THERE are few things more calculated to enlarge the mind, quicken the imagination, and deepen sympathy in the ways and affairs of men than a tour of the world. It was indeed a happy thing for the subject of this biography that he was able, through the generosity of his parents, to undertake such a journey. The enforced quietness of life on board the S.S. Oceana gave him much needed rest for mind and body, and enabled him to think over in detail the scheme he was so eager to promote, and to prepare for the arduous campaign of the months to come. One may be sure that to one of his ardent and enthusiastic temperament, the voyage would be one of intense interest. He would be finding on every hand matter for thought, subject for illustration and confirmation of the great need for Gospel grace in the lives of men. It is a pity that no letters or notes relating to his voyage remain.
Mr. Black arrived in Adelaide on, or about, 15th March, 1891, and remained on the Australian mainland until the middle of the following October, spending four months in Victoria, five weeks in New South Wales, three weeks in South Australia, and two weeks in Queensland. The city of Melbourne received the greater part of Mr. Black's ministry. During his stay of three months he was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. J.A. Davies. Mrs. Davies was formerly married to Mr. Thomas Hughes Milner, Evangelist of the Churches of Christ in Great Britain, a man who had left a deep influence upon the churches, both by the clearness of his teaching and the piety of his life. His early death was a great loss to the community. Mrs. Davies gladly received the young preacher, and his stay at her hospitable home was amongst the pleasantest recollections of his tour. Mrs. Davies is happily still living, and active in every good work.
Mr. Black's labours in Melbourne were abundant. Considerably over one hundred set addresses were delivered, at first in the Collingwood Town Hall and later in Swanston Street Chapel, where the services were so successful that it was decided to close the Meeting House and take the Theatre Royal for four Lord's Days. Here the interest aroused by the English Evangelist was so great that over 12,000 people crowded into the meetings to hear the good news of salvation, and hundreds were turned away from the doors. From a record of the meetings taken from an Australian paper we learn that:
"The preacher delivered four very able and impressive discourses on the following subjects, in the order given, 'Love's Wonderful Gift,' 'The Captive's Vision of God,' 'The Great Revolution of Life,' and 'The Triumph of Unselfish Love.'"
His message, his manner, and breezy personality soon won the regard of the Australian brethren, his visits were triumphal in their nature, and the expressions of appreciation contained in the journals published by the brotherhood were all most laudatory. The West London Mission was in no way forgotten, for it was part of Mr. Black's programme to devote one evening at each Church he visited to a detailed statement of his aims and hopes for the new work. He succeeded so well in this that he was able to obtain about _1000 towards his scheme, a decided proof of the generosity and sympathy of the Australian Churches for the poor and sinful of the Old Country, as well as a testimony to the enthusiasm of the pioneer of the Mission.
Nor did his public advocacy from the platform exhaust Sydney Black's efforts in the good cause, for we find him, by means of interviews, obtaining a hearing in the columns of the daily press for an exposition of the truths he loved to proclaim. In addition, his pen was busy writing articles for English papers, and in conducting correspondence in the local papers on various questions that arose out of his addresses, and had aroused public opinion at the time.
In South Australia also success awaited Mr. Black. Large and interested meetings were held in the Town Hall at Adelaide. Local churches were visited, and every moment of the short stay used to the full, in the proclamation of the Gospel, and in the advocacy of the Mission. In Adelaide the pleasure of his visit was greatly enhanced by the fact that he was the guest of Dr. Joseph C. Verco, with whom he had spent happy days in London, when Dr. Verco was resident there, and a member of the Chelsea Church.
From Adelaide Mr. Black made his way to the Colony of New South Wales, and speedily found himself engaged in a special mission held in the Central Protestant Hall, Sydney, where in five weeks, twenty-seven meetings were addressed, and many thousand persons reached by the message. In addition to this effort, all the Churches in the surrounding districts were visited. Here the preacher laid aside his work for four days to camp in the bush in the Blue Mountains, and to visit the famous Jenolan Caves.
Nor was the Colony of Queensland forgotten, and the brethren at Brisbane were not a whit behind the others in the warmth of their welcome.
It would be tedious to prolong the record of the work undertaken in Australia by Mr. Black. Everywhere he was received with unmistakable welcome, everywhere he departed amidst expressions of loving regard, carrying with him happy memories of a warmhearted brotherhood, eager for the prosperity of Zion, practically sympathetic to his plea for the multitudes of London, and true to the Faith once for all delivered to the saints.
Leaving the Australian mainland Mr. Black determined to sail to New Zealand by way of Tasmania, and to visit Hobart and Launceston. In both of these places he was received with warm welcome by the delighted brethren. Of his visit to Hobart the following account, which appeared in the columns of The Australian Christian Standard, will serve both to show the manner of his work and the influence he was able to exert:
We have been encouraged and strengthened during the past three weeks by the visit of our gifted brother, Sydney Black, of London. He preached on three Lord's Day evenings to large and attentive audiences in the Temperance Hall (the largest hall in the city), and it was a sight to be remembered to see the hundreds of upturned eager faces drinking in the wonderful words of life, that poured in a perfect torrent of eloquence from the lips of our brother. His burning words and intense earnestness compelled the attention of his audience. The 'Old, Old Story' gathered beauty as he told it, and stirred the hearts of many to their depth. A spirit of enquiry has been aroused by brother Black's visit, and New Testament Truth has been brought prominently before the public, both by the meetings and the press. One local Editor placed a column of his paper at Mr. Black's disposal, and through it a full explanation of the principles and teaching of the Churches of Christ were sent broadcast through the City.
Brother Black endeared himself to all who had the good fortune to hear him in public or to meet him in private. His straightforward and manly character won him the respect of everybody, whether of like opinion in matters of religion or not. The earnest wish of the brotherhood here is, that he may soon see his way to once more visit us, and reanimate us by his unbounded zeal for Christ."
A wish, alas! never to be realised.
On 19th November, Sydney Black sailed for New Zealand in the S.S. Talme. The voyage is interesting for the fact that on board he fell in with Dr. Charles A. Berry, of Wolverhampton, the well-known Congregational Minister of Queen Street Chapel, with whom his intercourse would appear to have been of the friendliest nature, for in a letter written about this time, Mr. Black speaks of the delightful and edifying conversations they had together.
Four days later Mr. Black reached Invercargill and immediately took up his work again, preaching in Hannan's Hall. The Church here was not a large one, but it seized every opportunity to use the service of the English visitor with good results. A week later he was in Mataura where his intense earnestness and his unconventional manner appears to have roused great interest, for he had large and appreciative audiences and favourable notices from the daily press. The Southern Standard of Otago not only gave an extended account of an interview with Mr. Black, but also in a subsequent issue devoted two columns to a descriptive sketch of one of the services, in which, describing Mr. Black's appearance, it said:
"Mr. Black is as unministerial in outline as a man could well be. No broadcloth coat, no Oxford waistcoat, no M.B. collar, nothing to give a person the slightest inkling that he is a religious teacher."
