ART. VI.-CHURCH MISSIONS IN NEW YORK CITY.

Annual Report of the Protestant Episcopal Mission to Public Institutions in the City of New York.

BETWEEN eleven and twelve years ago, some of the Rectors and Communicants of our City Churches, dissatisfied with the general usage among us of opening the House of Prayer only on the Lord's Day, were in the habit of meeting daily for the celebration of Public Worship. In certain of our Churches this custom, new to this generation and Church and country, had already for some years obtained and found favor. At the time however of which we now speak, one after another had been added to the number of Churches open for Daily Worship, amid somewhat of excitement, discussion and opposition. Some advocated the practice earnestly, others as strenuously opposed it. Like many another movement, good in itself, its own merits were lost sight of, and it was advocated by some in connection with usages with which it had really no necessary connection: opposed by others in part, because of the system to which it seemed to them to belong, in part perhaps because of the persons by whom it was here introduced. In short, like many another subject, although having no necessary connection with any party in the Church, it became a party question, and its true merits were lost to sight.

The Rev. W. Richmond, of blessed memory, was a man above all party, a Churchman who, throughout his whole life, loved what was Christ-like wherever found, and was ready equally to follow or lead in what seemed to him to be good. He saw in the opening of the Churches for Daily Prayer, not only an appearance and means of greater devotion, but a greater self-sacrifice on the part of the Clergyman who each day at the appointed hour led the prayers of those assembled, than on the part of those of the Clergy who opened their Churches only on Sundays. It may be, also, that he had in mind the example, not only of the Early Church, but of the

zealous, untiring Henry Venn, who, in one of his country Parishes, was accustomed to hold a Daily Service, not in his Church, but at evening in the kitchen of his own house, where he gathered, at the close of their day's labor, as many workpeople and others from the neighborhood as would give heed to his call.

In thinking over the subject with reference to his own duty, Mr. Richmond for a time hesitated as to his course. If two or three should desire to gather for Daily Prayer, he was ready to meet with them, whether in the Church or from house to house. Yet, it could not escape the attention of one who had to an uncommon degree the gift of looking at a subject from every side, and in every light, that the few who would meet for Daily Service would be among the most devout and best circumstanced; whereas, amid the wickedness and woe of this naughty world, the time and power of Christ's Ministers ought, it would seem, to be chiefly given to saving men from sin and relieving suffering. By the Holy Spirit of God, Mr. Richmond's attention was at this time directed to the Public Institutions of our city, then unvisited, except occasionally, by any Clergyman of our Church, some of them seldom receiving a Minister of any denomination within their walls. He expressed it as his opinion, that, by taking the time required to maintain a Daily Service, and devoting it to labor in some of the Charitable Institutions of our City, he should be better serving his Master and his brethren, than by the introduction of more frequent Services into his own Parish. Accordingly,

having obtained the necessary permission, he commenced a Weekly Service at the New York Orphan Asylum, containing about two hundred children, and, at the City Lunatic Asylum, on Blackwell's Island, another, which was attended by about seventy persons, among them some who in former years had been under Mr. Richmond's ministry. At his suggestion, his Assistant began at about the same time to visit twice each week the Colored Home, holding Service in the Chapel, and visiting the sick in the Wards.

Such is the history of the origin of the Mission to Public Institutions. In writing out this account for the present

occasion, we have relied chiefly upon memory. Although the reasons given by Mr. Richmond for making this labor his, are well fixed in our mind, owing to the fact that the subject was thoroughly discussed in his family, of which we were at the time an inmate, very possibly we may have unwittingly ourself supplied some of the connecting thoughts. The main facts, however, are as has been stated. The institution of Daily Service led Mr. Richmond to ask if he were doing all that he ought and could. The result of his thought was the planning and commencing of this Mission.

Mr. Richmond continued to visit and hold Services in the Lunatic and Orphan Asylums, until his departure upon the Oregon Mission. In the meantime, however, the Alms House had been added to the field of labor, a Weekly Service being established there, and the Holy Communion occasionally administered, in Chapel and at the bedside, to those desiring to partake.

