Part 8 (1/2)
Valuable suggestions will be obtained from the study of every successful deaconess inst.i.tution, and none will perhaps furnish more practical models for American Methodism than does the establishment at Mildmay Park in North London. Its methods of work are flexible, and allow place for a diversity of talent among the workers, while a wide variety of charitable and evangelistic effort is undertaken. These two causes give a breadth and vigor to the work at Mildmay that impress every one who has knowledge of it.
Whenever we find a good cause carried on successfully and prosperously, we know that behind it there must be a strong man or woman who has ”thought and wrought” to good purpose. So the first question that arises in the mind of the visitor who for the first time forms one of the audience in the great Conference Hall, or looks about in the adjoining building to see the deaconess home, is, ”Who first thought this out? Who was the founder of this wonderful mission?” And the answer tells us that Mildmay originated, as did Kaiserswerth, in the prayerful determination of a Christian minister and his wife to reach out to every good end that G.o.d's spirit of enlightenment could suggest to them. Rev.
William Pennefather was rector of Christ's Church at Barnet, and while devoted to his ministerial duties his sympathies did not end with his own people, nor his own denomination. His home was sometimes called the ”Missing Link,” for it was a meeting-place for n.o.blemen and farmers, bishops and clergymen of all churches; a place ”where nationalities and denominations were easily merged in the broad suns.h.i.+ne of Christian love.”[65] He carried his principle of Christian fellows.h.i.+p further, for, after mature deliberation, in 1856, he issued a call for a conference to be held at Barnet whose object was ”to bring into closer social communion the members of various Churches, as children of the one Father, animated by the same life, and heirs together of the same glory.”[66] These conferences have been continued from then to the present time, and are known and prized in many lands. I was present at the conference of 1888, and representatives were there from nearly every Protestant country, while on the platform were leaders of nearly every Protestant denomination, furnis.h.i.+ng a wonderful ill.u.s.tration of the union of the Christian Church in Christ; a spiritual union so real and eternal that the minor differences of faith were swallowed up in the great fact that in Christ Jesus all are one.
Gradually a variety of missionary and evangelistic agencies grew up about the conferences. In 1860 the little Home was opened at Barnet which subsequently developed into the deaconess house at Mildmay Park.
The question of calling into more active exercise the energies of educated Christian women, as we have seen in the preceding chapter, was one that was attracting attention at the time in England. Mr. and Mrs.
Pennefather had long desired to do something in this direction, and their desire took this practical form. In its beginning it had to battle with all the ”definite and indefinite objections” that could be advanced against any attempt at organizing woman's work. But those days of latent suspicion or more open antagonism are long past. The inst.i.tution has justified its right to be by doing a work that otherwise would have remained undone.
In 1864 Mr. Pennefather was called to St. Jude's, Mildmay Park, and the philanthropic and religious undertakings which he had begun were transferred to his new home. He took with him the ”iron room” that had been erected for the conferences at Barnet, and continued to use it for the same purposes at Mildmay; while the missionary training-school and home were accommodated in a house which he hired for the purpose.
His new parish was in a part of London where poverty and want abounded.
There was no adequate provision for the education of the poor and neglected children, so he erected a building where elementary instruction could be given at a very low price. A soup-kitchen was started at the iron room: clubs of various kinds were formed, and other agencies were set at work, both for the temporal and spiritual welfare of the people. The degraded and miserable neighborhood gradually underwent a transformation, and the police testified that there was a manifest restraint on the lawless locality. ”To many of the waifs of life no human hand was stretched in kindness until he came to the district and taught them what Christianity was.”[67]
A small legacy coming to him, he bought a house with a large garden attached, and made it a mission center for the needs of the infirm and aged; while the ignorant and careless, who would not enter a church, were often induced to attend meetings here.
The training-school had been started at Barnet for the purpose of training foreign missionaries; but Mr. Pennefather now saw that there was as great a demand for home mission workers in the sorrowful and benighted portions of the vast metropolis, so, after much deliberation and consultation between himself and his wife, he decided to initiate the ministry of Christian women as deaconesses. He hesitated about the name to be given to the women whom he employed as Christian workers, but no other was suggested conveying the same idea of service to Christ among his suffering and needy ones, and, as the appellation had already won respect through the good reports of the deaconess houses on the Continent, he decided to adopt the same name. They continued to work in his parish only until the terrible visitation of the cholera in 1866.
Then when men were swept into eternity by hundreds, and hundreds more were in dire distress, the deaconesses were invited by the minister of another parish to come to his a.s.sistance. In this way the bounds of the work began to enlarge. A small hospital was added to the home and a medical-school mission was begun.
It now became necessary to build a large hall; the iron room was too small for the conferences, the church too small for the congregation, and the missions had outgrown the capacity of the mission room. When the plan for a new building was made known money came in unsolicited from various sources. The undertaking was pushed rapidly forward, and in October, 1870, the hall was opened. It will seat 2,500 people, having a platform at the west end, and a gallery running around the sides and east end.
Thanksgiving and prayer were built into the walls from the very foundation; and before the bas.e.m.e.nt rooms were cleared of rubbish, or the floor laid, a prayer-meeting was held to ask for a blessing upon the future undertakings of the mission. The bas.e.m.e.nt was divided into five rooms, to be used for night-schools and other agencies for the benefit of the poor.
Adjoining the hall, at the west end, was built the deaconess house. From his home near by Mr. Pennefather had watched the completion of the work with great interest. In one of his letters he says:[68] ”Sometimes I can scarcely believe that it is a reality, and not all a dream--the Conference Hall, with its appendages, and the deaconess house actually in existence. May the Holy Spirit fill the place, and may he make it a center from whence the living waters shall flow forth.”
