St Matt, xviii. 14. "It is not the will of your Father which is in
heaven, that one of these little ones should perish."
I am here to plead for the Kirkdale Industrial Ragged School, and Free
School-room Church. The great majority of children who attend this
school belong to the class of "street arabs," as they are now called; and
either already belong to, or are likely to sink into, the dangerous
classes--professional law-breakers, profligates, and barbarians. How
these children have been fed, civilized, christianized, taught trades and
domestic employments, and saved from ruin of body and soul, I leave to
you to read in the report. Let us take hold of these little ones at
once. They are now soft, plastic, mouldable; a tone will stir their
young souls to the very depths, a look will affect them for ever. But a
hardening process has commenced within them, and if they are not seized
at once, they will become harder than adamant; and then scalding tears,
and the most earnest trials, will be all but useless.
This report contains full and pleasant proof of the success of the
schools; but it contains also full proof of a fact which is anything but
pleasant--of the existence in Liverpool of a need for such an
institution.
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