[Illustration: Wesleyan Centenary Hall.]
When the idea of this first great Thanksgiving Fund was originally
contemplated, the most hopeful only dared look for 10,000; but when
the accounts were closed the treasurers were in possession of
222,589, one meeting at City Road having produced 10,000; and the
effort was made at a time of great commercial depression. This
remarkable liberality drew the attention of the Pope, who said in an
encyclical that _the heretics were putting to shame the offerings of
the faithful_.
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