CHRISTIAN
721
CHRISTIAN
Another branch of the society's activity is the hos-
pital work. The members visit the sick and dying,
- uul supply the hospitals with Bibles, prayer books,
and other religious works. Important under this head are the medical missions, which aim at winning the soul of the heathen by earing for his body. These medical missions have been founded in Sierra Leone, Madagascar, South Africa, India, Palestine, China, Japan, Korea, and British Columbia. Students, male and female, are specially trained for this work, and hospitals are built and furnished.
Perhaps more widely known than any is the work of the S. P. C. K. as "the great publishing house" of the Church of England. Simultaneously with the foundation of its first schools it began to print and circulate cheap and good books. One of its first sub- scriptions was begun " for promoting Christian knowl- edge by raising Lending Libraries in the several Market Towns of the kingdom and by distributing good books". The first publication was an edition of 600 copies of Dr. Bray's "Discourse concerning Bap- tismal and Spiritual Regeneration" which appeared in 1(>99. The society, while maintaining its position as the great Bible and Prayer Book Society of the Church of England, has not confined itself to purely religious works. Its catalogue includes volumes of popular science, travel, biography, and fiction, as well as I lie special class devoted to theology and history. Even translations of Catholic books are not, excluded, and though Catholic,-, objecting to publications such as Dr. Littledale's "Plain Reasons", in which mis- representation becomes a fine art, cannot approve of much that is issued in thesociety's volumes, they can acknowledge the general good taste of the society's publications even when directed against themselves. They may also be excused for regarding as objection- able the versions of English church history which are popularized throughout the country, not only by at- tractively produced manuals, but also by popular lantern lectures. Besides the books published, popu- lar tracts, pictures, and illuminated texts are issued in great numbers. The latest figures available show exclusive of Bibles, prayer books, and tracts the circulation of the society's publications in 1905 amounted to 11,078,135.
An important development of recent growth is the organizing of lay help. In 1889 the society opened a Training College for Lay Workers, in Commercial Road, in the East End of London. Here there is ac- commodation for K) students, who are trained to as- he parochial clergy in holding mission services, giving classes to adults and children, and conducting temperance and other meetings. Such students, on Completion of their course, arc formally set apart to the ollice of Reader in the Church and are licensed for
the work by their respective diocesan,-.
Yet another branch of work is concerned with emi- grants. This was undertaken in 1836 at the request oi Mr. i dad-tone, who had been acting as Under- Secretary tor the ( lolonies, ami who wa- impressed bj the spiritual destitution of the crowds of emigrants The society's "port chaplains" undertake a syste- visitation of out-going vessels, and the chap- lains at the ports of departure give letters of introduc- tion to the chaplains at the ports of arrival, and often the long-voyage chaplains accompany the ships.
Missionary work was, from the first, aimed at by the S. P. C. K. Dr. Bray's personal experience of the condition of those members of the Church of England who were scattered through what are now the North- ern and Southern States of the Union convinced him
that the work to be done was so gigantic that it called
for a special society, and therefore, in 1701 . tin -■>, ety for the Propagation of the Gospel" wa- founded. This did not prevent the parent-society helping on the work in every way. Since those days its field of labour has been extended to Canada and Australia. III.— 46
and it has been active in spreading the influence of the
Church of England. During the reign of Queen Vic-
toria the society expended £100,000 in helping to
found and endow colonial and missionary bishoprics.
Besides this, large sums have been voted for the
building of colleges, churches, and schools. One as-
pect of this missionary work which calls for special
notice is the translation of the Bible into foreign lan-
guages. Beginning in 1713 with a Bible in Welsh, it,
proceeded in 1720 to the dissemination of 10,000
Arabic New Testaments, and at the present day it
claims to publish Bibles and other books in a hundred
different languages and dialects. In regard to some
of these the difficulties are great, as it sometimes hap-
pens that a dialect has never been reduced to writing,
and the missionary has to put the syllables into some
written form and send them home to be printed again
and again until it is found that they finally represent,
the inflexions of the dialect and are capable of con-
veying the impressions desired. The society also
supplies printing presses and types to missions which
are in a position to use them. The first effort in this
direction was the S. P. C. K. Press in Madras, founded
in 1728, and now employing 400 work-people.
The organization and management of the society is efficient and vigorous, and there can be no doubt that it remains to-day one of the chief means of preserving for the Church of England its hold over the people. Remarkable, too, is the manner in which it has man- aged to keep on good terms with the various warring sections in the Anglican Church. A recent, writer has observed, "The society comes in for a little friendly criticism from time to time from one side or the other of the Church, but it, should be borne in mind that it has always striven to be the handmaid of the Church, not the tool of a section." (Cochrane, "An Impor- tant Chapter in English History ", 13.) The influence of the society, especially displayed in the colonies, has also made itself felt in the drawing together of the en- tire Anglican episcopate. Speaking of the S. I'.C. K. and the S. P. G., Dr. Lewis, the first Anglican Arch- bishop of Ontario, one of the originators of the Lam- beth Conferences, declared that the influence of those two societies did much to make such conclaves possi- ble. The magnitude of the work annually accom- plished, of which the main branches have been here indicated to the exclusion of many minor activities. justified the eulogy by the late Archbishop of Canter- bury, Dr. Benson, when he wrote: "Of all our societies in England, this is the oldest and grandest, and its work the very largest ever conceived".
Si u t it,, '/'/,, Sncirti/ for Promoting Christian A,
a Short Account oi UsWorl andO I Ion, 1885);
An Important Chapter in /-'m//, A < A . . ' /' C.K.,
1698-1905 (London, 1905).
lam in Burton. Christian Names. See Names, Christian.
Christian Retreat, Congregation of. — There
are two branches of this congregation, tin Fathers of Christian Retreat and the Sisters. It was founded
on the 19th of November, 1789, at Fontenelle, Doubs,
France, by Father Antoine-Silvestre Receveur, who was declared Venerable in 18S3 by Pope Leo XIII. He had an extraordinary love of the Cross, and was fond of saying "it was a cross to !»■ without one"'. The Revolution raging at the time of its birth caused the society to endure many privations and forced its members to make many sacrifices. I or three years the sisters, who at that time numbered seventy, were subjected to great persecution, and then a revolu- tionary mob drove them out of their convent. The -iven them of death or separation from Father Receveur, which would have involved aban- doning the life they had adopted I be sisters unanimously chose death rather than give up their vocation, and their persecutors, touched by their bravery, allowed them to go into exile, After ten
