his Bible and other religious books before him. Shortly afterwards he obtained a situation in a large manufactory, where he laboured for several years until discharged by a reduction of hands being made, which took place at the period of the commercial difficulties in 1848. He has since followed the occupation of a hawker, but in order to avoid his former evil associates, he has removed to the south of London, thinking it better, he said, to do so. The young woman with whom he lived was formerly very violent, but when I have sometimes reminded her of her former evil conduct to move her to repentance, the tears would start in her eyes. I pray both these young people, who attended my meetings, may speedily be amongst those who have 'washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,' Rev. vii. 14." The next case is a remarkably blessed one. The Spirit of God is not pleased to operate so suddenly in the mass of cases wherein mankind are brought under the influence of spiritual impressions, but such cases, when the Lord is pleased to vouchsafe them, are peculiarly encouraging. Soon after my appointment to the Cow Cross District, the superintendent of our Sabbath School was walking down a neighbouring alley with me, and informed me that one of the most desperate characters in London lived in a house we were passing. This young woman had been a street-walker and notorious drunkard for seven years, and had but the day before insulted him in a very shameful manner. As the Lord was pleased to order it, whilst we were speaking, an elderly man passed, exchanging recognitions with my friend. "That," said he, "is the father of the young woman, and is a member of a Christian church-a Wesleyan." He collected some rents in the locality, I found. I spoke to him and said, "I have been informed respecting your daughter, come with us and pray over her." "Oh!' said he, shaking his head very deliberately, as if what he was about to utter admitted of no denial, "It's of no use whatever, she'll only insult you." However, the impression was so strong upon me to induce this man to go with me and pray over his daughter, that I said to him very solemnly, "You profess, I find, to be a converted man; you cannot therefore refuse to do so," and I really partly dragged him up the stairs, my other friend following. Both appeared fully convinced we should not be admitted, or if admitted, "only be abused." As I have stated, I had just commenced occupying the district, and had never seen this unhappy female, but on opening the door I perceived her, and merely said very seriously and quietly, "We have come to pray for your poor soul, go down on your knees.” She looked at us quite furiously, snatching her apron in her hand as if preparing a volley of insult, but on my repeating very mildly, but authoritatively, Go down on your knees," she went down on her knees. 66 Each prayed, the writer last. Whilst so engaged I heard strange heavings from where she knelt, and when we arose she arose also, but how altered! her hardness of heart was exchanged for a condition of intense mental suffering, pitiable to behold. "Oh! my poor father!" she sobbed, as the tears rolled down her face, "my poor father, how badly I have treated you!" and she threw herself on the bed and wept bitterly. She was at once quite changed as respects outward demeanour. But one power could I apprehend so metamorphose the human soul, but that power is an omnipotent power, and "is there anything too hard for the Lord ?" "The Lord unto my Lord hath said, Sit thou in glory sit, Till I thine enemies have made To bow beneath thy feet. "Nature is subject to thy word; "To Christ shall earth and hell submit, Till death expires beneath his feet, Yesterday she would not admit a religious visitor, but shamefully abused one-to-day she was "broken-hearted." I proposed her entering an asylum immediately, and found her quite willing to do so. I walked with her to the Probationary House, in White Lion Street, Pentonville, where she was-contrary to rule-at once admitted. Her mother, a pious woman, was delighted; and after she had remained a short time in the Asylum to test her sincerity, in order that the family might not run the risk of exposure to the disgrace and serious inconvenience of some outrageous proceeding on her part, she was received home. She had become so changed, that I was informed by the family she would not eat without first praying. After having been at home for some time, behaving in quite an exemplary manner, a young man of respectable appearance, of whom her father had some slight knowledge as being in a competent position, walked into his workshop and said, "Mr. O I have something particular to say to you, (or some such words, I understood,) I wish to marry your daughter Jane." Her father was surprised, and told me he hardly knew what to say. "Jane and I," continued the young man, "have talked to one another, and she's agreeable if you are." The father at last said, "The fact is, young man, I suppose you know I profess to be a religious man in some sort, and take tracts about, so it wont do for me to play the hypocrite and deceive you. You know very little about Jane, and you don't know how wild she has been." "Well," said this hasty suitor and hasty marriages in general are greatly to be condemned-"what you've been saying don't make me call off at all. If she's been a wild one I haven't been much better, so there's a pair of us.' Her father was not proof against such philosophy, and they were married. The last I heard of Jane she had a comfortable home-she had been married about five years--and I am assured that if at any time she has had occasion to go into a part of town near her old haunts, she has taken a circuit of a mile, fearful of coming in contact with any of her former evil associates. I mention this case simply as one of outward reformation. She has certainly been under very strong spiritual impressions, but I dare not venture to say she is a fully converted character. She sent a message to me a few days since by her mother, to say she had not forgotten what I had done for her. Perhaps I do the poor woman an injustice in questioning her full conversion, but she does not give that clear evidence upon the subject, in the absence of which I could not speak confidently. These are too serious matters to be trifled with. As respects the mass of unhappy women, their case is very truthfully described in the following letter by Mr. Glanville, Secretary to the Cambridge Heath Asylum: "Upon the general subject, it ought, I think, to be known, that a very large proportion of women who infest the streets, especially in the east of London, consists of persons who have been neglected in their youth, and who, from want of previous moral and domestic instruction at home, have been cast upon the world totally unqualified to obtain a subsistence by any description of female labour; and who, consequently, have embraced the facilities unhappily supplied by the existence of public brothels, to enter upon a life of infamy. Such being the case, I entertain no hope of the vice alluded to being diminished until the careless, negligent parents among the poor, can be induced to watch more carefully over the morals of their children, and to train them while at home to habits of order, cleanliness, and industry. If this was done, and those infamous houses which encourage and foster the vice, and without which it could not be carried on to any great extent, were put down, we should soon perceive a great decrease in the number of abandoned women in our streets. "Cambridge Heath, Sept. 4, 1848.” "J. GLANVILLE."* * British Banner, September 6, 1848. U |
