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 t^'^ 
 
 
 
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 iy^«s^ :
 
 
 Cljrist tt)e Healer. 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 PREACHED BY 
 
 THE LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 OPENIN& OF THE NEW BUILDINGS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 HOUSE OF MEECY, CLEWER, 
 
 VIGIL OF S. ANDREW, NOVEMBER 29. 1855. 
 
 AND 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
 
 TO WHICH ARE ADDED, 
 
 THE OBDER OE SEEVICE USED ON THE OCCASION, AND AN ACCOUNT 
 OF THE CEREMONY AND OE THE NEW BUFLDINGS. 
 
 LONDON : 
 JOSEPH MASTERS, ALDERSGATE STREET, 
 
 AND NEW BOND STREET. 
 MDCCCLVI.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTUD BT JOSEPH IMASTEKS ANT) CO., 
 
 AXDEESGATE STREET, 

 
 A SERMON. 
 
 S. Luke v. 12, 13. 
 " And it came to pass, when He was tn a certain city, 
 
 BEHOLD A MAN FULL OF LEPROSY: WHO SEEING JeSUS FELL 
 ON HIS FACE, AND BESOUGHT IIlM, SAYING, LoRD, IF ThOU 
 
 WILT, Thou canst make me clean. And He put forth 
 His Hand, and touched him, saying, I will, be thou 
 clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from 
 
 HIM." 
 
 In common with all the other mh-aculous works of 
 mercy wrought by our Lord, this cleansing of the leper 
 shows Him forth as the true Healer of man. But 
 whilst, in common with all the other instances in which 
 He healed all manner of sicknesses and diseases 
 among the people, it teaches us this lesson, yet there 
 are about it some peculiar characters which make it 
 more than any other display Him as the true Healer 
 of those special injuries of sin with which to-day we 
 are pecuharly concerned. For though all the evils 
 and infirmities which affect the bodies of men are the 
 fruit of sin, and so are in truth visible exponents 
 of that deep invisible wound in man's nature, from 
 which, as from some central fountain-head of corrup- 
 tion, evil flows through the whole body ; yet, in many 
 respects, this mysterious disease of the leprosy does 
 more than any other represent, in outward charac- 
 
 B
 
 ters, the inward curse of sin: and in our Lord's 
 treatment, therefore, of the leper more than of any- 
 other sufferer, we shall find instruction as to His mer- 
 ciful mode of dealing with sinners, in the work of 
 their recovery. 
 
 All the enactments, indeed, of the Law of Moses 
 concerning leprosy seem to have been appointed by 
 God, in order to stamp upon it this mystical charac- 
 ter. This purpose will account for that separation 
 of the leper from the touch or company of his friends 
 and relations, which is so aUen to the general charac- 
 ter of humanity and kindness which marks the pro- 
 visions of the Jewish law. This is the solution of his 
 being shut out of the congregation and the services 
 of the sanctuary, though there was nothing infectious 
 in his disease, and his separation could not, therefore, 
 be required in order to protect others from any pliy- 
 sical evil he could communicate to them. This ac- 
 counts for his ever bearing about with him in his 
 sickness the tokens of extremest mourning, as of one 
 weeping for his dead, and for his needing, if restored, 
 the same purification as one who by the touch of a 
 dead body had incurred a legal impurity. 
 
 In studying, therefore, our Lord's treatment of the 
 leprous man whom He made whole, we are studying, 
 as in some great acted parable. His treatment of the 
 sinner, who is receiving moral and spiritual renovation 
 from Him. And here, first, we may see of these, as 
 of His other works of mercy, that He did not scatter 
 them with an undiscerning prodigality around Him, 
 but gave them to those who had yielded themselves 
 to be drawn to Him by the secret breathings of His 
 Spirit, and who came to seek their deliverance from 
 Him. For that mysterious limitation to His working.
 
 which was imposed by man's unfaithfulness, that " He 
 could there do no mighty works because of their 
 unbeHef," may be traced here also. 
 
 But with this we should notice next, that there 
 was about His treatment of the leper who did seek to 
 Him for cleansing, a manifest character of Almighty 
 power. For, by the confession of all, there was for 
 this fearful malady no human cure, and He asserted 
 over it, in all its forms, an absolute dominion. 
 
 This poor sufferer manifestly came before Him as 
 one suffering from its extremest virulence. He was 
 a man ^' full of leprosy," words which speak of the 
 entire possession of its victim which that frightful 
 disorder asserted, and yet language cannot contain a 
 more absolute expression of power than that con- 
 veyed by the whole narrative, *' I will, be thou clean. 
 And He touched him : and immediately the leprosy 
 departed from him." 
 
 These words of power, moreover, " I will, be 
 thou clean," suggest to us the further truth, that it 
 was His Will that the sufferer should be healed. For 
 this was his appeal, " Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst 
 make me clean ;" and our Lord's reply, " I will," 
 must not by any means be limited to the needs of 
 that single sufferer, but extended rather to embrace 
 every one who should in like manner come to Him 
 for healing. They are the expression of a will for 
 man's healing ; " Thou hast appealed," they seem to 
 say, to Me, to show forth in thee whether it is My 
 Will that man should burst these unrighteous bonds 
 of the dark prison-house into which he has been 
 dragged, and I tell thee that it is My will — I will that 
 THOU, and every one of My suffering brethren who 
 come to Me for deliverance, should be set free ; and to 
 
 B 2
 
 show thee what My Will is, I say unto thee, " Be 
 thou clean." 
 
 Further we must notice another feature, common, 
 indeed, to all His works of mercy, but which comes 
 out here with peculiar clearness, namely, that in work- 
 ing the deliverance of the leper from the evil which 
 oppresses him. He draws the sufferer to Himself, as 
 being the very fountain-head of his cure. ' For thus He 
 manifests that He is not the mere administrator of 
 great and merciful powers entrusted to Him in mea- 
 sure by another. He is not like Prophets under the 
 Law, and Apostles under the Gospel. He does not 
 work His miracles with the rod of God, nor in the 
 name of another. He does not act as one trusted by 
 another with a commission which involved the pos- 
 session of authority in the name of that other to over- 
 rule the ordinary laws which He had laid down, and 
 so by the bringing in of the authority of their Master 
 subdue the powers of nature ; but He draws the 
 sufferer for healing to Himself, and from Himself, the 
 living Fountain of renewal, well out and overflow the 
 blessed influences of restoration. 
 
 Thus, when He grants the prayer of this leper. He 
 not only says, " I will, be thou clean ;" but He 
 reaches forth His hand and touches him, to convey 
 manifestly by that touch the cleansing which He pro- 
 mised. And this is the more to be noted, because it 
 is one of the few instances in which — and always for 
 some special purpose — He set aside those rules of 
 the Ceremonial Law, to which He too. Who came 
 " to fulfil the Law," as a Son of Abraham, was sub- 
 ject. For this touch of the leper was forbidden to 
 the Jew ; and the disregard of the prohibition, made 
 thus more clear and remarkable the fact, that by that
 
 touch He conveyed to the leprous man the cleansing 
 which he needed. At the same time it also brought 
 out another mighty truth, for it was, in fact, an 
 assertion that He alone of all men was incapable 
 of being tainted by the touch of evil ; that though 
 to heal the leper He touched the leprous flesh, there 
 was conveyed from it to Him no shadow of im- 
 purity. 
 
