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 FORTY YEARS' EXPERIENCE IN THE WORKING OF 
 AN S.P.G. ASSOCIATION IN A RURAL PARISH, 
 
 A LETTER 
 
 ADDRESSED TO THE REV. CANON OWEN, 
 Organizing Secretary for the Af'ckdeaconry of Winchester^ 
 
 BY THE 
 
 VEN. ARCHDEACON HUXTABLE, 
 
 TOGETHER WITH A PASTORAL LETTER OF THE 
 
 LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER. 
 
 Ijiinkb for i\i ^nmi'^ for \\i ^ropngation of 11}^ d^ospti, 
 
 19, DELAHAY STREET, WESTMINSTER, 
 BY R. CLAY, £OKS, AKD TAYLOR, BREAD STREET HILL.
 
 IN the month of May, 1880, the Standing Committee, seeing that 
 the General Fund of the Society had fallen off under the item 
 of Subscriptions and Collections during 1878 and 1879 to the 
 amount of ;£i,2oo and ^'2,000 respectively, caused a circular letter 
 to be addressed to the Vice-Presidents, Diocesan Representatives, 
 and Organizing Secretaries, with the view of arresting so very serious 
 a diminution of the Society's resources. It was specially desired 
 that the Society's friends should meet and consider how its existing 
 Organization throughout the country could be better worked so that 
 its income, and consequently its powers of usefulness, should, by the 
 force of a widely-diffused Missionary Spirit and not by the spasmodic 
 efforts of a few, permanently become more commensurate with the 
 calls that are made upon it. 
 
 The suggestion was kindly received, and in many parts of the kingdom 
 immediately acted upon. In the Diocese of Winchester a Conference 
 was held in the Cathedral City on July 29, under the Presidency of 
 the Lord Bishop. The presence of the Ven. Archdeacon Huxtable, 
 than whom the Society has no truer friend, was invited, although he 
 is unconnected with the Diocese. Unable to attend personally, he 
 wrote the following letter, which is cordially commended to the 
 Society's friends, and which will continue the good work which the 
 " Country Vicar's" letter on Parochial Associations has wrought for 
 so many years. The "Country Vicar" of 1846 was the late Rev. 
 Canon Seymour of Kinwarton ; and during these last thirty-four years 
 many thousands of copies of his letter have been published and with 
 the best results. The letter of Archdeacon Huxtable seemed so 
 important to the Society's friends assembled at Winchester that they 
 requested the Bishop to circulate it, and to commend it to the clergy 
 and laity of his Diocese. To this his lordship kindly consented, and 
 his Pastoral Letter is appended in the hope that it may bear fruit 
 over an area wider than that of the Diocese of Winchester. 
 
 H. W. TUCKER, 
 
 Secretary. 
 October i 1880.
 
 letter of archdeacon huxtable to the rev. canon owen, 
 organizing secretary for the archdeaconry of winchester. 
 
 "Sutton Waldron, Shaftesbury, 
 ''July 2Zrd, 1880. 
 
 " As I cannot profit by your invitation to go and assist at the 
 S.P.G. Conference to be held on Thursday next at Winchester, I 
 will venture to put into writing some of the observations which I 
 should have liked to address to the Meeting if permitted to be 
 present. The purport of my words would have been to set forth 
 the results of forty years' experience in the working of an S.P.G. 
 Association in this small village ; which is wholly agricultural, and 
 has a population of less than 250 souls, being made up of labourers 
 under the direction of two farmers. Those results, tliough falling 
 short of such as I desire, yet exhibit a proof that our labour has not 
 been ' wholly in vain in the Lord.' Indeed, we have been able to 
 remit, on the average of the last five years, somewhat more than 
 iQo/. a year to the " General,' ' Special,' and ' Appropriated' Funds 
 of the S.P.G. 
 
 *• So soon as I came into residence as Incumbent of Sutton Wal- 
 dron (about 1836), I began to try to awaken an interest in behalf of 
 foreign Missions, and to impress upon the * little flock ' that the 
 Lord had given unto them the duty and blessing of sending the good 
 tidings into heathen lands — nor were these efforts fruitless. The 
 first who heard the Call was my youngest brother, H. C. Huxtable, 
 who devoted himself to the work, and was sent by the S.P.G. to 
 South India, where (chiefly at Sawyerpuram) he laboured until failing 
 health compelled his return to England. After a while with recruited 
 strength he went forth again as Missionary to Port Louis, Mauritius. 
 There his ministry was very successful, both among the Coolies and 
 our own people. He was consecrated Bishop of the Island 1870; 
 and, alas ! soon afterwards sunk under the cHmate. 
 
