"In all thy ways acknowledge me, and I will direct thy paths,' directed your Bible-woman to her just at the time when her husband came home.

"I had never seen the man before, but I spoke to him of the sin of the drunkard in the sight of God, and of his sin in destroying the health of his poor wife, and the example he was setting his children. I cannot remember all that was said, but I saw the tear stand in his eyes. I wondered that he had not told me to leave the room, but I am sure that the Lord was with me, as I afterwards heard that he and the other men he worked with were such desperate characters that he said himself he should be afraid to speak to them alone.

"As I left I lifted a silent prayer for the poor drunkard. During the week my Superintendent called, and again in the providence of God the man was at home, and she spoke to him of the fearful habit of drink. The Lord was pleased to bless our visits.

"The next week being Whitsuntide, I met him and his wife and children, clean, though poorly clad. I spoke to him; he said he was going for a little walk, as he had not been out since Saturday, when he went with one of his mates to take the pledge, and I am thankful to say as I inquire each week after his welfare, I am told he has become a sober, steady man. He has attended the Bible-class; he says he can never be thankful enough that he has left off the drink; that he is ashamed and disgusted with himself to think of the sins he has committed, and the hundreds of pounds he has wasted, and he trusts by the help of God never to let a drop of intoxicating drink pass his lips again, and that he has now lost all desire and craving for it.

"He works in the gas-works, and they are allowed so much beer every day by the Company; instead of beer now he has cocoa, and makes it for himself and two of the men he works with, and they find themselves refreshed and strengthened. May God in His mercy grant salvation to that soul. Oh! dear Madam, it is worth a life time of labour if the Lord should bless our ministrations, and this one man should be brought to love Jesus. I may at no distant time have more to tell you of this family, as they are expecting to come into some property.

"We have had one of our mothers set free from the shackles of Popery. Father C was sent to her, and a Sister of Mercy entreated her, and she was greatly persecuted by her husband and children, till the poor woman was in the greatest distress of mind. The Lord has been pleased to bless my visits to her, and she now rejoices that she is brought to see the true light, and to accept a full and free salvation through Christ alone. She is constantly at our Meeting, and comes regularly to the Protestant service.

"Your faithful Bible-woman,

"L. T."

SOMERS-TOWN.

.

"MY DEAR MADAM,

"I will give you a little report of a fact in this district. I was visiting from house to house, and on coming to a long passage in M street, thinking some small houses might be at the bottom, I went down, but it led to a large room where there was a Mothers' Meeting going on; then I told them I was a Bible-woman, and one of the mothers became a subscriber.

"The next week she asked me to let another person have a card to pay for a Bible. I asked for her address, but she said she could not let me know where she lived, as she would not have me call, so she sent the money by the one that attended the meeting. When she had finished paying for it she would not let me take it home, as she said I should be talking to her about religion, and she would have none of that. Finding I could not get at her, I wrote her a note telling her I hoped, when she looked on and in that handsome family Bible, she would find the pearl of great price. After she had read the note she said to the person that carried it to her, 'Oh, how kind of her to write to me, as I would not see her!' When her husband came home, she said, 'Look what I have got by paying a trifle per week!' He was pleased, and agreed to read a chapter every Sunday afternoon.

"Some months have passed since then. The week before last I was sent for to see a person, and to my great delight it was the

young woman who had subscribed for that very Bible. She told me she could not keep any longer from letting me know that she had become truly decided, through the Holy Spirit's teaching, to be on the Lord's side, and likewise her husband, and she felt she must go and tell her next-room neighbour that the Saviour had pardoned her sins, and she wanted everyone to love Him too. In about a month they will both receive the ordinance of Christian baptism; and this is by no means the only instance in which I have proved that the Word of God alone has sufficed to turn sinners from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.

"Yours very truly

"A. W."

ST. GILES'S-No. 1.

OLD BOOTS AND SHOES.

