A Church Teachers' Union.

HE first meeting of the members of the Teachers' Union was held last July 7-9, at the Orphanage of Mercy. Agreeably to the notice issued, there was a day's retreat beginning on Friday evening and ending on Sunday morning.

This was taken by the Rev. Fred. Hall, one of the S. Augustine's clergy, to whose kind interest and counsel this guild is greatly indebted for its auspicious beginning. The rest of the Sunday was spent at Kilburnpartly in attending the beautiful services at S. Augustine's Church, and partly in a conference (presided over by Mr. Hall) which occupied all the afternoon, when the Union was fully organised, rules and constitutions drawn up, and members nominated to hold certain offices, &c.

As it was also arranged that there should be a public medium of intercourse and information in the shape of a 'Quarterly Paper,' to be commenced in September, it will not be worth while to detail the proceedings here.

But we are sure that not only absent members, but others interested in this young society, will be glad to hear with what success and hopeful promise this first gathering went off. As several were teachers holding offices of importance in our leading Training Colleges, and others were their nomineeshaving passed out of these nurseries of learning to spheres of their own-there was already a pleasant basis of mutual acquaintance and regard, which made the meeting a hearty one. But beyond and above this, we have much reason for thankfulness for the evident spiritual blessing vouchsafed to those who were sharers together of the retreat. Very warm and grateful were the feelings expressed, by one and all, for the comfort and rest afforded during the two happy days spent in the Sisters' Home-feelings which only those who have experienced the ceaseless

bustle and strain, combined with the monotonous routine of a teacher's life, can fully enter into.

The closing act of the two days was perhaps of all the most impressive. After Evensong at S. Augustine's, a short but very solemn little service was held in the Sisters' chapel, when the first fifteen members pledged themselves to obey the simple rules of the society, and were admitted into it by Mr. Hall, receiving at the same time the badge of the Union-a plain bronze cross, with the motto Facere et Docere.

That our Union has a field of work before it for God's glory and for His Church, which is likely to widen and expand as time goes on, we have little doubt; and if only its members prove faithful to their motto 'to do and to teach' solely for these ends, we believe it will prove a holy and a happy, a prosperous and widespread association.

It has been decided to give it the name of the Church Teachers' Union,' as representing their character and aim-that, namely, of upholding, in doctrine and practice, the cause of the true Church, in these days of doubt and disunion.

It is pleasant to receive such a testimony as the following, from one who, though not able to be present at the retreat, has for some time adopted our rule of prayer and practice in an educational post of much trial and difficulty. She writes :-'I do hope that teachers of all classes will join this Union. My own experience of the little service-i.. the daily prayers of the Union-is that it is most helpful; and secular as much of my work is here, it seems to have raised the whole vocation of teaching to a higher level. I had long felt the need of such an impulse, and I am most thankful for it.'

To this we should like to add the impressions of one who took part in our first. meeting. School life this week has seemed so much happier to me, more so than it has done since I left college. Those few days, apart from the ordinary school surroundings and thoughts, have given me so very much to be thankful for.'

Communications respecting this Union to be addressed to

Miss WORDSWORTH,

Orphanage of Mercy,
Randolph Gardens,
Kilburn, N.W.

What Others are Doing.

Under this heading we desire to introduce our readers to a variety of charitable and religious work which is being carried on for GOD in different parts of the world. It will be distinctly a record of work -charitable, philanthropic, and missionary-and we wish it to be understood that we by no means commit ourselves to any approval of the religious views and opinions held by those who do such work. In this particular, great scope will be allowed, and we trust that our readers will understand and appreciate our motives. We shall gladly welcome interesting accounts written by those engaged themselves in charitable and missionary work. Mere begging ap peals are not admissible.

No I.

EXPERIMENTS AT THE WEST END. BOUT eighteen months ago, an account of S. Thomas's Parish, Regent Street, raised a good deal of kind interest on the part of the readers of Our Work. Perhaps they may like to know how things are going on there; and so they shall, by the editor's kind invitation.

The circulation of the periodical has, however, extended so very greatly of late, that the subject will be a new one to many recent subscribers, and we must, therefore, go over our former ground a little.

Accustomed as we are to look on the time succeeding the Restoration as one of great laxity and deadness in morals and religion, we do not sufficiently realise the religious fervour which was induced by the manifestations of GOD'S awful power in the Plague, and in the Great Fire. This showed itself in various forms, and, amongst others, in much churchgoing and church-building. One of the churches built about that time was S. James's, Piccadilly, of which Dr. Tenison, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, became the first rector in 1684.

