POWER OF A MAN'S FAITH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 49, 27 February 1937, Page 2 (Supplement)

POWER OF A MAN'S FAITH.

SCOTS PHILANTHROPIST. j (By S.i 1 Mes = r=. Pickering and Tnulis, of Glas-J now, have published an inspiring bonk, that will interest Scottish readers of tlii ~ column in particular. It is the life of William Quarrier. the Scottish philanthropist. who gave himself to the saving and helping and blessing of thousands of orphan boys and girls, and whose name is im perishably assocated with "The Orphan Homes,'' which he founded and. until his death, directed, near Bridge of Weir, about a dozen miles from Glasgow. It is the work of Alexander Gaminie, the Aberdeen journalist and writer, one of the best-known journalists north u: the Tweed.

William Quarrier was a child of one of Glasgow's slums, and was brought up in the direst poverty. For years he hardly knew what it was to have a square meal. Many a time he stood on the pavement, cold and hungry, wistfully studying the passers-by. When he began to work liis remuneration was for long the merest pittance. But he had grit and determination. He trained and educated. himself. He worked hard. He became an earnest Christian, and all the time, born of his own experience and his love for Christ, he had a burning desire to help poor lads and friendless children. And lie did help them in his spare time till he finally, whilst still a comparatively young man, turned his back on the successful business career that was opening out before him and gave himself entirely to the work of rescuing orphan children from destitution, pauperism and crime, and to pro-, moting their temporal and their spiritual welfare. It was thus he founded 65 years ago the largest and best-known I orphan homes in Scotland.

They form a village of over 60 large' cottages—a garden village—beautifully situated. Each of them houses several children, and is managed by a "father and mother." There are, in addition, homes for consumptives and for epileptics, halls, hospitals, a large school, a large and imposing church and other buildings. From IS7I until October of last year there were rescued from the streets and hire houses, fed, clothed, educated and trained (and this is onlypart of the work done), 20,591 children, the great majority of whom are now either prosperous citizens of Canada or the States or at Home. And the remarkable tiling about it all is that neither Mr. Quarrier nor his son-in-law. now dead, too, nor his daughters ever advertised or employed collectors or asked anyone for a single penny. "In spite of this, in these Bo years no less a

sum was got in Scotland for the foundand carrying on of the work than £2,731,431. Nearly three million pounds! How was it done? In answer to praver. He and they, as Miss Quarrier once told myself, trusted to nothing but prayer. And they never closed a year with an adverse balance. Dr. James Black, of Edinburgh, was so impressed by the story Mr. Gammie tells that he made "the power of a man's faith" the subject of one of his sermons recently. The power of a man's faith! Is there a ' rebuke to any of us here T