Page:Sketches of representative women of New England.djvu/368

Rh individual imd prescribe for his need rather than to his wants. Many a poor creature, dis- couraged and heart-sick, as well as miserably poor of this world's goods, could testify to the ministration to both bodily and spiritual needs; and scores in want of employment or perhaps unfitted to their present employment could tell of a changed burden, that from its lightness and because it better fitted their shoulders seemed no burden at all. To bring the mind of man in accord with Gad's great plans for the human race, and thus bring the universe in concord with the Creator, is the tremendous aim of those who planned the Procopeia Club.

In 1895 "Mrs. Helen an Anderson, seeking to establish a new and unsectarian church, afterwanl named by Professor Trine the Church of the Higher Life, came to Mrs. Kirby for the executive aid she felt that lady was capable of giving. It was incorporated the same year, with Mrs. Kirby as its president. Later a service was held in Allen Hall, ordaining and installing with impressive ceremony Mrs. Van Anderson as its minist(>r, among the clergy- men to officiate being the Rev. Minot J. Savage, the Rev. Antoinette Blackwell, and others of note.

With all this puljlic work Mrs. Kirby still founil time to attend to 'social duties, to be at home to her friends, antl to put her thoughts on paper in the form of essays and poems. These, published as the result of her experiences in philanthropic work, brought to her a huge correspondence in the shape of questions and requests for spiritual aid, and entailetl an impossible amount of writing. This also proved even more conclusively, if that weie necessary, that a great number of people were reaching out for a strength and hope they longed for, but did not know how to obtain. Under each question, beneath every inquiry, was the spirit of unrest — a lack of conununion and understanding of God's plans for his creatures. How was that cry to be answered, and those needs, how were they to be met ?

The Faith and Hope Fund, planned by Mrs. Kirby, was a step in the right (lirection. It accomplished enough to lead to tlie present Faith and Hope Association, formed in September, 1896, and incorporated in October of the same year. The present home of the association is at the new Boylston Chambers, Boylston Street, Boston. Mrs. Kirby is its president, assisted by a board of directors.

Perhaps no better idea of the work can be given than in the words of the president her- self, dedicated to the association and i.ssued Christmas, 1901:—

The motto of the .society is, " Love conquers the world," ami the organizers of the Faith and Hope Association are putting heart and soul into the work of such branches as have alreaily been established. They do not "beg" for their charities, but state the case, and feel confident that the case will recommend itself.

Sin antl want are the foes they propose to fight and comiuer — sin of any kind, and want in whatever 'nature it manifests itself. It is often want of proper knowledge that plunges the soul over its first moral precipice. Ignorance of the laws of nature is sin to the third and fourth generation.

Like the Procopeia Club, the Faith and Hope Association enileavors to fit the needy to the neeil. The rooms of the association at Christmas time resemble nothing so much as the home of a Santa Clans determined to give