had not formed a true conception of what religion really was. People frequently buffetted the air because they did not know the meaning of the word they were fighting abouc. Words had been described as the counters of wise men and the money of fools, and hence there was an enormous difference between theology and religion. One of the first duties of lifo was to keep sedulously in mind that theology was one thing and religion another. He did not say they were not related. A man might be first cousin to another man, yet he was a different person. And so it was with religion and theology. Theology might be first cousin to religion, but still it was not the same. Theology dealt with the reason of man bearing upon ques- tions which touched his religious life; but the religion of a man was his life—the con- duct of his life. Religion was what he was in himself. And therefore, though all theo- logical questions were all-transcendant, yet when a man made his religious notions as clear as he could, it did not follow that he was a religious man. Religion was like the blood which coursed through their veins. It was their very life. Religion was like the oxygen which made life possible. That was the idea of religion that saturated the whole of the Bible, and found expression in all great and good teachers, making a man like John Wesley the hero that he was in the history of the century. It is true," said his lordship, "that a man who has got money has certain advantages of gaining information, but what I want to say is that you and I live in a universe in which the very best things cost us nothing at all. The air we breathe is needful to keep these bodies of ours in life and health—you can have it for nothing. The sweet sunshine that pours down upon us and makes us feel how sweet it is to live—it is all for nothing. And if you talk of art and the things of beauty and say that these are denied to me, I say pardon me! If you are poets—and would you urge all poets in that sense—you would find that there are beauties at your feet and beauties over your head that far surpass all that a Reynolds, a Michael Angelo or a Raphael ever painted. What is the aim—the conception of ourselves—that we ought to have in view if that idea is true ? One great and clear duty is to have a right notion of ourselves and of our relation to religion. The three important considerations for man is himself, his life and God above. What constitutes the real man ? There is a thing called hero worship. It is a good thing. We had it in cur boyhood in the captain of the first eleven, or the half-back in the football field." (Laughter and applause.) His lordship then pointed out that as we grew older we probably made our Words- worth, Byron, Arabian Nights or Pilgrim's Progress our hero, and said there was a greatness of the intellect as well as the great- ness of the body, and the history of our development is the history of the world. Trust in character, the preacher went on, and pointed out that for this reason Alcibiades was not trusted, but dull old Nisrus was. If you watch the history of the House of Commons—it is true on both sides of the House—somehow or other it IS not always the most brilliant man that the people of this country insisted upon as the leader of the great party. They want something else. They sometimes think that brilliancy is allied with an erratic character. The English trusted W. H. Smith when they would not have trusted a far more brilliant man. Why? And remember Lord Eldon. He was a grand old Tory, a Tory of Tories. In the day when there was a good deal of political excitement in London, and all the Liberal spirit was abroad. Lord Eldon ap- peared in the crowd, and what did they say ? They said: Here s old Eldon; let's give him a cheer for he has never ratted." That meant the English were very much like the Athenians, and preferred character to ability, because character would not deceive and ability might. (Hear, hear.) Did it not show that man went from the lower to the higher—that first there was the physical strength, then the intellectual, and finally they landed themselves into the conclusion that the moral force of a man made the real man. They were not wrong in that conclu- sion, for was it not true, as a French writer said, that the superiority of the Anglo- Saxon lay in his self-reliance? A noted Frenchman had discovered the secret, and with true patriotism he told his countrymen «The Anglo-Saxon are your superiors' because they are taught to be self-reliant." The Frenchman stinted and scraped in order to give his son a place in the world; the Englishman taught his son to do his duty, and he said to him, "Now, my lad, I have had to make my way in the world, and you ve got to ruaÀe yours." That was why England had colonies. No pains no gains. If we want to succeed we must work. We must touch the pain if we would the gain. He (the Lord Bishop) called that a bit of character. He was not sure, however, that the prosaic world looked with very much favour upon this upward tendency, and it had been said that the tendency of the sur- roundings was to make the people more brutal. That was a very sad things and if that were true, then they were placed and

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iTRIED AND PROVED.

[No title]

\ LITERARY BUREAU.

SWANSEA SCHOOL BOARD.

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SWANSEA HOSPITAL.

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BISHOP OF RIPON AT ALBERT…