Distinguished Churchmen and Phases of Church Work/Wilson Carlile
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Photo by Copyright The Rev. Wilson Carlile Elliott & Fry |
CHAPTER VIII
THE REV. WILSON CARLILE
Rector of St Mary-at-Hill, City—Founder and Hon.
Chief Secretary of the Church Army.
RECLAIMING THE SUBMERGED TENTH OF THE CHURCH.
“In God's great field of labour
All work is not the same,
He hath a service for each one
Who loves His holy name.
And you to whom the secrets
Of all sweet sounds are known,
Rise up ! for He hath called you
To a mission of your own.”
- Francis Ridley Havergal.
Close on twenty years ago a curious scene was enacted in Horse Ferry Road, Westminster, 172 DISTINGUISHED CHURCHMEN
bearing at first sight all the outward appearance of a street row. The form of one man lay prostrate ; there was a hurried helter-skelter movement on the part of a number of ruffians we call them Hooligans to-day and looking on with curiosity rather than concern was the typical London crowd, disobeying, as usual, the policeman s stereotyped order to " move on ! " As a matter of fact, there was no row at all, in the generally - accepted sense. There had been an assault of a dastardly character one of those assaults which are calculated more than anything else to provoke the righteous indigna tion of Englishmen. The prostrate position of the young clergyman for that was the station in life of the victim represented the rude ter mination of an open-air Gospel service. The evangelists had secured on their side, as his presence on that eventful occasion proclaimed, the disposer of a gang of thieves, and the dis organised ruffians, chagrined at the turn their erstwhile colleague had taken, had resorted to deeds of violence in their endeavours to regain him. Six months illness six months of hover ing between life and death sufficiently indicate how really serious had been the assault upon the leader of that brave little band of evangelists. Let us lift the veil. The central figure of this scene, its victim, was none other than Wilson Carlile, the man known to-day throughout
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the length and breadth of the land as the Founder and Hon. Chief Secretary of the Church Army. Mr Carlile is, above all things, practical so practical, indeed, that, like many of the generals in the army of the State, he needs must bear his scars and bear them with pride, because they are evidence of conflicts encountered and of conflicts overcome in the early struggles to achieve a noble purpose.
" All good things require to be smashed up to make them go ! " is an odd saying of the moving genius of the Church Army. Judged in the light of subsequent events, he certainly seems himself to have gone all the better for the "smashing up," as he terms it, received in Horse Ferry Road. It fired the dominant spirit of the man that spirit which enables men to look an obstacle squarely in the face and elicits without hesitation the resolve, "I will succeed !"
To some lives it is easy enough to find a parallel. The rule meets with the exception in Mr Carlile s case, for his career has been one of marked individuality. By descent our subject is a Scotsman, tracing relationship with some of the Provosts of Paisley. He recounts with some gratification how that, a century ago, his forefathers were establishing a successful whole sale business in the neighbourhood of Cheapside at the same time as the ancestors of another prominent man Mr Joseph Chamberlain, M.P.
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were working up a business of a different type in the same locality. In one respect the two men acted similarly they migrated from the commercial atmosphere of Cheapside, the one destined to identify himself prominently with the Church, the other to link himself with distinction to the political fortunes of the country, each going his own particular way with every promise of accomplishing work of lasting good.
Mr Carlile was born at Brixton on January 14, 1847, ms father being a deacon of Stockwell Congregational Church. It is interesting to note in passing that about this period the family was so deeply imbued with the spirit of Congrega tionalism as to admit of the pastor s son tying the nuptial knot with one of Mr Carlile s sisters. As for young Carlile himself, in his youth it would have been difficult to define his religious convictions. Truth to tell, there was a leaning towards agnosticism, and it was not until he was well on for thirty that, thanks to the influence of a Christian lady, he was aroused to the obvious truth that religious people have been the pioneers in works of philanthropy. Verily, that was a happy awakening. A whole-hearted belief in the Supreme Being was then but a matter of natural development.