In this statement the reporter has touched upon one of Sydney Black's strong characteristics: his utter dislike of anything that savoured of clericalism in attire, in manner, or in title. It grieved him to have the title "Reverend" prefixed to his name, for he held that the word was nowhere in the Scripture applied to man, but only to God.
Dunedin was the scene of his next labours. Here Mr. Black remained for over three weeks preaching in the Tabernacle and City Hall. On New Year's Day, 1892, he reached Oamaru, where he had the joy of meeting with an old friend, one whom he had known in his boyhood, Mr. Henry Exley, Evangelist, with whom he spent several happy days, even though his host at the time was in a condition of ill-health. The intercourse of the aged saint, whose days were fast closing, with the enthusiastic, earnest young preacher must have been peculiarly blessed to both. To the old man, the sight of one in strength and buoyant energy carrying on the work he loved and had lived for would be a cause of deep thankfulness; while to the young man the influence of one so near to the end of his pilgrimage would but deepen his own desire to serve and to be used for God's glory. Of this visit Sydney Black wrote:
"He (Mr. Exley) is an old traveller and missionary, and his experience is very ripe and extensive. Our communion with him was sweet indeed. May he long be spared to labour for his Lord."
Alas! for human wishes. Only a few years remained for both. The young warrior and the aged saint were both soon to be called to their rest. Their warfare was even then nearly accomplished.
A short tour amongst the smaller Churches on the West Coast of the South island followed. Greymouth, Ross, Hokitika and Brunnerton all received a visit. In Ross, after services in the Presbyterian Church, six persons desired baptism, and three days later were immersed in the Totara River in the presence of an intensely interested throng, to whom such an incident was altogether unique.
After a visit to Nelson, Mr. Black completed his tour of the South Island by a short stay in Christchurch, where the brethren had taken the Theatre Royal for the special services. In addition to his Gospel addresses, he spoke also at a great Temperance Demonstration in the same building, to what he termed "the most enthusiastic audience he had faced in the Colonies."
Crossing to the North Island, we next find him at Wellington, where again the ordinary resources of the Meeting Houses would have proved too small for the audiences who gathered, and the Opera House was engaged. From this place he moved on to Auckland, which was to be the last place in his Colonial wanderings. Here once more an Opera House was requisitioned, and again followed the same success in arousing and holding the attention of the people by the Gospel message. At Auckland Mr. Black was privileged to meet and reside with his uncle, Caleb Wallis, his mother's youngest brother. This visit was in all respects a happy termination of his Island adventures.
The four months of his New Zealand tour had been busy ones for Sydney Black. Crowded with work, every day brought its new experience of places and people. The brethren, delighted with their visiting brother from the Old Country, vied with each other in their endeavours to make his stay a happy one, while they rejoiced in the inspiration and uplift of his brave, strong personality and service. Little time could be spared for mere sight-seeing, for we can only find mention of a four-days' coaching trip through the Otira Gorge and the Buller River Valley, and a day at the goldfields of Ross and Kumara, where the Evangelist - turned gold-digger - was able to accumulate a fortune of seven pennyweights of the precious metal.
On 26th March, 1892, Mr. Black sailed by the S.S. Alameda for San Francisco. Of his wanderings across the Continent of America the records are few and scattered, so that the chronicler can only give an imperfect account of his work there. After preaching and lecturing in San Francisco, Denver, Pueblo, and Colorado Springs, we find him at Salt Lake City, Utah, where his visit created something like a sensation amongst the Disciples of Christ in that place. The following extract from a letter, written by Mr. F.B. Clay, will give an idea of the impression his preaching made upon the American brethren. He writes:
"Yesterday Mr. Black preached for us both morning and evening, and it has seldom been my pleasure to hear such splendid presentations of the Truth. He fairly electrified the audiences with his great plea for more unselfish love in our lives and labours. He is a most earnest and faithful preacher of the Word. He is quite conservative on some points, but treats with fairness the convictions of those who differ from him. He is a man of power and is sure to do great good in the world. His personal presence is splendid, his spirit excellent, and his earnestness contagious and inspiring. Give him a cordial welcome."
This is interesting because the writer indicates what was one of the paradoxes of Sydney Black's character, his conservatism in matters of faith allied with his radicalism in all that pertained to the social and political side of life.
Mr. Black's visit to Des Moines, in the State of Iowa, was perhaps the most interesting episode of his American travels. It is a city in which the Disciples of Christ, with a membership of 3000 souls, are at the head of the Protestant Churches. They had four Meeting Houses at the time, and in addition to their Gospel propaganda, were interested in social and mission work. In this city also is situated the Drake University, one of the principal theological colleges maintained by the Churches of Christ in America. Mr. Black reached Des Moines on 14th May, 1892, and received a hearty welcome from the brethren. Of his preaching and the interest created by the man and his message, let the following extract from a letter by Mr. A.E. Cory bear witness. Mr. Cory writes:
"On Lord's Day morning, 15th May, Brother Black was prevailed upon to preach in the University Church. It was a great audience and a great sermon. Those who were fortunate enough to hear this sermon were thrilled and delighted. Our Brother's fervid oratory and methods of exegesis drew all those who listened to him once to hear him again. He preached again at night by urgent request, in the same Church, which was thronged with over 1000 souls, of whom several hundreds were University students. His subject was 'God's revelation to men, God's incarnation among men, God's impartation of Himself to men.' On the following Tuesday morning our Brother lectured to the Drake students on his tour. Over and over again did prolonged applause greet his words of wit, philosophy and eloquence. From the first time be appeared before the Drake faculty and students to the last, he was greatly loved and admired. On the same afternoon our visitor gave a lecture to the Bible College students on 'The Relation of the Christian Church to the work of the Social Salvation of the Masses.' A very large audience was in attendance. On Wednesday night Brother Black preached at the Central Church. The discourse was an eloquent exegesis of the Johannine conception of the nature of evil. At this service our Brother was induced to remain over a second Lord's Day.
Thus on the following Lord's Day he preached for Dr. Hobbs in the East Des Moines Meeting House. The place was filled to overflowing with the most cultured people of the city. Brother Black seemed to drink in the spirit of the occasion, and delivered, in the opinion of some, his finest sermon in Iowa on 'The Judgment that begins at the House of God.' In the afternoon our Brother addressed a mass meeting of all the Disciples of Christ in the City in the Central Church. His subject was 'The Forward Movement in the Churches of Christ in Great Britain,' and for over an hour the audience sat in rapt and sympathetic attention. At the close of the discourse $1000 were forthcoming for the work in London. As had been previously announced, our Brother delivered his last sermon in the evening. The large auditorium and galleries were filled to overflowing with 1400 people. Our Brother's last effort was a grand one. Some declared it to be the greatest sermon ever delivered in the Central Church. The hearts of the people were touched as seldom before. The prayers of the brethren follow him in his noble work for the Master. May God bless him wherever he goes, and in every enterprise for the uplifting of mankind, for he is a great and good man.