In the memorable year 1688 he built a temporary church on a piece of ground which had almost always been Church property since the time of Alfred the Great. This he called an oratory, or tabernacle, and after being made Archbishop in 1694, he took steps to give it permanence. The more substantial building, afterwards raised on the same site, always went by the name of Archbishop Tenison's Chapel, till 1869, when it had a district given it, and was consecrated under the name of S. Thomas. The district was carved out of the mother-parish of S. James's-a large slice of poverty, however ! S. James's is a very rich parish; S. Thomas's is very poor. It contains the east side of Regent Street from Beale Street to Oxford Circus. Here, one would say, is wealth enough. True, but the wealthy shopkeepers do not reside there, and their interests and charities appear to be mostly bestowed elsewhere. Behind Regent Street is a close network of narrow streets, affording lodging to the tailors, sempstresses, &c., who work for the large shops, and to many other poor besides. This is the parish of S. Thomas's, to all charitable intents and purposes. The houses are exceedingly old, most of them dating from the time when London began to stretch out westward. Some of them retain marks of their better days, when they were mentioned as 'very good houses fit for gentry,' but they are now greatly dilapidated, and are crowded with a wonderful number of inhabitants-some houses containing not fewer than fifteen families.

Owing to the metropolitan improvements,' which generally, alas! do not provide new dwellings for the poor whose ancient tenements they destroy, this crowding increases more and more. Many of the respectable old inhabitants have, therefore, gone elsewhere, and a great deal needs to be done both for the bodies and souls of those who have taken their place.

Eloquent and popular preachers and hearty services drew large congregations to the newly formed district church, but not from the parish -the richer parishioners spending Sunday at their country dwellings, and the poorer being so accustomed to look on this church as a fashionable chapel, pewed to the teeth, with little room or welcome for them, that they seemed unable to realise the fact, when the pews were cut down into open sittings and the whole church was declared free. Those who had been used to go to church continued to

attend S. James's, Piccadilly, and scarcely a poor person was to be seen within S. Thomas's till the formation of S. Mary's Guild for working women, now nearly seven years ago. Since that, their numbers have been gradually on the increase, and many have learned to love their church and value its ordinances. Much has been done with the endeavour to raise and Christianise the neighbourhood, but there are many drawbacks. One great obstacle is found in the influence of a number of German socialist tailors, who here give free vent to opinions for which, in their own country, they would speedily be imprisoned; and they encourage the tendency to infidelity which is only too rife amongst our own working men. There are also a number of very low and 'rowdy' Irish, Roman Catholic by profession, and well taken care of by their own Clergy and Sisters, but always ready for the amusement of interrupting, or breaking up a Mission service with a shower of stones from without or a shindy within.

In March 1880, the writers of the present article were invited by the Vicar of S. Thomas's to undertake the working of his parish, and found themselves called upon to find a practical answer to the difficult question—'What can be done to evangelise the district?' Such a question could only be answered by experience. So they tried experiments, and began by using such materials as were ready to hand.

Not money-there was scarcely any of that. But a few kind people used to send soup and broken bread and meat for the poor, who appeared only moderately grateful for the gift. The first attempt was to make this really useful by inducing more persons to give scraps, and by cooking them in a savoury way. This has proved thoroughly successful, as far as the poor are concerned. Every evening those who have leave to do so fill the hall of the Mission House, and receive a quart of strong soup or stewed meat, with plenty of pieces of bread, on payment of one penny, or without payment in cases of extreme poverty. This system of payment (which was also an experiment) has worked surprisingly in stopping discontent and grumbling, and in raising the self-respect of the recipients. And one of the most pleasant things connected with this part of the work is the way in which the people of the district have themselves, from time to time, brought their offerings for those still poorer than themselves-'Oh, if you please, the lady as lives

over the milk-shop has sent this bag of bread,' &c. During the winter there are families which have nothing at all to live on but what they get in this way. Would that some more rich householders would let them eat of their crumbs!

Some good people thought this a very unspiritual way of going to work; but those who have been used to live without a thought beyond their bodily needs cannot understand advances which do not begin in that direction. And if they need food, as they do, several good purposes are served by giving it to them in this way. The expense of coal for cooking is saved them. Having food, and not money, put into their hands, they cannot do otherwise than eat it, and share it with their children; and being so far well fed, the temptation to still the cravings of hunger with gin is repressed. Of course there is still a terrible amount of drunkenness about, but this plan has its use in checking it.