For a time Mr Carlile continued to labour in his father s business, giving his spare time to religious services. Though a Churchman, he
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was still the possessor of a broad mind, as seen by his attendance at the Moody and Sankey services at Exeter Hall in 1873, an< ^ n ^ s assist ance, on the invitation of Mr Sankey, in organis ing the choir for those and similar meetings. But he frankly confesses that it was Professor Drummond who spurred him on to preaching.
Eventually the time came when Mr Carlile turned from his commercial calling, and under Dr Boultbee underwent a course of theological training at the London College of Divinity. Holding meetings in London beyond the Thames i.e., in Southwark he began to adopt the unconven tional methods for drawing and interesting con gregations which have rendered him conspicuous among preachers. In your Saturday morning s paper you naturally turn to the column con taining the list of "to-morrow s services and preachers in London," and you just as naturally look well down the column to see what the Rev. Wilson Carlile has in store for the people about the vicinity of London Bridge at St Mary- at-Hill the church which, located over Billings gate Fish Market, diffuses a sweeter influence than is usually attributed to that unsavoury quarter. The announcement is sure to be of something sensational, of something precisely up- to-date. Maybe the sermon will deal with some phase in the South African War, a colliery disaster, the assassination of some monarch, or,
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perchance, some social event or theatrical pro duction which has "caught on," as the papers say. Let the event of the week be what it may, it is bound to be illustrated with limelight views and given a turn calculated to impress the minds of old and young on the side of righteousness. And if you happen to drop in at St Mary-at- Hill, as the author has done, you will find these seemingly strange proceedings carried on with reverence and sincerity. The magic lantern is a permanent institution there, likewise the brass band and the monsterphone, and you will likely enough be struck with the sight of the Rector himself, dressed in the orthodox clerical garb of surplice and stole, supplying from the pulpit a trombone accompaniment to a popular hymn. No need of prayer or hymn-books at St Mary- at-Hill : prayers and hymns alike are thrown upon the screen, in print decipherable by the most restricted visions. But these unusual methods constitute merely the outside show the cheaply-decorated corridors, as it were, leading to the really substantial grandeur of the Word.
No book dealing with phases of Church work would be complete without a special chapter devoted to the unique service rendered by Mr Carlile. Clearly, his aim has been to traverse unbeaten tracks in the interests of the Church he holds dear. Throughout his ideas have been that there exists, not exactly outside the pale of
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the Church, a very large body of people which, at any rate, need to be brought more directly into touch with it, and that these people are deserving of the best sympathy and of the heartiest encouragement of their stronger brethren, to help them on in their ascent of the social scale and in their endeavours to mould for themselves brighter Christian lives. To adopt a phrase applied, the author believes, by "General" Booth in a wider sense, Mr Carlile is engaged in reclaim ing "the Submerged Tenth of the Church," and his work bears fruit and will live.
��For the purpose of an interview the Founder of the Church Army invited the author to visit the headquarters at 130 Edgware Road, W.