From a letter written to one of these deaconesses, we gain his opinion as to the need of deaconesses, and what was his ideal of a Home.[69]
”The need for such an inst.i.tution is great indeed. I do not suppose there was ever a time in the history of Christianity in which the openings for holy, disciplined, intelligent women to labor in G.o.d's vineyard were so numerous as at present. The population in towns and rural districts are waiting for the patient and enduring love that dwells in the breast of a truly pious woman, to wake them up to thought and feeling. O! if I had the women and had the means, how gladly would I send out hundreds, two by two, to carry the river of truth into the hamlets of our country, and the streets and lanes of our great cities.
Will you pray for the Home? Ask for women and for means. I want our Home to be such a place of holy, peaceful memories that, when you leave it, it may be among the brightest things that come to your mind in a distant land, or in a different position; and each inmate can help to make it what it should be.” But Mr. Pennefather did not live to see the great extension in usefulness and importance that the Deaconess Home was to obtain in later years. He pa.s.sed away from life April 28, 1873, leaving to his wife, who had ever been his sympathetic and devoted helper, the care of continuing the work he had begun. She is still the head of the Mildmay Inst.i.tutions, a.s.sisted by a resident superintendent, and aided by the counsels of wise, experienced men, who form the board of trustees.
From the beginning of the erection of the new building every portion of it was put to use. In one of the bas.e.m.e.nt rooms is the invalid kitchen, where, daily, puddings, jellies, and little delicacies are prepared and sent out to sufferers in the neighborhood, who could not otherwise obtain suitable nourishment. From eleven to two o'clock tickets are brought in, which have been distributed by the sisters or by the district visitors; and those who come to take the dinners, while waiting their turn, have a kind word, or sympathetic inquiry about the sick one, from the deaconess in charge.
A flower mission occupies another room. Kind friends send here treasures from the garden and green-house, field and wood, and children contribute bouquets of wild flowers. A deaconess superintends the willing hands that tie the bunches, each of which is adorned with a brightly colored Scripture text. Ten hospitals and infirmaries were regularly visited during 1888; and more than thirty-eight thousand bunches of flowers were distributed, each accompanied by an appropriate text.
Near at hand is the Dorcas room, where deaconesses are kept busy in cutting out clothing and superintending the sewing cla.s.ses. During the winter of 1887 thirty widows attended this cla.s.s three times a week, glad to earn a sixpence by needlework done in a warm, lighted room, while a deaconess entertained them by reading aloud. A large amount of sewing is given out from the same room, and the garments that are made are often sold to the poor at a low price. A most impressive scene is witnessed during the winter months, when, on three evenings of the week, all the bas.e.m.e.nt rooms are crowded with the men's night-school, which has, it is believed, no rival in England. The ordinary number of names on the books exceeds twelve hundred. There are forty-nine cla.s.ses, all taught by ladies, the majority of them being deaconesses. The subjects range from the elementary to the higher branches of general and practical knowledge, including arithmetic, geography, geometry, freehand drawing, and short-hand. The Bible is read in the cla.s.ses on Monday and Friday, and a scriptural address is given by some gentleman on Wednesday. The school always closes with prayer and singing. The men may purchase coffee and bread and b.u.t.ter before leaving, and of this they largely avail themselves. A lending library is also attached to the school. The highest attendance during last session was five hundred and eighty-one, the lowest two hundred and eighty-seven.
The influence of this school is very great, and many pa.s.s on from it to the men's Bible-cla.s.s, which is held on Sunday afternoons in the largest bas.e.m.e.nt room.[70]
A servants' registry is attached to the deaconess house, and through its means about four hundred servants are annually provided with places.
Nearly fifty deaconesses make their home at this central house, many of them having work in the different parts of the city, perhaps at remote distances, but returning at night to the home-like surroundings and purer air of the central house. The large sitting-room, the common living-room of the deaconesses, is a charming place. It is of great size, but made cheerful and attractive by pictures, flowers, and bright and tasteful decorations that are restful to the eyes. Both Mr. and Mrs.
Pennefather made it a principle of action to have the home life cheerful, pleasant, and attractive, so that when the sisters come in toward evening, tired physically, and mentally depressed and exhausted by the long strain of hearing tales of misery, and seeing sights of wretchedness and squalor the day through, they could be cheered not only by the words of sympathy and love of their a.s.sociates, but by the silent, restful influences of their surroundings.
As I looked around the great room with deep-set windows, brightened by flowers, and still more by the happy faces of the deaconesses, some of whom were young girls with the charms of happy girlhood set off by the plain, black dress and wide white collar of the deaconess garb, I could but think the founders wise in arranging such pleasant, home-like surroundings for their workers.
From the windows you look down into a beautiful garden, a rare luxury for a London dwelling. This garden was among the later accessions of Mr.
Pennefather, being purchased by him shortly before his death. A train of circ.u.mstances led to its possession which he regarded as markedly providential; and the delightful uses to which ”that blessed garden,” as it has been called, has since been put, seem to justify the importance he attached to securing it. During the conference times great tents are reared here for the refreshments which the weary body needs. A fine old mulberry tree extends its branches, and under its ample shade meetings of one kind or another are held at all hours of the day. The lawn, with its quiet, shady walks, furnished with comfortable garden seats, provides a meeting place for friends, where, in the intervals between the services, those who perhaps never see each other during any of the other fifty-one weeks of the year may walk or sit together. ”Here in more ordinary times may be seen the children of the Orphanage (where thirty-six girls form a happy, busy family) playing together, or the deaconesses in their becoming little white caps, who have run out for a breath of air. Here, too, during the summer, a succession of tea-parties is held for the different cla.s.ses which have been reached by the deaconesses in the more densely populated parts of London, to whom the garden is a very paradise.”[71]