refuge for such an one? What comforts would she find there that could compensate her for the loss of her home-humble though it be-and its treasured relics?

It is only since the last few weeks that our old friend has come to such sore straits. A daughter, lately dead, allowed her 1s. 6d. a week, and it is the loss of this weekly allowance that has almost reduced the old lady to starvation. 'You see, dear, I must pay my rent; it would never do to get behind in that, so I manages now with two meals a day-a little bread and a little tea-and my threepence goes in a drop of milk. Sometimes I have to go without that, but the tea do seem to grip so without milk. Sometimes a lady (a neighbour) gives me a halfpenny, and then I get a ha'porth of butter, which just scrapes a little on the bread. I can't afford more, but I likes the relish of it.' So long as she received Is. 6d. a week from her daughter, she managed to provide herself with a dinner every day. It consisted either of a red herring or a quarter of a pound of sausages, which last generally served for two days!

This is her account of how she manages her washing. I keeps a little money-box, and if any lady gives me a trifle I drops it in and pays a woman out of it to wash my bits of things.' To judge from the appearance of the old woman's nightcap at our last visit, we are afraid the contents of the money-box must be at a low ebb !

Sometimes you may find her sitting up in bed, complaining of a bad pain in her head. and in her back, and when she feels very much exhausted she says she ties a handkerchief round her waist as a support!

You never hear her grumble at her lot; the exclamation continually on her lips is, 'How good GoD is !' She will tell you how grateful she feels that she has at least a good bed, and how she knows someone far worse off than she is, who has to pay is. a weekonly to lie on a mangle!

What lessons of contentment and patient endurance may we not gather from such a home! At the Last Great Day, when all things shall be made manifest, how many of

GOD's hidden Saints will come forth from some of life's stillest shades' and shine as the sun in the kingdom of our Father! 'They shall be Mine, saith the LORD, in that day when I make up My jewels.' This is but one out of many plain, unvarnished tales of sickness, want, and poverty we might lay before our readers. Surely such histories plead for themselves, and need no further appeal on our part. Yet the low state of our Mission Fund fills us with great anxiety. The appeals we have made for this branch of the work have not been responded to with the liberality of former years.

In an exceptionally mild winter such as this, the needs of those who have none to help them, and who from one cause or another are unable to help themselves, are not realised in the same degree as when icy winds, and heavy falls of snow, and longcontinued frosts open the hearts and unloose the purse-strings of all but the most selfish of mankind. Yet there are chronic cases of old age and sickness which call urgently for help all the year round. It is for these we plead. We ask for funds to carry out the general work of the Mission, as well as for help for individual cases. 'Whoso hath this world's good and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of GOD in him!' Please send contributions to The Secretary,

29 Kilburn Park Road, 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. Our desire and hope is, that the papers

introduced into this section of the Magazine may prove interesting and instructive, both to those who are engaged in charitable and missionary enterprise themselves, and also to others, who, though unable to share actively in such undertakings, yet feel a keen interest in all that is being done with a view to the glory of GOD and the good of man.

No. I.

S. MARY'S HOSPITAL, BRIGHTON.

JANY of the readers of Our Work who have visited Brighton may have noticed a large block of buildings situated in Queen's Square, near S. Nicholas Church, and known as S. Mary's Hospital;

but I believe that very few are aware of the real nature of the work which is carried on there. The great majority are under the impression that the institution merely consists of a Sisterhood and a Hospital, and that its work is entirely a local one-worthy no doubt of general sympathy, but having no special claim for support beyond the particular place which forms the supposed area of its operations.

The object of the writer is to remove this `most erroneous impression, and to claim for S. Mary's Hospital the widely extended support it deserves. For, indeed, its works are both manifold and widely extended. It is in many respects as national in character as any of the London institutions, and, like them, is entitled to national support.

The work of the Home, which was founded in 1856 as a House of Charity, includes :—

1. The Reformation of Women who have lost their Character, of whom there are fifty in the house.

2. The Nursing of Orphan and Destitute Children.

the Home is over 200, of whom 112 are free cases; and since its foundation 2,844 cases have been admitted. The work is carried on by Sisters, assisted by ladies.

