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 OF THE 
 
 U N 1 VERSITY 
 
 Of ILLINOIS
 
 HOW 18 THE G08PE 
 
 TO THE POOR? 
 
 AN ANSWER TO QUESTIONS AS TO THE 
 FUTURE WORK OF THE 
 
 BISHOP OF LONDON'S FUND, 
 
 IN A LETTER TO THE LORD BISHOP OF LONDON. 
 
 REV. F. G. BLOMFIELD. M.A. 
 
 NOVEMBER 1872, 
 
 Not Published.
 
 7, Lancaster Gate, Nov. \<^th, 1872. 
 
 My dear Lord, 
 
 In a letter which you have lately sent to the 
 Clergy, and to others who are interested in the 
 Church's work in London, you have been good 
 enough to invite an expression of our opinion as to 
 any improvements which may be made in the work 
 of the great missionary association for the diocese, 
 the Bishop of London's Fund. That association is 
 drawing towards the close of its first ten years, and 
 we are called upon to review its past and to provide 
 for its future. " What," so you ask us, " are the 
 objects which in future should be kept most promi- 
 nently in view ? and what are the means and the 
 machinery by which those objects may be attained 
 most effectually ? I fully appreciate the importance 
 of these inquiries, and as my health will not allow 
 me to take any part in the deliberations of the 
 Committee appointed to consider and report upon
 
 the future of the Fund, I hope I shall not be 
 deemed presumptuous if 1 venture to trouble both 
 your Lordship and the Committee with the following 
 remarks. I speak with the utmost deference for the 
 opinions of those who have been far more active than 
 I have been in our diocesan associations, and still 
 more of those among my brethren, who, having 
 laboured in populous districts, can bring theories to 
 the test of experience. I can only plead a long 
 connection with the general work of this diocese as 
 a ground for contributing anything to the councils 
 which are to assist you In this weighty matter. 
 
 The four questions which have been submitted to 
 us resolve themselves into this inquiry, " What is the 
 organization by which the influences of religion can 
 best be brought to bear on those dense masses of the 
 population which are now wholly untouched by them ? 
 It is the question, always old and always new, which 
 must perplex the Church of Christ for many genera- 
 tions to come. But it is here narrowed to the 
 inquiry, " Have the methods hitherto employed by 
 the Bishop of London's Fund been the best fitted to 
 attain this end — the evangelization of the multitude ? 
 Now the principle on which we have hitherto acted 
 has been this, that the ultimate object to be aimed 
 at and to be attained as early as possible, is the erec- 
 tion of new churches, and the subdivision of parishes 
 into independent districts. No one can deny that 
 up to a certain point the principle was a just one. A
 
 parish with 20,000 or 15,000 souls and only one 
 church can never under any circumstances be a 
 satisfactory state of things ; and, in the earlier years 
 of the Bishop of London's Fund, and before it, it 
 was absolutely necessary to remedy the evil by the 
 erection of new churches and new parishes. But I 
 cannot help thinking, and many whose judgments de- 
 serve to be considered concur with me in the opinion, 
 that in our zeal \ve have begun to carry this principle 
 too far, and have multiplied churches and districts 
 beyond present requirements. 
 
 We have been confirmed in this error by the fact 
 that it is only by the consecration of a new church that 
 a permanent endowment can be obtained out of the 
 funds at the disposal of the Ecclesiastical Commis- 
 sioners. It does not seem to occur to us that an effort 
 should be made to obtain new powers for the Com- 
 missioners, before we go on multiplying the old 
 parochial machinery, which, however admirable and 
 necessary, is by itself unequal to the strain put upon 
 it, and which may be weakened instead of strength- 
 ened by this process of dismemberment. 
 
