RELIGIOUS TOILERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7415, 29 May 1902, Page 2

RELIGIOUS TOILERS.

i , A CONGREGATION BUILDS ITS OWN HOME. ,- HOW TO AVOID CHURCH DEBTS. i A South London Methodist church has made a record. It has built its own church house,; the members doing all the work themselves, >from drainage to chimney-pots'. . The church is in Paradise Road, Clapham, not far from Stockwell. The* treasurer of the congregation told how and why the work was done. "We have been weighed down by debt in the past," be said, "and by great efforts have reduced this debt from JBIOOO to £250. We are greatly hampered for want of room, but would not run further into debt, to increase our premises. * " The idea came, to some of us that we might build a little kitchen on some land by our church, and so enable a room now used as kitchen to be made a class-room.. To save money we thought we would give all the labour ourselves. "A retired bricklayer's foreman drew the plans, an engineer laid the drains, a shoemaker helped to mix the mortar-ras hard a task as any man could want — and I took my turn at bricklaying. "The boys and men of our congregation threw themselves into the work. We came of nights after our work wa* done, and on Saturday afternoons. Our minister went round to timber merchants and 'begged wood for our work. ■" We got on so well that the idea grew. From a kitchen we decided to make the room fairly big. Then we went further and put on a second storey. We paid .nothing 'for labour. In one case a friend helped us by sending a plasterer, whom he paid, as his substitute. SELF-SACRIFICING TOIL. ' "Thdge of us who knew no useful trade learned as best we could r Sometimes in the cold winter nights the work was hard. A man who tried bricklaying had soon to give up, for his finger got scratched and some lime worked in- it and 1 madejt bad. Men sacrificed their sleep, and after being at their ordinary work from early morning till evening would come and toil on here till after midnight, "By this means the >cost of the building, for material we had to purchase, has been £115. We have only had one disappointment about it. We hoped to open it free of debt. We all -did our best, but £17 yet remains to be raised. "But the work has benefited us much more than by giving us a good home. It has 'brought lis all together in a. wonderful way, and we all 'feel that we know one another better for our winter's work together. In fact, now that it is over, •we will scarcely know what to do, so accustomed are we to putting in every hour here." The church officers showed their new place with justifiable pride. .It is a- spacious, solid, and really nice-looking building, bearing no Fign of amateur work about it. "You can jump on the floor without fear of shaking it," said the treasurer.