 Here, then, in a great outward manifestation, is 
 the work of Christ in the cleansing of the sinner. 
 For, first, though it is undeniably true, that all His 
 gifts of grace are not limited by this law, since in 
 Holy Baptism He bestows the grace of Regeneration on 
 those who know not how to seek it ; and in all those 
 preliminary visitations wherewith His Spirit breathes 
 over the dark waters of the unconverted soul, inviting 
 it to Him, He works as a supreme Sovereign, and 
 giveth to us no account of the laws whereby the bestow- 
 ing of His blessings is guided ; yet in the accom- 
 plishment within any soul of the work of penitence 
 it is ever true, as in the case of the cleansed leper, 
 that it is in those alone whom by His secret grace He 
 draws to seek it earnestly, that His sanctifying work 
 is wrought in its perfection : and next, although even 
 His Almighty power is so far restrained by the 
 mysterious malignity of sin, that He, Whose Love 
 yearns over every soul for whom He died with a 
 longing energy for its cleansing, says to one and 
 another, even with the Infinite compassion wherewith 
 He wept over Jerusalem, "Ye will not come unto 
 Me that ye might have life;" yet is it certain, that 
 no amount of sin, no deep enmity of the soul with 
 its impurity, can withhold from those who do seek 
 for His working, the fulness of His cleansing. For
 
 8 
 
 that in them He worketh mightily, " according to the 
 good pleasure of His Will." 
 
 And again, though in the marvel of our salvation, 
 it is true that an obdurate will which refuses His 
 mercy does force from Him its destruction, yet it is 
 also true, and a most blessed truth, beloved brethren, 
 to every one of us, that He willeth not the death of 
 any one sinner, but that all should be converted and 
 live : that it is Christ's will that every one should be 
 saved ; and, therefore, in spite of all that our unbeliev- 
 ing fears whisper to us in limitation of His Love or 
 Power, it is an eternal truth, and one full of most 
 needful comfort, not only for every awakening peni- 
 tent, but for every one of us in every stage of that 
 life-long renewal, which is evermore but a new form 
 of penitence, of a deeper self-abhorrence, of a more 
 earnest, if of a less passionate crying to Him against 
 ourselves, that to every one that seeketh Him, He 
 says, in the person of this leprous man, " I. will, that 
 thou be clean." This is My love towards sinners, this 
 My purpose of mercy for thee, this My abundant 
 grace into which more and more thou shalt enter. 
 
 And then further, as He did with this leprous man, 
 so does He with every sinner whom He saves. He 
 draws them to Himself for their cleansing, He is their 
 cleanser ; it is in reaching Him that they are cleansed. 
 It is not here as with many of His gifts of royal 
 largess, a gift out of Himself and at best reflecting 
 Him its giver, which He bestows. Here He is His 
 own gift. He gives Himself to the polluted, and that 
 gift is cleansing. In the wonder of the Incarnation, 
 and in giving us for our life that Flesh which He took 
 in the Virgin's w^omb, and for our cleansing from all 
 sin that Blood which He drew from her, in that mar-
 
 vellous mystery, He reaches with His hand, and in the 
 case of every beheving man He even touches the leper, 
 having taken to Himself our fallen flesh and yet being 
 unfallen, our very nature and yet being uncorrupt, 
 yea, altogether untainted by the evil which, that He 
 may utterly remove it, He in His inconceivable mercy 
 brings, in us whom He is rescuing, so close to Himself 
 Here then is His work of cleansing the sinner set 
 indeed most vividly before us, in the narrative of His 
 mercy towards the leprous man : and for many reasons 
 it seems to me that this in its simplicity is the very 
 subject on which we should do well to muse to-day, 
 when we meet for the opening of this house, to mark 
 with humble gratitude to God the measure of success 
 which He has already given us ; to seek from Him in 
 prayer its full accomplishment ; to offer for it of our 
 substance, and to stir up ourselves and others to la- 
 bour more abundantly to bring all that we have 
 purposed here to full and proper completion. For 
 that which we need above all to-day is greater love ; 
 greater love to our brethren and to Him. And where 
 are these to be learned save beneath His Cross ? 
 Where, save in the light of His work for saving souls, 
 shall we learn their value, the loss involved in their 
 destruction, the bliss of their salvation ? By whom 
 save by Him can we be mightily drawn out of our 
 selfishness and isolation, and made indeed to love 
 others ? From whom else can we learn our lesson ? 
 and where else shall we learn His exceeding great 
 love, or learn ourselves in any great measure to love 
 Him, so surely as in the sight of that love wherewith 
 He has loved us, Who gave Himself for our cleans- 
 ing? This is indeed that which must fill our hearts, 
 if we would learn to master in any degree the great
 
 10 
 
 secret of true love. " We love Him because He first 
 loved us," is the universal law. Our love must be a 
 reflection of His. Our love is His love working in 
 us, and, however imperfectly, given back by us. It 
 is in gazing on His love in heaUng us that we our- 
 selves come to love. He who knows that much is 
 forgiven him, learns to love much ; and this love will 
 soon begin to embrace others also ; for this love of 
 Christ " constraineth us." We all know in the sphere 
 of mere earthly morals how far the mysterious power 
 of sympathetic affection lifts men up above the slower, 
 duller action of mere reasoning; how by its touch 
 the coward grows brave, and the selfish heroic ; how 
 even the sensualist is often for the time at least trans- 
 figured by its heavenly light into something noble. 
 And all this is but the shadow of that greatest verity, 
 the love of Christ : of that true, deep, ennobling 
 affection, which makes saints, and confessors, and 
 martyrs : which sees and apprehends something of 
 that love which led the co-eternal Son of the Ever- 
 lasting to take to Himself our nature ; to reach out 
 His hand to touch us in our low estate and utter im- 
 purity, that from Himself He might derive into us 
 perfect purity — which led Him to do all this, and in 
 order to do it to stoop even to the humiliation of the 
 judgment hall, and the agony of Gethsemane, and the 
 Cross of Calvary. Where then at such a season as 
 this, when we would fain learn how more than we 
 have ever done to overcome our selfishness, and to 
 kindle in our hearts some new fire of love to others ; 
 where, or on what, can we more fitly muse than un- 
 derneath the Cross, and on the work, of Christ ? 
 
 Nor is even this all ; for in every separate part of 
 this His work of cleansing the leper as it has passed
 
 11 
 
 before us, we may find what we need to make us 
 more hearty and earnest in such works of Christian 
 mercy as that to which this building is dedicated. 
 For where can we find a better answer to that tempta- 
 tion to inaction (known probably by all as troubling 
 them at some time or other) which arises from the 
 thought of the comparative fewness of those whom 
 on the most sanguine calculation we can ever hope 
 to save in this or other such institutions, when viewed 
 beside the multitude, who still remain unsaved, than 
 in the recollection that this is indeed the law of 
 Christ's own works of mercy ; that when He was upon 
 earth it was as it were one or two out of the mul- 
 titude of afflicted whom He could rescue; one La- 
 zarus raised, but many graves still holding forfeit 
 beloved forms ; one or two recovered from the well 
 nigh universal reign of infirmity, disease and death. 
 And as it was then, so is it still. For though He 
 died for all, yet is it but the few who yjill be saved by 
 Him ; one cleansed out of many lepers ; one rescued 
 out of many lost ones. 
 
