Remember His Marvellous Works: A Record of Remarkable Providences and Answers to Prayer

Remember His Marvellous Works:

A Record of Remarkable Providences and Answers to Prayer

Alfred S. Dyer

REMEMBER HIS MARVELLOUS WORKS A Record Of Remarkable Providences And Answers To Prayer

By Alfred S. Dyer

22

ISBN: 9781648171161

Remember His marvellous works: a record of remarkable providences and answers to prayer

By Alfred S. Dyer First Fruits Press, ©2022

Digital version at http://place.asburyseminary.edu/firstfruitsheritagematerial/212 First Fruits Press is a digital imprint of the Asbury Theological Seminary, B.L. Fisher Library. Asbury Theological Seminary is the legal owner of the material previously published by the Pentecostal Publishing Co. and reserves the right to release new editions of this material as well as new material produced by Asbury Theological Seminary. Its publications are available for noncommercial and educational uses, such as research, teaching and private study. First Fruits Press has licensed the digital version of this work under the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/.

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Dyer, Alfred Stace.

Remember His marvellous works : a record of remarkable providences and answers to prayer [electronic resource]/ by Alfred S. Dyer. – Wilmore, Kentucky : First Fruits Press, ©2022.

1 online resource (216 p. : port.) : digital.

Reprint. Previously published: London : Morgan & Scott, [1915?]

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IMPORTANT BOOK ON ffOME LIFE. 3/6 net (post free, 3/10).

THE IDEAL CHRISTIANHOME. A Book for all on the Threshold of Life's Duties.

BY HELEN

S. DYER,

.Atdho, of .. Pandita Ramabai; the Story of her Life ana Work," etc., etc.

Artistically Bound and Boxed. Admirably adapted as a Wedding Gift, or for Presentation to Young People contemplating Marriage.

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Perhaps the best section of the book 1s that on • Sons and Daughters.' ''-Tht Baptist (London), 11 A delightful book on the Christian home, its circle, its aims, its duties.

Nothing could be better than the wide use of this attractive and daintiiy got up volume as a wedding present,"-Tht Churchman (London).

11 Not only is the style happy and attractive; there is also a freshness about the sentences and the thoughts they embody, which compels perusal. It will be read through with the avidity of a sensational narrative. "-Christian Patriot (Madras).

11 The wisdom of the wise is here, and the brightness of a seeing soul. A more useful book of its class has not for a long time come our way."-Th, Sword ana Trowel (London).

"There is a great art in being able to pack a volume full of sound advice in such a way as to make it fascinating, and here the authoress has succeeded. There is a happy, useful hfe in store for all who will allow themselves to be guided by these pages."-The Local Pf'eachen' Maga%ine (London).

"Mrs. Dyer is a well-known writer and a careful observer.

This new book from her pen will be a great blessing to many lives as they start on a united life together.''I11dian W.t,uss (Calcutta).

"We found it difficult to put the book from our hands. The whole of the seventeen chapters are written in a breezy, enticing vein."-Bombay Guardian.

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MAGNIFY the LORD with me, and let us exalt His Name together."

"BRETH REN, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise,

think on these things."

1Remember bis mar\1elloua ( I Chron. xvi. 12)

UUlorhs.

(P,alm n. 5)

.II Record

of Remarkable Providences and A mwers to Prayer.

By ALFRED

s. DYER,

Formerly of London and Bombay.

ILLUSTRATED. How good is the Gon we adore, Our faithful, unchangeable Friend; Whose love is as great as His power, And knows neither measure nor end.

1on~on: MORGAN 12,

& SCOTT,

PATERNOSTER

LTD., E.C,

BUII,DXNGS,

To

A

FRIEND

IN

ScoTLAND

whose business profits are unstintedly used in the service of Gon in this and other lands, this record of our LoRD's lovingkindness is affectionately inscribed.

W. J. Rutchinp, Ltd., The Hillincdon Presa, Uxbridae.

FOREWORD.

T

HE remarkable Divine Providences and Answers

to Prayer herein recorded have occurred chiefly within my own knowledge or experience, or the knowledge or experience of personal friends in England and India and elsewhere. The few exceptions are also well-authenticated. The incidents will be found very diverse, touching life's interests at many points.

From my early manhood I have been greatly helped in heart and action by reading of Gon's providential dealings with His people in our own times. I have often found such records fraught with comfort and inspiration in circumstances which required special courage and faith. This book is an outcome of a desire to help others, even as I have been helped. I believe that uplifting illustrations will be found here for the pulpit, the missionary prayer-meeting, and the Sunday School class, as well as for the family circle, " the church in the house,'' and seasons of private devotional thought.

My warm thanks are due to the friends whoafter reading preliminary portions or printer's proofs of this volume-have shown their appreciation by subscribing for copies in advance, several ordering a

6

Foreword.

hundred each. This practical sympathy with the purpose of the work, accompanied by such remarks as, " The pages are doing me good," and ' ' The proof has been a means of grace to me " (from business men in Scotland and London respectively), encourage the expectation that the book will exemplify its subject by being a providence to not a few of its readers. "I pray that many through your book may come to ' believe that HE IS, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him,'" denotes a fellowship in prayer for which I am profoundly thankful.

The hymn which prefaces the :firstchapter, perhaps owes its interest more to its expression of a personal experience than to poetic merit, although (coupled with the accompanying music) it has found a warm welcome in Christian families. It is the outcome of an exceptional season of trial. Thousands of miles from home. Difficulties on the right hand and on the left. The only direction in which there were none, was Above. As I thought of my many experiences of Divine interposition in the past, a flood of grateful emotion overwhelmed me, such as I had never before known, and by faith triumphant I wrote amid raining tears, A refuge in each raging blast, A tower while life and time shall last, A Goo to be adored !

This trial was followed by a marvellous deliverance, the greatest of my life, "exceeding abundantly "

Foreword.

7

above all I had asked or thought. If the hymn shall help some other child of GOD to raise a trustful and triumphant song when all human resources fail, its appearance here will need no apology.

With abounding thanksgiving I testify that the roughest paths and the hardest tasks in Christian service have brought me the choicest blessings. We miss great compensations if we choose the way of the least resistance. The Apostle Paul wrote," I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation."

The Doxology never sounds sweeter than at wits' end corner. How heartening are our SAVIOUR' s blessed words, "In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of goodcheer; I have overcome the world."

With regard to the omissions which some may notice who for twenty or thirty years or more have followed with sympathetic interest my work for the MASTER, it is right to state that the wealth of material in my hands accounts in part for what is left out. I cannot say "Finis" at the end of the volume. I stop at two hundred pages that the circulation of the book may not be limited by over-bulk. It is my hope at a later date to recount, in a supplementary work, many instances of our LORD'S dealings as strikingly providential as any recorded in these pages. " As for Goo, His way is perfect."

A.S.D.

!IOl?1Ae"er.-Jatling 1orbt "Jasus CJIRIST the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever."-HEB. xiii. 8.

"BleS5 the LORD,0 my soul, and forget not all His benefits,"-PsA, ciii. 2.

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Awake, my soul, thy LORD to praise, Awake with glad and glowing lays, Unceasing praise proclaim ; By life and lip abroad to tell The Love that worketh all things well, To all who know His Name.

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CHAPTER I. GOD STILL SPEAKS TO LISTENING HEARTS. Provldentlal to the Minute.

MONG my unexpected callers on an August day was a Presbyterian minister. He was in the midst of a vacation at a neighbouring sea-side town. He told me that as he was resting on the previous Sunday afternoon, he felt an inclination to go at once to a Methodist Sunday School not far distant. At first he was disposed to regard the inclination as a passing impulse. He knew nothing about the School except that a little girl where he was lodging, attended it. But he could not rest. In a few minutes, what he now recognized as Gon's voice within, said emphatically, ''Go and visit the Methodist Sunday School. ,i He immediately arose, and went with joy.

On knocking at the door, a young man came who looked pale and distressed, but seemed relieved at seeing the visitor. He asked if he would come in and address the school. He explained that the Superintendent was very ill, and that he had been called upon suddenly to take his place. He added, '' T cannot speak to children, and I don't know what 0 t 1lo.

A

B

Io

Remember His Marvellous Works.

The visitor could not refrain from saying to him, ' ' The LoRD has sent me here to speak for you." A loving Heavenly Father had met the need to the minute.

The providential substitute told me that he spoke with a liberty such as he had rarely experienced.

Three months afterwards he wrote regarding the incident : '' Many testimonies have come to me of blessing received through my address." The HOLY SPIRIT so watered the seed sown, that one of the testimonies came from a girl who with six others in her class had just given their hearts to JESUS. Verily, He who spake to Mosesat the burning bush, has not ceased to speak to listening hearts. What is so often lacking on our part is the attentive ear.

" Beforethey call,I willAnswer."

These words have been frequently verified in our own age. A missionary in India, the late C. B. Ward, well-known to me, who founded and for thirty years (till his heavenly home-call) carried on an independent mission in the Nizam's State, gives this illustration (abbreviated) : '' The memory of it will never fade. I rode, on horseback, from home in Yellandu to our Christian village, three miles away. That morning I was feeling somewhat weighed down with responsibilities pressing upon me. The dew was very heavy on the grass all about me, but as I rode along through the jungles, a voice seemed to say, ' Ask for what you need.' In

God Still Speaks to Listening Hearts.

II

my mind, I said, ' Yes, I do pray for all our needs daily.'

Still the voice seemed urgent, ' Ask /01 what you want.' I looked about me as I rode, and it occurred to me that the tall dew-wet grass did not furnish a very good place for me to kneel down and pray. Yet the voice said, 'Ask /01 what you want.' ' ' I got off my horse, stepped aside from the road, knelt in the wet grass, and began to pray. I prayed for a moment, when the same voice seemed to say, ' Ask /or fust what you need.' I began to pray again. I heard once more the same voice. I drew from my pocket a small note-book, and jotted down fully the items that pressed me. They totalled five thousand rupees, Nizam's State money. Then, with a peculiar feeling of confidence, I prayed for just what I needed at that time. '' I did my work in the village, and returned home.

For some reason, I did not dare to tell my wife of that morning's experience. I allowed it to remain a secret to myself for many days. How often I wondered if the answer would come. I looked for it by post ; I looked for it otherwise. More than a month passed by. Needs grew. I felt oppressed with the situation.

"On the morning of October 17th I rode again to the village. The ride by the sacred spot where I knelt more than a month before, awakened strange feelings within me. Did the LORD hear or not ? I returned home to breakfast with a heavy heart. As I entered my home, my wife handed to me a registered letter. Almost afraid to open it, I broke the seal, and

12

RememberHis Marvellous Works.

lo I there was a cheque for five thousand rupees in Government of India money, equal to Nizam's money Rs. 5,800, from a stranger in California, who did not want his name mentioned. '' I read his letter, and re-read it. I glanced at the date, ' Sept. 8th.' I then turned up my notebook, and there was 'Sept. IO' above the items I had jotted down and prayed for, that morning in the wet grass. ' Before they call, I will answer,' came to my mind. I never knew its meaning before. But here Gon Himself gave an exposition. Two days before I-pressed to the very ground-had found relief in prayer, the LORD put it into the heart of a stranger to start a cheque which, with the exchange, came to eight hundred rupees more than I had asked for."

Other workers occupy the pioneer's field. After her husband's death, Mrs. Ward was our guest on her journey to the American homeland with her youngest son, George, who was intent on qualifying in America for medical mission work in India. Mrs. Ward is now engaged in missionary labour in Sumatra, in conjunction with an elder son, William Taylor Ward.

C. B. Ward's picture of his faltering faith must not be looked upon as a portrayal of his usual condition.

He was a robust Christian. He was evidently passing through a period of extraordinary testing and depression, such as may overtake the strongest. His experience and the result are therefore the more stimulat-

God Still Speaks to Listening Hearts.

13

ing. The trial of his faith was precious to Him Who, foreseeing our needs, anticipates them, often through several connecting providences ; and of Whom it was written in the long-bygone centuries, '' Our Gon is unto us a Gon of deliverances" (Psa. lxviii. 20, R.v.).

HighIntereston SpiritualInvestments.

An honoured visitor and friend, long known to me as a very generous supporter of foreign missions, had a far-reaching experience in his early business career.

He left a godly Welsh home to become an assistant in a drapery house at Manchester. One LoRD'sDay the preacher where he worshipped was Heber Evans, then of Carnarvon. He made a powerful missionary appeal. All the money the young Welshman possessed was four shillings and sixpence. He thought he would contribute sixpence. Then he thought he would afford a shilling. Ultimately, he decided to put the whole four shillings and sixpence into the collection.

The Arch-Enemy of good, not having been able to prevent the deed, thereupon attacked him for his alleged folly, and succeeded in somewhat shaking the young Christian's confidence in the rightness of his act. In this frame he began his duties the following morning.

In that establishment, the assistants received a premium on the sale of a certain class of goods. That morning, and right throughout the day, he was asked for these articles by an extraordinary (and to him, unprecedented) succession of customers.

His

14

Remember His Marvellous Works.

premiums soon reached the sum he had given to yesterday's missionary collection. Still such customers bought, and at every subsequent sale on that day, it seemed as if Goo said to him, "You were afraid when you gave to Me all you had. Take it back with more."

When the shop closed that evening, his premiums amounted to twenty shillings. Goo had repaid him more than four-fold. The impression made on his mind and heart by this run of customers, and the accompanying message, was so profound that the day's experiences, he told me, were as fresh in his memory, after forty years, as on the day they occurred.

My friend's manner of giving has been often decidedly unconventional, and is indicated in a homeland incident. On a certain day, while engaged in business in London, an evangelist in Wales was vividly brought to his memory, no one prompting. The impression made was a strong one. The Christian merchant concluded that the evangelist was in some sort of need, and proceeded to write a cheque for £5 to send to him. When he had written the first portion of the capital F, a voice within said, " Make it ten." He knew the voice, and therefore did not stop to argue. To the uncrossed part of the F, he added ' ' en,'' and the cheque was posted forthwith.

The evangelist in Wales was spending that day in prayer - that Goo would send him ten pounds. He had bought a Bible-carriage to use in his wotk, but needed a horse and harness. These had just been

God Still Speaks to Listening Hearts.

15

offered to him for the sum to which my friend, wholly unaware of the circumstances, had altered the partly written cheque. '' Banked '' again. Highest interest. Treasure on earth lasts but a little while at the longest. Treasure in heaven is treasure for eternity. '' Wisdom is justified of her children. ' '

"GoodMeasure, PressedDown,... Runningover."

(Luke vi. 38.)

The writer of the following notable occurrences is well-known to me, and I am familiar with the circumstances:'' A man called at my home with pincushions for sale, cleverly made of small pieces of varied coloured material. The price asked, though not unreasonable, seemed more than we could just then afford for what we did not need, so he was sent away without having effected a sale. I saw him depart with a disappointed air. I noticed that he was joined at my gate by a poorly-clad woman with two small children. '' Their circumstances flashed upon me. The husband was not an ordinary hawker, but out of employment, and the pincushions were the work of his wife and himself in their attempt to earn food for the family. ' ' A voice within me said, ' Go after him.' I overtook the family about a hundred yards down the country road. A few questions confirmed what I had surmised. I said I did not require a pincushion, but if he would accept a gift, he was welcome to it. I

16

Remember His Marvellous Wo,ks.

handed the grateful man enough to buy the family a modest meal, and left them with their little stock intact, happy at the unexpected aid. '' On my part, I was well satisfied with the transaction. Besides the joy of having lightened another's woe, I knew that GoDwould not be any man's debtor ; for ' he that hath pity upon the poor, lendeth to the LoRD,and that which he hath given will He pay him again' (Proverbs xix. 17). '' In less than a week, on a morning when I was too unwell to arise, when everything appeared to be happening adversely, a letter was brought to me containing an unlooked-for gift of a hundred pounds. '' Unknown to me, a dear friend who had fallen asleep in JESUS a year before, had intended to bequeath that sum to me, but it was omitted from the will by the lawyer employed to draw it up. Her intention was known, however, to her surviving sister, who, when the complicated affairs of the will had been to some extent straightened, generously at this juncture transmitted to me the hundred pounds, to which I had no legal claim, and of which, no previous knowledge. '' Some persons may call an experience like this a coincidence only. On my bed of sickness, I found a different and more GOD-honouring name for it. It was answered prayer for relief from pecuniary pressure, and the LoRDrepaying, according to Holy Scripture, with large interest, what had been given to the poor.,,

CHAPTER II. MORE MESSAGES FROM THE MASTER.

Remarkable Acquisitionof a ChristianNewspaper.

OURNEYING in India toward the city of Peshawar on the border of Afghanistan, we halted for a few days at the American Presbyterian Mission at Rawat Pindi, the guests of the veteran missionary, David Herron. While there, a morning mail brought a post-card for me from another missionary friend, Wallace J. Gladwin, of Bombay, announcing the death of George Bowen, editor of the Bombay Guardian,a man of apostolic character and simplicity of life. Immediately I had read the postcard, the astonishing thought came to me that I should take George Bowen's place.

I mentioned the strange thought to my wife, but neither of us regarded it seriously, as we had no in: tention of settling in India. I had a publishing business in London, to which I was due to return.

We were only in India on a mission of investigation, as the representatives of Christian friends in England.

The thought of succeeding George Bowen was therefore dismissed as an unaccountable freak of the brain.

After some weeks, our mission of inquiry concluded, we returned to Bombay to the home of Mr. Gladwin.

J

18

Remembe,His MarvellousWorks.

Here early one morning, he came to my room and said, '' Sumant Vishnu has come to sell you the Bombay Guardian." I expressed my astonishment. He replied that this offer was what he had prayed for.

Of course, the uppermost thought in my mind now, was the possible connection between his prayers and what I had regarded as an unaccountable freak of my brain. Was the thought that I had dismissed so promptly a message from the Answerer of believing prayer? The result showed that such was the case.

I was enabled to purchase, and, for over ten years, to conduct this Christian weekly newspaper, without relinquishing my business in London, till a serious illness through overwork and malarial fever caused my permanent return to England, leaving as our successors two valued English friends who had been for some years members of our Bombay staff.

The purchase of the newspaper and its printing plant liberated Sumant Vishnu Karmarker to enter the Christian ministry. He became one of the foremost Indian preachers in the Bombay Presidency, his ministerial labours, till his death, covering a period of twenty years.

One of my chief purposes in taking steps to acquire the Bombay Guardian was to permanently continue its evangelical witness, exercised with much power under George Bowen. The property, including new premises and new machinery, was placed in trust.

Among the trustees were such pronounced evangelicals as R. Cope Morgan, editor of The Christian, of

More Messagesfrom The Master.

19

London; Dr. John Dixon, of the Mildmay Mission to the Jews, London ; and their friend and mine, George Gillett, the London banker and preacher of the Gospel, an enthusiastic supporter of many Christian enterprises. The subsequent passing of all three to their eternal reward has withdrawn a greatly needed influence. The personal friends of Mr. Gillett and myself were the principal contributors to the Trust Fund.

A Workman'sProvidential Reward.

A London working man, an earnest Christian, went to spend a LORD'SDay away from home, on a visit to his mother, some miles distant. At the place of worship which they attended, the preacher at the evening service disclosed the need of a liberal collection.

The workman felt a prompting to give a sovereign. He was surprised. He asked himself how he could afford to put nearly a week's wages into the collection box ! He thought of family needs. But the inward prompting repeated, '' Give a sovereign ! " Was the suggestion a natural impulse or the voice of GoD? He had to decide quickly. The box was drawing near. He concluded that Gon had spoken in the sanctuary of his heart. The sovereign was dropped into the box, as he asked his Heavenly Father to make up to him the gift.

The next morning, returning to one of London's largest railway stations, immediately on arrival, another passenger train steamed in. A gentleman

20

Remember His Marvellous Works.

hurriedly alighting, called to him to get a cab quickly.

No time was lost in obeying. As the passenger was being driven away he placed a coin in the workman's hand. He called to the gentleman that he had given him a sovereign by mistake. The giver replied that it was all right; and the cab disappeared. It was a lesson to a grateful heart on the blessedness of heeding the voice of Him who caused Peter to find the needed tribute money in the mouth of a fish (Matt. xvii. 24-27).

" When thou Walkest nrough the Fire.''

(Isaiah :diii. z.)

A friend engaged in a Christian publishing house in London, communicates a wonderful experience.

The incident is quoted from a letter to his loved ones at home, from a hospital. He had not seen them for three weeks. '' I want to tell you of a delightful experience I had on the day I underwent the operation. I had felt my strength diminishing each day for the previous few days ; and I was quite satisfied that some drastic measure was necessary to save my life. '' It is not surprising that in this condition, my spiritual vision was not so clear as when in good health. GOD was quite as near ; but it was not easy to realize it. His Word was as sure as ever; but it was more difficult to rest upon it. My mind was uneasy, until I cast myself on His mercy, earnestly praying that He would specially manifest Himself to me in view of the ordeal through which I had to

More Messagesfrom The Maste,.

21

go. I prayed definitely for one ,Promiseon which I might rest myself and be comforted. Then I left the whole matter in Gon's hands. This was on Thursday evening. Friday found me weaker still.

I was less able to think, or to concentrate my mind on anything ; and the day wore slowly away. The specialist from London was expected by 5.15 that evening.

"Still my spiritual vision was no clearer. Four o'clock came, and my prayer had not been answered.

But just before five o'clock a Heavenly Light flahed uponme, and I seemed to be in Heaven.

How easy it would have been to have stepped into the Glory-land-for so it seemed I With this glorious light came also the voice of GoD in tones sublimeslow and majestic: 'Fear thou not, for I am with thee ; be not dismayed, for I am thy Gon. I will help thee; yea, I will strengthen thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness.'

And immediately I was consciousof being in my bed. '' My prayer was answered. The promise had come. All fear at once departed. My natural dread of the surgeon's knife was gone. I knew that all was well. I was carried to the operating theatre and placed upon the table without the slightest flinching. I could leave myself in the 'right hand' of my Gon. "It was worth while going through all I have suffered to have an experience like this. Oh, how real Heist How He does accompany us right into

22

Remember His Marvellous Works.

the fire, and He suffers not the ' flame to kindle upon us.' "

A ChinaMissionary's Testingand Obedience.

The next incident occurred in the missionary career of the late Miss K. Aldis, of the China Inland Mission,and is gathered from a letter to her mother.

Feeling much the need of rest and recuperation by the sea, she purposed to go to Chefoo, using for that object thirty dollars which she had received for personal use in any time of need. It happened at this juncture that the Mission funds were very low, and the missionarieshad been asked to make the straitness a subject of prayer. Miss Aldis wrote:'' One day when we were asking the LORD for funds, it flashed into my mind that He wanted the money I had put by for the journey. Then I thought it was foolish to think so, as He had opened the way and arranged for me to go to Chefoo. He must surely mean me to act according to common sense, and use that money. I had no other to use. But arguing would not do. All my peace went, and I felt that all the sea breezes in the world would not do any good if one were not right with Gon. So I gave the money up, and then asked the LORD, ' What next ? ' '' He said, ' Go on to Shanghai.' So I came last night. It seemed foolish to set out with no money for Chefoo, but the LORD gave me such peace, and rest and joy. When I got here I was walking round the compound with a friend, and she said, ' Are you

More Messagesfrom The Master.

23

going on Wednesday? ' I replied, 'If the LORD opens the way ; if it is His will.' She said, ' Are you doubtful about it ? ' I answered, ' I am not quite sure.'

"Just then I heard someone say, 'An express letter for Miss Aldis.' I opened it, and in it was a cheque for thirty dollars I Well, it is just like the LoRD. I felt humbled that I had been hesitating about giving my money to Him. This little experience has been such a blessing to me.' '

Satan'sCounterfeits.

In my early manhood I received several messages by letter from a person of some prominence, purporting to be written by dictation from the spirit-world, for my guidance. But as the alleged spirit-author of the messages made a mistake in my Christian name, I knew that GOD had nothing to do with them; for it is written, '' The LORD knoweth them that are His.'' A similar experience occurred in America to one of the most widely known Christian women workers in India, in her younger days. She was taken to a gathering which proved to be a seance. A message was given to her, alleged to be from her deceased father. In it she was addressed by a name which her father never used in life. She saw through the iII1.::. posture, remarking that the message might have come from someone else's father, but it was not from hers. Unquestionably the real author of the message was the father of lies.

24

Remember His Marvellous Works.

I have been acquainted with several families (some members of which were young people of much promise) who have been ruined spiritually and physically, even to suicide, through coquetting with spirit-ism, incorrectly termed spiritual-ism. The only safeguard against spiritism and its perils, and other of Satan's modern man-traps, is a well-grounded knowledge and an unqualified belief in Holy Scripture, joined to a living union with the LORDJESUS CHRIST as set forth in His own words in the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel according to John.

But a more prevalent peril than spiritism is a theology so '' liberal '' as to rob our LORDof His Godhead, and the Bible of its authority. This is often done in language adapted to conceal its first source. Satan is an adept in cunningly balanced phrases. The deceivers, his human instruments, are frequently themselves deceived. This species of peril is illustrated by the words of the foremost British exponent of such presumptuous doctrine : '' Never mind what the Bible says if you are in search of truth, but trust the voice of GoD within.''

Here is the absolutely unwarrantable assumption that the voice of GoD can be contrary to the teaching of Scripture. On this head I may quote what I have said in another work : '' The ministry of GODby the HOLYSPIRITin the human heart is a ministry that necessarily agrees with the message of the Holy Scriptures, which are likewise the work of GoD by the SPIRIT. God cannot contradict Hlmlllf ."

A World- Wide Voluntary Helper of Pandita Ramabai.

Pandita See Chapter III.)

Ramabai and her daughter, Manoramabai, of the Mukti Mission, India.

CHAPTER III. u

WORKERS TOGETHER WITH HIM." On the Anvil of the Lord.

OME years after Pandita Ramabai began her great work for her fellow-Hindu widows, she re-visited America. In her journeyings there, it happened, in the providence of Goo, that she was a passing guest in a home at Windsor, Nova Scotia. Her sanctified personality and purpose left a deep impression on her hostess, with a longing to do something out of the ordinary to help her.

In a few years the hostess became herself a widow.

Her sorrow created another bond of sympathy with the Good Samaritan labours of Ramabai ; and a design grew in her heart to travel and speak, in order to make the far-away work better known. To the hearer, the story would be a spiritual uplift. Its narration would also widen the circle of Christian hearts interested in the work. Ramabai never advertises, nor appeals except to her Heavenly Father.

From her Nova Scotian home, Ramabai's sisterly friend therefore launched out in faith in Goo. Unsupported by any Society or Committee, she has

S

C

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travelled widely on this holy mission. Thousands of GoD's people in Canada, the United States, Britain, New Zealand, and Australia, have heard from Mrs. Rachel Nalder's lips the wonderful history of Pandita Ramabai's life and labours.

Having been several times our guest when visiting Britain, the following episodes in Mrs. Nalder's early days have deeply interested us, not least in their bearing on her later intensity of purpose and Divine preparation for larger Christian service.

Her father was for thirty years the choir-master of the parish church in a village in Lincolnshire, where the ministry was not of the sterling evangelical kind that happily marks not a few Church of England pulpits in the present day. In her girlhood she was a member of the choir. She says: "I went to church regularly, but I feel pained to say that all through my childhood days I knew nothing of a Christian home. I had no praying mother.

My father led the choir, but he did not seem to know much about practical religion."

