been very anxious to have a meeting for Fathers, and this year have at length succeeded in establishing it. It is conducted by a young married lady and her husband, a highly educated man, and of remarkably kindly nature. It has succeeded quite as well as I had expected in my sanguine moments. About a dozen meet every Tuesday evening. Next autumn we shall begin in November, which will be a better time to commence. Last Tuesday evening it was suggested that it would be best to discontinue them after Easter, a proposal which was at once negatived.

"The sum of money raised in the year is considerably more than a hundred pounds for the Clothing Fund, Bibles, and Christmas Club. They pay the money into the latter weekly, and it is drawn out at Christmas with a small bonus (of course), but this is not given from Mission money.

"Every summer the whole party of mothers have a pleasant excursion in the country. A small part they pay themselves, the rest is paid for by a sum raised among my private friends. At Christmas we have a tea. This year the decoration with flowers, plants, ferns, was most tasteful, and I was much gratified by the kind feeling displayed. I feel this is but an inadequate account of what is being done, but it is difficult to record the silent work of growth, and this Mission so specially consists in sympathizing, leading, warning, and helping the people to help themselves."

FACTS FROM OAKLEY STREET.

By a Lady Superintendent.

"MY DEAR MRS. R

"There are one or two facts connected with our Oakley Street district I think you would like to know.

66 For many years a very poor old woman attended our meeting-so poor and wretched, that for some time before going into the much-dreaded 'House,' she shared a room with three others as poor as herself, each renting a corner. Often we urged her to be taken in,' and at last illness made her go. She

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197 seemed dead to all good things. Since she has been there, however, seed sown long ago has begun to spring. She comes out regularly on Sunday afternoons to the Mission Room services, and told our Bible-woman that though she was eighty years old, she had at last found her Saviour, and blessed God for all the good things she had learned at the meeting.

"Another case is that of the son of one of our poor women, a pious woman. When first this young fellow of twenty-one was taken ill, he refused to see us, or to hear the Bible read A week or so later I called one Monday after the Meeting to see him. His manner was rather rough; still, he listened. I presented the Gospel to him, as the best thing for him to live by, hoping God would hear prayer for his recovery, and, before leaving, offered prayer, in which he appeared to join. He said to me, 'Yes, I know it is all right, but I want to feel it for myself.' And that he might get this personal grip of the Saviour's hand, so to speak, I prayed.

"The next time I visited, the mother met me, saying, 'Oh! my boy has found Christ, and I can give him up now.' He was very near his end, but calm and peaceful, only wishing he had lived to Christ long before. He spoke earnestly to father, uncle, cousins, brothers, and sisters. They all attend public worship now, and we cannot reckon yet what results may flow from that one death-bed.

"Our attendance is good and regular, and many seem to drink in the Word of God. I read the extract in the ' MISSING LINK' on 'Dinners for the Bread Winners,' and they were all delighted with it. I am persuaded that if we can link Christianity and improved homes together, fathers and children will be won to the truth. I always tell them God is interested in their homes, and that they can teach the Gospel by temper and conduct in them. And we do see the homes made much more inviting than they once were. God our Father blesses and prospers our work. Dealing with individual women may seem often a slow and weary task, but when we remember the many workers, and the numerous circles of which the poor women themselves are centres, we can never estimate the area of our opportunities.

I think it is to 'patient continuance in well-doing' God often attaches His richest blessing.

"Believe me, most truly yours,

"E. P."

HAVERSTOCK HILL.

From a Bible-woman.

"There is a woman in my district, one of our mothers, who takes, as lodgers, young men who are employed on the railroads. I have sold eleven Bibles to them already. Some have left, but others have come in their places; and as they come, I try to get them to subscribe. One man, who bought a Bible about a year ago, gives evidence, by his walk and conversation, that he has become a Christian. He is a regular attendant at church. I proposed that he should buy a small copy as well, to keep in his pocket, that he might read as opportunity offered. He said one day, 'That was a good suggestion of yours. I often, when I have a few minutes to spare, read a verse or two, and find it very sweet. It gives me something to think about, and helps me in my work.' Another of the men has also begun to attend the Wesleyan church. Several have bought Testaments to keep in their pockets, which they have promised to read, but I do not know with what results.

