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THE SHILLING IN THE MUD, AND GOD'S

"MR. W

DELIVERANCE.

was suffering from a very bad leg and nervous debility. His wife came to me, says Nurse B——, she having heard that I went to see some of their neighbours, and asked me to go and see her husband. I found him so weak, that I thought him dying. I advised him to have a doctor. He said, 'I think you can do me more good than the doctor.' I told him he must look to the great Physician. I attended to his case, read to him the twenty-third Psalm, and committed him to the Lord in prayer. It was a clean home. There were three little children, and they did not complain; but the next morning when I went, I found they had had nothing for two days; they were boiling a few potatoes, and the children were crying for them before they were cooked. I gave them all I had with me, and went and told the minister. He said he had no means of helping them. I felt distressed in mind, and asked the Lord to send help.

"It was very wet, and the snow had been falling fast. I crossed a muddy part of the street, and in the middle of the crossing there lay a shilling. I did thank the Lord for it, as just an answer to prayer, and went immediately and bought some meat, rice, and a loaf of bread, and took it round to them, and gave it to the poor wife. Oh! if you could have seen her tears of joy and gratitude, and how fervently she exclaimed, "The Lord bless you! the Lord bless you!' you would not soon have forgotten it. I felt it was the blessing of them that were ready to perish. I said to her, 'Give God thanks; for He has sent it.' She afterwards said, 'Oh! was it not beautiful? I made a stew for my husband, and it strengthened his chest, and did him so much good; and the children and I had the rice boiled. Oh, it was so nice!'

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"I said to the poor man, 'Now you can say, "The Lord is my Shepherd" (after telling him all about it). Ah!' he said, 'it is wonderful, indeed, how He does provide !'

"I kept him on my list till he was a little nourished and

restored, and able to go to work again; and never were two more grateful than he and his wife.

"The week after I had left them, the wife came running to me in great trouble to know what she should do about her little girl. It seems that while the father was so very ill some time before, and they were reduced to such extreme poverty, an aunt had offered to take this child, and bring her up, and put her to school. She had since found that this school was a convent, and that her child was to be brought up in the Roman Catholic religion. I said I would go with her to see the child, and we would together try to get her away. She had been living with her aunt four years; but the aunt had only lately turned Roman Catholic, and had then put the child into this school, where she had been about ten weeks.

"On reaching the school, a Sister opened the door, and we asked for Mary W-, but had to wait a long time before she was brought. We asked if she might go home to see her father, who had been very ill; and, after a great deal of hesitation, the Sister said she would allow her to go, on the condition she should be soon sent back again.

"The meeting between the father and his child was quite affecting. They wept on each other's neck, and could not speak for some time. I took the Bible, and read a Psalm, and we all knelt and prayed together. The child said she had prayed every night and morning since she had been in the school that God would send her father or mother to take her away from that place, where she was so unhappy.

"In the evening the mother and I went again to the school to tell the Sister that Mary could not return, as her father could not part with her again. She was very angry, and said she did not think we should behave like that, or we should not have taken her; that we must bring her back, as she must be given to the person who placed her there. But the mother said, 'She is my child, and I claim her, and would never have allowed her to come here, if I had known it.' The child is thirteen years old, and they have had much difficulty in retaining their hold of her, even now she is at home, as the people from the convent are always watching, and the father is much

afraid lest they should steal her away. The aunt has been also, and tried to get the child back again; but the parents will not hear of it, telling her she should never have had her at all, if they had known her principles.

"A Miss R has a home for rescuing young girls, at Stepney, and most providentially came to see me,' says Nurse, just at this time. I really believe God sent her for this very purpose. I directly asked her if she would take Mary, and, upon relating the circumstances, she was quite willing to do so; indeed, she said she could see the hand of God in it, for she seemed compelled to come and see me that afternoon, and could not tell why. The Sisters' at the convent would not give up any of her clothes, but we got her some clothing from your Mother House,' and sent her off comfortably and happily. The parents were quite willing for her to go, and look upon it as God's deliverance, for they were in daily fear while she was with them. The good man now takes the Bible for his guide, and is happy in the midst of poverty."

6

"FRIENDS OF THE FRIENDLESS AND THE FAINT."
Report of our Medical Lady Superintendent.

