CHRISTIAN WORK IN THE EAST OF LONDON. 215 the good lady who distributed the prizes; for as one mite of humanity after another toddled up to the front, she asked in delighted amazement, "What has this one done to earn a prize?" The answers, however, were satisfactory. One had distinguished himself in the truly Christian attainment of being "kindly affectioned ;" another merited a prize for "good behaviour;" a third for "spelling;" and a fourth, a tiny, rosy-cheeked, blushing little fellow, held out his hand modestly for a fascinating picture-book, the reward of his patient studies in arithmetic. How far he had gone in the science of numbers, I cannot say; but by way of gently testing his capacity, the amiable president asked him "How many are twice two?" "Four." "Very good." "How many are twice three?" "Five." Here judgment was given against him, and the examination came to a close. But be not hard, dear reader, upon that elementary mathematician. Southey wrote "An Apology for the Pig;" and after that 'twould surely be wrong to let a deserving, but mistaken though ever-so-little a boy go undefended. I hazard a conjecture in favour of this little boy. Perhaps he mistook the multiplication for the addition table, and gave his answers accordingly. If so, he is excused. But if not, it were easy to find older and taller boys who under the excitement of a similar examination have failed even more hopelessly. Going down a certain road one afternoon, my hap was to be overtaken by a schoolboy, who, after loitering all too long by the way, was suddenly seized with the idea of keeping my pace. He was at least four times as old as the aforementioned inmate of the Crèche. As he ran alongside I questioned him thus: "Been to school, my boy?" "Yes." "What school do you go to ?" "Mr. 66 Who's your teacher ?" "Mr. Brown." "Can you spell?" "Yes." "Spell donkey." "D-o-n-c-k-y, donkey." -'s, on the Forest." (I should say that spelling bees were unknown in this country at that time.) I then resolved to question him in other departments of knowledge, and seeing some figures on a slate which dangled about his legs as he partly walked and partly ran to keep pace with me, I inquired, "Can you do arithmetic?" "No," he replied, accompanying the answer with a shake of the head such as one is apt to give when suddenly addressed by a foreigner whose language we cannot comprehend. I then asked, "What have you been doing on your slate?" "SUMS," he answered, and before I had time to question him further he turned off the path, and pointing across the way, said, "I have to go up here," and away he went. After this I am sure the candid reader will condone the trifling error of the very small boy at the Crèche. While the rest of the prizes were being distributed, and the happy children were plunging their tiny hands into the mysterious depths of a bran-tub, out of which came oranges and other attractive things, I set forth on a tour round the building. Mounting a stair leading to the nursery, I found the wall hung with bags of clothing, and learned that when the children are brought to the Crèche in the morning, they are all stripped and washed, and clad in other garments for the day, and then re-clad in their own clothing when their mothers fetch them home at night. Cleanliness is a marked feature in the establishment. Cheerfulness is another. Indeed there is everything to make children happy. Buxom nurses more than supply the places of such mothers as many of the children have, and bright looking pictures everywhere adorn the walls of the rooms. Plants are placed here and there in conspicuous places, and in one room I saw a pair of turtle-doves in their wicker cage. A rocking-horse, a Noah's ark, swings, picture-books, babyjumpers, and all kinds of toys, meet the requirements of infant eyes and hands. Passing through the nursery, one baby is fast asleep, another is just attempting to wake itself by a faint cry, a little nursegirl is employed in rocking two to sleep in their separate swinging cots, the broad lap of an older nurse contains three little ones, ten or a dozen more are all playing with each other on the floor, and two delicate ones are sprawling quietly on the mattressed floor of a square space enclosed by an iron fence, and called "the pound." School and other rooms occupy another part of the building; while, to meet the increasing needs of a thickly-peopled neighbourhood, the Crèche has put forth two special branches. An "Infant Infirmary," or department for sick children, has been created, and contains about twelve cots. Some idea of the need of this branch may be gathered from the fact that in the two years it has been opened, no less than 250 children have enjoyed its nurturing care. The other branch is the "Infants' Home," and shelters some thirty inmates. These, unlike the children of the Crèche proper, are cared for altogether. Their ages vary from nine months to seven years. The bare mention of a few cases such as are sustained by this department will sufficiently vindicate its existence and appeal to public sympathy. Louie, aged two years; Ritchie, aged sixteen months; Marianne, aged four years; and Susie, aged five years, have all been deserted by their parents. Of the rest, the majority are fatherless; but Tommy, aged seven years, is both blind and fatherless. Rosie, aged five years; Eliza, aged four years; and Watercresses, aged four years, are motherless. Three others have mothers who are insane; whilst Lucie, aged five