 " During several years I had the assistance of two Curates — one a 
 returned C.M.S. Missionary, another went forth to New Zealand, and 
 died in the house of its devoted Bishop. 
 
 "Then a pupil teacher in our national school, who afterwards 
 became a schoolmaster, wanted to enter the Missionary field. As 
 he was young I feared that this might be only a transient impulse ; but 
 he was in real earnest, and after two years entered the noble insti- 
 tution, St. Augustine's College. When his proper training was com- 
 pleted, he found employment under the S.P.G. in Burmah. His 
 ministry was successful, and he died in his work. His two orphan 
 sons are now wards of the S.P.G., and are deriving additional benefit
 
 from the ' Missionaries' Children Education Fund,' of which my 
 friend, Rev. J. F. Moor, of Amp field, is the Secretary, and which, 
 by the way, 1 hope will receive larger support from the Church than 
 it has yet obtained. Though I am no longer Rector of the parish, 
 my successor, the Rev. S. P. Downing, supports m every way the 
 good Cause ; and the old interest in Missions is aj effective here as 
 it was forty years ago, though the preceding generation has mostly 
 ' fallen asleep.' 
 
 '• This continued and steady support of the work is not due to 
 quarterly schoolroom meetings, but to perpetual pleadings from the 
 pulpit. The worshippers in our little church are reminded ' in season 
 and out of season,' that the Lord has taught us to say, ' Thy king- 
 dom come,' before we pray for our daily bread or daily pardon — 
 that ' He is the Head over all Things for His Church ' ; ' that all 
 things visible and invisible were not only made by Him but for 
 Him;' that when He declared Himself invested with 'all power 
 in Heaven and earth He gave the supreme command to His disciples 
 to go and teach all nations.' It has been sought to prove to the 
 people that the support of Missions by prayers and by offerings is a 
 primary duty of every Christian man : and it has been further urged 
 that Cliurchmen who possess the means of grace 'without money 
 and without price' (in all senses of that text) are specially bound to 
 do more for Missions than is done by Nonconformists, who, in ad- 
 dition to their large Missionary contributions, maintain their own 
 ministers and places of worship. Of course all these are both well- 
 known and obvious Christian truths ; but if I may judge from my 
 own experience, they are not adequately enforced on the hearts 
 and consciences of the faithful. I do not hear them often urged by 
 such announcements as these, 'You and I, and the Church Militant, 
 and the whole present system of the world's government, exist only 
 to extend the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour ; and that if we 
 fail in doing our part therein we are denying our Christian pro- 
 fession, forfeiting our eternal reward, and frustrating the very end 
 of our existence.' 
 
 " For months together in crowded churches in towns I have heard 
 no allusion even to the paramount duty of preaching the Gospel to 
 every creature, save at the Missionary Anniversary. 
 
 " In order to quicken and sustain the concern of our people in 
 publishing the 'glad tidings to all nations,' we attempt to give in- 
 formation on some sphere of Missionary 'operation on the first 
 Sunday of every month, in the following manner. As there are two 
 boxes fixed in the church for receiving Missionary alms, and a certain 
 portion is given of every offertory to S.P.G. at Holy Communion, 
 the minister on the first Sunday announces from the pulpit how much 
 has been contributed in the boxes on each Sunday respectively, and 
 the amount of the offertory. This makes a natural introduction to 
 )-)is relating some Missionary intelligence ; this prehminary to the 
 
 r\
 
 sermon is limited to ten minutes, and of course the sermon itself is 
 proportionately shortened. 
 
 "Two advantages seem to flow from this method; first, the sub- 
 ject of Missions is periodically brought before the congregation, and 
 next, the clergyman himself is obliged to read Missionary reports 
 and other sources of information. But these sources are abundant, 
 and are such as the Annual Report, the invaluable Mission Field, 
 the Quarterly Paper, The Net, Mission Life, and the indispensable 
 Under His Banner, Miss Yonge's Pioneers and Founders. These 
 periodicals and standard works, supplemented by extracts from the 
 lives of our great Missionaries, really furnish an embarras des richesses 
 of Missionary matter. But the intelligence thus given concerns 
 chiefly the spiritual effects of Missions on the converts, &c. 
 
