friend." The Lady Superintendent adds, "Indeed her unseen work at their own homes is quite as important as the attendance at the meeting, for she is a holy Christian woman, and one we can trust to do all she undertakes to do." There are some belonging to the Mission still who have been at the meeting for more than twelve years, whom we hope to meet in heaven; and our real object is to take the blind by the hand and to lead them to Jesus for salvation. The Bible-woman has always been at her post, and, through mercy, the Superintending Lady has not been absent one Tuesday for nearly sixteen years. One mother, in a letter to the lady, says: "I humbly beg you to accept my best thanks for the Mothers' Meetings, as they have been the means of doing me great good. I can truly say it is good for me to be there to hear dear Miss Fread and explain the Holy Scriptures; and also for dear Mrs. L—, the Bible-woman, may God bless her and be with her always." And a son of one of the mothers, when she died, wrote to the Bible-woman as follows:

"DEAR MRS. L

"It is my painful duty to inform you of the death of my mother, which, though a loss to surviving friends, is a great gain to her. She remained throughout her long and trying illness perfectly happy, having Christ ever by her side. Her faith never diminished; but, as her body gradually decayed, her soul seemed strengthened by the Holy Spirit; and on the day preceding her death she expressed that her calling and election were sure.' Having expressed a wish that Safe in the arms of Jesus' should be sung after her decease, we should be greatly obliged if you would have it sung at one of the meetings which she attended; and we take the present opportunity of thanking you for your Christian ministrations, which were of great comfort to us all."

A SAVED FAMILY.

"I bless the day," said one woman, "I ever saw our Biblewoman, for it was she who invited me to the meeting; and then it was she who first spoke to my husband. I had a face disfigured from his blows and kicks that day while under the influence of drink. He has since signed the total abstinence pledge. We have both now found that peace which the world

can neither give nor take away." Although this mother cannot read, she remembers the chapter, for her husband or eldest girl to read again the one read at the meeting. This is a saved family.

OUR MOTHERS LOST AND SAVED.

By the Superintendent of Cow Cross Bible Mission. "MY DEAR MRS. R

"I have been looking over our lists to send you the yearly statistics. The eight places vacant through the sad Princess Alice accident have made me feel that you might like to hear something more about them than you have heard in connection with our work (ours and yours); for I always feel that if it had not been yours it might never have been ours.

"We have a good hope that nearly all the members of our Mothers' Meeting who have gone are with Jesus; we may safely leave them to God's mercy in Him. Several were quite old women. One of them had not been proof against the temptations which abound in Clerkenwell to go from one meeting to another for the sake of Christmas gifts, &c. (Would that God's people knew the harm done by indiscriminate charity and buying the poor into meetings!) Knowing my disapproval, she tried to hide that she had come from another meeting on the last Sunday evening I saw her. A visitor spoke that night on the sin of untruth in act and life, as well as in word, and of the forgiveness that we might all yet find from Him whose truth is our anchor. Its appropriateness struck me at the time, and we can only hope that it went home.

"One dear mother, with a little three-year old child, has gone. Her eldest boy, about seventeen years of age, was with her, and held them up for some time, till he could hold them no longer. Her husband seems nearly heart-broken; he is left with eight children. And she was such a good mother; once she used to be a very lawless costermonger. One has said since, 'No words were too coarse for her.' But she and her

husband gave up the drink, and business prospered. She soon became an earnest listener at the Mothers' Meeting, and from that an earnest Christian. Her life was a very valuable one, and it seems but little that we can do to help the little darlings who are left to need her so much.

"But our chief loss is in dear Mrs.

Involuntarily

still we turn to her seat, where she and her little girl were regularly to be seen, for she had a fine voice and led the singing. She was quite a missionary among the neighbours, and her bright hopeful spirit and consistent example were a great help and strength to us. When calling upon her after the birth of her last child, I said

"Tell me how you find time to do so much good outside your home, with your house (she let lodgings) and your children to attend to ??

