Bishops and Bishops

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 19, 1885

Bishops and Bishops.

WHILE waiting at some station in England, says the Philadelphia Record, the Bishop of Connecticut heard two little boys who were pitching pennies disputing over a half-penny that one of them pronounced not good. The bishop, looking at it, saw it was an American cent, and told them it was good in his country.

A Yankee boy would of course have proposed a trade on the spot, but the little Briton contented himself with asking all manner of questions about the far-off land "where bad pennies were good."

While the bishop was patiently answering the questions, an official who knew him came up and asked the boy what he meant by speaking to the lord bishop.

"Why should he not speak to me?" said the bishop. "I like to speak to little boys at home, and I like to speak to little boys here. And what is a bishop for but to be spoken to by every man and woman and child who has anything to ask or say?"

The man stared at him for a moment, and then replied, "Ah, my lord, I wish that were what our bishops were for."