A VOICE FROM A WATERY GRAVE.

"DEAR MADAM,

"The Matron is very, very sorry to tell you how she has heard of the death of Mrs. A-, who she was obliged to send from our Home last Monday week for drunkenness.

"Last Sunday she received a great shock from the information that there was a woman found drowned in the Thames, and in her pocket was a hymn-book, which had identified her. Matron feared it was poor Mrs. A-, which proved too true.

"When she was first taken into our Home, about October twelvemonths, she said she was a dressmaker, and worked in Regent Stre.t. She behaved very well for six weeks. At Christmas she stayed out several nights, and when she returned she looked like a depraved woman, and Matron talked to her very seriously. She promised it should not happen again. She went on for some time very well, but the Matron was called into the work-room, and found her quite intoxicated on the floor. When she was sober she was told she must get another lodging. in a week; but during that time she begged so hard that she was allowed to stay. Some time after a young lady called, and said she was Mrs. A--'s daughter, and she wished to know if she was in distress, for she had applied to her for money to pay her lodgings, which,' she said, 'I am willing to do now; but I had told her I could do no more for her, for she has so thoroughly disgraced us all that I have been obliged to give up my position and go into the country, so that no one may know where I am. My grandfather brought me up, and I was his book-keeper until he died.'

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"For the last three weeks of Mrs. A--'s being in the Home she was drinking, and not at work; and, at last, from the complaints of the other inmates, Matron was obliged to insist upon her leaving. "Yours faithfully, S. P."

THE WITNESS OF A SUPERINTENDING LADY.

"With regard to poor Mrs. A-, I only knew her from seeing her occasionally at my Dormitory Meetings on the Thursday afternoons. I believe whenever she was in the Home

she used to like to come up on those occasions. About a month ago, as they were all repeating a text, which is our usual custom, hers was, 'God be merciful to me, a sinner,' which she seemed to feel; and before leaving that afternoon, as I was giving them a tract all round, I said to her, 'Your text is a beautiful prayer, and one that God will really hear and answer if in your heart you feel it.'

66 6 'Yes,' she said, 'I do indeed, for I have been such a sinner.'

"Well,' I said, there is such a Saviour, you know, "mighty to save," to the very uttermost, all them that come unto God BY HIM.' She seemed softened; and, after a little more conversation, I went away. The next time I gave her a tract about CHRIST, as the GOOD SHEPHERD, Seeking the Wanderers;' and said, as I gave it it her, 'There, I think that will do for you, for the Good Shepherd is seeking you out. He goes on to the mountains to recover the wanderers, and brings them home rejoicing.'

"Ah,' she said, 'I have been a wanderer indeed.'

"But Jesus is willing to receive you. Come at once to Him.'

"This was the last conversation I had with her, and I too was sadly shocked yesterday afternoon, when at Parker Street, to hear of her sad end.

"We had indeed a solemn meeting, and everyone seemed to feel the having been brought into close contact with death. I do hope some spiritual good may be the result, and that the solemn warning may lead to decision among the inmates—three of whom have since resolved never again to touch a drop of intoxicating drink.

"M. T

We are led to print these facts as a warning. "To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin." (James iv. 17.)

"For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." (Heb. x. 26, 27.)

THE WORK OF A BIBLE-WOMAN.

By her Superintending Lady.

"MY DEAR MRS. R

"As you wish an account of Mrs. W-'s Bible-work in this district, I select a few cases from her reports to me. You will not be surprised to hear that she meets with the wellknown difficulty of gaining access to many of the rooms; the people will answer from within that they do not know her, and that they have nothing to give to the Bible-woman.

"In reply she will tell them she has a messsage for them; not unfrequently a conversation is carried on with the door between, and sometimes she leaves them; but scarcely has she reached the bottom of the stairs, when some one will come out on the top and say, 'Oh, Mrs. come back-there is somebody bad up here!' She goes back, and rejoices that the Lord will not let the door be fastened against her.

"Thus gaining an entrance, she reads, often pointing to the cupboard as an illustration of the Bible; she will say, 'If you had food in your cupboard, and you did not go and partake of it, would not your body become weak and starved? Just so, if you have a Bible in your room, and do not eat of the food it contains for your souls!'