 "By using the pulpit on Sundays at the fullest attended service, 
 the subject of Missions is brought before all churchgoers ; an end 
 not attained by schoolroom gatherings on week-days, when some 
 cannot and many will not be present. 
 
 " We never have had a deputation here, being anxious to save 
 the Society the frightful cost of that system, and one which seems 
 wholly unnecessary, at least in rural parishes, if only the clergyman 
 will interest himself in that all-important department of duty. In 
 former years we used to have a schoolroom meeting annually, in 
 which three or four clergy spoke on certain prepared subjects for 
 twenty minutes each in succession ; but for the last ten years we 
 have only had instead a lecture on some particular Mission, illustrated 
 by diagrams. 
 
 " There remains one more bit of machinery that has proved very 
 beneficial to our work. About one-half of our houses in the parish 
 are supplied with * Missionary boxes,' and great pains have been 
 taken to show how they should be rightly used. The box-holders 
 are exhorted to place in these little treasuries a weekly offering, how- 
 ever small, on the Lord's Day ; and to make besides a special con- 
 tribution whenever God has conferred a peculiar mercy, such as an 
 anxiety removed, sickness healed, or letter with good news received, 
 some worldly success vouchsafed, &c., &c. Perhaps many would 
 think it better to reserve such thanksgivings for the offertory in 
 God's House — but sad experience has shown me that it is best to 
 give to God, on bended knee, when the heart is warm — for these 
 grateful emotions are apt to be enfeebled by the lapse of days, which 
 will perhaps bring fresh trials of our Christian lite and evoke other 
 states of mind. 
 
 " There remains one more source of supply — the offerings on the 
 Harvest Festival — one half of which is given to our county hospital, 
 and the remainder to the S.P.G. This division of the sums then 
 collected is made with the full approval of the churchwardens. 
 
 " Probably you will consider, even as I do myself, the outcome 
 of all these lengthened efforts somewhat disappointing ; but,
 
 comparatively, I think that the results are considerable ; and I know 
 that our people's zeal has stimulated some other parishes. But, oh 1 
 I long to see the claims of Missions placed on a higher level than 
 they now occupy, and to see it generally recognised that ' Missions 
 should be the chief end of the Christian Church.' 
 
 " Pray, forgive the prolixity of these observations. If I had time 
 I should like not only to revise but to condense thern^ too— but a 
 pressure of work at present prevents my re-writing this sketch of 
 our litde Sutton Waldron Association. 
 
 " BeHeve me, my dear Sir, 
 
 "Yours very faithfully, 
 
 "A. HUXTABLE. 
 
 ■ "The Rev. Canon Owen." 
 
 PASTORAL LETTER ADDRESSED TO THE CLERGY OF HIS DIOCESE BY 
 THE LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER. 
 
 Farnham Castle, August izth, 1880. 
 
 Rev. and Dear Brother, 
 
 At a Conference held in Winchester on the 29th of last 
 July, called to consider the wants of our Foreign Missionary 
 Societies, especially of the S.P.G., a letter was read from Archdeacon 
 Huxtable to Canon Owen, organising secretary of the S.P.G., which 
 was received with great approval by the clergy present. They re- 
 quested me to make known my own feelings concerning it, and to 
 circulate it in the diocese, together with the substance of some 
 remarks which I made at the time, giving the results of my own 
 experience, which was very similar to that of the Archdeacon. 
 
 Let me first say that the needs of our Church Missions are very 
 great, that, from the depression in commerce and agriculture, from 
 our party strifes, from the general loosening of all religious opinions 
 and from other causes, the funds of most of our Societies have 
 lately fallen off, and that renewed and increased exertions must be 
 made, unless the work of God in our hands is to go backwards, and 
 we ourselves to be found faithless in the day of account. 
 
