ing, 'Oh, Lord, do save my poor dear fellow! Thou knowest he has been a great sinner. We have both lived a careless life, but oh! do save him for Jesus' sake.' Before I left I felt assured he had laid hold of Christ as his Saviour."

The Bible-woman could not go on Thursday, but called on Friday; he was gone, but all testified "he was so happy." It seems that late on the previous night Mrs. B (the mother first mentioned), who lives close by, was hastily summoned, as it was felt he was dying. Again she spoke of the love of Christ to him, and the response was faintly whispered, "And I-love -Him," while look and manner told of perfect peace and rest. These were almost, if not quite, his last words. He died at five next morning, after only nine days' illness, at the early age of twenty-eight.

RATCLIFFE.

"One of our Christian mothers has been in great trouble this month. Her eldest child, aged thirteen, was tempted to take some pence from her employer's till. They said they would prosecute her unless she was sent to a reformatory, but we interceded and she was admitted into the P---street Home. The poor woman is so grateful, and the girl, too, is very repentant. The temptation of an open till, and frequently the entire charge of the shop, at her tender age, proved too much, but she has now an opportunity to gain a character afresh.

"The landlord of the house where we hold our meeting decided for Christ through hearing Mr. Moody. He had been prejudiced, but the Bible-woman pressed him again and again to hear for himself towards the close of their visit at the East-end. He went, and was led step by step each address, and now he rejoices in the Saviour. His very countenance is changed. He was well trained as a child-had a praying mother. He says he can see it all now; her believing prayers are answered long years after.

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"All our mothers have attended the services frequently; those who were Christians have been quickened and much blessed.

PENTONVILLE DISTRICT.

"Since the close of the services at the Agricultural Hall, we have felt anxious about this district. Privileged as it then

was with so many opportunities of hearing the faithful preachers, we expected to see present fruit as the result, and felt rather discouraged that so few of our mothers were prepared openly at least to speak of having received lasting good.

"During the last week or two, however, we have recognised more hopeful signs. One woman, who had been brought up a Roman Catholic, and kept a little shop, was in the habit of selling on Sunday, to the great trouble of the Bible-woman, who lived opposite her house, and had often been compelled to sit with the window-blind down, to prevent her seeing the crowds on Sunday afternoon, who gathered round her door. This woman came to Mrs. B― and told her she should not have her shop open on Sunday any more, she felt it was so wrong, and had of late been so troubled about it; she wanted to go to a place of worship. The Bible-woman has taken her several times to church with her, and she said she could have stayed all night, she enjoyed the service so much. Altogether she seems so different that we trust the good work has begun in her heart.

"Several couples have been married lately, who have lived together for years, the clergyman marrying them free of charge. One couple, who had promised to go with the Bible-woman, told her when she went for them that neither of them had clothes in which they could appear at the church, so she had to return home, and bring a coat for the man, and a waterproof, and other articles for the bride. Although still very poor, they both admitted that since they were married they have been much happier than they ever were before.

"Several young men, who have received blessing in their own souls during the services, have begun work in this district. The mother of one of them came to Mrs. B- and said she was so

pleased that she would willingly help to pay any expenses in connexion with their work, as she wished to encourage her son in it. The Bible-woman gave them the name and address of a good many of the people on the district, who are the husbands of our mothers; they have gone from house to house and invited the people to a meeting. The first one was held on Sunday evening, when they had over thirty present. Through their visitation Mrs. B has already several of them as Bible subscribers.

JESUS AND LITTLE CHILDREN.

(FROM A LADY SUPERINTENDENT.)

"MY DEAR MRS. R- 9

"I think you will see that the average attendance at our meeting has increased. It is generally 22 or 23 now, and I think some good work has been done, at least, I hope so. As connected with Nurse's work, you may be interested to hear what Mrs. L told me of one of her patients in D--'splace. Perhaps you know that I have myself been going there much oftener than formerly. One morning in the summer I found a poor little girl lying on a bed in the corner of a room not saying anything, and hardly noticing what was said. She was quite wasted to a skeleton. I asked Nurse to see her, and she visited her until she died. The following is from Nurse's Report:

"She had a drunken mother, who left her nearly all day by herself. I used to go in and give her milk and beef tea. She had never been to school, but she was always talking of Jesus and Heaven. One day I asked her how she knew so much about Jesus.

