The Two Services
The Two Services – An Address to The Boys’ Brigade, by Herbert Reid, with an introduction by The Archbishop of Dublin, published in 1895.
The Annual Report of 1895-96 recorded: The Christmas Gift-Book has again been one of the most successful publications of the year, no fewer than 25,500 copies of the Rev. Herbert Reid’s admirable address, The Two Services, having been disposed of. The Christmas Competition, which this year took the form of a letter written in answer to the question: “How can a Boy best serve Christ, in the Company and out of it?” drew forth a wide response from the Boys of the Brigade throughout the United Kingdom and Canada. As giving an insight into the lives and characters of the Boys with whom we have to deal, these letters are invaluable.
One of the Judges in the Competition writes :- “Upon a review of these letters, one could wish no better future for the Companies all round, than that these confessions, desires, resolves, ideals-often pathetic in their homely colour, touched with self-reproach, wise insight, and manly aspiration-should continue to occupy the mind and shape the behaviour of each lad in the ranks of the Brigade.”
Christmas books – The late Victorian period was a time of rapidly increasing literacy, with The Boys’ Brigade playing its part in this progress with the publication in 1889 of a Christmas Gift book for Boys. The primary purpose of this book was to encourage Boys to read, and the first publication featured 16 pages of text interspersed with illustrations. This set a pattern for future books which continued until 1899. These books proved very successful, and reached a good proportion of Boys in the Brigade. Few of these books now exist, and it is fortunate that enough copies remain to be reproduced and read on the BB virtual museum as a flip book below.