Going at once to the root of things, Mr Carlile told how the work of the Salvation Army, Mrs Booth s preaching in Whitechapel and other kinds of aggressive Christianity suggested to his mind the scope for a somewhat similar effort in connection with the Church of England. And the idea gathered force during his only curacy under the present Bishop of Peterboro (the Hon. the Rev. E. Carr Glyn) at St Mary Abbot s, Kensington. " I was appalled," he said, "by the condition of the down-trodden and neglected masses. I could see the clergy could
��M
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not grapple with the difficulty, and that it de pended largely upon the efforts of the laity. The clergy were not evangelists the Church had no evangelism about its teaching and as a consequence all our own people on the lower stages of the social scale when converted were being driven over to Methodism. I was impressed with the thought that the Church should keep her own children to work on these lines. In my early endeavours I was the object of a good deal of chaff. But the thing had to be gone on with. To the present Bishop of Peterboro I owe an immense debt of gratitude for the kindest sympathy and help. It was my lot among other duties to be attached to the district Church of St Paul s, near to the old parish church. On Sunday mornings there was a large congregation, many being attached to the earnest ministry of a much- esteemed curate. At the evening service at which I was generally appointed to preach the attendance was very small, because many of the morning congregation either went to the after noon service at St Mary Abbot s, or, on account of late dinners, did not come out at all in the evening. Various efforts were made to increase the attendance of the working classes, but few came ; and though there were but few poor in the parish, vast numbers were continually passing through it. What was to be done to win them ? As a preparation for Lent, and with the permis-
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sion of my good vicar, I commenced a small open- air service every week night from nine to ten in a recess in front of the Vestry Hall, opposite the Kensington High Street railway station. Doubt less many would consider this place to be one of the most unsuitable spots on the face of the earth for commencing Church Army work. This was the hour, however, and the place where numbers of coachmen, valets, grooms and others took their evening stroll before returning to finish their duties, and in addition there were hundreds of casual passers-by. The meetings were held in all weathers, sometimes under umbrellas with the rain falling, and on several occasions in heavy snow. It was by this means that a deep interest was aroused in the hearts of many who had previously been utterly careless about the concerns of their souls, and who never entered any place of worship. But it was impossible for one voice to do all the preach ing night after night, and it became absolutely necessary that the speaking powers of lay helpers should be developed. It was difficult for members of my nightly congregation to break the ice so near their own homes and in front of such critical audiences, which often did not hesitate to pass the most severe and unpleasant remarks upon the struggling efforts of these youngsters."
" Maybe you recall many incidents of those early days?"
" Yes ; first, a young butler engaged in one of
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the mansions on the hill was induced to give out one verse of a hymn, though he immediately sub sided nervously. The next time he would have the courage for two or even three verses. Then a groom from the stables near was drawn to read four or five verses of Holy Scripture. Their voices were feeble and timid ; but by degrees they grew bolder, and gradually volunteered a few words of explana tion as to how they felt the verse of the hymn or of the Bible helped them personally. By this process many active and earnest speakers were brought out, a few of whom have never ceased to bear witness for Christ in this way, and, even after eighteen years, are still working in connection with the same parish, though the greater number are now assisting poor parishes in the neighbourhood. There was soon a considerable increase in the congregation at St Paul s. While some of my men attended the services there, others went forth into the slums of North Kensington to assist in evangelising work, several being now well able to conduct the meetings by themselves. It was also at the Kensington Vestry Hall that we had a remarkable series of meetings on Sunday nights, and from there that our processions used to take place. The company was headed by a banner, which we still preserve here, and which has been the butt for many a missile. Arrived at the Vestry Hall, there began what we now know as the Church Army meeting, conducted by myself in my cassock, in which it was felt that
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downright evangelistic work was quite possible on strong and broad Church lines. At the close I would appeal to those who wished to decide for Christ to kneel at the old magistrate s table. Night after night, at the prayer-meeting which followed, we had the joy of pointing many to the Saviour, and of getting that individual touch with hearts which is so desired by every earnest clergyman. Rarely did a night pass, however, without some agnostic or sceptic attempting to upset the whole proceedings, denouncing them as bosh or rot. But happy thought on several occasions many who came to scoff remained to pray, and have con tinued earnest mission workers even to the present day."