years; Willie, aged four years; and Bertie, aged four years, are fatherless and motherless. A mission that opens a door to save and bless such helpless children, carries its own recommendation, and bears upon it the seal of heaven; and the Redeemer once laid in Bethlehem's humble Crèche will say of all such deeds of love, “Ye did it unto me." J. FLETCHER. STANDING THEIR GROUND. THE following is full of significance. A minister writes, "Women join the church with more impulse than men, and with a less thoroughly formed spiritual life. I have kept a list of persons baptized during my ministry, and received into church fellowship. I find I had baptized about ten women to every four men ; but when once they were in the church, the men stood best. Those who were severed from church membership were in the proportion of eighteen women to four men. If my experience is a general one, it would appear that the disproportion between male and female members would be greater than it is, if the men did not stand their ground better than women. In many places, women do not feel the stress of temptation before eighteen or nineteen at earliest, and they are in church membership from three to four years before that; boys, however, begin to feel it at fourteen or fifteen, i.e., before they join the church." THE DERBY ASSOCIATION: A FORECAST. AGAIN our Annual Gathering returns like an affectionate child to one of its Midland Homes. All religions, says Max Müller, have to refresh themselves at their original sources in order to retain their primitive purity, or recover their pristine freshness and incorruption. Our churches instinctively visit the Midlands, drawn by a real though invisible magnetism. True, we were born in London, but we have not taken so kindly to our birthplace as to the fresh and bracing air that is wafted from those Charnwood Hills, off whose slopes came the largest contingent of that community that met to form the New Connexion of General Baptists in the East End of London in June, 1770. It is eight years since we were made welcome to the generous hospitality of our Derby friends. How the very mention of the date reminds us of the many men we have lost since then, and of the mournful fact that this year has been more fatal to our ministry than any one of the preceding seven! We have indeed been bereaved of our brethren! Voices of ardent youth, maturing manhood, and ripened experience are, for us, hushed in the silence of the grave, though for God and His angels they are melodious with sweetest praise and purest tone. We sorrow; but only as the sons and daughters of the good hope that animated them, and still inspires us, and that we would might brighten and gladden all human lives. But verily the sands of our working hour are swiftly running out; and though better men far will follow us, still it behoves us to do whatsoever our hand findeth to do with our might, as for eternity, and also as with only a rapidly contracting space in which to do it. May the solemn memories that will meet us as we look into one another's faces stimulate our zeal and self-sacrifice, and increase our pure, unselfish, and loving regard for one another, and for that eternal work which the Lord of all the workers has given us in charge. Derby has had a worthy share in making our denominational history. It has given us both men and measures: and mainly is it to be recollected as the birthplace of our Foreign Missions; and the lifesphere of the widely-known and sainted Rev. J. G. Pike, the founder and first Secretary of the Missions to Orissa. It is appropriate that the chair of the Association should be filled by one who has given his life to the Oriyas, and looks forward with joy to the consecration of his remaining days to the same blessed enterprise. For his own sake, and as representative of his fellow-workers in the Mission field, Dr. Buckley may count on a loving and hearty welcome to the post of honour and service to which he is called by his brethren. Our other department of foreign work is likely to attract to itself a large share of attention. Grassi's labours in Rome, we are told on good authority, have an importance it is difficult to exaggerate, and deserve the most extensive support we can give. The new chapel will be a new point of departure, an immense addition to Grassi's power as an Evangelist of Christ and a witness for a pure and primitive church faith and order. But if we are wise and know what our Israel ought to do, we shall give no stinted interest to our work at home. This is the weakest point in our machinery. The Union Building Fund urgently needs larger means, and offers inducements to those desiring a perpetuity of usefulness of the most attractive character. The "Unification" principle for Home Missions firmly set in our constitution at the Wisbech Association, will require to be "got to work" at Derby. The Provisional Committee has had a happy and successful meeting, and adopted in substance the scheme printed in the Minutes; and it only waits to be floated into action on a sea of gold to bring in large measures of aid to every department of our enterprise both at home and abroad. The chief need is prompt and decisive action. "Lose this day loitering,-'twill be the same story Only engage, and then the mind grows heated,— I shall not betray any secret if I add that it is "in the air" that a deputation from the Baptist Union, consisting of the President and Mr. C. Williams, may visit us to expound the schemes of the Union