 I most thankfully acknowledge that, whatever 
 mistakes we have made in this direction, still, under 
 God's blessing, a vast amount of good has been 
 effected. No one who knows what one of our great 
 parishes was before new churches were built in it, 
 and what it is now, will doubt the improvement that 
 has taken place. At the same time we ought to
 
 bear in mind the evils that may resuh from carrying 
 this subdivision beyond reasonable limits. First of all 
 there is the difficulty of finding a sufficient number of 
 men capable of being able and efficient heads of so 
 many independent districts. I suppose that in no 
 city or town in England are there more zealous and 
 devoted clergymen than are to be found in many a 
 destitute district in London ; but a man may have 
 the piety and zeal of St. Paul without possessing 
 that apostle's powers of directing and ruling the 
 churches; and it is no disparagement of the excellent 
 men who labour amongst our poor to say, that some 
 of them would work more efficiently under the guid- 
 ance of abler and more experienced men. No one 
 knows better than your Lordship that in multiplying 
 incumbencies we have created a want which cannot 
 be adequately supplied. In the second place, this 
 multitude of small independent cures impairs the 
 unity of the Church's work. There is no system, 
 no concentration of energy, no union of forces in any 
 of those ancient parishes which are now broken up. 
 Every man is doing his work single-handed, instead 
 of many labouring together. A nd it must be so, so 
 long as we make an independent incumbency the 
 indispensable accompaniment of every new church. 
 In the third place, we have too much overlooked 
 the fact, that the great mass of the working 
 people do not and will not attend divine service in 
 our churches. I thankfully admit an improvement
 
 in this respect, and that we can point to many 
 Mhich are at least tolerably well filled. But, after 
 all, these are exceptional instances, and are due to 
 exceptional men. Given the average clergyman and 
 the average service, and it will be true for a very 
 long time to come that the mass of the working 
 people will remain outside our churches. Many 
 a long year is needed to educate the million up to 
 the level of the Prayer book ; it will not be in our 
 day, if indeed it will ever be ; and in our zeal to 
 multiply churches we are raising the topstone of the 
 edifice without having dug the foundations. A 
 consecrated building with its stated services is not 
 the building into which you can for the present gather 
 the multitude, and it is the multitude whose salva- 
 tion we are seeking. It must never be forgotten by us 
 that the Bishop of London's Fund was not instituted 
 for the purpose of perfecting our parochial system, 
 but for the purpose of saving souls that are perishing 
 around us now and to-day. It is a society for the 
 evangelization of the multitude, not for the general 
 promotion of church work ; and while it is to leave 
 the upper and middle classes to take care of them- 
 selves, it is to go to the rescue of those who cannot 
 help themselves, and to preach the gospel to the 
 poor. Those methods which will effect this truly 
 Christ-like end are the only ones with which this 
 association has to concern itself; and we are assur- 
 edly committing a grave error if, on the one hand, we
 
 are employing too much of our resources in multi- 
 plying a machinery imperfectly adapted to the evils 
 to be remedied, and, on the other hand, neglecting 
 those methods which in the present condition of the 
 working people can best draw them under the 
 influence of the gospel. 
 
 Here, then, is the most serious of all the mistakes 
 into which we are insensibly falling, that in the work 
 of evangelization we have treated what is termed by 
 us Mission work as a temporary expedient instead of 
 regarding it as a permanent system. It is only here 
 that we have methods as elastic and variable as the 
 many wants which have to be satisfied ; only here 
 that the hands of clergy and laity are not tied by a 
 narrow and straitened uniformity. Something far more 
 elastic and far more vigorous than that uniformity is 
 needed, and it is only here that we shall find it, out- 
 side the consecrated church and outside of the old 
 parochial system. Not that this system is to be 
 destroyed ; it is the stronghold of the national Church; 
 but it must be supplemented if that Church is to be 
 true to its calling, and is to save the people. 
 