"In course of time you left St. Mary Abbot s ? " Mr Carlile replied in the affirmative. " It was in August 1882. I did so with regret, but with the goodwill of my vicar, and under the advice of Dr Wilkinson, the present Bishop of St Andrews, in order to commence the Church Army under the auspices of the Church Parochial Mission Society. After various Church Army missions in Walworth, Marylebone and Bristol, we inaugurated a year s campaign in the back slums of Westminster the darkest spot in London at that time. The consent of the vicar of the parish was obtained, the Port cullis Hall was taken, and then broke out one of the most remarkable religious movements among tramps and thieves, costers and the like that I have ever
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witnessed. Mr Edward Clifford, the well-known artist to whom I introduced you just now who had been long labouring among the poor of the East End, attracted by what was almost a forlorn hope, joined in our mission. By his untiring zeal and intense sympathy, under terrible trials, he has rendered the most indefatigable help from almost the very beginning, and he has been the Treasurer of the Church Army ever since. For months the members of our mission in Westminster were treated like nine-pins, and the ordeal was very severe, especially for the young beginners. The publicans were our bitter opponents ; but the Skeletons a self-constituted army of roughs were a special terror to us. One of the most intrepid workers was Miss Cheshire, who is now on the London staff ; often has she had her clothes torn by the ruffians, and often has she gone forth scarcely knowing whether she would return alive. It was, by the way, while engaged in that year s campaign in the slums of Westminster, that I was smashed up by a gang of thieves. I was taken up for dead after the assault. I was destined to undergo six months illness, and the ringleader in that gang six months in gaol ! He is now a Christian worker abroad. During that time the work was pretty much at a standstill. It is impossible to over-estimate the wickedness that is perpetrated in some of the dark spots of London ; men and women living vulture lives upon Society ; truth esteemed foolishness ;
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honesty, weakness, and purity scoffed at. They will not enter the church or mission-hall door, hence we are compelled to take the glad tidings out to them. We do not seek to drag the Church of England into the mud, but to bring some of the social mud into the Church. The principle of the Church Army has been to show that evangelistic zeal could be linked successfully with Church order."
"What ultimately came of this work in West minster ? "
"Well, owing to want of sympathy and funds, the work in Westminster ceased, but the need of supplying trained men and women to labour among the masses was more strongly felt than ever. The Rev. Evan Hopkins had been conducting a Church mission corps in the parish of Holy Trinity, Rich mond. The Rev. F. S. Webster, then curate to Canon Christopher at St Aldate s, Oxford, developed a similar work in that parish, while Mr and Mrs J. J. Chambers were doing exactly similar work in some of the most densely-populated parishes of Wolverhampton and the Black Country. When these various workers came to know each other, they gladly co-operated and federated in the Church Army. For training Evangelists the com mittee started a training home in Oxford, and appointed the Rev. F. S. Webster as principal. Captains W. Cox, P. Prior, I. Shepherd, J. T. Smith, S. Hotchkiss, R. Burton, and E. Billington, most of whom are still in the field, were among the
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first trained. Eventually it was deemed wise to shift from Oxford to London, and soon these premises, 128 and 130 Edgware Road, were bought on a thirty-eight years lease to serve the double purpose of headquarters and training home. The present Archbishop of Canterbury dedicated the chapel."
" But now please give me some facts about the social side of your work ? "
The Leader of the Church Army was ready with the information. "In 1888, owing to the large increase of vagrants, criminals and inebriates in London and throughout the provinces, the social efforts of the Society were set on foot by the insti tution of several Labour Homes. This system spread rapidly throughout the country, and has demonstrated to the nation and to the Church how to avoid indiscriminate charity by providing a thoroughly sound system, on philanthropic, labour and Church lines for re-instating carefully selected individuals. The social side of the work commenced in a curious way. At one of our meetings in Mary- lebone about eleven years ago a poor tramp put in an appearance, showing no visible means for pulling himself together. So we rigged up a bed on the platform of the mission room. That one tramp appeared to be impressed with the service, and seeing the possibilities we extended this branch of the work. Very soon officials of the Salvation Army came to see how we were managing and pro-
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gressing with it. You see we were the pioneers in the matter of the social side, commencing long before the Salvation Army. They have since made huge shelters and workshops, but I am sure they cannot recreate character by the massing of bad people together. In the Church Army Homes we don t allow more than twenty-five men together, and sometimes find that number too large. Yes, our experimental Labour Home for criminals, tramps and inebriates (a home, distinct from a mere shelter) was in successful working order in January 1890. We had already planned setting up under our central control similar Labour Homes in the chief centres of England. We had also been trying other social experiments of a similar kind Women s Rescue Work, Slum Work by our Mission Nurses, Samaritan Clothing Depots for the Poor, etc. In the Labour Home good food, baths, clothes-cleaners, comfortable housing, with very clean sleeping accommodation, are provided in return for nine hours work. The system is that of piecework, and enables each man, in addition to the above, to earn at least twopence per day for pocket money, and more is banked for clothes. By means of our O Clo for the poor we are enabled to pro vide for a few shillings a second-hand outfit for any of our men. We keep the men not less than two months in the home long enough to constitute a fair moral training against the habits of idleness and drink. Family prayers and evening service,
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in which bright vocal and instrumental music largely predominates, are regular institutions. The most friendly sympathy is shown to the inmates by the ordinary members of our missions, and brings these fallen men again into the sunlight of human and Christian comradeship."
