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
"As we arrived, a farmer kindly offered to broom the snow from our
feet--a process all seemed prepared to do for each other. Then, in a
good-sized hall, about fifty of all ages gathered around an immense
stove--ministers, doctors, and farmers, with their belongings. Chairs
in front of the stove were set for the minister and myself.
"After singing 'Rock of Ages,' etc., and prayer, it was so like a
family, that it became easy just to tell real story after story as to
how we find the children, where the means come from, and what is
required of those who receive them.
"The minister then present was one who, having heard of the work at
the commencement; had gone to the Home and received little Bessie,
aged ten. She now came up and gave me a hearty kiss, and then, so
childlike, showed me her new winter garments. Now who was Bessie? The
child of a surgeon who had rained his family by intemperance. The
mother, a teacher in a ladies' school in Germany, earning her own
bread, after a long and heavy struggle. Bessie is loved and is being
educated in everything to make her a useful woman.
"Next morning we started for visits to several children. Found the
first child gone to school. We saw her looking well as we passed the
school-house, and called her out. All we saw that day filled our
hearts with deepest thankfulness. The meeting in the evening was held
in the Congregational Church, well warmed and lighted, and a most
intelligent-looking gathering. Ere long I espied one of the orphan
lads, and called him to me, that he might speak for himself, knowing
that his own words would endorse the work more forcibly than anything
I could say. He was a bright, intellectual looking youth of fourteen,
who in a most manly way answered me a few questions. In this way we
are securing the prayers of God's dear children, and, we trust,
opening many a heart and home for those who may yet come forth from
the dens of sin and iniquity of our great cities.
"Our Canadian horse seemed to enjoy the snow as much as we did, even
though the depth had tripled since our leaving home. How much on this
journey we have learnt of the continued loving-kindness of our
covenant-keeping God, making our fears fly, and giving protection
from the stormy blasts, in forms so comparatively new to us. Every
person is so kind to us that we are so glad we have been led to yield
to this service as a child. Many a door, we trust, will soon be wide
open for earnest evangelists to come and be fresh voices, cheering
our brethren who are labouring on in these small towns away from the
front.
"Pray on for us, as a band, that we take not one step _before_
the Lord, but that we hold not back on account of our weakness or the
fear of man. Ask for us that we may each one live so close to the
Lord, that we may be fitted to deal personally with those we meet
with.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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