The next experiment was a Sunday afternoon tea and Bible class for the women of the district. This was begun in April 1880, and has never been intermitted. All parishioners have a general invitation to drop in to tea at four o'clock, in the kitchen of the Mission House. Some scarcely ever miss; some come occasionally; some not at all. All sorts come : those who do lead good lives, and those who do not. They have a 'comfortable cup of tea' and a chat about the affairs of the parish or the nation, or anything else that interests them; after tea hymn-books are given round, and they sing with much heartiness. They then have a Bible class, and, soothed by their magic draught, accept extremely plain English. They pay great attention, and end with another hymn and with simple prayers, which they repeat always after the reader, so as gradually to make them their own. Then, if any flowers are available, each receives a bunch, and treasures it often till the next Sunday; and so they go home, in time to attend to their husbands and children.

Most of these people have some religious formula or other, which they trust to as a charm, as, 'Ah! GOD must prepare us for death!' 'I hope GOD will have mercy on me!' but religious ideas are so foreign to their minds, and the words in which they are clothed are so unusual, that it is a long time before they are at all really understood or accepted. However,

going over the same ground again and again, in the simplest language, and with varying illustrations, has its effect; and one woman after another, who has been living regardless of religion, comes back, and asks help in preparation for Sacraments, and turns over truly a new leaf. There is always, apparently, some work of this kind going on amongst the little party that meet on Sundays, and they have a Bible class on one night in the week, to deepen the effect.

A third experiment: the getting hold of the ragged children. There had long been a Sunday-school for the respectable, but the poor little dirty objects that crowd the back streets would never have ventured within its doors. It was therefore decided to try a Ragged Breakfast School, such as is so well known to readers of Our Work. Rents being exceedingly high, it was very difficult to find any available room, but one was at last discovered, something like a Canadian log-hut, in a narrow alley called Bridle Lane. It is over a stable, and is reached by a dark, narrow staircase, but is light and well ventilated, and looks well, brightened up with pictures and texts, while one part has been fitted for the holding of Mission services, and is curtained off when the room is used for simply secular purposes. Here, then, the children began to assmeble last December twelvemonths. They first go to the children's service at S. Thomas's, then walk in order to school, have a good hot breakfast (the only regular breakfast some of them have at all), and then receive simple teaching. After some Irish roughs were eliminated, and some experience had been gained, the children rapidly improved, in cleanliness, in order, and in knowledge; so much so, that an evening school service has recently been begun, to attract their non church-going parents by the pride and pleasure they feel in hearing their children sing and answer so nicely.

This parish room serves many purposes. On Saturday afternoon the poorest children go there to play, and their mothers are thankful to know that they are in safe hands, and kept out of the streets. They are waiting at the door hours before the time for opening it, and are very happy and well-behaved. So poorly clad, indeed, that there is sometimes hardly a whole shoe among forty or fifty, and they will ask for 'a bit of string, please, to tie the sole on to my foot.' In this room also, the Church of England Working Boys' Society, founded last year by the Rev. A. G. Jackson, came into existence,

and here it holds its meetings. So does the Men's Guild of S. Thomas and the Holy Angels. Under superintendence of the clergy or their lay helpers, here is also a weekly class for young thieves, of whom the neighbourhood is terribly full. Here some of them learn by degrees that there are pleasures and aspirations beyond those of taking a till, or catching apples off a barrow with a pin at the end of a long stick when the costermonger's back is turned. (These amusements have the charm of excitement and danger, and must be attractive to minds unimpressed with any sense of duty to one's neighbour.)