At that early age she hungered for love. This was met in her teacher at Sunday School. It was her first love. She began to attend her class when she was five years old ; and no inducement could have kept her away. Under her tuition, ~he committed whole chapters of the Bible to memory, and was ultimately confirmed in Lincoln Cathedral.

Anxious for education, she walked six miles daily to school, On the way, there was a chapel,

Workers Togethe, 'lllith Him.

27

attended principally by farm labourers, distinguished by their earnestness in prayer. When they ob• tained an organ for the chapel, she was requested to play it. She asked her father's consent. He concurred on the ground that it would be good practice, not imagining the providential result to himself. What then happened may be best des• cribed in her own words : MRS. NALDER'SNARRATIVE.

The earnest souls in that congregation determined, from the time I took the organ, that they would pray me into the Kingdom. They always called me their "young lady," and said, "LORD, save our young lady.''

The SPIRIT of GOD laid hold on me, and for six weeks I was in such agony I could hardly live. I did not want to talk about anything, or even to eat, so eager was I to :find GOD. I wanted to be saved; I wanted to have a clean heart; to be entirely re-made.

I felt I must get the new birth.

As I was praying one night all alone, the SPIRIT of the LORD came upon me. I could go to the very place where the clouds broke, and the LORD just flooded my soul. We had been to a service in the chapel, and the minister preached from '' Believe on the LoRD JESUS CHRIST, and thou shalt be saved.''

They appeared all saved but myself. I felt the sermon was for me.

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RememberHis Marvellous Works.

AfternoonPrayerMaetlnpof Twe.

When I went home that night, I gave myself to Gon, and it seemed to me that I began walking in heaven. Gon put a burning love for souls in my heart, and a friend and I used to go to the chapel three days in the week to have a prayer meeting at three o'clock, when the HOLYSPIRITwould bring up persons as subjects for prayer. We would pray for Mary, and in a few days Mary would be saved.

Then I would say to my friend, "Now, Lizzie, we must pray for Annie: " and Gon heard us for her.

I had no doubt in those days. I knew Gon would hear prayer.

There was a young man whom we used to carry in prayer before the LORD. He was a carpenter ; and he said later that as he was working at his bench every day between three and four o'clock, he did not know what came over him. He had to throw down his plane and fall on the shavings and cry out to Gon. We told him we knew Gon was working.

After a few weeks that young man became saved, and Gon called him to preach the Gospel. There were seventy converted after that. Let me tell you Anotherthine God led mt to do.

He came to me in the night in those girlhood days.

He spoke to me so clearly, and when He told me to do a thing, I would be quick to do it. I dared not disobey. It seemed that obedience was so swift in me.

Wo,kers Together with Him.

29

One night I began to think of our large family, aud no one knows what I went through. I thought, '' Here are father and mother and all these children, and I am the only one who knows the LoRD JEsus.

I must bring them to Him. GoD is holding me responsible.' ' We had never had family prayer; and I felt we must have it ; but, oh, to pray before my father !

I would rather have prayed before Queen Victoria than to open my mouth before him. But I could not go to sleep until I made this vow-'' 0 GOD, if I am alive in the morning, I will have family prayer.' ' I had never been in a house where they had such prayer; and I did not know how to conduct it ; but I said, '' If I am alive in the morning, I will start it. ' ' As soon as I awoke, I wished I was dead. '' Oh,' ' I thought, "I'd rather be dead than have that vow upon me.'' I felt the solemnity of the vow.

I went and knocked at my father's bedroom door.

How to speak I did not know, but at last I stumbled out something. I cried more than I talked, and he said: "What is the matter now? " I had had some trouble before. He had wanted me to continue my singing at concerts in the village, but when the LoRD saved me, I said, " Father, I cannot sing at these concerts.'' Then he quoted that verse, '' Religion never was designed to make our pleasures less.'' It had not made mine less. I told him I had a hundred more pleasures now than I ever had

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before. And when he said I must sing, I replied, '' I will be true to CHRIST first, father.''

So this morning he asked, "What is the matter now? " I stammered out, " Oh, father, don't you think we should have family prayer; that we should honour the LoRD in this home ? ' ' He turned in his bed and said, '' Oh, it isn't everybody that can talk. There are books you can buy, I suppose, and get prayers in them."

"But father," I said, '' I don't think that is the kind of prayer that would be best. If you would just let us have prayer--.''

By this time I was sobbing, so I walked away downstairs.

Then I had to tackle my mother. Again I wished I was dead. I do not believe I can make it half real to you. You cannot realize what it meant to me.

I never had such a cross as to speak to my precious father and mother.

My mother did not give me any encouragement.

But after breakfast, father said, '' Rachel ; go, bring the Bible.''

Oh, my poor feet and knees: I was just fifteen. and my father was fifty-five, and all the children were there. I got the Bible. and he made me read.

Then I said, "Let us kneel down. Now father, won't you pray? '' He answered, '' If there is to be any praying done. you will have to do it.''

I just lifted my heart to GoD. My heart seemed broken, and out of my broken heart I began to pray.

I could see the very heavens open. I never had

Workers Together with Him.

31

more access to GoD. As I prayed, my father fell and sobbed. My mother and brothers and sisters were also overcome. We were all on the floor, and I was praying for each one by name.

GOD accepted the hard thing which I did, and for six years He made me keep up that family altar, no matter what company we had. If we had a wedding feast, Rachel carried on the prayers ; but nothing was ever such a blessing in our home, and when I was leaving home to cross the Atlantic Ocean, I said, '' Father, will you carry on the family prayer?''

He replied, '' I will.'' He lived to be ninety-five, and I was in England at the time of his death. That family altar was kept up until the end.

Pastor A. C. Dixon, of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, has described himself as having been called

by GoD to be '' a foreign missionary at home,'' to '' go to the uttermost parts of the earth in prayer, in sacrifice, and in gathering recruits for the [missionary] army of the Churches.'' In the foregoing narrative we have seen the beginning of similar service through faithfulness to a Divine call in timid girlhood.

No great work is ever accomplished without difficulties. Mrs. Nalder has had to face many. But GOD-inspired faith is faith triumphant. As an intimate friend of Pandita Ramabai, I travelled sixty miles to attend a meeting addressed by Mrs. Nalder at the 1\lildmay Conference Hall, London, during one of the large Mildmay Annual Conferences

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Remember His Marvellous Works.

I was not disappointed. Such addresses do more than impart information. They are channels of grace.

" When ye Pray, Belleve.'' (Mark

xi. 24.)

At a weekly prayer meeting held at the residence of two gentlewomen at Ramsgate, prayer was offered that a young woman who had been for several years looking forward to missionary work in India, on faith lines, might ere long be enabled to go forth.

This petition particularly attracted the attention of a missionary visitor. Following the meeting she enquired concerning this young woman, and where she lived.

Shortly afterwards the visitor to Ramsgate being about to return to London. wrote to the missionary candidate that she would like to see her for a short interview, at Ashford Railway Junction.

The interview was a pleasant one on both sides ; and the pleasure was intensified a few weeks later by the receipt, by the missionary candidate, of a personal gift in the form of a cheque for £50 for her passage to India, her outfit, and any other expenses here or there. She is now labouring for her LORDin an unevangelized part of India, near the border of Nepaul, in the Mission founded by the late Miss M. F. Abrams, for many years Pandita Ramabai's chief foreign colleague, deaconess, and Bible instructor at Mukti. How Ramabai rejoiced at the planting of the Gospel banner in this place where CHRIST had never been preached I

CHAPTER

IV.

FAR-REACHING CHRISTIANSERVICE.

An Unannounced Benefactor.

T

HE firing of a cannon on Cumballa Hill, Bombay, on the first Monday in May, 1897 (the usual signal that the English mail steamship had been sighted), heralded a pleasant surprise.

Among my letters was one from Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.A., from a stranger, Philip Bacon by name, containing a draft for £40 18s. Iod. The money was for the Bombay Guardian Famine Relief Fund; for famine was sore in India.

The following week's mail brought a similar amount from the same source ; and so week by week till the seventh, when the sum was £102 7s. Id. The eighth contribution, a fortnight later, was a duplicate of the seventh. Another fortnight, the same.

To foreign missionaries and Indian Christian workers was entrusted the grateful duty of using his and other remittances to feed the starving, and succour homeless orphans. Pandita Ramabai was helped in the great extension of her work which took place at this time.

The stream of aid continued to flow from Philip Bacon into this Relief Fund, sometimes by weekly

34

Remember His Marvellous Works.

and sometimes by fortnightly drafts, till the severity of the famine abated, and the Fund was closed. But it did not end then. In lesser volume it flowed on for more than ten years, the later remittances, from his new home in Springfield, Massachusetts, being for the support and Christian training of rescued orphans.

In the year 1900, still a famine period, when the Zenana Training Home at Poona was commenced by Soonderbai H. Powar, repeated valued assistance was given to the orphan department.

Who was this unannounced benefactor ? Was he a man of wealth after the manner of the world, or a man rich only in faith in Gon, and in treasure laid up in Heaven?

At the time of his first remittance, he was close upon seventy years of age. Unmarried, he relinquished his ordinary occupation, and upon a small pension, gave himself, with noble unselfishness and perseverance, to help in securing a generous response to the appeals which came from famine-stricken India. How he lived, and what he did, is a story worth knowing.

He began with adults, but among his varied activities he initiated an effort to enlist the practical sympathy of American school-children in the childsufferers, launching a little periodical, often illustrated, entitled Our Orphan Children in India, the publication of which was maintained for nine years.

Fertile were his devices to utilize children's sympathy. Early in 1901, he put up a thousand dollars'

Far-reachingChristian Service.

35

worth of superior flower seeds, in assorted ten cent collections, for boys and girls to sell. He offered to credit the support of a child in India to any Sabbath School or Children's Society which sold 150 packages of these missionary seeds. Teachers of public schools also were requested to seek the co-operation of their scholars.

He soon recorded cheering responses. Children were delighted to become partners, particularly where home encouragement was given. A sample of this was revealed in a brief letter from a Christian grandmother, who wrote : ' ' The parcel of seeds arrived at 4 p.m. yesterday, and before ten o'clock this morning little Katherine came to see me, her cheeks as red as roses, exclaiming, ' I've sold them all, and could have sold a good many more if I had had them ! ' '' Twenty-five additional packets were at once sent to her.

Choice vegetable seeds were likewise sold by Philip Bacon, with the same object, some of which were cultivated by the children themselves, and the produce disposed of for the benefit of the orphans.

From the beginning, Philip Bacon emphasized the importance of prayer for the orphans accompanying the labours and pecuniary gifts. Gon has wonderfully answered those prayers. Orphan boys and girls who were rescued in the earlier of the series of famine years subsequent to 1896, are now carrying to their country-people the glorious knowledge of salvation by the LORD JESUS CHRIST.

36

Remembe,Hi! Marvellous Wo,ks.

In the influence those Indian Evangelists, Pastors, Biblewomen, and Colporteurs are wielding for the Kingdom of Goo, and the influence which multitudes converted by their united instrumentality will wield, the faithfulness of this plain man to Christian duty has secured an imperishable and ever-widening memorial. The children entered into a partnership producing large spiritual dividends.

But what were the conditions under which Philip Bacon lived and laboured in those fruitful evening years of his life ?

His day by day heroism takes us back to the spirit of Apostolic times. During his ten years' residence at Springfield, Mass., he lived the chief part of the time in one room. This served the threefold purpose of dining-room, bed-chamber, and work-room. In the centre were two saw-horses, across which were laid boards. One end of this rough table served for a work-bench. At the other end he ate his meals.

In one comer was his bed, and on the walls were cases of specimen missionary garden seeds. Thus he laboured, cooking his own meals, making his own bed, and keeping the apartment in order until stricken down by his last illness, when friends removed him and lovingly tended him to the end. He entered into rest at the age of eighty-four.

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial.

We should count time by heart-throbs.

He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.

The Yo_ung Widow's Two Little Children.

To face page 37.

Far-reachingChristian Service.

37

Widowhoodand Holy Service.

The Sunday afternoon meeting is in progress at a village Mission Hall in Kent. The leader closes his address, and invites testimonies. An elderly working man responds. He speaks of the Bible as " a book of great questions and great answers."

A young-looking woman, of thirty years or more, then rises and says: '' The Bible is also a book of great promises.'' Quoting '' Trust in the LORD and do good ; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed," she proceeds : " Six years ago to-day I was watching by the body of my dead husband, and thinking how I should support my two little children. I knelt down and committed myself to the LORD, and ever since we have never wanted. The LORD has been as good as His promises.''

No one can gainsay the testimony. Her experience of a covenant-keeping Goo is worth more than volumes of speculative theology. Those who know her intimately, feel that in its threefold sense the text has been illustrated in her life.

She has trusted ; she has done good ; she has been fed.

Anyone can understand a young widow trusting~ Many, however, will not so easily understand the practice, under such circumstances, of the active virtue which a conjunction attaches to the passive.

The Scripture says, '' Trust in the LORD and do good.' ' The first thing after the conjunction is

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Remember His Marvellous Works.

not to receive, but to do. In the deepest experiences of human sorrow, 1 1 the Gon of all comfort ' ' can give the bereaved "a heart at leisure from itself, to soothe and sympathise.''

And in this ministry, the communicating soul is itself blest.

An open door for service was amongst the village children in the Sabbath School. At the time she gave her testimony as described, her devotion and gifts had brought her to the honourable position of Superintendent. That was not enough. The Gon of her own two fatherless children was the Gon of thousands of orphans whom His servants were saving from death by famine in a far-off land. Some of the succourers were doing the work in faith, unsupported by any human organization, resting solely on the promises of Gon. Her own experience knit her heart to the effort.

It was proposed that the school-children should adopt a famine waif in India. The boys and girls were interested in having a new brother, especially in the far-away East. Pence came in. When the news of noble-hearted Philip Bacon's effort to elicit American children's sympathies crossed the Atlantic to this village, the lads and lassies sowed missionary seeds also. The children of one family realized three shillings and ninepence from one sowing.

There are two blessings in such a transaction, and it is difficult to say which is the greater-the blessing to the famine waif prayed for, that he may

Fa,-,eaching Christian Service.

39

become a messenger of the Gospel to his idolatrous people ; or the blessing to the children whose hearts are thus early trained in missionary sympathy. Such work is not for to-day only ; the Church of the future in East and West will feel its effect.

Note the sequel. The years which have intervened since the young widow's testimony, have brought the reward of Gon in the definite surrender of her son and daughter to CHRIST, and their devotion in His service ; while the Indian famine boy has also come of age and been re-born. Albert Norton, a veteran missionary, writes concerning him : '' He is one of the finest Christian workers I have ever met in any land or among any race.

His value to CHRIST'S kingdom at this place is simply incalculable.''

"Cast thy bread upon the waters," Ye who have but scant supply; Angel eyes will watch abnve it, You shall find it by-and-by.

One portion of Mr. Norton's missionary work was the founding of the Boys' Christian Home at Dhond, Bombay Presidency. Here (working in co-operation with Pandita Ramabai) he has received during several severe famine periods, the brothers of the famine girls rescued by Ramabai, the distance of the two missions being not too great for the boys to occasionally visit their sisters.

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Remember His Marvellous Works.

DivineInterpositions are Frequent at Pandita Ramabai's Christian village. She writes: A large Gospel tent had been pitched right before our house on the road side, where thousands of people pass. On boards in front of it were Bible texts in large letters. For some years our Biblewomen and the pupils from our Bible School had their turns to stand in the tent and give Gospel messages to the passers-by. Then the tent, worn with age, was replaced by a tiled, shed. Everything looked so nice.

Many people took shelter in it, and our usual work began. A week had scarcely passed from its completion when one afternoon the wind blew hard and the shed came down with a crash. There were grownup people near and little children were passing under the roof, but the Lo RD so ordained it that none of the children or grown-up people were hurt.

Our girls have to do all kinds of work. Some have learnt to draw water from our big wells with the help of pairs of oxen. A girl was thus engaged in drawing water. She was driving the oxen, and did not know that her life was in danger. The wooden frame on which a wheel is fixed gave way and the girl fell into the well. But the rope which was attached to the leathern bag hung from the main beam. The girl knew how to swim. She took hold of the rope and climbed up. She was not hurt. The LORD had preserved her life. I am sure you will join with us in praising Him for countless mercies.

Soonderbai H. Powar, with her Colleague, Miss Edith E. Hall.

To face Chapter V.

CHAPTER V.

:: THE LORD IS MY HELPER."

Faith and SympathyIn Action.

MONG our guests have been that devoted Indian Christian worker, Soonderbai H. Powar, of Poona; and her English colleague, Miss Edith E. Hall.

Shortly after Christmas Day, an Indian Pastor and his wife called at the new and incomplete premises of the Zenana Training Home, Poona. In conversation with Soonderbai H. Powar-its Principal-and Miss Hall, the Pastor said it was his custom at Christmastide to give a new dress (sarie) to bis wife; but this year she wished the sum the gift would cost to go toward the erection of one of the cottages for the Training Home. He thereupon handed ten rupees to the Principal, who knew his modest income, and the sacrifice the gift meant to bis wife. It was gratefully accepted, but with mixed feelings.

Not many days passed before the Pastor reappeared with glowing face. He and his wife had left their small home unoccupied while they attended the week-evening service. On their return they found near the door a parcel containing a beautiful

A

D

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Remember His Marvellous Works.

sarie, much better than they would have bought.

He had no idea how it came there. It seemed as if it might have dropped from heaven.

Although the parcel did not come direct from heaven, it is certain that the thought to send it did.

Someone who had heard of the sacrifice, and having a good sarie lying idle, sent it by a friend who, leaving the parcel where it was found, watched it from a distance till the absent pair returned.

A few months later, Miss Hall had to take furlough to England, following an illness. She related the incident at a gathering soon after her arrival. At the close a young woman placed half-a-sovereign in her hand, saying she had intended to purchase a print dress in which to attend a Y.W.C.A. garden party, but after hearing of the Pastor's wife's selfdenial, she felt she must give the money toward the work at Poona. Thus the influence of the given-up sarie went further than the giver anticipated, and doubtless will go farther still.

The commencementof this cottage is linked with an aged English widow, whose reduced circumstances after the death of her husband necessitated the strictest economy. When there was no money in hand to build (although some of the girls at the Home had dug out the ground for the foundations) this godly widow heard of the need, and handed five shillings to a friend of the work, who remarked in faith, '' This gift is the foundation stone.''

Within a few days another widow heard of the

The Lord is my Helper.

43

gift, and sent fifty pounds. Then fifty pounds came from Wales. A hundred in one sum came from Australia. Each was spontaneous. The final hundred was contributed by the Mothers' Prayer Union, to defray the cost of a spacious room as a memorial to its founder, the late Mrs. Emily Sutton, of Reading. Of course between the fifties and the hundreds, there were welcome smaller gifts, besides the value of the sacrificed sarie.

We never know what may be the results of an act of self-denial for our Divine Master. Yet some excuse themselves from doing anything, because they cannot do what the world counts much. What is much ? He alone sees and knows Who measures service, not by its amount, but by the motive which prompts it, and the sacrifice it involves.

No service in itself is small, Or great, though earth it fill, But that is small which seeks its own, And great which seeks Goo's will.

Providencesin PlagueTime in India.

The Zenana Training Home is situated on the outskirts of Poona city, in quiet country surroundings.

At a time when a virulent outbreak of plague occurred in Poona, many of the inhabitants fled from the city to the near open country, or further. The fields around the Zenana Training Home were invaded, and soon covered with temporary dwellings, inhabited by the plague-stricken and their friends.

These huts were on three sides of the Home; but

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RememberHis Marvellous Works.

the LoRD answered prayer, so that none of Miss Soonderbai Powar's large family of Biblewomen, girls in training, or orphans, caught the infection. '' The Hindus could not understand why the Christians in the Zenana Training Home did not take the plague. Some tried to contaminate them by throwing infected dead rats into their compound.''

The water question now became acute. Not only was the water in the Government small canal or dyke (which flowed by one side of the Home) used by plague-stricken people for bathing and washing clothes before the stream reached the Home, but the supply was inadequate to the needs. Then a Government official came to the Home, and forbade them taking more than a sixth of the quantity they had previously used. '' Soonderbai felt then that they were driven to dig a well, though no money was in sight. So one evening, in the moonlight, the elder inmates gathered around the spot selected for the well, and cried to Gon to give them water.''

Meanwhile the LORD had laid it upon the sisterly heart of a friend in England to make a special effort to obtain the money. A few letters to friends who knew Soonderbai accomplished this, and sufficient to dig a large well was sent.

But as a good water supply was urgent,one of Soonderbai's personal friends in Scotland, while contributing liberally to the cost of the well, felt led of Gon to write to the Governor of Bombay Presidency a plea for withdrawing the restriction. In response

The Lord is my Helper.

45

he was informed that although against the regulations, in this special case the restriction would be rescinded. The rejoicing at the Zenana Training Home at this Divine interposition can be imagined.

OceanPassagesSecuredby Prayer.

Miss Violet M. Binns, formerly of Sunderland, who has won the esteem of many in the homeland and in India by her missionary labours, narrates that:" In November, 1905, while at home for my :first furlough, I felt I should be arranging my return to India. Money had come in for one of my co-workers to take her passage; but I was ten pounds short.

One morning my friend wrote saying she hoped to book her passage by a certain vessel. After prayer I felt I too should go by that ship, so I asked her to book my passage also. The very day it was booked, a lady whom I had never seen or heard of, sent me the needed sum. '' A month after this we were to sail, but the sister of my friend was ten pounds short of her passage money ; and our hearts were sad at the possibility of having to leave her behind. The night that I was to farewell at our church I was told the freewill offering would be handed to me for my own use. I did not think there would be very much in the boxes. However at the close of the service I learnt there was ten pounds I Oh, the joy that thrilled my heart as I thought of Gon's goodness.

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That night I could not sleep for joy. Early the next morning I telegraphed: 'Take your passage; ten pounds on the way to you., A week after that, we three set sail for India. ' ' When again on furlough in 1913, every penny of my passage money to return came in definite answer to prayer.'' On this occasion Miss Binns went out to undertake the superintendence and leadership of the village evangelization work in connection \\ith Miss Soonderbai Powar' s Zenana Training Home at Poona. There are over ninety villages accessible from Poona. The Report of the first fifteen months of Miss Binns' work with the Biblewomen in these villages is an exhilarating narrative.

The Photographic Group.

This picture represents a group of the Zenana Training Home elder girls who, at the period of the photograph, were in training for the important work of Biblewomen. The writer of these words and his wife were personally acquainted with most in the group when the girls were famine orphans, only recently rescued from starvation. Such a photograph speaks volumes as to the value of this Gospel dominated enterprise. The motto of the Home is " Saved to Serve.''

This group has been incorrectly described in print by an English editor who borrowed the photograph from us for the purpose of illustration. The picture is here in its proper setting.

From Famine

Orphans

to Biblewomen.

To face page 46.

The Lord is my Helper.

47

1 " Exceeding Abundantly.'

A friend, visiting us from Calcutta, who was acquainted at first hand with the facts, related the following incident concerning the late Miss Fendal's widely-known Home for the fallen of her sex in that city.

On that particular occasion, Miss Fendal explained to a Christian friend (afterwards a trustee of the Home) her present need of a thousand rupees for some urgent work. He advised the immediate placing of the need in the hands of Gon. Being joined by Mrs. Duncan, of the Ladies' Committee, the suggestion was acted upon as soon as made.

The three were agreed.

The friend who had counselled prayer, habitually resorted to it for guidance in his literary duties.

The HOLY SPIRIT with emphatic definiteness led him at once to write a short article for a daily journal describing Miss Fendal's sacred work for sinful men's victims, and bespeaking Christian encouragement for it. Within a few hours of the appearance of the newspaper next morning, a reader called upon the editor and informed him that he had devised several thousand rupees to the Home in his will, which sum, after reading the article in that morning's paper, he had determined to immediately hand over to Miss Fendal. This SPIRIT-prompted resolve did not take many days to fulfil, and Miss Fendal's purpose for her Home was more than met. (My friend's memory is not clear, after the lapse of years,

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as to the exact amount of the gift, but he believes it was ten thousand rupees.)

Our visitor's narrative recalled an interview which his hostess had with Miss Fendal in Calcutta within a year of her call from labour to reward.

When a multitude of bereaved hearts were deeply moved by her loss, that interview was described in an article in an Indian newspa per, signed by Helen S. Dyer, in part as follows : When the Home came into Miss Fendal's hands, she was impressed with the need of a more suitable building for the work. The money came in slowly.

She worked hard and held a bazaar to raise funds.

Still she had not nearly enough. She was about to hold a second bazaar when a friend asked her if she thought bazaars were honouring to Gon. He felt strongly that they were not. She prayed that, if against the will of Gon, she might be prevented from having the bazaar. She had made many preparations for it, and invested money in goods for sale. What about this money which was sunk, if she drew back now ? Then the answer of the prophet to Amaziah flashed into her mind : ' ' The LoRD is able to give thee much more than this.''

When the day came for the decision to be definitely made, she was taken ill with typhoid fever. She was given up by the doctors, but raised up by the LoRD. Soon after, the Lt.-Governor of Bengal gave her the land on which the Home now stands, a much better and larger piece than she could have hoped

The Lord is my Helper.

49

to buy. All through the building of the Home, Gon honoured the faith of His faithful servant, and gave guidance and meansaccordingto theday's need.

A long wide passage runs out of the dining-room with dormitories and workrooms on either side.

Over the arched entrance to this passage, the Scripture is inscribed which was Miss Fendal's stronghold, '' Commit thy way unto the LoRD, trust also in Him, and He will bring it to pass.''

The good work of the Home continues to be carried on.

MissionaryWomenin Peril of Robben.

Several Christian women were labouring at a Missionary station in the Central Provinces of India.

One of their number being about to leave, much packing was going on, and the contents of trunks, etc., were more exposed to the view of servants and the people about the place than usual. On retiring to rest the mind of the one who was leaving was not easy upon the recollection that a considerable sum of money was left in a small unlocked trunk. After vainly trying to quell her uneasiness by reasoning that the little trunk was close to the head of her bed, she arose to remove the money to a place of greater safety. Another, sleeping in the next room, also could not rest, remembering that she had left her keys dangling in her trunk, so she rose and put them under her pillow, instead of in the pocket of her dress, where she usually kept them.

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In the morning the latter awoke to find the place disturbed, and her dress missing. It was eventually found under a tree in the compound, where the thief had taken it to search her pockets for the keys. Her companion's small trunk had been emptied of its contents, which were found strewed about outside the window. The thief had evidently hastily thrown them out with the thought that the money was there, but, failing to find that, the only thing of value to him, had not taken an article away.

Many times before they had laid down and slept soundly without any anxiety as to the whereabouts of their money or keys. They could but recognize in their uneasiness of mind the prompting of that SPIRIT that guides and controls the lives of Gon's children who yield themselves entirely to Him.

CHAPTER VI. A POST OFFICE DILEMMA. OME thirty years ago the Post Office at a small sea-side resort was kept by a Gan-fearing couple who had maintained a blameless record through many years of hard work. They had brought up a large family creditably, most of whom were now started in life for themselves; and for some time affairs had flowed more smoothly than in earlier years.

Mr. and Mrs. Christian we shall call them ; and it may be mentioned here that the names are the only fictitious element in this narrative. They were assisted at this period by their youngest daughter, Esther. She helped in the house and shop as needed, her special charge being the telegraph instrument.

