THOSE who have watched the “Mothers’ Society” from the commencement, will see that every year has been marked by steady progress; and not merely in numbers: the moral and spiritual tone has deepened, become more real, more earnest, more active. Nothing was so distressing to me, when I first commenced this work, as to observe the unkind feelings which these women manifested towards each other. It was no unusual thing for me to receive a call from one of them, for the purpose of telling me, that if I allowed Mrs So-and-So to come to the meeting, then she should _not_ come. “They hadn’t spoke for months, and never meant to speak any more; and there was no pleasure in coming and seeing such a ‘ippocrit’ as she was, ‘sitten up there.’” Then, again, I was warned not to take up with such a one; for she was as false as she was high, and “nobody never believed a word she said.” Once, a mother came to complain against her own daughter, telling me she was quite undeserving of the assistance I was rendering her, and that the only thing that brought her amongst us was to get all she could. I often spoke to them very earnestly about these accusations of each other, and assured them that this sin would be to our meetings what Achan’s crime was to the camp of Israel; that we could neither expect the blessing of a God of love ourselves, nor hope that our united prayers for our children would be heard and answered, whilst we were hating instead of helping one another. But this is not so much a thing to be lectured against, as to be lived down. The constant reading together of the Word of God, especially of His life who so loved us, sinners though we are, as to die for us, soon had its effect upon us. We have always, from the first, made a point of referring in our prayers to any particular family affliction which had occurred to any of our number, and also of sending kind messages to the absent; and as I persisted in doing this to saints and sinners alike, and never took any further notice of the evil reports brought to me, than to pray more earnestly than ever, that we might _all_ be delivered from the particular sins complained of, the evil spirit seemed gradually to die out, and I hailed with joy many evidences of a very _different_ spirit. The elder women began to remember that they could sometimes help the younger ones, by nursing their babies, so that the work for the many little ones at home might proceed the faster. The younger members, in their turn, would stop to thread the needle, which the failing sight of some companion made a difficult operation. The warmest seat by the fire was given up to the poor invalid, who came with a bad cough, or to the newly made mother, with her “wee baby.” The only two footstools in the room were given up to those who most needed them, instead of keeping them, with the remark, “I got it fust, and I shall keep it,” which at one time might have been heard.