parable of the Prodigal Son, shewing them how they had been living among filthy words and deeds, as with "the swine;" how God had made woman to be loved, and honoured, and respected; and how they had forfeited all love, all honour, and all respect. When I came to the touching question which I addressed to them, "Will any of you now-this very night-arise and come to the heavenly Father you have so long forsaken?" the room became like the valley of Bochim -truly a place of weeping. I said, "Now, my girls, kneel down with me, as you may have learnt to kneel at your mother's knee, when she little thought you were to become as you are now. Kneel down, and let us pray that this evening may be the beginning of a new life to many of you." Instantly they knelt round me, while in the simplest words possible, I tried to lead them to follow my prayer. I was overpowered myself, and my voice faltered, when the sobbing redoubled. Then I sent them up-stairs to see how simple were the arrangements I had made; that I could receive six of them at once, and told them I should be in the little inner room ready to see any who wished to speak to me. Four at once, and unhesitatingly, enrolled themselves as grateful candidates for my Refuge. Oh, what tales of woe and sadness came out to me! No home-no friends-early temptation -not a soul to say, "Come back, come back," to them. Such sweet young faces, two of them not nineteen, and have been two years on the town-cling round me as if, having once found a friend, they dared not leave me. Four more applied for leave to enter the next week, with good reasons for not being able to do so at once.

I asked them collectively whether I should meet them again. The earnest, ready response, even from those who have not yet made up their minds to give up, all at once, their wicked lives, made me arrange to meet them once a fortnight during the winter, and read God's Word, and pray with them.

I left my four young penitents under the care of the trusty old woman; heard the lock turned behind me, shutting them in from sin that night, and walked home in the lovely moonlight, looking up in the bright clear heavens, and thinking how blessed if, by God's great mercy, in this my small work for Him, enabling me to stretch forth a helping hand to those forlorn and despised ones, I may be allowed the privilege of gathering some in who may hereafter "shine as the stars for ever and ever." It is a woman's mission-a woman's hand in its gentle tenderness can alone reach those whom men have taught to distrust them; and I believe the more delicately nurtured, the purer, the more ignorant of vice the lady is who thus seeks them, the greater influence she would have over them.

I must add, that nothing can be more satisfactory than the way they have conducted themselves, since their admission, with three more added to their number, and this within a fortnight of opening the Refuge. Not a wish to go outside the doors; perfectly satisfied with their food-not one request for beer-begging the old woman to spare the tea, and not put too much in the teapot, because they couldn't bear to put me to any needless expense-making some plain print dresses for themselves, and under linen, and longing for the day when they may throw off their wretched flounced pink muslins and miserable under-clothing. The look of love and gratitude that greets me is heart-telling indeed, and the penitential utterance after me, on Sunday afternoon, of the General Confession, and other simple prayers, as I knelt among them, seemed like an echo of far-off Sabbaths to them, when they were youthful church-goers and Sunday scholars. I think I see my way to draw many back to the paths of morality, if not to paths of higher peace and blessedness, if I had but larger funds at my command.

There is no grand machinery of committees, officers' salaries, printed reports, &c., to support; for my old matron is content with sharing the home and food of the girls, and receiving 2s. 6d. per week. If we calculate the expense of their weekly keep at 2s. 6d. per head, add about £4 per annum for dress and shoes, any one can "count the cost" beforehand; and surely no neighbourhood would allow such a work to fall to the ground for lack of a small annual subscription to keep it up. But don't leave these our "unfortunate" sisters without words of kindness to welcome them back to the paths of virtue and womanly happiness, and, I trust, ultimate peace with God.

Dec. 2, 1859.

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