God's Answers: A Record of Miss Annie Macpherson's Work at the Home of Industry, Spitalfields, London, and in CanadaLowe, Clara M. S.
Religion
God's Answers: A Record of Miss Annie Macpherson's Work at the Home of Industry, Spitalfields, London, and in Canada
Lowe, Clara M. S.
Canada -- Emigration and immigration; Church work with children; Home missions; Macpherson, Annie
The next party was arranged to leave for Canada by the "Prussian" on
the 4th of May, and on this occasion one who had the privilege of
accompanying them thus wrote:--"I feel it as impossible to convey to
friends in England a true idea of the kind welcome accorded to our
poor little ones, as it is to give to dear Canadian friends any
adequate idea of the crowded misery of our own dens and alleys.
"It has scarcely been credited by some that so many hundreds of
little travellers could have crossed the Atlantic in many successive
voyages and not have experienced one storm. How we realised the power
of Him 'who stilleth the noise of the sea, the noise of their waves,
and the tumult of the people!' for on this voyage, as on every other,
it has been remarkable that no discord has arisen among her many
young charges. The work begun on land was carried on at sea, and many
young hearts were blessed of the Lord ere they left the ship. It was
pleasant to hear many testimonies in their favour among the
passengers and crew; pleasant also to hear testimonies of
thankfulness for Miss Macpherson's presence in the ship; for she
laboured unceasingly among the crew and steerage passengers as well
as with her own special charges.
"Kind letters of welcome were received off Quebec. For a few hours
we were detained at Point Levi, waiting for the emigrants' train, and
watching with delight the sun descending and streaming with splendour
on the cliffs and magnificent river; some of the heights bare, others
clothed with firs, all picturesque and grand. The evening star shone
before us as we were carried westward; one of the little orphan girls
said it looked as if watching over us to help us; and in the morning
we reached Montreal Junction, where one of the warm Canadian friends
who have welcomed Miss Macpherson so cordially entered the cars, and
spoke very encouraging words to the young travellers, telling them
how he had himself been as dependent on his own exertions as any of
them could be, and how by perseverance in the situation he had first
entered, he had risen from the humblest post to the highest, and had
long been in a position to help others. This friend is the
superintendent of a large Sunday-school, and his scholars have
undertaken the support of an English child.
"A lovely cloudless day was just dawning as we arrived at
Belleville, and we were greeted at the station by the kind voice of
Mr. Henderson, one of the evangelists, for whose labours in Canada we
have had so much reason to praise the Lord. The sun had not risen
when we were first taken across the blue rushing river Moira,
carrying with it the floating logs, felled far away, and borne by its
rapid current to the Bay of Quinte, the beautiful shores of which we
caught sight of just 'as the crimson streak in the east was growing
into the great sun.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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