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 PrintableVersion Streets paved with goldThe story of the London City MissionGolden streets?STREETS PAVED WITH GOLD For over 150 years the London City Mission has been doing sterling work for Christ on the streets of the capital city. Here is an extract from a new book telling the LCM story which has many insights to challenge and encourage us today. The Annual Meeting of London City Mission in May 1848 was held in exciting and anxious times. Revolution was sweeping Europe. It seemed that the dark days of the French Revolution were likely to return, and that they might cross the English Channel and reach London. The Chartist movement planned a vast demonstration at Kennington Common on April 10, to be followed by a march to Parliament bearing a petition signed by five million people demanding reform. Fearing revolution, the government called in 8,000 troops and 1,000 retired soldiers to support the capital's 4,000 police. In the event, however, the great demonstration turned out to be a damp squib. Although as many as 100,000 may have gathered at Kennington, there was no march to Westminster and no revolution. Lord Kinnaird chaired the LCM meeting just a month later. In his opening speech, he said, 'It is my firm belief, that in the late confusion and difficulty which seemed to hang over this metropolis, the agency of the London City Mission, along with other bodies of a like character, did most materially contribute to keep the whole metropolis at peace. For years afterwards, Lord Ashley was heard to insist that London's escape from the bloodshed and chaos of 1848 was, at least in part, due to the patient ministry of the missionaries of the LCM among the very poorest parts of the population. Such public acclaim underlined the achievement of the teenaged Mission. And how it had grown! By 1848 there were 197 missionaries working in districts, and four specialist missionaries working with the police, cabmen, and the city's Italian population. In the short lifetime of LCM, City and Town Missions had been founded across the country, and missions in direct imitation of London's had been founded in places as different and as distant as Madras and Barbados. Its Committee included Members of Parliament, Lords and many well-known names. Early effectivenessThe Mission's positive acceptance and on-going support derived mainly from the quality and effectiveness of the work of individual missionaries in their districts. It was because their work really made a difference, and was seen to make a difference, that the LCM achieved the stability it had by 1848. When suitable men were selected they were appointed to clearly defined districts, each with a population of a few thousand people. They were to work only in their own districts, and their basic task was to go to the people with the gospel. So they went from house to house and door to door, introducing themselves, listening to what people had to say - and it was often harrowing stories they heard - talking when given the opportunity, trying to persuade people to read the Bible, go to church and send their children to Sunday School. Because they met people in their home situations, and often heard the sad details of their lives, they inevitably and willingly became concerned about, and involved in, their district's social and practical problems. Although forbidden to hand out money, they were able to report cases of need and hardship to wealthy Christian friends who might have it in their hearts to help. Their Journals and Annual Reports became an important and almost unique source of information on the true conditions of the poorest areas of London. Our man in ClerkenwellTypical of such early district visitation was that of Robert Vanderkiste, who wrote of the Cowcross District, in Clerkenwell, as it was in 1845. 'The state and character of the inhabitants of various portions of the district almost baffle description. Extreme ignorance and extreme drunkenness prevail. The children grow up hardened and vicious. Half-starved and half-naked, the boys crowd in shoals, meditating plunder. Fights are common, amongst women as well as men. The dirtiness of the habits of the people in many instances is extremely repulsive; this arises partly from their extreme poverty and partly from drunkenness. When I was first appointed to the district I was seized with violent itchings between the joints, accompanied with redness. Bugs and fleas and other vermin abound.' In such an environment, Vanderkiste visited regularly from room to room, gradually gaining acceptance in courts and houses where the police dared not go. He did what he could to arrange for the provision of clothes for the near naked and food for the hungry, but he also addressed one of the root causes of poverty - the total lack of education of many in his district - by starting ragged schools for both children and adults. Within a few years, some 300 children were attending the day school. Missionaries did not gain acceptance either automatically or easily. 'Perseverance, however, with the word of the living God, was effective, and constant, brutal oppression was overcome, though for long years I was subjected to low abuse and occasional acts of violence. After several years I gained entrance into many rooms and into most of the dens. My care for the sick and the children disarmed opposition, and then in room after room attention was secured to the readings of the Bible. A few began attending the little meeting I had established. . . . Soul after soul was brought under conviction, and many were gathered into the fold of Christ. The neighbourhood was indeed opened up to the clergy, ministers, and a few lay workers ...' The MagazineSuch reports were regularly published in the London City Mission Magazine, which was first produced in January 1836 and appeared monthly thereafter. Sometimes articles in the Magazine offended local clergy because they were stung by suggestions that they did not visit their parishes as diligently as they might. Occasional apologies and clarifications were published to smooth ruffled feathers. The Mission was very careful to check, so far as it could, that reports and the claims they made were accurate. In this and other ways great care was taken to see that missionaries maintained the standards and ideals of the society. Recruitment was a thorough process, fewer than half of applicants being accepted. Some missionaries stayed with the LCM for a few years then left. Others became ill and had to leave, and several died of diseases caught in the course of their work. But a good number spent decade after decade working in the unappealing conditions of the London slums, earning the respect of the people in their districts and the admiration of London City Mission's growing band of supporters. LCM had become an accepted and influential part of the growing evangelical attack on the perceived social, moral and religious evils of early Victorian London. LCM Instructions to Missionaries1. Visit the inhabitants of the District assigned to you for the purpose of bringing them to an acquaintance with salvation, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and of doing them good by every means in your power. 2. Read a portion of the Word of God in every house, if you have an opportunity; when this cannot be done, introduce into your conversation as much of the Scriptures as possible . . . 4. Urge upon every one, the duty of attending the public worship of God. If they attend no place of worship, direct them to those places in the locality in which the gospel is preached; and beware of seeking to promote the interests of a party; the sole object of the Mission being to bring sinners to the Saviour... © Evangelicals Now - August 2003 |
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