Images de page
PDF
ePub

who had sped away at the sight of the policeman, though it was but a common London incident.

But that day I was permitted to hear of “ A Great Transformation Scene." I visited a young married lady in the north-west district of London. I found my friends in all the glee of joyful and peaceful holiday-making: “Oh, I am so happy— so very happy, this Christmas !" she said.

I'm glad to hear it; but tell we why this special happiness."

"Because I've been permitted to see such a change, a complete 'transformation' in a poor family I have been interested in."

"How strange! I have been hearing of 'A Great Transformation Scene.' Pray tell me this of yours."

Without delay my friend related, in words that I have tried to give literally, the following narrative :

You know that I am one of the almoners of the Stranger's Friend Society, in this district. A year and a half ago I was asked to yisit a sick woman. I went; and, used as I am to scenes of distress, this was a fearful case. Mrs. H had been suffering ten weeks with a bad breast. There were four children; one baby, and all mere helpless infants. The room was empty of all but a few rags. The husband, I had heard, drank, though the wife made no complaint of him; she imputed their utter destitution to her long illness; the pain she suffered had worn her to the bone. I gave

some present relief; but, as the fund I have at my command is but small and the claims on it numerous, I saw that merely to give the trifle I had I would not meet this case. I resolved to see the husband; so I wrote him a polite note-working people like respectful treatment-and said, "I wanted to speak to him at my house."

With great anxiety I watched for his coming at the evening hour I had appointed. He came : every feature of his face was bloated with excess. For a moment I was greatly repelled by his look and manner; but on him depended the comfortnay, it seemed to me, the life of his wife and little ones; so I spoke to him earnestly until I could speak no more for tears. He stood silent like a man in a dream. Then, as I was obliged to pause, he looked at me with surprise, and said, "Do you really feel so, for my wife and the young 'uns?

[ocr errors]

I do, indeed. Oh! that you, the husband and father, would feel for them and resolve to give up the drink; that's the one evil that has brought all the rest."

"I know it; bitterly I know it," he stammered, in a choking voice.

I had touched the right chord of his heart. He could say no more. But I read a wish in his eye and the clutch of his double fist, as he struck it against his heaving chest.

I let him go, but I did not from that time lose sight of him. It would surely be hard work for this man to give up his drinking. His wife and

his two eldest little ones prayed with me, for him. Slowly I learned that the illness of the wife came from rising too soon after confinement, and that not only distress but hard usage had been her lot from a very short time after her marriage; yet her husband was not a common drunkard. He was always very industrious; whatever he did was done with all the strength of a strong character.

Oh, to be instrumental in the rescue of this man from Satan, and bring him into the ranks of the Saviour! I can truly say I prayed for this. I found that he had been taken from school when very young, and had forgotten how to read and write. I had a small class that met at my house one evening a week, and I got the husband to come; for I thought anything that gave him employment in the evening and kept him under my eye would be likely to wean him from the companions, who, as much as the drink, were a temptation. So he came. I confess I was surprised at his quickness in learning to read and write. He took the copies I set him home, and practised during the week; and sooner than I ever knew in a grown person, he conquered the task. Meanwhile the poor wife got better, and things began to mend in the home. Where there was everything to do, it was slow work; but Mrs. Hardwick used to say: "If I worked when I had only hard words, it's no wonder I can work now I have kind ones. Why it's like a new life to me." Yes, long before much prosperity came, love came,

and that works wonders. The Christmas after Hardwick began to come to my house, he wrote his first letter. It was to his aged father and mother. They had not heard of him for years; but now he was a sober man, he thought of them. There came back a wish that he would come and see them, and bring some of his children. And so, instead of drinking and brawling, as he had formerly done in public-houses, and then going home to abuse his family, he and his family went to see his parents. And he carried his principles with him, and was successful in reclaiming an old country playmate from intemperance. Another year has now gone. Mr. Hardwick called on me yesterday; and my husband, who has not seen him for some time, hardly knew him. Healthy, happy, well clothed, the bloated, red-faced, slovenly man is transformed into a respectable working

man.

He asked me to call on his wife, who was not well enough to get out to call on me. I went today. They have now two rooms, comfortably furnished, and so clean. Three of the little ones go to school, and it's in the best sense a happy home.

"But I thought you said," I remarked, "that the wife was not well."

“Oh, that, as she says, is the best of it."

“The best of it-what do you mean ?"

66

Why, poor woman! her eyes were running over with bright tears as she lay on her bed, and

she said, 'I never knew what a real kind heart my husband has. I don't mind a bit of suffering except the weakness; I don't seem to feel it-for he's that tender. Oh ma'am, it's heavenly the change! When I think of the past, I can't believe that he once threw a chair at me, as I laid in bed, and wished it might kill me. It was all the drink.'

ووو

I told her to thank God, who alone changes the heart and makes a man to forsake his sins-and I know she does, for the peace on that once worn face is of that kind "which passeth all understanding."-Christian Times.

[ocr errors]

[This was, indeed, a great transformation scene; " would that it were enacted in thousands of drunkards' homes! Dear children, shrink from strong drink and tobacco, and ever bear in mind that the new birth is 'the great transformation scene that can alone fit you to live to God's glory, and to die in His peace.-ED.]

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

PLEASURES IN RELIGION.

THE pleasure of the religious man is an easy and portable pleasure, such a one as he carries about in his bosom, without alarming either the eye or the envy of the world. A man putting all his pleasures into this one, is like a traveller putting all his goods into one jewel; the value is the same, and the convenience greater.-South.

« PrécédentContinuer »