raged-for the eye of our God is upon us, and he will reward our labours. And who shall say, as the minds of these children become infused with christian feelings, but we may end with at least 80 per cent. Again, it is said, 'What advantages do you offer ?' I would say, first, they are now educated in everything that concerns the vices of the world-for there is an education going on in vice as well as in virtue in infidelity as well as religion. Oh, do not say that because we do not éducate all, that therefore we should teach none. But some may doubt the excess of misery to which we refer. Now, I have visited streets and lanes, into which I have been cautioned not to go alone, escorted by the police, and there I have witnessed scenes which have left an impression on my mind never to be effaced, calling on me to do Something to rescue these poor wretched beings. I read an account of one locality. It is at the rear of a house in George-street, St. Giles's, the house itself is one of a most disreputable character. In this place is a dreadful yard, containing four or five sheds, in which the rain, the cold, and the heat struggle for preponderance; one of these sheds is but five feet deep, and it pays a higher rent than many a good house. What, think you, is the rent paid for this hovel, this very pigstye? £60 a year!-drawn from the pockets of those who, to pay it, are thieves, dishonest, and everything that is disreputable. How, then, shall we go among these? What will be the use of a tract to a child who cannot read it; or of the Bible, the overflowing tendency of whose passages it cannot appreciate, because to it it is a sealed book? Our duty should be to go among them with a sympathising feeling, to show them that our hearts respond to theirs, and to award those benefits to them which we feel to be so important to ourselves. This is the secret of human nature-it is the mingling kindness with instruction. In Parkhurst prison, the governor told me he once had twenty-five children, the refuse of society. He called them together, and spoke to them kindly of what they might derive from the cultivation of better feelings, and told them that his object was to do all he could to remove their misfortunes; and the result was, they burst into tears-they clung to his knees while they said, 'This is the first moment in our lives that we ever heard a word of kindness.' This is the sharp edge of the wedge; then drive it home with heartfelt effect. A word to those who, deserving of all praise, have sacrificed their time, and, perhaps, their spirits to this task. I have seen those who had every comfort in domestic life giving up all this for the purpose of doing to others as they would be done by. And here I would allude to that blessed and departed spirit, who once existed in my own diocese, to whom it is utterly impossible to pay too high a tribute. allude to Sarah Martin. She was an humble dressmaker, having scarcely sufficient to appease the cravings of appetite, and yet she has produced a reform in our gaol which it is impossible to describe. I may almost forget my theology in speaking of her, for she seemed as if she had not the taint of original sin. Steadily she pursued her course, refusing all assistance, because, as she said, if once known that she received any remuneration, her services, she was afraid, would no longer be valued; and thus she died,-a wretched and painful death, yet possessing that which lighted up her passage to the grave, and brightened her ascent to glory. Her nurse said to her, 'Your hour of departure is at hand.' She merely said, Thank God!' and died. Here is an example to imitate. How little think the gay and thoughtless crowd-how many feel the misery of pining want as this disciple did. But she is gone, and it is superfluous to add, that 'her works do follow her.' We have been opposed, but that opposition is decreasing. At one of our meetings, a clergyman said to me, 'Are you aware that the clergy of the parish are not here; are you sure you are in accordance with the rules of the church?' I was not very nice to examine into this point, but I was at any rate sure that I was acting in accordance with the spirit of christianity. Nothing is so difficult as to conquer prejudice; you may tunnel through Snowdon you may pierce through the hardest rocks-but you cannot tunnel through prejudice. But such things have been overcome, and we rest in hope that all at last will vanish. Is not the the life presented in kindness, not to those hardened, it may be, by half a century of sin, but to those whose minds are yet so tender, that one of them has been held up in court before the jury to enlist their sympathies. One of these children made an indelible im pression on the mind of Mr. Guthrie, and I do not wonder at it. He attended at a police station, and there he saw one little boy, about eight years of age, with the sweetest countenance he ever gazed upon, sleeping on the bare boards, with a brick for his pillow. He had no father, no mother, no friend, no home. His only friends were the police, who locked him up for the night, and sent him out in the morning to beg or steal his bread. lighthouse better than boat, which goes forth upon the angry wave to pluck one or two from a watery grave. Ought we to suffer these to perish unheeded and forgot? Can we do it? Iam The Hon. and Rev. B. W. afraid we could. It requires NOEL said, the two great features much zeal, much charity, much in this effort are, that