body' fully as much as the interior does for that of a 'sound mind.'

"To supply the place of a parent to those who have none, and are on that account scarcely responsible towards a government, is a problem which has long occupied politicians, economists, and philanthropists. The politicians have not made much of their speculations as yet. The State, in its workhouse schools, has not been able to congratulate itself on any remarkable success. An institution like the Northumberland Village Homes, which street arabs, and worse, now regard and will hereafter look back upon fondly, with love and gratitude as to father and mother, surely has a strong claim on our sympathies. God grant His richest blessing to those noble-hearted men who have originated and who find labour and the money needful to carry on such a happy work as this."

Who would not say "Amen to that sweet prayer?" We have given this extract to show the place and its surroundings where the poor little things from some of the darkest cellars and attics, hovels and doorsteps of the neighbouring towns, are now located, and the influences and associations, teaching and training that are turning out of such unlikely materials happy children and good and clever women. The single harvest from one of these Homes would be no small amount to the credit of any one to whom it was due, when the Father of all comes to reckon up His jewels-the priceless souls of men and

women.

CHAPTER III.

MORE HOMES WANTED AND BUILT.

"They answered, 'Who is God' that He should hear us,
While the rushing of the iron wheels is stirred?
When we sob aloud the human creatures near us
Pass by, hearing not, or answer not a word;
And we hear not (for the wheels in their resounding)
Strangers speaking at the door:

Is it likely God, with angels singing round Him,
Hears our weeping any more?

"Two words, indeed, of praying we remember,
And at midnight's hour of harm,

'Our Father,' looking upward in the chamber,
We say softly for a charm.

We know no other words, except Our Father,'

And we think that in some pause of angel's song
God may pluck them with the silence sweet together

And hold both within His right hand which is strong. 'Our Father!' If He heard, He would surely

(For they call Him good and mild)

Answer, smiling down the steep world very purely,
'Come and rest with Me, My child.'

E. B. BROWNING.

HE second annual meeting of the Homes was an important one. The Bishop of Newcastle presided, and he pointed out the need for such an institution in language as powerful as it was true, and based largely upon his own observation and experience; while Mr. Hall indicated the need there was for further extensions of the Homes to meet the wants that were being pressed upon

them; and again showed how large was his faith. As large as his heart, as was seen in the way they had set about providing further accommodation before the necessary funds were obtained, trusting in Providence and the large-heartedness of the people of the North, whose faith in Mr. Hall was as great as his faith in them. As a writer in The Express said before the meeting was held :

"On faith the committee are building the new Home; but the bright-eyed girls who have been rescued in some instances from some terrible homes-if the sacred name of 'home,' that grand old Saxon term, ought to be applied to the abodes from which they have been brought these girls, the rescued ones, cannot plead in vain for their sisters who are left yet, as they were found, to the wealthy and tender-hearted, the true philanthropists of the district. Mothers and fathers, let them think of their little ones, and those who are now gracing their homes in all the sweetness and purity of womanhood, and do something for the motherless and fatherless and worse than parentless girls that often with weeping eyes ignorantly lifted heavenward, are crying for the home they have not got; and let those who have not been blessed with the tender solicitude and care of a parent, but would have given it with all the warmth of a loving heart, intensified by the feeling that it was to their own flesh and blood, think of those who are yearning for a mother's love or a father's care, as they themselves are yearning for a child's fond affection; and be a father to the fatherless, and supply a 'mother' to the motherless, and another Home,' to that grandest of institutions on Northumbria's long consecrated shores, where Christian light and Christian love have shone brightly for twelve centuries."

6

The Bishop of Newcastle said,

"The work we have come together to-day to help forward is really one of the most important works that can be carried

on in England. I want to make my words quite plain in this matter. Many of us are living in a fool's paradise. We don't know in the least what is going on beneath the surface. It is only now and then by an accidental plunge that we get to know something that is going on in the lower strata in this country. There is in England a state of things at this moment that would not be tolerated by any savage nation that I ever read of in the whole world. You know the savages have a way of disposing of their children, but I do not think that you will read of parents having children and systematically neglecting them, even in heathen countries. In such an audience as this, it is very difficult to speak on this point. I would rather address a meeting of matrons, or a meeting of men, because it is very difficult for me to say what I want to say without conveying very undesirable information, for there are those present, thank God, who are greatly in ignorance of this subject. But I may say this, that it is time the veil was taken away from some of us, for well we know that at the present moment there are in England ten thousand little girls who are being brought up in the houses of the most infamous character possible, who must eventually naturally hereafter swell the ranks of the fallen temptresses themselves. Does it not cry for some effort to be made on your part? A little while ago, in the diocese of Winchester, a great effort was made, and it was found necessary to establish a school for rough girls, I mean girls so rough, so uncouth, so unmannered, so unlearned, that they were quite unable to keep what was called a general servant's place at all. Well, the school was got together. There were plenty of girls forthcoming at once, and it was found that if you got girls of that kind into a school for only three months, six months, or nine months, as it might be, and give them a certain amount of teaching, they would then be able to keep general servants' places, be respectable members of society and lead Christian lives. But there is another branch of work which is open to us-ah! the whole abyss of shame and misery in that southern part of

England. You know what the deaconesses' work generally is -women who devote their lives under a certain system to do good in the church and for God, how they are planted about in the various parishes under the care of the clergyman and how they do nursing and teaching work, etc. In addition to all that kind of work, it was found necessary-and I feel bound to say so-to establish a school for fallen, ruined girls from seven to fourteen years of age. Now, my friends, you will hardly believe it, but I say it is time the veil was torn from the eyes of this great nation. It is time that every woman who believes in her Saviour, every woman who knows what purity is; that every woman, I say, should be banded together, and try at once to rescue those who are in this terrible state of temptation and sin; and, so far as they are able, endeavour to take away the cause of temptation, and the means of falling, away from others. Therefore, I have said that which is the most terrible thing, and I can only tell you this, that so frequent are those cases that they had for a single month in that school already to refuse ten cases over and above the cases they were able to take in, because people did not provide money enough. Well now, my friends, what are we to do with such cases as these? Do you suppose nothing of that sort is going on in Newcastle? And not only there, but in many of our villages that are sinks of iniquity, which even those who are in charge of the parishes do not know much about? You know that if Satan were to allow the whole of his work to be seen at once, it would cause a revolution in our land. It is by keeping these things secret, by keeping them just below the surface that he is able to do the whole work of undermining, ruining, bodily and physically, those young ones who come out, and afterwards become the centres of pestilence in society. Now, my friends, I say what are we to do? Well, you know, if on yonder sea, a ship were to spring a leak, you would not be content merely to pump the water out, but you would try to stop the leak. One who is well known and whose name is held in reverence, Miss Ellice