"No one more fully appreciates the noble charities of my lovely countrywomen than I do. No one can watch with more eager eye their care for those who have been cast out as the offscouring' of the old world, and thrown as a plague-spot upon the new. I desire to help them, and as the ever-aggressive policy of Christian love in England has lately opened a new door to the thronging thousands who have hitherto remained unreached, you will perhaps allow me, as briefly as possible, to call their attention to the plan through your widely circulated columns.

"Since I have been in England, I have heard despairing philanthropists say that it was too late; that the evil had struck its roots too deep, and the masses infected by sloth and ignorance, drunkenness and filth, were too formidable to be raised. And so it would almost seem. Always busy as are 'English hearts and English hands,' ever on the 'qui vive' to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, and to bring the cast-out under influences for good, there yet remained thousands who could not be reached, whom no devoted city missionary, or godly colporteur, or Scripture reader, nor yet the most self-denying lady could ever search out, or home for the homeless embrace.

"But thanks be to God that though the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light, yet the children of light have at last been guided to an agency which promises such successes amongst the most debased class in this country, as no other has ever held out. While I try briefly to explain the plan, I feel sure that my sisters in New York will recognize it as the Missing Link' in the chain which must raise the fallen, and bring to the light, that their deeds may be reproved, those who will otherwise become a plague-spot and a curse to our young and beautiful country.

"There are certain localities in London, where vice, and crime, and wretchedness, and despair congregate and fester, each year growing worse, and spreading the poisonous influence wider and deeper. It is not necessary to my present purpose to give statistics of the criminal classes here. It is enough to point to such localities as St. Giles, Clerkenwell, the Potterics, &c., &c., to show that in the heart of the most Christian coun

try in the world, there is a plague which no human means has yet availed to wipe out. It is in these awful places that this new agency has been employed-this new evangel has been proclaimed-an evangel first of the Book and then of the scrubbing-brush the broom—of cleanly habits and cheering hope; something humanizing, civilizing, and Christianizing. The principle is so simple, that one wonders that it has not been set at work before. It is simply proving the great truth 'The entrance of Thy word giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.'

"An organization of City Missions and Scripture readers has long been at work in these desolate places, but after all it has been the lot of a poor, uneducated woman to find the key which has unlocked the gates of this Castle of the Giant Despair, and let so many captives escape into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

"There was a poor woman (Marian by name) whose heart God had touched. She was born in one of these awful spots, and grew up there. Losing her mother at a tender age, she was thrown with a little sister upon the cold charities of that awful world. She never knew a home till at the age of eighteen, she married a man as poor as herself, and commenced a new sort of battle with the powers of darkness around her. By what means she was led to Christ I cannot spare room to tell. But it was through the perusal of the Word of God, which is quick and powerful, which having received into her heart, she yearned to go among her poor and down-trodden sisters, and pour out upon them the balm which had brought healing to her own wounded heart.

"So means were found through a kind-hearted lady, who procured for her a bag of Bibles from the Bible Society, and giving her a small weekly compensation for her time (which of course she could not afford to give) sent her forth on her mission of mercy. Marian was not to give the Book to any one, but selling it at the lowest possible price, she was to collect a penny or two at a time, till it was paid for. Meantime, calling often for the payment, she was to drop a word in season, to help the

distressed, aid the sick, and with true woman's tact show the poorest and the most helpless how they could help themselves.

"As soon as the plan began partially to succeed, a room was rented in the neighborhood; and here, at times which did not interfere with her agency for the Bible Society, she invited the poor women to tea. While they sat in a clean room, by a cheerful fire, and took, probably for the first time, a decent meal, she read to them from the Book,' and encouraged them to try to help themselves. Knowing their habits of gin-drinking, she taught them to make a cheap soup, which she persuaded them would be more nourishing to their families than the beer and bread which was the ordinary meal. She helped them to mend their tattered garments, to use soap and water, and brush and comb, and patiently led them on till the desire for a clean, humble house like hers, began to dawn in their hearts. Encouraged and aided by the Lady Superintendent,' Marian opened her room as a depot for calico, flannel, and prints of a cheap sort, and by degrees assembled these forlorn women, a few at a time, to teach them to cut and make garments for themselves and their families, retaining each garment till paid for, a penny or sixpence at a time. At each of these meetings there were readings of a portion of the Book,' and prayer to Him who hears even the cry of the ravens. After a time came another addition. In many of these gloomy abodes were many men and women, who not only possessed no article of furniture beyond a basket and a broken chair, but who had never known what it was to sleep on a bed, be it ever so humble. Beds at six shillings sterling were placed at her disposal, so that soon one and another provided the means to possess the coveted luxury, paying for the same before removal to their humble homes. Other simple furniture was from time to time added, till step by step these poor outcasts began to see that they too might be comfortable by husbanding those means which hitherto had all gone to the gin-shop.