 This, then, is one great principle which we have 
 to lay down for our guidance in the future. The kind 
 of work which we have termed mission work is to 
 be at least as permanent and as prominent an object 
 of the Association as the erection of churches and the 
 creation of new parishes. My own conviction is, that 
 if we wish to make any real impression on the mul-
 
 titude, to influence working men, and to go down to 
 lower depths and rescue the waifs and outcasts of 
 London, we must spend as little strength as possible 
 in building more churches, and throw our chief ener- 
 gies into those rougher and readier methods which 
 will go straight to men's homes and hearts. But I 
 do not mean by mission work those isolated efforts 
 which have been made under the Bishop of London's 
 Fund — I mean a far more concentrated and vigorous 
 effort than any that has been as yet attempted. 
 
 What is a Mission ? It is a question which has 
 been often asked in reference to our work, and the 
 answer has been, '* A mission is one clergyman, or two 
 at the most, sent into a conventional district of some 
 6,000 souls, to open services, get together schools, 
 hold meetings, and form the nucleus of a congregation 
 which is afterwards to migrate into a church." Now 
 if these missions are regarded as tentative, as helping 
 us to feel our way to what a mission really should 
 be, I am far from finding fault with them, and heartily 
 thank God for the measure of success He has granted 
 them. No man can go anywhere with the love of 
 souls in his heart and seek to do his Master's work, 
 and not leave his mark. Still it has seemed to me, 
 as to a good many others, long before the Bishop of 
 London's Fund was created, that such isolated mis- 
 sions are not the true mode of influencing the mul- 
 titude. One main reason is the fact that they are 
 isolated. Precisely the same objections apply to this
 
 lO 
 
 multiplication of independent missions as to the mul- 
 tiplication of independent districts. Few men can 
 carry on such a work single-handed without guidance, 
 without succour, and above all without sympathy. 
 When the heart of an East End missionary, one 
 might say of an East End clergyman, faints within 
 him, and how often he alone knows, he may turn 
 indeed to the Divine Fountain of strength and con- 
 solation ; but to whom amongst his fellows can he 
 look for counsel and cheer ? Wonderful it is to 
 think that in their loneliness so few of them grow 
 wearied in well-doing, or sink down in despair. But 
 all this isolation with its weakness and suffering need 
 not be and ought not to be. It does more than any- 
 thing else to cripple the Church's work and to impair 
 the unity of that work ; it breaks up into a number 
 of isolated and feeble efforts what ought to be con- 
 centrated into a few powerful and far-reaching organ- 
 izations. It fails in guiding wisdom, in motive 
 power, and in united effort. The first question 
 therefore, we have to ask ourselves is, how can we 
 introduce into our evangelizing work a corporate 
 life and an organic movement ? The answer surely 
 is, by grouping that work around a few centres, and 
 by so constituting this central force that every member 
 of it shall depend on another, the personal influence of 
 the head be felt by each member, and the work done 
 by them singly and'altogether be done systematically, 
 and permeate to every corner of the mission-field.
 
 1 1 
 
 We do not want examples, either in the ancient 
 history of the Church, or among ourselves to-day, of 
 the manner in which such an evangelizing force is to 
 be constituted. To say nothing of the experiments 
 which one party in our own Church have made in 
 this direction, we have only to look at the Roman 
 Catholic body to see how it is in this way that they 
 are drawing over London a network for catching the 
 souls of men. The true idea of a mission is a 
 number of men, clerical and lay, living together in 
 community under one head, devoting themselves to 
 one object, the evangelizing of the multitude ; seeking 
 this great object by every means and agency which 
 can gain a hearing for the gospel ; sustaining their 
 own energies by spiritual exercises and brotherly 
 intercourse ; not working in opposition to or outside 
 of the parochial system, but co-operating with the 
 secular clergy, at once stimulating them to exertion 
 and strengthening them in their labours by subsi- 
 dizing their limited means of action, and doing work 
 which as a rule a settled pastor is the least able to 
 perform. By the side of the priest and the Levite we 
 need a school of the prophets, and until we have them 
 we shall see no revival of religion on a large scale. 
 
