never ceased. In the spring of this year Miss Macpherson had contemplated starting with a party for Canada, but as the time drew near she was so much worn out by the continued strain of "holding the fort" at Spitalfields for the last two years, that some of her friends almost feared she would be unable to take the charge. She would not suffer her bodily weakness to hinder her, and on May the 8th started on her twenty-first voyage in the "Sardinian," accompanied by her brother-in-law, Mr. Merry, with a party of fifty children, and two young men who had gone out with her in 1870, and had returned to see their friends, and were on their way back with her to the land of their adoption. So many thousand miles had been traversed by land and sea, and hitherto thanksgivings had gone up for preservation from even alarm of danger. Now a deeper thanksgiving was to be called forth, for the Lord's preserving care in a scene which brought all face to face with eternity. On the Monday before she left Miss Macpherson remarked to some friends, "The Word is full of _Deliverance_, both individual deliverance and otherwise," little dreaming how soon she would be called to realise this truth. The following letter, which appeared in the "Times," tells of the strength given in time of need:-- "_May_ 14, 1878. "Captain Grills, of the Liverpool Mercantile Marine Service Association, going to Derry upon a pleasure trip, was upon the bridge of the 'Sardinian' when the accident occurred, and speaks in high terms of the discipline of officers and crew under the trying circumstances. He says:--'I was on the bridge with Captain Dutton, looking for the approach of the tender, when in a moment an explosion occurred down in the fore-hold, where a quantity of coal was stored, and blew into the air thousands of fragments of wood. Immediately afterwards people came shrieking up the companion ways, many, of them cut, bruised, and blackened. The scene was indescribable. A great deal of confusion was caused by the separation of children from parents and husbands from wives. One poor woman begged me to go and find her baby, which was torn from her arms. The Captain, on hearing the explosion and seeing the smoke, sprang from the bridge, ordered the hose to be instantly applied, and by dint of extraordinary exertions on the part of himself, the officers, and crew, succeeded in saving several people who were in the midst of the debris. The hold was flooded with water from the hose, but the smoke continued to pour out in dense volumes, and ultimately they had to abandon all hope of saving the ship except by opening the sluices and letting the water in. Before doing this the vessel was taken into five fathoms of water, so that when she settled down her decks would be above water, and she might the more easily be pumped out and raised. While these orders were being executed, the whole of the saloon passengers, assisted by many of the crew, were engaged in transferring the