“Personally, I rejoice in the better wages now paid to the working man. Whoever helps to make the prosperity of a nation should share in it. But wages have less to do with the well-being of a family than most people imagine. Two men are neighbours, they earn the same wages, pay the same rent, have the same number of children; but in one case the people are respectable and respected, in the other they are dejected, suspected, and miserable. What makes the difference? A little bill announcing a Band of Hope meeting is in the window of one, and a broken pane of glass in the other. In the one case the man is steady and the woman is industrious and thrifty, in the other, both man and woman are failures in life and character. I know that human nature is exceedingly stubborn and intractable, and that only the Spirit of God can change the heart; but is not the Spirit always working? Have we not the right to hope that many giddy young things, who would otherwise rush into married life quite unprepared for its duties, may, under the influences of love and happiness, be brought to take more serious views of their responsibilities? I cannot imagine any better way of serving our country than by helping to raise the character of the young mothers among the people. I am casting no slur on the women of England as a whole; no one has anything but praise for the hosts of loyal, loving, enlightened, working mothers who are training their sons and daughters for high and noble futures; but our great weakness and danger are in the multitudes of other women, and it is the lowest class that is laid upon my thought. “But nothing can be done in this matter except by women of courage, tact, and strong character and goodness. I can find the house and the money; can you find the organisers and the workers? Will you, dear Miss Miller, for the love of Christ and your poor miserable young sisters who do not know Him, undertake the management of the home? and will you love them and care for them, and teach them what goodness is? I ask you, partly because you are yourself young, and can therefore understand and sympathise with girls, and partly because, from all I know of you, I am assured that you can carry this idea forward to success, and mostly for another reason, which is my own alone. My friend Smart has told me all about your private life and character. And I have no hesitation in saying that if you will do your part I will do mine, and with all possible speed. A large, substantial homestead near the coast, in the north-east of Yorkshire, has lately come into my possession. It could be ready for you in a month. It will accommodate forty persons; and I will not only pay all the bills, but will give a present of five pounds’ worth of household utensils to every girl who stays with you six months, and satisfies you. I have an idea that this bribe may win some who would not otherwise submit to any process of improvement, however kindly performed.