 I fully appreciate the dangers which would attend 
 the founding amongst us of such institutions. First 
 of all there is the danger of extravagance. There 
 is the fear of importing into these religious com- 
 munities practices and habits foreign to our Reformed
 
 Church, and odious to the working- people. It is 
 melancholy to think how by this mediaevalism one 
 of the most devoted of these institutions, which has 
 toiled in one of our poorest districts with a self- 
 sacrifice truly admirable, has crippled its usefulness 
 and marred its influence, and has failed to gain the 
 entire confidence of the people for whom its mem- 
 bers have given up all things. But there is no 
 necessity for vows of obedience, poverty, and celi- 
 bacy ; for excessive asceticism, for mediaeval garb, or 
 for services planned upon the Roman model. I 
 see no reason why a college of missionaries should 
 not be founded free from these defects, although the 
 spiritual necessities of men thus banded together 
 must involve practices which will seem strange to 
 Christians on a lower level. In all these under- 
 takings everything depends on the head. Find a 
 leader who can be trusted, and everything may be 
 safely left in his hands. 
 
 Another danger is that such religious communities 
 have a tendency to reject episcopal control. This 
 is not the place to enter on the causes of this, or 
 how it might be corrected, the above remark about 
 the choice of a leader is a practical answer. But I 
 am persuaded that, in any communities we might now 
 found, the frequent visit and hearty sympathy of the 
 bishop would always secure that subordination 
 which the welfare of a diocese requires. 
 
 Another objection is that such a body standing
 
 13 
 
 outside of the parochial system will clash with it, 
 and interfere with the rights of incumbents. I can 
 only say that if I had the charge of a poor and 
 populous district I should be deeply thankful to have 
 my rights thus interfered with. The people have 
 their rights as well as the clergy, and if the parish 
 priest cannot battle with all the heathenism around 
 him then in Christ's name let the preaching friars 
 come in. I admit the difficulties which would arise 
 from divergent opinions and sectional differences, 
 but the advantages would far outweigh the diffi- 
 culties ; and in a great crisis something must be 
 risked if much is to be achieved. 
 
 When I come to speak of the advantages result- 
 ing from such a mission I find them so many that 
 I fear I shall tire your Lordship in enumerating 
 them. Of one I have already spoken, that instead 
 of having many ineffectives you will have one able 
 and vigorous head. This one gain alone is of in- 
 calculable importance. In all work that is to in- 
 fluence others it is the man that is felt rather than 
 the system. Put a devoted, wise, and able man at 
 the head of the college of evangelists, and the force 
 of his character will be felt through all its members 
 to every human being that comes under their in- 
 fluence. Such a man gives unity, method, force. 
 Missionary efforts are no longer vacillating and con- 
 flicting ; they become one living power nourished 
 and guided as parts of an organic whole. Each
 
 H 
 
 Christian man or woman who is labouring in this 
 service feels the leader's eye, is stirred to watch- 
 fulness, and is guided in perplexity. A devoted 
 leader will call forth devoted men and women out 
 of all ranks, and in the college, with its buildings 
 and services, you give them a centre to which they 
 can resort. For workers from the West End, and 
 how much we need them in the East ! such a pied- 
 a-terre is an almost indispensable requisite to sus- 
 tained exertion. It is obvious, also, how much the 
 erection of a few such missionary centres facilitates 
 episcopal superintendence, and gives opportunities 
 for that personal sympathy which is the true secret of 
 power. It is impossible for the diocesan to visit 
 twelve or twenty separate missions, but it is not 
 difficult for him to visit one, 
 
 I come next to the benefits which such a commu- 
 nity bestows upon the workers. These are in truth 
 incalculable. And, first of all, there is no sense 
 of isolation. " Two are better than one, for if they 
 fall, the one will lift up his fellow." The mutual 
 society help and comfort which they will have one of 
 another is such as words cannot express. There are 
 the daily spiritual exercises and the frequent celebra- 
 tion of the Holy Communion, means without which 
 the soul of the worker is starved, and his spiritual 
 fervour decHnes. There is the daily interchange of 
 experiences, of failures and successes ; the mutual 
 encouragements, the stronger aiding the weaker;
 
