THE Centenary Celebrations which began in London with the Centenary Meeting at the Mansion House on 4th March, 1924, concluded on 14th December with a solemn Thanksgiving Service at the Central Hall, Westminster, which was kindly lent to the Institution for the occasion by the Trustees. The Prince of Wales, our President, and the Princess Louise,, Duchess of Argyll, President of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild, were both present.

The service was conducted by the Right Rev. W. W. Perrin, D.D., Bishop of Willesden. The Rev. W. Scott Lidgett, D.D., Moderator of the Federal Council of the Free Churches, and the Rev. A. A. Green, of the Hampstead Synagogue, also took part; and on the platform, supporting the Bishop, were the Rev. H. D. L. Viener, C.B.E., M.A., K.H.C., Chaplain-in-Chief of the Royal Air Force, the Rev. W. L. Robertson, General Secretary of the Presbyterian Church of England, Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., Chairman of the Committee oi Management, and the Hon. George Colville, Deputy Chairman.

Although the Roman Catholic Church does not see its way to participate in such joint services, Cardinal Bourne, the Archbishop of Westminster, arranged that references should be made to the work of the Life-boat Service at West- minster Cathedral on the same day, both! at High Mass and at the Evening Service.; The musical part of the service was conducted by Mr. Arthur Meale, F.R.C.O., Organist and Director of Music of the Central Hall, Westminster, and the singing was led by the Central Hall (Westminster) Choral Society.

Many distinguished and representative men and women accepted invitations to attend the Service.

The Life-boat Service.

The Life-boat Service itself was repre- sented by seven Life-boat men from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales— England by John Holbrook, ex-Coxswain of Bembridge, Isle of Wight, who has twice been awarded the Silver Medal ofthe Institution, the first time for the rescue, in 1916, of 110 men from the transport Empress Queen, and the second time, in 1919, for rescuing the crew of an American steamer, the Wakulla, of Los Angeles; by Robert Burgon, ex-Coxswain of Berwick-on- Tweed, who holds the Silver Medal for the rescue, in 1913, of eleven lives from a Swedish barque; by John Bensley, one of the Coxswains of Gorleston; and by George Newman, Second Coxswain of Worthing; Scotland by Walter Fairbairn, Coxswain of Dunbar and Skateraw, who holds the Silver Medal for the rescue, in 1905, of six lives from the steamer King Ja Ja, of Swansea; Ireland by Daniel Murphy, Coxswain of Kingstown; Wales by John H. Williams, Coxswain of Tenby.

The Life-boat Service was also repre- sented by the following members of the Committee of Management: Sir JohnPeril on the Sea," with its three parts, "Calm Sea," "Portents of Coming QA« ~, " „ « nn, a -i ' T » Storm, and The Sailor S Prayer.

in opening the service, the Bishop of Willesden said :— " God is everywhere ; He knows all our shortcomings. We are gathered here to-day to ofiei our thanksgiving to Him for all that has been done in the hundred years and to pray for the continuance of His blessing upon THE ROYAL NATIONAL Life-BOAT INSTITU- TION. I ask you to take your part in the Service, and to join in the responses." " " Eternal Father strong to save was then sung, and was followed by: prayers; "The waves of the sea are] mighty and rage horribly. But yet the " Lord who dwelleth on high is mightier Mr. Green then read the 107th Psalm, and the Choir sang the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's " Messiah." This was followed by an address from Dr. Scott Lidgett :— Dr. Scott Lidgett: " We are here this afternoon to give thanks to God and to commemorate the history of a hundred years; to give thanks for those into whose hearts God put it to found this great ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION ; to thank Him for the generous spirit which He inspired, for the wisdom, enterprise and persistence which has guided the counsels of this Institution during those hundred years.

We are here to give thanks for the way in which the work has grown and its possibilities have increased, likewise for the wisdom and generosity of the Institution which has advanced from the humbie and small beginnings of a century ago to the magnificent results which •we contemplate to-day. Above all, we are here to give thanks to God for the splendid courage of those who have manned the Lifeseamen boats during this last century, for theirs, after oil, is the gift without which all our generosity and all our wisdom would have been unavailing.

Heroic courage, readiness to dare, kindly humanity at heart. It is brought home to us that no storm ever rages round the shores of this storm-swept island without men springing to the call of duty and humanity. Nearly 60,000 lives have been rescued from death during the century that we commemorate.

