A Pupil of Mr George Miller's Orphanage.

Manawatu Herald, 6 January 1898, Page 2

A Pupil of Mr George Miller's Orphanage.

The Christian, an English weekly publication, contains in the number of September 23rd a portrait of the Rev. William Ready, of Dunedin. Mr Ready is a living witness to the successful work of Mr George Muller's Orphanage at Bristol. He was thrown on tha London streets at the age of sfe by his drunken father, and earned his living until he was double that age by picking up ec:ap3 of food and tumbling for coppers, with no more comfortable shelter at night than a railway arch or an ash bos. He was rescued from the streets by a city missionary, who seized him one day by main force, and in spite of his struggles, conveyed him to Mr Muller's Orphanage. ,

la course of time he became a minister in connection with the Bible Christians, and early in 1887 he came to New Zealand. In April, 1890, with no friend at his side bat his young wife, he took his stand on his first Sunday night in Duntdin when the church services were over, in the Octagon, and began singing " Whera is my wandering boy to night." On the other side of the square was a notice announcing a lecture to be given by an infidel, admission one shilling, subject " Is she Bible true ?" When his singing had attracted a crowd, he called their attention to the notice and offered to answer the question without changing his hearers anything. The work which began out of doors has continued out of doors until the present day. But before the young evangelist had been in the town a week, it was supplemented by regular v/ork within a hall. His first building which he hired accoinodated 850 people. At the first service there were 350 eeats to spare, but within a few weeks the hall was crowded. From there he removed to the Lyceum, a building erected in 1882 by the Free Thought Society of Duneclin, and constructed to accommodate 1000 persons. But the Lyceum was soon crowded to over* flowing, and Sunday and Sunday scores were turned away. In August 1893, Mr Raady left the Lyceum for the Garrison Hal), a building of twice the siza in the saras street. This also was quickly filled on Sun day eveninga, and the regular congregation is estimated to be the largest in the Southern hemisphere. Ha has a Chinaman's class with twenty-five regular attendants, and he has established a Christian En* deavour Society, which supports a Sister of the People. Mr Ready.a Mission has from the first been self* supporting.