The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-08-01 00:00:00

PRAYER MEETING FOR CHILDREN.

(From The Standard.)

It was an excellent idea of Lord Shaftesbury, that
prayer meetings for children, in which the hymns of
praise sung and the instruction imparted would be
level with the youthful comprehension, should be held
in different parts of the metropolis; and the idea has
already received promising practical realisation. The
inaugural gathering for the purpose came off In
London in the Hanover-square .Rooms on May 16, his
lordship presiding; there was a second on Midsummer
Day in St. George's Hall, and a third special service
of the series took place la9t Saturday afternoon in the
Royal Amphitheatre, Holborn. Shortly after fire
o'clock a host of little girls and boys might
be seen trooping along the pavements of the
noisy thoroughfare, and suddenly disappearing
through the doors of the building. Those were the
children of schools in the vicinity, aml may be re-
garded as of the regular congregation; but liy-and-bye
came the waifs and strays - tiny, ragged, smudged
urchins, whose attention had been drawn from their
mud-pies by the march-past of the schools. What did
it mean? "Was the theayter open agin ? " they
asked; "and wag there a-goin to be a performance?"
The news that the theatre was open, and open ex-
pressly for them, without payment of a penny, spread
like wildfire. From the gridiron of bye-streets up to
Gray's-inn on one side, and from the alleys and
rookeries of Drury-lane on the other, the little crowns
ran, peeped in at the (to their eyes) magnificent vesti-
bule of the amphitheatre first, and finding that there
was no stern policeman to order them off, no janitor
but a young Judy who beckoned them onward, they
boldly entered. There could hare been but few short
of a thousand Liliputians seated comfortably when
the proceedings commenced. Most of them were
clean and neatly dressed, and some of them emphati-
cally were not, but all were self-contained and very
well-behaved.

The Rev. J. Shoobridge presided on the stage, and
offered up a prayer in plain language that was under-
standed of his wee listeners, and then a hymn was
given out, "There is a gate that stands a)ar," and was
loudly and joyously pealed forth; the air was simple
but spirited, and those juveniles that had rime in
chance, the irregulars of the amembly, quickly pick
it up and joined in with fulness of heart if not always
with the most correct of voices,
Mr. Wm. Forbes, a well-known lay missionary, who
holds prayer meetings daily in the City and in the
West-end, then delivered an address such as the
intellects of his hearers could grasp, homely,
anecdotal, and earnest, neither perplexing by theo-
logical phrases nor disfigured by the introduction of
high-sounding Johnsonianisms. Pithy and cheering, a
two-syllabled sermon such as those to children should
always be, inspiring them with love not fear, his die
course was; and the children—even Gie x's son and the
denizens of the Stony Arabia who were present—
took it in with a pleased and wondering expression.
But was when the volume of sound rang out
from young throats, when sacred song succeeded
to sacred song—" Safe in the arms of Jesus I"
and those stirring martial hymns that seem such
favourites with the boys. " Ho, my comrades, see the
signal," and "We are marching on wilt shield and
banner bright "—that the effecc of these services was
seen in its force. True, many of the youngsters may
come to sing and discover great pleasure in it; hut a
prayer is not the less a prayer that it in set in verse
and that it is rapturously piped by innocent trebles.
A sour countenance is not piety, and the sooner the
prejudice that to be godly one must be solemn-lnelting
and that serenity of conscience is betokened by aversion
to enjoyment is effaced from the mind of childhood the
better. The lesson of such a re-union as that of Satur-
day afternoon must leave impressions that will assert
themselves in after life; nay more, must create
impressions that are felt in many a humbie room.
The late Dr. Binney was right when he said that
every infant Caine into the world like a delegated
Prophet, the harbinger and the herald of good tidings,
whose office it is "to turn the hearts of the fathers to
the children," and to draw "the disobedient to Ole
wisdom of the just." And if it were only because of
what those little ones will tell v.-hen they return home
Lord Shaftesbury's suggestion that these meetings
should be held often and in various parts of the town
was most excellent, and a ripe harvest of good result
must scenic sooner or later.

Though the attendance was less than the accommo-
dation prodded on Saturday, the success of the serviced
is undeniable, and the principal cause for regret was,
that the exemplary nobleman who advised that they
sh mid be got up was not there to Kee how well his
thought was earned out.