We next hear of Sydney Black in July, at Detroit, in the State of Michigan, where the welcome he received was not a whit less cordial than he had experienced elsewhere. The same earnestness on his part evoked an answering response from those he addressed. A visit to Niagara followed, and the sight of the great Falls appears to have much impressed Mr. Black, for he seems to have delighted his American friends by his enthusiastic declaration that Niagara was the grandest scene in all his travels.
Later we hear of Mr. Black paying a visit to the State of Maine and there interviewing the veteran of the Prohibition Cause, General Neal Dow.
Bridgeport, in the State of Connecticut, was another place of call. Here he met with Mr. Charles Abercrombie, who, as an Evangelist at one time in the service of the British Churches, had laboured in the Gospel with much acceptance, chiefly in Scotland. The older Evangelist was much attracted by his visitor, and reported in glowing terms the pleasure the visit had been to him and the Church. Everywhere throughout the States the record is the same. Sydney Black came, preached and won the affectionate regard of the brotherhood, as much by his singleness of aim and the sincerity of his manner as by the fervour of his preaching.
In September we find Mr. Black in Alleghany City in the State of Pennsylvania, where he addressed large audiences. His dislike of everything clerical was shown here. An evening paper had announced his services as by the Rev. Sydney Black, of London, England. In the evening, before commencing his address, Mr. Black took occasion to repudiate the title, saying with characteristic bluntness:
"Believing as I do in the universal priesthood of all obedient believers in our Divine Redeemer, I know of no hierarchy of priests and ministers in the Christian Church. Every immersed believer here tonight is a priest. Every immersed believer here tonight is a Christian minister. I never dabble in prefixes nor affixes of any description."
Mr. Black observed this principle thoroughly, and refused to take advantage of the reduction in fares usually granted by the railway companies in America to ministers of the Gospel. On one occasion when purchasing some articles of clothing he was offered by the seller a discount from the price, because he was a preacher. His surprise was great, but the astonishment of the shopkeeper was even greater when Mr. Black indignantly refused to pay one penny less than an ordinary customer. He never could understand any one making a gain of the Gospel.
This almost fierce spirit of independence dominated him all his life. He never accepted any money for any sermon or service of his, but spent himself freely, ungrudgingly, willingly, because of the great love he bore for his Redeemer and his God.
After a pleasant visit to his kinsfolk in Pittsburg, he sailed from New York in the S.S. Majestic, arriving in Liverpool on the 17th November, 1892, after an absence of nearly two years.
The advantage that this pilgrimage conferred upon Mr. Black was incalculable. It widened his mental horizon, intensified his faith in the message of Redeeming Grace and his belief in the principles of New Testament Truth, emphasised by the Church he served. His love of the brethren, always strong, was deepened by the intimacy and new friendships formed with so many good men in the Colonies and America. He ever after spoke in terms of warmest admiration of the Churches in those countries.
If he were optimistic when knowing only the small and almost unnoticed communities of Christians in this country professing a like faith with himself, after his tour and contact with the larger and more flourishing Churches throughout the world, his belief in the possibilities of the movement for the Restoration of Primitive Christianity became unbounded. With him, faith laughed at difficulties and cried, "It shall be done."
Chapter IV
The Call of London
ON the western edge of London, partly girdled by the river, lies a vast area of small houses, inhabited by many thousands of persons, most of whom are but one degree removed from the poverty line. So long as trade is good and business brisk, they can manage, with some degree of cheerfulness, to maintain themselves and their families, but should a fortnight's illness overtake them, or should there be a falling off in the trade in which they find employment, then for a time it is the end of all things; and, except for the wonderful charity which exists between the poor, many would find their refuge, most hated and most feared, in the Workhouse.
In Fulham, there are miles of streets peopled for the most part by honest, hardworking toilers in the great City; people whose lives have little of brightness, whose work and hours of labour effectually prevent any possibility of mental or social improvement; whose days are spent in one long struggle to make ends meet, and whose nights are troubled by fears of what the morrow may bring. The streets in the summer days are close and squalid. In the winter the greasy footpath and the fog-laden atmosphere cause the most cheerfully inclined to shiver under the gloom, and to marvel at the patience or the stolidity of the inhabitants. The only signs of brightness are at the street corners, where the brilliantly lighted gin palaces captivate the imagination and arouse the appetite of the weary and nerve-worn, whose powers of resistance, already enfeebled by the conditions of their daily toil and the squalor of their home life succumb all too quickly to the warmth and odours which assail them through the ever-swinging doors. It is a district in which there is no rest, no quiet, and no privacy. All day long the neighbourhood is hideous with the raucous cries of the costers or the shrill shouting of the myriad children whose playground is the street. Space is too valuable in the place they call home. Rents are high and the lodger, who nearly pays the rent, must have the only room where the children might have played. There is a steamy atmosphere of constant washing in nearly every street, and the tickets in the windows speak of the tragedy of widows whose only means of livelihood is to be charwoman or sempstress; or, more pathetic still, there is the notice of "music lessons given," which speaks of a descent from a higher social plane into this region of dreadful night.
For the most part religion occupies little, of any, place in the thoughts of the dwellers in this region. It is not that they are hostile as that they are totally indifferent. There probably is a God, but He is too much concerned with the affairs of the well-to-do and the comfortable to be mindful of them. The labourer in his pitiable home, or the struggling clerk so wrought upon to maintain the appearance of respectability upon the wages of the carter, are both too tired, too depressed or too indifferent to care for religion, or to respond to the appeals of the parochial visitor or the tract distributor. Sunday, for many of the fathers, means half the day in bed, a dinner, and the evening spent in the public house. The children may be sent to Sunday School, but it is so that father may sleep undisturbed or mother may not be hindered in her culinary operations. In some cases there will still linger in the mind of the mother memories of her girlhood's days, where in her country home she had been taught to "remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy"; and it is from women with such recollections, in whose soul the spark of desire for the better life is not quite stamped out by the iron heel of their bitter surroundings, that the audiences which are to be found in the Chapels and Mission Halls in this district are largely drawn.
Let it not be thought that Fulham is one of the worst of the poor suburbs of London, far from it. It has an able Council and its affairs are conducted with prudence and care, but it is a district in which poverty and distress abound, and where modern improvements in sanitation and sewage do not avail against the tremendous pressure of economic forces.
It was this district, so typical of the London that is unknown to the casual visitor, which was selected by Sydney Black as the centre for his Evangelistic enterprise. London claimed him; it was his birthplace; he had seen the Light of Life there; his halting first appeal to men to come to Christ had been made in Chelsea; his parents lived there; everything called to him to dedicate his energy and his enthusiasm to the greatest problem which confronts the Churches of this country, the salvation of London. Mr. Black knew and appreciated the virtues of its people, their quick-wittedness, their kindness, their response to loving, disinterested service. Their very superficiality had its charm for him. Nor did his love for them go without return, for in Fulham, where for ten years be laboured so arduously and so well, he was everywhere beloved, especially by the poor and by the children of the streets. He had started on his tour of the world with a vision of a London to be made a City of the Heavenly King; he came back to find it still in darkness, and apparently as unresponsive to the Christian appeal as ever.
