Page images
PDF
EPUB

Father, give me patience!' While her faithful nurse was resting awhile, she said to one sitting with her, "Speak of the precious Jesus.' She asked for that beautiful hymn,- For ever with the Lord,'-part of which she repeated. Then she prayed with great earnestness, 'Lord, Thou knowest I am an unprofitable servant; Thou knowest with what a slack hand I have served Thee,—oh, so slack! I have been an unprofitable servant for so many years; but, oh, Father, forgive! Do, precious Jesus, save every one of the dear mothers! Let not one of them be on the left hand,-save every one.' She then spoke of the joy that awaited her. On Saturday morning, amidst great suffering, she said, 'It is all right within; it is all calm, peace, and joy.' A little time before her death she asked for that hymn,-'Oh, for the robes of whiteness; and, soon after hearing it, fell peacefully asleep in Jesus. May our last end be like hers!

"Mrs. Nichols was not one ever to speak much about herself; but I could gather from references made to her early life in the many conversations we have had together that she was very respectably brought up. She was early drawn to the Lord; and at the age of eighteen became a member of a Church, and a very earnest Sunday-school teacher. As she kept her father's house after her mother's death until he died, she did not marry early. Her husband was a worthy man, a member of the same Church as herself, had a good situation, and a little money saved, so they began their married life very comfortably, and had a nice home. He was also a good son. When his father died he took his mother, who was an invalid, and a little grandchild, to whom she was much attached, to live with them, and maintained them both. As Mrs. Nichols said, she could not think of separating them, as the child was such a comfort to the grandmother, and she brought her up with her own daughter.

"Her husband had always delicate health. He caught a severe cold, and consumption set in, and from that time till his death (about four years) he was not able to do anything. Then Mrs. Nichols's trials began. She maintained them all,-husband, mother-in-law, the grandchild, and her own daughter, by her

industry, working almost night and day at her business of umbrella-making, besides nursing her sick ones. While she

was working, she said, 'They were praying that her strength might not fail.'

"But as they became weaker, they needed more nourishment, and bit after bit of her furniture went to supply their wants. She told me that one day as she was going through the street with some cherished article to sell, she felt grieved about it; but these words came quietly to her mind :—

"The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head.'

"She then felt sure she was following the footprints of the Saviour, and rejoiced in it, and had no more regret about the 'things,' but went on with loving ministry to the end, enduring much privation, but enjoying much blessing. The mother-inlaw died first; the husband some short time after; and about six months after his death she applied to You, and was accepted as a Bible-woman, and sent to Bermondsey at once. The rest of her life has been a part of our own history. She was one of our most exemplary trainers of fresh candidates for the Bible Mission.

"Yours, faithfully,

"A. C."

SAVED FROM DRINK.

OUR Bible-woman, Nurse A-, has great influence in her district. She has formed a kind of bank for fathers who like to save up a little of their earnings, to prevent their spending them in the publichouse. Drunkenness is so very general on and around Bow Common, that the families of men who are earning good wages are always in poverty. One man of this class was lamenting to her his inability to go into the country to see some very old and dear friends who were soon going to America. He was a very drunken man, but Nurse says, “I told him if he would make the resolution to leave off drink, and bring me the money he could spare every Saturday night, I

would keep it for him and he would soon be able to go." He promised to do so. He is earning 29s. per week, and has a wife and two small children. He brought me 8s. the first week, all of which he would have paid for beer, and the same on the second and third weeks, and at the end of nine weeks he had four sovereigns to receive, with which he went joyfully off into the country to see his friends before they sailed. The whole of this would have been spent in the publichouse if it had not been thus rescued, and I hope the pleasure thus afforded him will induce him on his return still to continue the good habit.

Another man, working at the same gasworks, who is earning quite as good wages, saw the change in his companion and wanted to know the cause; and he has been induced to do the same. He has brought me 10s. for two weeks, and intends doing so till Whitsuntide to enable him to go and see his aged parents in the country, whom he has not visited for many years.

