"A few days since I visited a woman whose husband had beaten her till she was almost helpless. She told me about his coming to her with a knife, and expected he would have taken her life. She asked me to engage in prayer with her. He sat by, apparently unmoved. When I was leaving, he asked me to forgive him. I told him it was not me he must ask; he must go to God for forgiveness. It was distressing to see the poor wife, as she asked me what she must do, as she had no friend on earth but me. I then spoke to the husband; he said he was very sorry he had acted so badly, and would _drink no more_. I intend getting him to sign the pledge, which he says he will do. "The evils of intemperance meet us in so many ways, we often feel discouraged, and yet at times a case occurs which bids us _work on_ and hope on. The man mentioned above from that time continued to refrain from drink, and has treated his wife well ever since. She wept with gratitude as she told me, a few evenings since, that he came in and handed her all his money as he had received it for work, never having opened it. She could never forget the day when I came in and found almost everything in the room broken to pieces, and his promise which he faithfully made to me that he would _try and do right_." Eternity alone will reveal to our astonished gaze the number of forlorn and sad hearts that were made to rejoice in the pardoning mercy of God through her weak instrumentality. How comforting is the thought that His word shall not return unto Him void, but it will accomplish that which He please, and prosper in the thing wherein he hath sent it. "It either proves the saviour of life unto life, or of death unto death." If we harden our hearts in the day of affliction we grieve the Holy Spirit away from us. But sickness and penury properly received soften the heart and lead to repentance and transformation of life. Here is a practical illustration of this truth: