The Romance of a Great Charity - The Story of a Poor Girl who Had no Shoes or Stockings to "Wear on her Wedding Day - The Bible in the Most Dangerous Slum in London - What the Mission Does for the Very Poor - Holidays - Presents of Clothes and Boots

The Biblewomen and Nurses' Mission has, as its name implies, a twofold object: it sends both biblewomen and nurses into the poorest districts of London.

The primary work of the biblewomen is to introduce the Scriptures into the homes of the people. They read and teach the Scriptures and endeavour to persuade those who have no Bible to purchase one on the easy-payment system of a penny a week, arranged by the British and Foreign Bible Society with which the mission is affiliated.

I he biblewomen use every opportunity for making friends with the poor, and are thereby enabled to influence them in the reformation of their homes and in the general betterment of family life. They do not deal with sickness except to report it. The mission has its trained nurses to send to the sick in their own homes. The nurses, like the biblewomen, come to headquarters once a week to receive garments for their destitute patients, and medical stores. Both groups of workers meet together for devotional services in the special room for the purpose Ranyard House.

The branches of the mission may be thus summarised. There are upwards of ninety biblewomen, who, as trained mission visitors, work in many of the poorest quarters of London. They live in their respective districts, and generally work under the auspices of some church or chapel. The mission is inter-denominational.

The Ranyard nurses - fully trained hospital nurses - number about eighty, with their superintending sisters, and work in various parishes and districts, on the general lines of district nursing. Their work, however, has a distinctive religious character, for which they receive special training at Ranyard House. In the year 1909 the nurses attended 8,522 cases, and paid 230,758 visits.

The convalescent home at St. Leonards is open all the year round, and receives patients from the districts where the biblewomen and nurses work. Some 355 patients are received annually.

Mrs. Ranvard, the founder of the mission

Mrs. Ranvard, the founder of the mission

The holiday home for workers at Brighton is provided for the staff of the mission. The Ladies' Association, which meets quarterly, assists in extending the work of the mission. The Children's League tends little ones who are sick or otherwise in need of care and help.

Ranyard House, 25, Russell Square, is the office of the organisation, and a hostel for training workers. It receives some fifty candidates annually. Candidates for the post of bible-women should be between the ages of twenty-four and thirty-four, and must be strong and active, of good education, well acquainted with the Bible, and members of some church or chapel. They must be able to wait upon themselves, do their own housekeeping, and manage on a moderate salary. They are required to reside in the hostel for three weeks - a charge of 8s. per week is made for board and lodging - and during that time they are tested by visiting with trained workers. Those requiring training remain in the hostel for a period varying with the necessities of their case. Salary is in accordance with training and experience of the candidates.

Nurse candidates are selected by the hon. superintendent after a personal interview. They must be fully trained hospital nurses, and are expected to reside in the hostel for three weeks before they are accepted for district training. No charge is made for board and lodging. Salary varies according to the training and experience of the candidate. All candidates under forty are required to join the Royal National Pension Fund, the mission paying rather more than half the premium. A similar rule applies to the biblewomen, who are required to join the pension scheme of the mission.

A Romance of Religious Reform

The Marquis of Northampton is president of the mission; the Lord Kinnaird, treasurer; Miss Andrews, the hon. secretary and general superintendent; while the founder was that well-beloved and remarkable woman, Mrs. Ranyard, an early worker in connection with the British and Foreign Bible Society, and a pioneer organiser of district visiting in the homes of London's poor. The story of Mrs. Ranyard's work forms one of the romances of religious and philanthropic reform.

Her maiden name was Ellen White, and she was born in Camberwell The future reformer was a young girl of varied capacities. She was fond of poetry, an original artist

The convalescent home at St. Leonards. Some 355 patients are received here annually in her way, and took an interest in intellectual pursuits at a time when Buch tastes were remarkable in a girl.

The convalescent home at St. Leonards. Some 355 patients are received here annually in her way, and took an interest in intellectual pursuits at a time when Buch tastes were remarkable in a girl.

Her "mission history" began, as she herself has related, when she was sixteen.

A young friend, Elizabeth Saunders, was visiting at her home, and the two girls were sitting together one morning, the one painting and the other ruling squares in a little book, when Elizabeth said to her friend: "Ellen, dear, have you ever thought what you will do with your life?"

"Well, I hope I shall go on cul-tivating my faculties - that is all I have thought about yet."

"Yes," her friend gently rejoined, 'but have you thought that this cultivation is to enable you the better to do something in God's service?"

The conversation then turned upon the Bible, and the elder persuaded her younger friend to go with her to visit the poor people in the streets around her home to see how many of them wanted a Bible. In the course of three hours they found thirty-five houses without a copy of the Scriptures, and returned home with as many pence in their bag, for all these people had agreed to take a copy of the Bible on the instalment principle.

Birth Of The Mission

On that morning the Biblewoman's Mission was born in the heart of Ellen White though many years were destined to elaps before its organisation was begun. From that time also dates her interest in the homes of the poor. She continued her visitation for the Bible Society after she left London with her parents to live in Swanscombe There she became the wife of Mr. Ranyard and the mother of four children. When, in 1854, the Bible Society kept its jubilee, Mrs. Ranyard was entrusted with the writing of a history of the society for the young. It was published under the title of The Book and Its Story," signed by the well-known initials 1.. N. R., which she adopted as a nom deplume. Its popularity was very great.

Three years later, in 1857, Mrs. Ranyard and her family left Swanscombe, and settled in London at a house in Hunter Street. Bloomsbury, which was destined to be the first home of the mission.