 And then further, to save us from such a despond- 
 ing sloth, are we not here reminded, that, as He 
 scatters not His work of healing, but bestows it upon 
 one and on another singly and as it were by a separate 
 gift, even when He has drawn them to seek and thus 
 prepared them to receive it, so we are working most 
 directly in accordance with His plan when we are 
 seeking by the separate training of these lost ones to 
 lead them to Him, and to bring them one by one to 
 see His face of mercy, and to seek His touch of cure ? 
 Or what can help us more to persevere without faint- 
 ing in our efforts to cleanse these sick souls from the 
 intense and aggravated pollution with which they arc
 
 12 
 
 defiled, than the clear light of the great truth which 
 meets us here that He that cleanses such is Almighty ; 
 that no obduracy of evil, no inveteracy of stain can be 
 too hard or too deep for His might ; that He is with us 
 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean. Who 
 maketh all things new. Who makes the leper's flesh 
 to come again " like the flesh of a little child." 
 
 If there be in any one a fainting heart or a feeble 
 hand, let us listen to His voice to-day, and let us hear 
 Him say, "Iwill, Be thou clean," and surely with souls 
 new braced we can turn again with rejoicing confidence 
 to that which, whilst we looked only at its difficulty 
 and our feebleness, seemed to be hopeless toil and 
 labour lost, now that we remember that He is with us, 
 Whose " ear is not deafened that it cannot hear our 
 cry, nor His" Almighty " arm shortened that it cannot 
 save." And what strength is there for us in that 
 answer of " / ivill," to the pleading cry, " Lord, if 
 Thou wilt Thou canst make me clean ?" What do 
 we want more than to know what is His will and to 
 work with it ? And here we see beyond all possibility 
 of doubt that this is His will, — that He would have 
 these defiled souls brought to seek their cleansing 
 from Him. So that we may plead with Him in 
 prayer, and labour through all the wearisome steps by 
 which we seek to win them to penitence, with a con- 
 viction strong enough to secure our perseverance that 
 we are in very deed labouring to carry out His will. 
 
 And yet once again ; how plainly do we see here that 
 it is a humble copying of His example when the pure 
 and unfallen reach out their hand to work the cleans- 
 ing of the fallen and polluted. For here is the touching 
 of the leper. Here is the infinite condescension of the 
 Incarnation itself, with its mysterious joining of our flesh
 
 13 
 
 to God, working thus its proper work in those whom 
 the Lord has called to tread in His footsteps and to 
 copy His example. Yes^to tread in His footsteps and to 
 copy His example ; and yet at how infinite a distance. 
 For surely, after all, it is but by a sort of accommoda- 
 tion of language, that we, — in the full sight of His bow- 
 ing down His Infinite purity to our impurity, that we, — 
 knowing what the very best and purest of us really are, 
 can ever speak of ourselves as copying His example in 
 stooping to the impure. Yet this is what, in our feeble 
 measure, we do in this work of mercy ; and so we may 
 have confidence in doing it. Nor can the work itself 
 be done if it be not done in this way. I say this with a 
 full conviction of its truth. I say it with no wish to un- 
 dervalue the service which may have been rendered by 
 paid matrons, or the like, in other older penitentiaries ; 
 but still, with the fullest conviction that God's work 
 cannot thoroughly be done in this subject matter by 
 such a machinery. To do it thoroughly, there 7nust 
 be stamped upon the work the distinct character of 
 Christ's Cross ; some manifest token that it is a work 
 of love undertaken for love. It is by such a power as 
 this that in those hearts in which the miserable selfish- 
 ness of sensual men as much as their own sin has dried 
 up the emotions which belong to purity, and all power 
 of trusting in the unselfish love of others, there must 
 first be opened the first springs of awakening humanity. 
 It is by this sight of love that their attention is to be 
 gained, and they are to be won to listen to those words 
 which may, through the grace of God, bring true 
 penitence and saving faith unto their souls. So that 
 in their case, with a peculiarity of need which belongs 
 not to that of others, is the sight of true generous 
 Christian love in those who tend them needed, if they
 
 14 
 
 are to be won back to God. They require this more 
 than others, though in all cases of recovering sinners, 
 it is more or less true. For it is the law that His 
 mysterious providence has stamped on this whole dis- 
 pensation, that it is by the voluntary bowing down of 
 the comparatively unfallen, that the fallen must be 
 lifted up. " Bear ye one another's burden, and so fulfil 
 the law of Christ." " To the weak became I as weak 
 that I might gain the weak." " Condescend to men 
 of low estate." " Let this mind be in you, which was 
 also in Christ Jesus : Who being in the form of 
 God .... made Himself of no reputation, and took 
 upon Him the form of a servant, and being found in 
 fashion as a man. He humbled Himself, and became 
 obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross."' 
 
 Yes, beloved brethren in Christ, see again to-day 
 your Lord reaching forth His hand and touching the 
 leper that He may heal him, and follow His example. 
 In doing this you shall glorify Him ; in doing this 
 you shall be made an instrument in His hands for sav- 
 ing souls ; in doing this you shall find His presence 
 and His strength in your own strife with sin, and fol- 
 lowing after Christ. Most eminently is this true. 
 There is a most blessed provision for the good of our 
 own souls in true work done for Christ's sake on 
 behalf of others. Tenderness of spirit ; active charity ; 
 habitual self-denial ; watchfulness ; purity ; and above 
 all, perhaps, reality in our own religion, are the gifts 
 which God bestows upon us in our working thus His 
 work for our brethren. There is no secondary help 
 which so keeps us from morbid self-contemplation, 
 and from that sickliness of soul which suffers heavenly 
 affection to degenerate into sentimentality. Our con- 
 1 Philip, ii. 5—9.
 
 15 
 
 templation of the very Cross of Christ itself is never 
 so real as when having found its blessing for ourselves, 
 we strive simply to bring its virtue and its blessing 
 home to other souls. For those above all, who, 
 being set apart by God's hand from ordinary family 
 duties, find a shelter and room for their religious sym- 
 pathies in a life spent in common, and furnished with 
 unusual instruments and times for devotion, to labour 
 thus for Him is a safeguard of the first necessity from 
 otherwise inevitable evils. Wide and various expe- 
 rience has ever proved the necessity of such a stream 
 of active service to keep such a society, though founded 
 on the highest motives, from stagnation and so from 
 ultimate corruption. 
 
 And this lesson is for all. For those within our 
 walls at whose hands God will mercifully receive the 
 specially acceptable offering of a personal service ; for 
 those without these walls, who by prayers for our suc- 
 cess join themselves in spirit to our labours, and who 
 by offering of their substance wuth self-denial for our 
 needs are daily fellow helpers in our work. 
 