" At this period what is the extent of this social side?"
" At the present time our social work is being carried on in 102 Labour Homes and agencies in the metropolis, and throughout the provinces from Plymouth to Edinburgh, from Cambridge to Dublin, under the direction of the Hon. Social Secretary, Mr Colin Campbell, a devoted and keen social economic expert. In these homes the Church Army deals with the outcast, the destitute, and the despairing men, women, girls and youths wholly irrespective of creed or character. They came to us from the streets, the casual wards, the workhouses, the police courts, the prisons. You will be interested to hear that her late Majesty the Queen wrote us : The Queen deeply appreciates and sympathises with the excellent work of the Church Army. The late Bishop of London, Dr Creighton, speaking at the Mansion House, once gave this telling description : A Church Army Labour Home makes no great show ; you would have to look about before you found it, and when you had, you would find a very small office and simple rooms under the care of real friends the
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" Father " and " Mother " of the home who live with the men and women in the homes, work amongst them day by day, strive to bring them back to self-respect, and constantly set before them the example of a godly, righteous and sober life. We are thankful to say that this work of the Church among the outcast and destitute has the warm approval of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the English Bishops, the Home Office, the Prison Commissioners, the Local Government Board, the Charity Organisation Society, the Discharged Prisoners Aid Society, prison governors and chap lains, judges and magistrates, police and others, while many boards of guardians make grants to the Society in return for its work in taking persons off the rates and making them into ratepayers. If any would not work, neither should he eat. So if a man or woman in any of the Society s homes will not work, he or she is dismissed. The Chairman of the Paddington Board of Guardians has put the matter concisely : The Guardians can give the inmates of the workhouses and casual wards work, but they cannot give them backbone. That, how ever, is what the Church Army has succeeded in doing in a number of cases sent to them from the Paddington Workhouse.
" But what, Mr Carlile, is the actual character of the work carried on in these Labour Homes ? "
" It is mostly wood-chopping, paper-sorting, and jobbing of all kinds."
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" What sort of members do you take in a year into your homes ? "
" Well," said Mr Carlile, "in addition to others, 2327 men were received in the Morning Post Em bankment Home, As a literary man that Morning Post Thames Embankment Home should interest you. It was established through the generosity of the readers of the paper mentioned, and it is a refuge for the unfortunate men who, hungry, homeless and hopeless, nightly haunt the Thames Embankment and its vicinity. The officials of the home spare no effort to seek as well as to save. Night after night the workers go out to tell these homeless wanderers of the door that is open to them. The number that passed through the home last year proves what a terrible need existed for it. Our officers can tell some thrilling tales of lives too often young lives ruined through drink, crime and misfortune ; but no matter how low the man has fallen, if he is willing to be raised the Church Army will help him. Then as regards the Provincial Labour Homes, the number of men admitted during 1900 was 2218 634 obtained situations ; eighty-six were restored to friends ; fifty-five joined the Army ; one went into the Navy ; thirteen were emigrated ; forty-nine were sent to hospital ; one was transferred to another home ; four were arrested by the police ; 812 left to seek work; 191 were dismissed; 362 remained in the homes. But we must not forget
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the women s social department. During last year over 1 500 women and girls applied to us for help. Many were at once passed on to our various homes, and the others helped with food and tem porary shelter whenever possible. Many women and girls have been received direct from police courts, prisons and workhouses ; visits are paid by our mission nurse to women and girls in prison and workhouse, and to people in distress in their own homes. It is an invariable rule in all Church Army homes that the inmates must be total ab stainers while in the home. Drink, undoubtedly, is the chief evil that fills our homes."
