CHAPTER XXVIII.

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."

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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.

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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."