DESTITUTION AND REFORMATION.
Oh, use me Lord, use even me,
Just _as_ Thou wilt, and _when_ and _where_,
Until Thy blessed face I see,
Thy rest, Thy joy, Thy glory share.
Her willingness to toil in any direction attests the grand purpose of
her life and the ingenious methods employed in assisting and saving
souls.
"I visited one family," she writes, "a few days since who had not eaten
anything for twenty-four hours. The father was out of employment, and
in desperation was just about to take the children to some charitable
home, when I came in time to supply their wants and procure aid and
work for him. Many others, rather than make known their wants, have
pawned everything they possessed. I have had to give and lend them
articles of clothing to cover them, and have procured coal and
groceries for nine families during the past month."
The remarkable and unprecedented success of this one woman in reaching
others of her own sex is nearly unparalleled. This fact has encouraged
us to persevere in our attempt to make these truths known to the
Christian world; for how emphatically true are the words of Gray:
"Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear,
And full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."
This thought stimulates us to renewed efforts to present her experience
in her own language, as she conscientiously discharged her duty with an
eye single to the glory of God.
She mentions a case of reformation of an intemperate woman who had
deserted her home, and after pawning and ridding herself of all she
possessed, was at length brought to herself and sent for the Bible
woman, and, through the omnipotence of loving-kindness, has been won to
reformation, which she trusts may be permanent.
This case presents a sad and dark picture in the history of womanhood.
An intemperate woman, through the blasting and blighting influence of
liquor, leaving her home, and like the prodigal, spending her substance
in riotous living, and at length being compelled to feed on the husks.
A fallen woman seeking pleasure away from home with all its
endearments. Alas! alas! "There is no peace saith my God unto the
wicked. Whither, oh, whither can they fly as wretched wanderers from
their homes?"
"Home, sweet home!
There is no place like home!"
It is a divine institution. A place of rest and peace and joy. To
forsake home is to despise bliss and accept woe. It is to reject
felicity and receive sorrow. When God has been so kind as to furnish a
peaceable, well-governed home, nothing should tempt the young to leave
it. All that is necessary for pure pleasure can be found in the family
circle. The unwary are sometimes induced to leave home through false
representations, and a desire to gratify every earthly propensity. Idle
curiosity may be greatly augmented, and the new acquaintances formed
may, for the time being, partially please the senses; but the calm
recollection of former unalloyed joys in the cottage home naturally
extorts the old cry from pale quivering lips, and a broken heart, "I
will arise and go to my father, and will say: father I have sinned
against heaven and before thee."
Such a course of turning to God, and such a cry, is always richly
rewarded. Personal reformation is not only gratifying to relatives and
friends, but well-pleasing to God. "Won to reformation" by the Bible
woman through the omnipotence of _loving kindness_! We are reminded by
this incident of a story we heard told by the late John B. Gough. It was
part of his experience a few days after he became a total abstainer. He
had returned to work. But his burning thirst for liquor was intense. In
his agony of mind and body, he said to his employer, "I have signed the
pledge." The reply was, "You will keep it about a week." "If so, then I
will go and get a drink now, for I cannot endure this awful agony any
longer," he retorted. He rushed out of the room and down the stairs
leading to the street, when he was accosted by the kind, gentle voice of
a strange gentleman who met him.
"How do you do, Mr. Gough? I am so glad to see you; I was delighted to
see you at the meeting last night, and I am so thankful that you had
courage given you to go forward and sign the pledge. I simply called
over to shake you by the hand and wish you God speed in your noble
endeavor. Here is my card; I want you to call at my office, as I desire
to get acquainted with you." Those kind words entered into his heart,
and from that auspicious hour he resolved to be steadfast and immovable
in his renunciation of his drinking habits.
God loves and prospers those who, like Jesus, speak kind words of
encouragement to those who have gone astray from the paths of
rectitude. The brevity and uncertainty of life ought to teach us the
practical lesson that if we would save men and women from their sins we
must be watchful and willing at all times to rescue the wanderers from
their critical condition, constantly remembering that He has said, "Let
the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and
let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to
our God for he will abundantly pardon."
"When I was hungry ye gave me meat; when I was thirsty ye gave me
drink; naked, and ye clothed me." Little did this noble-minded woman
think that when she was entering her daily experience in her diary that
her deeds of charity were to be brought to light after death. A story
is told of Xenophon, the disciple of Socrates, that while offering a
solemn sacrifice he heard that his eldest son was slain at Mantinea. He
did not, however, desist, but only laid down his crown and asked how he
had fallen. When he understood that his son had fallen in battle
fighting bravely for his country, he calmly replaced the crown upon his
head, calling the gods to witness that he received greater pleasure
from the bravery of his son, than pain from his death. We do not,
naturally speaking, like to lose our loved ones, but when we think of
their bravery and fidelity, we feel disposed to praise God for them. O,
what transcendent dignity and honor are conferred on the faithful at
the hour of death. It seems there is a reciprocal response on earth to
the acclamations of heaven perpetually ringing in the ears of the
ransomed, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
The Church's loss is her gain. Still the deeds of mercy call forth
praise. Let us ever remember that a holy and just and good God is
treasuring up all our words of faith and labors of love against the
great day of account--the day of recognition and remuneration. Pollock
beautifully describes the man or woman like her of whom we write, a
person of enlarged benevolence and liberality, as practically
illustrated in the foregoing authentic record of Christian experience.
He says:
"Breathe all thy minstrelsy, immortal harp!
Breathe numbers warm with love while I rehearse,
Delightful theme! remembering the songs
Which day and night are sung before the Lamb!
Thy praise, O Charity! thy labors most
Divine! thy sympathy with sighs, and tears,
And groans; thy great, thy god-like wish to heal
All misery, all fortune's wounds; and make
The soul of every living thing rejoice--
A finishing and polish without which
No man e'er entered heaven. Let me record
His praise; the man of great benevolence,
Who pressed thee softly to his glowing heart,
And to thy gentle bidding made his feet
Swift minister of all mankind, his soul
Was most in sympathy with heaven;
Nor did he wait till to his door,
The voice of supplication came, but went abroad
With foot as silent as the starry dews,
In search of misery that pined unseen,
And would not ask. And who can tell what sights
She saw, what groans she heard in that cold world
Below, where sin in league with gloomy death,
March daily through the length and breadth of all
The land, wasting at will and making earth,
Fair earth! a lazer-house, a dungeon dark!
Oh, who can tell what sights she saw, what shapes
Of wretchedness! or who describe what smile
Of gratitude illumed the face of woe?"
Similarity of character is the firmest bond for forming permanent
friendship, hence Christ says to all his followers, Ye are my friends,
if ye do whatsoever I command thee. A glance at the picture presented
to us in St. John's gospel, eleventh chapter, at the Feast of the
Passover of the Jews, remind us of the character and spirit of Jesus
when he took the loaves, and when he had given thanks he distributed to
the disciples, and the disciples to the multitude who were set down
upon the grass. For services of this kind God selects his servants. By
filling them with the spirit of Jesus, they are thus thoroughly
qualified to minister to the necessitous.