And so the poor mother, with the full consciousness before her of the cause of her own blighted life, looks at her children, and with uplifted hands and streaming eyes prays—as none but the wife of a drunkard ever prays—“Deliver them, oh, deliver them from evil!” And the children, with the recollection ever before them of their joyless childhood and sorrowful home, band themselves together, trying thus by union to strengthen their moral courage to resist evil, and they pray—“Oh, lead us not into temptation.” Let us kneel with them and pray too, that God, in mercy to these poor captives, sighing for deliverance, will awaken the consciences of those who still dare to offer the intoxicating cup as a remuneration for labour. If they will not pause and listen to the groans of humanity, the wail of despair, that is ascending night and day from every corner of this land through this accursed thing, let them, for their own sakes, ponder the meaning of the terrible words too lightly passed over, even by those who tell us that He who uttered them is their Lord and Master. “Woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” “It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.”
But to return to our missionaries. One of them spends the greater part of Monday morning in collecting money for the savings’ bank. She has occasionally brought me as much as £2 in the evening, all obtained in small sums, even as low as a penny, and rarely higher than 2s. 6d. This poor woman suffers very much from a swollen foot and leg. I have said to her—
“I am afraid you must find it very painful to walk and stand about so long.”
“Well, ma’am, ’tis rather,” she will say; “but it does me good: and I think how happy I shall be when I take it back to them in the winter, and they tell me it is all as if I had given it to them, for they haven’t a-missed it.”
On Monday afternoon, they bring me their report of what they have been doing during the week. I learn from them the general state of things, and what is actually transpiring, much better than I could from any investigation of my own making. The poor have no hope, in their dealings with one another, of getting at a “blind side,” as they sometimes do with a lady; and the positive facts which I obtain are of great use to me in many ways, and have often saved me from making mistakes.
In order to keep up a vigorous and lively interest at the “Mothers’ Meetings,” the subjects that are brought forward must usually have some reference to what is passing among them. I have frequently, at home, thought of a topic to form the basis of our conversation in the evening; and on my way there, or even after I have entered the room, I have heard of events which I knew must so absorb their attention, that there could be little chance of their following out my train of thought; and that if I wished to do them good, I must follow theirs instead.
I once heard our city missionary make a remark, which has been very useful to me. He said—
“We must remember, in our intercourse with the poor, that they have a constant pressure upon their minds, as to how they are to provide for their ever-returning wants; and we must not expect more abstract attention from them than we feel we should be inclined to give ourselves, supposing that we were so situated as not to know certainly how the dinner for to-morrow was to be provided.”
I have thought that our interviews may be compared to meeting men on a battle-field. How absurd it would be to call them aside, and endeavour to fix their attention on some of the abstruse metaphysical questions of the day! “Oh,” they would say, “pray do not trifle with us; we are ready to sink under the heat and burden of this protracted contest! Talk to us of the battle, and how we are to sustain this conflict; and tell us, oh! tell us, is there any hope of peace at last?”
None, I believe, feel more emphatically that life is a battle than the poor mother, with her many children and few helps. The demands made on her strength, patience, and resources are beyond what those in easier circumstances can conceive. I have felt ashamed sometimes, after speaking of the virtues of patience and forbearance, to think how utterly I might fail in all these, were I tried as they are tried.