But she was capable of transacting any part of the Post Office business ; and regularly made up the accounts, as required every evening.

Like her parents, Esther was a professing Christian, a Church member, a Sunday School teacher. She had a conscious faith in Gon, and a Christian experience to fall back upon in the time of trouble of which I am about to write.

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One day while the family were at dinner the shop bell rang, and Esther went forward to attend to the customer. This was an old woman, a dirty, illiterate character, who had, however, a small sum to her credit in the Savings Bank. She came now with a voucher to withdraw two pounds. This was nearly all the money to her account. Esther took the book and made the usual entries. She then asked the old woman for her signature. '' Oh, Miss," she replied, "you know I can't write--you write my name, for me, please.''

Esther did as requested ; the old woman making her mark at the side of the signature. Esther then paid the money, and gave her the book. She trotted off with that and the two pounds, while Esther returned to finish her dinner.

In this transaction Esther made a great mistake in transgressing one of the Post Office rules, which provides that the signature of an illiterate person must always be witnessed by a third party. Whether this rule had for the moment slipped her memory, or whether she carelessly ignored it, no prospective witness being at hand, we do not know. Certainly nothing in her previous experience had happened to impress it on her memory; but now she was to have a lesson which she was not likely to forget.

Two or three weeks later, when the details of the occasion had had time to nearly fade from Esther's memory, the wily old woman came into the Post Office in Esther's absence, and asked for her bank

A Post OffeceDilemma.

53

book. She said she had left it with Miss Christian to have it made up, and now she wanted to draw out two pounds to pay her rent.

Esther was called. She insisted that she had given the old woman her book along with two pounds on the aforesaid occasion. The accounts for that day were referred to, and agreed with what she said.

The old woman began to whine and cry and talk about young ladies cheating old women, and people professing to be so good being after all no better than other people. Some neighbours came in, one of whom, inclined to believe the old woman's story, made remarks on the same line as her accusations.

The matter became so unpleasant that Mr. Christian, strong in the belief of his daughter's innocence, offered to refer the matter for investigation to the head officein the neighbouring town.

The next day the Postmaster from that officecame over. He severely censured Miss Christian for neglect of an important rule, but was evidently perplexed how to decide in a case which depended on the individual testimony of one person on either side.

Except that nothing had ever before been alleged against Esther, the case for her looked serious. She had broken a rule ; while the old woman's tale was plausible, and her seeming distress and need of the money moved the sympathies of many.

The head postmaster left the case where he found

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it. He said it would have to be investigated by the district surveyor, to whom it would be his duty to report it.

Regrets over the broken rule were useless ; but oh, how Esther repented of not having been more cautious! Earnest prayer was made by her parents and herself that the LoRD would appear for her, and indicate some way of establishing her innocence, No doubt existed in the minds of Mr. and Mrs. Christian that it was a crafty plot on the part of the old woman to extort money. She had never borne an exemplary character.

The postal service surveyor came, a cynical man of the world. He pooh-poohed the stress that Mr. and Mrs. Christian laid on the character of their daughter. They considered it monstrous that the word of a disreputable old woman should be taken before hers. But the surveyor placed no value on what they said. On the contrary, he hinted that they could not know all their daughter's doings when she was out of their sight, and so on. He said the case was black against her, and might have to go before a magistrate.

He then asked for the two postmen to be called, also the telegraph boy. The former testified that they were off duty at that time of day, and knew nothing of what had occurred.

But the boy, in answer to the surveyor's questions, said that he well remembered one day, when he came in from dinner, that the old woman in question

A Post OffeceDilemma.

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was in the office. Miss Christian gave her some gold ; he remembered it because he was surprised that the old woman should have so much money belonging to her.

The surveyor was taken aback at the boy's assertion, as both Esther and the old woman had said emphatically that no one else was in the office at the time of the transaction. In answer to further questions the lad said he did not see the signature made or the old woman's mark affixed ; he came in at the back of the shop just as Miss Christian was paying the money, and saw that it was gold. Crossquestioning did not vary his tale. He was sure it was the same old woman. Why had he not said before that he had seen this transaction? No one had asked him !

The surveyor did not conceal his suspicion that the boy had been put up to say this; though it was as much a surprise to the Post Office family as to himself. Giving poor Esther a severe final reprimand, he left the case, telling her that she would be under suspicion, and if anything else occurred, this would be brought up against her.

Although they had such a bitter pill to swallow in the attitude of the surveyor, words could not express the praise and thanksgiving to GoD that welled up in the hearts of the family at this signal deliverance. As they knelt that evening to pour out their hearts to the LoRD, they unitedly claimed the promise that ' ' thy righteousness shall be

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established as the noonday;,, and asked that some further proof might be forthcoming to vindicate Esther's character.

A few months went by, and the old woman died suddenly. She had no relatives near, and the police entered her cottage and took charge of her possessions.

The house was in a filthy condition, and small sums of money were found in all sorts of odd places. On the stairs, wrapped in a piece of old newspaper, was the Post Office Bank book, and with it the two sovereigns which she received from Esther on that momentous day I

CHAPTER VII. u

I TAKE; HE UNDERTAKES." Ocean Travel Experiences.

I.

I

HAD closed a purposeful visit to China, and was needed in London as quickly as possible. But when I reached the port of Shanghai from Pekin, I found that the only steamship due to proceed at once was timed to start on the LoRD's Day. Between that vessel and the next by which my return ticket was available, was an interval of about three weeks. Of course I waited for the later ship. My disappointment was accepted as Gon's appointment.

On boarding the second vessel I was unexpectedly greeted with a warm handshake and a hearty '' Very pleased to see you again, Sir ! '' The greeting came from one of the chief stewards, with whom, it transpired, I had journeyed on a previous occasion on another ship. I had forgotten it, but he had not forgotten me; perhaps through some little kind word or action, illustrating the often importance of the seemingly insignificant.

A few moments' conversation disclosed that the ship would not be crowded. Now was my opportunity. I explained my wish to be very busy with literary work during the voyage, and said I should E

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take it as a favour if he could allot me a two-berth cabin to myself. He replied that he would try. He soon returned with the information that he had shifted a passenger from a /our-berth cabin, and that I could have it all, undisturbed.

My Heavenly Father had inclined my unsought friend to give me more than I had asked. Not all readers, perhaps, will fully realize what a help and comfort it was to have three unused berths on which to arrange my books and manuscripts for reference, and know that by turning the key I could leave the cabin, and on my return find everything where I had placed it. After a useful and enjoyable journey, London was reached, via Bombay, in sufficient time.* II. For a later voyage, when the pressure of work was less, I had the additional responsibility of finding the passage money for two missionary friendshusband and wife. We decided to travel from England to India by the cheapest route, namely, Southampton to Colombo by a foreign steamship, third class, transhipping at Colombo for Bombay. An honoured friend in London, connected with a large Missionary Society, obtained the tickets at a discount which brought the cost of each fare to about half the usual expense of a voyage direct to Bombaythere was no third class by English steamship lines to that port.

• The interested reader will find the purpose of this journey to China described in my" Word-Pictures of Chinese Life."

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We presented ourselves at the London Railway Station to proceed to Southampton by the special ship-train. There were no third class carriages on it.

We spoke to the guard. He informed us the train was for first and second class passengers only. I said, " Well, we are due to travel by that ship, and have only third class tickets ; what are we to do ? '' He meditated a minute while he looked hard at us, and then said, '' Oh, get in I ' ' This we lost no time in doing.

On reaching Southampton we went off by a tender to the steamship. There were evidently not a few third class passengers ; some rather rough. A rush was made by them for the cabins, which were speedily filled. I felt no inclination to join in the rush, so I said to my companions and a young missionary of another nationality who had, joined our little party, '' Let us wait and see what the LORD will do for us.''

A steward came along and inquired if we had secured berths. I replied that the accommodation in the men's cabins was all taken up. He went away.

When he returned he said, '' We have orders to clear a cabin containing baggage.' ' This was done ; and while my friend's wife was suitably provided for in an uncrowded cabin for women, he and myself, with the young missionary,. found ourselves the sole occupants of a cabin constructed to hold from nine to twelve persons f As a whole, of course, but at each particular stage also, ' ' Commit thy way unto the

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Lom: trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.''

III. On another occasion, I was due to return to India after a brief visit to England on matters of importance, but felt that my health just then scarcely justified taking the voyage alone. I had heard a good account of the Orient Steamship Company's third class to Ceylon, so I suggested to a friend who had a daughter in missionary work in India, that he should visit her without expense to himself. It did not take him long to decide to accept the offer.

Then another friend decided to go by the same ship.

Although he would have served the purpose of companionship, I could not bring myself to disappoint my elder friend. We had a happy voyage together, leaving the vessel at Colombo and travelling by train up South India to Bombay via Madras. I have felt thankful ever since that the LoRD prompted me to invite the companionship of the first friend before I knew of the subsequent arrangement. His visit was a great joy to his daughter and himself. After a few years, quite unexpectedly, he was suddenly called up higher ; but the intervening period had given an added and precious missionary interest to his life, which copiously overflowed to others.

He made warm friends on the voyage out. His earnest Gospel addresses on the third-class deek attracted to his person some excellent Australian Christians returning to their homes after visiting the

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Old Country. Among our new friends also were members of a delightful Christian family going out to the land of the Southern Cross to join their pioneer kinsfolk. When we left the ship at Colombothere were moist eyes among those who bade us farewell, and also in the little craft that took us to land. Yet members of the household of faith never see each other for the last time. Heaven will revive faded memories when In the sweet by and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore.

The beginning of this voyage also was marked by a providence. When booking the passages at the steamship office, I suggested that berths in one of the most airy cabins should be allotted to us, as a set-off to the fare to Colombo being as much as to an Australian port more than four thousand miles further.

I received a very short answer. They never allotted berths in that way to third class passengers. I thanked the clerk and departed.

When we boarded the ship to start and inquired for our accommodation, the steward knew what to do.

We were shown into one of the two best third class four-berth cabins on the large vessel. The situation for airiness was splendid. Rule or no rule, it is not difficult for the LoRD to incline hearts to do the unusual. In this case, maybe, there was sufficient cause in the delicate health of one of the voyagers.

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An AwkwardPredicamenton a Dark Night.

A Christian widow (not elderly) writes: '' When visiting for the first time a married sister's home in Hertfordshire, I found myself at the railway station nearest to her village on a cold, dark evening in December, with no one to meet me, and five miles to walk. I had gone a day sooner than I intended, thinking to arrive in daylight, and find my way by asking anyone I might happen to meet, but I missed the train connection and consequently waited two hours for the next. ' ' Following, as I thought, the directions given me at the station where I alighted, I set out quite bravely to walk the five miles. It was a very lonely road.

After walking what seemed about two miles, I met a man and enquired if I was right. To my dismay he said that I was quite wrong, and must go back to the station. '' I was feeling faint and weary, and having only a very little money in my pocket, I felt I must make another effort to reach my sister's home that night.

So I gave myself to prayer. The first woman I met I asked if she could give me any idea as to how I could reach my destination. She said, ' No.' She knew of nothing that would help me. I thanked her and passed on. The next minute I heard someone call.

She was coming to tell me it had occurred to her that a cousin of hers occasionally drove in to the station town from the village which I wanted to reach, and that he put his horse up at a certain public-house,

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which she named-if I could find him he might be able to take me. '' I found him. He said he would be leaving the town in an hour and a-half, and would give me a seat in his trap. At the end of that time, with many thanks to Gon for answering my prayer, and craving His protection, I mounted the little conveyance for the five-mile drive, eventually reaching my sister without the tiring walk.' '

A LondonStreetIncident.

This relates to a delicate young girl who for health reasons had to be left by her parents in England, while duty called them to India. She was placed in charge of a Christian family in London, the father in which was employed a good walk from his home.

One day the delicate lassie was, as usual, taking a meal to him when she stumbled, letting fall a can full of tea.

She was so upset by the loss of the spilt tea, and the possible scolding which awaited her, that she began to cry. She knew not what to do. Two passing workmen stopped and spoke sympathetically. On hearing her explanation, one of the men handed her twopence, and pointing to an eating-house near by, told her to get her can refilled there, and then the stumble and loss need not be mentioned to anyone.

The tears were dried. Very gratefully she acted upon the suggestion. With unspeakable relief the meal was hastened to its destination.

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The tea not having travelled so far as customary that day, the innocent recipient of the meal remarked appreciatively that it was hotter than usual ! Possibly also, the eating-house from which it came was one of those which claim to supply articles '' like mother makes.''

The incident was never known to the family.

When in her bright Christian young womanhood she was a guest in my home, the occurrence was recalled.

She has a holy passion for helping the distressed; and her great desire is to be a foreign missionary.

If these words should ever meet the eye of that kind workman, I wish him to accept my warm thanks, and the expression of my belief that his action was not unnoticed by Him Who says : '' Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these . . ye have done it unto Me." Unseen, yet seen, the SAVIOUR stands And blesses those who bless His own, Accepting deeds from human hands As done unto Himself alone.

CHAPTER

VIII.

"BEHIND A FROWNINGPROVIDENCE." A Never-forgotten Episode.

OME incidents have an influence that is out of proportion to their seeming importance at the time. It was so in this instance. It happened to one whose memory bridges long years of activity in the LoRD's service.

I was a little fellow (he says), a Band of Hope boy; and my widowed mother was in very straitened circumstances. My boyish heart longed for some opportu.nity to help. One day I learnt that a shopkeeper in our neighbourhood had commenced the then novelty of selling twelve halfpenny boxes of matches for 2½d. This seemed to me an opportunity.

I reasoned to myself that everybody used matches, and that by going from house to house I could soon sell a dozen boxes, and thus clear a profit of J½d.

My hopes rose high at the possibility of disposing of at least two or three dozen per day.

I contrived to obtain 2ld, and invested it in the first dozen, expecting soon to return for more. The demand was disappointing from the first. Some of the people looked curiously, and one or two sympathetically, at the neatly dressed little boy, shyly rather

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than boldly trying to dispose of his small stock. I had sold four or five boxes when, in response to my knock, a door was opened by an angry female, who demanded to see my hawker's license. I believe I had never heard of a hawker's license. I timidly said I had none. More angry still, she drove me from the house, declaring she would send for a policeman if I did not be off at once.

I hastened away from that door, feeling crushed.

It seemed to me very hard that a poor lad should be in danger of being locked up for trying to earn a few pence. I cannot describe the feelings with which I returned home. After a lapse of more than fifty years, I can never recall the incident without a strange sensation at my heart, as if something would break.

The experience was painful then, but it was a priceless providence, and not to myself alone. It was an important part of my education for Christian labour. It has worked out well in giving my heart a peculiar tenderness towards others in distress.

I have cause to believe that its influence has been felt by thousands in peril and suffering. For half-acentury, at times when no one was present but my LORD and I, JESUS has set this little boy in the midst.

Deep in unfathomable mines Of never-failing skill, He treasures up His bright designs And works His sovereign will.

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" This Poor ManCried,and the LordHeard.''

When the construction of railways, in the earlier half of the nineteenth century, worked a revolution in portions of rural Britain, and obscure villages rapidly attained the status of towns, the advent of the iron road navvy into a group of hamlets, brought hope to a small tradesman and his wife, young in years, but for whom, so far, life had been a struggle.

The navvies consumed bread, and this young baker made good bread. Prosperity seemed about to dawn. The weekly sack of flour became four or five, and showed a prospect of continuous increase.

The village was crowded with new-comers. For miles around, lodgings were scarce. Late one evening a foreman of works came to the clean little home of the baker. He had searched in vain for a lodging.

Could they take him in ? They demurred ; their accommodation was not more than they required.

But the man was persistent. They yielded to persuasion, because of the applicant's need. He appeared to be unwell, and not many days elapsed before it was found that he was in the grip of virulent small-pox!

The prosperity of the little bakery vanished like a dream. They could not tum a sick man out, as some would have done. After days of anxious nursing the lodger died, and the baker and his wife were both stricken with the disease. The house was avoided by all, and had it not been for one devoted neighbour whose heart the LolU> inclined

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to care for His children in their time of trouble their case would have been sad indeed. This good woman risked her life in caring for them and their little ones; and after weary weeks of illness and slow convalescence both recovered to face once more the problem of how to live.

It was useless to open shop again, for no one would venture to buy bread from a house so recently infected by small-pox. And besides, another baker had commenced business, and was doing the trade our friend had lost. If it had not been for his faith in Gon, and firm belief in an over-ruling providence, John D. might have given way to despair. But as soon as able he went over to the next village to consult with his father-in-law.

Here he learned that the brickmaking trade was brisk, and men were needed. On interviewing the manager of the brickyard, John was asked if he could make bricks. He replied that he could make bread, and he supposed that would help him in learning to make bricks. At first he found the work very trying; it was rough and hard; he often returned home with sore and bleeding hands. However, they became hardened, and John persevered.

Gradually also his Christian spirit and faithfulness in little things gained the confidence of the manager, and he was often put in charge of jobs. The manager's health failed after a year or two, and John saved him in many ways, helping him to continue in his position longer than he could otherwise have

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done. When he realized that he would not long survive, he told John he would speak for him to the owner of the brickfields, to make him his successor.

This he accordingly did. The owner replied that he was sorry ; for he had already promised the situation to another if it became vacant. John and his wife went to prayer.

Their friend, the manager, passed away. The owner of the business sent for the man to whom he had promised the manager's place; but he replied that he was not now desirous to change his position.

The way was thus cleared for John, who received the appointment, and held it till his death, some forty years later. Gratitude to Goo found expression in faithful Christian life and service.

A Motherand Far-AwayChildren.

Parents who have to leave their children in this land while they follow the call of duty in one far away, are liable to many anxious thoughts about the young lives, whom they must entrust to the care of others, perhaps for years.

Such as are not prepared to sacrifice the spiritual welfare of their children to educational facilities, are frequently faced with difficulties and perils. A much-lauded school connected with a religious body, supposed by outsiders to be evangelical, has as a master and the head of one of its boarding houses for boys, an apologist for the notorious infidel, Tom Paine, whom he designates in a magazine article as

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" A Pioneer in Bible Criticism " ! This religious body refers with satisfaction to the number of children of non-members in its schools.

A friend writes that having arranged to put her boys in school in England she was concerned how to manage about their holidays. She says :" It is truly wonderful how Gon provides for all our needs. Before I le£t England I was so anxious about the boys' holidays, not knowing to whom they could go. Neither did I feel sure about who I should ask to see them occasionally. I tried to make arrangements but they did not seem to fit in. And I became more and more anxious ; until, one evening, while thinking over the boys and their needs, I felt I had been trying to arrange myself, and not seeking Gon's aid. I was angry with myself as I realized I had not been trusting. After a little quiet time all the anxiety left me. I felt that the LORD would undertake.

I slept better that night than several nights previously. '' I was scarcely awake in the morning when the name of a farmer with whom I had but a casual acquaintance came before me, with the impression that I should write and ask if he and his sister would be willing to receive the boys for their Christmas holidays. I began to question if this were wise as I knew but little of them-but realizing that the thought was of Gon, as they were people I had not been thinking about, I wrote the letter. This resulted in an invitation to visit their home. I saw what it was

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like, and that it had a Christian atmosphere. I was thankful and felt my need of being more trustful. " And I have felt this more as the days have passed.

The boys are so happy when at the farm, and the friends there take such an interest in them, that no doubt arises about this being GoD's provision for them.''

"To the Upright,therearisethLight.''

A grocer's assistant just verging upon early manhood, the only son of a widow, was stricken with scarlet fever, and removed from the house of business to the infectious diseases hospital of the town. There he had to remain several weeks, during which his situation was filled up and lost to him.

That lost position, following on the illness, came as a severe blow to his mother, who resided in a village about thirty miles distant, with her only other child, a daughter of fifteen years. The mother had worked hard since her husband's death, when the boy and girl were little, to keep her home together and to bring up the dear children creditably. The time of severest strain had passed, and now when easier days seemed in store, this blow came.

A Christian neighbour assured her that the scarlet fever and the lost situation were among the "all things'' that work together for good to them that love GoD-a class which happily included each of the little family of three. The troubled mother was too good a Christian not to assent and be comforted.

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In looking back in after years she can see her Heavenly Father's loving intention in the apparently '' frowning providence.' ' His purpose was to transplant, not her son only, but herself and daughter, a united family, to a healthful seaside town, with improved earthly and heavenly opportunities. Here they now are, rejoicing in the enlarged openings for labour in the service of Him they love so well.

The son went first. How his sister followed is another illustration of GoD's guiding hand through a providence of disappointment. She had applied for a situation in a business house in a town a few miles in the opposite direction from her village home, and was pleased at the promise of the appointment, when suddenly the manager enquired her age. She replied that it was between fifteen and sixteen. He said that if asked by a Government Inspector she must say past sixteen. This she would not promise to do.

GoD honoured her faithfulness by shortly afterwards providing her with a position with Christian employers in the same town with her brother. Then the mother followed, to complete the happy transfer.

Ill that He blesses is our good, And unblest good is ill ; And all is right that seems most wrong If it be His sweet will.

So scarlet fever and disappointed hopes all come within the meaning of '' In everythinggive thanks ; '' for GoD is love under all circumstances to His trustful children, and Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.

CHAPTER

IX.

GOSPELWORK AMONGHUMANDERELICTS. speak to me, that I may speak In living echoes of Thy tone ~ As thou hast sought, so let me seek Thy erring children lost and lone.

LORD,

"WE

could kill you down here, Miss, and nobody would know till the morning, and then we should be off and gone," said a great hulking fellow to a Christian young woman of unusually small stature. The speaker was a tramp, and the place a lonely lane near a country Workhouse. On certain evenings every week this young woman made it her duty to go to the Workhouse gates to speak of the LORD JESUS CHRISTand His Gospel to the men and women awaiting admission to the Casual Ward for the night.

Her undaunted reply to the above remark was, " Yes, I know you could, but I trust you ; and the MASTERWho sends me with His messages, I trust Him." At the gates of this isolated Workhouse at the close of day gather such a company of poor, maimed, halt, and blind, as the MASTERloved to minister to when on earth. The numbers vary from day to F

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day, but the almost unvarying condition of the poor who find their way thither is that of rags and destitution.

To seek the spiritual welfare of this motley crowd was a work that a few years ago was laid upon the heart of this young woman-one might almost say, young girl, as she was then barely out of her teens.

Miss C. had found the LORD, and had passed through an unusual discipline of sorrow for her age.

Longing to lay her life at the feet of the SAVIOUR, this task was suggested to her mind in answer to prayer for a field of labour.

Difficult at any time, the work was exceedingly so at the outset, as these poor people resented the presence of one who was not of their class. They had no apparent desire to hear of a SAVIOUR, and it was only by putting herself alongside of them in all their repulsiveness that the young disciple was able, in the spirit of her MASTER, to overcome prejudice, and get from some, at least, a hearing for the message she had brought.

Conscious of the presence and help of the LoRD, she soon found a joy in this service that compensated for its difficulties and dangers. Armed with her New Testament, and usually finding her messages in the Gospel by John, this intrepid young worker tells the people she has not come with money, but has that to give which money cannot buy. Frequently she reads to them the story of JESUS Who, when hurrying from the Jews who sought to stone

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Him, stopped to heal the blind beggar (John ix.).

As these poor homeless ones listen to the gracious story, it is impressed upon them by the reader that they, having eyes to see, are spiritually as blind as this poor man, but that the dear LoRn JEsus, who healed long ago, can still heal and save.

Many have come to recognize her as a friend who really has their welfare at heart. They pour into her ears pitiable stories and confessions of failure which, she says, were only half of them true, show what depths of sorrow the human heart can endure.

One woman, who had recently become a widow, told her sad story between sobs. The worker's heart was drawn out to her in sympathy, but words failed, and she just turned to the LoRD and asked Him to bestow such comfort as He alone could. The prayer finished, Miss C. was taking her leave, when the woman said, " Anyone would think you had lost a husband yourself, Miss l" Miss C. praised the LORDas she went on her way, that even through her own sorrows He had dowered her with the priceless gift of sympathy.

To each one interested enough to accept it, a small copy of the Gospel by John is given, with her card, telling them that if at any time they are in that neighbourhood and are ill, she will come to them if sent for to the address named. She has had responses of great interest, which abundantly prove that the work was Gan-prompted.

Several times in the early days of her mission there was present a tall, broad-shouldered fellow with only

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one leg. He was not so receptive of the message as some others, but Miss C. had him constantly on her heart for prayer. Then he ceased coming, and as far as she knew, never again visited the town. Two and a half years passed; he was still prayed for, though with less faith as time went on. Then one day came A Notefrom the Masterof the Workhouse,

He wrote that a sick man who had Miss C.'s card, wanted to see her, and would not rest until she was sent for. To her astonishment she found it was this man, of whom she had almost given up hope.

He recognized her at once, and said feebly, "Tell me more about Him." With a full heart our friend poured in the Words of Li£e, and before she left he was rejoicing in the SAVIOUR.The Scripture," Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," was used to bring this weary wanderer into the fold. During that same night he passed away, his last words being "I am coming, JESUS."

Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter, Feelings lie buried that grace can restore; Touched by a loving hand, wakened by kindness, Chords that were broken will vibrate once more.

So closely between herself and the LoRD has this work of searching in the gutter for His lost jewels been kept, that though carried on for years she believes that not half-a-dozen persons in the town know anything of it. Her worldly relatives do not know ;

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nor the family in whose home she earns her livelihood; not even the members of the Church or her companions in the Bible Class. Here she once timidly expressed a desire to enter the foreign mission field, when she met with the retort that she was doing no mission work at home I Later, her opportunity to visit the Workhouse gates was limited to one day a week; and then by circumstances beyond her control, the leisure evening was changed from one day to another. But having committed the matter to Goo, Miss C. took the change as His appointment, and so it proved.

Almost the first time this new arrangement came into operation, a memorable episode took place.

The meeting with the people and giving the message was a time of blessing. The LORD gave unusual fluency of speech. He opened her mouth, and her lips showed forth His praise. In the company was an old man of over seventy years of age, with bent back and crinkled face and hands worn by hard toil.

He made baskets for his living; but in spite of age and infirmity, such contentment as is seldom seen beamed from his face.

"He was so bright," remarked Miss C., "that instead of teaching him, I was taught." She said to him, " I think you know more than myself of the SAVIOUR'Slove, and can testify to more years spent in His service." He replied, "Yes, Miss, for forty years I have known Him, and He has never failed me yet."

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Think of it I This homeless old man, working his way about, seeking a nightly shelter wherever one could be found, praising the SAVIOUR' s Name !

When asked if he had ever visited that neighbourhood before, he said "No," and smilingly remarked that he was on his way southward, " to get a little warmer." "The LORD has left me a free agent," he continued, " and I go where I like. But I have a message for you."

Unfolding a number of wrappings, he took out a scrap of paper, and related that while he was ill in the Infirmary of a distant town, some months before, he made the acquaintance of another inmate, a man who had only recently found the SAVIOUR,but was full of the joy of Salvation and the love of GoD. The scrap of paper was Miss C.'s card. This Infirmary acquaintance told the old basket-maker about her, and her messages at the Workhouse gates, one of which had been the means of his Salvation. Hearing that the old man was likely to pass that way, he was charged to tell Miss C. how GoD had used her to bring him out of darkness into the light of Life.

