Church Services. The services at Sonning will be the same as during last month. At All Saints', the services on Sundays will be at 11 o'clock in the morning, and at half-past 3 o'clock in the afternoon. DIOCESAN BOARD OF EDUCATION. On Sunday, August 6th, a collection was made in Sonning Church, for the Diocesan Board of Education, under the Bishop's Pastoral Letter, amounting to £18 5s. At All Saints' the collection amounted to £3 15s. MONITORS' EXHIBITION. The examination for the exhibitions for monitors, conducted by the Rev. F. Williams, Rector of Peppard, was held at Henley, on July 12th. The second exhibition was awarded to John Webb, of Sonning School. SCHOOL FEASTS. On Friday, August 4th, the feast of the Sonning and Woodley Schools took place in the Vicarage Garden. Great amusement was got out of various races and games that followed the tea. A football, presented by the Rev. Richard Palmer, was most popular. There were 187 children present. Through the kindness of Mrs. Crawshay, the feast of the All Saints' School was held at Caversham Park, on Monday, August 7th. An abundant repast was provided in the Long room, and the afternoon and evening were very pleasantly spent under the shade of the trees. The day was lovely, though a trifle too hot in the sun. number of children was 71. The In the month of April we were enabled to send another box to the sick children, containing clothing, toys, and six shillings, the result of a penny subscription in Woodley; a box of games from Sonning Boys' School, dolls, bricks, balls, pictures, slippers, &c., which were duly acknowledged by the Hon. Sec., whose letter we subjoin. "Dear Madam, "Rectory, Wapping, "Will you offer our most sincere thanks to the kind friends in Sonning who have remembered the poor children in the East London Hospital, in a way which it gives me real pleasure to acknowledge. The clothes and toys you have sent, will be most acceptable. It is a great gratification to meet with instances of good and kind feeling on the part of those who are personally strangers. "Your's very faithfully, "SHERRARD B. BURNABY." "To Miss Righton." INDISCRIMINATE CHARITY. "An enormous sum of money is annually distributed in private charity throughout the kingdom, and the good done bears little proportion to the amount given. It cannot be too much inculcated upon men's minds that the givers of indiscriminate charity are practically to be classed among the most mischievous enemies of the poor. The direct tendency of what they do is to tempt and encourage the poor to become hypocrites and impostors; to paralyze their industry; and to undermine their self-respect and self-reliance. It is false to call such expenditure by the name of charity. A great deal of it doubtless proceeds from feelings of true benevolence; but how much of it is prompted by other motives: the desire to do as others do; the wish to avoid the unpleasant sight of distress, real or apparent; the inability to resist importunity; the superstitious idea that it is a duty to give a portion of our means in the name of alms, without regard to the effect produced. There can be no charity unless there is the desire to do good to the recipient; and there can be no enlightened charity that does not seek to carry out that wish in the right way, by making careful enquiries as to the circumstances in which the boon is bestowed, and the effect which it is likely to have. It is not an easy task to accomplish this object, but on all sides measures are being taken by the help of associations and otherwise, to assist benevolent persons in wisely and intelligently carrying out their views. Two great considerations ought to be looked to; the real destitution of the parties to whom charity is given, and the caution that confines it mainly to casual and extraordinary sources of distress, and does not establish any source on which the poor can rely, so as to dispense with ordinary and necessary prudence on their part."-LORD Neaves. The following circular has been issued by the Chief Constable of Berks. "The public are earnestly appealed to for their co-operation with the Magistrates and Boards of Guardians of this County in endeavouring to abate the demoralising system of Vagrancy, which has increased to an alarming extent, and unless checked will become an overwhelming evil. Measures were adopted at a large and influential meeting at Reading, on the 8th of April, for securing to the honest wayfarer, proper relief in food and lodging, at the Workhouse. The plea of starvation, therefore, can no longer be used with truth with beggars to extort alms, and the public may safely refuse, as they are earnestly invited to do, to give anything to them. The Public should remember that tramping Beggars are almost invariably Impostors, and that if food or clothing are given in charity, they are probably disposed of at the first town for money to be expended in drink; a Clergyman in Manchester enquired minutely into 200 such cases; in only two of them was a correct address given, and one of those two cheated him. The charitable being now assured that no Beggar need suffer hunger or be destitute of lodging, it is particularly requested that donations of every kind, money, food, or clothing, may be withheld from them, so will one temptation to Vagrancy be removed, and the deserving poor in their own neighbourhoods may be largely benefited by receiving what has hitherto been bestowed upon Impostors." WORDS AND DEEDS. Ill-natured deeds are very rare when compared with ill-natured words; in short, the proportion of the deeds to the words, is as Falstaff's penny-worth of bread to his monstrous quantity of sack. It would be a shrewdly good bargain for the world to agree that illnatured deeds should be multiplied by ten, if only the ill-natured words were to be diminished by one half; for, though the deed may be a much larger and more potent thing than the word, it often does not give nearly as much pain. Dependents would gain very much by this bargain, for they seldom suffer much from deeds, but a great deal from words. Many a man goes through life scattering illnatured remarks in all directions, who has never done to his knowledge, an ill-natured deed, and who probably considers himself a very good natured fellow, but one, however, who takes a knowing view of all human beings, and of all human affairs, and is not to be imposed upon by anything or anybody. A. HELPS. BAPTISMS. SONNING: July 30, Beatrice Fanny, daughter of Joshua and Fanny Bailey. August 20, Phœbe, daughter of Joshua and Anna Rackley. ALL SAINTS': August 20, Florence Ellen, daughter of Thomas and Eliza Evans. BURIALS. SONNING: July 30, John Goodchild, of Sonning, aged 64. August 5, Leonard Wheeler, of Woodley, aged 9 months. |