Nothing daunted by the difficulties which confronted him, by the apparent impossibility of permanently influencing the vast city, Mr. Black's faith in God and in the power of the Cross was so firm that he never once stayed to ask if it could be done. If he could not achieve all he desired, he could do something for the One who had saved him, he could help a few in the great city. His plans were always ambitious, but he would not refuse to do the lesser work if the greater were denied him. A favourite sentence of his was William Carey's "Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God," and it was in this spirit that he set to work to establish the Mission in London, for which he had collected over _1000 during his tour of the world. His decision to found the Mission in Fulham was taken after visits of enquiry to many other districts in London, and after consultation with his youngest brother, Mr. Robert Wilson Black, from whom he received the greatest assistance in the planning and carrying on of the work, and through whose ability and consecrated enthusiasm the Mission has been efficiently maintained since the death of its founder.
Whilst enquiry was being made in London as to the best locality for the projected Mission, Sydney Black was undertaking a tour amongst Churches of the homeland, preaching and lecturing in Liverpool, Swindon, Nottingham, Wigan, and Birmingham, to large and interested audiences. In April, 1893, he was in Glasgow, where for three weeks he carried on a series of highly successful meetings with audiences of upwards of 1000 persons. In his conduct of Evangelistic work, Mr. Black was not content to be the preacher, he would be found at the street corners delivering handbills announcing his own meetings, or calling from house to house inviting the people to attend. For him there was nothing common nor mean in the service of God; he was one who was ever ready to say:
"The hardest toil to undertake
With joy at Thy command,
The meanest office to receive
With meekness at Thy hand."
His services in Glasgow were much appreciated by the Churches, and his eager enthusiasm aroused a corresponding interest in his brethren. It was apparent to those who knew him that his ability as a preacher had become greater through the experience he had gained during his Colonial and American tour. Probably at this time his powers were at their zenith. London had not yet tried his sympathy and taxed his energy as it was to do in the years to follow.
Fulham Cross, which was to become the centre of Sydney Black's activities for the remaining ten years of his life, is a converging point of five roads in the West of London. It is a busy spot at all times, and only during the early hours of the morning is there any cessation of noise and traffic. At the corner of the Lillie Road, there had stood for thirteen years a large and imposing building, originally intended for a Gin Palace, but, owing to the licence being withheld, used as a Coffee House and known in the neighbourhood as the "Queen Anne." This building was offered to Mr. Black for the sum of _2250, and, as it was eminently adapted by its position and accommodation for the purposes of the proposed Mission, it was promptly purchased by him. Of the sum required, _1000 had already been given by the Australian and American brethren; his father, Mr. Robert Black, contributed a like amount, and the remainder was provided by interested friends. The one-time "Queen Anne" was re-named "Twynholm House" after the little Scottish village in which the father of Mr. Black was born. The premises were largely altered, the basement re-arranged to admit of its being used as a School Room and Soup Kitchen, and, on what had been originally designed for a brewer's yard, there was erected a handsome and commodious Assembly Hall, capable of seating 500 people.
The main building provided Class Rooms, Club Rooms and a Coffee Bar. The whole place when finished proved to be very suitable for the work undertaken. While the building alterations were going on, a series of Evangelistic meetings were held in the Fulham Town Hall to prepare the way for the permanent work to be carried on soon after in Twynholm Hall. It was not, however, without controversy that the use of the Town Hall was obtained, for the Borough Council had hitherto declined to let the Hall for religious meetings on the Lord's Day; but, with that energy which always characterised him, Mr. Black pressed the matter so persistently that the Council gave way, and the meetings were held, greatly helped by the gratuitous advertisement which the discussion in the public press had given. The writer was privileged to take part in these meetings and can testify to the close and absorbed attention with which the crowded audiences listened to the burning eloquence of the preacher.
As a further means of attracting attention to the new Mission centre a little monthly paper known as Joyful Tidings was started. This little sheet has been issued ever since and is highly appreciated by the people in the neighbourhood. Five thousand copies were sent out every month without charge; and to many, its bright, helpful, inspiring pages have been a means of encouragement and grace. After the first year Sydney Black conducted the paper until his death, and its pages during those years as a faithful reflex of his temperament, his outlook, and his methods.
The new enterprise was not to be confined to preaching, though that was at all times of the first importance with Mr. Black; he believed that "Faith without works is dead" and that the Gospel of Divine Grace could be best commended to the poor and forlorn by loving ministrations to their necessities and distresses, hence the social side of Christianity appealed to him intensely. He could never say to the destitute, "Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled," without at the same time giving them that which would provide the meal and kindle the fire. Often at the close of a busy day at "Twynholm" he would return home without a single coin in his pockets. With such compassion for human needs, little wonder that the Mission soon inaugurated a Food, Coal, and General Relief Fund; a Clothing Department; a Soup Kitchen and Food Supply. Rooms were provided in the building at nominal charges for the use of Workmen's Clubs, Benefit Societies, and such like organisations. Hospital tickets were obtained for free distribution among the poor, and the willing services of a generous physician secured to render medical aid in urgent cases.
Nor were the needs of the children forgotten by the warm-hearted Evangelist. Attracted one day by a little fellow in rags and in the last extremity of hunger and misery, Mr. Black formed the idea of a Home for Orphan and Fatherless Boys; and this pitiable object was destined to be its first occupant. The lad's story was typical of many others. The mother deserted by her husband had five children to provide for. To do this she had turned to laundry work, but found that the bare pittance she could make was insufficient to keep all the children, so the two eldest must look after themselves. This boy, who was one of the two, had had no dinner for three weeks, and his only bed for twelve nights had been the cold stones or the dark corner of some grim alley. To one of such warm compassion and benevolent impulsiveness as Sydney Black, this story was overwhelming, and he there and then decided to devote himself to looking after the children of the poor, and well and nobly did he do so. A few rooms at the top of "Twynholm House" were set aside for this work, but the number who needed help and home were so numerous that it was found necessary to take a house to be used solely for the accommodation of the boys.
For the purpose a place was secured at 156, Lillie Road, a few hundred yards away from "Twynholm," and there for some years the Home was located until it proved to be too small. Later on, after the death of Mr. Black, larger and more commodious premises were acquired at 710, Fulham Road. The funds to purchase the property and furnish the rooms were given, as a memorial of the Founder, by his friends and by others who had known and valued his disinterested service amongst the poor and friendless, and especially on behalf of the children. In all, about _1400 was expended on the new Home, and in it this splendid work is still carried on, under the devoted care of the present Matron, Mrs. Stickland. It is impossible to estimate the value of such a work as this. Time cannot measure it, eternity only will reveal it. Many lads have received training and education to fit them for their work in life; nearly all of those who have begun their career have remained steadfast to the teaching they received in the Home, and are a credit to their teachers; most of them have voluntarily confessed Christ and are still walking according to His commandments. Without pressure or undue persuasion these lads have come to recognise the Friend who alone can truly guide and help them, influenced chiefly by the spiritual atmosphere which only Christian love and sympathy can create.