 And such needs, together with great encouragements, 
 we have — 
 
 " We commenced this work suddenly, without any preparation, in 
 a house lent only for six months, trusting to aid, from day to day, 
 and waiting to see whether God would prosper and establish it. 
 In laying the foundations of every work of any magnitude, there is 
 much of the outlay which never appears above ground, and which it 
 would be impossible to state in detail in so brief an account as this. 
 But the main of the expenditure has been as follows : — Two houses 
 have been successively occupied, after the first which was lent, and 
 both these required to be fitted for the purpose, at a considerable 
 cost. A permanent site has been purchased, being a freehold estate 
 of fifteen acres, at a cost of j62,300. The grounds around the house 
 have been fenced, drained, and laid out for recreation ; dairy-farm 
 stocked, &c. Lastly, the New Buildings just completed have been
 
 16 
 
 raised at a cost of about ^6,800. There has been running on, at 
 the same time, a current expenditure of maintaining a household of 
 about thirty persons, year after year. 
 
 " Secondly, as to the living agency for carrying on the work. It 
 was commenced by a single individual, who, for six months and up- 
 wards, had no fellow- workers. For the next year and a half, there 
 was only the precarious help of occasional visitors. Gradually a 
 settled community has been formed, and now consists of nine Sisters. 
 They are constituted, according to legally constructed statutes, and 
 by Episcopal sanction, into a corporate body, as a recognised instru- 
 ment of the work of the Church of God. They support themselves 
 on their own independent means, and carry on the entire manage- 
 ment and care of the House with only a few subordinate helpers 
 serving without wages. 
 
 "Thirdly, as to the truth and permanence of the principles on 
 which the House has been founded. Its principles were, at the 
 commencement, known only in the appeals of the chief leader of the 
 movement. They have since made such way, that they are now 
 recognised and upheld by a Society which numbered, in the spring 
 of last year, 400 members, including fifteen Bishops, and which ex- 
 tends its operations throughout the entire sphere of the Church of 
 England. 
 
 " Lastly, as to the great and momentous object for which these 
 efforts have been made — the success of our endeavours to recover the 
 lost sheep of Christ's fold. The Clergymen and Sisters alike who 
 have here entered upon this work were obliged to do so without any 
 previous experience whatever. The old precedents scarcely applied 
 to what was intended to be carried out in faithful observance of the 
 Church's system and by a higher kind of service. We have had to 
 form our own views, learn minute details, and test every rule by our 
 own actual experience. There have, therefore, been many deficien- 
 cies and errors, which a better knowledge may in part hereafter 
 supply, and a greater success may be hoped to attend our future en- 
 deavours. The work has also suffered greatly, up to this time, from 
 the very inconvenient internal arrangement of houses, which only 
 with difficulty were at all made available for the purpose, and where 
 there could be no classification, or even temporary separation for 
 testing the cases admitted. Independently, however, of twenty-two 
 now in the House, out of eighty cases who have left after being for 
 a longer or shorter period under our care, there are fifty believed to 
 be doing well in the world, with a large proportion of whom inter-
 
 17 
 
 course from time to time is kept up. We look on these as the first- 
 fruits of a large harvest of souls, over even one of whom repenting 
 there is joy among the angels of God. 
 
 "When it is considered that this progress Jias been made in the 
 course of six years and a quarter, we may well thank God and take 
 courage. We cannot but recognize His hand blessing the work. 
 The past may well be an encouragement to go on, with the full trust 
 that what has thus been prospered in the beginning, He, in His own 
 time, will complete. May we not venture, therefore, to ask for con- 
 tinued aid, to finish our designs, and launch in its completeness the 
 vessel which we believe to have an eventful mission to accomplish in 
 the generations which are yet to come.' 
 
 " Our immediate need is about ^1200, to clear all the expenses 
 connected with the Buildings now completed, for necessary extras 
 which have run beyond our contract. We shall still have, in order 
 to complete the design, to build another wing, containing the Sisters' 
 chief rooms, the department for Penitents of a higher grade, ad- 
 ditional Probationary Rooms, the Chapel, and the Infirmary. For 
 this we have already specially appropriated, and therefore not avail- 
 able for our immediate wants, about j61200." 
 
 May we not then, brethren, thank God, and take 
 courage ? Has He not deigned, through us again in 
 this work, to reach forth His hand of heahng and to 
 say to our spiritual lepers, I will, be thou clean ? Let 
 our prayers to Him this day be more earnest than 
 ever ; our offerings more simple and more hearty, and 
 may the good Lord deign, for Christ's sake, to for- 
 give us our own manifold infirmities, to heal our own 
 soul's sicknesses, to bless our imperfect endeavours, 
 and graciously to accept at our hands this our grateful 
 offering of to-day.
 
 OKDER OF SEKVICE, ETC. 
 
 The Warden, the Subwarden, the Sisters, the Council, and Trus- 
 tees, shall assemble within the gateway of the New Buildings, ready 
 to receive the Bishop. 
 
 The Bishop and Clergy having assembled in the Old House, pro- 
 ceed from thence to the gateway in the following order : — The Cho- 
 risters go first, then the Clergy, two and two. The Bishop follows, 
 attended by his Chaplains, and any of the Archdeacons of the diocese, 
 or members of the Chapters of Christ Church, Windsor, or Eton, or 
 Rural Deans, who may be present. 
 
 As they go, the following Anthem is sung : — 
 
 Psalm cxv. 1, and cx\v. 17, 21. 
 
 Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but to Thy Name give the 
 praise : 
 
 For Thou art faithful in all Thy works, and just in all Thy ways. 
 
 My mouth shall speak of Thy praise, O Lord, and let all flesh 
 give thanks to Thy Holy Name for ever. 
 
 When the Procession reaches the gates, it forms in two lines, be- 
 tween which the Bishop advances, and standing before the gates, 
 says — 
 
 In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 
 Amen. 
 
 Almighty and merciful God, Who hast conferred such grace on 
 Thy holy Church, that the acts which are done in it according to 
 Thy will, by those who minister duly in Thy Name, are ratified in 
 heaven, we beseech Thee of Thy infinite mercy that what we this day 
 offer may be accepted of Thee ; what we bless, be blessed by Thee, 
 and all our petitions be fulfilled by Thee, for the sake of Thy dear 
 Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 
 
 c
 
 20 
 
 Then the gates being thrown open, the Choristers move within and 
 take their places at the further end of the gateway. 
 
 The Bishop crossing the threshold, and there pausing, says — 
 
 Peace be to this House, and to all that shall dwell therein. Amen. 
 
 y. Our help is in the name of the Lord ; 
 
 E. Who hath made heaven and earth. 
 
 y. Lord, hear our prayer ; 
 
 E. And let our cry come unto Thee. 
 
 ¥. The Lord be with you ; 
 
 E, And with thy spirit. 
 
 Let us pray. 
 
 O Lord Almighty, "Who fiUest all things by Thy presence, and 
 art ever merciful to those who call upon Thee, we most humbly be- 
 seech Thee to bless this House and household, and grant that Thy 
 blessing may abide on all them that shall dwell herein, now and ever, 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 
 
 The Procession then moves along the passages and up the stair- 
 case, to the Temporary Chapel, in the following order : — First the 
 Choristers, then the Council, next to them the Sisters, then the War- 
 den a?id Subwarden, two and two. The Bishop goes next, attended 
 as before ; the rest of the Clergy following. 
 
 As they go, the following Anthem is sung : — 
 Psalm cxxii. 6, 7, 8, 9. 
 
 O PRAY for the peace of Jerusalem ; they shall prosper that love 
 thee. 
 
 Peace be within thy walls, and plenteousness within thy palaces. 
 
 For my brethren and companions' sakes I will wish thee prosperity. 
 