By the time the breakfast school was set on foot, we were well into the hard winter which followed on several unremunerative years, and culminated in 'that Tuesday.' The distress was terrible. In this district there are two dead seasons in the year: the early autumn, and mid-winter. The people-tailors, porters, odd-jobbers, sempstresses, and charwomendepend on the rich for their subsistence, and when the latter go out of town there is no work to be done. Except as to need of coals, they are worse off in August than in December. The London poor are almost always improvident, and few can be persuaded to anything else; but when one slack season succeeds another, and is followed by a winter of exceptional hardness, even the most thrifty are in sore straits, and compelled to 'put away' almost, or quite, all their worldly goods. It was now that the experiment was tried of giving needlework to needy women, instead of assisting them with money. It was intended to open the parish room as a workroom for them, but time has shown that in this neighbourhood, unlike some others, it answers best to give out the work to be done at home. This attempt has also been greatly successful. Needlework is given out from the Mission House, and brought back finished, on two mornings in every week. There are always some women ready and anxious for the work, and as many of them are extremely good needlewomen, they acquit themselves very creditably indeed. Scarcely any money is given from the Mission without its having been thus earned in the first place: a bit of patchwork, or a few dusters, are put into the hands of those who do not profess to know much about work, and by their goodwill in trying to make them is tested their fitness for relief. And so it comes about, that those who are mere

beggars, and are unwilling to work, keep away; while others have their self-respect maintained by feeling that they are not paupers, but earn what they get.

The clothes made by these means, as well as the various garments, old and new, sent for the poor by friends, are disposed of in monthly sales at the parish room. Admittance is by ticket to members of the parish or congregation, the only condition being that the recipients be not in debt to the Mission House. This is found a good preservative against the bad habit of endeavouring to borrow money, which, indeed, it seems undesirable to allow except in very rare cases. The sales are increasingly well attended, and are extremely popular; and, though the clothes are sold cheaply, yet the proceeds are about sufficient to cover the expense of materials and of giving out the needlework. Thus this branch of the mission work may be considered self-supporting, and the beneficial effect which it has had on those concerned has unexpectedly contributed in its little way towards solving those great and difficult questions of the present day -how to avoid pauperising the poor, and how to fill up the widening chasm between them and the rich. For, to turn to the latter question, the poor people understand and feel that it costs a great deal of trouble and time to cut out and prepare, and give out and examine needlework, and know very well that it would be much easier to throw a few half-crowns among them. They know, too, that the sorting and cooking large quantities of food is also no trifle; and they gradually learn affection and gratitude for those whom they perceive to spend on them so much labour of a kind which is within their power of understanding.

But there was yet another class to be thought of, and one generally acknowledged to be very difficult to deal with the young people in the large shops and workrooms of Regent Street and the vicinity. With regard to these, GOD'S hand, which has been so markedly over us for good throughout, has been most especially shown; for a guild, formed of girls drawn from this class, which was begun in January 1881, has gathered into itself a number of steady young women, most valuable as forming a good foundation for such a society, and most unexpectedly valuable to the mission itself by the hearty and persevering assistance they afford. Some teach in the Bridle Lane Sunday-school; one prepares the breakfast there, others keep its

little altar in order; two or three take care of the children on Saturday afternoon, and another dusts the books in the parish library; others visit the sick, and all who can, meet for a sewing party on one evening in the week, when they make up things for the poor. By their guild-obligation they attend a weekly Bible-class, and this is kept up very regularly. And, as their business hours are from eight till eight generally, sometimes later, it is surprising that they find time for so much other work. And it is to be hoped that the pleasure they find in it will induce them to make a lifelong habit of such an occupation.

Attached to this guild is a branch for children, the little girls belonging to which spend an evening weekly at the Mission House, under the care of their elders. Girls are led astray in this most vicious neighbourhood at so very early an age, that it is exceedingly desirable to provide good amusements and friends for them, such as may weaken the force of the temptations around them. GOD grant His blessing to this attempt!

This has been a long story, and perhaps a dull one. It might have been seasoned with exciting anecdotes, and some pathetic pictures of poverty and patience might have been drawn. But we have had rather in mind to show the wonderful way in which GOD has been pleased to mould and to prosper works begun without experience, and almost without funds; with few helpers, with little personal strength, and with many drawbacks. To mould works by taking them up, as it were, Himself, and making them into something more and better than had been at all planned; to prosper them in most unexpected and unlikely ways, clearly designing the life of His servants in this Mission to be one continued exercise of faith and confidence.

There is little or no originality about the work done here, and most or all of its branches are carried out on much larger scales, and far more perfectly elsewhere. And this is only a beginning, very immature and imperfect. Still, even as such it may offer more encouragement to Church workers in similar circumstances than accounts of greater enterprises and successes. For here GOD has been all and man has been nothing. Friends, exceedingly kind, and very few in number, have been raised up for us from most unlikely quarters; funds have come in unexpectedly, but without any assurance of permanence; the exact thing or person we most needed has been suddenly sent to us at exactly the right moment; and in