" This Institution is one of the oldest monuments of the great philanthropic inspiration which came to Britain more than a century ago. Those who trace the history of the higher spiritual and social movements of preceding generations will not have failed to mark how a new passion of sympathy woke up •within the hearts of men in the latter part of the eighteenth and throughout the nineteenth century, and with that new feeling of the horrors of some of the social conditions there came a new sense of social obligation, a generous parts, response to the growing calls which sympathy I makes upon a good people; a reliance not upon otate enterprise, out upon private and benevolent endeavour. This new sense of the i sacredness and the -worth of human life, how- i ever humble and however hitherto unthought of, became at last part, we may trust, of the permanent endowment of our race.

" And all this work of sympathy, a sense of social obligation and a realization of the preciousness of human life, followed in the wake °,f. and though it was not created, was at least (1PC npnAn V» 7 +.1-10 Tolii-M/vi-iCj T"*vi?i*j-a] /-if -frVin deepened by the religious revival of the eighteenth century, the effects of which lasted on throughout the nineteenth century with all its activities of thought and enterprise. We aj* h u ere' therefore, in the presence of a work which was created by faith and hope and love Mowing, as we-believe, the guiding of the High Spirit of God.

are] " At the same time this Institution, while it is the outcome of a great religious impulse, is also a characteristic monument of British temper and geniug The nature and efficiency of its work are part of the characteristics oi our race. Adventure, -which, has sent forth our Lifeseamen for centuries over every sea; the sympathy which is not lavish of words, but of practical deeds ; the generosity which does not like to be organized or directed by the State, but springs spontaneously up and does its own work, those qualities of devotion, of humanity, of practical sense and private endeavour, make up the most characteristic British mind and temper, features of the of its attitude towards the tasks of life. And as enterprise and adventure have sent our mariners upon every sea, so the British people have responded by the enterprise which has created, and the private sense of duty which has sustained, this great organization. We have been making what I may venture to call remedial afterthoughts.

We have launched out, we have ventured upon sea and upon land to our common good and in the development of our industry. In doing so we have exposed men to risks which sometimes we did not foresee, and then, following in the wake of the venture and the risk of danger, we have created remedial agencies by which the danger has been lessened. However much the State may henceforth encroach upon private enterprise in many walks of life, God grant that this old spirit of humanity, of sympathy, of voluntary service, may be preserved during the days to come.

" Our thanksgiving is a recognition of our debt and of our duty. If our land owes so much to the brave men who have manned our Life-boats during the past century, how much more does London owe a debt to those men and to the men of the Navy and the Mercantile Marine whose dangers have called into existence this great Society I For it is a commonplace to say that London could not exist physically without these men of the Navy and of the Mercantile Marine. Still less could it be the centre of the far-Hung British Empire, and the commercial and financial centre of the world. Therefore our thanksgiving to-day imposes upon us the great duty of remembering our debt. Thank God, as our recent historyhas shown us in other spheres and in other ventures, the English spirit is not dead.

Courage survives on land, on sea, and in the air, and men are ready to spring to the call of duty as they have done through the history of our country. But it is for us who have this splendid force of humane spirit and energy and devotion at hand for every task of our commonwealth, it is for us who benefit by the heroism of our brethren, to see to it that their work is not hampered, but that they are supported because we recognize our obligation.

So our thanks to God to-day are a pledge before Him that this great Institution, which has lived and thriven and developed for a century past, shall go on to yet greater triumphs and have yet more generous support in the century that is to come." After the address the hymn " The Life-boat" was sung, and was followed by prayers for the Life-boats and their Crews. The Choir then sang Canon Geoffrey Ryley's anthem, " Fierce raged the tempest o'er the deep," and prayers were said for those at sea, and in remembrance of those who have perished at sea. These were followed by an address from the Bishop of Willesden.

The Bishop of Willesden : " Dr. Scott Lidgett has brought to our eyes the memory of the past in the hundred years that have gone since this Institution was first formed. In those days, for the most part, such Societies were supported by a few of the most earnest and true and godly citizens of : our country. Great missionary societies were started and this Institution owes its origin to that particular period of our history. But I am sure that in those days it would have been absolutely impossible or hopeless to have thought of gathering together such an assembly as we have here present with us to-day.