 Yea, because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek to 
 do thee good. 
 
 The Procession having entered the Chapel and taken their places, 
 kneeling doion, the Priest shall say — 
 
 y. Lord, have mercy upon us. 
 
 E. Christ, have mercy upon us. 
 
 y. Lord, have mercy upon us. 
 
 O Saviour of the world, Who by Thy cross and precious blood
 
 21 
 
 hast redeemed us, save us and help us, we most humbly beseech 
 Thee, O Lord. 
 
 Our Father, &c. 
 
 y. Lord, save Thy servants ; 
 
 fi. Who put their trust in Thee. 
 
 y, O Lord, send them help from Thy sanctuary ; 
 
 E. And evermore defend them. 
 
 y. Show Thy servants the Hght of Thy countenance ; 
 
 E. And save them for Thy mercy's sake. 
 
 y. O Lord, hear our prayer ; 
 
 E. And let our crying come unto Thee. 
 
 Let us pray. 
 O Lord God Almighty, we acknowledge that all things are of 
 Thee, and that it is of Thy mercies only that Thy servants are en- 
 abled to will or to do any good thing, and that Thou only canst 
 prosper the work of their hands ; to Thee, therefore, O Lord, we 
 would ascribe all honour, praise, and thanksgiving, that we have 
 been enabled to accomplish this portion of the work which we have 
 undertaken, and we would rejoice together before Thee and bless 
 Thy Holy Name, beseeching Thee that none of our sins or infir- 
 mities may hinder the full outpouring of Thy grace upon us, or on 
 those for whom we have laboured, through the merits of Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. Amen. 
 
 y. O Lord, open Thou our lips ; 
 
 R. And our mouth shall show forth Thy praise. 
 
 y. O let our mouths be filled with Thy praise ; 
 
 E. That we may sing of Thy glory and honour all the day long. 
 
 Then all standing up, shall be sung — 
 
 Te Deum Laudamus. 
 
 We praise Thee, O God, &c. 
 
 Then shall the Bishop say — 
 
 y. The Lord be with you. 
 E. And with thy spirit. 
 
 Let us pray. 
 O Blessed and Holy Trinity, Eternal and Everlasting God, 
 Who possessest all things, sanctifiest all things, disposest all things ;
 
 22 
 
 to Thy glory we now offer and devote what Thou hast enabled us 
 to accomplish, beseeching Thee with most humble supplication that 
 Thou wouldest condescend to accept the work of our hands, and 
 vouchsafe to send the dew of Thy grace, with the abundance of 
 Thy blessing upon this House and household ; bestow on it all 
 good, drive far from it all evil ; let Thy holy angels guard it with 
 the defence of Thy hosts ; that Thy servants abiding herein as in 
 Thy tabernacle, may be preserved in Thy peace, through Thy great 
 mercies in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 
 
 We beseech Thee, O Lord, that as Thou bast thus far blessed 
 our efforts and prospered our designs, so Thou wouldest open the 
 hearts of Thy people to give alms for the extension and completion 
 of this House, and for its support day by day, and direct all the 
 desires of our hearts to Thy glory, for the sake of Thy dear Son, 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 O Lord God Almighty, by Whose Spirit the whole Body of the 
 Church is governed and sanctified, receive our supplications and 
 prayers which we offer before Thee, for all who are, or may hereafter 
 be, connected with this House, that all in their several vocations and 
 ministries may truly and godly serve Thee ; through our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. 
 
 Remember, O Lord, for good, the Bishop of this Diocese, our 
 Visitor ; the Council, the Founders, and Benefactors ; and enrich 
 them with Thy heavenly grace. Amen. 
 
 Remember, O Lord, the Clergy who shall here minister; grant 
 them to be wise in counsel, and holy in all their service. Amen. 
 
 Remember, O Lord, the Sisters of this community : endue 
 them with entire devotion, unwearied zeal, and perfect charity. 
 Amen. 
 
 Remember, Lord, all who in humbler station shall serve in 
 this community : increase and perfect in them the spirit of faithful- 
 ness and love. Amen. 
 
 Remember, O Lord, the Associates of this House, and prosper 
 all their work with Thy blessing. Amen. 
 
 Remember, O Lord, the lost sheep of Thy Fold, that are dis- 
 
 \
 
 23 
 
 persed abroad, and grant unto all those who shall be sheltered within 
 these walls, true repentance unto life eternal. 
 
 Vouchsafe, O Lord, out of the fulness of Thy gifts, perfect re- 
 newal to the sinful, instruction to the ignorant, guidance to the erring, 
 succour to the tempted, comfort to the sorrowful, the spirit of prayer 
 to the lukewarm, to the fearful faith and patience, to those that have 
 begun well continuance in well-doing ; to all, according to their need, 
 more abundant grace, and that they may be found in the number of 
 Thine elect in the last day. Amen. 
 
 And to us and to all others who now rejoice in the foundation of 
 this House, and who remember it in their prayers, vouchsafe of Thy 
 mercy, growth and perseverance in the true faith, unwearied hope, 
 unsparing charity, a holy life, a peaceful death, rest in Paradise, 
 a merciful judgment at Thy second coming, and the vision of Thy 
 countenance in Thy perfect glory, for the love of Thy dear Son our 
 Saviour, to Whom, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, be all praise 
 and thanksgiving, now and ever. Amen. 
 
 Finally, we commend to Thy blessing, O Lord Almighty, all 
 other religious foundations within our borders for the relief of the 
 sick, the orphan, and the outcast, specially those that are more im- 
 mediately connected with this House. Supply what is wanting in 
 them, and make them effectual instruments of Thy glory. And to 
 Thy whole Church within this land vouchsafe the increase of love, 
 fervour of devotion, the fulness of truth, and the renewal of all the 
 gifts of Thy Spirit, that in the communion of all Thy saints, who 
 from the beginning of the world have pleased Thee in their several 
 generations, we may sing praises evermore to Thy glorious Name, 
 O Jesus our Saviour, our Lord and our God, in the Unity of 
 the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. 
 Amen. 
 
 Almighty God, Who hast promised to hear the petitions of 
 those that ask in Thy Son's Name ; we beseech Thee mercifully to 
 incline Thine ear to us that have made now our prayers and suppli- 
 cations unto Thee, and grant that those things which we have faith- 
 fully asked according to Thy will may be effectually obtained, to the 
 rehef of our necessity and to the setting forth of Thy glory, through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 
 
 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, &c.
 
 24 
 
 The following Hymn shall then be sung — 
 
 Christ is made the sure Foundation, 
 
 And the precious Corner-stone ; 
 Who, the twofold walls surmounting. 
 
 Binds them closely into one ; 
 Holy Siou's Help for ever, 
 
 And her Confidence alone. 
 
 All that dedicated city, 
 
 Dearly loved by God on high, 
 In exultant jubilation 
 
 Pours perpetual melody ; 
 God the One, and God the Trinal, 
 
 Singing everlastingly. 
 
 To this temple, where we call Thee, 
 
 Come, O Lord of Hosts, to-day ! 
 With Thy wonted lovingkindness 
 
 Hear Thy people as they pray ; 
 And Thy fullest benedictions 
 
 Shed within its walls for aye. 
 
