APOSTOLIC BISHOPS!

Within the last three years the arch-episcopal head of the English Church has died, and left behind him a fortune of 100,000 pounds, which he has bequeathed to his rich relatives, and not a penny to the poor! The 25 State Bishops of England divide among them annually, as shown by a late Parliamentary return, the sum of 180,000 pounds sterling! The sums they leave behind them at their deaths are enormous. From another Parliamentary return it is proved, as stated in the House of Commons, that 11 Irish State Bishops left behind them amassed wealth to the amount of 1,875,000 pounds, accumulated within a period of from 40 to 50 years. The following is the list extracted from the Parliamentary return: —Probates of wills of Irish Bishops—Stopford, Bishop of Cork, 25,000 pounds; Percy, Bishop of Dromore, 40,000 pounds; Cleaver, Bishop of Ferns, 50,000 pounds; Bernard, Bishop of Limerick, 60,000 pounds; Knox, Bishop of Killaloe, 100,000 pounds; Fowler, Bishop of Dublin, 150,000 pounds; Beresford, Bishop of Tuam, 250,000 pounds; Hawkins, Bishop of Raphoe, 250,000 pounds; Stuart, Bishop of Armagh, 300,000 pounds; Porter, Bishop of Clogher, 250,000 pounds; Agar, Bishop of Cashel, 400,000 pounds; making a total of 1,875,000 pounds. Such are the men who claim to be the successors in word and practice of the apostles, who said that “silver and gold they had none;” and who were commanded by their Lord to take neither scrip nor purse, nor two coats apiece! Blind indeed must be the man who believes that Bishops of this stamp have aught to do with the kingdom of God or his Christ. It is literally blaspheming his worthy name, and bringing christianity into contempt to recount their names in the same category. Ravening wolves in the garb of sheep is their true and scriptural designation. Mammon is their god, and their lusts the rule by which they serve him. Only think of such men consecrating patches of ground for the dead, and imparting the Holy Spirit by the imposition of their soft and lily hands! Popular ignorance of God’s word is their strength. Let this be dispelled and they will appear in their true light—“Deceiving and deceived.”

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THE BISHOP OF LONDON.

Dr. Bloomfield, Bishop of London, in his sermon on the vicarious suffering of Christ, British Pulpit, p. 311, says, “I am compelled to acknowledge with shame and confusion of face, that my sins are more in number than the hairs of my head.” There is no doubt infinitely more truth in this confession than in the gospel the Bishop preaches. He declares that he is over head in sin! We don’t wonder then that Satan made him Bishop of London; for a man who is covered with shame, and bowed down with sins more numerous than the hairs of his head, is a most fit and proper person to oversee the workers of iniquity which darken the society of the great metropolis in all the walks of life. They will hardly elude his vigilance, his right reverence himself being so great an adept in sin!