 15 
 
 the Intercourse of recreation as well as the Intercourse 
 of work ; the visits of sympathizers from without, 
 something to remind them that all is not as dreary 
 and savage as the scenes of their labours ; this and 
 more that strengthens and sweetens toil is the fruit 
 of living and working in community. Contrast this 
 with the solitary toiler in his East End lodgings, and 
 ask which of the two systems is the most likely to 
 produce sustained and effective work of the highest 
 kind. 
 
 One more argument I must add in favour of 
 this experiment ; that banding men together under 
 a common roof economizes means. I do not say 
 that such a mission, to be perfect in all its details, 
 would not cost a great deal of money, which it would 
 have little difficulty in getting ; but a collegiate life 
 and maintenance is cheaper than any other, and the 
 managers of the Fund need not be deterred by the 
 fear of cost, nor need we be alarmed at the prospect 
 of entering on a work beyond our powers. When 
 once we have accepted the general principle that 
 such an experiment is to be made, it will be for the 
 managers of the fund to provide the money, but the 
 arrangements of the mission and the rules of the 
 community are for your Lordship, and for those 
 whom you may select for leaders. 
 
 Now what I would venture to ask, and I know I 
 have many with me, is that at least one such experi- 
 ment should be attempted, the experiment of a
 
 religious community, banded together for evangeliz- 
 ing work, and free from the errors and extravagancies 
 which have marred and maimed more than one such 
 experiment. If it fails do not repeat it, but at least 
 give it a trial. See whether this coenobitic and 
 common work, based on the highest principles of 
 self-devotion, will not call forth more unflagging 
 zeal and sustained effort than can be evoked by 
 single and separated workers. See whether it would 
 not gather under its banner a larger number of 
 volunteers drawn from different places and classes, 
 and moving as one army in the warfare against 
 heathenism, and whether it would not call forth 
 more sympathy for its pecuniary support. If it does 
 not do so, — if by this common movement nothing is 
 gained in the cause of souls, and something is lost 
 in the cause of sobriety and order, then we must 
 return, I suppose, to our old methods. All we can 
 then do is to pray the Giver of all good to put new 
 life into those methods, and for those who use them 
 to remember the proverb, "If the iron be blunt, 
 and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to 
 more strength." 
 
 I come next to the agents to be employed in this 
 evangelizing work. The Church has of late some- 
 what opened its ranks, and done something towards 
 enlisting laymen in the army of workers. But it has 
 long seemed to me, as it has seemed to many others, 
 that we are far too scrupulous and exclusive. Among
 
 the Christian laity of London, and especially among 
 the working people themselves, there is an un- 
 suspected amount of religious enthusiasm ; a latent 
 heat which might be kindled into an open flame. 
 At the time the Bishop of London's Fund was first in- 
 stituted, there was a considerable number of young 
 men in London banded together to- preach the 
 gospel, and ready to do it under any non- Roman 
 community that might call them to the work. It is 
 true they were not all very wise, and certainly they 
 were anything but good churchmen, but they were 
 really in earnest, and if the Church had heartily 
 called them they would have answered to the call. 
 The same is true of many a working man zealous 
 for souls, though his zeal may not be balanced either 
 by his knowledge or by his judgment. Now it is 
 the probable error and injudiciousness which might 
 accompany a good deal of lay preaching which has 
 deterred us from more freely using it. But surely 
 it is better to feed people on anything than let them 
 starve. And if these men can speak of God, of 
 sin, and of a Saviour, if from experience they can 
 witness to the power of grace, then they are able to 
 call their fellows out of darkness, and to bring them 
 to Christ. I suppose Samuel, when he founded the 
 schools of the prophets, must have enlisted a good 
 many rough hands and ill-instructed heads ; and 
 probably as long as these schools lasted there must 
 have been a vast amount of extravagant and strange
 