 Here vouchsafe to all Thy servants 
 
 That they supplicate to gain ; 
 Here to have and hold for ever 
 
 Those good things their prayers obtain ; 
 And hereafter in Thy glory, 
 
 With Thy blessed ones to reign. 
 
 Laud and honour to the Father, 
 
 Laud and honour to the Son, 
 Laud and honour to the Spirit, 
 
 Ever Three and ever One : 
 Consubstantial, co-eternal, 
 
 While unending ages run. 
 
 Then follows the administration of the Holy Communion. 
 
 The Collect for the day, and also for S. Andrew's Day, shall be 
 said : 
 
 Stir up, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the wills of Thy faithful 
 people; that they plenteously bringing forth the fruits of good
 
 25 
 
 works, may of Thee be plenteously rewarded ; through Jesus Christ 
 our Lord. Amen. 
 
 Almighty God, who didst give such grace to Thy holy Apostle 
 Saint Andrew, that he readily obeyed the calling of Thy Son Jesus 
 Christ, and followed Him without delay; grant unto us all that 
 we, being called by Thy holy Word, may forthwith give up our- 
 selves obediently 'to fulfil Thy holy commandments; through the 
 same Jesus Christ our Lord. A?nen. 
 
 For the Epistle : — 
 
 Rev. xxii. 12. 
 
 And, behold, I come quickly ; and My reward is with Me, to give 
 every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, 
 the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. Blessed are 
 they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the 
 tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For 
 without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, 
 and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. I Jesus 
 have sent Mine angel to testify unto you these things in the Churches. 
 I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the Bright and 
 Morning Star. And the Spirit and the Bride say. Come. And 
 let him that heareth say. Come. And let him that is athirst come. 
 And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. 
 
 For the Gospel : — 
 
 S. Luke XV. 
 
 Then drew near unto Him all the publicans and sinners for to 
 hear Him. And the Pharisees and Scribes murmured, saying, 
 This Man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. And He spake 
 this parable unto them, saying, What man of you, having an hundred 
 sheep, if he lose one of them doth not leave the ninety and nine 
 in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it 1 
 And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, re- 
 joicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends 
 and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me ; for I have 
 found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy 
 shall be in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over 
 ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. Either 
 what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth
 
 26 
 
 not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she 
 find it ? And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and 
 her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me ; for I have found 
 the piece which I had lost. Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy 
 in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. 
 
 The Responses, Sanctus, and Gloria in excelsis are sung. 
 
 The Service being ended, the Procession returns in the same order 
 in which they entered the Chapel. 
 
 As they go, they sing — 
 
 Psalm cl. Laudate Dominum. 
 
 1 O PRAISE God in His holiness : praise Him in the firmament 
 of His power. 
 
 2 Praise Him in His noble acts : praise Him according to His 
 excellent greatness. 
 
 3 Praise Him in the sound of the trumpet : praise Him upon the 
 lute and harp. 
 
 4 Praise Him in the cymbals and dances : praise Him upon the 
 strings and pipe. 
 
 5 Praise Him upon the well-tuned cymbals : praise Him upon 
 the loud cymbals. 
 
 6 Let every thing that hath breath : praise the Lord.
 
 THE DAY OF THE OPENING OF THE NEW 
 BUILDINGS. 
 
 There are days in the annals of the Church, which are peculiarly 
 refreshing, as being the seals of blessings already vouchsafed, and 
 the earnests of future increase. Such was the day of the opening of 
 the New Buildings of the House of Mercy ; a day much to be re- 
 membered, whether we consider the large number of persons col- 
 lected together, the order and impressiveness of the service, or the 
 earnestness and unity of feeling which animated the assembled 
 congregation. 
 
 It was a mild, calm day, such as not seldom cheers the close of 
 November. The time appointed for the service was half-past twelve, 
 as most convenient to the many friends of the House at Eton Col- 
 lege, and to those who were expected from a distance. Admittance 
 could only be obtained by private invitation, the admission tickets 
 being received at the outer gate. The penitents were kept in their 
 own rooms in the old house, in strict privacy, throughout the day. 
 
 On arriving, the company were at once taken into the New Build- 
 ings, where they could wander at their will. All the different parts 
 of the building were thrown open to inspection, and most of the 
 rooms furnished for immediate use. The upper story of the north 
 side of the quadrangle being not yet fitted up, and still open along 
 its entire length, served on this day for the chapel. At the east 
 end of this real "upper chamber," was the altar, below which for a 
 considerable space were the seats for the Clergy and Sisters, ranged 
 chancel-wise ; below these again, and up to the further or western 
 extremity, rows of chairs and forms were placed in order fronting 
 the Altar. It had been arranged that the company should take 
 their places in the chapel before the procession approached, or else 
 remain below at certain points out of the line along which it was to 
 pass, and enter the chapel afterwards. It was calculated that not 
 less than five hundred persons, including the Clergy, were gathered
 
 28 
 
 together within the chapel, and about a hundred unable to find 
 room remained below. 
 
 The Clergy assembled in the old house. "With the Bishop of 
 Oxford there were present the Bishop of Barbadoes, the Archdeacon 
 of Berks, the Provost, Head and Lower Masters, of Eton, and 
 several of the Rural Deans of the Diocese. The choristers and 
 Clergy in their robes formed in procession, walking two and two, 
 the Bishops, and the Clergy supporting them, falling in behind. 
 They first made a circuit through the ground in front of the old 
 house, chanting "Not unto us, O Lord, but unto Thy Name," 
 &c., and thus moved towards the great gates of the New Buildings. 
 
 Meanwhile the Warden and Sub-Warden, the Sisters and the 
 Council, had assembled within the great gateway, the gates remain- 
 ing closed till the Bishop approached. As soon as the head cho- 
 risters reached the gates, they and the long line of Clergy following 
 stopped, and turning sideways formed an avenue through which the 
 Bishop moved forward. On his approach the gates were thrown 
 open. The Bishop, crossing the threshold, said the short prayers 
 appointed, the responses being made by the Clergy, Sisters, and 
 Council within. The choir then moved forward and again took the 
 lead of the procession, chanting as they again began to move, " O 
 pray for the peace of Jerusalem, &c." The Council followed the 
 choristers, then the Sisters, the Warden and Sub-Warden, then the 
 Bishops, followed by the long line of Clergy. An eye-witness cal- 
 culated that there were above one hundred and fifty Clergymen walk- 
 ing in procession. Leaving the gateway they entered the west 
 cloister, and passed across the quadrangle into the east cloister, and 
 thence up the great staircase in the north tower, and entered the 
 chapel, the chant of the choir not ceasing till the Clergy had taken 
 their places. The most striking part of this procession was the 
 moment when the Sisters assumed their place, and the black dresses 
 of their little band were brought into strong contrast with the host 
 of preceding and following surplices. Almost equally striking was 
 the alternate rise and fall, — to those who followed at a distance, or 
 those within the chapel, — of the choristers' voices, as they threaded 
 the cloister, or turned an angle of the building, or wound up the 
 great staircase. 
 