"She took up the Bible that lay beside her. 'Miss,' she said, 'it is this. I learnt to love my Bible when I was in service, and after I was engaged I was afraid my John did not care for it as I did. I bought two Bibles, and the day we married I gave John one, and the first evening I asked him to read one verse, and I read the next, and then we had a little prayer. John did not care for it much at first, but he does now. It is through the Bible and through prayer I get on, Miss.'

"I like to think that still her prayers for others are being answered.

"One day at the beginning of last winter we invited some of the mothers to a special meeting for prayer. The hour we had fixed was unsuitable, the day was inclement, and I remember my disappointment that only two came. That dear mother was one, and the prayer she put up that day has lived often in my memory as a help and refreshment. She has passed away, with the children God gave her. Only one little girl is left to the widowed father. He has been very ill since the terrible shock and excitement of going to Woolwich every day for more than a week on a fruitless search.

"The Sunday afternoon meetings of the twenty of Miss Law's Bible-class, who were prevented going, and the two out

379 of thirty who were saved, have been very solemn. Death has made life seem very real to us all. I think a deep impression has been produced on those who are Christians, to be in earnest for the salvation of those around, and in all to be ready." Some of those who did not go were prevented by such seeming trifles that, as they say, they were quite 'vexed.' We have learnt that God may order the little things as well as the greater.

"Two things more I want to tell you. One is a delightful answer to intercessory prayer.

"About four months since a man came in to our Sunday evening class, intoxicated and so noisy he had to be taken out. About six people stayed and prayed for him afterwards. The Bible-woman and I each tried to see him during the next week, but always unsuccessfully. He came again the next Sunday, and without advice from anyone. He had signed the pledge, and he has kept it, and is an earnest listener to the Bible. His wife said she 'Never would forgive him;' he lost his work through drink, and then she took to drinking, too; but now she has forgiven him. They are happy at home, though he has not yet found good work, and I trust we may soon be able to say that they are Christians. I think we might say so of him

now.

"P.S.-My dear Bible-woman wished you to know that the increase in her number of Bibles sold is in part owing to her having had twelve bought by our Sunday class."

66

THE TEXT-ROLL.

During my absence," says a Pioneer, "Mrs. B., one of our Lambeth mothers, has lost her good husband after an illness of eight months. I had lent him a roll of texts from the kind grant made to our Society by that of Mr. Woodhouse. Being in large print they are often a great comfort to the sick whose sight is growing dim. Mr. B. derived much comfort from this roll. It was turned regularly every day, and on the last day of his life one of the texts was, 'Into thine hands I commit my

spirit; Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth;' and he passed away about seven the next morning. And when they turned the sheet as usual, the subject for the day was God's compassion, and one of the portions was, 'Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive, and let thy widows trust in Me.' All noticed it as remarkable-more so, the widow thought, than if she had opened her Bible at the words. She was very thankful to keep the roll, which, of course, I did not reclaim under the circumstances. In what various ways the Lord works to comfort the hearts of His sorrowing children!"

DO NOT TAKE HER AWAY.

As our friends have seen from our opening paper, it is quite certain that with lessened funds we can provide for fewer Bible-women. Our growth is on the side of the NURSE work, which is becoming the increasingly popular agency, and the contributions of our friends are now almost always divided. But where is the reduction to take place? When we attempt it we receive letters like the one annexed. The good agent alluded to must be removed to a district where she can be supported locally, and within the next week or two, unless some unknown friend will answer for her annually where she is. We have four other women in the parish, one of them entirely on the General Fund, which will not bear a second.

"MY DEAR MRS R.,

"I am so distressed to hear that your lack of funds obliges you to remove Mrs. F from our St. Pancras district. It is because of the value of her work I mourn this. She watches for souls as one that must give account. While thankful if the mothers will belong to the clothing club, that is to her but a secondary object. I have now worked for a year with her, and she has truly sympathized with me in the desire to bring souls to Jesus. She has really laboured to bring them to the meetings for that one object, and in her visits to their own homes she has been most bold in rebuking vice, but has ever held forth the one remedy.