the cradle, covered as it was with rags, and asked me for medicine. "My child is sick, sir, and will die." The drooping babe raised up its little hands and smiled in my face. I told her it wanted proper warmth and nourishment. The rest of the children were in rags, which were literally hanging about them. The front room, second story, was occupied by another widow with three children, the oldest only eight years of age; she had been in better circumstances, and when I placed some money in her hand, tears rolled down her care-worn cheek; her children were dressed in light clothes, and sat shivering around a wretched fire, in one corner of the room was their bed, composed of loose cat tail and cut straw; this was confined by a few boards through the day, and spread over the floor at night, upon which they lay without a particle of clothing, save the rags upon their backs. In another room, resided a family of six persons, consisting of man, wife, and four children; their bed was composed of the same materials as the one above described, but they had the advantage of an old coverlet, to keep them from freezing; the man at the same time laboring under fever and ague. In another room lay a wretched man, a shoemaker, and his wife; they actually put their children in empty barrels and stowed shavings around them to keep them warm!!! In another house we visited a poor woman, whose husband had deserted her; she had taken up lodgings in a cold cellar, and that half full of snow, drifted in by the late severe storm-human nature shudders at a picture so dreadful. It was evident, however, (though it should not operate against them at this inclement season of the year,) that nearly all the misery was occasioned by that fearful enemy to the human race- -that scourge to mankind-RUM. I suggested to a member of the committee, the impolicy of leaving much money. Fuel, clothing, food, &c., to keep

them warm and comfortable, at this time was the most effectual and essential mode of relieving them; for this kind of people, must and will have rum, and would drink, though starvation was the consequence.

LEAF THIRTY-EIGHTH.

THE VOICE OF THE MISSIONARY.

[EXTRACT FROM A RECENT REPORT.]

To the Board of Managers of the Home Missionary Society of the City and County of Philadelphia.

Dear BrethreN:-It again becomes my duty to make my Quarterly Report, and to lay before you a statement of the labors of your Missionaries. It is with feelings of gratitude that I am enabled to state that a kind Providence has smiled upon our efforts, and a holy and mysterious influence pervaded, as it were, the scene of our active labors, and assisted in the advancement of the cause of our Holy Redeemer. Thus, words sowed in weakness He has raised up as monuments of his power-thus the sterile soil, has become rich and blossomed in beauty and in bloom. It is not my intention to give you a lengthy detail of my labors, and those of my worthy colleagues-to do so would fill a volume when I look back upon the scenes of sorrow,

of misery and wo, through which we have passed, and even while the heart bleeds at the picture retrospection draws, still are there some pleasing associations connected with them, for many a bitter tear has been wiped away, many a sorrowing heart made glad. Families who were destitute of the word of God, and the knowledge of his mighty power, have been supplied with the one, and made conversant with the other. The Holy Book has been laid open before them, and the celestial pathway made straight-the gloom of the sick chamber has been cheered by it. The aged matron has clasped it closely to her heart, and the bright smile-hope's messenger, lit up her dimmed eyes, as they glanced o'er its hallowed pages. What would this earth be without the Bible? It is the sun of the moral world-giving it life and animation, and creates in the bosom, all those delightful aspirations which only end with life, promising immortality hereafter!-With the Bible in our hands we visited the houses of the Sabbath breakers, and blasphemers-the curl of scorn upon their mocking lips gave way before its influence their stern and hardened hearts became softened, and the sound of prayer and praise, are now heard in their habitations! Who will deny the powerful influence of religion? All mankind may in time doubt, but that doubt yields to argument-and falls at the shrine of truth, as it is manifest in that "Book of Books."

As usual during the summer months, I visited the suburbs of the city, and distributed tracts, and prayed from house to house, with those who were willing to receive religious instruction, and even those who "never knew God"-listened and bowed down their heads, abashed, and repentant.

I am also happy to state that in many instances upon visiting the boatmen on our rivers I have found them read

ing their Bibles, and they have welcomed me as a timely visiter and received the words of exhortation with thankfulness and joy. I know of no sight more pleasing than that which presents to the eye-the poor, the humble, the hard working portion of our population, poring over the Biblethe rich we take it for granted do so too, but there is something so nearly allied to heaven in this picture-to see them scattered along the banks of our rivers--reclining beneath a tree, or laying in their boats with the Bible upraised, that we cannot refrain from referring to it. If the heart is oppressed what can relieve it more than the words of Deity? Open the pages of His great ledger, look to the glowing index written in characters of fire-and how soon will it find comfort. There has been over twenty thousand pages of tracts distributed to the boatmen and destitute families in the past months by your missionaries and their assistants.

In my visits along the wharves of the Delaware, I was one day accosted by a mariner, in the following manner :-"Is this Mr. Street? Oh! how my little girl wished to see you before she died, she attended the Home Missionary Sabbath School in Front street, and when she was dying called us all around her bed-(here he could scarcely speak, for tears choked his utterance) and taking hold of my hand, she said, 'father, will you meet me in Heaven; mother, I am going home to Jesus.' Then calling her little brothers to her, she kissed them and bade them farewell, and turning to some one in the room, she said-'I wish you would sing that little hymn my teacher taught me;' and she repeated it

"He has taken my feet out of the mire and the clay,

And placed them on the rock of ages."

While they sang it she placed her little hands together, and without a sigh she expired." This blessed little angel,

one of earth's gems, taken hence to grace the crown of glory, was only six years of age. I improved the occasion of exhorting the father to seek the Lord, and meet his child in Heaven-he promised to pursue a righteous course, and we parted. There was something in this little incident calculated to throw a calm over the Christian heart_it went to show that our labors are not in vain, and that the good seed once sown never loses in its growth, but yields abundant harvest. On the following Sabbath, in preaching at the Home Missionary Room, I related this little episode in my career of Christianity, for the purpose of encouraging the teachers in their good work. After the sermon, a lady dressed in black, came to me and asked for our prayerssaying that the Lord had taken her little girl from her, and she believed it was to benefit her and awaken her to a sense of her danger, in not adhering to the precepts of his most holy word. Her son, a young man of twenty-one, begged an interest on our part, for him, by prayer and exhortation. I left them happy, joyful and full of hope. For God never forsakes those who call on him in their hour of peril. This is a pleasant reflection, and to reflecting minds should awaken the heart to a sense of its own littleness, and their dependence on a superior and mightier power than any earth can boast of. Governments may have rulers, but the world acknowledges but one ruler-Jehovah, Lord of lords -King of kings.

Some years ago I was acquainted with a gentleman who was notorious for his infidel principles, and a pretended champion of its doctrines. For the last five years his health had been bad, but he still maintained his principles of unbelief, and made his boast that religion as it existed was a fable-the whole system of the moral and divine law an allegory! He charged his wife never to let a man of prayer