No one, surely, can read over the long list of the various branches of work carried on in this Home without recognising their extreme usefulness and practical value.

It will also be evident that so extensive an undertaking must entail a vast amount of labour and expense upon those who are responsible for carrying it on. As I said above, a large proportion of those received into the institution are taken quite gratuitously; and the small sum received from what are termed the 'paying cases' does not nearly suffice to cover the cost of their maintenance. There is no endowment, and so the Home is virtually dependent upon freewill offerings.

I may mention that I have no connection personally with S. Mary's Hospital; and the great interest I feel in the Institution, and my desire to promote its welfare, arise from the certain knowledge I possess, of the faithful way in which the holy work it professes to do is carried out in every detail. I also know that the work is accomplished under circumstances of peculiar difficulty, owing to the want of more extended help. It is with the hope of enlisting this help that I have written this short paper.

I entreat all who have the love of CHRIST in their hearts to co-operate in this CHRIST-like work, and to become partakers of its blessedness. Let no one, young or old, suppose that because he can do but little, that little is not worth doing at all. All who have the will have the power to further GOD's work in one way or another. Gifts of money are, of course, allessential; but those who cannot help much in this way can, at all events, contribute the labours of their hands.

For instance, fifty persons might engage each to give and make one dress annually; others might agree to knit so many pairs of stockings, or to collect old clothes, boots and shoes, books, &c., and transmit them regularly to the Home.

I would especially beg all who visit Brighton, and who profit by the clear, bracing air, and bright sunshine of this favourite seaside resort, to make themselves personally acquainted with S. Mary's, and to witness for themselves the entire devotion of those who carry on the work, and the blessed result of their labours. They would, I think, feel that they owed a debt of

gratitude to Our Work for pointing out to them this new field for the exercise of that best of Christian graces-which is so beautiful even amidst the chilling mists of this lower earth, but which in heaven will shine throughout eternity with a radiance perfectly pure, perfectly divine-holy, heavenly love.

All parcels and gifts should be addressed to The Mother Superior,

S. Mary's Hospital, Queen Square, Brighton.

No. II.

TO THOSE WHO KNOW MARGATE.

N addressing those who know Margate, we must be addressing a large majority of the readers of Our Work. Many have spent there the bright holiday times of happy, merry childhood. Many have been sent there as convalescents, and owe to its bracing air that complete and rapid restoration to health, which might otherwise have been slow and incomplete. Many have sad but sweet remembrances of times of watching and hoping for GOD once more to show His gracious power, and bid their dear ones Arise and walk.'

Dear, healthy, merry, noisy, vulgar Margate! Do those of us who come and go to it, butterfly fashion, think of the needs, sorrows, trials, and temptations-pressing, hard, bitter, and difficult to resist-of those who live there, supplying our wants, and providing-not always successfullyfor our amusements?

What is doing, and what can be done for them?

The whole of the Marine Parade and Royal Crescent are in the parish of S. John. A beautiful church, frequent services, pastoral visitations, and the usual work in the parish-such as district visiting, Sunday-school teaching, &c. -all this we thankfully admit. But the population of S. John's parish numbers 7,000, and exactly doubles in the season, and the church holds hardly 1,100!

Last year a good opportunity occurred of buying an iron room. A piece of ground was lent on which to erect it, in a locality little known to ordinary visitors, not far from the Deaf and Dumb Asylum.

The curate who had charge of that part of the parish had made well nigh a house-to-house

visitation, and was already known and beloved there. Services on Sunday and Wednesday evenings were successfully held, and the right sort of people rallied round the Mission, and appreciated the efforts made on their behalf.

Now I notice that almost all accounts given in Our Work of 'What Others are Doing' end in an appeal for help. This must be no exception to the rule.

We want a 'Public-house!' The demon of drink opposes us at every turn; and for this and other reasons we want some place where our fishermen, costermongers, and donkey-boys may spend their evenings.

A visitor to Margate would hardly imagine that many of the tidy, respectable-looking houses are inhabited by several families, and that wickedness, dirt, and misery flourish in them like rank weeds.

