RAGGED SCHOOL UNION MAGAZINE. "Christian patriots, men of mighty hearts, Ye who have tasted of life's precious cup Let not thy brother perish, so will thy entrance To the bright world of light be glorious, As, humbly kneeling at thy Saviour's feet, He calls thee faithful: whilst the golden harps Of angels bid thee welcome, dearer strains Will mingle with their melody-souls, rescued souls, Will bless thee with a thrilling earnestness Whilst angels listen. Have ye no wish For such a welcome, when death calls thee hence ? VOLUME IX. --- /{^ LONDON: RAGGED SCHOOL UNION, 1, EXETER HALL; PARTRIDGE & CO., 34, PATERNOSTER ROW. JOHNSTONE, EDINBURGH; M'COMBE, GLASGOW; ROBERTSON, DUBLIN; THE Completion of another volume affords a suitable opportunity for glancing upon the progress of the Ragged School movement during the year 1857. On the closing of the year 1856, our working position was in advance of any that had been previously attained; but this, as was then stated, was at the expense of our financial position. The funds at the disposal of the Parent Committee had so far run out that something like bankruptcy within a few months seemed inevitable. For a Society such as the Ragged School Union to have suffered a collapse would have been a public calamity; therefore, with a view not only to avoid such a fearful evil, but to resuscitate the Society, efforts were put forth, and all proper means employed to make known its operations, and to set forth before the London world its claims for support. The Lord Mayor of London presided at a meeting of merchants and bankers. The Right Hon. the Earl of Shaftesbury presided at a meeting of the friends of the Society at the West End. The Committee undertook the onerous task of a personal canvass of the principal City and West End Firms, and an appeal was extensively circulated through the metropolis. The result was that the danger that threatened the Parent Society at the commencement of this year, and with it its affiliated schools, was thrown further into the future. The contributions thus specially obtained may be sufficient, with current income, to meet the urgent claims upon the Society for the next year or two, at the expiration of which further efforts will have to be made to sustain the Society's position and usefulness. Efforts have not only been made of a financial character, but also to render the schools increasingly effective and to add to the appliances, for improving the condition of the children and their parents. The increased number of schools for the last year, as in the Society's Report, published 1857, is only 9, but the increased attendance of scholars is 2,619. This indicates extension only, while the chief feature has been the steady, quiet, persevering effort for sustaining the schools and rendering the whole of them thoroughly efficient. A larger number of our school boys has been sent out as shoe-blacks than in any previous year. To render the oversight of those lads more effective additional Shoeblack Societies have been formed. Those in operation at the close of last year were known as the Red, Blue, and Yellow Brigades. There are now six additional societies, all in connection with Ragged Schools. ; The Privy Council on Education have, during the year, given effect to their Minute of June 2nd, 1856, which has rendered great assistance to the Refuge department of the Ragged School movement. It is in this department that the cost is most heavy, arising from the children having to be fed and lodged, as well as educated and Government has done good service in assisting this particular portion of our labours; and if aid could be obtained from the same source for the emigration of the most suitable scholars for the Colonies, it would be all that ought to be asked on behalf of Ragged Schools from the public revenue. It has ever been our conviction, that the voluntary contributions of the public will fully sustain the educational depariment of our schools; and, by being so sustained, our voluntary friends and teachers will be more free to carry out their multifarious schemes for the amelioration of the condition of the poor than if trammelled by state help, followed by an officiousness that chills what it touches. We close the year with an horizon darkened by Indian revolt, bloodshed, and cruelty of the most barbarous character; and by a collapse of commercial enterprise in the United States, resulting in raising the value of money in this country to a minimum of £10 per cent., and in the ruin and desolation to thousands of English homes. The former, by English heroism and daring bravery, will, under God, result in the re-establishment of the Anglo-Indian authority upon a more secure and a more Christian basis; and the latter will result in the general adoption of sounder principles upon which to conduct trade; but during the time these beneficial results are being worked out labour will be scarce, and the sufferings of the poor will increase; it is therefore sincerely hoped that those whose position of comfort and wealth are preserved to them, will, in proportion to their abundance, give in support of those efforts which tend least to pauperize and most to elevate the people,-elevate them socially, MORALLY, SPIRITUALLY. Of these efforts there are many; but of all, the one that most commends itself by its results is THE RAGGED SCHOOL UNION. December, 1857. EDITOR. THE RAGGED SCHOOL UNION MAGAZINE. Papers, Original and Selected. PROSPECTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE RAGGED SCHOOL UNION. ANOTHER year has begun its rapid course. It solemnly summons us, while not unmindful of, or ungrateful for, the past, to inquire what are our prospects, and what also our responsibilities. The work to which we are committed is not a trifling one. It may neither be played with in a dilettanti spirit, nor yet be forsaken in weariness or despair. As long as there is work to be done, the workers must each say to all threatening or seducing influences that would bid them pause, or beckon them away, "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down; why should the work cease whilst I leave it and come down to you?" We are not, indeed, so sanguine as to anticipate that we shall have a larger number of volunteers for this particular service than is actually required. Even putting aside the many who seem to live without a purpose, who live only in the present, and who, as Bishop Hall expresses it, "do as unwise archers, shoot away their arrows they know not at what mark,” there is still a large number, as the same venerable writer suggests, "who aim at one certain mark, but a wrong one," and " some (though fewer) level at the right end but amiss." The willing-hearted, therefore, must not be discouraged because they are few. They have their reward even now; and a gracious reward is theirs also in reversion. Crowns they have in prospect, to be placed on their heads by the oncepierced hand of Him for whose honour they toil and live, and whose "little ones," by means of the Ragged School, they seek to lift up from the dust, and set them among kings and priests in his kingdom. Speaking, then, first, of prospects, we observe, that never were the prospects of usefulness more encouraging than at the beginning of this year of grace EIGHTEEN HUNDŘEĎ AND FIFTY-SEVEN. It is something to have a glorious and fruit-bearing Past to appeal to. Our "Retrospects" last month were not designed to be vainglorious, but stimulating; and, therefore, we strongly urge now on our ordinary supporters, and on the Christian public at large, the fact, that nearly thirteen years' experience and results amply prove the system of Ragged Schools to be a great success. Measured only, as it were, by a short decade of time-remembering the novelty of the experiment-the class, hitherto totally neglected, and apparently hopeless, with which we have had to deal-taking, too, into account the vis inertia of public apathy which it was necessary to remove, to say nothing of that heartless unbelief which cries, 66 Quixotic!" "Impossible!" we repeat, that ours has been, through the good hand of our God upon us, a great success. JANUARY, 1857. NO. XCVII. VOL. IX. B |