peated, 'Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift'; whereupon I asked him if he knew what that was? saying we had many gifts from God, and enumerating some temporal ones, which did he think was the best of all? After a moment's thought, he replied, 'Eternal life.' He is, I think, about seven years old; does not attend Sunday-school, as his parents are unconverted, but often asks his mother for a holiday to come to the Mothers' Meeting.

"These little ones sometimes tell their fathers strange things about what they have heard. One about three years old only, on whose mother we called a fortnight since, said, on his father coming home to dinner, 'Lady Jesus has been here; not the Jesus up there, that we are going to ask to make Aunt Ann better. And I'm going to be a little angel. Will you come and be a big angel, father?' which, alas! irritated the man greatly. He is a most ungodly persecutor of his wife, who has not long since been brought to the Lord. Yet God does sometimes speak to the heart by the little ones. We trust He may for His own glory in this case also."

DEAR MADAM,

FRUIT IN COW-CROSS.

From a Pioneer.

A BETTER HUSBAND.

We paid a visit in Cow-Cross to a Mrs. R-, whose case appears a very critical one. She has had two doctors, who prescribed rest. Her husband had not any work, and was at home. I began to speak to him of the care his wife required, and her need of nourishment, and the need there was that when he did get work he should spend the money on home comforts, for his own sake and that of his wife and little ones. I then spoke of the eternity that was before each one of us. After we had done with earth we had all to appear at the judgment-seat of Christ for the deeds done in the body, and that each one influenced others for good or evil. I then endeavoured to lead him to Jesus, the sinner's Friend, who bore the punishment due

267 to the guilty. I was obliged to speak plainly to him, but assured him I did not wish to offend him, for I did not know that he ever entered a public-house, or wasted his money on drink, but I spoke to him from real care for his soul; and I thanked him for so patiently listening to the threatenings and promises of God's Word.

He then said, "I cannot read."

"But your wife can, and she will read to you. Do you know your alphabet? begin by spelling a verse out of the Bible; and when you have mastered one verse, go on to the next. Ask God to help you, and attend a Mission hall, or where God's people meet for prayer, and you will be encouraged.”

When the Bible-woman, Mrs. H-, visited them again, she found the wife more hopeful, and then said, "I thought someone had been telling Mrs. H—— all about my husband, and so did he, until she said she knew nothing of him, or that he ever entered a public-house, nor had any one mentioned his faults, nor did she know he was unkind."

As soon as we left (for the Bible-woman was with me), her husband went into the next room and shut himself in. He stayed so long that she went to him, and found he had been weeping; and from that hour he seemed an altered man. And the following week, when I again visited her, she said how much her husband wished to stay in, that he might speak to me, and that I might again talk to him; but work called him away; and pointing to the floor, she said he said last night he would get up in the morning to scrub the room, that you might have a clean room to sit in when we came, and so he did, get the room scrubbed as clean as hands could make it; and he would have scrubbed down the stairs, but was afraid of being seen. He made a little over-money, and for the first time brought home a pair of shoes for one of his children. Before, he had always felt he had a right to spend that money at a public-house. Indeed, his wife's illness may be traced to his drunkenness. But when he saw her suffering, he would only say angrily, 'What is the matter now?' Since I spoke to him, when he sees her in pain he will say, "Can I get you anything ?" or "Can I do anything for you?" And now she hopes for happier days.

They have lived very unhappily together until the last few weeks. He will now listen while his wife reads the Bible. She feels God sent us. I hope he will not fall back into his old habits, for he is a young man.

The mothers are all asking when their sick Bible-woman is coming back. I read to them part of a letter I received from her, earnestly entreating that none in the room would put off seeking Christ Jesus until they were laid on a bed of sickness, when pain would prevent them thinking. Almost all shed tears. I then said the promises which she had read to them she was now able to rest upon, and like St. Paul could say, "I know in whom I have believed."