a most de- self-denial to accomplish it. But graded class are to be raised to a some have done it, and can and happier condition, and that the will do it. It was the gospel means employed for this purpose that prompted them—it was is the gospel of Christ-that gos- their sense of redeeming love. pel introduced into the world by The same principle has operated divine wisdom, to meet the utmost in the evangelists of this society; wants of the most wretched; and and if their doors have been that gospel must be adapted for battered, their windows besieged, the purpose. I have heard the and their lives threatened, yet chaplain of one of our gaols de- Christian charity has proved mighclare that he has known, out of tier than every obstacle, till the 600 prisoners, 100 under deep the children have learned first to conviction, or seeking, or rejoic- love their teachers, and then the ing in the blood of the Lamb, who lessons taught. At one of these previously knew nothing of the schools was an Irish girl, with a way of salvation. I have heard a dark benighted mind. She had brother clergyman declare, that attended the school some time, when called to address the pri- till at last her parents determined soners at Newgate, he has seen to return to Ireland. She learned nearly the whole assembly melted that she must leave the school. to tears, Surely, then, if preven- This appeared to rouse her. It was tion be better than cure, these in- an hour of misery to her; and stances of success must be multi-when she found she should see plied when that same doctrine is her teacher no more, she disco vered how much she really loved ber. Her teacher gave her a Bible. They saw each other no more. She continued wild, and yet with a burden of guilt on her conscience, till at last, through the extremity of her misery, she determined on destroying herself. But at this moment she thought of her Bible-she read it-she received its invitation-and she loved it. This was discovered by her parents, and her confessor forbad her reading that book; she, however, buried it in the ground, and, according as she found opportunity, she dug it up and read it, and so she grew in wisdom and in knowledge. She became a servant in a Christian family-a communicant in the church her father and mother both were brought to a knowledge of the truth; and now in that cabin of a pious pair, do numbers assemble to worship their God. Now, what well-wisher to his country but must look with approval on efforts such as these. And if the State cannot do it, and if the rich cannot come in contact with such as these, yet there are Christians enough to reach forth the hand to these destitute outcasts, and to give them such Christian training, as shall make them an honour to their country, and a blessing to the world. order which may be witnessed in them, in the distribution of justice we shall go to men who are to be found in the highest seats of learning. But those who bring this objection could not have paid much attention to those schools. Not long ago I had the honour of serving at a tea meeting in connection with one of these. When I entered I thought, 'every kind of beast hath been tamed of mankind, but the tongue can no man tame.' I found, however, that that representation has its exceptions and limits. There was not much quietness during the feeding; and even when that was over, I thought it would be impossible to gain the ear of the children. I said to the secretary, "I think it will be impossible.' But a voice said, 'Try !' and I did try, by speaking kindly to the children, and in a few moments I had an attentive congregation. At the close of my address, I asked them, If they would be quiet while I prayed with them; they said, 'Yes.' I prayed; and while I did so, you could hear these boys and girls actually respire,-not a whisper,-not a move of the feet, nothing disturbed the silence, till at its close they uttered the 'Amen.' Now I am not quite sure that I should be disposed to repress all the noise; if that were to be done by any other power than moral influence, I think moral training would be at an end. The excitement about Ragged Schools is extraordinary. The sanatory reformer deals with this matter as a matter of flesh, and blood, and bones; the educationist is interested in it as de The Rev. S. MARTIN said: I would call back the attention of the meeting to one or two expressions which have fallen from the chair. Our chairman has referred to Christians as discoverers of objects of benevolence. I think that this is the position which we ought long ago to have taken,veloping intelligence and thought; we should have been discoverers in christian benevolence, just as others have been discoverers in geography and other scientific researches. I hope that we shall take the hint. If Ragged Schools be condemned because of the dis the politician looks on it as something involving a saving to the state; the benevolent regards it as relieving temporal misery and diffusing joy; while the Christian looks upon these dirty, ragged, filthy children, as beings inspired with the breath of God, as having a nature susceptible of the impress of Christ's own image,-a nature to be raised to glory, and one that no power can destroy. Reference has been made to orphans, and the children of convicts; but there are still two other classes. There are the offspring of persons living together who are not man and wife. My attention has been called to this class by a city missionary, who