While Miss C. praised the LORDfor another soul saved to His Glory, she began to wonder who this one could be. She was soon enlightened. When the old man said he was known as " Wandering Dick," she could at once see him with her mind's eye, a hunchback with a forbidding cast of countenance, almost the very last she would have thought of.

She returned home praising GoD for the change in

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her leisure evening, otherwise she might not have met the old basket-maker or have heard of the conversion of Wandering Dick. Truly the LoRD's way is perfect; and He plans delightful surprises for His trusting people.

Among the several things which are illustrated by this narrative of Christian work among derelicts at the Workhouse gates, is the familiar fact that, to the willing heart, "If you want a field of labour, you can find it anywhere."

Oh, sea tter seeds of loving deeds, Along the fertile field, For grain will grow from what you sow, And fruitful harvest yield.

Then day by day along your way The seeds of promise cast, That ripened grain from hill and plain Be gathered home at last.•

•" Redemption Songs."

Alfred Holness, London.

R. L. Allan & Son, Glasgow;

CHAPTER X. HUMAN SOWING AND GOD'S HARVEST.

"Blessedare ye that sow besideAll Waters."

IFTY years ago a youth was starting alone to America from a humble English home. On leaving, a godly woman gave him, as a last gift, a little paper-covered book, which plainly set forth the way of salvation. His steerage passage was taken in an emigrant sailing ship.

The ship had proceeded but a few hours on its way, when a sailor who had gone aboard intoxicated was sent to do something aloft. The emigrant youth was standing on deck. A few minutes afterwards the drunken sailor lost his hold and fell with a death crash at the youth's feet, and was buried in the sea with scant ceremony. If he had fallen some inches further towards the emigrant lad, there would have been two burials instead of one.

With solemn thoughts on the uncertainty of life and the importance of being prepared for eternity, the youth retired to his berth of rough boards and read the tract distributor's gift. He then and there sought pardon of Goo, and surrendered his life to the kingship of JESUS. When he reached America, it was in a double sense

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Br

to begin a new life. In the home of his kinsman in Albany, the Capital city of New York State, his heart was stirred by reading, for the first time, soon after his arrival, several small books by Richard Baxter, including his ''' Call to the Unconverted.'' A few weeks thereafter, he began Christian work as a teacher in the Sunday School of the church which at that period enjoyed the pastorate of Ray Palmer, author of the now famous hymn beginning, My faith looks up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary, SAVIOUR Divine.

In less than a year from his conversion, the emigrant lad's first tract was written and printed. It was only a two-page production, but he was not a little encouraged, at the Albany Noon-day Prayer Meeting, within a few days of its publication, to hear its authorship attributed to a prominent minister of that city I Such were the small beginnings that by Gon's grace led to literary and other labours on two continents, which for forty years have sent a flowof Christian literature into lands east and west. Two of his minor books have had a circulation of more than four hundred and sixty thousand copies in their separate and combined forms. For thirty years they have exercised a soul-saving ministry. A single copy, according to the testimony of Alexander A. Locke, Superintendent of the Seamen's Rest at Port Said, was used by Gon to the salvation of seven men on one ship.

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'franslation into European, Asiatic, and African languages has in several cases widened the ministry of the literary labours of those four decades. Thus in one way and another the influence of the little book placed in the emigrant boy's hands has been multiplied many million-fold ; and the process continues with gratifying celerity.

But the narrative of Gon's blessing upon the gift of that small book would be incomplete without an allusion to certain prior happenings.

I remember how at the age of ten years this youngest boy of the widowed mother was accustomed to accompany her on the round of her tract district on Sabbath afternoons. That was then her special sphere and opportunity of Christian service outside of her home. In those days of between fifty and sixty years ago, literature was less abundant than now. The tracts, each stitched in a local cover supplied by her pastor, were left from house to house, and called for on the following Sabbath day, to be lent in turn to other families. The little son enjoyed the privilege of giving smaller tracts to passers-by in the streets.

After a hard week's labour, it required no small effort of will in a delicate woman to give up the only afternoon in the week available for rest. Her persistence in this humble but important service was part of a life of Christian heroism. It had its reward, even here, as well as hereafter. It helped to impress the boy with the value of that service-a factor

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in his subsequent life-work. It was an objectlesson in the nobility of making light of ease at the claim of duty. It was character-building by example, than which no department of education is worth more.

Have you not noticed that by a recompensing Divine providence, blessing often comes to families on the line of a parent's Christian work? The widowed mother sought to bring souls to the SAVIOUR by tract distribution, and her own boy found salvation through a similar ministry. She was spared a quarter of a century afterwards (to the ripe age of eighty-seven) to rejoice in some of the results of this Divine multiplication.

At a time like the present, when polluting and sceptical books, periodicals, and newspapers (many specially for Sunday reading) are being issued from London in unprecedented quantities, literally by tons, it is my hope and prayer that this record of human sowing and Gon's harvest may cheer the hearts and strengthen the endeavour of even the humblest who are using the printed page in harmony with the grand and beneficent purposes of Gon through JESus CHRIST. " In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good" (Eccl. xi. 6).

In adding, "Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters," I am thankful to remark that the lowly Christian widow above depicted was my mother.

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" Hereinis Love" Illustratedfrom Life In lndla.

A heartless Hindu father placed his motherless baby-girl in the road, and abandoned her there.

Years pass away, and the once deserted one is found in a Christian Home with many others who have been rescued from cruel treatment and moral peril.

No contrast could be greater than between then and now. Then, despised, helpless, outcast. Now, at the age of fourteen, beloved, cultured in mind and heart, with the manners of a gentlewoman.

A small crowd of famishing girls from the famine districts in India-emaciated, prematurely aged, some very ill-are brought to that bright and happy Home, and with them some starveling, sickly orphan baby-girls. In order that the latter may be properly cared for, the brave Mother of the Home-Pandita Ramabai-appeals to the elder girls among the long-time inmates, asking for volunteers who will each adopt, as a special care, a famine baby. Amongst those who respond is the gentle lassie who was herself abandoned in her babyhood, maybe to perish.

She chooses her child. Afterwards some of the other elder girls thoughtlessly banter her, and say, in substance, " Your child is like a little monkey ; why did you choose one so ugly ? '' She quietly answers, '' Not to take a pretty and attractive child, but to take a wretched and unattractive one, is love.'' The dear girl has learnt well one of the divinest of lessons.

Three weeks later my steps were led to that Home,

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and I was introduced to the noble girl and her little charge. The pathetic history of the latter can be told in a sentence: Her grandmother, dying of famine, gave her into the charge of a lonely childwidow, and both were found and brought to Pandita Ramabai's Home. Three weeks of loving care had already wrought a wonderful change in the baby foster-child, and as I took her in my arms, and she nestled in my bosom, I saw the promise of future loveliness in the little face, not to speak of the more important beauty of the heart. Then I thought of the vast possibilities of Indian maidenhood. when under the ennobling influences of the Gospel of CHRIST. Do all who aid in stretching out a Christly hand of succour to repulsive-looking waifs, either in India or elsewhere, who have nothing to recommend them to Christian love except their misery, realize all the possibilities, aye and the probabilities, aye and the certainties, of such action to the Kingdom of GoD ?

Some of us were once in a worse case than these dear children. We had nothing in ourselves to recommend us to GoD. Repulsive within ; so far as attractiveness was concerned, He might well have despised and abandoned us ; but " herein is love, not that we loved GOD,but that He loved us."

As GoD in CHRISTloved the loveless, so let us ; thereby proving the reality of our discipleship, that "as He is, so are we in this world." Cheerfully, as of high privilege, may we love, not in word, but ' ' in deed and in truth.' '

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Another Indian Famine Girl "Saved to Serve.''

A young famine girl, the survivor of a family of six, was admitted to Mrs. Bruere's Orphanage at Telegaon, near Poona, in 1897. Her mother and youngest brother died within two hours of each other in a cattle shed where the family sheltered one night when homeless. When taken to the orphanage she was very weak and suffered from a serious wound in one foot. But in a few months (wrote the kind motherly Superintendent, Miss A. L. Thompson) her foot was well, her cheeks filled out, and '' the bright little girl gladly takes her share of work. We have reason to believe that regeneration has already taken place in her heart, and she is seeking to know more and more of the SAVIOUR.'' I saw her there. A few years after, she asked me to write a hymn, to be her very own. I wrote the hymn which follows (page 88), giving as its motto text, ' ' He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.'' She is now a valued co-worker with missionaries in North India.

Probably most readers will remember a well-known picture which represents a shipwrecked woman clinging to a wave-lashed Cross upon a rock in an angry sea. From above a stream of light falls upon the Cross and the face of the refugee. She is saved!

A companion picture shows the same rock, the same Cross, and the same saved woman ; but she is now engaged in helping up from the raging sea

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a well-nigh engulfed sister. Here is portrayed the ideal Christian life-Saved to Serve.• During a month's visit to the Telegaon Orphanage in 1898, for my heal th' s sake, several of the rescued famine girls were watchful to show me every possible kind attention. I like to requite kindness, and when Miss Soonderbai Powar commenced her Zenana Training Home, she received three of my young Telegaon friends for training for Christian work, at my request and pecuniary responsibility. Of the two who went first, Soonderbai Powar wrote regarding their care of children rescued from the famine of 1900: "I do not know what I should have done without them. The LoRD knew it; and so wonderfully He sent them here." The three here mentioned were companions at Telegaon of the one for whom the hymn was written, and for whose training a previous arrangement had been made elsewhere.

All had pathetic histories. In connection with their rescue from death and their subsequent usefulness, I have often thought of the lines beginning, Have you had a kindness shown ?

Pass it on! . . .

Let it travel down the years, Let it wipe another's tears, Till in heaven the deed appearsPass it on!

* These two pictures are reproduced in my small book, •• R.07al Womanhood in Every Rank.''

SAVEDTO SERVE. On Calvary's Cross He bought me, With an undying love ; A sinking soul He sought me, As heir with Him above ; How thrills my heart at mercy, So undeserved and free, That placed my feet in safety, Beyond the raging sea.

Shall grace be unrequited, To which I owe my all ?

Shall peerless love be slighted, And }:£SUS vainly call ?

Ah no, 0 gracious SAVIOUR I Naught that I have be mine ; The life which Thou hast purchased, Be ever, only Thine.

Above the foaming billows, Secure from sin's control, Upon the Rock of Ages A saved and serving soul l To sister and to brother To stretch the aiding hand, That safe from Death's o'erwhelming They by the Cross shall stand.

To souls in Christless darkness, How longs my heart to tell, The precious, priceless message I've learnt to love so well i Of One Who to the sinking, The tempest-toss'd, gives rest; Whom saddened lives by trusting Are now and ever blest.

A. S. D.

CHAPTER

XI.

u THY TESTIMONIES ARE MY DELIGHT."

.. When we walk with the Lordin the light of His

Word."

T was nearly twenty years since, that a visiting American preacher related from a Bombay pulpit, his experience of memorised Holy Scripture. The comfort, joy, and uplift he obtained from the habit of silently repeating Scripture portions and hymns as he walked the streets and lanes of town and country, I have more than remembered.

A good personal experience often grips the hearers more than all the rest of a discourse. There is a reality about it which appeals to the heart like the opening words of the first Epistle of John : '' That . which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled."

The American preacher's testimony gave a new impetus to a practice which needed to become a habit. It has brought many an experience similar to that of the two disciples who said one to another concerning their eight-mile walk to Emmaus, '' Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with

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us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures? '' The habit has given a widened meaning to the familiar verse: My SAVIOUR comes and walks with me, And sweet communion here have we; He gently leads me by His hand, For this is heaven's borderland.

Many of us were wisely taught in childhood that '' Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees.'' Prayer is a tower of refuge. Unquestionably, Satan is also apprehensive of being foiled by a heart so well-stored with Holy Scripture that his temptations can be met in the manner of the MASTERat the close of His forty days and nights in the wilderness, with the decisive, "It is written."

The memorising of hymns has greatly helped me, under vastly different circumstances, as an aid to devotion and communion, on land and sea. In places thousands of miles distant from each other, He Whose parting words to His disciples were '' Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,'' has seemed very near as I have repeated, Thou, my everlasting Portion, More than friend or life to me, All along my pilgrim journey, SAVIOUR, let me walk with Thee.

This was my favourite hymn in my China journeyings. I vividly recollect how heartily it rang out on the quietness when my American missionary companion and I, travelling from 'fientsin to Pekin,

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left the house-boat to make its detour round the bends of the river Peiho, while we took a short cut on foot, meeting the house-boat further up the stream.

I have sung memorised hymns on India's hills, and in her woods and vales. In less favoured sturoundings my acquaintance with sacred song has voiced a heart full of praise, namely, in an Indian jail, while a ptisoner for 1ighteousness' sake.

It is recorded of two of my illustrious predecessors (Paul and Silas), that at midnight they "sang praises unto Gon, and the prisoners heard them '' (Acts xvi. 25). In my case it was some of the prison officials who were specially interested. One of the sub-jailors performed his duty by informing me that singing was against the rules ; but, he unofficially added, '' We like to hear you.' ' Although in an unjust imprisonment, I desired to "render to Cresar the things that are Cresar's;" but praise to Gon being another matter, I concluded to honour the rules rather by their breach than their observance. I felt somewhat like Billy Bray, "the KING'S son," who having so much to be thankful for, declared that if shut up in a barrel, he would shout '' Glory I '' through the bunghole. " If ye suffer for tighteousness' sake, happy are ye." " If we suffer. we shall also reign with Him." " Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake; for their's is the kingdom of heaven" {I Pet& iii. 14 ; 2 Timothy ii. l2 ; Matthew v. IO), All things were working together for good ; for

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Goo can make even the wrath of man to forward His great purposes. I was at rest in His love. The opening lines of a hymn which I wrote in prison at Bombay, and which has since found some place in American hymnology, expressed the attitude of my heart: 0 precious kingly SAVI OUR, What can I bring to Thee, For all the mystic blessing Thy love has brought to me?•

A prison officer said to me : ' ' This imprisonment won't injure your reputation, Sir." I replied, '' That is so.'' On reaching England for recuperation, a public meeting was called in London, at the historic Exeter Hall, to welcome me, the hand of welcome on behalf of the assembly being held out by my saintly friend, Benjamin Broomhall, whose name is indissolubly linked with that of Hudson Taylor in the wonderful history of the China Inland Mission, and whose services to the movement to rid China of the awful and iniquitous British opium traffic, it would take a volume to record. The land of my incarceration was represented on that occasion by Pastor R. Wright Hay, formerly a missionary in India, and since identified with the gratifying expansion of the Bible League of England.

• No. zo in the sup:plement of the Free Methodist Metrical Tune Book, to special music by 0. S. Grinnell (Chicago, 1896). ·Two other hymns from the same hand, written elsewhere, also appear here, to tunes by 0. S. Grinnell (Nos. 83 and 144). This is the hymnal originally com:piled by the lab~ Philip Phillips, widely known as" The Singmg Pilgrim," one of the pioneers of evangelistic work by sacred song.

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The most signal instance, within my knowledge, of the habit of memorising Holy Scripture and sacred poetry is found in the life experience of an eminent Baptist minister of the last century, a President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland-John Thomas Wigner-near the scene of whose pastorate I resided in early manhood.

Notwithstanding failure of sight in old age, he continued preaching until he had entered his ninetieth year. He used to repeat the Scripture lessons in the pulpit from memory, and to give out the hymns in the same way. To a friend who called to see him some months' later, when withdrawn from activity, he said: '' I cannot sufficiently thank my heavenly Father that in the years gone by I was enabled to commit to memory such large portions of Holy Scripture and so many of the songs of Zion. " I have been reading without the book-that is, repeating from memory-not only the Psalms, but Matthew, John, Acts, Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, and Hebrews. Then my acquaintance with hymns is large. I remember once, during a vacation, learning by heart the whole of Rippon's Selection ; and I do not think there are twenty pieces in the ' Psalms and Hymns ' collectionsome twelve hundred and fifty in all-that I cannot give out from memory. My daily exercises are simple. Every morning I repeat five hymns; also rehearse two Psalms, and a chapter from the Old

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Testament. In the evening I also repeat five hymns, combined with other two Psalms and a chapter from the New Testament. Where memory fails, my loved ones read to me. These exercises form part of my daily devotions, and most graciously has the LORD appeared to me from time to time during my months of quiet waiting upon Him in this way.''

The conclusive power of Scripture in replying to difficult questions, honest or sceptical, has often been shown. A Christian with whom I had some acquaintance was addressing a meeting of electors as candidate for Parliament. Followers of Chas. Bradlaugh were strong there. He was asked if he had called Bradlaugh a fool. The question was designed to create a tremendous uproar. The opportunity of the sceptics was lost when he replied that his opinion was of no great consequence; he would therefore quote a far higher authority, the Bible: "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no Gon." Parents are wise who encourage their children to memorise sacred themes. What we thoroughly learn in childhood is not readily forgotten. Even a child's mistake in the process is sometimes as good as a sermon, as when a little girl in starting to recite the twenty-third Psalm said, '' The LoRD is my Shepherd; that's all I want." That is true.

In later years we say from experience: Thou joy of loving heart-c;, Thou Fount of life, Thou Light of men, From the best bliss that earth imparts, We tum, unfilled, to Thee again.

JESUS,

CHAPTER

XII.

A CHAIN OF PROVIDENCES. u

I will blessthe Lordat all times.''

SIGNAL embodiment of gratitude to GoD, the subject of this narrative held a very moderately paid position under a London Local Authority ; but his helpmeet was a careful housewife, and on his weekly salary they were rich and liberal, where many would have felt straitened, with nothing to give. The mother of the home (there were two daughters) was a modern exemplification of the Bible pattern of a good woman as depicted in I Timothy v. IO. Brothers and sisters, nephews, nieces, and cousins, were always made welcome when business or holiday brought them to London for a few days. On several occasions a relative out of employment was maintained for weeks, and on one occasion for months ; an orphan niece was added to the family and educated and trained for usefulness; a nephew learning a trade was maintained. Others who sojourned for a time with them, found friends who were faithful and kind.

A yearly red-letter day was their Thanksgiving meeting. Invitations were issued to Christian friends

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in town and country. At :first these meetings were held in their parlour ; but later (as the numbers grew) in the Mission Room with which the host was connected. It was a time of joy. After a plentiful tea, the evening was spent in praise and testimony.

Gon was glorified for the mercies of the past, and thanked for the mercies yet to come.

Some of their relatives thought these thanksgiving anniversaries were extravagant, and the day might come when husband and wife would need the money thus spent. They thought differently. Their action showed that what was true of tithing was not less true of more than tithing, with thanksgiving added thereto : '' Prove Me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it " (Malachi iii. 10 ), or Ephesians iii. 20, thus suggestively arranged on its pyramid-base:All that we ask.

All th'lt we ask or think.

Above all that we ask or think.

Abundantly above all that we ask or think.

Exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, According to the Power which worketh in us.

So the well-spent years passed happily by, until, during an epidemic of influenza, the good husband somewhat suddenly fell asleep in JESUS, when nearing three score and ten. His widow survived him nearly twenty years, to be an object lesson to relatives and friends of the way the LORD provides for His own.

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Before her marriage she lived for a considerable period with a family as domestic help, and endeared herself to them. Then some years after her marriage, her former master and mistress occupied apartments in her home, and were tenderly cared for in their declining days. Their son came forward on hearing of her widowhood, and settled an allowance upon her. He also begged her to make her home with his sisters and himself. She stayed with them, not as a servant, but as a guest. When the brother died, he left her a small annuity. His death, however, caused the sisters to give up the home.

But as one door closed, another, in the providence of Goo, opened. One of the widow's own brothers, having recently lost his wife, asked her to come to him. Her youngest daughter left her situation to care for mother and uncle. The uncle died first, but enjoined his children-grown up and settled in homes of their own-in no wise to interfere with the old home while their aunt lived, for the maintenance of which he had made due provision. Thus adequately provided for through a chain of Divine providences, she lived in comfort to a ripe old age. ' ' The eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of those whose hearts are perfect toward Him '' (2 Chron. xvi. 9).

"E'en down to old age all my people shall prove My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love ; And then, when grey hairs shall their temples adom, Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be bome."

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A Double Providence.

A Christian young man and woman had been engaged to each other for more than two years, with no immediate prospect of making a home, when the following occurred : On a Spring day in London the young man glanced over the advertisements of businesses for sale in a religious newspaper, more from curiosity than from any definite purpose. He saw offered a modest business which, if he could purchase it, appeared adapted to provide the home which his heart was set upon having, in the LORD'S time. But he had no money. The smallness of his salary, and having to maintain a widowed mother, had hitherto made saving impossible. Yet he called the attention of his betrothed to the advertisement, and they were of one mind to go and see the business on the morrow.

In viewing it, it seemed just what they desired.

The next day they were visiting a widowed relative, when, unexpectedly to them, she volunteered to lend five-sixths of the sum required to purchase the business. A few days later the remaining sixth was given in equal portions by two friends with whom the young man had been associated in labour for the LORD. The whole matter was settled with a rapidity undreamed of a week before.

The widow's loan was subsequently made a gift; but some of her investments failing soon after this act of generosity and love, the payment of interest upon the gift was voluntarily resumed. When

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other of her investments also failed, the young people were able to double the interest, and continued it for years till the need ceased, thus making the widow's gift one of her best earthly investments.

A ProvidentialThankoffering.

Preceding the weekly prayer meeting, a minister at Folkestone was spending his customary hour in the church vestry, chiefly for the purpose of seeing enquirers, when a poor, hard-working woman came to ask his prayers that she might be able to find twenty-three shillings for her rent arrears. She had promised to pay it not later than that day. It was evening, and she had failed to obtain it. The minister and the distressed woman knelt in prayer.

At the close of the subsequent prayer meeting, a member of the church placed in the minister's hands an envelope enclosing the first week's profits of a branch business just opened, which he had promised to give to the LORD. He thought the Pastor would know where to use it. The envelope contained twenty-three shillings, the exact sum needed for the rent arrears for which prayer had been offered in the vestry. Even at that time, the answer was on its way.

In narrating the incident during a Sunday service three years afterwards, the preacher said : '' The friend who gave the money is in the congregation to-night, and will remember the circumstances."

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RememberHis Marvellous Works.

An UnusualCompensation Claim.

About the year 1881, in planning the widening of Warwick Lane, in the publishing quarter of the City of London near St. Paul's Cathedral, my shop at the junction of Warwick Lane and Paternoster Row (Amen Corner), was required by the City Corporation. It was only two years previously that I had removed there from my first location in London-Paternoster Square. I had the premises on a short lease, and was therefore requested to send in a claim for compensation.

This was my first contact with compensation claims. I naturally made some enquiry regarding what was customary in such cases. All the persons I enquired of, told me it was the invariable practice to claim a much larger sum than the disturbed occupier expected to receive. Agents whose business it was to '' conduct '' such claims, told me the same, and wanted me to place my case in their hands.

I declined. Here was an opportunity to again practice what I had often preached. I said in substance, '' I will depart from the invariable custom ; I will make an honest claim ; I will ask for an amount in harmony with strict justice, and will trust to GoD to move the hearts of the representatives of the Corporation to give it to me.''

When summoned before the Commissioners who had the improvements in charge, I explained my position with perfect candour; and said I hoped

A Chain of Providences.

IOI

they would not put a premium upon dishonesty by refusing to accede to an honest claim. They seemed surprised; but their surprise was not greater than that of some of my business friends when, after a delay of nearly a year, the Corporation compensated me on the exact basis of my claim.

Prayerand Lost RailwayTickets.

I. " In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto Gon," is a precious incentive to a life of prayer.

It is interesting to recall the lovingkindness of Gon in the minor events which occupy so large a portion of life. A former labourer for Him in India, who is well-known by her writings on missionary subjects, contributes the following illustrations of answered prayer in journeying experiences:'' One wintry morning, encumbered with muff, umbrella, and various impedimenta, I went to the ticket office at our country station, purchased my ticket to London, and was soon on the way. The first stop being an important junction, a ticket inspector came to see if all in the carriage were rightly placed for their destination, and asked to see the tickets. I searched for mine in vain. The man was inclined to be rude, but as I assured him the Stationmaster at S. would testify that I had taken my ticket, he left me, with the final retort that I would have to pay again at the terminus.

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'' I reasoned with myself that although it was careless on my part to have lost or mislaid the ticket, yet I had paid for the journey, not for the ticket, and had a right to go on. Finally, I definitely committed the matter to the LORD, and asked that I might not have to pay again. A feeling of rest took possession of me. I felt that my petition had been heard and answered. '' Arrived at the terminus, I briefly stated the case to the ticket inspector, who courteously asked for my name and address, which I gave him, and passed out. On my return home I spoke to the Stationmaster at S., who said he had picked up my ticket on the step of the waiting-room, and had forwarded it to the terminus by the next train.

II. '' On a subsequent journey to London, I had a return ticket as a delegate to certain meetings. I attended the gatherings. I had had a most pleasant time, met many friends, and possibly was in a frame of mind at the time more exalted than careful. I came into the city from the delightful suburban home in which I had been entertained, and had a short walk through a busy thoroughfare to reach my starting point for home. On the way I went into a shop to purchase a few sweetmeats for the dear ones at home, and there, without noticing it, dropped my railway pass from my purse when paying for them.

A Chain of Providences.

"When I reached the station I found it was gone, and felt sure where I had dropped it. There was not time to go back without losing my train, and it was imperative to go on. I reluctantly purchased another ticket, but prayed earnestly that the loss might be made good. I had long looked on my means as the LORD' s, and the thought of wasting His money was grievous to me. '' On reaching my home station I mentioned my loss to the Stationmaster.

He said that if I could obtain the lost pass, the Company would refund the price of my ticket. I had the name and address of the shop I had been in, and wrote to the young woman in charge of it, enclosing a stamped envelope for reply. By return of post the pass came to hand; she had picked it up, and preserved it ; and thus the LORD again answered prayer, and rejoiced the hearts of his children. '' These two incidents are linked in my mind as illustrations of how Goo works for those who commit their way to Him in all its details.''

A Little Sister's Ministry.

What is that curious equipage traversing some busy London streets ? Only an old box mounted on wheels, conveying a crippled boy from a slum. His converted little sister is taking him to a Gospel Mission to slum children. She takes him regularly thus to the meetings. There was great rejoicing in the sister's heart when the crippled boy gave himself

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to the LORD in one of the gatherings. It was a real conversion. He showed in his daily life the happiness of a true Christian. He habitually wore a smiling face ; an index of the joy within.

A time came when the box-carriage was seen no more. What had happened? A Christian woman had died, and bequeathed her bath-chair to the Mission for the use of any crippled child attending its meetings. So our young friend now rode in a real carriage, like a gentleman I until the angels carried him to JESUS; but not before, in his last hours, he had the joy of seeing his father seek the SAVIOUR. Although only a slum cripple, he did not leave for heaven without a jewel in his crown.

How great will be the joy and reward of the bravehearted young sister when she meets father and brother (no longer a cripple) in the land of eternal light, and perhaps others who are there because of her faithfulness.

CHAPTER

XIII.

PHARAOH'S DREAM AND MUMMY WHEAT.

A Providencein BiblicalEvidenceafter morethan 3,000 years.

LTHOUGH the words I italicise below were evidently based upon an error, they came as a shock to me, and doubtless also to many others among the older readers of the English religious newspa per in which they a pp eared. " We have often been told," said an editorial note, '' of wheat found in mummy wrappings, which has yielded a harvest on being sown. These tales have lacked corroborationand may now be considered as exploded."

