“A severe illness laid her prostrate, and to this hour she feels—in a way that we who help her in her work cannot feel—what is meant by sickness and poverty coming together.” {8} This was God’s education to prepare for Himself an agent to carry out His purposes of mercy. By uniting the introduction of God’s Word with care for the temporal wants of the poor people around her, Marian has been able to accomplish wonders in two short years; and the account of them will be seen with great pleasure by those who allow themselves the monthly treat of reading “The Book and its Mission.” But something more than facts, valuable as they are, have been deduced from Marian’s mission. The lock that refused to be picked, has yielded to the fitting key. We have sat in our beautiful churches long enough, and wished we could see the poor gathered around us; but they have not come. We have written numberless words of advice to them from our comfortable houses; and though all these efforts have, doubtless, accomplished good, especially amongst a particular class—for no word of truth falls to the ground—yet all will acknowledge that they have in a great measure failed to affect the masses of our poor people; and, had it not been for our City Missionary and Ragged School, it is dreadful to think what would have become of the ever-increasing population of this crowded city. Our missionaries have done much; the moral atmosphere is always improved by their presence; and thousands of poor wanderers from God have, through their teaching, found their way back to peace and holiness. The Ragged Schools have rescued thousands of poor outcasts from destruction. But neither of these agencies operates directly upon the homes of the poor, though “the entrance” of that word which “giveth light,” seldom fails to shed its influence on the exterior.