As to the work accomplished in the prisons, Mr Carlile was ready with abundant testimony. " During last year," he said, "missions were conducted in most of the prisons of England and Wales thanks to the kindness and sympathy of the Prison Commissioners, governors and chaplains and this difficult work has been greatly blessed. Here is an extract from a letter received the other day from a prison chaplain of long experience :
Captain is emphatically the right man in
the right place. Without the least approach to sentimentality, he has been gifted with great attrac tive power, and the "old, old story" is presented by him in an especially inviting form to his hearers. The private interviews in the cells, I know, were much appreciated, and the missioner in no wise spared himself from this somewhat exacting duty.
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I consider that the day the prison portals opened to admit the Church Army evangelists (by authority) marked the beginning of a new era in penal his tory, and although the facts can never be tabulated, or reckoned, or statistically collected in the present, yet the future will reveal that many a weary soul has received its first impulse Heavenwards by the untiring, zealous and Christ-like labours of the Church Army prison missioner. I should add," put in Mr Carlile, " that missions were also con ducted in over 100 workhouses and several refor matories during the year with much success. We are now doing something to help the wives and children of repentant prisoners. The greatest misery, we find, which a man suffers while in gaol is due to his concern about the condition in which he has left his wife and family outside. We are able to relieve the anxiety of the man who shows signs of reforming by promising to make grants through the local clergy to the wife and the little ones. Yes, the prisoner undergoes most awful distress of mind about them during his incarcera tion. We are of opinion that the State owes a great debt of gratitude to the authorities of the Church Army." That is an extract which we have culled from a Parliamentary Blue Book containing the annual report of the Commissioners of Prisons and the directors of convict establishments. That our work in the prisons of England and Wales should be officially reported upon to Parliament
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in such cordial terms is a matter of great thank fulness to the Committee of the Church Army. On their release from prison, as I have pointed out, we seek to put those who need it into situa tions, and to extend to them, until suitable places can be found, the comforts of our Labour Homes."
Of gratitude on the part of the rescued ones Mr Carlile adduced overwhelming proof. Out of hundreds of cases, we must find space for two.
An ex-convict writes :
" The kindness I received from everyone connected with the C.A. will live in my memory as long as life itself. I often think what a godsend such a Society as yours is, and how it is ready to heartily welcome and help to a fresh start in life those who have fallen just as low as it is possible for a man or woman to fall in this life. Had it not been for the C.A. I should not have been where I am to-day. I have got my chance; God help me to make good use of it."
Here is another instance of the moral effect on the prisoner of kindness shown to those dependent on him :
" The chaplain of prison asked C.A. to inquire into circum stances of the wife, whose husband was serving a term in prison. Matron of Labour Home called upon the woman, found her very respectable one child three years old and baby three weeks old woman herself been very ill, as well as the baby gave her a little temporary assistance. Shortly afterwards baby died. C.A. helped to pay cost of funeral, and matron also obtained a grant from insurance company, assisted with clothing, and to get work when strong enough to do it. Received letter from husband saying that, when released, he meant to stick to work, to show how grateful he was for help given to wife during his absence."