 The service was very impressive from the loud and universal 
 response which rose up along the entire chamber. Many especially 
 were struck by the full swell of voices in the Niceue Creed, and the 
 Gloria in Excelsis, which was sung. In the former especially, the
 
 29 
 
 enormous mass of voices condensed, so to speak, in so limited a 
 space, was said by one of the auditors who had been present at 
 many such scenes, both at home and abroad, to be, in its way, the 
 most impressive thing he had ever heard. Of the Bishop's sermon 
 it is needless to speak. A lectern slightly raised had been fixed a 
 short space below the altar, and served as a pulpit. 
 
 It was much remarked, that after the prayer for the Church 
 Militant, when ordinarily the non-communicants retire, none seemed 
 to leave the chapel. No move was made, and the crowded chamber 
 continued to be as crowded when the celebration began. It was 
 impossible for the communicants to come up to the altar, and they 
 received in their places. With difficulty the ministering Clergy 
 moved in and out between the rows of the kneeling congregation. 
 Twelve administered, four commencing at the east end, and moving 
 downwards ; four at the lower or west end, and moving upwards ; 
 and the four others commencing about two-thirds down, met those 
 who moved westward from the altar. The offertory, including a few 
 small sums sent afterwards, and intended to have been offered, 
 amounted to ^600. 
 
 Service being ended, the choristers moved, chanting the 1.50th 
 Psalm, " O praise God in His holiness," the procession following in 
 the same order in which it entered the chapel, but taking a some- 
 what different route. Descending the great staircase, instead of 
 passing along the east cloister, they turned to the right, along the 
 passage of the north wing, into the western cloister, and then 
 through the great gates back to the old House, from whence they 
 had started. 
 
 A luncheon had been provided in the penitents' dining-rooms, 
 where the company were now gathered together, the Sisters being 
 present and mixing among their friends. 
 
 The brief November day was now fast drawing to its close, and 
 by about half-past four or five o'clock, the scene of this deeply 
 interesting ceremonial was left in comparative silence.
 
 30 
 
 The following account, by the kind permission of the Editor, is, 
 with only a few omissions, reprinted from the Ecclesiologist for 
 February, 1856:— 
 
 THE NEW BUILDINGS. 
 
 " There are curious coincidences in Ecclesiology, as well as in every 
 other science ; and one of them, to those who are acquainted with its 
 locality, will be suggested by the buildings now under our view. It 
 is not a little remarkable that one of the latest and most gorgeous 
 among the edifices of the older English Church, one whose very 
 beauty speaks so painfully of the decline of art, one whose decora- 
 tions testify to the worldliness, and Erastianism, and corruption of 
 Tudor times. Saint George's Chapel, should almost look down on a 
 building, one of the earliest firstfriiits of the present church revival, 
 plain, simple, unpretending, stern, — bearing evidence, in its very 
 want of decoration, to its design, and yet evincing, by its mastery 
 over inferior materials, and its independence of external ornament, 
 as hopeful a sign for the revived art, as it does for the revived earn- 
 estness of the English Church. 
 
 " Most of our readers are aware that the House of Mercy, at 
 Clewer, for the reception of penitents, has been carried on, under 
 the patronage of the Bishop of Oxford, by a Sisterhood, since the 
 year 1849. For some time it existed in an ordinary country house, 
 adapted, so far as might be, (but still inconveniently) to its purpose. 
 Surrounding land, to the extent of fifteen acres, having been pur- 
 chased, the new erection — somewhat to the north of the old house — 
 was commenced in 1854, and, three sides of the quadrangle having 
 been finished, it was opened by the Bishop on the Vigil of Saint 
 Andrew last. We never yet saw a building which gave us the 
 idea of greater pains, and more workmanlike thought having been 
 bestowed on the minutest details, as well as on the general design, 
 than this. 
 
 " It is with the three first-named sides of the quadrangle that we
 
 31 
 
 are principally concerned ; and can only criticise the fourth (which 
 it is hoped, may be begun in the spring) from the plans. And first 
 we will give an idea of the whole arrangement. 
 
 " The House of Mercy, then, forms a quadrangle, of which the 
 north and south sides are carried considerably beyond the square. 
 The east side is simply a cloister. The north (of three stories, in- 
 cluding the dormgrs) contains, — the dormitories for the penitents, — 
 with rooms for the Sisters in charge intermixed, — the class rooms, 
 the dining-rooms, dairy, &c., — an oratory, and the temporary chapel. 
 Still to the north is the tower, which carries the great tank and the 
 ventilatiou shafts. The west side are the kitchen, laundry, and 
 other offices ; — at the south end of this is the principal entrance. 
 These then are finished, and in full work. The south side will con- 
 tain, — the Sisters' own rooms (for those, we mean, who are not 
 actually engaged with the penitents,) the " Community room," the 
 chapel, and to the south of it, and projecting at right angles from 
 the southern fagade, the Infirmary. Here are also the rooms for 
 probationers and for penitents of a higher class in society. The 
 whole is of red brick, even to the mullions of the windows, without 
 any stone dressing, or any admixture of black banding or devices. 
 The colour is good, and the masonry, (if such a word may be applied 
 to such a material) is, and more especially in its buttresses, very 
 telliiig. The style is Middle- Pointed, with perhaps no further 
 deviations from precedent than the necessity of the case may jus- 
 tify : and, as a general rule, the windows of the rooms occupied by 
 the Sisters are foliated ; those for the penitents without foliation. 
 
 " We will now suppose ourselves to be entering at the great 
 door : and to be going round the building from south to north. 
 
 " The space intervening between the outer door, in the boundary 
 wall, and that of the building itself, is covered in with a solid, flat, 
 slated and timbered roof. On entering the building itself — (the 
 great doors are very well treated and effective,) to the right are two 
 small rooms, one of which is the porteress's lodge ; above these are 
 the temporary bedrooms for the probationers, and the Sister in 
 charge of them. Turning to the left, we enter the western cloister. 
 This is a lean-to, lighted from the east by a succession of windows 
 in wooden frames, of the shape of a truncated pyramid, opening 
 back from the bottom, and regulated by balance-weights. These 
 large apertures are necessary for the sake of ventilation, — all the 
 offices, of whatever description, opening into this passage. These 
 offices themselves are lighted by very large dormer windows, each
 
 32 
 
 containing eight square-headed lights, arranged five and three. The 
 apex of the roof on this side is surmounted by a long, narrow, flat- 
 tish, second roof; the sides being open with luffer boards, much after 
 the fashion of the upper stage of a paper-mill. From the western 
 cloister, and to the left hand, we first enter the ironing-room, 
 attached to which is a shuttered aperture for sending the clothes 
 out. (It may be proper here to notice that washing forms a 
 considerable part of the penitents' work ; and the necessary com- 
 munications with the exterior are so managed, as to render any 
 prohibited intercourse next to impossible. Hence the shuttered win- 
 dow instead of the door.) Still going on, we have next to the left 
 the wash-house ; this communicates with another shuttered aper- 
 ture for taking the linen in, and so joins the fire-room. Next comes 
 the kitchen, lighted by a lofty, octagonal, luflfered lantern, of excel- 
 lent timber work, which externally is one of the most picturesque 
 parts of the building. It is to be observed that all these various 
 departments can be (and at night are) completely shut off from 
 each other ; an arrangement which is found essential to the preser- 
 vation of due order and subordination. This western cloister opens 
 into the quadrangle : though a lean-to, as we have said, the princi- 
 pals are distinguished by a very elegant, and somewhat solid- 
 looking trefoiled brace ; an arrangement which forms an excellent 
 perspective effect. Through a private door and shuttered apertures, 
 at the north-east end, the stores are taken in ; here also is the larder, 
 and the room for the Sister in charge of the kitchen, &c. 
 