The Home has been conducted throughout in a wise and enlightened manner. The boys are well cared for, as their appearance shows. There has been an utter absence of anything like the old Charity School spirit. They are not clad in any distinctive garb, but wear the clothes of the ordinary boy. Nothing has been done to remind them of their early distress. This is all due to the large-hearted ideals of the Founder, for to Sydney Black anything that would wound the spirit, proclaim relief, or stamp the distressed with the badge of his misfortune, was abhorrent. Perhaps of all the work begun by him none is so likely to be as permanently useful and blessed as this. He loved children. It was no uncommon thing to see him in the streets around Fulham Cross with an attendant train of some ten or twelve boys and girls, all claiming his attention, and all anxious to win his smile. For every one of them he had a kind word and an almost fatherly consideration, which endeared him to their hearts, and to the hearts of their parents. He could see great potentialities in the dirtiest urchin who ran the streets, and loved the lads both for what they were, and for what they might become.
This reference to Mr. Black's work amongst the boys cannot be better concluded than by the eloquent words of Dr. John Clifford, the hero of modern Nonconformity, uttered on the occasion of the opening of the new Home on 12th March, 1908. After referring to Mr. Black's work as Preacher and Reformer, Dr. Clifford said:
Surely it is a fitting thing that the memory of such a worker should be commemorated in this way. Certainly nothing could have been more congenial to his own spirit than the extension of this work on behalf of the fatherless boys. It is the work shared of God. He Himself permits us to think of Him as a Father of the fatherless. Jesus Christ has told us that it is not the will of our Father who is the Father of the fatherless, that one of these little ones should perish. In Heaven the angels do always behold the presence of their Father, but God sends angels down here to these little ones. He sent the sister of Moses to be a minister to the little babe, when the babe was lying in the ark of bulrushes. He sent Charles Haddon Spurgeon as an angel and a messenger for the protection of little children. He sent Dr. Barnardo, He sent Benjamin Waugh, the man of whose death we have heard today; and He sent Sydney Black; and I love to think of him as God's messenger. It is a work which is most precious to men, as well as dear to God. What does it do? It saves the wreckage of society. It saves the wastage of that most precious treasure the world has - child life. There is no asset the nation possesses which is so real and intrinsically valuable as its child population; and here is a hand stretched out to save those who would otherwise be lost.
You know something about how much there is of destruction in the world, especially of child life. The destroyers are round about us, and are perpetually at work. The public-house and its destructive work abounds. It is easy to destroy the little lily-bud; but it takes a whole sun to bring that lily-bud to flower. Any one may trample out the life of a little child; but what skill and prayer, and love, are necessary to train the child. You mothers and fathers know that. We are not simply here to provide a shelter for these children, but we are supplying them with training and education. We are preventing them from drifting into the masses of the unemployed. Let Fulham take note of that. We are preventing them from becoming a burden on the rates. Let Fulham Guardians and Councillors take note of that. It is a work for the people of the City. It is a work that saves not simply the child, but saves also those who are working on behalf of social advance everywhere. But it is a more important work than that. This is a training home for Jesus Christ. These children will not simply be trained to use their hands and their brains, but their hearts and their wills - to have those wills set right for God and His Glorious Kingdom. And service of that kind is one of unspeakable value to the nation. We cannot tell what may be the product of this home - how many missionaries may come out of it, who will go the ends of the earth, and proclaim the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ - how many capable business men shall come out of it, who shall use their means for extending the principles of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a great work that is being undertaken here, and one which deserves our utmost sympathy, and our heartiest approbation and support.
I like to think also that this building will be a witness to the people of Fulham of the necessity that there is that the children of the nation should be cared for by the nation; and that these children are our children - ours because they are Jesus Christ's. And therefore the people of Fulham have responsibilities with regard to the fathers and the mothers of the needy children that are scattered round about us. This building will be a perpetual reminder to them, saying to them, 'it is yours to take this child and nurse it for me.'
Horace Mann, the great Educationalist of the United States, on one occasion undertook the opening of a large school in Massachusetts. A very costly building had been erected, and he said, in the course of his address, 'If only one child is saved through the putting up of this edifice, it is worth all the hundreds and thousands of dollars that have been spent on it.'
Some one asked him if he did not exaggerate very much in making a statement of this kind, and he answered, 'Not if it were my child.' And I think that is precisely what every mother and father would say.
Now we want to get into that attitude with regard to the fatherless ones suggested by that statement. Jesus Christ said 'Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these My little ones, yet did it unto Me.' Christ bids us see Himself in every fatherless boy, and seeing Him there, to express our devotion to Him, and our love to Him, by the richness of the gifts which we give to the children.
I commend, therefore, to you, my dear friends, this good work, rejoicing in the fact that you are commemorating the service - earnest, sincere and wholehearted - of my friend Mr. Sydney Black, and rejoicing still more that you are perpetuating his influence, and increasing his serviceableness, in this great institution. May God abundantly bless his memory, and through it may He bless hundreds and thousands of boys in years to come, is my prayer.
Rescue work amongst women was also carried on for a time under the Superintendence of Miss Mary Hugill, to whom reference was made in an earlier chapter. The Home originally begun in Chelsea was given up, and new quarters were found at "Melbourne House," Grove Avenue, Walham Green; here a good work was done in a quiet unobtrusive way. It was, however, ultimately found desirable to disconnect this phase of social work from the Mission, and the control and management reverted to the capable care of Miss Hugill.
Early in June, 1893, the Fulham Cross Christian Mission took possession of the altered and renovated "Queen Anne." The building, standing as it does on the 'bus route from Walham Green to Hammersmith, is a prominent landmark, and it was destined to be the centre of much useful and God-honouring work in a neighbourhood greatly in need of self-sacrificing interest and sympathy. Here for the last ten years of his life Sydney Black found his energies, his hopefulness, his faith tested to the utmost. The needs and the sorrows of the people were so great, his resources in comparison so inadequate, that it would not have been surprising if at times he had given way to despondency; yet, he never despaired, but laboured in the strength of the Lord, glad that he was counted worthy to do something for his Master, and rejoicing with great joy in every victory won over sin, and in those who confessed the Christ.
The Church of Christ at Twynholm House met for the first time soon after the opening of the Mission centre. It consisted of forty members from the Church at College Street, Chelsea, who had been dismissed to form the new assembly, together with a number who had been first attracted by the meetings in the Fulham Town Hall, and who had afterwards been immersed and received into Fellowship. This little Church has grown until today it numbers upwards of 500 members, and is the largest body associated with the Churches of Christ in this country. Until the Assembly Hall was built the meetings were held in a large classroom on the ground floor of Twynholm House, but in a few weeks the accommodation was strained to the utmost.
Sunday School work was of course entered upon from the beginning, and in no long time the place was overrun with children from the neighbourhood. Under the friendly warm-hearted superintendence of Mr. Black the school soon settled down into order and grew until it reached an attendance of over 1000 in number, and at that figure it still remains, simply because it has been found impossible to take in more.
