Page:Distinguished Churchmen.djvu/281

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THE REV. E. DE M. RUDOLF
241

afford us considerable help, too, in other respects. For instance, in one year offertories were received from 2,790 churches, and from ninety college, school, and foreign chapels, whilst considerable sums were received as proceeds of sales of work, concerts, and meetings of various descriptions. A large portion of our income is obtained from annual subscriptions and donations.

“Yes; striking testimony to the value of our work comes from clergy and laity alike. I will give you two examples. The present Archbishop of Canterbury, speaking at the twentieth anniversary of the Church of England Waifs and Strays Society, said, ‘I have been looking into the Waifs and Strays Society, and I am quite satisfied that its work is thoroughly good, and that it is exceedingly well organised. The children are got together through the clergy, and the clergy are, as it were, the officers of the Society; sometimes, perhaps, they are not aware they occupy that position, but the Society is getting more and more known, and without any solicitation whatever, they are becoming aware that, by applying for help, they can get the means of rescuing children that need rescue so terribly rescuing children from the beginnings of careers of ignorance and sin and afterwards crime, and restoring them to their natural positions as respectable members of the society in which they are born. The clergy are willing enough to assist in this,