This is the sad truth. Men spending their all in drink, children using horrible and profane language, women in whom the sense of propriety seems to be for ever lost these are some of the realities behind the scenes, at Margate. We must not idly sigh over these evils; we must be up and doing. We want to see our way to buying or renting a house in which we can have rational amusements-a night-school, and perhaps some day a 'Workmen's Restaurant' and an 'Invalid Kitchen.'

One of the members of the Men's Bible Class has begged that we would have a night-school. We hope very soon to have an altar in our Mission Room; therefore we cannot use that room for secular purposes. Who will help us? Are there none who have derived health from our priceless sea breezes, or spiritual health from the bright and hearty services in our beautiful old church, who will in this way give thanks by helping to do one of the things He would have done by helping to offer GOD'S grace freely to all men?

No. III.

S. RAPHAEL'S HOSPITAL.

RAPHAEL'S HOSPITAL for Women Inebriates, Woodside, Croydon, is another cheering proof that the great reaction against the indiscriminate use of intoxicating liquors is gaining ground, and that real progress has been accomplished. The Institution about which we write

deals with one side of the great temperance question, assuredly the most difficult, and without doubt the most distressing. It is intended for the restoration of women who have unhappily fallen into a habit of intemperance.

No one with any experience of the matter needs to be reminded how full of difficulty such an undertaking must be; nor, on the other hand, what a subject it is for deep thankfulness and joy when any of these our sisters can be rescued from this degrading vice.

Hitherto they have been despised, blamed, and driven out of society, only to fall lower and lower, till no place was left for them. And yet there is no doubt that their case is not hopeless, that they can be cured; not all, but certainly a very large proportion. For, though some must remain moral and physical invalids as long as they live, there are many who, by careful restraint and proper treatment, may be recovered, and saved from any future fall.

The work of S. Raphael's Hospital commenced about eighteen months ago, with about thirteen patients. From the commencement, the managers resolved neither to commit themselves to any preconceived theory, nor to adopt any rigid line of action-the whole question being too delicate and perplexing to admit of its being disposed of in so summary a manner.

So those in charge of the inmates, having besought GOD for His holy gift of wisdom, simply took each case as it came, and dealt with it as circumstances and common sense seemed to direct. The result has been that a great deal of experience has been gained, and that many problems connected with the management of such patients have been fairly solved.

There have been several successful cases of a most interesting character, while the failures have been few, and fully to be accounted for. Twenty-six patients have in all been received. The crying need of the Institution is for buildings better fitted to the peculiar character of the work, and it is hoped that this great want will ere long be supplied.

Indeed, a building has been commenced, and the first house will, in a short time, be opened to receive inmates. The Hospital is to consist of a number of separate houses, built round a quadrangle, each house containing two good sitting-rooms, with a smaller room for the Superintendent: above this will be the dormitories for the patients occupying that particular division of the Institution. By this arrange

ment a certain amount of privacy, together with the advantage of as much of home life as is possible under the circumstances, will be secured. To avoid herding such persons in large numbers is a matter of primary importance; and, as the work must be more or less with individuals, care will be taken not to place more than six patients in one division of the Hospital.

This plan, too, will afford the managers every opportunity of classifying the patients according to disposition, habits, and former position in the world.

The Institution admits three classes of patients.

The first department is intended for ladies by birth and education; for, sad to say, there are many in the upper classes of society who sadly need such a Home. These will not be expected to take any share in the work of the house, but will be encouraged to occupy themselves with embroidery, music, drawing, and books of a suitable description.

The second department will include women of the lower-middle class; they will do their own domestic work, and after that will be allowed to read, work, &c., as they please.

The third department is intended for poor working women, who will undertake laundry work.

Success has hitherto attended the enterprise, and before very long an important addition to the present building is contemplated. Funds are continually coming in towards this object; but though much has been done, much more remains to be done, and contributions will most thankfully be received and acknowledged by the Secretary, Woodside, Croydon.

It is most earnestly hoped that the public. generally will do their share towards placing this good work upon a sure foundation.

