FAITH AND PATIENCE. 141 universe as the most glorious star in space. If this be a delusion, it is a very agreeable one, and makes a threadbare garment and a plain repast look like the robes of royalty and the feast of kings. 25th. Nothing to enter. Yes; life, health, reason, and hope continued. These are something! It is well to know who continues them. 26th.—I am glad that I keep a diary; for, although there is nothing in it worth reading, it gives me a little task to perform daily. 27th. I feel the want of books greatly. Daily bread is certain, for it is promised by One who cannot lie. But as for books? 28th. Having nothing else to do, I frequently attend public meetings. Some of them I would enjoy but for intrusive thoughts respecting my little personal affairs. But I frequently enjoy what is said notwithstanding. This was the case last evening, at a meeting in connection with the British and Foreign Bible Society. The best speech of the evening best in every sense was by a layman. It was luminous, logical, well-informed, pointed, and Christian. I asked a gentleman sitting by me who the speaker was, as I did not hear his name. "That," said he, "is Mr. Edward Corderoy, one of the best friends the Bible Society has, and that is saying a great deal." I admitted that it was, and added, that these great benevolent Societies bring together, as well as bring before the public, many excellent men who might not otherwise be known beyond the circle of their own personal friends. "Yes," he said, "you are right. That gentleman, and his brother John-a man of precisely similar character-are Wesleyans; but wide as the circle of Methodism is, it is too narrow for their large hearts. Nothing short of sympathy with Christians everywhere, and with every Christian effort to benefit the world, will please them. The liberality, the benevolence, and the high 142 FAITH AND PATIENCE. Christian character of John and Edward Corderoy, are well known to the friends of our great Societies." "Thank you, sir," I said. "I am little else than a stranger in London, and am glad of every opportunity of seeing and hearing its public men.” 29th, Sunday.-A day of calm enjoyment "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee." Experienced the truth of this consoling Scripture. I 30th."Let patience have her perfect work." must wait, but I would rather work. Honest labour is a thing of real dignity. Man toiling thus is man discharging duty, and the discharge of duty is ever honourable. But I am in the predicament of the labourers in the parable, who, in answer to the question, "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" said, "Because no man hath hired us.' Well, "let patience have her perfect work!" CHAPTER XI. THE PARIAHS OF SOCIETY. HOME FOREIGNERS THE BLACK REGION GREAT CITIES CRIME AND SUFFERING-CHRISTIAN BENEVOLENCE-"THE FAST A FEAST-REV. W. BLAND-THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY'S SERMON-BAD AND GOOD READING-ALFRED IN TROUBLE-MR. BLAND'S LETTER GRIEF OF A MOTHER - THE SCRIPTURE READER AT WORK-A FAMILY RESCUED-A CONGREGATION OF THIEVES-AN OLD TRANSGRESSOR-"DIVIDING THE HOUSE "— THE DISCOVERY-THE PRODIGAL'S RETURN-STORY OF MARIA LANTON. THERE is a class of strangers among us, though born in our midst foreigners, though our own countrymenbarbarians in the centre of civilisation-heathens amongst Christians-degraded as the pariahs of Hindostan; filthy in their persons as human creatures can be; having a language of their own, and habits which cannot be described, and would not be believed were description attempted. Another peculiarity of this race is that they are invisible. The world never sees them. They startle not the delicate lady by crossing her path, nor is the man of business interrupted by their importunity. They are children of the night and of darkness, and, like beasts of prey, they "creep forth while civilised men sleep, and when "the sun ariseth, they gather them selves together, and lay them down in their dens." Their very existence was unknown to the other inhabitants of London until a comparatively recent period, and at this very hour there are tens of thousands of the well-to-do, comfortable citizens of London who do not know of their existence. Thanks to City Missionaries, Scripture Readers, and the efforts of non-official, but tender-hearted Christians, that great black region on the map of the metropolis has been so far explored as to bring to light the hideous mass of corrupt humanity which was festering, unsuspected, in the very midst of the wealthiest, most benevolent, and most Christian city on the face of the earth! This is one of the evils of great cities—that they become the hiding-places and haunts of every species of infamy and moral leprosy— the seething caldron of abominations more horrible than those of the weird sisters in Macbeth, and the retreats of systematie villany so complete, that we think the Old Serpent himself must sometimes be amazed at the more than serpentine dexterity of his human scholars. Persons to whom the queen's Lighway is a man-trap, and the sunlight a terror: persons who could not live in the country, except, indeed, it were in the målst of a jungle or dense forest; and persons who despise work as a degradation, and honesty as a weakwww.—did their way to gras dies, and there they multiply, and decone siti in fiqully under the very shadow of the palaces of destal and the sanctuaries of God... Bu as we£ AITĘGA necessities physical drig, and a crime is a curse we de body as well as to de sus the por crears wady endure fveride privation and badly pan-immer, Sase, and Machame mary, wheù admit am be drogha of without a shudder. Seemes have been viiessed in the week, alles, shas, mi acces vir des miseribile wvtales angryaN, VIND HETE Jscray aried the diaal of the humane Srections Vist Christia bebe valmer las zoumpõel then av venere de manda MINS I The SIA IN Zsa mie tsef from the 66 145 light of day. But for the active energies of our benign Christianity-energies, however, which have not yet been called forth to the extent of their power-these doleful abodes of physical suffering and moral turpitude would have remained to this day without a ray of light or a whisper of hope. Would infidelity have explored them? Would sentimental philanthropy have exposed itself to their pestilential atmosphere? or would the officers of civil government have sought them out, and delivered their inmates from their dreary condition? Clearly, whatever may be said for or against the idea of Revelation, and whatever may be said for or against the special doctrines of Christianity, it is beyond dispute that, to the direct or indirect influence of the Gospel, humanity owes a debt of gratitude which it can never pay. Its obligations are incalculable. For the sorrows of the sorrowful have been alleviated, and the agonies of the distressed have been removed in innumerable instances, in consequence of the promptings of Christian motives in the hearts of Christian men. Beautiful and genial is the service prescribed in the following "fast." Instead of a fast, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, it is a right joyous feast to the heart of the man or woman who has felt the blessedness of sympathy with HIM who went about doing good, and who became poor that we might be rich : "Is this, then, the fast that I approve A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it that he should bow down his head like a bulrush, A day acceptable to JEHOVAH ? Is not this the fast that I approve- To free the oppressed, 2 And to break asunder every yoke? Is it not to break thy bread to the hungry, And to bring the poor, that are cast out, into thy house? L |