Not able to surrender what had been for several decades regarded as an established piece of Biblical evidence, but being at a loss, after the distance of years, to place my hand on the proofs of its verity, I betook myself to prayer. My desire was to bring the facts before the editor, and discharge a duty to him and the Christian public.

Within a few days a friend, unaware of my prayer or that I was specially interested in mummy wheat, sent to me the longed-for clue, in a recent article by

A

H

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Remember His Marvellous Works.

William Mayo, a minister of the Gospel connected with the Ashley Down Orphan Houses, founded by George Miiller. It was a biographical article on a citizen of Bristol in his 91st year (T. Sherwood Smith), who more than sixty years before had planted and grown some seven-eared mummy wheat. This wheat tallied with that described in Pharaoh's dream (Genesis, 41st chapter), the interpretation of which

by Joseph, liberated him from prison, made him the first in authority under Pharaoµ, and enabled him to succour his father and brethren in time of famine.

I communicated at once with Mr. Sherwood Smith.

He responded by a letter which bore little trace of his great age. Accompanying the letter was a copy of his pamphlet, entitled, '' Pharaoh's Dream Verified,' ' the cover of which displays a pictorial representation of a head of wheat, with the description beneath: "Specimen of Seven-eared Wheat grown in 1850-5.''

The edition of the pamphlet to which my copy belongs was dated, in its freface, on the author's 90th birthday, November 14th, 1911. His venerable years, and his belief in his experience as a welcome_ contribution to Biblical evidence in the face of widelyprevailing scepticism, may explain his remark that he lives to make the evidence known. The following brief record of the facts will aid others to help in carrying forward his worthy purpose.

In the year 1849, Mr. Davies, a legal friend at Hereford, on one of his periodical tithe audits at Ross,

Pka,aoh'! D,eam and Mummy Wheat.

107

gave Mr. Sherwood Smith about a dozen full-sized plump grains of wheat, stating that they had been

taken from the foldsof an Egyptianmummy.

He planted the grains where he could watch the result. '• They grew, and speedily overtopped the English wheat around them, and at maturity were about a foot higher. The straws were thick and brittle, and not bending like ordinary straw, and on top of each was a cluster of seven cars, bearded, or, as it is called locally, ' cone ' wheat. The centre ear was of ordinary size, and six distinct smaller ears grew out of it.''

Nearly all the crop was given to a neighbouring farmer. He cultivated the kind for two or three years, gave some away, and then allowed the whole to go with his other wheat to the miller. Little was thought of it then, except as a curiosity. But many years afterwards, Mr. Sherwood Smith's interest was renewed by a discussion in the London Times newspaper on the vitality of mummy wheat.

He contributed his experiences of the year 1850.

The subject was re-opened some ten years later, "when Mr. Walter Sturge, of Bristol, wrote that he remembered that about the middle of the nineteenth century some wheat had been found in the folds of a mummy, said to be that of Pharaoh, in the Bristol Museum, and that it had been planted and grown in the neighbourhood of Bristol.'' Mr. Sherwood Smith thereupon went to the Museum

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and asked to be shown the mummy of Pharaoh.

The Curator pointed it out, and called his attention to some ears of wheat at the bottom of the glass case in which the mummy stood. They corresponded with what he grew in 1850.

After another lapse of years, he determined to pursue the subject further. As a result, Mr. E. Davies, of Weston-super-Mare (son of the legal friend who gave the seeds to Mr. Sherwood Smith at Ross in 1849), testified to recollecting some seven• eared wheat being grown in his father's garden. Mr. Drinkwater, of Bernithon Court, near Ross, remembered a small field of it grown by his father close to the Court; the seed for which, says Mr. Sherwood Smith, '' was doubtless obtained from the Ross farmer whom I had supplied.'' Mr. Drinkwater remarked that the workmen objected to thresh it because '' it threshed like faggots,'' the stalks being thick and brittle. This may account in part for the species so soon going out of cultivation.

Further: "Mr. James Hunt, of Redland, Bristol, an agricultural authority, who also wrote to the London Times, remembered a field of the kind grown near Bristol.

Another had seen it at Wrington. Another wrote from South Africa, giving similar testimony.'' Thus there were a number of "living witnesses to prove that the grains of wheat found in the mummy, both grew and propagated their peculiar species (as long as cultivated) for several years ; and it seems equally clear the

Pharaoh's D,eam and Mummy Wheat.

Io9

species has completely disappeared, and not inoculated any other wheat.''

In answer to an inquiry in 1905, the Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, sent to Mr. Sherwood Smith a specimen labelled '' Attwood, 1855,'' like that which he cultivated in 1850, '' evidently,'' says the latter, "grown from seeds obtained from the same source.''

An EminentSeed-Grower's Experience.

Messrs. Sutton, the Royal seed-growers of Reading, wrote that their father " grew some of it about the middle of the last century, and never had the slightest doubt of the authenticity of the grains he sowed, and always believed it was possible for wheat-which was kept hermetically sealed from the atmosphere and under perfectly dry conditions such as those obtaining in Egypt-to grow well, as he proved himself from his own trials.''

As auxiliary evidence, the venerable author of the pamphlet under quotation mentions that other species of seeds found in mummy wrappings have '' produced different kinds of vegetables and flowers to any before known in this country, as well as others that are (it all depends on the methods by which they were preserved). Of this I have corroborative testimony from the Deans of two Cathedrals.''

The Scripture record says : '' In the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls ' ' a figure not unfavourable to a seven-fold head.

no

Remember His Marvellous Works.

Mr. Sherwood Smith concludes from his own experience and from indisputable latter-day testimony, that the dream of Pharaoh as regards the com became '' a realized fact, in which special provision was made by Divine Providence in the seven-eared wheat during the seven years of plenty, for the succeeding seven of famine.''

He surmises that on the death of Pharaoh '' Joseph, as the chief of Pharaoh's household, would be present at the embalming and preservation of his body, and with his own hands would have placed within the folds of the wrappings the identical grains of wheat that I and others held in our hands (more than three thousand years after), in the belief that, at some distant period, that would happen which has happened, and that in an age of scepticism and infidelity it would stand forth as an indisputable proof of the entire truth of the most touching and tender narrative in Bible History (Joseph and his brethren, Gen. 42nd chapter]."

Making allowance for the small element of conjecture in Mr. Sherwood Smith's closing application, as above, there is sufficient rockbed of evidence in his narrative to demonstrate the error of classing the growth of mummy wheat as '' tales '' which '' have lacked corroboration, and may now be considered as exploded.'' But this mistake will not be without its uses where it induces Christian men and women to regard with caution or incredulity any statement by whomsoever made, and with however honest an

Pharaoh's Dream and Mummy Wheat.

III

intention, that would weaken the fortress of belief, and furnish a weapon to infidelity, within and without the church, for those who '' strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.'' Even in cases of legitimate uncertainty, it is better and safer to believe too much than too little, alike for the influence upon ourselves, and our influence upon others. Doubt begets doubt.

Many readers will welcome the portrait of Mr. Sherwood Smith which prefaces this Chapter, reproduced from a photograph taken for his ninety-third birthday. In his hand is a small case with glass top containing a head of the seven-eared wheat grown by him at Ross in 1850, from Mummy seed. He has used this practical demonstration when occasionally lecturing upon the subject. I have handled and shown it to friends.

An incidental but valuable use of Mr. Sherwood Smith's experiences and investigations, has been to furnish preachers and Bible teachers for many years with a beautiful and striking illustration of the mystery of the resurrection of the human body.

After several thousand years the buried seed comes back with its "life more abundantly," and becomes the parable of a glorious and eternal resurrection.

A new impetus has of late been given to this illustration for preachers and teachers by the publication 1 beyond Britain, of this Chapter (from advance printer's proofs) in Christian periodicals in Canada, the United States, and India.

CHAPTER

XIV.

THE MODERNPATRIARCHOFMIRACLEWHEAT.

W

RITING to me in his 93rd year concerning wonderful providences, Mr. Sherwood Smith said :-" I am amazed at the number and signally marked instances in which I have been led, guarded, or delivered. The delight I now enjoy in recalling them, as I frequently do, cannot be expressed in words.,, A year later I heard from him that the first hymn he learnt when a child was the one beginning : When all Thy mercies, 0 my GoD, My rising soul surveys, Transported with the view, I'm lest In wonder, love, and praise.

The words on childhJod's lips were a prophecy of the state of his heart at an age which few reach.

At the early age of seven he lost his saintly mother ; but more than eighty-five years afterwards, he wrote that '' not a day of my life passes now without thinking of her,' ' and ' ' I believe I owe very much to her care and prayers.''

What a tribute to a mother's influence, and the queenly position of a Christian woman in her home ! It will not be difficult for the reader to fill in the picture of this modern patriarch's godly upbringing.

The Modern Patriarch of Miracle Wheat.

II3

His father belonged to the Church of England.

The respect in which he was held may be inferred from the fact that when his youngest son Sherwood was christened, the daughter of an Archdeacon was his godmother. Those were the days of Evangelical giants, when the anti-slavery movement stirred Britain.

A character revealing boyhood incident occurred shortly after Sherwood's apprenticeship to business at the age of twelve, to the Superintendent of the Congregational Sunday School at Ruardean, on the north border of Dean Forest. He relates:'' One evening, Mr. Horlick, the Minister, brought a negro, an escaped slave from Jamaica, to tell the story of his life to the congregation.

Following the meeting they called at our house on their way home, staying about ten minutes. Soon after they had left, a woman rushed in, saying she had no money with her at the chapel, and hurried home for sixpence to add to the collection. She was very disappointed that the negro could not have it. ' He shall have it,' said I, ' if you give it me.' I was off like a shot, and running a mile overtook them, and gave up the coin. Putting his hands on my bare head, he prayed the LoRD to bless me abundantly with long life and usefulness. The prayer has been fully answered, and the blessing has ever been with me from that hour. It was a small thing I had done, but such are always worth doing.''

Before he was nineteen, he was baptized by im-

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Remember His Marvellous Works.

mersion, and joined the Baptist Church at Ross.

The far-away sweep of his memory is illustrated when, in speaking of this event, he recalls that twenty years later he witnessed at Cheltenham the baptism of the now veteran Pastor William Cuff, of Shoreditch Tabernacle, London, the officiating minister being James Smith, who preceded C. H. Spurgeon in his early pastorate of New Park Street Chapel, London.

The compass of the present volume will not permit justice to be done to the many providences of Mr. Sherwood Smith's later life. That must be deferred, except for a few incidents.

In making myself acquainted with the evidence re-stated in the previous article, and with associated facts, I have been impressed by the quality of the witnesses, including our friend who (in a figurative sense) calls them into the witness-box. The business acumen displayed by Mr. Sherwood Smith as founder and manager of Land and Building Sodeties, and in Banking, counts in the qualifications of a witness.

Nor have I been less impressed by the signs of Divine guidance to which he refers, that have been given in the recurring remarkable providences in his career.

The largest portion of his business life has been spent at Bristol. He went there in 1862, and became the principal promoter of the London and SouthWestern Bank, although he never bad any official relation with it. In 1864 he established the B-icc~ol and Clifton Permanent Building Society, whicu bas occupied his after years.

Tha M ode,n Patriarch of M ifacle Wheat.

n5

It was when broken in health through business strain and bereavements that his thoughts were turned toward Bristol. He was a stranger there ; but he says: "Standing one day on Observatory Hill and looking westward,

I madea solemnvow that if the LoRD would let me live anywhere in that delightful locality, I would be content with the meanest fare. I also went to George Miiller's Orphanage at Ashley Down to get encouraged and trust the LoRD. He gave me my heart's desire.

I recovered heal th and vigour, and while doing this was able to make many friends.''

His life-long total abstinence from intoxicating liquors and tobacco in any form, added to his simple mode of living, has doubtless largely contributed to his length of days.

In his earlier business life he was engaged in Banks at Ross in Herefordshire, and at Farnham, Surrey.

In the former town he founded one of the earliest and most successful of freehold land societies. He established a similar society at Farnham. To celebrate the jubilee of the Ross society he published its history in 1900. In 1853, although then a young man, he received the appointment of Secretary of a London freehold land society, being chosen out of 111 candidates. Soon afterwards, when the Temperance Freehold Land Society was being formed, he was offered its Secretaryship, but declined because its

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Remember His Marve'lous Works.

acceptance would be unfair to the society which had recently chosen him.

Recollectionsof John B. Gough.

Of this period he writes : " I had not long settled in London before I joined the London Temperance League Committee which brought J. B. Gough to England, and engaged him as a lecturer to visit different parts of the country, after delivering his marvellous orations in London's largest available buildings, at each of which I was present. George Cruickshanks was Chairman of the Committee, and was then engaged on his picture 'The Worship of Bacchus.' I have long been the sole survivor of that Committee, and of the National Temperance League which absorbed it."

This recalls my own first acquaintance with J. B. Gough in the United States in my seventeenth year, and also my boyhood's identity in England with the cause he advocated. Among my wife's treasures is my Band of Hope membership card in colours, dated Wandsworth (Surrey), February 18th, 1859; and signed Joshua Warren, secretary. On the card is a representation of a child kneeling in prayer. Overhead are the words, '' Lead us not into temptation,'' and on a scroll beneath, '' Train up a child in the way he should go.'' Could two more appropriate texts be found?

I was among a great audience in the largest hall in Albany, the Capital city of New York State, when

The Modern Patriarch of Miracle Wheat. 117

J. B. Gough entered to deliver his lecture on '' Habit.''

I will pass over his enthusiastic reception. His first action on mounting the platform was to take a large coloured handkerchief from his pocket, and dust the small table in front of the speaker's chair. I presume no one supposed that it needed dusting. It was his habit! His lecture was a masterpiece of soul-stirring oratory.* I can rejoice too with Mr. Sherwood Smith in the physical and moral benefits of a life-long abstinence from tobacco. On this subject his business experience led him to feel keenly. In reminiscences contributed to the Beacon Light for July, 1912, he wrote: '' In my early days very few besides old men smoked tobacco. Most men were too poor to buy tobacco out of a wage seldom higher than 8s. per week, and more often only Is. per day (tobacco then being about Is. per ounce). When I had grown up, it was my privilege to be associated with young people about my own age and with similar tastes, about a score of them, taken from two Nonconformist churches in the town. All, with one exception, were total abstainers and non-smokers. The exception was the only one who fell, and his fall I attributed in great measure to his smoking habit. '' In 1854 I had to dismiss a cashier in London for serious embezzlement. His father held high office • Some of Gough' s Orations are preserved and accessible to this generation in a volume published by Morgan & Scott, London. Price one shilling net, or by post IS. 3d.

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Remember His Marvellous Works.

as a Congregational minister, and his uncle was the most popular and distinguished minister of the day.

He would have been prosecuted by the Guarantee Society had his father not paid the whole amount of his guarantee. He was only 21 years of age, and not until the celebration of his ' coming of age ' did I first discover that he smoked, and immediately afterwards his defalcations came to light. Finding it hopeless to get another appointment, he was sent abroad, and six months after died of delirium tremens."

After reciting other sad cases, he concludes his reminiscences by remarking that in all his long life he had not '' met one person who regretted he had never smoked ; and this evidence ought to make every reader of these notes pause, and if he has never been a smoker, determine, with Gon's help, he never will."

I have known excellent Christian men who, although smokers, deeply regretted having acquired the habit, and were at one with Mr. Sherwood Smith's advice to the young.

Although his experiences of the vitality of mummy wheat under certain favourable conditions extend from the year 1850,he was not the first to demonstrate this vitality. His claim to particular recognition and honour is that_.sometimes in face of misinformed incredulity and strong opposition, he has championed the facts with watchful vigilance for more than sixty years.

It is arresting to notice the amazing gullibility of unbelief, as indicated by a surmise recently put for-

The Modern Patriarch of Miracle Wheat. n9 ward by a secular newspaper. It is there suggested that "some unopened coffins" containing mummies were taken to England; but" before the coffins left Egypt they lay for some time in stables with fresh modern corn running over them," which grew when planted. Waiving the question of difference of species, it is not easy to understand how corn on the top of an unopened coffin could get between the folds of the mummy wrappings, the position in which miracle wheat was found.

Substantiation of an Explorer'sBelief.

For a considerable time Sir T. Gardner Wilkinson, eminent in the first half of the last century as an authority on Ancient Egypt, resided in an Egyptian tomb. It is interesting to observe that twelve years before Mr. Sherwood Smith's first experiences with seven-eared mummy wheat, a work by Sir Gardner \Vilkinson was published in which are records of marvellous preservation of buried substances, among which he cites :" A harp found at Thebes in 1823, perfectly preserved-and giving sound in tune-probably for 3,000 years, a length of time which would appear incredible if we had not repeated instances of the perfect preservation of numerous perishable objects, even of an older date, in the sepulchres of Thebes. It is to the excessive dryness of the soil and of the rock in which the pits are hewn, frequently to the depth of fifteen, thirty, and even seventy feet, that this is to

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Remembe, His Marvellous Works.

be attributed; and grains of com and other seeds have been found which have remained entire, without undergoing any change, and without making any effort to strike root in the sand, or the vase, in which they were deposited."

He then alludes to experiments stated to have been tried in France" with some grains of corn thus preserved, which sprouted when sown," and of which " several are now in the different collections of Europe." Although unable to verify this growth from his own knowledge, "yet," he says, " I am inclined to believe that if seed thus preserved were immediately put into the earth, the results would be as stated; since experience shows that seeds buried at certain depths are unable to germinate till removed nearer the surface of the earth ; and I have known them to remain for years on the plains of the Egyptian desert, awaiting that rain which has at length enabled them to take root in the previously parched soil."* What Sir Gardner Wilkinson regarded as possible Mr. Sherwood Smith and other Englishmen of repute have demonstrated as having occurred in Britain, in addition to what may have taken place elsewhere, and particularly in France, consequent upon French explorations in Egypt. My own more recent investigations in England (extending over several years and accompanied by accumulating evidence) confirm their conclusions.

•"The

Ancient Egyptians"

Vol. II., 1st series, 1837.

Seven-eared Mummy Wheat.

Specially photographed for Alfred S. Dyer.

To face page 12i.

CHAPTER XV. u

CHOSEN '' AND " ORDAINED.'' -John

xv. 16.

An AmericanGirl whoBecamea Missionary Doctor.

M

ORE than forty years ago, in a country home in one of America's Western States, a child was born who grew up to maidenhood with the scantiest of religious privileges. Not a member of the family was more than nominally a Christian. There was no chutch in the neighbourhood. A service of some sort was o~casionally held in the County School-House, oftenest by Universalists !

In summer a Sunday School was carried on, in which the ·chief feature was singing; but where, says the subject of this narrative, '' I do not remember ever hearing a prayer offered.'' In the winter there were public dances, sometimes twice a week. These her mother would not allow her to attend-wisely making her an exception to the school-girls generally.

Rosa thought about religion at times; but until she was past fifteen years of age, feelings of unbelief predominated. There was a large Bible in her home, and one day at that period she took it up and read on its back : ' ' I am the Resurrection and the Life."

She relates that these words '' seemed a sweet thing to me. I finally decided to put them to the test. I I

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was not well, and I said that if Gon would make me all right by morning, I would believe that He existed.

He answered that first prayer, and I could not help believing."

Subsequently, three years were spent at a large city in the State, passing through the Normal School course, followed by two years of teaching in the county. Rosa then entered College, where she formed the habit of attending a place of worship at least once every Sunday. In steps '' ordered of the LORD" during a brief vacation at this time, she visited a pious uncle at a distance. He talked of her father's homeneighbourhood being without a church.

She agreed with him that the place needed one, although-she states-'' I considered myself a good moral person, and thought it was not necessary for me.' ' Her uncle said, '' I'll send an evangelist.''

At the next College vacation, two days after she had reached home, an evangelist appeared. He said he expected to make her home his stopping place, as it was not good to be moving about. He was hardly a welcome visitor. However, he began meetings, and on the following Sunday, Rosa's mother went forward to confess the LORD J Esus CHRIST as her Saviour. At the next Tuesday's meeting, Rosa herself confessed Him. She says: '' When He revealed me to myself, I could but say 'Unworthy, unworthy I' but when the call came to come and confess Him before men, I knew that I must. We were singing the hymn, ' Oh, how I love

Ckosen and Ordained.

123

JESus,' and I saw that for many years I had been singing these sweet hymns without meaning it at allthat it had been untrue all along. During our drive home that evening, I talked to my father, and the following evening he made the good confession ; so three of our family of five were born into the Kingdom in one week.''

She records that '' during the following winter the enemy came in like a flood, and it was a long struggle.

One day it came to me that perhaps he would be conquered by prayer, and I committed it to the LORD. This was my first lesson in prevailing prayer."

Her Collegiate studies were preparing her for a superior position in the scholastic profession, but during her last year at College her heart was drawn toward the foreign mission field-her thought was of China. She mentioned this to her parents, and received no encouragement. But Gon's ways are marvellous. She tells that '' a year and a-half later, when I was asking the Heavenly Father definitely to decide something for me by the New Year, my earthly father gave me for a Christmas present a sum sufficient to provide for my medical training.

I saw in it his consent to my plans for future work.''

Leaving Collegewith the degree of Master of Arts, she entered another, and in due time graduated Doctor of :Medicine. While she was studying medicine, a friend recommended her, without her knowledge, to a Missionary Board, who appointed her to

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India I She knew nothing of it until the appointment was handed to her. In this she was led to recognize the hand of Gon-His choice for her.

It proved to be her father's preference also.

Dr. Rosa reached India on the eve of the great famine of 1896. It was a providential arrival. She wa? the only medical help at the mission station to which she was appointed as colleague to two other consecrated women in sole charge. Suffering abounded. Crowds flocked for food and healing.

Their labours included the rescue, for Christian upbringing, of more than five hundred orphans.

My wife visited these missionary women at the height of the famine, when the work received help from the Bombay Guardian Famine Fund. We also together visited them when leave-taking, on returning to England.

Dr. Rosa is in India now. She says, " It is a wonderful providence that the LORD chose me at all. I cannot understand it, except that He is so loving, and likes to show how wonderfully He can work.''

Some meditative soul will, perhaps, raise the question of how much of the results of Dr. Rosa's mission• ary labours will the Recorcling Angel credit to the uncle who sent the unwelcome evangelist to her father's home?

In later years she has been deeply impressed, on the one hand, by the limitations of medical art; and on the other hand, by the marvellous instances of Divine healing when all human remedies have failed.

Chosen and Ordained.

125

But this is a subject in which the facts call for separate consideration.

HumanLimitations and DivinePossibilities.

During our residence in India we met with a number of instances among missionaries whose experience, prior to their arrival there, can be summarized in five words, '' Miraculously healed for sacred service.' ' We came into close and inspiring intimacy with several, making us familiar with the details.

An unusually extraordinary case was that of Miss Harriet N. Millett, of Bombay, who after her miraculous cure came to India under the auspices of Dr. Cullis, of Boston, well-known for his faith in Divine healing. The unsuccessful surgical operations which were performed upon her for cancer in America, were so awful that I never think of them without a shudder.

But when we knew her in Bombay, she had been labouring with health and enthusiasm in India for years.

Not long after our return to England we were made acquainted with an equally marvellous case through an intimate friend of more than thirty years' standing, who was also a friend of this object of Divine healing for foreign service-Miss E. H. Hopwood, of Ningpo, China ; formerly of London.

When a young woman, and resident in suburban London, Miss Hopwood became ill with disease of the lungs. After about nine months it was stated by an experienced doctor that there was no hope of her

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life being prolonged three weeks. In referring to this period, in an account of her healing, she says :In the School of 8ufftri111.

'' When it seemed as if I were dying, while I lay quite unable to speak or take notice of anyone, the LORDspoke to me (He was already known to me as my SAVIOUR), and brought to my mind, by the HOLY SPIRIT,our SAVIOUR'S prayer for His disciples: 'I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil.' Being in the habit of praying in the words of Holy Scripture, I prayed: 'Not that Thou shouldest take me out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep me from the evil.' In answer to that prayer, which Gon gave me (for true prayer is Gon-given), I lived on instead of dying. But I was quite an invalid for nine years."

During those years she was a great sufferer. Two of the vertebr~ of her spine had united. The spinal cord was much affected, causing her limbs to be contracted. She could not put them down without pain. A part of the time she had to lie with her knees and head propped up, and her hands at her side -a position described by her doctor in language more expressive than elegant, as ' ' Like a trussed fowl."

But with an invalid table across her bed she was happy when able to read her Bible.

So serious in other respects was her condition that (she says) : '' At this time I could not bear the

Chosen and Ordained.

127

light-I had to lie almost in darkness ; I could not bear the rustle of paper in reading, nor a loud voicethe irritation would cause pain such as when the nerve of a tooth is touched. I could not lift my hand, nor feed myself, nor turn my head, nor even my tongue. My dear mother would sit with me in the dark room and noticed which way I looked, and would turn my head for me that way, to ease the pain in my tongue.''

Yet from this condition she learned spiritual lessons. The importance of carefulness in speech was one of these. Not only her tongue, but she thinks that every member of her body was severally given to Gon through the pain that led her to look to Him for healing. She was not always suffering so acutely during those years of invalidism although all through that period she was unable to sit up without support, or to walk without crutch,s.

The Master'sTouch-and After.

Then came a never-to-be-forgotten day. In the afternoon she had been talking to a Christian lady.

When the visitor had left, MissHopwood was prostrate with the throbbing head and weary pain, usual after such excitement. In her helpless condition she sighed the prayer : '' If only I knew Thy will.''

Immediately the words were answered back to her spirit, '' We have the mind of CmusT '' (I Cor. ii. 16), and her heart replied, '' If I have the mind of CmusT, I know what to do, because if I could see JESUS actually here, I should ask Him to heal me.'' Then

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the prayer rose from her lips : '' FATHER, since it is Thy will, heal my back, so that I can sit up, and walk without crutches, for JESUS CHRIST'S sake.'' '' Immediately I heard a click, and felt a sharp pain in my spine, between my shoulders, but thought it was just one of the darts of pain to which I was so accustomed. I did not know this was the answer to my prayer, and lay still. When my mother asked about an hour afterwards if I would go into my reclining-chair for tea, I almost said ' No,' for I was so weary; but, being unwilling to sadden her, I said, ' Yes,' and when I raised myself I found I could do so with ease. I said nothing but went into my chair as usual. When left alone in the room, I said, ' LORD, can I stand ? ' And I stood upright without support except }:Esus, my Strength, within me. ' LoRD, can I sit ? '-and I sat on a cane-seated chair near me. I was full of astonished joy,-so full that I said nothing, but passed the night in silent praise and wonder at Gon's power and love. '' Our good doctor was surprised when I told him next day, and acknowledged at once, • This is the Hand of God.'

He walked with us to church on Sunday. As we walked he said, when stepping up and down the kerbstone, 'That hurt your back? ' 'No,' I answered.

There was a half-mended path in the churchyard, full of large rough stones. Over these he led me, saying, ' That jarred your back? ' Again I could answer 'No.' During the service I knelt, sat and

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129

stood with the congregation, praising Gon. I went and returned without crutches or aid of any kind.''

The health restored was faithfully devoted to the service of Gon, first in England, and then in China.

