Littell's Living Age/Volume 144/Issue 1855/A Bishop's Tribute to his Mother

A Bishop's Tribute to his Mother

Distributing the prizes at the Keighley School of Science and Art on Wednesday, October 8, the Bishop of Manchester remarked that parents should not send their children out into the world too soon. His father, who had a very active mind, invested his means in the ironstone mines in the Forest of Dean. That investment turned out unfortunate, and his father died, he feared, a broken-hearted man. They were a family of seven, and he (the bishop) was then fourteen years of age. His mother was not clever, but she would have done anything she could for her children. She said, "I cannot give these lads large fortunes, but by denying myself and living quietly I can give them a good education." Three of his brothers went out to India — one fell in the Mutiny, and the other was now at the head of a department of public works in India, where he had a good situation and was doing a good work. They knew what he (the bishop) was. He ventured to say that, if all his brothers and sisters were alive, they would rise up and call their dear mother blessed for the sacrifices she made that they might have careers. By God's providence he had that mother still spared to him. She was now paralyzed, speechless, and helpless, but every day when he went into her bedroom and looked on her sweet face he thought gratefully of all he owed her, of what he was, and what he had been enabled to do.