"One of my Bible subscribers always asks me for a tract, and when she has read it herself, she sends it on to someone else. One was sent to a nephew, who is in a hospital in the country. It had a picture on the top, of a man bending under a heavy load, and it spoke of the burden carried on the back, and the way to be released. This set him thinking earnestly about his own burden of sin, and it led him to pray; and now he finds that it has been laid on Jesus, and he has great peace. He writes, "I am very thankful to you for the tract, and thank the person who gave it to you.' This poor man's hand is crushed, and his leg had to be taken off, owing to an accident in a coal mine.

¡VERULAM STREET.

By a Pioneer.

SLIPPING OVER THE BRINK.

"We have had two deaths. One, Mrs. T, who joined the Meeting to encourage others to do so. She was much loved and respected on the district as a humble Christian; often lent a helping hand to those poorer than herself. My last visit will never be forgotten. I always felt when with her that I should be silent and let her speak, that I might learn from her experience; but this time she began to say that she felt she did not live so near to God as she might; was disappointed that her children had not all become converted; she hoped they would before she died, &c. I noticed how she seemed stripped of everything like self-praise or satisfaction, how, she felt herself to be nothing at all, but Jesus Christ to be all in all. We had never had prayer together before, but we did now, and we drew so very near to God. Oh, I little thought that I should never see her again! I left her strengthened, and longed for the time to come when I promised to run in again for more sweet converse; but on the morning of the day when I hoped to see her in her usual health, she was suddenly summoned home.

"Perhaps, dear Madam, you remember my writing about a young man who believed more in the antiquity of the Chinese nation' than in the Bible? He, too, has been summoned to stand before his Maker; but though he was rather reserved, we believe that he learnt to trust in Him whom once he denied. One day I told him of a case I had visited, and concluded in this way

"Oh, I wish you had the same comfort.'

"He said: "How do you know I haven't?'

"There was an expression on his face which made me ask, 'Do you indeed, now, trust in God?'

66 His eyes beamed when he said: "I certainly do.'

"Do you believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for you?

"Yes, I do.'

"Oh, how thankful I was, and so was the Bible-woman, to find that her visits and those of another Christian friend were not in vain. In taking farewell of his wife, he begged her to meet him in heaven.

66 TOO LATE."

'How?'

'If you

"I must now write of a case I have visited for several weeks, a Mrs. D. I urged her to come to the Meeting. She couldn't. 'Why?' Oh, I have fallen so low.' Covering her face with her hands, 'I can't tell you.' cannot come to the Meeting, you can come to God.' dered. I continued: You once wished to come to saved. What is the hindrance? Is it something you can't give up? What is it?' 'Oh, it's that dreadful drink.'

She shud

Him to be

"She begged me to pray with her and always for her.

"We were getting ready to go to the Mission-room after our dinner, and the poor creature came, saying if I would take her to the Meeting she would go. We were early, so we got her into a corner just inside an inner room, where the other mothers, whom she was ashamed to meet, could not see her.

"I cannot describe her dirty home. One day she said she would have it clean by the next time I went. The next time she moaned, 'Oh, I haven't cleaned my room.'

666

'Why haven't you?'

"Ah, I get the horrors, and go to bed.' And there she lies and gnaws her nails until they are nearly gone, and once I saw that her finger ends were raw.

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At the Meeting one day I read the lesson of the lost sheep. Next time I saw her she said, 'You took that lesson for me?' "'Yes.'

"I knew it, and I believe He is following me, but I can't turn to Him, its too late. Oh, this is a terrible case, and there are many like it."

N.B.-This district will be best remembered by old friends. under its old name of "Dear Prissy's." Ever since her death it has been supported by her loving Mother, who has now rejoined the precious child she mourned, and the earnest Superintendent who so long cared for it. Many souls have been rescued by their means.