After Mr. Richmond's return, broken in health, from the shores of the Pacific, he was for a time unable to perform any Ministerial duties. With his returning strength, his desire to be engaged in some Missionary labor led him to visit, upon Blackwell's Island, the Penitentiary, the Work House and the Institution now known as the Island Hospital, holding also frequent, and when able, Daily Services in the House of Mercy. With the consent of the authorities, he made arrangements for Services, occupying the whole of one Sunday in each month, in the Penitentiary, the Alms House, and the Work House, preaching on those Sundays to more than fifteen hundred prisoners and outcasts, among whom were about sixty Communicants of our Church, whom age or sickness had cast upon the Public Charity.

His return to his Parish enabled his Assistant to open a Mission to Randall's Island, containing at the time about twelve hundred children in the City's care. The Leake and Watts Orphan House was also visited, and a Weekly Service commenced there. All of the Institutions named have continued part of our Missionary field, from the time of commencing the Services to the present day. Occasional visits have been

made to other of our Public Charities: as however we have not yet been able to establish regular Services, excepting in the places named, we have not thought it worth while to enumerate them now. The Institutions regularly visited at present are therefore the same to which this Mission has directed its attention for the last seven years. Notwithstanding that this is the case, the Mission for these seven years has by no means stood still. Our desire has been rather to make the Mission effective in the field occupied, than merely to extend its area. To this end we have accepted all opportunities furnished us for gathering the inmates of these various Charities in the Chapels, or Rooms for Service, with which many of them are provided: but more especially has it been our aim to minister faithfully and fully to the sick. Two of our principal Hospitals, containing together about fifteen hundred beds, receive into their Wards very many who pass their days sadly removed from every holy influence. Some of them have never been taught of Christ, others have quite forsaken Him. If there be ever a time when the Gospel is welcome to such, it is while they lie, lonely and sick or dying, in a Public Hospital. As we have been able, therefore, we have increased our labors in these Hospitals, until the present time, when each is visited regularly by a Clergyman thrice in the week, and frequently also by a female Bible Reader who gives to each a portion of her time.

Another institution claiming our tender care, is the Alms House, in which are gathered many hundreds whom natural incapacity, or old age, or some infirmity or misfortune has driven to its shelter. In this common home of the poor, we find many brethren of our own household, members, by Baptism or Communion, of the Episcopal Church. Scattered as they are more or less throughout all the departments of Public Charity, they form at the Alms House a little Church by themselves. Never shall we forget the happy day when, under this Mission, the opening Service of our Church was held in the Alms House Chapel. Tears of joy and thanksgiving fell from the aged eyes of those who had never hoped to join again upon earth in the loved Worship of their childhood's Church. It was like the gladness that filled the soul of the aged Simeon, when

that Christ whom he always bore in his heart, shed the light of His earthly presence upon his sight.

We have seldom less than forty, at times as many as seventy communicants. While the greater number of the members of our Church at the Alms House are emigrants from England and Ireland, this is by no means the case with all. The changes and chances of life lead thither from our midst some, once of high standing in society, some whom we ourselves have formerly known. This is also the case in a less degree in other Charities, as the City Lunatic Asylum, Bellevue Hospital and the Orphan Asylum, in all of which are to be found those, or the children of those, who once bore a good name in mercantile ranks, in social circles, and in the Church. There are many connected in memory with our own earlier years, now lost to our sight. Sometimes, as we meet a friend of our youth, and in imagination live over together its light hearted days, we wonder what has become of this one or that, of whom we have long had no tidings. We remember of some, that their parents met with losses; of others, that they were unsuccessful in their first trials in the work of life. Some of the young men we know became dissipated; some of the young women married bad husbands. But they have passed out of our sight, and this is the last we have been able to learn. Who will join the broken thread, and give us their story and tell us now where they are?

Theirs may be the tale familiar to our Missionaries. Those who met with misfortune, or had cause for shame, shrank from their former friends, and struggled on, ever sinking, until, in some Alms House or Public Hospital, they laid themselves down upon a pauper's bed. There we found them, spoke to them. of Christ they were comforted and died in the solitary dead house we said over their remains those words in which we commit to earth the bodies of our departed, but there was present no friendly eye to weep; no living tongue to say, Amen. These are no fancies, but painful, every day realities. The following is a brief summary of our public labors. The sick wards at Bellevue Hospital have been visited throughout the year, semi-weekly, and, for the last quarter, thrice in each