[Townsend, M.E.]. Our Text-Book with Rules and Counsels for Daily Life. For the Use of the Members and Associates of the G. F. S. London: Wells Gardner, Darton, & Co., 1898. [12509]
Blue cloth, gilt-decorated front, back in blind, all page edges gilt, a few light blotches on the covers, 8 x 8.5 cm (3 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches). "A. Sloan 31st July '07" in pencil at top of title page. 64 clean pages with red line borders. Very good. Hardcover.
"London: Strangeways and Sons, Printers, Tower Street, Cambridge Circus, W.C." on the final page of text.
A book of counsel and Bible texts prepared for the members of the Girls' Friendly Society. There are eleven rules: 1. Pure in Body and Soul; 2. Modest in Dress and Behaviour; 3. Truthful in Word and Deed; 4. Meek and Lowly in Heart; 5. Kind and Helpful to Others; 6. Dutiful to their Parents; 7. Faithful to their Employer; 8. Constant in Prayer; 9. Constant in Reading God's Word; 10. Constant in Attending God's House; 11. Constant in Remembering their Saviour's Dying Love in the Holy Communion of His Body and Blood. Each of these has a line or two of counsel followed by a printed Bible verse impressing the rule upon the conscience.
Then follows a Bible verse for each day in the year, on the same subjects.
The Girls' Friendly Society was founded by the Rev. Thomas Vincent Fosbery, based upon the work of Mary Elizabeth Townsend, in 1874. It was ostensibly nonsectarian but used the structure of the Church of England for its operation, setting up Societies within their dioceses. It was aimed primarily as an aid to working-class girls, and found that maids and domestic servants were most attracted to it.
"By 1878, the GFS had a presence in 19 dioceses in the United Kingdom and Gibraltar, as well as the first branches of the Girls' Friendly Society in America and Ireland. It had 10,678 members and 4,442 associates. As the GFS expanded so did their concerns and the scope of their work. New departments established in the late 1800s included one dealing with the special needs of sick and blind members, and one dealing with the safety of emigrating girls and women had been established. During the 1880s and 1890s, the GFS increased their offerings of training courses and workshops. Beginning in 1880, Queen Victoria bestowed her royal patronage on the Girls' Friendly Society and the queen herself acted as an associate and admitted servant girls at Balmoral to membership." - wikipedia.
The Girls' Friendly Society is still in operation in many countries of the world.
The Preface is signed in text, "M. E. Townsend."
Mary Elizabeth Townsend (1841-1918). b. Kilkenny, Ireland; she was the daughter and granddaughter of Church of Ireland ministers. Her marriage to a well-to-do artist and botanist enabled her to begin a work of charity for the young women and girls of her parish, the success of which prompted
Samuel Wilberforce, the Bishop of Winchester, to urge her to expand the ministry. This led to the founding of the Girls' Friendly Society, established to provide spiritual and physical assistance to young women in domestic service.