66

Many of the men about here are earning very good wages," says Nurse, "and ought to keep their families respectably, but drink is the ruin of them. I hope, however, that a few such examples may have a beneficial effect on others, for while they were saving up for themselves their families were much better cared for than before."

May 14th.-In the first case above-mentioned the man has now become quite a different character, attends our Prayer-meeting, and is using the money he saves from drink in improving his home, buying more furniture and clothing for his wife and children. The "Fathers' Meeting" has been a great blessing

to many.

Respecting the second case, also, the man is going on very satisfactorily. He earns 29s. per week, but by overwork he gets 6s. 6d. three weeks out of every four, making an extra day. He used formerly to allow his wife 26s. weekly for everything. She had to find his clothes, now he allows her 24s. and finds his own clothes. He drew out two pounds last Saturday week for clothes, and still has 25s. laid by for his journey to see his parents.

Nurse adds, "I never allow the husbands to bring their money

to me at my house, but if they want to 'put in' they send me word, and I receive it of their wives or with their full consent. I have now £4 16s. 6d. in my hands of theirs, and a great deal more I have held in this way, all of which, but for this, would have been spent in the publichouses.”

Walter M

THE TEXT-ROLL.

NURSE B's CASE.

suffers from erysipelas. I visited him a year and eight months; the disease left large wounds in the leg, and he was so unable to be moved that he never had his bed made for three months, and his wife was confined in the meantime. He then went for a time into St. Bartholomew's Hospital, but the doctors told him his leg was of no use to him, he had better have it off. He would not, however, consent to this, so they sent him home. I took the case up again and visited him a long time, and he was then sent down to Margate, where he consented to have his leg amputated. After this erysipelas set in again, and they sent him home worse than when he went. He had been home about four months when dropsy came on. We did not think anything could save him. However, with God's blessing on my use of the carbolic lotion, &c., he has now recovered so far as to be able to get up and put his clothes on and sit up for a time. When I first visited him his mind was very dark, he looked as vacant as though he did not understand a word I said, and did not wish to do so.

I used to spread the roll of texts out on his bed and talk to him about them, but for a long time all seemed in vain. However by degrees light began to dawn; he seemed brighter when I went in, and instead of grumbling, as he had always been accustomed to do, he was more willing to hear what I had to say. I went in one Sunday morning to dress his leg, when he began the conversation by saying, "Well, Nurse, you have often talked to me about putting my trust in the Lord, but if ever I saw the goodness of God I've seen it this morning. We had

nothing in the house, and did not know where to look for anything, when last night somebody came to the door and left some oranges and a shilling, and to-day I've had a nice rice pudding and another shilling, and I don't know where they came from unless God sent them." And thus every day for some time some little nourishment was sent to them, and he used to say, don't know where they come from, it seems to me they must drop from the clouds."

66

I

From that time (Nurse adds) I have seen a gradual work going on within his soul. Two or three Sundays ago I thought I would have a long talk with him, and led him on to tell me how he felt when I first visited him. 66 From the beginning," he said, "when you first hung that roll of texts on my bed, I could see it was about God and Jesus Christ, but I did not know, and hardly cared, who God and Jesus Christ were.'

[ocr errors]

"Well, but you knew there was a God and a Saviour?"

"Yes; but what was the good of that if I did not know anything about them? Then, again, you told me 'prayer would be answered.' When I heard that, I said, 'I must pray to the Lord for myself, then.' So I did, and found it true, and now I can pray to Him for everything, and so I've found all true that you told me, and now I not only know there is a God, and Jesus Christ a Saviour for guilty sinners, but I love Him, too, for He has borne my sins in His body on the tree; yes, I feel He died to save me."

The wife

she can do.

now works at Army work and gets as much as They have never really wanted since they trusted in the Lord. They pray to God every morning, and where before they were always grumbling, now it is quite a pleasure to go in to see them, for they speak with such gratitude of everything that is done for them, and say, "The Lord has sent it all." They receive four shillings a week from the parish and five loaves, and have to pay three shillings a week for rent..

« PreviousContinue »