Florence Allshorn. By J. H. Oldham.
(S.C.M. Press. us. 6d.)
FLORENCE ALLSHORN was not widely known outside a limited circle. Dr. Oldham is, and the fact that he has thought it worth while to write her life is presumptive evidence that the life was worth writing. The book itself confirms the presumption. The daughter of an East End doctor, Miss Allshorn, after devoting herself to various forms of Church work at home, became a missionary in Uganda, but realising the importance, for most missionaries, of opportunities for deep- ening their spiritual life while on 'furlough, she started a community house on a small scale near Haslemere, moving, as the demand grew, to much larger houses first at Barns Green, then at Coolham, both in Sussex. She died in 1950 at the age of 62. The last nine years of her life, devoted to the community she styled St. Julian's, were the most fruitful, and by far the happiest, of her life. Dr.
Oldham does what he can to depict a character which deeply impressed and in: fluenced all who temporarily formed part of the community, but the section of the book in which Florence Allshorn describes her venture, in papers unpublished till after her death, are the most revealing. She was essentially spiritual without being in the least pietistic. She had found her mission _ in life, and it satisfied her completely. Asked, after the last address she ever gave, whether marriage was a help or a hindrance in Christian work, she answered in a fragment of condensed autobiography.
"I had no parents since the age of three. I never had any money, never had any future ; I tried to be an artist and couldn't, I never had husband or children. Yet I am as happy as anybody I know. I am really fulfilled. So I don't think it matters."
Someone else had written long before: "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." It is a rare and enviable achievement. W. P.
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