 i8 
 
 preaching. Still, every way the word of God was 
 preached, and so it must be now if we are to win 
 the multitude. Not educated men only, but, much 
 more, working men should be encouraged to go with 
 the Bible in their hands, and gather little knots of 
 hearers and listeners wherever they can be brought 
 together. The experiment has been already tried, 
 and has been attended with success. Men must 
 " teach every man his neighbour, and every man his 
 brother, saying. Know the Lord," before we can see 
 God's law written in the hearts of the people of 
 London. It is not so much a multitude of fresh 
 clergy that we need, and we should not get them 
 however much we needed them ; what we need is to 
 rouse the Christian laity to a sense of their duties, 
 and make them understand that to whomsoever 
 amongst them God has given the necessary gifts, or 
 an inward call to gospel work, he is an Evangelist, 
 and has a part to take in preaching the Word. No 
 jealousy of clerical privilege or of sacerdotal office 
 ought to make us forget this wider priesthood of the 
 people. So long as the administration of the sacra- 
 ments and the offices in consecrated buildings are 
 confined to ordained ministers, so long we shall 
 mark the boundary between clergy and laity. Outside 
 of these limits there is a vast field for prayer and 
 preaching, in which Eldad and Medad may do as 
 good service as Aaron. For one priest we need 
 seventy prophets ; and it is the profound conviction of 
 
 I
 
 19 
 
 many who know the needs of this time, that unless 
 there arise a multitude of such preachers, there is 
 no hope of *' turning the hearts of the disobedient 
 to the wisdom of the just." There is a sense in 
 which it is true that the working men are to be 
 saved by working men ; it was so when the gospel 
 was first preached, and if that gospel is to sink 
 into the roots of our national life it must be so 
 preached again. It may be prejudice on their part, 
 or there may be some reasons why the working 
 class seem so unwilling to receive the gospel at the 
 hands of the clergy ; but where it is preached by men 
 who live in the same court, and toil in the same 
 workshop, such preaching is freed from all suspicion 
 of being a professional matter, its sincerity and 
 simplicity are acknowledged, and ears and hearts are 
 opened to receive it. My Lord, it is as true now as 
 in the days of old, that " God hath chosen the 
 foolish things of this world to confound the wise, 
 and the weak things of this world to confound the 
 things which are mighty ; " and no one who knows 
 the really Christian poor, and the power of their 
 godliness, will doubt what would be the result if 
 they could be called to bear open witness to the 
 truth. 
 
 I shall not presume to say what are the best 
 means of calling these humble but effective workers 
 to the duties of an evangelist. Probably in many a 
 parish, as well as in such a missionary institution as
 
 20 
 
 I have described, means would be found of calling 
 forth all who showed zeal and aptitude. Guilds or 
 brotherhoods of workmen might be formed, and 
 sisterhoods among poor women who would thus be 
 knit together in a common work. And when I 
 speak of evangelists I do not mean that these men 
 are to give up their ordinary occupations, still less 
 receive any kind of ordination, but simply that 
 zealous working men may be called to give their aid 
 in such few times of leisure as they have at com- 
 mand, and especially on the Lord's day. 
 
 But if these busy toilers may find time to labour 
 in the vineyard, how much more is this the case with 
 Christian men and women who have no field of work 
 for their suppressed energies, yet whose heart is hot 
 within them ! There must be many such in those vast 
 suburbs of Western London which comprise a multi- 
 tude of persons living wholly at ease in Zion. They 
 cannot all be indifferent to the welfare of the poor, or 
 be ignorant how much the working people need to 
 be leavened with the gospel, if society itself is to con- 
 tinue in peace. I am persuaded they only need the 
 call and the opportunity. To bring the education of 
 the West to bear upon the East, and to create some 
 sympathy between the rich and the poor — this is the 
 one great want of London at the present time. I 
 cannot but think that the Bishop of London's Fund 
 might contribute something towards this much 
 wished for end. Should we not incorporate the " Lay
 