Band of Hope work, Mothers' Meetings and Classes of various descriptions filled up every available week-night, and at most of these Sydney Black would be found enthusing and enlivening the proceedings, for he had the rare faculty of infecting every one with his own moral earnestness.
Occasional breaks in this daily routine of hard mental and spiritual labour were of course necessary, and at infrequent intervals Mr. Black would leave London to preach in the Provinces. He seems to have been unable to forget his work; everywhere and on all occasions when opportunity offered, he was ready either to preach or to tell the story of his Mission Work in London. He could for a few hours be a boy again, but at too rare intervals. Better for himself, far better for his work, had be been able to lay aside the load of responsibility; but he felt too intensely, was so completely dominated by his work, so thrilled by the "still, sad music of humanity" that he almost regretted the time given to any recreation; yet when he did play no one could more enjoy happy, harmless fun than he. At cricket he would surpass all others in the vigour of his play; in the tremendous swipes he would give to the ball, or the speed with which he would bowl. His laughter on such occasions was almost Homeric. He brought to everything he did the same enthusiasm and energy which marked his preaching. No half measures would satisfy him. His vitality at times was almost overwhelming, and friends in contact with him have been heard to say that he tired them, because he seemed to draw from them their energy and power. Late at night, when others would be ready to retire, worn with the day's duties, he would be most bright, ready to discuss any and every subject; to relate his day's experience, or to plan new schemes of work. On one occasion at midnight he complained to the writer with a humorous twinkle in his eyes, that he wondered why people wanted to go to bed so early, especially when he wished to discuss the Millenium!
In the months of August and September, 1893, the records show that Mr. Black was busily engaged in a tour of the Provinces, preaching the Gospel and enlisting the interest and sympathy of his brethren in the newly founded Mission. The Churches in Wrexham, Leeds, Wigan, South Wigston, and Nottingham were visited, and everywhere large meetings were addressed. In Nottingham Mr. Black was invited by the Committee of the United Gospel Mission to take the services in the Albert Hall on 10th September. The meetings were a great success, as many as 2500 persons were present at the evening gathering, and after an address on "The Strait Gate and the Narrow Way," thirty believing penitents confessed their Lord and were immersed into Christ. In October, after a Lord's Day in London, he was preaching in Lowestoft, Tunbridge Wells and Oswestry on successive Sundays. In November he was back again in London to settle down to a long spell of close, arduous toil amongst the suffering poor around his doors, through the bitter winter days.
The foregoing is an indication of the manner in which Mr. Black divided the years which remained to him. Nine months of ceaseless activity in the work of the Mission, varied with three months' preaching amongst the Churches.
On the 6th January, 1895, the Church of Christ at Twynholm House entered into possession of the large and commodious Hall which had been planned by Mr. Black, and in which he was to build up and sustain an ever-growing Church work during the next eight years. The opening celebrations aroused great interest in the district; the gatherings were so large as to necessitate overflow meetings. The new Hall was well adapted for the purposes of the Mission, and has proved to be a comfortable home for the Church, and a place of spiritual repair for many stricken and wearied souls. In the planning and re-arranging of the premises Mr. Black's attention to detail is strikingly seen, for every convenience necessary to the successful carrying on of Gospel work was provided. The alterations and new building cost _2700, a large sum for the then existing membership of 100 people, most of whom were poor. The work could not have been undertaken except for the generosity and business acumen of Mr. Robert Black, and his youngest son, upon whom the responsibility chiefly rested.
With the opening of the Hall and the additional accommodation thus available, the work of the Fulham Cross Mission assumed its fullest activity. The following is the time-table for one week in the month of February, 1896, and it will serve as an example of what was done under the leadership of Sydney Black, and has been continued with slight alterations ever since:
Twynholm House and Hall Arrangements for February, 1896
LORD'S DAY
11.0 a.m. The Church of Christ assembles for Divine worship and
the "Breaking of Bread."
2.45 p.m. Lord' Day School and Bible Classes.
3.0 p.m. Women's Bible Class.
5.0 p.m. Weekly tea and Christian Intercourse.
6.30 p.m. Preaching the Gospel.
6.30 p.m. Bible Class for Girls over twelve.
6.30 p.m. Bible Class for Youths under fifteen.
8.0 p.m. Evening "Breaking of Broad."
MONDAY
9-10 a.m. Twynholm House Nurse; Club Room No. 1.
2-4 p.m. Women's Meeting. (Tea and Clothing Sale once a month.)
7.0 p.m. Band of Hope.
7-10 p.m. Working Lads' Social Club.
TUESDAY
8.15 a.m. Fulham Working Men's Free Breakfasts for Children.
9-10 a.m. Nurse in Club Room No. 1.
10-11 a.m. Relief Committee in Club Room No. 2.
12-1.45 p.m. Soup Kitchen.
7-10 p.m. Working Lads' Social Club.
WEDNESDAY
8.15 a.m. Free Breakfasts for Children.
9-10 a.m. Nurse in Club Room No. 1.
12-1.45 p.m. Soup Kitchen.
7-10 p.m. Working Lads' Social Club.
8.0 p.m. Gospel Service.
THURSDAY
8.15 a.m. Free Breakfasts for Children.
9-10 a.m. Nurse in Club Room No. 1.
12-1.45 p.m. Soup Kitchen.
7.0 p.m. Band of Hope Singing Class.
7-10 p.m. Working Lads' Social Club.
FRIDAY
8.15 a.m. Free Breakfasts for Children.
9-10 a.m. Nurse in Club Room No. 1.
12-1.45 p.m. Soup Kitchen.
6.30 p.m. Girls' Sewing Class.
7-10 p.m. Working Lads' Social Club.
8.0 p.m. Bible and Training Class.
SATURDAY
9-10 a.m. Nurse in Club Room No. 1.
7-10 p.m. Working Lads' Social Club.
The nurse so often referred to was in daily attendance to receive intimations of sickness, to enroll members for the Maternity Club, and to help in many ways the poor wives and mothers of the district.
During the whole of each busy week, outlined in the time-table given above, Mr. Black would be in attendance at Twynholm House seeing a continuous stream of callers in his private room. What stories he had to listen to, what pitiable sorrows to comfort, what heartbreaking poverty to relieve! Only those who have lived or laboured in such a district as Fulham can adequately appreciate the claims upon the sympathy, the tact, the firmness of those who seek to serve the poor. In addition to interviewing applicants for help or advice, Mr. Black would be found calling on the sick, visiting the Workhouse to enquire for some distressed inmate, or the Police Courts to speak a word on behalf of some one in danger of prison; perhaps calling from house to house with invitations to the Gospel services, or speaking at a meeting, often at other places; for he was ready to respond to any call if, in doing so, he were allowed freedom of speech and was not compromising any truth he held.
It was in June of this year (1896) that the first indication was noticed that all was not physically well with Mr. Black. His throat, which had of late been a source of anxiety to him, now became so bad that he was compelled to give up public speaking for a period of three months. Little wonder, when one considers that during fourteen years he had delivered over 4000 discourses with all the impassioned earnestness of his vehement oratory. He was often advised by his parents and friends, and he himself at times determined, to restrain his manner of speaking; yet when his subject seized him, prudence and advice were alike forgotten, and he was swept along in a tornado of eloquence, which never failed to arouse and arrest public attention. The price he paid was a heavy one, for there can be little doubt that the strain upon his constitution was so great as to sow the seeds of the weakness which was to close his work so sadly soon.