 We now enter the north side. Here there is no cloister, but a 
 passage running along the whole : the dairy and two dining-rooms, 
 intended for penitents, one of which for the present is occupied by 
 the Sisters, until their own rooms can be erected. At the north-east 
 end of the quadrangle is a room, excellently contrived, for cloaks and 
 bonnets. It is open on two sides, with a double row of banisters, 
 so as to permit free ventilation. To the west of this is the penitents' 
 dining-room, with two tables, and a desk, for reading at meal-times. 
 If we turn to the east, from the same north-east end, we shall first, — 
 to our right have a class-room for penitents, for the present used as 
 the Sisters' community-room, large, cheerful, and very real : a south 
 window of three lights, sofa and piano, the walls hung with pictures, 
 &c. We may observe that all the fire-places are managed much in 
 the same way, and excellently : stone is here, almost alone, em- 
 ployed : the mantel-piece is, as it were, cut into two portions by 
 the insertion of a sunk panel, baring a coloured tile. To the east of
 
 33 
 
 this, is the Assistant Superior's room, with a window of two trefoil- 
 headed lights ; and yet further to the east, and forming the end of 
 the north wing, is a very large class-room, well-lighted both from 
 the east and from the south. There would be good room in this 
 for forty penitents, commanded by the Sister's desk at the upper 
 end of the apartment. 
 
 We ascend by the staircase which is in the great tower, and may 
 therefore describe' that first. Externally, it is very massy and bold, 
 with overhanging eaves, and a pyramidal head, truncated near the 
 top and surmounted by a small lantern, also pyramidally capped. In- 
 ternally, it has an immense brick shaft, encircled with the ventilating 
 apparatus, and the tank. Round this the staircase winds : the bath- 
 room opens off from it, and the same fire that regulates the supply 
 of air, does duty also in heating the water. 
 
 "We now ascend to the upper passage of the northern wing. Here 
 are the dormitories. Some of the penitents' rooms have four beds, 
 some only one ; the rooms of the sisters are interspersed between 
 them, and by small windows command them. At intervals are breaks 
 in the chain of rooms, occupied by large tables, on which the clothes 
 are given out, and also serving for various uses. At the end of 
 this passage, and therefore over the large class room, is a small 
 oratory. The east window is an unequal triplet, the central light 
 being the lowest, with a plain circle in the head. This oratory 
 serves for use of those Sisters who are in actual charge of the 
 north wing, and also with permission, as a place of retirement and 
 private prayer for the penitents ; within and opening out of the 
 oratory is a small room which is for the use of the Sisters in their 
 private teaching. The third story, which is in the roof, is calculated 
 for more penitents, and contains at the east end the temporary chapel. 
 Tliis calls for no particular notice ; it is as well arranged as circum- 
 stances will admit ; the altar is properly vested. Owing to a neces- 
 sity in the shape of the apartments the Sisters at present sit nearest 
 the altar, the Superior and Assistant-Superior alone occupy their 
 proper places. This will be rectified in the true chapel. This eastern 
 gable is sufficiently striking from the exterior, the lower story, with 
 the two two-light windows of the class-room, flanked by angular 
 buttresses of two stages, and with a central buttress of one ; above the 
 latter is a slightly projecting oriel, (the east end of the oratory) 
 which runs up pyramidally, and terminates in a brick cross ; on each 
 side of this is a window, (those which form the east end of the tem- 
 porary chapel.)
 
 34 
 
 "We now come to the east side, which consists of a simple 
 cloister ; it contains nine bays, the central one being taken up with 
 the entrance, on the one side into the quadrangle, on the other 
 into the garden. On each side of this to the east are four windows 
 of four lights each, acutely-pointed trefoils, with interjacent but- 
 tresses of two stages. This, seen from the garden, is an excellent 
 specimen of what may be done with simple red brick, where there is 
 no actual size to give grandeur to separate details. On the interior, 
 towards the quadrangle, each bay has a single light, and an arch of 
 construction, which excellently relieves what might else be a mo- 
 notonous space. The tiling of this cloister is very good, the walls 
 illuminated with legends ; that for example over the door into the 
 north wing, ' Him that cometh unto Me,' &c. 
 
 " The southern wing, as we have said, is not yet begun, and we 
 can only judge of it from the plans. The chapel occupies its eastern 
 portion, and projects far beyond the east cloister. This, very pro- 
 perly, is of a character far more ornate than the rest of the building. 
 The east window, of three divisions, the two side ones of two tre- 
 foiled lights, the centre one of a single trefoiled light, carries two 
 and one quatrefoiled circles in the head ; on the south side, to the 
 eastward of the projecting infirmary, we have two adjacent windows 
 of two trefoiled lights each. The bell turret is on the north side. 
 All this is very pretty ; so also is the rest of the wing, which how- 
 ever we would rather not criticise from the drawings, because before 
 many months we hope to have the opportunity of noticing the original. 
 
 " Our readers will see that — apart from any religious view — we 
 consider the House of Mercy a work of high art. We do so on 
 several distinct grounds : the novelty — so far as ancient precedent 
 is concerned — of the idea; the nature of many of the details — {diffi- 
 cile est proprie communia dicere — and if to write, certainly to build,) 
 and the character of the materials employed. We trust that before 
 many months have elapsed we shall be called to notice the final com- 
 pletion of the erection ; and in the meantime wishing the work most 
 heartily God speed, we will conclude by expressing our hopes that 
 its past success may be an earnest — and we could scarcely wish more 
 — of its future progress."
 
 APPEAL. 
 
 We greatly need help without delay to enable us to clear off the lia- 
 bilities still remaining on the New Buildings, which must be met by 
 May next ; and also to complete our designs. We ask of those who 
 are enabled and kindly disposed to aid us, that they would aid us 
 now by giving or collecting in the course of the next six months the 
 sum of £\Q. If three hundred and fifty persons undertake to give 
 this aid we should hope to be clear of existing liabilities, and to 
 complete what we have begun. 
 
 We are earnestly desirous to complete our designs without delay, 
 for many reasons. The pressure for the admission of penitents is 
 so great, that we have constantly the pain of rejecting urgent cases. 
 One crying want especially, which has never anywhere as yet been 
 supplied, — a separate department for penitents of a higher grade 
 cannot be met till the remaining wing is built. The completion of 
 the Sisters' rooms is also very urgent ; for at present they are occu- 
 pying those intended for the penitents, and both their efficiency is 
 marred, and the privacy which they need when not actually at work, 
 is unattainable for want of the rooms intended for them. 
 
 We trust, then, for the love of souls, that this our appeal will not 
 be rejected ; and that in the same spirit in which the work is being 
 carried on, those who can help lis will join us in an association of 
 prayer and alms for a time, till the work be accomplished. 
 
 Any who are kindly drawn to unite in making this effort for us 
 in our hour of need, will be thankfully supplied with any number 
 of papers they may require, to assist in forwarding this object, by 
 applying to the undersigned, 
 
 THOMAS T. CARTER. 
 
 Clewer Rectory, Windsor. 
 Lent, 1856.
 
 
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