 Helpers Association ? " throw into its management 
 our ablest men ? and let its objects be more widely 
 known in those districts from which help is to come ? 
 But if volunteers in the Christian army are to be 
 enlisted on any large scale the trumpet must first be 
 sounded by those in authority ; and such a stirring 
 call must be rung forth as will startle the slumberers 
 and wake them to duty. Enthusiasm begets en- 
 thusiasm ; and if only the impression is once made 
 that there is a great work to be done by those 
 who are now idlers, and an opportunity given them 
 for doing it, we may hope to see many more than 
 have yet come forward ready to do the Lord's work. 
 The two last questions which we are called upon 
 to answer have reference to the raising of funds. I 
 am afraid that none of us will be able to devise any 
 methods for largely increasing contributions, which, 
 however liberal in themselves, yet in their total 
 amount are a painful evidence of the apathy with 
 which the great majority of our fellow citizens regard 
 all spiritual work. But, of such funds as will be 
 given, less will be spent in the future on sites and 
 churches, and more will be set free for other objects. 
 Something more also might be done to extend the 
 affiliation of destitute to wealthy parishes, which 
 as yet has been very imperfectly acted upon. 
 This affiliation localizes and thereby strengthens 
 sympathy. Who that has read his own heart in this 
 matter cannot bear witness that the very vastness
 
 22 
 
 and indefiniteness of the work to be done has per- 
 plexed and obscured his thoughts upon spiritual 
 destitution, and tended to scatter and weaken his 
 interest rather than to deepen it ? Concentrate these 
 thoughts on one parish, or one street, or one court, 
 and the mind can measure the need, and reaHze the 
 object. So that I would endeavour (for the sake, not 
 only of the destitute, but even more of us here at the 
 West End, who by our indifference are perilling our 
 own souls), to assign to each parish in which we live 
 some one definite work in some one locality, chosen 
 out from the vast spaces of want and heathenism. 
 The poor outcast, whom I have visited and com- 
 forted and aided, brings home to me London's 
 misery and stirs me to effort in a way which no 
 sermons, or speeches, or reports, or appeals would 
 ever be able to do. It is only by this localized 
 interest and personal contact that larger funds will 
 flow into the Lord's treasury. But we must expect 
 the supply always to fall far short of the need. All 
 I am afraid that we can do is, to pray the Lord of 
 the harvest, Who can make one grain bear a hundred- 
 fold, to bless the scanty means and feeble instruments 
 which alone we can employ for the greatest, most 
 difficult, and most urgent of all works 
 
 In conclusion, let me say what we may do, and 
 must do, if our fellow-citizens are to be saved ; we 
 must boldly and gladly use all the methods and in- 
 struments which the piety and zeal of Christian 
 
 I
 
 workers has anywhere devised to meet the present 
 need. The England and the London of to-day 
 cannot be conquered only by the old weapons of the 
 militant Church. Anything like timidity in employ- 
 ing the new will be fatal to our success. Undeterred 
 by the cavils of the ignorant and the prejudiced, we 
 must gather everything under our banners that is 
 now in any way advancing the cause of Christ. 
 Do we wish the plagues of heathenism, of unbelief, 
 of vice and of class-selfishness to be stayed and 
 England to be saved ? it is not merely by old- 
 fashioned service that we can do this, it is " fresh 
 incense " which we must put into our censers, if we 
 wish to " stand between the living and the dead." 
 
 Pardon me, my dear Lord, if the strength of my 
 convictions has led me to any too great boldness of 
 speech, and believe me with every feeling of the 
 sincerest respect and attachment, 
 
 Your Lordship's very faithful Servant, 
 
 Frederick G. Blomfield.
 
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