" Your Royal Highness, you will forgive me | if I venture to say how we indeed as an Institution appreciate all that you have done ' for our work. Such a thing as members of the i Royal Family being present at a meeting like I this a hundred years ago, or, even, perhaps fifty, would have been very difficult to imagine.

And we have with us to-day representatives of the House of Commons, of our municipal life, and of the great Services—the Navy, the Army and the Air Force. We also feel the joy of having with us here upon the platform this afternoon our brothers who represent the actual work that is being done by the Life- boats on our coast, and I am sure you will agree with me that it •would be well to read their names. Although, perhaps, Sir, just as you and I would object to such prominence being given to us, we are right, absolutely right, in mentioning the names of those who come from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, and who are on the platform this after- noon.

The Bishop then read out the names given above, and proceeded: " I have before me, my brothers, the records of what you have done, but I forbear to read them, I will only say that we are gatheredtogether to thank Almighty God for what has been done in the past and to pledge ourselves lor the time to come to give a more liberal rapport than has been given to the work of! tiife Institution. j " It has never received any aid from the | State, and I hope and trust that it never will, j It is of this and some kindred Societies that j those in authority in Parliament have declared that they are carried out better when they are ! the outcome of voluntary effort than when maintained by State aid. This applies to our hospitals, as I believe, and to that work in | which Your Royal Highness Princess Louise is specially interested—the great work in I London of the Police Court Mission. May it! remain so for this Institution, if only because j it becomes most splendid of all in the volunteer' work of those men all round oar coasts. i ; " The way in which the work has spread is ] _ before you. You will see that the cost of upkeep has risen from the very, small sum of $10,000 a year in the past to £250,000. at the i present time, and that 60,000 men, women and I children have been saved from the perils of the i ; deep by the work of the Life-boat Institution. I That is eleven a week through all the hundred years. It is for that work that we to-day are thanking God. The first little Life-boat, which had no more than a certain amount of cork to keep it afloat, depended upon the oars with which the men rowed, and cost perhaps £200. To-day we have Motor Life-boats.

They are provided with everything that can ,be done for the preservation of life, and they .coat £10,000 and more. But it makes all the .difference. I remember, in a little fishing village in Cornwall two years ago, seeing the fishing boats leave the harbour without setting their sails because of the small motor power that they had in them, and in coming back to the harbour I remember an old sailor saying to me, ' There is nothing in it now, Sir, anybody can do it.' It made all the difference in their coming home safely, that they had this motor power. So every appliance that can. be used and every improvement that can be made, THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITU- TION is determined to have.

"There is, of course, the other side, the splendid character of the men, whom some of us, perhaps, have seen launching the Life-boat.

Amid all the howling of the wind, the storm, the rain, the cold, they man the Life-boat, and go forth on their mission of saving human life.

" I remember an incident on the Pacific coast, where a boat that had left these shores was suddenly seized by a squall of wind and foundered. All the passengers were struggling for their lives, and four Indians put out in their tiny, fragile eanoe. It was nothing like as good even as those Life-boats in use a hundred years ago, but they fought their way through the sea to where the wreck had foundered, and where there were four or five still struggling for their lives. And those Indians, in that tiny canoe, brought them safely to shore, and refused to accept one single dollar in reward for it. Why ? Because they had been brought to the knowledge of Christ; because they had come by the ways of their fore- fathers. They had learned this, and, some year or two afterwards, the Governor-General of Canada pinned on the breasts of those men a medal which they were proud to wear.

" It is the uplift of our humanity. It is the end of that which has been said on all sides, ' You cannot help it, human nature is one nature; everything must go on, we cannot make things better.' On the contrary, it is ; because we believe in the restoration of our I human nature, it is because we believe in Him I who took that nature upon Himself, that we ; here to-day surely will pledge ourselves to see that in every way that we possibly can, we will ! help to forward the work of this Institution, i and offer our humble and hearty thanks to I Almighty God for the blessings which He has , given, and pray Him to continue them from j generation to generation.

I " Boys and girls, you have your share in it, ! too. It is for you to help as much as those i who have the greatest influence. I ask you to | see that while these men upon our shores are carrying out this splendid work, you remember ) the work of this Institution and help it as you ] can, as well as, and as much as, any of us.

" Now we are going to sing our last hymn, j and during this a silver collection will be made.

j I ask you to give as liberally as you can." After the Benediction the National Anthem was sung.

The collection amounted to over £60..