Book Notes: The Greatest is Charity

Compared to Shaw's previous book this is light reading, yet it packs a powerful and challenging punch! This is the story of Andrew Reed, a leading non-Conformist mininster who sought to meet the spiritual and practical needs of those he served in Stepney, E. London in the 19thC. His preaching and visiting minstry helped hundreds of people put their faith in Christ, and he saw remarkable growth in his church. The Victorian city also presented Reed with actute physical suffering, and he did not think that Christian mission extended only to peoples souls but also to their bodies. He founded two orphanages to care for hundreds of lost children, pioneered the care of those with severe learning difficulties and in the last years of his life adopted the deeply unfashionable cause of paliative care, predating the modern hospice movement. In both his preaching and caring he sought 'Christlikeness', doing so with remarkable energy and generosity, and often at great personal cost. What is 'prophetic' about Reed is that he was inspired by biblical teaching regarding individual human worth, because all are equal before God and created in His image; and was therefore liberated from some of the intellectual currents of the day which insisted on the moral inedequacy of the poor, inviolable economic laws and the rigorous application of self-help. This extended to both the severely mentally handicapped and the 'incurables'; Londons 'untouchables' who Reed served.