Sydney Black's interests were not confined to the work of the Mission, for with his conception of the Christian ideal as one in which the spiritual redemption of the people should be accompanied by their social betterment, it was inevitable that he should give much thought to the question of representation on public bodies. He found a spirit of compromise and toleration of evil dominating public life, and believing this to be inimical to the best interests of the people, he set about to secure that those whom he thought would be more faithful in advancing the welfare of their constituents should be nominated and elected on the various public bodies in the district. He shrank from compromise as from an evil thing. He could understand that a thing was black or white, but could not be got to recognise grey. There was no via media between right and wrong. To his downright nature, sham and hypocrisies were intolerable, and he never hesitated to say so, often at the loss of popularity and at the cost of much ill-will.
It came about quite naturally that those who agreed with Mr. Black considered him to be suitable to represent them, and he was often requested to allow himself to be nominated for public services. For several years he declined the honour, feeling that he should first securely establish the Mission, and regarding every work as secondary to the great charge committed to him of preaching the Gospel. His first connection with the public life of the district was when he became a member of the Fulham Free Church Council. On this body he remained until his death, rendering good service to the cause of Nonconformity. His abilities were appreciated even by those who differed from him, though he at times antagonised some of their cherished traditions.
One can imagine how little to the mind of some of his fellow members on the Council, would be a resolution Mr. Black moved and carried soon after he became a member, to the effect:
"That at the sittings of the Council all distinctions between 'Ministers' and 'lay-men' be abandoned."
Equally characteristic of him was a resolution he succeeded in passing:
"That this Council believing horse-racing as at present carried on to be a most prolific source of moral disease and terrible criminality, most earnestly entreats the Prince of Wales, and the Earl of Rosebery, to withdraw their influential patronage from this monster institution of betting and gambling in their very worse forms. It further instructs the Secretary to send a copy of this resolution to each of the above-named gentlemen."
So marked was the influence Mr. Black exerted upon the Council that it was impossible to find a seconder for a resolution of greeting to Bishop Creighton, who had then been appointed to the See of London. For this Mr. Black was attacked with violence by one of the local papers and charged with insulting the new appointed bishop. Nothing could be more untrue, for of all men Mr. Black was the least likely to insult another. His opposition and that of his fellow members of the Council was not to the scholar and the man, but to the official and representative of a Church whose avowed object they considered was to oppose and sweep away the religious faith and liberties of Nonconformity.
In the year 1899 Mr. Black was persuaded to stand for the Fulham Board of Guardians in opposition to the vicar of St. Albans, whom he defeated by 192 votes. The contest appears to have been sharp and exciting, but conducted with perfect good feeling, the relations between the two candidates being all that it should be between men who claimed the name of Christian, even though in their views they were as the poles asunder.
One of the first matters which engaged the attention of the new Guardian was the appointment of a salaried Nonconformist Instructor at the Fulham Workhouse, to which he objected on the ground that the law did not compel the Guardians to appoint a salaried one; and what was more important still, that no religion should be supported out of the rates. he also strongly dissented from an annual expenditure of _170 per annum on alcoholic liquors for the inmates because he held it had been scientifically proved that alcohol was unnecessary either in sickness or in health.
Not in many ways a Guardian to commend himself to those of his fellow members who believed in the principle of laisser faire, yet he won their secret admiration, even while they openly opposed him, for the transparent honesty of his intentions, his inflexible loyalty to principle, and his consistent life and character. The Chairman of the Guardians, in a letter after Mr. Black's death, wrote of him as follows:
"On the Board of Guardians he was most active and useful and he very quickly picked up the complicated threads of Poor Law Administration. On the Relief Committee his knowledge of the people was most useful, and he had not been on the Board long before he brought proposals to remodel certain of the rules for the administration of relief. In the Board Room he was a keen debater, and while a very strenuous opponent, he never allowed his opposition to principles to interfere with his personal relationship to members of the Board. His retirement from the Board was a distinct loss to the Borough. My recollections of Mr. Sydney Black are in every way pleasant; as a man he was most genial and enthusiastic, and his enthusiasm was combined with emotion and strong religious convictions which gave him impulse and force of character."
Not content with the service he was able to render to the public weal as a Guardian, and feeling that he could be useful in another field, Mr. Black gave up his Poor Law work and consented, in the year 1900, to nomination as a Progessive Candidate for the London School Board for the Chelsea Division. His candidature was carried on with the same energy with which he did everything to which he put his hand, aided by the enthusiastic work of the zealous band of friends from "Twynholm." His chief battles cries were: "No religious tests for teachers," "No Creeds and Catechisms," and "Efficiency." The result of the contest was that Sydney Black was returned by a vote of 13,751, the second on the list of representatives selected. In a characteristic address after the poll, he declared that he was sent "to keep the grand old Bible in, and the presumptuous cleric out of, the schools of the people," and that he would "do all in his power to forward the interests of a National System of Education." His service on the School Accommodation and Attendance Committee, and on the Industrial and Truant Schools Committee, was much appreciated as well as the work he was able to do in the Sub-Committee dealing with Scripture knowledge. In this new work he soon found an opportunity to declare his principles, and secured a victory for Temperance by a resolution, which his colleagues approved, that the School Board should enter opposition against the creation of any new licences in the immediate neighbourhood of Schools.
His failing health made it necessary for him to lay down this work early in 1903, much to his own disappointment and to the regret of his fellow members. Not long before his retirement he vigorously denounced the Duke of Devonshire, the then head of the Education Board, for his Laodicean attitude on the question of betting and gambling, as shown in the evidence given before the Commission on Betting. The resolution which he moved, practically one of censure, was not carried, but it served to show the fearless and uncompromising nature of his hostility to everything he regarded as making for unrighteousness. His trumpet gave forth no uncertain sound. Of his work on the School Board his colleagues have born testimony that he was a man "of absolute honesty and devotion to the public service, of unswerving consistency in the pursuit of what he considered right." As a School Manager his work was much appreciated by the teachers, for reasons which will be best expressed by the following, from the pen of Mr. W.C. Pratt, Headmaster of the Boys' Department of the Lillie Road School, Fulham:
"Mr. Sydney Black was undoubtedly a lover of children. He was never more happy than when he had a little crowd of them around him, and was by no means particular whether it were in the street, playground, or Mission Hall. The little ones were drawn to him by the power of his ever-radiant face, and were soon filled with glee and laughter by his mirth, cheery words, and ready wit. His supreme effort was to get the children under good, wholesome influence, and this meant to him a triumph for the future. Not infrequently did it happen that through the children he found a way to the parents, who, by his counsel and advice, would be brought to a better way of living - the home brightened and the character of life entirely changed. To pass from class to class in one or another of our local Board Schools was to him an unbounded delight. The teacher was greeted with a warm shake of the hand and the progress of the work very heartily entered into. The children loved him. To the teachers he was at all times a genuinely kind and sympathetic friend, and being practically acquainted with the many difficulties of teaching, his warm-hearted expressions of praise were highly appreciated, and came as an encouragement to a body of arduous workers, too infrequently thanked for their devotion to duty and care for the children."