ONE of the miserable alleys of St. Giles's was aforetime compared by a Scotch writer to "the mouth o' hell, and the twa pillars thereof at the entry, the pawnbroker's shop o'oneside and the gin-palace at the other, twa monstrous deevils eating up men, women, and bairns, body and soul."

Thanks be to God, however, though we cannot do away with the "twa pillars" at will, our Bible Mission, and other good Missions, of lowly but vigorous sort, are now always at work, more or less successfully, persuading the people of St. Giles's to beware of these devouring "monsters." The Lady Superintendent of the Bible Mission still retained, in the street in which Bible Missions first arose, in the year 1857, writes to us as follows:

:

"DEAR FRIEND,

"October 3.

"I know you like to hear sometimes of your people of Dudley-street, and I must send you a few words concerning them.

"The prospect of the coming winter, with the terrible cry of 'want of work,' is a dreary one; and I must plead again ear

nestly in behalf of our poor, with the same plea I made three years ago, for 'Old Boots and Shoes,' to be sent as the stock to make trade for our poor shoemakers who 'translate' them into something wearable, for which they find a ready sale. Should the parcels be large, we may name that it is helpful to us when the carriage is paid, as we have no fund for that expense.

"You would wish for a sketch of some of those for whom I entreat help.

"Last Thursday I was visiting with the Bible-woman and entered a garret, where an aged invalid who is thirsting for knowledge welcomed us, not for what we could give (for we go often and often as the Master went, with no money, only love and sympathy to offer), but because she hoped to hear something the Lord had to say to her out of His word.

"A tiny child of two, as bright and intelligent as possible, came and made friends with us. Sitting on my knee, he peeped into the bag and took the Testament, and tried to repeat every word I said. He said, after me, the text, 'Suffer little children to come unto Me,' repeating to Me,' of his own accord, till I told him who 'Me' meant, adding,

"Jesus loves Harry.'

"He repeated it with a gleeful shout, and, turning to the poor distressed sufferer, looked up and laughed in her face and said, as plainly as a grown person,

"Jesus loves Harry and Granny too.'

"The poor woman was melted to tears, and after sobbing for a few moments she said, with a deep breath, 'Yes, darling,' as if she felt the truth taught by these baby lips.

"We are so helped by these sort of cheering visits when we have to pay so many others where the people are sunk in misery and ignorance, and where such appalling events occur as the one of which you must have read in the papers, the woman found dead in the closet under the stairs. This happened next door to a house where one of our mothers live, and where we visit. This woman was supposed to have drank herself to death, and having dragged herself to this secluded spot, to sleep without being disturbed, she slept her last sleep, and was found by a child in the morning.

"The neighbours do not seem so surprised as you would think. They tell us that people who have nowhere to go at night, or are too tipsy to get home, frequent that place for shelter, and the house door is always open.

"It is in such a neighbourhood, with a very few respectable exceptions, that our faithful Bible-woman finds her work. You may imagine how shocked she was on going to the street, on the Friday and Monday following; she found the people all alive with the excitement caused, for at first it was thought to have been a murder.

"Her hands are often strengthened and her heart refreshed by the impression made on those who attend her little prayer meeting. For myself, I can say, that painful as it is to visit those degraded by sin and sunk to the lowest ebb of poverty, there is something singularly refreshing in teaching them when once their attention is gained. Their thirst for the new knowledge, their enjoyment of the Bible stories, their simplicity and teachableness, is at once fascinating and refreshing to the teacher. They receive the truth like little children, and try to act up to what they know so literally, that Christians of riper years and greater advantages, may often be shamed by the humility and simplicity of these children of poverty and sorrow. I often wish an able penman could take up their cause, and ask help from those who have abundance during the coming winter, but the Lord must be their pleader to the hearts of His people."

CONTRASTS.

WE might strengthen the previous appeal by the contrast which recently presented itself to the mind of a young Swiss lady, while paying her first visits to the London poor, in company with one of our Nurses, in a neighbouring district to St. Giles's. We had selected it for her visitation, because of the many foreigners to be found in the locality. She thus describes some of her impressions.