Mr. Bruce, another speaker, said "thousands of children, assisted, have gone West, and now own farms and are prosperous." He concluded his address by asking the boys to cheer Mrs. Stuart, which they did gratefully for their new home provided by this inestimable and generous lady.—New York Daily Tribune, Tuesday, March 29, 1887.
It is the philanthropist's great aim to defend the moral honor of the homeless as well as to minister to their temporal necessities. This important service was rendered to thousands by our model missionary woman, and eternity alone will disclose the gigantic results.
But let us more specifically analyze her course of conduct under the foregoing circumstance. In the first place she immediately relieved their wants. I have read somewhere the story of Dr. Guthrie when he was first called to the metropolis of Edinburgh. Of their filling his pockets with tracts, and with all the ardor of his noble heart, commenced his great work. He ascended the creaking stairs of a high building in the old town, and knocking at the door, an elderly woman made her appearance, whereupon he proffered her a tract. Looking earnestly upon him, and in a loud shrill voice she exclaimed, pathetically: "'Deed, Sir, I dinna want yeer tracts, I weed thank ye for a loaf o' breed." Ah! he thought to himself, here is a case of destitution, and excusing himself he hurried down-stairs, and going to the baker he ordered bread, and to the butcher he ordered beef, and to the grocer he ordered some English breakfast tea and sugar, a few dainties, and a cart of coal, and requested them to be sent at once to the woman in want. Calling a few days afterward he found her comfortably seated with a neighbor around a cheerful hearthstone drinking their newly made tea. When she opened the door she enthusiastically exclaimed, "Come awa, noo, Doctor, I am ready to hear you on the subject o' religion." Our departed sister also recognized the necessity of attending to the temporal as well as the spiritual wants of her parishioners simultaneously. "After relieving their wants I tried to lead them to Christ."
We shall now proceed to show that this incident, in conformity to the teaching of God's Word, assures us that suffering and want are the means used by the kind providence of God to lead the careless sinner to seek a saving interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. David says, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, and thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me." He delivereth the poor in his affliction. "The Lord will not cast us off forever. But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies." And here is the reason given: "For He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men."—Lam. iii. 31-33.
In this instructive part of the diary we find described a truly pathetic and animated scene. A humble missionary woman leading souls to Christ. This employment excites the deep interest and profound admiration of heaven. The general assembly and church of the first born above are intently gazing on, not as idle spectators, but the angels may be observed pressing through the crowd of crowned ones with glory-lit face, and sanctified step, communicating the cheering intelligence of accessions to the ranks of the church militant which must swell the highest strains of celestial music and deeply increase and augment the joy of the church triumphant.
In the hour of deep distress this woman was sent by God to relieve the wants of this stricken household, and at the same time lead them "to the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world." There are many, alas, who see no beauty in the despised Nazarene until, by deep suffering, they are absolutely compelled to completely renounce self and to fall down, wounded and bleeding and bruised and heart-broken at the feet of Him who shed the last drop of his crimson blood on the Cross of Calvary for our salvation.
"Two others," she adds, "at this date, have been led to study the Bible and have openly professed Christ." What extraordinary events cluster around this special agency employed by the Holy Spirit to bring about such a glorious result. It is the enemy's intention to lead persons in distress and misery to commit crime. This is the testimony of all history, but God saves His own in the hour of peril, and not unfrequently by weak instrumentalities. Near Loch Katrine, encircled by lofty mountains and where the scenery which fringes it is of the wildest character; where, as Scott says in his "Lady of the Lake," the briar rose and fell in streamers green,
And creeping shrubs of thousand dyes,
Waved in the west wind's summer sighs,
Boon nature scattered free and wild