In 1893 Miss Hopwood was led to commence a Faith Mission at Ningpo. The Mission grew until she was assisted by twelve English sisters in CHRIST,besides valued Chinese male helpers. Thus she laboured uninterruptedly without a furlough for sixteen years, when her Divine Healer called her to Himself at the age of about seventy years. Three years before that Home call, her own sister and fellow-labourer in China, Miss Louie Hopwood, wrote in a letter which has passed through my hands, ' ' I look on her and marvel at what Gon has wrought."

No case of Divine healing from a sickness that seemed to be unto death could well be more surprising to the incredulously inclined than that of Frederick C. Glass, author of the lately published volume, '' With the Bible in Brazil.', It is narrated therein. This also was an instance of saved for sacred service. It immediately preceded the commencement of his wonderful work of Bible colportage and Gospel preaching in South America.* It cannot be otherwise than noticeable to those well acquainted with the subject, that some of the foremost believers in Divine healing, alike in America, •" With the Bible in Brazil'' is published by Morgan & Scott, I 2, Paternoster Buildings, London. Price 2s. 6d. net, through any bookseller. By post 2s. 1od.

I30

Remembe, Hi! Marvellous Works.

Britain, and elsewhere, have been members of the medical profession. One of these was Dr. Robert McKilliam, of Blackheath, London, who in his 78th year was called up higher in 1915. He was a man of eminence. For thirty years he conducted evangelistic services in Alexandra Hall, Blackheath, and for twenty years edited the London Christian periodical, the Morning Star.

His way with patients was illustrated when called to visit professionally one of our valued friends residing in his neighbourhood. She was very ill. After the consultation, he knelt down to pray with and for her. A Christian worker who was present at the interview remarked when he had gone, '' You will be well, after such a prayer.''

Of course Dr. McKilliam was careful to know the spiritual condition of his patients. He would not, and could not, offer the prayer of faith for Divine healing if restored health would be used for selfish or worldly purposes, and not to the honour of Gon. When health is coveted that the spared life may be " None of self, and all of Thee," we may reverently think that Gon is given a cause to heal, when the maybe purpose of the sickness is fulfilled. Not all are called to foreignmissionary service ; but none are called to be idle I To every disciple of CHRIST the message applies, '' Occupy till I come.''

Wha~ever the fever, His touch can heal it; Whatever the tempest, His voice can still ; There is only joy as we seek His pleasure ; There is only rest as we choose His will

CHAPTER

XVI.

THE HAND OF GOD BETWEEN.

I

N a large old house in one of the smaller Argen-

tine cities, live a little band of evangelistic missionaries, carrying on a self-supporting work. The senior missionary plies his calling of a dentist. Under the same roof are held Bible-classes, prayer-meetings, Gospel services, and Sunday School.

Beside the four missionaries, there are in the home, children, women servants, and a convert Christian helper, a tall stalwart man whose presence was a source of help during the time of trial about to be related.

In the Plaza, not far distant, stands a large Roman Catholic church, with its one priest in residence.

The story centres around Mrs. H., the wife of the senior missionary, a brave, hard-working woman, zealous in the LoRD's service. She nurses the sick, distributes tracts, visits in the homes of the people, and receives them at the mission house for the treatment of both body and soul. She helps in the meetings generally, and conducts those for women.

One morning, early in the year 19u, Mr. H. and Miss G. went to a neighbouring city on business.

In their absence, in the afternoon while Mrs. H. was waiting for her women's meeting to assemble, she

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sat down to write a letter, when a knock came at her door. She was confronted by a man who had a doleful tale to tell of poverty and sickness in the home. He asked her to go at once to visit his sick wife. It was impossible for Mrs. H. to go then, so she told him she would give him a trifle to relieve pressing needs. As she turned to look for the money, he seized her with one hand, and drew his knife with the other. She grasped the wrist of his uplifted hand with both hers, and a struggle ensued. No one else being in that part of the house, her cry of alarm was unheard.

Two deep gashes were cut in her arm. She sank down in a fainting condition, and as she was losing consciousness she heard the man say, as he hurried away, "Now I have killed her."

Very soon she revived and alarmed the household.

The police were called, but the assassin was not found. After a few days' illness Mrs. H. was up again and about her work. Trusting in the LoRD to keep her, she went in and out as usual.

Among the sick people for whom she was caring was one in the lower part of the city, some twenty minutes' walk from home. Night after night, Mrs. H. went down and stayed a part of the night watching by this sick one. It is the custom in Argentine for neighbours and friends to come in and out of sick rooms at will; and Mrs. H. took little notice of those who came and went. One night a mysterious looking person, apparently a woman, muffledto the eyes, came in. No word was spoken, and at length the visitor

The Hand of God Between.

133

departed silently. Mrs. H. was always escorted by friends on returning home from this place, and on the night in question three or four accompanied her, all being ignorant of any special danger.

The following night she remained at home as one of the children was ill.

Not long after, she was driving outside the limits of the town accompanied by Mr. C., the stalwart Argentine Christian resident at the Mission house.

Two men on horseback were seen following the carriage. As they overtook it, one seized the horse's bridle, while the other went to the side where Mrs. H. was seated. As he stretched out his hand toward her, Mr. C. caught it, and saying "How are you, friend?" nearly dragged him from his horse, at the same time urging the carriage horse forward. The fellow being cowed, made no further pursuit. Mrs. H. was ill for a few days from the shock, but tried to keep her experiences secret.

Again out on an errand of mercy, she was about to return at dusk alone, when Mr. C. drove up, and she rode home.

Early one morning, long before the household was astir, Mr. C. answered a knock at the door. A suspicious looking person in woman's dress was there who professed to be in great suffering, and asked for Mrs. H. By the voice and appearance he believed the caller to be a man ; and as the individual lingered about, he went out and ordered her (or him) to be gone. He then went for an axe. When he returned

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Remember His Marvellous Works.

to the door the mysterious visitor was disappearing on the run, part of the lower garments having dropped off and revealed the masculine attire.

Mysterious things continued happening for two months, but all this time Mrs. H. went about with unfaltering trust in the LoRD. One day when on the streets she went up to a group of men, and, as was her custom, handed tracts around. Among the group she recognized the man who had attempted her life with a knife. She said nothing, but gave him a tract, and invited all to the mission service.

Soon after, as Mr. H. was conducting the Sunday evening evangelistic service, his wife being at the door to welcome all who came, she saw this manher would-be murderer-approaching.

He made to her a confession of the whole of the mysterious occurrences. The priest, jealous of the Mission,had hired him and his cousin, both anarchists, to murder her, representing that she was an evil woman who ought to be killed. Every attempt they .made failed. And if to the missionaries the happenings had seemed mysterious, to these anarchists the fact that in so many attempts they had been foiled was a still greater mystery. On the first occasion it was their intention to decoy her to an empty house, and kill her there. A second design of the same nature was frustrated. Then her life was saved on the night she was down town, because three persons instead of one escorted her on her return home. Also the attempt on the carriage failed. Later when Mr.

The Hand of God BetweeH.

135

C. fetched her in a conveyance at dusk, the assassin was laying in wait for her, expecting she would be alone. The man in his con£ession remarked that he could not understand how it was, or what always came between them I He said, " I am at your mercy.

Do with me as you like. I regret the whole affair very deeply."

Mrs. H. assured him that it was the Hand of Gon which had protected her, and had come between to prevent him from murder ; that she would not deliver him to the police or reveal his identity ; that there was a SAVIOUR for him, and that her only desire was that be might be saved. He replied that he and his cousin would go the next day to the country to work.

Mrs. H. sent a note to the pulpit to inform her husband that this man was at the door. She gave him a Bible and some Gospel literature. When the service had closed he was gone.

Shortly after this, the priest was arrested for a crime worse than murder. A public demonstration was held against him in front of his own church. The civil authorities removed him to the capital, where he was imprisoned. Although he was soon at liberty again (though of his guilt there was no doubt), be did not return to the town, and it is expected he will never be permitted to live there again.

1tbe1bea"enll?

Gar~ener ant>I. "Thou shalt be like a watered garden."-ISA, lviii.

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3. Nor storm nor drought this spot can harm, The blasts are tempered to my state ; In solemn, sweet, unruffled calm, The inner life on CHRIST doth wait.

4- Oh may my growth His glory tell, My lips and life in sweet accord

Proclaim the love that makes my soul A watPred garden of the LoRD I (Cor,yrlght. From Supplement to Metrical Tune Booll, Chicago.}

CHAPTER XVII. KINSWOMEN OF JESUS.

" Whosoeve, shall do the will of My Father which is in heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother."-Matthew xii. 50.

"I

" Let Your Light so Shine."

COULD hardly tell you the pleasure that book has given me." Thus wrote Eleanor.

It was only a small book, so its monetary value could have had nothing to do with the pleasure it gave. The little book showed, by varied examples, that there is royalty in every social position, even the humblest, as Gon counts royalty. The King's daughters are not all monied folk. They are not chiefly such.* It is true that a jewelled crown rests upon each brow, but it is a crown of saintly character.

Who is Eleanor ? Only a young seamstress in the great city of London, the help and companion of a widowed mother. To reach her daily employment she has to leave home shortly after seven o'clock in the morning, and does not return in the evening until nearly half-past nine. The day is spent in the workroom of a Court dressmaker. In the letter to her friend Florence, above quoted, in apologetically • I

Cor. i. 26-29K

138

Remember His Marvellous Works.

explaining why she did not write sooner, she says, "But I am so tired when I get home." Brave girl, who can be surprised at it !

She was working later than usual one evening by order-later than the law permitted her to be kept.

The assistant-mistress said, " If an inspector should call, you must tell him you are on your own work."

"I cannot do that," answered Eleanor. « Why not ? " was the sharp response. " I cannot tell an untruth." " You babyI " said the foiled woman.

In other directions also, the workwomen were expected to act on the dictum of an assistant-mistress that" Dressmakers' lies don't count."

Amid such surroundings, who can measure the daily influence for good of a woman who cannot be turned aside to compliance with falsehood?

But however late Eleanor is kept at work, and however wearied by long hours, she is found on the LoRD's Day teaching a class of girls the secret that is changing her own character" from glory to glory," Occasionally some other ministry is added, as when, at an unconventional service in a Poorhouse shed, to a company of forlorn "casuals," she sings a loving invitation to come to Him who succours both body and soul.

Never a robe that Eleanor toiled at for b~jewelled " noble ladies " approached the beauty of her own.

Her work-a-day dress is the costly white robe of

K inswomsn of Jesus.

1 39

CmusT's righteousness, which she is watchful to keep

" unspotted from the world."

Laying down the little book she had received, her heart beat with the inspiration of conscious relationship to the queenly women (howbeit some in humble life) whom I had all too imperfectly depicted in " Royal Womanhood in Every Rank," the sisters of JESUS according to His own words in Matthew xii.

48-50. In the glow of happiness and thanksgiving, realizing anew, perhaps never so intensely, the " high calling" and possibility of a life consecrated to Goo, she wrote to my young kinswoman, "I could hardly tell you the pleasure that book has given me."

As I pondered on the sunshine which one little book had cast upon the difficult path of one of the SAVIOUR'S kinsfolk, I thought of an often neglected ministry of blessing within the ability of thousands of the LoRD's people who feel unfitted for public work.

Many a book which has lifted its owner nearer to Goo, lies idle in his or her bookcase. It might be used to bless some other soul. Oh the cumulative good to be accomplished by a habit of passing good things on !

Some can do more than that ; and some are doing it. The gift by my friend which winged the little book on its way to brave Eleanor, sent nine hundred and ninety-nine other copies on similar errands. He is a business man, both in a secular and spiritual sense. He is laying up much treasure in heaven, from which he draws a large interest. It is a joy to him to cause joy, "especially unto them who are of

140

Remembe, His Maroellous Wo,ks.

the household of faith." Surely such a use of the printed page is as acceptable incense to Him who takes every kind and thoughtful deed to " one of the least of these " as done unto Himself.

" Ever, Only,All for Thee."

One of my earliest missionary acquaintances in India was in some respects Eleanor's counterpart, but the roots of her spiritual life had gone deeper. At the time of her conversion, she was a dressmaker in America. Having found pardon and reconciliation, the next thing was to learn the oft-difficult lesson, " This is the will of GOD,even your sanctification."

Separation unto Him. One who knew her in America writes: " I well remember hearing her describe the exercise of mind through which she went. Every item of dress passed a searching review before her mind, until she seemed to see herself dressed just as she would look if she fully pleased the LORD. Then the SPIRIT reasoned with her respecting her plans for the future.

How could she spend her time to the glory of GoD in making for others what she could not wear herself?

This question concerning fashionable millinery and dressmaking bas exercised other hearts older and more experienced, but she knew it not. Like Abraham, she was led by a way she knew not. The struggle was severe. She bad spent time and money to secure her trade, and depended on that for a livelihood ; but as the clearer light shone on her heart, and

Kinswomen of Jesus.

she was made to feel that her body must be presented a living sacrifice for Gon's service, she surrendered all to Him and • Cast herself recklessly out Like a chip on the stream of His infinite will.'

"Her trade was placed upon the altar; herself, her all was given to Gon for time and eternity. Gon ratified the covenant and sent refining fire through every part, and sanctified the whole. She died indeed unto sin, and rose to all the life of Gon. From this time her purpose was to do Gon' s whole will."

The President of an American College for young women, lately wrote a scathing article on the growth of immodest fashions in dress " that appeal to the sensual, and were created by low-minded people for the purpose "-the styles which originate in Paris (a city never famed for its morality), and are slavishly copied in other lands.

This College President writes : " The trouble is that some who are working nobly against other evils, are themselves being swallowed up by this monster.

Recently a great temperance woman delivered a strong address upon intemperance, while she wore a dress that was absolutely indecent for a pure woman to wear outside of her bedroom. That is where the danger comes to our young people. As long as the immodest dress is relegated to the questionable women, our girls are not so liable to follow the style ; but when Christian mothers set the example and dress themselves and their children in a manner bordering

142

Remember His Marvellous Works.

on indecency, they are doing a wrong that cannot be offset by loud professions or by :fightingother evils."

It is distressing beyond expression to see a young woman of spiritual promise who has recently undergone one of the most solemn ordinances as a public sign of discipleship of JESus, passively hand herself over to a dressmaker to be attired " in the fashion."

Such a process digs the grave of spirituality. The effect upon herself, and its influence upon the Sunday School class which she teaches, and upon some members of the congregation which, as one of the choir, she conspicuously faces, gives satisfaction to Satan, but no joy in heaven. We cannot wonder that Catherine Booth set herself to design a uniform of modesty for Salvationists.

Plain speaking on this subject is much needed in Britain. The two denominations whose founders laid great stress upon such sobriety in attire as becomes the disciples of the lowly Nazarene, have for the most part drifted far from their ancient testimony concerning dress ; but perhaps not farther than from the fundamentals of the Gospel of CHRIST, to the fashionable theology designed to meet the tastes of " the modern mind." The two have a close connection.

Where the authority of Holy Scripture is lightly esteemed, its hold on the conscience is loosened in many directions. Spirituality and unbelief do not agree. Oh, for a revival of reverent study of Romans xii. 1, 2, leading to lives of holy joy and power. Be not ' coNFORMED " ; but " transformed."

CHAPTER u

XVIII.

A SUCCOURER OF MANY."

A Tribute and a Reminiscence.

T

HE little book, '' Royal Womanhood in Every Rank," mentioned in the preceding chapter, had its origin in the celebration of our Silver Wedding at Bombay. A sisterly friend in England sent a Silver Wedding present of Bank of England notes for £25. It was decided to use part of it to launch that small literary vessel on a voyage which after nearly twenty years seems far from ended. The generous giver was herself a good illustration of the subject, although unmentioned in its pages. Like Phebe, whom the Apostle Paul has immortalized, she was '' a succourer of many '' (Romans xvi. I, 2).

India as well as ourselves, found in her a true friend.

The work for our l,oRD which my wife and I were privileged, as His instruments, to do in that great land during our residence there, was helped from beginning to end by her prayers and liberality.

Who was she ? No one known to fame. An unmarried gentlewoman who resided all her long life (exceeding fourscore years) in an old market town where a placid stream divides the county of Middlesex from Buckinghamshire.

144

RememberHis Marvellous Works.

She had no gift in public utterance. Her eloquence was in actions which opened other lips in praise.

She inherited an income ample for personal needs, but less ample than her world-wide sympathies. It went far. however, because she lived in the spirit of the command, " Occupy till I come.'' Expenditure on herself was limited by strict economy, that she might be lavish towards others in the line of the LoRD' s work.

The self-revealing sneer of the cynical worldling was falsified in her life. She was not niggardly to the poor at home while generous to work abroad.

She was liberal to both, at the cost of self-denial.

Divine love within is not partial in its application, nor of the cynic's sort whose utmost stretch of liberality is to get value for his money at some fashionable religious bazaar.

Does any one ask, "Was she peculiar? " Certainly. That is the mark of the true saint (I Peter ii. 9). How can those be otherwise in this selfish world who, according to Scripture, are '' imitators of GoD as beloved children '' (Eph. v. I, R. v. ).

Two examples are an index of her Christian liberality in her homeland.

For years a brother in CHRIST whose life is engaged in a department of Christian work which many admire, but few would choose, was given by her the privilege of residing with his family in a pleasant dwelling, rent free-no small gift. Of her minor but important all-the-year-round ministry among the poor of her

A Succourer of Many.

145

native town, a mutual friend writes : '' So generous was she, there was often a danger that she would neglect herself in her great desire to help others. On one occasion after a very busy time, as was usual with herself and her sister just before Christmas, when they had responded to innumerable appeals for clothing, blankets, coal, etc., and had provided many a substantial Christmas dinner in homes where good meals were too seldom known, it was found that in the bustle of so many calls, their own Christmasdinner had been forgotten, and they had to sit down to cold mutton on that day."

When at the close of 1896-the beginning of a series of famines in India-the cry of the faminestricken reached Western lands, she was one of the first to respond. Her liberality abounded. We acted as her almoners. She was persistent in her contributions to the Bombay Guardian Famine Relief Fund, opened in our home in November, 1896.

By her gifts alone, hundreds must have been rescued from death, including many orphans, some of whom, now grown to manhood and womanhood, are perpetuating the ministry of her unselfish life by taking the Gospel to their people. Others will become ambassadors for CHRIST through them. In like manner the circle will continue to widen. A little one will become a thousand. Her influence will expand until its waves lave the shores of Eternity.

What magnificent possibilities lie before the fully surrendered as a co-worker with GoD I

r46

RememberHis Maroellou-sWorks.

At the expense of this kinswoman of JEsus, I had photographic groups taken of orphan girls rescued from the famine of 1896-97,and cared for in Mrs. W. W. Bruere's Orphanage at Telegaon, when the happy young folks looked no longer like famine subjects.

Copies were reproduced in Christian periodicals in Britain and America, with pathetic descriptive letterpress, biographical in character, taken clownfrom the lips of the girls by Miss A. L. Thompson and myself.

These photographs and histories helped to stimulate further sympathy for the rescued orphans, the total number of whom, of both sexes, saved through various Famine Funds and Missionary agencies, having grown to not less than twenty-five thousand. The photographs have continued to be reproduced in the missionary interest, again and again, in the American Christian press during seventeen years-truly a fruitful investment I The Silver Wedding gift started also another small literary bark on a long and still unfinished voyage. " The Knight of the White Cross " is a lecture delivered to an audience of young men at a Bombay Young Men's Christian Association. In its high ideal of life, it is a companion to "Royal Womanhood in Every Rank." In the chorus of approval which greeted its publication, a Calcutta Christian newspaper declared that" every young man in the empire should read it." If that port is to be reached, I fail to calculate the date of its arrival I In a section of " The Knight of the White Cross,.,

A Succou,e, of Many.

147

headed, "How to be young when old," indicating the life-long capacity for enthusiasm and holy affection characteristic of the man who cultivates a reverent attitude towards his mother's sex, a picture is drawn of the unnamed" succourer of many," thus: It was for the birthday of a woman who had reached threescore and ten, that the lines were written :Though years have tinged our hair with grey, And heaven to each draws nearer, No flight of time shall steal away What makes thy heart grow dearer.

The CHRIST within renews thy youth With fair and angel graces ; The heart where dwells the LoRD of Truth No mark of age defaces.

A modest, retiring, yet consecrated life, affords another proof that a powerful and far-reaching ministry can be exercised in silence and comparative obscurity. She lived her life of holy service " as unknown, and yet well-known." Unknown beyond her native town except to a few personal friends; for the wide exercise of her stewardship was largely anonymou$. But well-known to the Master she so faithfully followed, and to the Recording Angel at the Divine Book of Remembrance for them that fear the LORD, and think upon His Name (Malachi iii. 16).

The Apostle Paul gratefully referred to Phebe as "a succourer of many, and o/ myself also." This modern sister in the faith, and servant of the Church, was a Phebe in spirit, of whom, with grateful memory, I can repeat Paul's words, '' a succourer of many,

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and of myself also.'' When prolonged public work of a trying and exacting nature caused a grave breakdown in my health in the year 1885, my restoration took place, under Goo, through her suggestion and munificence. In little more than two years thereafter, I proceeded to India. I have since often thought, that much will be found credited to her in the archives of heaven, that the LoRD condescended to do through me in that distant land Thus will be rendered '' Honour to whom honour is due.''

CHAPTER

BLESSTHE LORD,...

XIX.

AND FORGETNOT. -{ Ps. ciii. 3.)

The Storyof a Desk.

EVERAL years before I went to India, a writing-desk upon two tiers of drawers was given to me, when recovering from an illness due to overwork, by a beloved friend who was ever on the watch to help and cheer me in the LoRD's service. The desk followed me to India, and became the chief article of furniture in my editorial room.

When, eleven years later, another breakdown in health made it necessary for me to return to England, the question arose, "What shall be done with the desk? " Its associations made it seem too sacred to part with by sale.

My wife suggested that it should be given to one of our missionary friends in Bombay. Without any notice, the desk was dispatched to her home on the heads of three coolies, with a few explanatory lines. " She returned a little note of thanks, which touchingly indicated the self-denial of her life. She said she had often longed for such a desk, but had never felt able to purchase one. When the men walked in with it, and she realized that it was Gon's gift to her,shewas

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moved to tears of thanksgiving and Joy, and her heart filled with praise to the Giver of all good gifts.' ' At that time she was engrossed in writing what became a valuable volume on the wrongs of nonChristian Indian womanhood. The consecrated career of this noble woman is described in her biography, " A Life for Gon in India," by the fellowworker who suggested the second gift of the desk.

But that is not the end of the story. One day after my return to England, a large crate arrived at my home, per rail, from two friends, containing the gift of a larger desk !

Uninvitedbut Welcc;meVisiton.

In the raftered ceiling of a busy editor's quiet Study at Bombay, several pairs of sparrows have built their cosy nests. They fly in and out of the windows all day long. Sometimes they sit upon the strong centre beam, the main support of the roof, and hold a meeting. Their voices always seem set to a note of praise. They are not disturbed by the owner's presence. The room is as much their own as though it had no other tenant. Who is under the greatest obligation by the joint occupancy?

The editor thinks he is. His MASTER made the sparrows, and day by day they speak to him of His goodness. When He taught His disciples in His blessed human incarnation under an Eastern sky, the happy little sparrow was the text of a precious sermon on trust that has been the comfort and stay

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. and Forget Not.

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of untold thousands of saints. He said : '' Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before GoD ? " Is that so indeed ?

It cannot be doubted. " Fear not therefore : ye are of more value than many sparrows.''

Ah, GoD's people are never out of His loving memory ! The devil may rage, the sky may be big with clouds, human friendships and eltpectations may fail, and the very foundations of life may seem to tremble, but "the LORD knoweth them that are His ; '' and ' ' underneath are the everlasting arms.''

May it be said without being misunderstood, that there is an apostolic succession in sparrows? All down the ages they have been rehearsing the LORD'S words on the blessing of trust, and they are doing so to-day. "They sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns ; yet your heavenly FATHER feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they ? " Even right back in that long ago the Psalmist sang : '' Yea, the sparrow hath found a house . . . even Thine altars, 0 LORD of hosts, my KING and my GoD." And then, mindful (may we not think?) of the happy, anxiousless little creature who had built its nest where GoD revealed His presence, he added : " Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house : they will be still praising Thee." Amen.

The birds, without barn or storehouse, are fed ; From them let us learn to trust for our bread: His saints what is fitting shall ne'er be denied, So long as 'tis written, "The LORD will provide."

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Penned twenty-two years ago, such is a picture of the spot from which the 1 ' surprise ' ' desk went to continue its further holy service. John Newton's verse harmonises with 1 1 I will trust and not be afraid '' -stated to have been D. L. Moody's favourite text. He used to say, 11 You can travel first class or second class to heaven. Second class is, 'What time I am afraid, I will trust.' First class is, ' I will trust and not beafraid.' " He was fearless because trustful.

A woman past middle-age once told me she thought she could die happy if she had written a book I I asked what subject she wished to write upon. She was unable to answer. I did not encourage her longing for authorship.

The best books-the books that help to make noble characters-are not so much written as born. The primary qualification for such work is not a desire for fame, nor a well-furnished study, nor leisure, nor any outward conditions, but a fully surrendered life. " It is Gon which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure."

Melancthon said of Martin Luther: "His words are born, not on the lips, but in the soul."

Would you do something, friend?

Be something then: 'Tis the life, rather than the lip, that speaks; And a man's greatest utterance is-himself.

Life-work needs heart-work first.

CHAPTER WITS'

END

XX. CORNER.

Are you standing at "Wits' End Comer,'' Christian, with troubled brow ?

Are you thinking of what is before you, And all you are bearing now ?

Does all the world seem against you, And you have to battle alone ?

R,nnember at " Wits' End Corner" Is just where GOD'S power is shown.

" HereI RaiseMy Ebenezer."

A

GODLY husband and wife, not past middle age, were reduced to great straits through the long continued delicate health of the husband, to which was added a loss of income by the decease of a generous relative. At last the trial seemed more than they could bear.

Deep depression fell upon them.

Unaware of this great distress of mind, the husband's elder sister called to see them at this crisis, anticipating a pleasant visit. She was only a workman's wife as to social position and means; but a KING' s daughter as to love and faith. Acutely touched by their condition, she said she would do anything in her power to help them. While her brother was out of the room for a few minutes, she asked his wife whether they would like her to take a larger house for herself, so as to enable her to give L

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them free apartments therein. She would then also be within call. When the brother returned and heard the suggestion, he broke down and wept. This was just what he had longed for.

The sister's husband heartily assented; and at the time of writing, the arrangement had been working happily for about two years, not without Divine compensations to the brave and tender-hearted sister.

Recently she cycled six miles to call on us with a gift of ten shillings towards the support of the young missionary in India, mentioned on page 32. In answer to a question, she cheerily explained how she managed to give it. She has a cup into which she drops a few pence, as able, from her housekeeping money. Her husband occasionally adds a few more.

Then when she needs change for sixpence or a shilling, the cup obliges her, and she drops in a halfpenny or penny as amends for the convenience I (Prov. xi. 25).

HoldFast YourConfidence.

I felt led when in business as a publisher in London, to write a letter of appreciation to a gentlewoman in reference to a difficult Christian work to which she was devoting herself, with what was generally regarded as a good measure of success. The response was full of pathetic interest. When my letter arrived she was feeling so despondent as to almost contemplate the discontinuance of the work. Het' gratitude for my words of cheer was overflowing, expressed in

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part in a generous offer, not the less valued because circumstances prevented its acceptance.