for increasing the stipends of Baptist pastors. This will be not quite, but almost a novel theme to us. For some reason or other, either because our ministers are so well sustained by their churches, or know their churches are willing to do their best, or for some other cause, the topic has not often appeared on our agenda. Speaking for ourselves, we have heard and seen more of thanks for steady additions to ministerial income, and of help promptly rendered in emergencies, than of anything else. But there is much to be said for the Annuity and Sustentation Funds, and it cannot be better said than by the honoured brethren we expect to hear at Derby. A new and helpful feature will appear in the printed statement of the subjects and order of business distributed on Tuesday morning: and we suppose again for Thursday and Friday. Every man will know what his business is, when and where it has to be done, and at what stage it will appear in our public proceedings. The point to be gained is to make every representative as well acquainted with the order and state of the business as the President and Secretary themselves are. Of things needed we may mention one or two, in addition to those we have suggested in former years. First, it is eminently desirable that we should have a return from our churches of the number of "Local Preachers," and of their names and addresses; and that the Association, as an Association, should do more to develop and strengthen this important auxiliary than is now being done. The village churches are becoming less and less able to sustain pastors, and more and more dependent on the services of our brethren who are able and willing to give their Sabbaths to the work of preaching the gospel. Every facility should therefore be given for obtaining the services of these friends; and if not every year, yet once in two or three, a sitting of the Association might be devoted to the consideration of the methods of increasing the usefulness of this itinerant ministry. The tactics of the "platitudinarians, attitudinarians, and latitudinarians" of the Established Church are telling in our villages, and in this way amongst others we must seek to counterwork them. We have only space to mention the suggestion received yesterday of a "Sermon to Young People on the WESTBOURNE PARK CHAPEL. 219 Monday Night as a desirable change from our present course," and to say that if it could be brought in so as not to clash with anything else, and create that eminently undesirable arrangement of two meetings at once, it would be a very good thing. We cannot do too much for our young people. O that the choicest blessings of our God may attend our gatherings; that a spirit of purest love for Christ and men may fill our hearts; and that all our proceedings may be guided and inspired by the Spirit of God, and so issue in the welfare of the churches and the glory of the Father's name. JOHN CLIFFORD. WESTBOURNE PARK CHAPEL, LONDON. We have the opportunity of presenting a drawing of our New Chapel in this month's Magazine, together with the following explanatory description by the architect, Mr. J. Wallis Chapman :-"The chapel it is proposed to build on the freehold site situated in Westbourne Park, in what is now called Porchester Road, but was named Westbourne Park Place, is nearly opposite the Royal Oak Station of the Metropolitan Railway, and between the Westbourne Park Road on one side, and Westbourne Park Villas on the other, and will be of the Early Geometrical Gothic style. But the style has been made subservient to the requirements of the church and congregation, and effect has been sought for in mass and outline rather than in richness of detail. "Accommodation is provided in the chapel for 1,000 adults, a proportion to be located in one end and two side galleries. Three wide staircases give access to the galleries; two communicating also with the school-room. Opening on to the galleries are two rooms for inquirers. Facilities for ingress and egress are abundantly provided on the ground floor, and a distinctive feature is a large enclosed vestibule, built upon a part of the site which could not be made available for sittings. This vestibule, which is about 49 feet long by 12 feet deep, will, it is hoped. prove useful in preventing draughts, in accommodating those waiting for friends, and in affording opportunities for personal conversation, without the distinctive character of the inquirers' room. Two sets of screen doors to every entrance shut out the external air; whilst various appliances are provided for ventilation, the lantern on the roof and the spirelet at the south-east corner being specially adapted for this purpose. The levels of the ground floor and galleries have been arranged so as to give, as nearly as may be, from every sitting, an equally good view of the preaching platform. In front of this platform, but on a lower level, and but little raised above the general floor line, is another platform for the communion table and choir seats; the baptistery is however placed in a recess behind the preacher, who is thereby brought more forward into the main building. The back staircase gives private access to the ladies' and deacons' vestries, which are on the same level and communicate with the baptistery platform. The main building is divided into nave and aisles by iron columns carrying an arcade of terra cotta and a series of clerestory windows and ventilating openings. The aisle roofs have arched principals corres |