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"Often she will speak of the Lord Jesus feeding the multitude, and will then go on to tell them of Jesus being the Bread of Life,' and if they will eat of that bread they will live for ever. In many instances these poor people are greatly affected, and bring out their school Bibles, often received as rewards for good behaviour at school; and though scholar and giver may be forgotten in that country village, yet in this noisy, bustling city, God can thus water the precious seed.

"In many instances, when they become Bible subscribers, and begin to do better, they leave a bad neighbourhood and go to a more respectable one; there are now five of our subscribers removed into different districts. Mrs. M-, a noted woman, who used to fight in the street, is useful worker in the Temperance cause, and doing what she can for Christ's kingdom.

gone, but is a very

"It is quite a habit with our poor to stand at their doors or gates; frequently seven or eight will thus be standing, talking together, and Mrs. W will open the Bible and read a few verses, and speak of the value of the soul. She has really often succeeded in gaining a hearing, and by following them up has brought some to the Mothers' Meeting. There are nine houses in our district, contiguous to each other, let out in lodgings at 3d. and 6d. a night; the occupants are mostly matchmakers, crossing-sweepers, organ-players, and others,all needing the blessed Gospel to be taken to them, for they would never be found at a place of worship.

"A poor, but respectable woman, who had two girls subscribing for Bibles, was one day anxiously looking out for the Bible-woman's visit. It seems one of the girls had been told something in the lesson at the Sunday-school, which neither father nor mother could find in the Bible; so the book was asked for, and the chapter found and read, and the family urged to read a chapter before going to bed. Why,' said the woman, we never thought anything about reading it before my girl bothered me to let you come here.' A mark was put in the place, Luke i., for the husband to read in the evening. Mrs. W- trusts this is the beginning of better things, as the poor mother promised to begin that night to read a portion of God's Word for herself.

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"Mrs. W speaks of the encouragement she receives in her work; of the great change wrought on the people of whom we rent our Mission-room, as well as in the two lodgers who live in the house; all come to our meeting, though one declared some months since she would never enter the room again. She is quite an altered woman, and most anxious that her husband should receive the truth.

"Mr. M- was tempted to suicide on account of the drunken habits of his wife. The Bible-woman spoke to him seriously about so wicked an act, and pressed him to become a subscriber for a Bible, and a copy was lent to him until he had subscribed the 2s. 6d. He is now a consistent Christian; his wife is become all that can be wished-sober, consistent, doing what she can in the service of God.

"Mrs. W was much comforted a short time since in seeing one dear old Christian go to her reward. When first visited she was of a murmuring disposition; Mrs. W often read Matt. vi. to her. A few days before her death she said, "I wish I had known you sooner, for you can't think what that chapter has been to me. I know now how much the dear Lord cares for me, and though I have laid up so little, I shall be with Jesus-I shall have all! Bible-woman and Nurse were with her all the night she was dying, until her faith was turned to sight.

"Since the work was begun here 300 Bibles have been sold, sixty mothers have been brought to the meeting, and the temperance pledge has been signed by thirty-three persons.

"I beg to remain, sincerely yours,

"W. F. S."

NOTES FROM A MOTHERS' MEETING.

By a Clergyman's Wife.

After speaking of a change of day which has led to a much larger attendance, this lady says:

"One 'mother' told me that rather than miss the Meeting she did her family washing the same evening, or very early the next morning. Another said, 'The two hours we spend here are the pleasantest in the whole week. If I can't get to the Meeting I'm wrong all the rest of the week. I seem to have lost all that's good.' A year ago she was a rough, loud-speaking woman, now she is gentle and well-behaved. We have eighteen Church members of various denominations: these have a silent and beneficial effect on the rest; an influence unseen but felt; they are the fruit of many a year's labours.

"One of them, Mrs. P--, has had to endure much from a drunken husband. For three years he was scarcely ever sober, and refused to provide for the wants of his family, she having to work to support herself and three young children. Last winter, one intensely cold night, he turned her out of doors in her night-dress; she took refuge at a friend's house, but contracted