This Nurse has had some very bad cases lately, especially two of cancer, one of them was internal, and for a long time poor Mrs. T had such a dread of this disease that she hoped against hope. Nurse says, "I attended her eight months, but she had been ill long before I knew it. When I first saw her it had broken out in her foot and leg, and the stench was dreadful, and her agony very great. The doctor who attended her was very pleased with the way in which I dressed the wounds, and another doctor who was with him asked me what I had done to keep the room so sweet. I told him I used carbolic soap and lotion, and disinfecting fluid, and washed and changed her very often; this was the only way I could keep the room bearable. The poor woman was so very grateful to me, and clung to me as if I had been her daughter. At one time she seemed to get a little better, and some crutches were procured for her, by the use of which she managed to get into the kitchen," &c. She was particularly clean in her habits, and it was a great comfort to her to be able to creep about a little; but about five weeks ago she heard of the death of her father, and then took to her bed, from which she never rose again, but died on Ash-Wednesday most happily. She had been a Christian of long standing, and although she had some peculiar notions, was clinging to Christ, and bearing patiently her great sufferings, looking to Jesus, and longing for the heavenly home into which she has now entered. Her doctor is a Christian man, and said to her the night before her death, "You'll soon

be with Him now, dear friend." "Oh, yes," she said, “very soon." She was reduced to skin and bone, and her sufferings very great; but so patient.

Mrs. W was another invalid suffering with the same dreadful complaint. Her pains were even more agonizing than the former case. I visited her six weeks before she went into the Brompton Hospital, where she was for a time, but got worse and worse, and prayed to be taken home again. This was done, and I had her again on my list. I injected gas at the doctor's order, but with very little alleviation to the pain. She died also on Ash-Wednesday, and I have not the least doubt that she also has gone to be with Jesus. The Bible-woman was very earnest with her, and I believe was made instrumental in bringing her to the Saviour. Her manner is so soft and winning with sinners, that she is much blessed in bringing souls to Christ. We work together with great delight, and the other Bible-woman also; they are both most earnest women in their Master's service.

This poor Mrs. W

has left a husband and seven children. Both these cases were unspeakably thankful for what was done for them.

REPORT OF ONE OF OUR BIBLE NURSES.

From the wife of a Medical Man.

"MY DEAR MADAM,

"It gives me great pleasure to send you a report of Nurse R's work in my district. From what I have seen myself from time to time, and have heard from the mothers attending the Meeting, I can fully and conscientiously testify that her usefulness as a nurse, a friend to advise, and a feeder to our Meeting, is undoubted. Scarcely a week passes but she brings one new mother, and sometimes two or three.

"I have to-day visited with her myself.

"When I met her for this purpose she told me she had something to say that would make me happy. One of the mothers, about whom we have been anxious for the last four years, is now, to our great joy, decidedly softened and subdued; there is

a change in her which only the grace of God could effect. She was a Christian when a girl, but having imprudently married an Italian, who treated her very badly, she gradually gave up all means of grace, and trouble, instead of bringing her nearer to Jesus, made her heart like a stone. Thus we found her when I took the Mission. The Bible-woman, Nurse, and I have repeatedly talked, read, and prayed with her, without effect. She would reply to our conversation and pleadings, 'Oh, yes, it is all true; there is nothing you can tell me but I know-but it is not for me. I have sinned beyond that.' And so we have had to leave her constantly with aching hearts. It was, therefore, joy indeed this morning to hear there was a change at last, and gladly I went with Nurse to see for myself. We found her busy washing, and her dear sick babe (Nurse's patient) lying in bed, looking so dirty. Poor little thing, it is just recovering from an attack of bronchitis, which seems likely to end in whooping cough. She, in her nervous excitement, thinking it was croup, had not dared to disturb it to give it a bath—the very thing that would have been most beneficial to it. She was very grateful when Nurse said she would come back soon and wash baby, and when we both agreed that there was no croup, she was comforted. I then spoke to her about her soul, and said how glad I was she was at last coming back to the fold. She had wandered a long time, but the door was still open; 'Yes,' she replied, 'I begin to feel now that all trials are sent to draw me back again. God knows how much I love my children, and to touch them is the only way to reach me.' She lost one a few years back.

so paralysed as to As she is placed in others to feed her.

"We next visited a poor creature who is have only one hand that she can partly use. her chair so she has to sit and depend upon Nurse almost daily goes in and does little friendly offices for her. She speaks of her with tears as her greatest friend. She was once in much better circumstances, but now is keeping a wardrobe shop. She has to depend upon people's honesty to take down the articles, show her the price, and put the money in her hand. She is too poor to keep a servant, but a woman who goes to work daily sleeps there free, and for the lodging at