"Mrs. BShoreditch, nine years ago was not in good health, when one night she was roused by an alarm that the house was on fire. The sudden shock and fright resulted in a severe attack of rheumatic gout. Her husband (a bad, selfish man) would not pay for proper attendance, although he was in the receipt of a good income. He would not even allow the neighbours to visit her, but when he went away in the morning would lock the door and not return until night. He considered that if food were left within her reach it was all she wanted. As her illness went on week after week, he became weary of it, and began to spend his nights away from home, so that sometimes for nearly a fortnight together the poor wife would only see him for a few minutes, night and morning, when he brought her food. At length it was discovered that paralysis had attacked her, and soon after her husband went away altogether. The paralysis has taken away the entire use of both legs, and for eight years she has been com pletely helpless. She is a large, heavy woman, and has to be lifted from her bed to her chair and back again. For five years her husband allowed her seven shillings a week; then he ceased to send, and for a while she lived upon her furniture, and when that was gone went into the workhouse,

but only remained there two months; came out again, hoping to influence her husband to give her the old allowance, but in vain.

"Two years ago he died in St. Bartholomew's Hospital.

“Mrs. B—— has for some time lived with a sister-in-law, who, though able to walk about a little, is a great sufferer from rheumatism; her hands are so much contorted and bent that she cannot open her fingers. She is a very slight and delicate woman, so that it is difficult for her to lift her sister about; and they both are most thankful for our Bible-woman Nurse, who goes every day to make the bed, to wash Mrs. B- and to rub her weary, aching limbs. When Nurse came I could not lift my arms, now I can; and the pain in my limbs is better. Ah! if I had been blessed with her care when I was first taken, I think I should never have been so helpless.'

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"Mrs. B- - has no income. The parish offers the house, but will not give out-door relief. 'I live by the charity of my neighbours. Some one in Whitecross-street, who knew my mother, pays my rent; and a poor woman allows me a quartern loaf every week. My sister has a shilling a week and a loaf from the parish.'

“They always boil the tea-leaves twice; and our breakfast is our dinner, and our tea is our supper. We are very thankful if we have enough bread.' It is two years since they bought any meat; and two ounces of butter must last them for a month.

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"The sister-in-law, Mrs. B- can read, but they had no Bible or Testament; for we really cannot afford to buy one: and nobody has ever given us one.' Nurse says they are so grateful for anything she does, and so patient and so cheerful in their deep poverty, that it is quite a pleasure to attend to them. Sometimes when she has gone in they have been totally without either food or firing, quietly waiting and praying that God would send some."

66 FORSAKEN BY EVERY BODY."

"The poor woman, known in relation to this title, is become quite bonny and brisk, her latest achievement having been to paper her room. The right arm can now be stretched out and lifted to her head, and all the wounds, excepting those on her leg, are cured. She acknowledges fully the goodness of God in healing her, through our timely help, and said she felt quite lifted up with the thought of His great mercy towards her.

"Nurse C

is admirably diligent. The people love her dearly. One old woman said that she had become so precious, that were she to cease visiting her, 'I should die the next day I do think.'

THE PRIEST AND THE BIBLE-WOMAN NURSE. Mrs. I.-This case was recommended by the Bible-woman, and Nurse N. visited her six weeks. She says:

“I found her very ill in consumption. The Bible-woman had often visited her, and read and prayed with her, but she told me when I first went that she could not realize the love of Christ to her. She was sure God had sent the Bible-woman to her, but she was such a great sinner that she could not think there was mercy for her.

"While I was talking to her as she lay on her bed, there was a 'Father' from the Ritualist Church talking to the husband in another part of the room. I did not interfere with their conversation, but directed mine entirely to the poor woman, telling her of the blood of Christ, which cleanseth from all sin.' I stayed some time with her at this first visit. At length the 'Father' rose, and before he left told me that my visits were not at all required there, as the case would be attended to from the Church; but as the poor invalid put out her hand in a beseeching way, I asked her if she would like me to come again.

"Oh yes,' she said; 'he's persuading my husband to go to confession to-morrow morning, but I hope from my heart he will not go.'

"The Father' then left, saying as he went out that he should call again in the morning, and they were not to mind what I told them, for that I was leading them into error.

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"I then directed my conversation to the husband, who listened attentively. I explained to him a little of my own experience of the love of Christ to me, and told him he would find Him just such a loving Saviour, able to save to the uttermost, if he would but come unto Him and believe in Him alone. He wept much, and said he was not happy in what he had promised to do in the morning.

"I left him with some texts of Scripture that seemed to come into my mind at the time, especially that one, Whosoever cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.' That word' Whosoever,' appeared to be blessed to him at that very time.

He

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