LOVE FOR THE HEBREWS.
A weeping sinner kneels,
The chains of death are broken,
And soon his glad heart feels
The Saviour's welcome spoken.
Christ said, "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees." She seemed to hate
everything that looked like spiritual pride, or idolatry, or
worldliness. Hence her sternness and courage in watching for sin in
herself or others was marked. The language of Jesus ever sounded in her
ears: "Take heed to yourselves, lest haply your hearts be overcharged
with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day
come on you suddenly as a snare: for _so_ shall it come upon all them
that dwell on the face of all the earth. But watch ye at every season,
making supplication, that ye may prevail to escape all these things that
shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man."
She felt also that God was no respecter of persons, and her great
ambition on this account was to try and save the Hebrew people from
their vain delusions that they were still the chosen people of God,
notwithstanding their rejection of the Messiah.
This is evident from the following conversation with a Jewish woman
about God's Word.
"Visiting another Jewish woman, she asked me to sit down, and soon we
were in earnest conversation about the Bible, and her soul's salvation.
After hearing me read some passages, she said, 'We Jews must all be
wrong if you are right.' I told her it was not my word, but the Word of
God. I begged her to search the Scriptures for herself, and left with
her a tract relating to Christ, written by a Jew. She asked to have a
Bible, which I carried to her. Again we conversed on this great
subject. She liked the tract, and had lent it to several of her
friends. She said she would read the Bible with prayer, and if she was
wrong, the Lord would open her eyes. During these four months I have
made over one thousand visits, distributed many tracts and given away
eight Bibles, besides taking several children to the Sunday-school, and
using the Mission funds in assisting the poor.
"There has been a great deal of sickness this summer, especially among
the children. But I have been enabled to do some good by taking these
little ones and their mothers into the country. Among them were several
Roman Catholic families. They expressed surprise that we should do so
much for them, saying, 'It was more than their own people would do for
them.' In visiting one of these women soon after, she said her husband
had told her she had better take my advice and read the Bible. He said
she had better have one, for it could do her no harm. I took her the
Gospel of Matthew, which she has been reading attentively, and her
children learning verses by heart. She gave me fifty cents, asking if
that would be enough to buy a Bible.
"To several Catholic families I have lent Bibles, and they now wish to
purchase them, paying for them in small sums, as they are able. One
man, who has led a very wicked life and abused his family, is now so
changed that when he comes home he asks his children to read to him. He
does not go to church, but says he does not know why his people are not
allowed to read the Bible.
"A poor woman to whom I gave a Bible handed me one dollar, saying she
wished she was able to give more, as it had been such a blessing to her
in her sickness and poverty. I have been much encouraged by the
gratitude expressed for my reading the Scriptures in some families. A
Catholic woman was in great distress for her husband. She begged me to
pray for him, and calling her five children about her, we knelt in
prayer.
"I have a mothers' meeting at my house, at which several women have
desired prayers for their husbands. Visiting in a house where were some
Jewish families, I asked if they would allow me to pray with them. They
said they would not dare to kneel, but would stand and listen. On my
leaving them, they shook my hand, with tears in their eyes, and said
they liked to hear my prayer. Another Jewess said she would be sorry if
she thought we would not meet in heaven. I begged her to pray God to
show her the true way, and read to her in Isaiah the prophecies
concerning the Messiah. She, too, promised to think, and pray for
light.
"I have good hopes of several intemperate persons. They have abstained
from drinking for several weeks, one has joined the Temperance Society,
and another has promised to drink no more. They asked for a Bible,
which I took to them. We have opened our Sewing-school again, and have
the hope of accomplishing much good this winter among the children."
* * * * * *
GLADNESS IN COMING TO THE HOUSE OF GOD.
She continues to write thus: "Some of the women who attend my mother's
meeting have never attended any place of worship, and it is encouraging
to hear them speak of reading the Scriptures, which they have never
done before, and of the pleasure they take in going to the House of
God, and in listening to His Word.
"A Jewess, to whom I spoke of the Saviour, said, 'Your religion must be
very comforting, when you have something to rest upon. I would like to
go to your church, and hear about your Saviour.'
"I found a family where the mother was sick; the father without work,
and four children to be fed. I obtained assistance for them, and after
doing what I could to make them comfortable, I read a portion of
Scripture to them. As the woman lay listening, the father came into the
room and said, 'You are reading the Bible; it is a good book; my
children love to hear it; they learn in the Sabbath-school what will do
them good, but the times are hard; I can get no work, and everything
seems dark.' His wife said, 'God has sent us help just when we needed
it the most.' I urged him to trust in our Heavenly Father, and pray to
Him; he said, 'I will try.'"
Why not? for
E'en the hour that darkest seemeth
Will His changeless goodness prove;
From the gloom His mercy streameth;
God is wisdom, God is love.
The shadows of earth are immediately dispelled when we trust God, for
He says, "Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee and
thou shalt glorify Me." This passage has been the cup of great blessing
to many a benighted soul.
* * * * * *
She writes: "In another family, the kindness shown has led the father
(who has also been ill) to think seriously of religion, and resolve on
leading a new life.
"One poor woman, to whom I had given a Bible, said to me, a few days
since, that she wanted to 'pay something for her Bible,' it had been
such a comfort to her in her lonely hours. She said she had never read
so much of the Scriptures before, nor found so much comfort from
reading them, as during the last few weeks; and now she wished me take
ten cents as part payment; she had been keeping it for me, and would
add more soon, as she wanted to give me fifty cents. She was living
alone; her husband dead; her son, having married recently, had left
her, but gives a little toward her support. She was also made happy by
some addition for Thanksgiving.
"My visits among the children of the Sewing-school are also productive
of good. One little girl whom I brought to Sabbath-school for the first
time, induced her mother to come to church, where she was enough
pleased to desire to come again. This family have usually spent their
Sabbaths in reading stories in the newspapers, as is the case with many
others from which we have gathered the children, and when they say at
parting, 'Do come and see my mother,' I feel here is a wide field of
usefulness opening before us, inviting us to enter in and work for the
Master."