The Triennial Confirmation which will in the present year (on the 9th of June) be held in Kensington Church will, there is good ground for believing, be attended by a large number of persons who through the exertions of the Visitors and the Clergy have been brought to feel an anxious desire to avail themselves of this sacred rite.
Few points of attention are of more importance than that of obtaining SITUATIONS or EMPLOYMENT by the Visitors for the poor in their respective districts. Whether they regard the removal of young persons from vicious associations to positions in private families where they may have not only the advantage of advice and direction in the duties of life, but also the forcible influence of moral and religious example; or whether they consider the benefit derived from providing openings of honest livelihood [20a] for those who perhaps have long been struggling against bitter distress and consequent urgent temptation; the Committee feel that it is impossible to overrate the importance of the subject. The instances which have been reported tend strongly to confirm their estimation of it, at the same time that they demonstrate the value of the assistance given by the Visitors in this respect. [20b]
The opening of a new National School for boys in the Gravel Pits will, it is hoped, have the effect of reducing the excessive pressure on the Town Schools; the fulness of which has hitherto placed a considerable difficulty in the way of the exertions of the Visitors and Clergy.
A somewhat similar difficulty has prevailed with respect to the inadequate extent of ACCOMMODATION at Kensington Church as compared with the population. It is not easy or satisfactory to impress upon the poor the duty of public worship, except in the anticipation of a more proportionate amount of accommodation being before long provided.
The Visitors have been during the two years instrumental in circulating upwards of 2000 TRACTS: and the Committee have the greatest satisfaction in reporting that there is reason to know that of those families who are in a position to avail themselves of the use of the Holy Scriptures and of the Liturgy of the Church of England, very few are unprovided with both Bible and Prayer book. [21]
In order to afford means of enabling the Visitors to carry out more satisfactorily their endeavours to raise and improve the condition of the poor parishioners, a Loan Library has been just established, in compliance with the fifteenth rule of the Society. But it being necessary to reserve a certain sum in hand to meet extraordinary calls upon the Treasurer, it has been found impossible to appropriate more than a very small and inadequate portion of the funds to this purpose. The Library has in consequence only been brought into action over a very limited number of districts. The Committee trust that this representation will produce a very considerable increase of DONATIONS for the ensuing year, so as to enable them to bring so valuable and important an institution to bear upon the whole parish.
In dosing their Report, the Committee are anxious to express their cordial THANKS to those Medical Gentlemen whose attendance and advice at the Dispensary and attention to the wants of the poor at their homes, are productive of so much important benefit to them. It is impossible to speak too strongly of the advantage derived to the parish by their arduous and exemplary labours; which, though gratefully appreciated and acknowledged by the immediate recipients of the benefit, are perhaps not sufficiently, as they cannot be too well, known to the body of the parishioners.
And they desire to express most warmly the sense they have of the assiduous and successful exertions of the Ladies and Gentlemen who have taken the initiative in the work of charity as Visitors of the poor. [22] Under discouragements and annoyances of no trifling description—against coldness and suspicion—in spite of fraud and imposture—they have yet persevered in the exercise of their privilege as members of the Church, in following the example of Its Divine Head, who “went about doing good.” The Committee trust that as these labours, and the operations of the Society in general, become year by year more effective, and their results more fully ripened, there will be found to have sprung up a more intimate connexion among the different classes of the community: one which, founded on an interchange of beneficence on the one hand and gratitude on the other, and supported and cemented on both by Christian sympathy and love, cannot fail in being productive of important advantages to the welfare of all concerned. If it be the ordinary duty of the Committee, while administering the funds at their disposal, to adopt such measures as shall enable the poorer classes to perceive and fulfil what is due from them in this interchange; it is now their office to point out to the wealthier and educated classes, who may be anxious for the opportunity, how they may perform their part.
A blessing is promised in Scripture upon HIM THAT CONSIDERETH THE POOR. It is hoped, that every member of the Church who enjoys wealth, or even competence, will ‘consider’ conscientiously in what manner his exertions for the relief of indigence and the advancement of religious improvement may be most judiciously directed; what talents he possesses, not only of property, but of time, and influence, and connexion; and in what way those talents may be most beneficially and effectually applied. [23] It is hoped, that the necessary relation of Christian principles to active charity will, from year to year, be more generally and more practically acknowledged: that every one will learn to feel that for practice as well as principle of Christian love he is absolutely accountable: that it is therefore imperative upon him for the benefit of others, and at the same time pre-eminently for his own, to take a lively personal interest in concurrence and co-operation with the Clergy, in endeavouring to secure the temporal, moral, social, and spiritual welfare of those who from their position in rank and in neighbourhood are in a measure committed to his charge and care.
The Committee can scarcely be wrong in entertaining the belief, that were this personal co-operation effectually carried out, there would result, under the blessing of God, a far nearer approximation than now exists, to what every Christian must anxiously and from his heart desire—Unity in Church and Nation “in one holy bond of Truth and Peace, of Faith and Charity.”