The Holy Scriptures reveal Him in Whom we trust as the Gon of Hope, of Comfort, and of Power. Discouragement is a weapon of Satan to wound, and, if possible, to destroy, spiritual life and Christian work.

In the adoption of an ancient question and answer may be found a foil to Satan's :fiercest attacks" Why art thou cast down, 0 my soul ? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in Gon: for I shall yet praise Him, Who is the health of my countenance and my GOD" (Psalm xiii. II).

Oh, for trust that brings the triumph, When defeat seems strangely near !

Oh, for faith that changes fighting Into victory's ringing cheer I Faith triumphant I Knowing not defeat or fear.

The Dark Hour Beforethe Dawn.

An earnest Christian, with the warm concurrence of his wife, was led to offer himself for undenominational Gospel work in India. He went alone at first. His labours were much blessed from the beginning (he had been there before, years previously).

After a time, he felt he would be helped by having his wife and children come-two small boys, and a little girl, younger. But just then the Society had no funds available to pay the passages.

Eventually it was planned to place and leave the boys at school in England. The "modernism"

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leaven in their denominational schools rendered them unsuitable. The denominational ties of the parents were partly hereditary; but no relationship would induce them to place their children where the springs of life might be seriously or fatally poisoned.

An unconnected case reveals the danger to be guarded against. A missionary visiting England asked a bright young girl, the daughter of a missionary, if she had given her heart to the SAVIOUR. She replied, " No ; " and then said : " But it is true, is it not, that we all came from monkeys?" The missionary said, "No, my child; we came from the hands of our CREATOR." The child looked quite surprised.

The quest for a school, suitable in all respects, had necessarily to be a short one, and was unsuccessful.

It was concluded to trust Gon for the passage money for all, although this was to them, on such a scale, a new line of experience. A circle of personal friends united with the parents in prayer. Gifts began to come in, in England, but in sums that seemed disproportionate. It was a testing time, especially for the mother. After a little while the joyful news came from the husband that a new friend in India had given a large amount towards the cost. The darkest hour was just before the dawn. To trust on any future occasion is easier after su~h an experience.

A satisfactory arrangement was made in India for the education of the children.

Wits' End Corner.

1 57

., I am the Lordthat HealethThee."

(Exodus xv. 26.)

A Christian young woman from Australia (now in England), an intimate friend of one of our visitors, :Miss Enid Morcom, of Queensland, at our request narrates the following particulars of Divine healing in her case : " I had been very ill for a long period, sometimes better, sometimes worse ; and at times suffering great pain. I had been to several doctors ; none of them ever quite agreed, and I only grew worse. I was advised to have different operations, one doctor saying I should never be well without one.

I dreaded the thought, having a feeling that I should not be any better for them. How I thank the LoRD He saved me from ever having any. " One day in May, 1912, when I was weary of everything, I just went to the LORD; gave up all medicines, etc., and claimed His promises to heal me.

He had healed many, would He heal me ? I asked Him to make me quite well for His glory,· not just because I wanted to be well, but because I knew He could not use a sick body as well as a healed one ; and the devil knew it too. I did want Him to use me. From that day, gradually, I began to get well -no operations; no doctors; no medicines. It was a struggle ; for the devil assailed me with doubts and fears, but I clung to parts of three verses which the LoRD gave me : ' If ye have faith as a grain ' (Matt. xvii. 20); 'All the promises of Gon in Him are yea, and in Him, Amen, unto the glory of Gon by

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us ' (2 Corin. i. 20) ; and ' If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful : He cannot deny Himself ' (2 Timothy ii. 13).

"The day on which I took this step, a dear missionary talked and prayed with me, reminding me of the promises of God. For over a year before this I had thought about the LoRD as the Great Physician, and had been asked to trust Him for healing, but I could not then. I did not see or understand, and I was not ready. The LORD had to lead and prepare me for this step, as He must every one who would take it.

"He has kept me all the way and never failed me once. In looking back I see that there were many lessons which I could only learn through suffering; and I see too, that through it all the LORD led me to trust Him in a way which I never could have done, had it not been for all those dark days of pain. I thank Him again for them, and for all His love, and for what He has done for me."

'Tis so sweet to trust in JEsus, Just to take Him at His word; Just to rest upon His promise; Just to know, "Thus saith the LoRD.''

While much is learnt in suffering, GoD often has wider purposes of blessing than the person of the invalid. The spiritual life of others in the home is mellowed thereby. But an invalid frequently throws an influence beyond the home, or even the country of the sufferer, of which the life of the late Anna Shipton is one of numerous illustrations.

Wits' End Corner.

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Man's Extremity and God's Opportunity.

When a miller who had followed his trade for some time in the United States, concluded to return to his old home in England, his father bought and gave to him a Windmill and the property belonging thereto. After a time the father passed away, and then the son. The latter left a widow and eight children, the eldest of whom was only fourteen years of age. Not without difficulty the mother continued the business for the support of the family.

In due course one of the sons went as an improver to another flour mill, where he had a young and godless master. Under his influence he departed far from the pious training of his home. He fell into drinking, Sabbath breaking, and other evil habits.

Thus he continued for two years, to the great grief of his mother. Her prayers were then answered.

On the last night of a special mission he stood up and confessed the LoRD JEsus as his SAVIOUR. In a testimony which he gave in my hearing some years later, at a Sunday evening service, elsewhere, he said: "This great change in my life caused much offence to my young master. He discharged me, and I had to clear everything off his premises without having any other employment to go to. So I had reluctantly to return to my mother, whose circumstances at this crisis were very dark and difficult. Through misunderstanding or selfishness of relatives, she was informed that the Windmill property was not her's, but

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still belonged to my grandfather's estate, and that it would be taken for liabilities of my father earlier in life. It was sold away from us. At this time one of my sisters at home was at death's door with consumption, and could not be moved until she had passed to be for ever with the LoRD. But although all seemed to be going against us, Gon kept His promise, ' Call upon Me in the day of trouble ; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.' We took our difficulties to Him. Within a few days a gentleman asked me to work his ,vindmill for him. And then by a way the least expected., the value of the property came back to my mother, and not only just the value, but three times the value I I mention this to show how wonderfully Gon works for those who trust in Him." The converted miller is now well-known as a lay preacher in a district of Kent.

Are you standing at "Wits' End Comer" ?

Then you're just in the very spot To learn the wondrous resources Of Him Who faileth not I No doubt to a brighter pathway, Your footsteps will soon be moved, But only at "Wits' End Comer '' Is the " Goo Who is able'' proved 1•

* Complete copies of this useful little poem by Antoinette Wilson, entitled "Wits' End Comer," can be ordered through any bookseller from l\!organ & Scott, Ltd., 12, Paternoster Buildings, London, E.C., price 3d. a dozen.

CHAPTER XXI.

MODERN DREAMSAND ANGELICMINISTRIES.

ConcerningWarningsthat were Heeded.

R. and Mrs. W. K. Norton, missionaries engaged in pioneer work at Bahraich, United Provinces, India, write of their premises being visited by a gang of eighteen or twenty dacoits or robbers. The Mission house for the women and girls is away from the other bui1dings, and no man sleeps on their place. The robbers found this out; also that no watchman is kept.

The narrative continues : "At about one o'clock in the morning the dacoits came to the rear of the women's building, the door of which, of course, was locked; but they made an entrance by digging bricks out of the side of the house, thus making a hole large enough for a man to crawl through. This they did so silently that no one in the house was awakened. Just as the hole was large enough for their purpose, the LORD spoke to J ewa, one of our married young men, who was sleeping in his own home some distance away, telling him in a dream, 'Arise, arise! there are thieves on the place.' ., He arose and called another young man, and the

M

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two searched the place. They came upon the thieves just as they were ready to make off with the large brass cooking utensils, and perhaps other things.

An alarm was raised. The thieves fled in haste, taking nothing with them.

The village of Woodchurch, within a drive of my Kentish home, links itself with the foregoing, because of a dream experience in the life of the premier biographer of Billy Bray, "the King's son "-than which few books have been more used in the salvation of souls.

The author, F. W. Bourne, was born, and" born again" at Woodchurch. In another part of Kent, in the early period of his long ministry," he started one afternoon on the way to a preaching appointment, and was going by an unfamiliar route in order to visit a sick person, when suddenly he recognized the scene of a dream that he had had in childhood. In this dream, which made a strong impression on his mind, he was emerging from a wood when a mad Newfoundland dog sprang and seized him by the throat and killed him. In this walk he recognized the same wood. As he walked over the footbridge he thought the path he could not then see in the next field, if it corresponded with that in the dream, would go from one corner of the field almost to the other,-and so it did. In the next, if the correspondence was to be maintained, there would be a hop garden on one side and wheat on the other, and beyond, directly in front, the wood in question. All was as foreseen,

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and coming to the edge of the wood he seriously debated whether to proceed or return. The sense of danger seemed so imminent, the warning so distinct, that it seemed a plain duty to go back. And whatever might have been the result if he had gone on, it is an extraordinary circumstance that a mad Newfound.land dog was killed in that wood that very afternoon.

It is not surprising that F. W. Bourne regarded his dream and its sequel as adapted "to fix and strengthen my belief in the Unseen Power with Whom are all our ways."

ModernAngelle Ministries.

A subject in the realm of the supernatural which is kindred to purposeful dreams that are Gon-given, is the apparently spontaneous awaking of a sleeper in face of danger-an awaking which cannot be attributed to noise or other outward circumstance.

This also is illustrated on the foreign mission field.

It suggests angelic agency, as indicated in the Scripture : " Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation ? " (Hebrews i. 14).

Embraced in the many Divine interpositions at Pandita Ramabai's Christian village of ":M:ukti," in blessed harmony with its name (in English, " Salvation "), the following are a few which she records, of comparatively recent date: "Not long since a girl who was asleep in a dormitory woke up suddenly about midnight. There was

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no noise or anything to cause her to wake. She did not move, but just opened her eyes, and saw a deadly snake coiled close to her face. The LoRD gave her presence of mind. She moved back very quietly, and woke up the girl sleeping next to her. Then they brought a stick and killed the reptile. " Some of the cook-girls had stored dry wood in the corner of a little kitchen adjoining a big dormitory.

Everyone was asleep, it was very quiet, late in the night. A girl who was sleeping in a room opposite the kitchen woke up at midnight, and came out to ask another girl to trim the lamp. To her great fright she saw that the wood was on fire, and the flames were about to reach the roof. The dormitory was in danger. More than a hundred girls were asleep in it. " The girl called two or three from another room.

One of them ran to fetch the woman who had the key of the kitchen. Others got pails filled with water, climbed up to the roof, and poured water over where the flames were reaching. Others came running, forced open the door of the kitchen, and extinguished the flames. 'l'wice this year we have been preserved from danger from fire.

"A matron of the big girls' department awoke one morning to find a large venomous snake by her bedside. A pet cat and her family of kittens were feasting on the dead body. Evidently the mother cat had killed it. The LORD must have sent her there to deliver one or more of His children from certain death.''

The

Kindergarten

at Mukti:

Pandita

Ramabai

on the right.

To face page 164.

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The sacred records of the Bible leave no doubt that some of Gon's instruments were chosen from their birth ; and the modern history of the Church of CHRlsTconfirms the belief that such is still the case.

Hence in a special manner they have been the subjects of angelic care from their earliest days. John Macgregor (" Rob Roy ") one of the chief pioneers of modern open-air preaching, was saved from a burning ship when a babe in arms. John Wesley was rescued from his father's burning parsonage at the age of six.

Philip Doddridge, preacher, author, and hymnwriter, showed at his birth so small symptoms of life, that he was laid aside as dead. But Gon had a purpose in his living~ His book, " The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul," led to the conversion of William Wilberforce, the champion of negro emancipation, while his hymns have come down to us as a rich legacy of blessing. It is in regard to children that our SAVIOURsays, in a passage of transcendent solemnity, "in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my FATHERwhich is in heaven" (Matt. xviii. 10).

Concerning John Wesley's escape from being burnt alive when a little lad, he was forgotten in the excitement of the outbreak, and when remembered '' he was pulled through the bedroom window, at the last moment, by a man who, for want of a ladder, stood on another man's shoulders, just as the roof of the house fell in.''

On receiving the boy, the father cried out: '' Come, neighbours, let

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us kneel down I Let us give thanks to GoD l He has given me all my eight children ; let the house go ; I am rich enough.' ' A remarkable dream by Philip Doddridge seems like a commentary on Hebrews i. 14, and if taken in a sober and reverent spirit may be illuminative regarding GoD's frequent use of angelic agency in His providences.

He dreamed that he expired. He found himself swiftly mounting the skies upon golden clouds, with a venerable presence by his side guiding him, until he reached a glorious edifice. The guide introduced him into a spacious apartment, telling him to await a visit from the LORDof the mansion. A number of pictures adorned the walls. These he found, to his astonishment, were scenes in his own life. Upon the canvas he saw angels who, sent by GoD,had preserved him from imminent peril. He beheld himself first as an infant just expiring, when his life was saved by an angel breathing into his nostrils. Among many scenes familiar to his recollection was a picture which represented him as falling from his horse, when death would have been inevitable had not an angel caught him in his arms and broken the force of the fall.

An incident comes to memory which impressed us greatly at the time we heard it.

A widower, father of a large family of lively boys and girls, was searching for a new residence. A rambling old house in a country place was to be seen.

An appointment was made, and the children, to their

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great delight, were permitted to accompany their father. While he was quietly walking from room to room, discussing pros and cons with the agent of the property, the little folks ran hither and thither, making all sorts of interesting discoveries. At length they opened a door at the top of a staircase which appeared to lead into a cellar, and they all began rapidly to descend the stairs, when suddenly an angelic figure of their dead mother appeared in front of them holding out her hands and imploring them to go back.

They turned and ran off to their father at once, who was greatly agitated at their story. A careful investigation of the staircase, and where it led to, was made, when an uncovered well of considerable depth was found at the foot of the stairs. Had the children not been miraculously hindered in their eager descent, they must all have met their death by falling into this well.

The foregoing is not intended to show that beloved ones who have passed from earth return hither. The children had probably been taught that their lost mother was among the angels, and the figure and voice of the ethereal being they saw, suggested her.

(There is of course a distinction between angels and redeemed spirits.) Whatever of mystery there is about the incident, the fact of Divine intervention is clear.• * Any reader desirous of pursuing further the subject of angelic ministry will find it soberly and reverently treated from Holy Scripture in a small volume entitled, "Our

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In the year 1854, not far from the scene of Philip Doddridge's ministerial labours at Northampton, a heavy cart stood on end against a wall, its shafts upward, and its ponderous axle outward. A little fellow of five years was playing on the plot with other children. He climbed on to the axle. The cart overbalanced, and fell with him beneath. Help was soon at hand. He was carried home in a semi-conscious condition. If he had fallen under the axle, he must have been fatally injured. In Gon's providence he fell by the axle's side, and its massiveness prevented the body of the cart from seriously crushing him.

After a further marvellous escape from death later in boyhood, his spared life was wholly devoted to the service of Gon, to the rejoicing of many, and not least of his mother. It remains so to this day. He was a child of prayer. There are Samuels to-day because there are praying Hannahs. " Have faith in Gon." "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it."

Thou art coming to a KING; Large petitions with thee bnng ; For HIS grace and power are such, None can ever ask too much.

Friends the Angels," by Irene Palmer, with an introduction by the evangelical author, Sir Robert Anderson. The book may be obtained from Robert Scott, publisher, Roxburghe House, Paternoster Row, London, E.C.

CHAPTER

XXII.

DISCIPLINARY PROVIDENCES, INDIVIDUAL AND NATIONAL.

A PersonalIncidentwith a WiderApplication.

WOMAN was alone in a farm house in the far west of the United States. Darkness was falling. She saw a forbidding-looking man of the tramp type approaching her house. She fastened the door and windows. He knocked and demanded admission. She fell on her knees in prayer.

As she did not open to him, he began to try to force the door. His success would be certain to mean robbery, and it might mean murder. The distance between her farm and the nearest neighbour was too far for any cry for help to be heard. She agonizingly renewed her appeal to Gon for succour. Suddenly a storm burst. Lightning struck an old barn, and in a few moments the sky was lurid with the flames.

This at once attracted the attention of neighbours, who hurried to the scene, arriving before the praying woman's door could be forced.

The threatening intruder hastened away. The old barn was burnt down, but her life was saved. When the lightning first struck the barn, she thought it an added calamity ; but afterward rejoiced in the occur-

A

11

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rence as the means of her deliverance. The old barn and its contents were not of much value. Thus Gon causes fire and stormy wind to fulfil His will {Psalm cxlviii. 8).

We can imagine the profound impression such a Divine interposition would make upon the heart and life. The love and power of Gon and the reality of prayer would take on a new meaning ; and the life and home thus spared would seem in a less degree her property, and more His. Certain later pages show how Gon deals with nations also, to purify through suffering.

Perilsand Providences at Universities.

A disciple of CHRIST, a large portion of whose life has been spent in preaching the Gospel and lecturing on Christian evidences, records that a young student at Oxford University said to him, "If I had not been a Christian before I went through Professor--• s course of theology, I would have been an Infidel when I came out." A young man at Cambridge was singled out by a Professor, before a large gathering of students, and held up to ridicule because of his avowed belief in the infallible inspiration of the Bible. The head of a Theological hall took a young student aside, and for two hours tried to shake his faith regarding the Deity of the LORD JEsus CHRIST. In reply the young man said: "Sir, you have done your best to destroy my faith in the Bible, but I dare you to

Disciplinary Providences. destroy my faith in the LORDJEsus CHRIST as my SAVIOUR."*

The Rationalistic peril at our Universities is further illustrated by an instance disclosed in connection with an Oxford and Cambridge contingent at a Keswick Convention :" At a theological examination at one of these Universities, two candidates refused to attend certain lectures because of the Higher Critical line taken by the lecturer. They further declined to study some of the modem books recommended for their course.

These men made the Bible their text-book, and committed their cause to the LORDin prayer. They preferred, like Daniel, not to defile themselves with the unclean food, but to study only the Bread of Life.

Their faith was honoured, and they both obtained first classes in their exam."

He stands best who kneels most.

Luther once said: "I am afraid the universities will prove to be the great gates of hell, unless they diligently labour in explaining the Holy Scriptures and engraving them in the hearts of youth."

That is applicable to-day to other than Romanist countries. * Vide "Gon's Word Supreme," by Arthur H. Carter, Biblical Lecturer at the Kensit Memorial College, London; and formerly of The Bible League, London. Published by the Protestant Truth Society, 3 and 4, St. Paul's Churchyard, London, E.C. Price Is. 6d. (by post, 1s. 8d.)

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The SinkingSandof Unbelief.

Let us cross the English Channel. Having done its utmost in past centuries to crush pure religion. and knowing now, with small exceptions, only that presented by Roman Catholicism, France finds itself practically without Gon-on the one hand Roman superstition and idolatry; and the other hand, and in the majority, Infidelity. M. Viviani, the present Prime Minister, said in the French Parliament in 1909 : '' We have torn the minds of men from religious faith. The wretched workman, who, weary with the weight of the day's work, once bent his knee, we now have raised up. We have told him that behind the clouds were only chimeras. Together, and with a majestic gesture, we have put out in the heavens the lights that will never be lit again ! " And the Chamber,

instead of reproaching M. Viviani, deliberately decided that this speech should be distributed throughout the 36,000 Communes of France.

In the latter part of 1914, when French refugees from invaded territory were landing by thousands at the nearest English sea-ports, an English evangelist was preaching in their own language near the harbour at Folkestone. As the crowd attentively listened, a Frenchman remarked," We cannot do without Gon now ! " In man's extremity, unbelief is sinking sand.

No individual nor Government can with impunity attempt to bow Gon out of His own world. The refugee's confession prompts the prayer that FrancE also may be purified through her suffering.

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Germany'sCOiiapse of Vital Religion.

This has not come about suddenly, of which its own people are witnesses. A German Christian authority wrote to The Bible League Quarterly for April, 1913, that " Rationalism in Germany, having had a hundred and fifty years to develop, and without having had to confront serious resistance, has been able to do its deadly work unhindered." This he attributes in part to the absence of any "such awakenings as England experienced in the time of Whitfield and Wesley."

A widely-known German pastor wrote to another English periodical, near the same date: "I grow concerned about the future of our beloved church. I know that vital religion is ebbing from among us, and every detail of statistics proves to me that we are receding." One of the proofs he adduces is that " there are big Berlin churches where it is rare for a man to be seen at communion. . . . In Catholic churches, on the contrary, the number of communicants of both sexes is well maintained, and the priests have no complaints to make of decreasing numbers." This rebound is not unnatural.

Hungry hearts cannot be helped by negations. Whichever way they turn they are doomed to disappointment, for None but

CHRIST

can satisfy.

The church of Germany is only Lutheran in name.

It possesses Luther's corpse ; not his spirit.

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Herr von Brocklemann, an evangelical, who spoke at a Sunday School Centenary celebration in England in 1880, is quoted in The Christian, of London, as saying that Germany's great theologians and professors are " very fond of inventing new systems, and speculating and writing new books, but not in the honour of CHRIST. . . . He was sorry that they had gone backwards from generation to generation since the Reformation. If they had always had Christians to teach in their schools and to preach in their pulpits, it would have been very well ; but their German schoolmasters were for the greatest part infidels ; and in the one hour set apart for religious instruction, the lesson was done like any other," etc.

Systematised, or" scientific," unbelief-its fashionable German appellation-is capable of developing any enormity. To what depths it can descend was startlingly revealed in The Bible League Quarterly for September, 1914. Henrich von Treitschke (described as " perhaps the most influential of the teachers of modern Germany") is quoted as saying :" It is reserved for us to resume in thought that creative role in religion which the whole Teutonic race abandoned fourteen centuries ago. . . . The seventeenth century flung off Rome ; the eighteenth undermined Galilee itself / Strauss completed the task that Eichhorn began; and with the opening of the twentieth century Germany, her long travail past, is reunited to her pristine genius, her creative power in religion and in thought. And what is the religion

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which on the whole may be characterised as the religion of the most earnest and passionate minds of young Germany? What is this new movement?

The movement, the governing idea of the centuries from the fourteenth to the nineteenth, is the wrestle of the German intellect not only against Rome but against Christianity itself. Must Germany submit to this Alien CreedDerivedfrom an Alien Clime'l

Must she for ever confront the ages as the borrower of a religion, her own genius for religion numbed and paralysed?

Hence the significance of Nietzsche.

Nietzsche clears away the ' accumulated rubbish ' of twelve hundred years ; he attempts to set the German imagination back where it was with Alaric and Theodoric, fortified by the experience of twelve centuries to confront the darkness unaided, unappalled, triumphant, great, and free. Thus, while preparing to found a world-empire, Germany is also preparing to create a world-religion.' ' The main fruits of this contemplated " worldreligion" require no illustration here. They have been in cumulative evidence since August, 1914.

Commenting on such lamentable and awful decadence, The Life of Faith (London) concludes that "when the historian comes to eitimate the cause of Germany's moral and spiritual collapse, he will trace it back to that nation's departure from the faith of

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Luther and the Reformers." set back to the Dark Ages.

Religion has been

The Heartof the Subject,The CrowningSin of Unbelief.

I shall never forget a solemn reference by D. L. Moody to unbelief as the crowning sin-a reference based upon our LoRD'swords regarding the officeof the HOLYSPIRIT: " When He is come He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment : of SIN, becausethey believenot on Me.,, On my desk is a paper compiled and sent to me by a young missionary in India, headed, " The words of the LORDJESUSconcerning the Authority of the Scriptures of the Old Testament, arranged in groups."

The paper contains thirty-seven references from the Gospels. This list must have satisfied the earnest compiler that attacks upon the authority of the Old Testament are attacks upon the authority of the LORD J Esus CHRISTHimself. They come within the scope of His words above quoted, " Of sin, because they believe not on Me." It seems superfluous to say that individuals who attack the Old Testament, whatever ecclesiastical positions they hold in Church or Nonconformity, are •not followers of JESUSof Nazareth, the SoN of Gon. They do not believe His testimony. They have therefore no right to call themselves by His Name.

Yet many take the emoluments of a church whose

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faith they betray, both in the home land and on foreign mission fields.• When Alfred the Great compiled a Code of Law, he prefaced it with the Ten Commandments. By that recognition of Gon'sauthorityin national life he powerfully contributed to whatever of true greatness has since appeared in English history.

When the Bible loses its authority, the final result is the substitution of Human Expediency for Gon's Commandments. The " Rationalist " (more suitably the "Irrationalist "), whether in a collegiate or editorial chair, a pulpit, or a GovernmentAin Britain or Germany, or elsewhere, is an anarchist to national welfare. Do not let us put secondary causes first.

Not in a personal sense alone, " sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." What is now happening is the sequence of Man having thrown down the gauntlet to Gon. Rebellion against Him and His Revelation rages, but He sits above in majesty and power, with a firm hand upon the universe. '' Justice and Judgment are the habitation of His throne." Individually, and as a nation, we need to heed a reminder of a London Christian editor, that we must set ourselves to deserve Gon's favour in our national affairs, if we would secure it. "If I • See my pamphlet, "The Book Triumphant and Infallible " ; also "The Bearing of Destructive Criticism of the Bible on Missionary Work," by W. St. Clair Tisdall, D.D., many years missionary in India and Persia. Bible League, 40, Gt. James St., Bedford Row, London, W.C. By post Itd,

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regard iniquity in my heart, the hear me."*

LORD

will not

Ponderthy Path. " Hold up my goings in Thy paths, that my footsteps slip not," is a prayer that is ever needed. An old man, one of my kindred, having drifted through various stages of unbelief into black infidelity, replied to an earnest Christian relative: "I wish I could believe as you do, but I cannot." Habit becomes second nature. In his case, constant doubt seems to have destroyed the capacity to believe. He began life well He had a godly parentage. Four of his brothers became ministers of the Gospel. If, as a young man, when he was a church member, he had been told that he would one day be an infidel, he would have scorned even to give an answer to his defamer. How then did this catastrophe come to • An Appeal to the British Nation by Sidney Collett, author of the valuable volume entitled " The Scripture of Truth," should be read in conjunction with the foregoing. It deals specifically with out decadent moral condition as a people.

It was originally published before the war, and has now been brought up-to-date.

It is a solemn confirmation of F. B. Meyer's recent pulpit statement, that some years ago (at the time of his great protest against the brutalities of fashionable pugilism) " he had uttered his belief that there were signs in our national life of the same moral deterioration which led to the downfall of Rome ; and he had expressed the feeling that national disaster could only be averted by one of two things, a Great War or a Great Revival." Copies of Mr. Collett's appeal, 13th edition (260th thousand), can be obtained from the author for 8d. per dozen or 4s. 5d. per 100, post free. Address 11, Parsifal Road, ,vest Hampstead, London, N.W.

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1 79

pass ? By trifling with doubt. Faith is an incline.

By that line we go up. Doubt is a decline. By that line we go down, always down, and the swifter down the longer we are there. Let us beware of insidious beginnings. Many a man has begun with "higher criticism," and ended in denying the divinity of CHRISTand the existence of GoD. The lives that are sinking before our eyes to-day in hopeless darkness, call to us to keep to the old paths. "Teach me Thy way, 0 LORD,and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies." " All the paths of the LORDare mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies."

" Lights Bright, and All's Well ! " Darkness has fallen upon us in the Mediterranean.

