The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-06-19 00:00:00

ST. PAUL'S.

The Lord Mayor and Sheriffs, with the Under-
Sheriffs, several of the members of the Court of Alder-
men, among whom were Sir Robert Carden and Sir
Sydney Waterlow, and a goodly number of the
Common Council, all wearing their distinctive robes,
attended the service in St. Paul's Cathedral on the
occasion, going thence from the Mansion-house, pre-
ceded by the City Marshal and the Corporation Sword
and Mace Bearers. On arriving at the entrance to
the Cathedral they formed themselves into a proces-
sion, the Lord Mayor leading the way, and were con-
ducted along the nave to the seats assigned them in
the choir. The dome area was crowded on the occa-
sion, but not so much as the rest of the Cathedral.
At the conclusion of the morning service the Rev.
Canon Miller, Vicar of Greenwich, and himself the
originator of the great kindred movement in aid of
hospitals in the town of Birmingham some years ago,
and which led eventually to the establishment of an
Hospital Sunday in the Metropolis, preached a sermon
for the day. Taking for his text the words "Our vile
body," from the 21st verse of the third chapter of Paul
to the Philippians, he dilated upon the passage at some
length, and on the mystery with which human existence
was surrounded; the body of man, which was said to be
"fearfully and wonderfully made," being in some re-
spects so noble and yet in others so humiliating. He con-
trasted the state of man in his prime and of the maiden
in the first blush of her beauty with the decay which in
process of time inevitably awaited both alike, con s equents
on the ills to which flesh was heir. Coming to the objects
for which Hospital Sunday was devised, he asked
every man in the possession of his senses, his limbs, and an
average measure of health—remembering the mere fact
that he was present at that morning's service, and
not on a bed of sickness—not to cast a single six-
pence into the offertory which was not given as a thank
offering. One great object, he said, of the Hospital
Sunday movement was that its promoters wanted to
get at the really poor; to secure to working men when
disabled by the accidents incident to their several
vocations the ablest physicians, the tenderest nurses,
and the best air. He referred, by the way, to the
noble character of the medical profession, and its self-
sacrificing and generous impulses; to the vast im-
provements which had been made in late years in
hospital nursing and ventilation. Remembering all
that, he said there was scarcely anything which could
come more home to the hearts of those who heard him.
Moreover, having regard for the moment to the differ-
ences which had arisen as to the distribution of the
Hospital Sunday fund, he said that pulpit of the
Metropolitan Cathedral, of all others in London, was
the one from which it might be urged to let "bygones
be bygones." From that Cathedral there might go
forth a mighty influence. Men were asking if that
Hospital Sunday was to last. Why should it not? The
last time a collection was made in Birmingham foi a
similar purpose it was the largest ever made there.
Now that they in London had got over a few breakers,
where the navigation was dangerous and the sailing
slow, God forbid it should now fall to the ground from
any little miserable squabble. They might agree to
differ; but they did not want London to suffer the dis-
grace of not doing what had been doing in the pro-
vinces. Their meeting in that magnificent temple
that morning in such numbers might be said,
of itself, to be a grand expression of homage to mercy.
The Jewish community—their old and respected
allies in this work of mercy—were working hand and
heart with them, and he could not speak too gratefully
of them in that respect. Let it not go forth that the
feeling which prompted Hospital Sunday had abated,
Any man reading his newspaper must have observed
the marvellous sums of money given for a picture or a
piece of old china in these days. Let it, therefore, not
bis said that such a fund as that raised on Hospital
Sunday could not be equitably distributed in that great
metropolis. For himself, he was convinced there was
not a man who would have the management and dis-
tribution of such a fund who would not do it in ac-
cordance with his conscience and in the love of God.
At the end of the service a collection was made in
aid of the Fund, amounting to .kll7.
In the afternoon the sermon was preached by Bishop
Claughton (the Canon in residence) from the text from
the 39th Psalm :—" Beheld, Thou least made my days
as it were a span long, and mine age is even as nothing
in respect of Thee. Verily, every man living is altogether
vanity." The collection amounted to £27 198. 3d.,
making with that in the morning a total of £145 16s. 7d.
To this, however, as in last year, several checks have
to be added, which will swell the amount.