She told me Tilly G-, who went to the Ragged-school, had told her. But, she said, "You will not tell Tilly's mother, will you, Nursie? For she will tell the priest, and she will not let her go to school again." (The mother did hear of it, but she thought that Tilly might be forgiven as she had not yet come to the age of reason.')

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"One day I went in, says Nurse, and found the mother so drunk on the floor that she did not know I was there. The child said to me,

"Dear Nursie, don't scold mother; pray for her.'

"The mother has since told me that the first she knew about it was the child saying,

"Mother, Nursie will not scold you for being drunk. She prayed for you. You must come to me in Heaven.' She died on September 8th, seven years old. Tilly is a little girl about five years old, who lives in the back kitchen.

"One must really come in contact with the people in that place and hear their violent unrestrained language, to feel how blessed was these children's talk about their Saviour. When I heard of it I could not but think of the day when the Lord will count His jewels, and when none out of the darkest places will be overlooked, and I thought if Tilly's teacher only knew, what fresh hope she would take for her work. With kind regards, believe me, yours,

"S."

"Nurse M― is going on in her nice clean steady way, doing very much to comfort old or young. A poor little boy we found lying on the pavement about sixteen months ago, and Nurse had asked his mother's permission to dress the shocking wounds down his spine. The poor child was very dirty, and when you talked to him of Jesus and Heaven he was as dark as could be. He had never been to school, being unable to sit, and could only stand on his little crutches, or lie down. But how bright he looks now! he has learned much from Nurse, and her getting into the house opened the door to the Biblewoman, who could never find entrance before. The mother of the child has now for some months attended the Mothers' 'Meeting, and likes it very much, and the dear boy has gone sometimes, and he now understands that Jesus loves him; but we feel he is getting weaker and nearer to his heavenly home. His eyes brightened as I told him of just such another boy whom I attended for many months, and how he prayed to Jesus to ease his pain, and at last he went to be with his Saviour. Nurse still dresses the abscess wounds, and many comforts have been taken to him. Father and mother now respect Nurse and Bible-woman greatly."

"Two little girls, says a Superintendent of the O-—-street meeting, were fond of coming to us with their mother, and she had been one of the first Mothers in our O-street Mission.

"She was a poor, down-trodden woman, had a bad husband, who was very unkind to her, consequently had a wretched home. She professed to be a Romanist, but she had really no religion. Could not read, and was so ignorant that she did not

383 know she had a soul. She said the priest had told her that if ever she dared to go into any Protestant place of worship the devil would come after her, and so much did she believe the threat, that the first time she came to the Mothers' Meeting she kept her eye on the door as if she expected to see Satan in a bodily shape.

"Such was the mother of those two pale-faced, interesting little girls, the eldest about five, and the other about three years old. They came always with her, and they used to sit so quietly on the rug, and attend so earnestly to all that was said and done. We learned afterwards that the girls brought the mother; they used to say every Tuesday morning,

"We are going to heaven to-day, mother.'

"And it was no use for her to invent excuses for staying away; they gave her no rest, and she was obliged to go. They were very fond of both Miss M▬▬ and myself, and if they had seen us at any time about the streets visiting, they used to cry out, Mother, there are the ladies who live in heaven.'

"Had the hallowed influences of that Mission-room contrasted so powerfully with their own wretched home that they made these children think it heavenly? What could they know about such a place from their ignorant mother and drunken father? Were they not rather taught by the Good Shepherd Himself, who said, 'Suffer the little children to come unto me'?

"The mother moved out of the district, and we lost sight of them for nearly two years, when one day she came and told us that her eldest girl was dead; but she died so happily, singing a hymn that she had learned at the Sunday-school, for she went to a Sunday-school after they left the Mission, and she grew such a sweet gentle child, loving Jesus, talking about Him to her mother and father, and said she was going to heaven.

"And the seed sown was not lost on the poor mother, for we believe she had been converted at our meeting. She had a wonderful memory, and used to remember almost every word of the lesson, and go home and tell her neighbours who had not been there all about it. "A. C."