"I might please you by telling you how wonderful were the results of taking of the people to mend themselves,' but I refer you to some soul-stirring books on this subject, where you may read for yourself, and wonder at the good which so humble an

instrumentality has accomplished. I refer to 'The Missionary Link,' 'Ragged Homes, and How to Mend Them,' and a periodical, The Book and its Mission,' for facts which will show even the most thoughtless how much better it is to help the poor to help themselves than to give alms on never so liberal a scale.

"I cannot drop my pen without giving you a few 'results' of this humble work, from its first beginning in St. Giles by the patient and loving ‘Marian' and her 'Lady Superintendent,'— to whom the Bible Society made a grant of £5 in 1857. There are now about forty Bible women' employed in this metropolis. Already between 5000 and 6000 copies of the Scriptures have reached a class which no other agency could have reached.

"A report which I have before me states the receipts of these missions to have been upwards of £2000, nearly £650 of which have been paid in for beds and clothing by the poor people themselves money saved to their comfort, and rescued from the clutch of the gin-palace keeper. All these articles have been furnished at the very lowest cost, and to the honor of these poor be it said, scarcely any loss has accrued to the missions from non-payment.

"The report goes on to say: 'In the east of London, some of our women are familiar even with scenes of murder and violence which might shake the strongest nerves, yet no evil has been permitted to happen to any one of them, and their presence has been permitted when that of the police is defied.' The influence which the Bible women' have gained is wonderful,from being mobbed by wicked men and boys, they have come to be 'waited and watched for' by those poor hopeless ones, for whose souls no one has heretofore cared. The appeal to their better natures, made by one of themselves,' has not been in vain, and the invitation of the poor weary one: 'Come againcome often-for no one has ever brought me such good news'— is daily repeated. Ruffianly men pass her on the stairs, the screams of wives beaten and kicked make her sick at heart, oaths are showered on her which make her shudder,-will she go home, and give up her work? Oh, no! for the feeble, plead

ing voice of her suffering sister rings in her ear:

come often."

"Come again,

"In closing, may I ask my countrywomen, through you, who will begin this work in our large cities? To carry it on, a Lady Superintendent' is essential. She must judge of the fitness of the Bible women'-superintend the meetings for cutting and making garments-visit those cases of illness or other calamity to which her attention is called-make the purchases, and receive the money collected by the women. It is not necessary to wait for large means. The missions are almost self-supporting. They help the poor to help themselves. It begins with the women - the mothers, who have always, and will always, mould those about them. Do we need a wider sphere? We who are mothers know how, with all the appliances of health, and means, and education, our hearts are often wearied in our work; can we wonder that the hearts of our outcast sisters sink and utterly fail them, sunk as they are, with none of these helps? Let those of our sex who will, wrangle for a wider sphere, while we, content with the work which God has given us to do, go forth to teach our miserable sisters how to accept the 'glad tidings,' to guide the house,' to influence their children, and, at last, how with us to attain to that rest which remains to the children of God!"

Musidora obtained work for the poor by writing a circular, stating their ignorance, drunkenness, hopelessness, and penury, and sent it to all the planters of the district she pledged herself to rid their neighborhood of paupers and street-beggars, if they would furnish her subscriptions of money, clothing, blankets, wool, cotton, or provisions. These elevated gentlemen of South Carolina gladly entered into her plans for making the poor respectable by giving them work; and the planters requested Musidora always frankly to state what she needed in this home-missionary enterprise.

Musidora bought spinning-wheels, and cotton and