Case 2

Our Waifs and Strays Page 94

Just imagine, as Christians, what it is to Christ Himself, Who watches the whole of our work and in Whose sight not a sparrow falls to the ground unnoticed, to see year by year for forty years these thousands of His own children brought to a virtuous, holy, and happy life. I have often said that it is my favourite Society - Mr. George Russell once said, "The Bishop probably says that of all the fifty Societies whose Meetings he attends," but I DON'T! I will repeat this : I had rather be Chairman of the Waifs and Strays at its Annual Meeting than preside at any other Meeting in the year. I want, as one who really does so little and who i merely a figure-head, to congratulate the Secretary upon the report that he has presented. It is perfectly wonderful. I rubbed it into the Ecclesiastical Commissioners when I left them this morning. I said, "What do you think we raise a year? A quarter of a million!" They could hardly believe it. It is a wonderful effort. There is no Society with a greater body of voluntary helpers from one end of the country to the other than the Waifs and Strays. It is YOU - a body of people whose names are not known to the world - who are doing this work. If you cease everything will cease. It is not done by a kind of accident. I often say in chaff that the ordinary Englishman puts threepence into the offertory and expects to see a vicar, two good-looking curates, and a peal of bells, come out at the other side. These things are only done by prayer, sympathy, and hard work. Therefore I appeal to you all to go on with you work, with encouragement and hope, and when we meet next year pray God we may have an even larger balance to show, and be able to give an even better report of the Society. I am not going to ask the Army to speak for the Church.

GENERAL SEELY said : My Lord Bishop, Lady Mary, ladies and gentlemen, - I am told that if one says anything about the Bishop of London's late illness one is liable to excommunication! But nevertheless I must be permitted to say that at this his first Church Waifs Society since that illness, in spite of all his admonitions we who have been interested in this work rejoice to see him completely restored to health and strength, and earnestly hope that he may have no more illnesses, and that he may contribute his presence and his help and invaluable chairmanship to our Meetings for many a long year to come.

I may perhaps be permitted to congratulate Lady Mary on her first appearance. I think, perhaps, as the years go on she will not be sorry that the first time she made a public speech it was in support of so wholly admirable a cause as the Church Waifs Society.

It is indeed a wonderful thing, my Lord Bishop, that in this difficult year you have managed to raise close on a quarter of a million pounds - in fact a little more - for the waifs and strays. It is a wonderful thing, but it is a fortunate thing, for the need is very great. For the very same reason it is hard to raise funds. The need of the children is greater than it has ever been in recent years. I happen to know about this, because I have a near relative who spends the greater part of her time in one of the poorer parts of London, and has done so for many years past. I have a great many children of my own (in fact, several of them you have confirmed, my Lord Bishop, and they have been none the worse for it!) It has been the custom of this near relative for many years to give these numerous children of mine an Easter present. This year she came to me and said : "I cannot give your children an Easter present, because the children in this poor part of London are suffering so deeply that every penny in the world I have got must go to relieve their sufferings." Ladies and gentlemen, I tell you this simple fact - for an ounce of fact is worth a pound of theory - that in the poorer parts of London, as the Bishop knows well, the sufferings of many of the children are real and acute, and the fact that there exists a Society like this, which in addition to maintaining these Homes and caring for more than 4,000 children annually, has cared for 26,000 during the past years, and which by its vast organisation not only in London but throughout the country keeps a friendly eye on countless families, is a fortunate thing indeed. As a Member of the House of Commons I thank them for all they have done, for they have done more during these hard times than all the laws we can ever pass. Of course such work leads up to sympathy between one and another. As these little children - whom I do not mistake for waifs and strays! - came on the platform and gave their little purses to Lady Mary, I was reminded of that touching poem, written by an Irish lady about the children of the rich and the children of the poor. Do you remember it? I remembered it as I was sitting here : -

"Oh, they that's dressed so fine and grand, And they that's playing in the street; I wonder will they ever meet And walk together hand in hand?

It's my belief that when they're small It's like they are as peas in pod; It's like enough they are to God, For sure enough He made them all."

The aspiration of the Irish poetess is fulfilled in the procession of little children who passed by and gave their purses to the gracious lady who had come here this afternoon, representing that great body of the Children's Union and the £18,000 or £20,000 raised by that body for the good of the little children who are poorer than they.

I must say one word before I sit down as to the thought which may have occurred to some - that in a thing so sacred to men and women of the Christian faith as the care of children, and especially the poorest of them, no distinction should be made in the case of any child whether