There are about a thousand souls on board. As the engines of seven thousand horse power force the vessel forward in the darkness, a voice is heard crying, " Lights bright, and all's well ! " Another voice echoes the cry. That is the message of the men on the look-out. To one passenger, at least, it is a message of divine suggestion. In the stillness another Voice is heard saying, "Ye are the light of the world.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your FATHERwhich is in heaven." If that truth be realized and that admonition heeded, as we severally voyage through life to our heavenly port, it will indeed be, day by day, "Lights bright, and all's well/"

CHAPTER

XXIII.

THE ENEMYIN OUR VILLAGES. EARS before the outbreak of the War in 1914, many Christian families in rural districts in Britain had suffered acutely from an invasion of German scepticism into their village pulpits. In large centres of population, there is a choice of places of worship ; the pulpits of all have not been influenced

by Gon-dishonouring doctrines brought from a decadent foreign church ; and heads of Christian families can usually select a church characterized by sound doctrine. In rural districts there is often no such choice.

A Bible-loving Christian's dilemma in the latter case is shown by the following : The family is Nonconformist. There are two places of worship, two miles apart, connected respectively with one of the smallest and one of the largest denominations. There is no local pastor. The preachers at both come chiefly from a town about six miles distant.

The townsman who controls the selection of speakers at the first-named, and is himself one of them, supplemented his discourse one LoRD's Day evening, by informing three Christian women after the service, that " Of course there was never any such person as

Y

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Abraham : the Bible account of him is only a story."

But his listeners pref erred to believe the Bible narrative and the words of the LORD JESUS CHRIST where He says, Before Abraham was, I am."

The head of a Christian household who changed from the meeting place of the smaller to that of the larger denomination, heard from the pulpit there, that We know more about GoD than the Apostle Paul knew; and future generations will know more than ourselves." The visitor spoke to the preacher, when he descended from the pulpit, remarking, " I believe you make a great mistake in supposing that you know more about GOD than the Apostle Paul knew ; and also that such views are adapted to do great harm, especially to young people." He appeared surprised to find someone at a country chapel who did not regard the town-occupant of a pulpit as some feet above correction.

Not all speakers at the preaching places abovementioned were like the foregoing, but they represented the frequent disloyalty to the authority of Holy Scripture. If there had been an evangelical ministry at the parish church, this Christian household might have attended there as often as the much longer distance would permit, for vital truth is more than ecclesiastical divisions. In this dilemma what could they do ? They reverted to the procedure of Apostolic times when the Apostle Paul in sending a message to " Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in CHRIST JESUS," said, "Likewise greet the IC

IC

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Churchwhich Is In their House.''

In describing a missionary journey in Europe in 1914 (prior to the war), David Baron, of the Hebrew Christian Testimony to Israel, speaks of "a very pleasurable experience" at Trieste. When he was on the point of embarking for further journeys, a brother in CHRIST, a convert from Romanism, whom he had known in another Continental city, placed a small envelope in his hand" containing a gift for the work of Gon among Israel, ' from the church in his house,' " which then consisted only of himself, his wife, and his mother, who through his instrumentality had also come out for CHRIST from Romanism.

Peradventure someone may regard it as presumption to apply the word " church " to so small a company. Another may consider it a church under difficulties.

Our Lo RD J Esus CHRIST being alike the Head and the Foundation of His Church has settled both the " difficulties" and the seeming "presumption" by saying: "Where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst." It has been well remarked that He has made the number so small that a Christian assembly or church can be constituted almost anywhere. Where there are only two present, He is there as the third, and as the presiding minister of the assembly, and the prayers they present in unison are endorsed and answered above (Matthew xviii. 19).

At the present date the English village family

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183

depicted in this Chapter have maintained household gatherings for worship during nine years, with undiminished interest and indications of Divine favour.

Visitors have participated in the blessing, and been warm in their appreciation of the opportunities.

Prayer and foreign mission work have a large place, the worshipping participants being in direct personal touch with some who are canying out our LoRD's last great command, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature " (Mark xvi. 15).

Ecclesiastical buildings are far from essential to the constitution of a true church. The progress which Christianity made in the first two centuries (A.D.) without church structures, is witness that they are non-essential to healthy spiritual life and aggressive evangelism. The " church in the house " and the proclamation of the Gospel in the open-air were stamped with the seal of Gon. It is not less important for true disciples of Jssus to dissociate themselves from the infidelity which masquerades as "modem thought," and to guard their families therefrom, than it is to come out from Romanism. This recognition does not minimize the spiritual and national peril of Romanism and its imitations.

Protestant defence societies deserve warm sympathy.

The protection of village households from what Holy Scripture stigmatizes as "damnable heresies" has a national as well as personal bearing. It is not chiefly in town but in country homes that the noblest

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manhood and womanhood of the nation is nurtured.

It was refreshing to witness a strong appreciation of this during a recent Conference of ministers in London. A village pastor touched a responsive chord when he spoke of " the magnificent service rendered to the cause of CHRIST by small village churches, declaring out of long experience that he would not exchange a village pastorate for the most prominent pulpit in the land."

He referred to a ministry, not of modern speculations, but of Divine certainties. But where such a witness does not exist, GOD forbid that Christian parents should let any taunt of "peculiarity," or temporary inconvenience or difficulty, deter them from following apostolic and primitive practice in defending their homes from the most insidious and most fatal of all foes. "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith . . . be strong."

CHAPTER

XXIV.

TARES AND WHEAT.

A

TRA VELLING photographer made his business an auxiliary to service for his Divine Master. He itinerated with two vans, one of which was adorned on the outside with Gospel texts, and was so fitted up that it could be transformed into a room for Gospel meetings. On the occasion here described he halted his caravan, with his family, at a seaside resort. He located on the sea shore.

With a wide expanse of foreshore between, there was upon a hill at a short distance the residence of a rich and titled man. A number of guests were staying at his house, and, as a diversion, it was proposed that the travelling photographer, whose vans were in full view from the windows, should be called to take the family and guests on the lawn.

The photographer arrived with his camera in due course, and was shown into a small anteroom to get ready. In his pocket were some Gospel tracts, and the thought suddenly flashed into his mind to drop one into the pocket of a coat which hung invitingly near in this anteroom. Acting on the suggestion, he selected a tract with the title, " Where will you spend Eternity ? '' Half an hour later, the guests were assembled N

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on the lawn, and the photographer was placing his camera, when they were joined by the master of the house, in an angry frame of mind. He was wearing the identical coat, and held the tract in his hand In no gentle tones he demanded of the photographer if he had put that tract in the pocket of his coat, and if so, why had he done it ?

The accused frankly admitted that he had dropped in the tract, in the hope that its message might reach some soul and do good.

An apology was at once demanded, or the photograph would be prohibited. He replied he was not aware of any crime in the act he had committed.

No insult was intended. His only desire was to witness for the MASTER he served. More than that he could not say.

The angry man, upheld by the jeers of some of his guests, then ordered the photographer to leave the premises at once, or he would be kicked out. A man-servant who was called to help pack his things and see him out of the grounds, managed to convey a few words of sympathy. Later one of the visitors at the mansion called on the photographer, and proffered a substantial gift from himself and others of the guests who felt he had been unfairly treated ; while several of the servants from the house came to have their photographs taken for the same reason.

I made the acquaintance of this Christian man some years after this event, when he related it as one

Tares and Wheat. of many examples of the LoRD's providential care for him and his family when proclaiming the Gospel from place to place unconnected with, and unsupported by. any Society or Committee.

They who trust Him wholly, find Him wholly true.

"Owe no ManAnything."

A village shopkeeper with a family (an earnest Christian), who at the period here mentioned had a struggle to make ends meet, was told by a prominent professor of religion who was removing to a town, that he was sorry he could not pay what he owed, but Goo would make the unpaid debt up to him I The debtor was reputed to have had two considerable legaciesleft to him within a few years, and his freehold residence and grounds did not suggest caution to tradespeople in trusting him.

Goo did as this professor said He would in the case of the Christian shopkeeper ; but his own subsequent experience should be a warning that Goo's providencesdo not annul the inspired injunction, '' Owe no man anything except to love one another," nor the prior command, "Thou shalt not steal." To a tradesman, such a transaction is equivalent to a theft.

It was C. H. Spurgeon who tersely wrote :-" Debt is so degrading that if I owed a man a penny I would walk twenty miles in the depth of winter. to pay him, sooner than feel that I was under obligation. Poverty is hard, but debt is horrible. We may be poor and yet respectable, but a man in debt cannot even respect him-

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self, and he is sure to be talked about by his neighbours, and that talk will not be much to his credit. Some persons appear to like to be owing money ; but I would as soon be a cat up a chimney with a fire alight, or a fox with the hounds at my heels, or a hedgehog on a pitchfork, or a mouse under an owl's claw. An honest man thinks a purse full of other people's money to be worse than an empty one. He cannot bear to eat other people's cheese, wear other people's shirts and walk about in other people's shoes ; neither will he be easy while his wife is decked out in the milliner's bonnets and wears the draper's flannels.''

It is a delusion to suppose that the lapse of time cancels the moral obligation to pay a debt.

Light and Darkness. " Walk as children of light. . . . And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them " (Eph. v. 8-n). An Englishman in a lucrative position in a British firm in China, drawing a large income from the opium traffic, was converted under the preaching of missionaries who had given up exceptional worldly prospects. The Christian life of the convert had a bright and hopeful beginning.

Under the searching and enlightening influence of the HOLY SPIRIT,he announced his intention of retiring from the position which involved him in a traffic which flourished upon the ruin of his fellow-creatures. But other counsels silenced the voice of the SPIRIT,with the

Tares and Wheflt.

189

result that there was hereafter no evidence of growth in the divine life.

This case is a type of many. Gon is long-sufferingand merciful ; but He cannot give the best blessings where His conditions are not fulfilled. A cup may be half-full or nearly full, or overflowing. In order to get the overflowing blessing we must '' come out from among them, . . . and touch not the unclean thing.''

Let all who have realised the blessing of obedience to the call for separation, remember with brotherly love in prayer those who, although they know their sins forgiven, are still spiritually in a dry and thirsty land, because they remain unequally yoked with unbelievers in the service of mammon.

An HonestStrangerand an Invalid's Joy. A Christian disciple at Bristol, delicate in health and advanced in years, living on an annuity of £20, but occasionally sending a gift through us for missionary work in India, writes: "My life has been full of Gon's providences." The subjoined instance is given as a specimen.

"One day in June, I had just been to a Bank, and had £5 in my purse. I saw some strawberries in the market, and was tempted to buy a few. On opening my purse the money all dropped out. I picked it up, as I thought, but when nearly home I found that one sovereign was missing. As I am very weak, I could not go back that day, but made it a matter of prayer.

Although I could not afford it, it seemed humanly

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probable that I should lose it. The next day I went to the market and enquired. A young girl called a woman who said she had picked the sovereignup. She then gave it to me, and would not take any reward I '' She adds : " ' Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the LoRD.' What a beautiful word I Not 'kindness,' but 'lovingkindness.'"

" To Will and to Do of His GoodPleasure.''

A missionary couple, husband and wife, read a biography of George Miiller. They were fascinated, and decided to follow his steps in a life of faith. They severed their then missionary connections and made a new departure, launching out with a large programme. Friends rallied to their support, out of respect for their previous work. To be able to tap Goo's inexhaustible resources was a grand prospect.

But it was not realised. One after another of their schemes failed. Workers brought out from America and England, at much expense, left them after a few months, or less. What was the matter? Apart from secondary errors of judgment, there is reason to believe that the Missionwas not of Goo's planning in its origin. Faith Missionsare impracticable where, even with good intentions, man's choice takes the place of Goo's. Disappointments are certain unless and until we can say, in a full sense:Once it was my working ; His it hence shall be ; Once I tried to use Him ; now Hie usas MB.

CHAPTER u

XXV.

WELL DONE, . . . ENTERTHOU."

Gatherup the Fragments that Nothingbe Lost.

NE of my dearest friends, much my senior, who retired from business ere middle age, to devote his time and means exclusively to the service of his LoRD, was an embodiment of the above injunction. With a peculiarity that was 1;1otunpleasant, he would write a brief letter on the back of an out-of-date grocery invoice, or other odd piece of paper, inclosing a spontaneous gift of from five to twenty pounds sterling or more, in aid of some good work with which I was associated. On one occasion the gift was fifty pounds.

His peculiarity was economicalat both ends; for, as a young man, its influence was not lost upon me, and also, we may believe, upon other participants from his faithful stewardship.

His hospitality was as generous as his gifts. He had a big heart. An indication of the character of his home was that the domestic servants usually came young, and remained till their marriage.

"Gon blessed the Countess of Huntingdon by separating her from the luxuries of her time. She chose to furnish her home plainly-her friends said

O

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shabbiiy-and lived in a simple style, that she might use her income in building chapels and paying the salaries of preachers." She acted nobly when she realized £700 by the sale of her jewels to erect a place of worship at Brighton. We honour Frances Ridley Havergal for (as she records) " shipping off all my ornaments (including a jewel cabinet which is really fit for a Countess) to the Church Missionary House." Such sacrifices on the altar of consecration, rise in fragrant incense to the throne of Gon. But there is an acceptable and sweet odour also in the common and insignificant.

An Opportune Empty Bottle Man. Two guineas sent to a Famine Relief Fund in India by Mr. and Mrs. Alexander A. Locke, of Port Said, have a suggestive history. All who know these friends and their excellent work for more than twentyone years at Port Said, are aware that their earthly treasure is small. But there are resources in purpose and prayer. Mr. and Mrs. Locke explained the gift thus: '' After reading and also hearing from Mrs. Baxter of the awful suffering, we were in prayer enquiring of the LoRDwhat we could do to help ; and we seemed to have a vision of empty bottles, petroleum tins, a broken-down perambulator, an old sewing machine, etc. At that moment a man came to the door and called 'Bottles I Empty bottles, Madam I I and we were disturbed in prayer-' while they are yet speak-

Well done, . . . Enter thou.

193

ing, I will hear: We brought the man in, and he seemed to have a mania for buying old stuff. After some interesting, and not a little amusing experience with him, we realized nineteen shillings for the Famine Fund. Then we appealed to the Blue Jackets and others, who responded to the amount of twentythree shillings."

A considerable sum could be realized for missionary work by a similar method in other households. After the jewels, bring out the lumber I

Quite a Misapprehension.

Next of kin to the foregoing is an incident related

by Thomas Spurgeon. He says: "I once had a farmer friend of whom some people would have me believe that he was 'near' and mean; and when I asked for proof, they said, 'He makes us plow right up to the hedges and into the corners.' ' Oh I • said I, 'that does not prove him mean. It proves only that he is wise and thrifty.' I had good cause to know that he was one of the most generous of souls, and thathewasall the betterableto be generous because he utilized the corners of the field and ran his furrows right up to the ditch."

A veteran Christian journalist in India, in commenting on our LoRD's command after the feast (John vi. I2) writes : " There is scarcely another injunction of our LORD,to which so little attention is paid. Laymen pass over it, and ministers do not remind them of it. It would hardly be possible to

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observe or recommend the precept without incurring the imputation of meanness. But saith the LoRD, ' My thoughts are not your thoughts ; ' and here we find the CREATOR of the world and all it contains, who had just fed five thousand men out of His own resources, stopping to prevent the waste which the world looks on as a sign of affluence and good breeding."

Contrasts : The Abasedand the Exalted.

On my first voyage from England to India, one of the occupants of the next cabin to my own was a person who posed as a gentleman. He affected the manner and the clothes of a member of an aristocratic family, although he was travelling second class. He faithfully reproduced aristocratic vices to such an extent that the captain had to interfere, and threaten to put him ashore at the next port. Yet among the passengers there were some silly men and women, reputed respectable, who condoned his behaviour because he belonged to "a good family/' was "so well educated," and was " such a gentleman I " A few weeks afterwards I was at Lucknow, where the pretended gentleman was found serving in a tailor's shop, with a measuring tape dangling from bis neck.

His gentility bad consisted in his clothes only. Fine feathers may make fine birds, but it takes something more than a tailor to make a gentleman.

One of the most perfect gentlemen I have ever known, was a factory labourer. His wages never

Well done, . . . Enter thou.

195

exceeded twenty-five shillings n week. At one period his worldly circumstances were so humble that he carried his wife on his back over the bridge which spans the Thames at Battersea in order to enable them both to cross under one toll. My working-man friend was a true gentleman at heart. In my absence from the home land, his friendship was one of my brightest memories. To the cause of Gon his liberality when compared with bis income, frequently astonished his intimate friends in Christian work.

At the evening meetings of a Committee of which be was a member, held at our home in London between Blackfriars and Westminster Bridges, he was never absent; and he was our frequent welcome guest at tea on his weekly Saturday half-holiday. Diligent and provident, having no expensive habits, faithful alike to his Heavenly and earthly masters, he afforded a living embodiment of the Scripture that" Godliness with contentment is great gain."

A tent or a cottage, why should I care ?

They're building a palace for me over there !

Though exiled from home, yet still I may sing : All Glory to Gon, I'm the child of a KING l

His Own Executor.

In my early business years in London, there might have been seen occasionally passing on foot through some of the great thoroughfares of the city, one of the meanest of men in outward appearance, small, and with a peculiar deformity. Constant was the exclamation of strangers as they passed him: "What

1¢

Remember His Marvellous Works.

a peculiar-looking little man I" He was so peculiarlooking indeed that those who knew who he was, sometimes wondered that he cared to walk the crowded streets of England's metropolis, and be the object of continual uncomplimentary remark. It was not for want of means that he was a pedestrian.

Who was he ? He bore one of the most honoured names in British philanthropy, and for years his almost sole occupation was to distribute his great wealth in munificent amounts to help forward the work of Gon. He was his own executor. He accepted the responsibility of stewardship to its fullest extent, with a thoughtful, prayerful heart. When the LORD called him to join the throng of the redeemed ones in heaven he had comparatively little to leave behind.

I can well imagine this as the greeting he received as the gates of heaven were thrown back to admit his undeformed spirit, '' Well done, good and faithful servant, . . . enter thou into the joy of thy LORD."

CHAPTER

XXVI.

THE MINISTRY OF AN OMITIEDLEGACY. N my final return to England from India, not strong enough to engage in the public labours which occupied me in the homeland in former years. retirement to a quiet country life appeared essential. There were two chief ministries still open to me-that of my pen, and that of prayer.

Both could be exercised, not only without detriment, but with advantage, away from busy city activities.

But in the cottage-home to which the LoRD's goodness led me, there was no room suitable for a quiet Study. In the only room available, I could hear nearly everything that happened in the house, and nearly every word spoken by trade and other callers. While I longed for that freedom from interruption which in my case seemed necessary, the LoRD saw that this was among the needs mentioned in Philippians iv. 19. Just then an unexpected gift arrived for personal use, sufficient to purchase an airy room constructed of timber. It was quickly in its assigned place. With thanksgiving. the structure was dedicated to the service of Gov, and named Providence Lodge.

In sending the money the donor wrote : " I intended to leave this small sum to you in my will, but

O

198

Remember His Marvellous Works.

I have concluded that you can make good use of it

now."

By Gon's grace that has been done. Tens of thousands of readers beyond Britain-East, West, and South-were reached by Christian literature written there during the first five of the subsequent years-a ministry supplemented and equalled by that of the beloved forty years' partner of my life.

Strength equal to further service in India not having returned, a generous gift from a friend then provided another Study : and Providence Lodge has since been a Guest Room, a resting spot for missionary and other Christian workers, for periods varying from a few days to five weeks, not without conferring blessing a.swell as receiving it.

Gon overrules ; and the lack of sufficiently robust health to return to India, developed other missionary activities. It will be enough to mention only one such labour of love. Several thousands of unsolicited gifts from loving disciples of CHRIST, varying in amount from one shilling to a hundred pounds, have found their way through us to fruitful independent missions in India from which no appeal for funds emanates. But some of the gifts with the most pa the-tic histories, have not been in money, but in Jewels.

A large proportion of Providence Lodge guests have come from over the seas, the distances varying from three thousand to ten thousand miles. Some from other lands have here had their first experience of English country life ; and while walking in the near-by

The Ministry o/ an Omitted Legacy.

199

woods, carpeted with flowers, have progressed so slowly as to suggest a reluctance to leave any of the lovely blossoms for later hands to gather I Among instances of faith triumphant connected with Providence Lodge, is the case of two foreign missionary sisters, unattached to a MissionarySociety, who, after furlough, reached England from America on their way to India, without money to continue the journey. They were a delightful addition to our family, while the LORD soon provided the means to complete the voyage.

Other guests, not from so far, but from wildernesses of bricks and mortar, have gained a new appreciation of the contrast indicated by William Cowper in the lineGon made the country, and man made the town.

Providential incidents connected with visitors who have shared the friendly shelter of this Guest Room are frequently ref erred to in the preceding pages.

Some have found a special suitability in the tastefully printed evening adieu hung near the bed : Sleep sweetly in this quiet room, 0 thou, whoe' er thou art, And let no mournful yesterdays Disturb thy peaceful heart, Nor let to-morrow scare thy rest With dreams of coming ill; Thy MAKER is thy changeless Friend, His love surrounds thee still; Forget thyself and all the world, Put out each glaring light; The stars are watching overhead, Sleep sweetly then, Good Night I

RESTING IN BIS GLORIOUS WILL.* "I will sing unto the Lord because Hs hath dealt bountifully with me.,,-Psalm xiii. 6.

0 GoD of coming days, As of the bounteous l?ast, Accept the voice of praise That Thou my lot doth cast.

No future days can bring me ill, While resting in Thy glorious will.

No fears shall cloud my brow, No foes shall cause alarm; As yesterday, so now, I lean on Thy strong arm.

No future days can bring me ill, While resting in Thy glorious will.

Calm as the ocean's deep, To rest my all on TheeThy power to guide and keep Transfigures life for me.

No future days can bring me ill, While resting in Thy glorious will.

Triumphant be the road That ends in endless love, Eternal. royal abode Of Heaven's all-conquering GoD. No future days can bring me ill, While resting in Thy glorious will.

A. S. D. • Written for a friend's birthday : and often sung to Edson'• tune, "Trumpet." commonly ~ociatecl with Stennett's "Come every joyful heart."

CONTENTS AND INDEX. (Tait TITLES OF CHAP'rBRSARE PRINTED

IN ITAI,ICS.) PAG8

A Chain of p,,ovidences .. .. ..

95 A China missionary's testing and obedience 22 A double providence ..

98 A little sister's ministry 103 A London street incident 63 A mother and far-away children 69 A never-forgotten episode ..

65 A Post Office dilemma 51 A providence in Biblical evidence after 3,000 years 105 A providential thankoffering ..

99 " A succou1'e1'of many : " a reminiscence 143 A travelling photographer and evangelist ..

185 A workman's providential reward . . ..

19 An American girl who became a missionary doctor 121 An awkward predicament on a dark night ..

62 An honest stranger and an invalid's joy ..

189 An Indian girl " saved to serve" 86 An opportune empty bottle man 192 An unannounced benefactor 33 An unusual compensation claim 100 " Before they call, I will answer " ..

10 " Behind a ft'owning providence " . . ..

65 " Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters" 80 " Bless the Lord, . . and forget not " 149 " Chosen " and" Ot'dained " 121 Contrasts : the abased and the exalted 194 Disciplinary pt'ovidences, individual and national . .

169 Divine interpositions at Pandita Ramabai's village .. 40 Dream warnings that were heeded . . .. .. . . 161 Eminent seed-grower's experience (mummy wheat) 109 " Ever, only, all for Thee".. .. .. ..

140 " Exceeding Abundantly " (Calcutta incident) 47 Faith and sympathy in-action 41 Far-reaching Christian seroice 33 " Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost" ..

191 Germany's collapse of vital religion .. ..

173 God still speaks to listening hearls 9 . • running over " I 5 " Good measure, pressed down, .

Gospel W01'kamong human derelicts . .

73 153 " Here I raise my Ebenezer " " Herein is love," illustrated from life in India 84 High interest on spiritual investments 13 His own executor .. .. ..

195 Hold fast your confidence ..

154 Human limitations and Divine possibilities 125 Human sowing and God's haroest 80 0

202

Contents and Index.

" I am the LORD that healeth thee " " I take ; He undertakes ,· " three ocean voyages .. " I will bless the LORDat all times" .. ..

Kins women of Jesus . . " Let your light so shine " Light and Darkness .. " Lights bright and all's well! " Man's extremity and Goo's opportunity Missionary women in peril of robbers Modern dreams and angelic ministries. Illustrated More messages from The Master Ocean passages secured by prayer ..

On the anvil of the LORD {Mrs. Rachel Nalder) .. " Owe no man anything " ..

Perils and providences at Universities Personal incident with a wider application Pharaoh's dream and mummy wheat. Illustrated Ponder thy path .. ..

Prayer and lost railway tickets Providence Lodge and its guests Providences in plague time in India Providential to a minute Quite a misapprehension Remarkable acquisition of a Christian newspaper Resting in His glorious will ..

Satan's Counterfeits. ·with specimen cases .. " Saved to Serve ; " an Indian girl's motto hymn Substantiation of an Egyptian explorer's belief Tares and Wheat " The church which is in their house " The crowning sin of unbelief The dark hour before the dawn The enemy in our 11illages The hand of Goo between The Heavenly Gardener and I "The Lord is my helper." Illustrated The ministry of an omitted legacy The modern patriarch of miracle wheat The story of a desk ..

The sinking sand of unbelief " This poor man cried, and the LORDheard " " Thy testimonies are my delight " .. '' To the upright, there ariseth light" •' To will and to do of His good pleasure" .. " Well done, . . . Enter thou " " When thou walkest through the fire " ..

"When ye pray, believe," A prayer-meeting result Widowhood and h'.lly service .. .. ..

Wits' End Corner " Workers together with Him." ruustrated

PAOS

157 57 95 137 137 188

179 159 49 161 17 45 25 187 170 169 105 178 IOI

197 43 9 193 17

200

23 88 119 185 182 176 155 180 131

136 41 197 112

149

172

67 89 70

190 191

20 32 37 153

25

SEL.EOTIONS

WORKS

BY ALFRED

FROM

& HELEN

S. DYER.

RAMABAI : the Story of her Life and Work. By HELEN S. DYER. Thirty-five illustrations.

Cheaper edition, with supplemental chapter.

Tenth Impression. Cloth, Is. 6d. net (postage 4d.) Paper covers, ls. net (postage 3d.)

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PANDITA

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LIFE

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Memorials of Mrs. Jennie Fuller,

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"Years oftheRightHandoftheMostHigh."

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OF CHINESE LIFE.*

By ALFRED S. DYER. With !Uperior frontispiece portrait of the Founder of the China Inland Mission, and other illustrations.

Second Edition. Cloth, Is. net (by post, ls. 2d.) Claina', Million, lays: " Well-attested facts are everywhere present.''

WORD-PICTURES

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,.THE

Five hundredthousandof the followinghave beencirculated.

OF THE WHITE CROSS A Lecture to Young

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*

Works marke,I by an asterisk a11 now out of stock in Lo11don, and can be obtained only by ;ost from the Berachah Book Department, Aldington, Hythe, Kmt.

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Under the auspices of B. L. Fisher Library, First Fruits Press is an online publishing arm of Asbury Theological Seminary. The goal is to make academic material freely available to scholars worldwide, and to share rare and valuable resources that would not otherwise be available for research. First Fruits publishes in five distinct areas: heritage materials, academic books, papers, books, and journals.

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