THE GULLDHOUSE, ECCLESTON SQUARE
[To the Editor of the SrEeraron.] SIR,—The Guildhouse, Eccleston Square, has in its seven years of work made many friends outside the number of its regular congregation. Will you allow me, for this reason, to make an appeal to them through your columns ? I am shortly going for a year's journey round the world, during which time my people will keep the Guildhouse going with all the enthusiasm and efficiency they have always shown : but this summer we have had to seek a renewal of our lease, and the cost in con- nexion with this (for alterations, repairs, &c.) amounts to 13,756 14s. 3d. Of this we have already raised £3,203 5s. 6d., almost all of which has been given by members of the con- gregation—not at all a rich one—with the help of such friends as Dame Clara Butt and Miss Sybil Thorndike.
We still need 1553 8s. 9d. Will anyone who cares for the work we are doing help me to leave my people free from debt when I sail, by sending me a contribution large or small ? I would not dare to ask either your space or their generosity if
I did not believe that our work was worth doing, and know that it appeals to many who cannot actually attend our services. We seek not to compete with the churches, but to
do those things which, for various reasons, most of them feel Unable to take up. We offer a free platform for free discussion of serious and even highly controversial questions : we make experiments which we are able to make because we get no one else into trouble : above all we seek to present the Christian faith to those disposed to question or to deny it, in an atmo- sphere in which they feel they can freely question or even deny without offending. Will some of our unknown and perhaps 'even distant friends help us at this juncture ? In ordinary times we are financially quite equal to the calls upon us, but this has been a special and a heavy obligation.—
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