Page:Anglican sisterhoods.djvu/13

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forgiveness—the Church of the loving Saviour of men can do by the strength He puts into it, and by the love with which He fills it. It is in the Church, and in the Church of Christ alone, that there can be entire forgiveness for the penitent, because the Church of Christ alone is strong enough to overcome and reclaim. And therefore this work is especially the work of the Christian Church. I hold that it is eminently Christian work. I hold with another speaker that merely repressive law can never efficiently and sufficiently do this work of rescuing the fallen, of winning the outcast, of elevating the degraded, as it is especially and distinctively the work that the Church of Christ has inherited from Christ her Master; and it is a work in which, more than any other, she may expect her Master's presence and blessing. Therefore, with all my heart I join in this work; I pray for its success. I commend it heartily to the liberal and continuous support of all those who have at heart the objects that this society puts before us; and, as Bishop of this diocese, and as a minister of Christ, and as one who speaks in the presence of one of another faith altogether, who does not worship the Saviour we worship, but who worships the God that we worship—as one from whose nation and in the bosom of whose nation there sprang one who was the symbol of female purity, and in whose name we recognise the ideal of female saintliness—I say that a work which engages such co-operation as this, is a work worthy of all who desire to serve God and their fellow men; and, therefore, I heartily commend it to your support, and I am fully persuaded that it will obtain that support. (Loud cheers.)

A vote of thanks having been passed to his lordship for presiding, the meeting closed with the Benediction.

DIRECTORY OFFICE, TORQUAY.