asked me if I should be willing to conduct a marriage service if he could induce these persons to enter into the marriage state. I need not say that I at once gave my assent. The registrar of the district agreed to part with a portion of his fees, and of course there were no clerical❘ fees involved in the matter, except the reward of doing good; and I am happy to say that, since I gave my permission, the applications have been very numerous. Now, many of these children are the offspring of such persons. Many have very cruel step mothers. I have endeavoured, as far as I can, to remove the prejudice which exists so widely against persons in this position. But among the poor I have been unable to do this; the consequence is, that the children of another woman are looked upon as troubles and burdens, and generally they do all they can to drive them from a father's roof. I was deeply moved by an application made to me some time ago by a poor woman. She lived in a room along with a young woman who had a child belonging to her sister. The sister and the husband had left, and she had run away with this child; but the woman told me that the cruel treatment to which the poor infant was ex posed, was such that she could not live in the house with her. Among other circumstances, she told me that this young woman had taken it into her head, ignorantly, of course, to teach this child her own substitute for the Lord's Prayer; and the night before she came to me, she said that when the poor child was put on its pallet it was required to repeat this prayer and failed. The little creature was brutally flogged, and urged to try again, and again it failed; and then she took it up and dashed it on the floor. The poor woman said to me—'What can I do? I do not pretend to any very refined feelings, but I can't live to witness such scenes. It is more than a brute could bear.' I gave her my advice. Now, this is not an isolated case. The children of our Ragged Schools are almost, without exception, exposed to this kind of treatment. We admit that our organization is not perfect; and we are willing to stand on the common foundation with the offspring of the Divine hand. Our bodies in their infancy are not by any means perfect organizations, but they are born to grow and expand. And our Ragged School is no stereotype. We have not cast it in an iron mould; and let any man come and give us a better form, and we will bid him welcome; for whatever goes to reach our object will be with us an adopted instrumentality. The Rev. GEORGE FISK, the Hon. WM. COWPER, the Rev. S. TURNER, the Rev. H. HERSCHEL, and Mr. Locke then briefly spoke, and the meeting closed in deep delight. N B.-Applications having been made for teachers to conduct Ragged Schools, both in London and other large towns, the Committee will be happy to receive the names and addresses of those teachers already engaged in the work, who may feel desirous of giving their whole time to this employment. Copies of the Keport and other papers may be had of the Hon. Secretary, Mr. W. Locke, 127, Regent Street; the Assistant Secretary, Mr. J G. Gent, 64, Union Street, Clarendon Square; also of Messrs. Hatchards, Piccadilly; Messrs Nisbet, Berners Street; Mr. Shaw Southampton Row; by whom Subscriptions and Donations will be thankfully received, as well as by the Bankers, Messrs. Barclay and Co. 54, Lombard Street. The Children's Box. FACTS ABOUT KING ALFRED THE GREAT. ALFRED was a great, benevolent, and we believe, a good king. In the year 877, Alfred found himself unable to withstand the invaders, who came down from all quarters upon him. Being forsaken by nearly all his men, he clothed himself in a peasant's garb, and lived for sometime in a herdsman's house. So attached was he to his country, that he acted thus, rather than to flee from it. He amused himself with music. The woman of the house knew not who he was, and one day got him to mind some cakes, which were baking by the fire, he let them burn, for which she scolded him, as in the picture. The means by which Alfred re-gained power, were-The Earl of Devonshire had been successful in an encounter with the Danes. This encouraged the Saxons. Alfred carried out the motto, 'to strike while the iron is hot.' He prepared to animate them, to maintain their superiority; and urged them to be ready at a minute's warning. He acted as a spy-dressed in shepherd's attire, he entered the Danish camp, and pleased them with his musical art. After some days, he returned to his attendants, and ordered them to meet him in Selwood forest. They did-attacked the weakest part of the enemy, and were successful. Alfred allowed perfect freedom of conscience to the captured. From this time, Alfred became Great, he had a greater extent of territory than any before him. Polished the country by arts; and made laws for the people, which none ventured to break. Indeed, it is said, golden bracelets were hung up in the highway, which robbers even dared not touch, the police being so well regulated. But the strictness of his laws did not infringe the liberty of his subjects, for he held that' It is just the English should for ever remain free as their own thoughts.' When Alfred came to the throne the people were in the pronest ignorance: he left them much improved. He was very accomplished and re-established Oxford university. Bodily, he was vigorous, dignified, and of an engaging countenance. He died at Oxford, 25th. Oct. A.D. 900 and was buried at Winchester. |