 I have long believed that interest in Missionary work cannot be 
 kept up by a single annual sermon in church and by a few meetings 
 in our towns with deputations sent from Parent Societies. These 
 may have done good work fifty years ago, and may be of some
 
 service still ; but all sermons are not impressive, nor their influence 
 lasting ; all deputations are not eloquent ; very few in the towns 
 themselves, and still fewer from the villages round about will 
 frequent the meetings ; indeed, the general feeling about them is at 
 the best one of listless indifference. I am sure that by far the best way 
 of keeping up interest and increasing funds is by working effectu- 
 ally parish associations, and by trying to bring home to every family 
 and, as far as possible, to every member of every family, a knowledge 
 of, and a feeling for, the work which the Church is doing abroad. 
 I have often expressed my opinion, in public and in private, that 
 every parish ought to have its own Missionary association, regularly 
 and systematically worked. 
 
 At the meeting in Winchester I gave an account of my own plan 
 of action when I was myself a parish priest, and it was this which, 
 in connexion with Archdeacon Huxtable's letter, I was asked to put 
 in print. In 1842 I became incumbent of a large town parish ; my 
 predecessor had had an annual sermon, and an annual meeting, in 
 the schoolroom, for S.P.G., and C.M.S., and some of his district 
 visitors collected for it, but the interest excited and the funds 
 gathered were very small. What I tried to do was to improve upon 
 this. We had a meeting in the schoolroom, when I announced my 
 intention to divide the parish into districts, each of which was to be 
 canvassed for missions by district collectors, who would leave cards 
 in every house, circulate missionary publications, and call once a 
 week, or once a month, as the inhabitants might prefer, for weekly 
 or monthly contributions, the sum contributed to be entered on the 
 respective cards. In addition to this, missionary boxes were de- 
 posited in any houses or shops where they would be accepted and 
 useful. We had still our annual sermon, and once a quarter instead 
 of once a year we had a meeting in the schoolroom, the speakers 
 being the clergy of the parish and any neighbouring clergyman 
 or layman who would come in and help us. We gave simple 
 addresses, sometimes lectures illustrated by pictures or maps. The 
 result of the whole movement was to quadruple the funds in the 
 very first year. 
 
 Ten or eleven years after, I tried the same scheme in a large 
 country parish in Cornwall, and with still more marked success. 
 It was surprising to see how the people flocked from the country 
 round, some from great distances, to the quarterly schoolroom 
 meetings. The result was not only to swell the funds of the 
 Societies, but to interest a great number of the farmers and of the 
 poor in Church missions, and so in Church work generally. Whilst 
 there had been only annual sermons in the church, and annual 
 meetings in the neighbouring town, the people (who in Cornwall are 
 mostly Wesleyans) did not even know that the Church had any 
 missions to the heathen. Such things they believed to be peculiar 
 to the Wesleyans : and I can confidently say that no work in church,
 
 8 
 
 school, or cottage, had so favourable an influence in gathering my 
 people round me, and conciliating dissenters to the Church, as this 
 exhibiting to them constantly the Church as a great Missionary 
 body, and this interesting of them personally in Mission work. They 
 learned for the first time to believe that the Church was working in 
 earnest for the salvation of souls. 
 
 I append Archdeacon Huxtable's letter, and commend it to your 
 best attention. It seems to me especially valuable as showing how 
 much may be done in small parishes by means of the pulpit. It 
 details, moreover, a system very like my own, and equally or more 
 successful. 
 
 I earnestly commend to every parish clergyman to make trial of 
 some such work. I am certain that the results are all gain, with no 
 loss in any direction. Men give more freely for other work who 
 have learned to give for this. Men love those who teach them to 
 give. One reason of the lukewarmness of our people to the clergy, 
 to the Church and to religion, is, that they have them all so cheap, 
 never have to give for them, and so know but little of their worth. 
 
 I would only add that, in my opinion, it is generally wise to collect 
 funds for both Societies, S.P.G., and C.M.S., giving our people a 
 choice as to which they may prefer, though expressing our own 
 preference, if needful. Each Society may have its faults, but both 
 have been working for God ; the work will abide, and the faults are 
 not incapable of remedy. There are, and always will be, differences 
 amongst us; and unless we give some choice, we are in great danger 
 of receiving a rebuff, and so of losing influence for good. 
 
 Commending the whole subject to your careful thought, 
 
 I am, Rev. and Dear Brother, 
 
 Your faithful Brother and Servant in Christ, 
 
 E. H. WiNTON.

 
 
 
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