Page:Distinguished Churchmen.djvu/223

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THE REV. WILSON CARLILE 187

" Father " and " Mother " of the home who live with the men and women in the homes, work amongst them day by day, strive to bring them back to self-respect, and constantly set before them the example of a godly, righteous and sober life. We are thankful to say that this work of the Church among the outcast and destitute has the warm approval of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the English Bishops, the Home Office, the Prison Commissioners, the Local Government Board, the Charity Organisation Society, the Discharged Prisoners Aid Society, prison governors and chap lains, judges and magistrates, police and others, while many boards of guardians make grants to the Society in return for its work in taking persons off the rates and making them into ratepayers. If any would not work, neither should he eat. So if a man or woman in any of the Society s homes will not work, he or she is dismissed. The Chairman of the Paddington Board of Guardians has put the matter concisely : The Guardians can give the inmates of the workhouses and casual wards work, but they cannot give them backbone. That, how ever, is what the Church Army has succeeded in doing in a number of cases sent to them from the Paddington Workhouse.

" But what, Mr Carlile, is the actual character of the work carried on in these Labour Homes ? "

" It is mostly wood-chopping, paper-sorting, and jobbing of all kinds."

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