Tuesday in every week is the ordinary visiting day; and as the house stands close to the Woodside station, on the South-Eastern line, there is no difficulty in paying the Institution a visit. It is beautifully situated, and stands in eighteen acres of pleasure-grounds.

It may, perhaps, be as well to mention that S. Raphael's Home for Inebriates is open to persons of all creeds. All that is required of the inmates is that they should feel their sad condition sufficiently to wish to be cured, and that they should readily submit themselves to the general rules of the Institution.

Our Work Abroad.

'Desire of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession.'-Psalm ii. 8.

T is our pleasant task to record, thus early in the year, that we have already received two very generous donations towards the

fund for helping our Colonial and Missionary Churches. We trust that this auspicious beginning may be a presage of much more help to follow in the same direction.

Indeed, it is a matter of deep thankfulness to ALMIGHTY GOD that He should, by means of these humble Mission-papers, stir up so many hearts to send offerings to our distant fellowChristians. How do these tokens of sympathy gladden the poor lonely Missionary! how do they help him to realise that the Communion of Saints is a real, all-embracing bond of union! and that, isolated though he may appear to be, he is not the less one of that vast army in which all who fight are brothers !

Appeals from all quarters are more numerous than ever; and though we shall endeavour to do our very best during the current year to respond as liberally as possible, yet we much fear that many of the clergy who ask for help must wait for many months before their claims can be even considered.

It is, perhaps, owing to the withdrawal of the grant from the S.P.G., and also to an unusual scarcity of money in that part of the world, that the colonists of Nova Scotia, especially, seem to be turning at the present time to us for help.

From amongst many other letters which we have received, we have chosen the following, as showing with what deep gratitude our poor presents are received in this part of the British dominions :

DEAR MADAM,—I cannot really sufficiently thank you for the grant of beautiful things which we received yesterday. I was beginning to get anxious about the parcel, thinking it might have gone astray, and now it has arrived we are all so delighted with the contents.

Some of our people think the white altar-frontal so magnificent that they say it is fit for a cathedral rather than our little parish church. But I tell them nothing is too good and costly for the service of GOD, even in a small building.

We have not had a Sunday service since the arrival of the cloth, so I have not had an opportunity of hearing the opinion of a good many of the congregation; but I have every reason to think it will meet with their universal approbation, more especially as the altar has now a mere temporary covering, to which your gift will be a most striking contrast.

The handsome altar-linen will supply a long-felt want at S. Mark's, as will the sacred vessels at S. John's, Dutch village, one of the old churches hereyet for all these years destitute of an altar-service.

The rest of the contents of your parcel will be equally useful, as we sadly need them. The books are just the things we wanted, and I have made use of several of them already.

You have no idea how much good your Church Extension Association is doing in the Colonies, especially with regard to dispelling prejudice, which runs very high all over this country, at any rate.

I am fully convinced that, if we wish to reach the hearts of the bulk of the people, we must teach them through their eyes as well as their ears, and you have enabled me to do this more effectually than before. Therefore, I say again, the good you are doing can hardly be over-estimated.

Then, there is the happy feeling that we are one with the Church at home in dear old England; and these acts of kindness from our brethren there, bind us closer and closer to her. We feel that we are uttering no form of unmeaning words when we say, 'I believe in the Communion of Saints.'

And now let me thank you again for all your interest, and your great kindness to us, and may Gon's blessing rest upon all your earnest efforts for the extension of His Holy Church throughout all

the world'!

Another letter from Nova Scotia claims our attention.

DEAR MADAM,-Having seen your notice relating to Foreign Missions in Our Work, I take the liberty of asking you for assistance on behalf of my Mission. It comprises 600 square miles, situated on the Atlantic coast. There are two churches and five outstations to serve.

The churches are very pretty, and would look well if furnished properly; but the people are poor, and unable to do anything towards the furnishing of them. I have been in this Mission but nine months, and when I took charge the parish was literally without anything. There is but one altar-cloth, and that a poor one. Only one communion-service, which is very cumbrous, and so proves inconvenient, when I carry it round, as I am obliged to do. There is no

altar-linen whatever.

I may state that the Lord Bishop of the diocese informed me that he looked upon this as one of the Missions in the diocese most deserving of help.