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" But," continued Mr Carlile, " I think one of the most extraordinary cases was that of a youth who had been in gaol seventeen times before he was twenty-one for stealing watches. From his earnings in the Labour Home he managed to save enough money to buy a watch and chain of his own. When he left us to go to Canada he happily remarked, It is nice to have a "ticker" which you airit afraid of the "peeler" a-looking on ! That youth had worked six weeks for his watch, and then it was only a second-hand Water bury. But you see what pride he felt in having a watch which was actually his own ! "
" But does your Church Army system admit of these rescued ones rising in the Army scale to become missioners ? "
" Not too rapidly," was Mr Carlile s reply. " We are very slow in appointing our evangelists from the people who have been rescued by the Church Army. We find our supporters don t like the idea of it. We have all sorts as co- workers. We had one, a burglar who had been eighteen years in prison out of forty-two. He has been transformed into a most exemplary worker, and is doing excellent evangelistic work, though not paid for it. He is a voluntary agent."
" With regard to your missioners, you enjoy special concessions in the Diocese of London ? "
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" Yes ; the Bishop of London is a very keen friend of the Church Army, and he has gone the length of allowing some of the men to preach in certain consecrated buildings. Our missioners, of course, do not wish to become curates ; but they do desire to preach in the churches occasion ally when well placed to get at the people, and the Bishop allows that in certain cases. We have already trained 1200 men and 400 women as evangelists and mission nurses. In this building we have about thirty young men in training, and there are about twenty - five young women under Miss Carlile, my sister. The Evangelists are examined by the Archdeacon of Middlesex, and are sent into a parish only by the invitation of the Vicar. Their work consists chiefly of open- air and in-door meetings, classes for Bible-reading, visiting, and the like. Permanent officers are sometimes supplied. Single men receive 2 is. to 243. per week; married men, 295. to 323., accord ing to experience and power. Where rent is high the evangelist is allowed to ask the Vicar or Rector for an additional salary to cover rent which exceeds 45. a week. It costs 25 to obtain, train, equip and send forth one officer evangelist ; 20 will obtain, test, train and equip one mission nurse; ;io enables the work to be commenced in a very poor parish."
" You feel that there is unlimited scope for
N
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your work, and, therefore, a need for more financial assistance ? "
"Yes, ,170,000 is required for this year s maintenance and extension ; for existing work and necessary extensions, ,5000 ; for more labour homes for men, women and lads, ^5000 ; for lodg ing-houses to be added to every Labour Home, ^3000 ; for women s preventive homes and night rescue work, ^2500 ; for missions to prisons, workhouses and reformatories, ^2000 ; for work amongst discharged prisoners wives and families, ^1500 ; for tent missions and slum work all over England, ^1000; for the train ing of evangelists and mission nurses (costing ^"25 each), ^3000 ; for work amongst inebriates under the Act, .1000; for the work of sixty-seven mission and colportage vans, ^"2000 ; for cases of urgent and special distress, ^1000 ; for officers widows and orphans fund, ;iooo; and for the outcast, 15,000 second hand outfits yearly. And now we are on the topic of statistics, it is as well to observe that ^"1000 will train and equip one Church Army worker yearly in perpetuity ; ^500 will provide missioners for all workhouses for a year ; ^"250 will maintain a Labour Home for a year or open a new one ; ;ioo will pro vide a prison and workhouse or pioneer missioner for a year ; ^50 will provide a mission nurse for slum or poor parish for a year ; while $ will start afresh in life one ex-prisoner, inebriate or outcast. Certainly one of the most encouraging aspects of
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our work is seen in the enormous number of bad characters who have become paying helpers to the Church Army. From the poorest we get a large sum each year in people s pence."
But, there ! all things must necessarily come to an end, and so must the interview. At this stage the interviewer deemed it prudent to beat a retreat, certain of nothing so much as that the chief of the Church Army could literally overwhelm him with facts about the growth and doings of his useful organisation.
��P.S. The Rev. W. Carlile was appointed Rector of St Mary-at-Hill, City, in 1892, largely owing to the influence of Dr Temple, then Bishop of London, and the late Archbishop Benson.
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