Page:The Church of England, its catholicity and continuity.djvu/220

204 they have largely added to benefactions from private sources to increase benefices in private patronage, and they provide annually about ₤24,000 to meet an almost equal sum, for providing additional curates to the mining population. They have made grants amounting to more than twenty-three millions, of which ₤3,872,212 were from private benefactories to about 5,000 benefices." Through the Benefices Act of 1863 "the sum of about ₤25,000 has been added to the capital endowment of Churches."

Another movement for the benefit of the Church has been the appointment of Suffragan Bishops to help in the work of the Bishops of the dioceses. They can assist the regular Bishops by conducting Confirmations and consecrating Churches, and in the case of the Bishop's illness they can take his whole duties if so authorized by him. Suffragan Bishops were known as far back as the time of Henry VIII. But even with their help to-day all the needs of our densely populated dioceses cannot be attended to as they ought to be.

We must not forget other agencies of good in the Church. For instance, the great work done by our Sunday Schools, by the Society for Waifs and Strays, our Orphanages, our Temperance movements. We must remember the Church Army and the Church Lads' Brigade. We must remember too the noble work of the Sisterhoods in the Church of England. Here, gentle women, of gentle birth, devote all their labours to the cause of the poor and destitute. They are ready to go at a moment's notice by their self-sacrifice to rescue any poor starving or badly treated child from the horrors and the immorality of some miserable hovel. The Church's life to-day is so varied and so complex that it is