"It is then a happiness to obtain for them a little nourishment, and to give them words of sympathy and encouragement. Many are Roman Catholics, who seem surprised that I should take any interest in them, as they said it was more than their own people will do.
"A poor woman whom I visited, said: 'I will never again think that Protestants cannot be saved, as I have been taught; and since I have read the Bible, I intend to go to a Protestant church and hear for myself.'
"The Catholics say to me, 'How different your prayers are from ours. Why do you not pray to the Blessed Virgin?' I tell them that we only pray to the Lord Jesus Christ, as He is the only Saviour. While visiting lately in some wretched houses of infamy and talking to the poor women, they would shed tears, and say that they would like to live different lives, but it is so hard to begin to do better. It is surprising to see with what attention they listen to the words of Scripture and promise to read the Bible themselves."
A Wonderful Work.
Still continuing the record of her work, she writes: "During last month I made two hundred and fifty visits, read the Scriptures as often as I had the opportunity; have given two Bibles to persons who were too poor to pay for them, and sold one.
"Several Roman Catholic women have asked for Bibles, and are reading them with pleasure. One woman, whose husband called her a 'turn-coat,' said she did not care for that, but that nothing should persuade her to give up her Bible.
"I have induced several persons to attend church, and have taken children to the Sabbath-school, thus trying to sow the seed, and looking to God for His blessing.
"A poor man, ill with consumption, is one whom I visit often. I have aided his family with coal, and also in buying food and nourishment for himself. He reads a Bible that I gave him every day, and when his children come from school he gets them to read to him. He says: 'If I had been a better man; had read my Bible and taken care of my health, I might have been different, but now I am trusting in the Lord that He will forgive and accept me, and that is my only hope. I tell my wife that when I am gone she must never give up the Bible, but read it every day with her children.'"
We must ever remember, dear reader, that the unfolding of the Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believeth. What a tremendous power was manifested by the preaching of the Gospel to the savages of North America, in 1743. Mr. Brainerd, in his journal, gives an instance of the effects which followed the preaching of the Word of God. "There was much concern," says he, "among them while I was discoursing publicly; but afterward, when I spoke to one and another whom I perceived more particularly under concern, the power of God seemed to descend upon the assembly, 'like a mighty rushing wind,' and with an astonishing energy bore down all before it.