During these busy crowded years at "Twynholm," Sydney Black still found time to visit the Churches of Christ at frequent intervals, in response to the many calls for his services as evangelist.
In 1896 he had been selected by the Co-operating Churches to become the Chairman of their next Annual Conference in Glasgow, so that in August, 1897, we find him occupying the highest position which it was in the power of his brethren to confer upon him. He proved to be most successful in the office, and the Conference was an unusually profitable one, helped by his ardent and genial direction. The address from the Chair was on the subject of "New Testament Churchmanship," and was intended as a reply to Dr. Charles Berry's address on "Congregational Churchmanship," delivered in the previous May. Mr. Black's reply dealt with the New Testament conception of Churchmanship as distinct from the "One Fold" idea of the Roman and Anglican Sacerdotalists, and of the "Many Folds" idea of the Protestant Evangelical Sects. He showed that the Divine intention was that of "One Flock and One Shepherd," and not of many flocks in the one fold. He urged the Churches of Christ to meet the error by:
...contending for an unqualified restoration of Primitive Christianity; by showing that all the Apostolic Churches rejoiced not in uniformity of details of working, but in uniformity of organisation and constitution; by pleading for the organic Christian union of all obedient believers in Jesus Christ upon the seven-planked platform constructed by the great Apostle to the Gentiles, under the direct superintendence of the Divine Spirit, and brought to view so clearly in Ephesians iv. 4-6; and by demonstrating that the oneness for which our dear Lord so earnestly prayed instead of being realised by inter-denominational amenities and courtesies, can alone be effected by the extinction of all dividing barriers and schismatic hobbies, together with the rallying of all the disintegrated forces of Christendom in one glorious army under the blood-stained banner of the Cross.
In the same year (1897) we find him visiting the country Churches in Knapp Hill, Surrey; Leominster, and Green Hill Lane, Nottingham. A year later he found time to preach in Leicester and Wigan, in addition to undertaking the work and responsibility of arranging and preparing for the Annual Conference which was held in "Twynholm Hall." In 1899 he undertook quite an extensive tour of the Provinces, covering Bristol, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, the fishing towns of the Moray Firth, Dumfries, and Leicester.
The year 1900 was marked by the discontinuance of the old Church in College Street, Chelsea, owing to the falling in of the lease of the building, but more particularly to the fact that the larger work of the Mission had so seriously weakened the parent Church that a separate existence was inadvisable. Another element in the case was that the neighbourhood of Chelsea was rapidly changing in character; large and expensive flats for the habitation of the rich taking the place of the small, unpretentious dwellings of the poor. All these things brought about the amalgamation of the two Churches; the older cause was merged in the younger and more flourishing one, to the great advantage of both.
The passing years brought increasing claims upon Mr. Black's time and powers. Invitations reached him from every quarter, which he was not slow to accept; always, however, after he had arranged for the work at Twynholm. He was fortunate in having his brother Robert, to whom he could turn for help and relief. The devoted attachment of the younger brother to the elder was a beautiful thing, and but for it, Sydney Black could never have accomplished the work he did. Every public cause which had for its object the uplifting of the people: their deliverance from the power of drink, the betterment of their homes or the rescue of their children, received Mr. Black's immediate support. He was an ardent advocate of Housing Reform, and the National Prohibition of the Drink Traffic, and he would be found at all the meetings for such causes in the West of London. Every form of error, civic or ecclesiastic, he was ready to attack, and to offer the hospitality of Twynholm to many from whom he would differ widely on religious grounds, yet with whose general propaganda he was in agreement; for example, he twice invited the late Mr. John Kensit to address meetings at Fulham Cross in the interests of the Protestant Cause. He was a strong opponent of the Education Bill of 1902, and in Joyful Tidings he fulminated his objections with unmistakable emphasis, and declared it to be the duty of every Christian to offer passive resistance to the Act after it became law. The Disestablishment of the Church of England was another of the subjects he was greatly interested in, and many were the addresses he delivered in advocating it, and fearless were his attacks upon the principle of Establishment. On one occasion, speaking on this subject to a crowded audience, many of whom were Churchmen in a hostile mood, he referred to the fact of the State Church having both a Temporal and Spiritual head as a monstrosity, on the ground that no body can have two heads. This evoked a storm of opposition, and as the lecturer would persist in repeating the self-evident, logical, but unpalatable truth, the meeting broke up in disorder. Such a determined stand for what he believed to be truth was entirely characteristic of the man.
The ever-increasing strain began to tell upon his health, and many were the warnings of anxious friends, and of the still more anxious parents. Yet it seemed as if nothing could stay Mr. Black's eager and impetuous desire to be up and doing. It was a time full of throbbing interest to him, and how could he be idle? The plain truth is that he was overworking himself far beyond what nerve and body would bear, and indications were not wanting that nature would rebel. Would that he had heeded the warning in time!
The year 1902 was marked by an almost feverish haste and energy of work. In addition to the exacting daily care of the Mission at Fulham and his public duties on the School Board, he planned and carried out a preaching tour through the Provinces. Commencing at Egremont, Cheshire, he visited in due course the towns of Leicester, Devonport, Alfreton, Criccieth, Nottingham, Belfast and Londonderry. Everywhere he was received with delight and affection, for he was much beloved of his brethren. The Annual Conference of the Churches was held this year at Edinburgh, and it was obvious to those who knew him well that he was tired. It was pathetic to see how he seemed to be spurring himself to work. The discourse he delivered on the Wednesday evening Session of the Annual Meeting, was to be the last many of his brethren would hear. His friend, Mr. H.E. Tickle, who was present, afterwards wrote of the address:
"How deep and strong he laid the foundations in that address for the authority of the risen Christ, few who heard it will forget; but those who may have forgotten the masterly marshalling of fact and argument in the earlier part of his discourse, cannot forget, we hope, the conclusion of that supreme effort. If ever a human instrument forgot self, it was surely Sydney Black during those few pregnant minutes. With the tongue as of one inspired, he poured out his soul in a tribute of praise and adoration to the Saviour whom he loved so well, and served so faithfully. Poetry, prayer and prose, mingled in grandest harmony to make a peroration the like of which is only listened to once in a life-time."
This address was Sydney Black's "Swan Song," for though he addressed a few meetings afterwards, they were chiefly small gatherings in North Wales and Ireland, where he had no opportunity for the full exercise of his splendid powers. As the days went by, he grew weaker. He would not admit that he was ill, but persisted in his work, until in the month of October, 1902, it was useless for him to struggle longer, and he was compelled to acknowledge that he was tired; too tired to preach, too weak even to find his way to the Church he loved so well and in whose service he had so willingly spent himself.
Continue to part three