ll have to break through in order to
bring to light the jewel of human nature which really shines so brightly
in the hearts of the very poor.

_Their Failure_

It is so difficult for men and women, as it were, to really help the
East-end while living in West-end comfort. It is so difficult for
religious people to realise that the finest prayer of all is to "play the
game." But the poor understand the wonder of that prayer full well; it
is, indeed, I rather fancy, the only prayer that they really do
understand, the only one which really and truly touches them and helps
them on their way. And, when I see among the very poor the simply
magnificent human material which is allowed to run to waste,
misunderstood, unheeded, I sometimes feel that the only hope of real
lasting good will be found by those who work _outside_ the Church, not
among those who work within it. For those who have worked within it have
let so many generations of fine youth run to seed, that the time has come
for practical lay-workers to take on the job. The poor need more
practical schemes for their guidance and their good, and fewer
prayer-meetings and sing-songs from the hymnals. For, to my mind, the
very basis of all real religion is a practical basis. It is useless to
live with, as it were, your head in Heaven if you stand knee-deep in
filth. Of what good is your own personal salvation if you have not done
your best to make the world better and happier for others? To worry
about their salvation is less than useless--if that be possible.
Providing they have something to live for, something to make life worth
living, surroundings which bring out all that is best and bravest and
finest in their natures, their heavenly salvation will take care of
itself. The pity is that there is so much magnificent youthful promise
which prejudice and tradition and social wrongs never allow to be
fulfilled. There is only one real religion, and that is the religion of
making life happier and more profitable to others. You may not make them
pray in the process, you may not make them sing hymns--prayers and
hymn-singing are merely beautiful accompaniments--in a practical
uplifting of the human state, the human "soul." "Love"--that is the only
thing which really matters, Love--with Charity, and Self-sacrifice, and
Unselfishness, and Justice--which are, after all, the attributes of this
Love.

Work in the East-end

It seems to me that the poor n