A Plea for the Abandoned, -$• BY * Siu<3Fie strong and of good courage ; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed ; for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." " ]>e sure your sin will find you out." "I will love Thee, () Lord, my strength." "The Lord is my rock and my fortress, and my de¬ liverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower." "I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from mine enemies." siife m. m m m " Into Thy hands, O, Father ! Now at last, Wear)T with struggling and with long unrest, Vexed by remembrances of conflicts past, And b}- a host of present cares oppressed ; " I come to Thee and cry, Thy will be done ! Take Thou the burden I have borne too long; Into Thy hands, O mighty, loving One, My weakness gives its all, for Thou art strong." Q Ffea for tfie Gbcmdemed. "I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord, Over mountain, or plain, or sea; I'll say what you want me to say, dear Lord, I'll be what you want me to he." "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." "If ye love me keep my commandments." Very much is being said and written about mission work. Indeed, much is being done along this line of christian work. Noble men and women have besought the Lord for courage and other needed graces, and have gone forth into the slums of the towns and cities where vice and immorality abounds, with their means and efforts pushing the demon to the wall. They are helping to lift up the fallen and rescue the perishing. The most of tbis work is being don© by our white sisters and brothers in the Lord. Very naturally they are working among their own fallen. They know that we are not all pure, and that we have many abandon¬ ed ones among us. But circumstances wield great power in the fierce battles of life, hence, as a natural result of circumstances, they work chiefly among their own people. The time is at hand that the Negro christians must give special attention to the lewd and vicious ones of their race. True, we need an educated ministry and a truly con¬ secrated church that will enconrage and help to sustain high-grade schools, and insist upon society maintaining die highest moral standard of character. But with all this we are very much in need of deeply pious men and women, whose senses have been quickened and whose souls are on fire with holy zeal for the sal vat ion of the abandoned and the criminal classes among us. We may plead that we have but very little money, yet God will hold us to an account for that we have had and for the valuable time we have wasted in idleness. Don't you hear the call for volunteers V They are calling for us to come over into Macedonia and help them. The harvest is ripe but the laborers are few among us. Mothers don't you see your sons and precious daughters slipping away from you and your teachings just like a land-slide slips! slips!! slips!!! until the human soul that once stood upon the hill is lying maimed in the abyss below? Do you not recognize the demon as he enters your house and decoys your boy to a pool room, which is so often a quiet gambling hell and a speak-easy ? Do you not see the claws on the hand of the vulture as he leads your innocent girl from your quiet and happy fireside, away to a so-called social, which is in character, if not an out-and-out free and easy, from which your loved one is lead unaware to the house of a lewd woman, where, before she realizes what has befallen her, she is ruined? Gaze upon your once sweet and innocent girl- child as she returns home alone between mid-night and daybreak with her hair disheveled, her skirts bedraggled, and her eyes bloodshot, faltering in her steps and stam¬ mering in her speech. Ah, I know now what it all means, you say. But could you not have prevented it? Did you try by watching and praying and sitting the right example ? Oh, mothers arise in the strength of truth and holiness and prevent much misery and sorrow from coming to your own precious offspring, and help rescue the loved ones of others who are bereft and forlorn. Hark! Don't you hear them? They are calling for a life-line. Oh, "throw out the life-line" upon the dark sea. There are souls whom sume one should rescue. Someboby's loved ones ! Who will dare to venture and their peril share ? Oh! Throw out the life-line. Thou¬ sands are drifting away. Yea, thousands are sinking to¬ day. The chief aim of this effort is to inspire others to espouse the cause of the fallen among us, and to give en¬ couragement to those who have taken up their cause. Every one of you can lend a helping hand if you will. But are you saved V If you are, let the holy spirit direct you how to acr, if you are not saved, tiy to the rock and hide in His cleft, and then your help will be so effectual. Tlemember, mothers, that though some of you are un¬ avoidably surrounded with immoral atmosphere while earning honest bread for your children, you are expected, in every case, to reside in the midst of moral, and if pos¬ sible with religious people, and to keep your children with you. Bear in mind, that, as a rule, your examples fix the destiny of your offspring. Keep yourself chaste and pure. Be true to your marriage vows, let not the trust reposed in thee be betrayed. Be true in all the principles of righ}, and then if thy son or thy daughter is being tossed upon the .surging billows of the ever angry sea of immorality, or if they are reeling under the in- lluence of the deadly drug, sipped from the baleful cup of intoxication, be thou steadfast in prayer and believe that God will grant thy request if it pleases Ilim, though you only receive the answer by faith in this life. Hold fast to the promises until in eternity the living reality of that, for which you prayed, hoped and believed, stands before you robed in spotless garments. Dare to die before you sell your virture or that of your daughter as some unnatxiral mothers have done. Suffer any priva¬ tion before you allow yourself to become an example of drunkenness or lewdness. Look not upon the sparkling wine in the cup with any degree of favor at all. Ponder and pray over the following selection, after which resolve firmly to live during all your future in the realm of truth, virture and temperance. Go feel what I have felt. Go bear what I have born. Sink 'neath a blow a father dealt And the cold, proud world's scorn. Thus struggle on from year to year, Thy sole relief the scalding tear. Go weep as I have wept O'er a loved father's fall. See every cherished promise swept, Youth's sweetness turned to gall, Hope's faded flowers strewed all the way That led me up to woman's day. Go hear what I have heard— The sobs of sad clispair, As memory's fount feeling hath stirred, And its revealings there Hath told him what he might have been Had he the drunkard's fate forseen. Go to my mother's side And her crushed spirit cheer, Thine own deep anguish hide, Wipe from her cheek the tear. Go hear, and see, and feel, and know, All that my soul hath felt and known, Then look within the wine cup's glow, See if it's brightness can atone. Think if it's flavor you would try, If all proclaimed, "'Tis drink and die." Tell me I hate the bowl— Hate is a feeble word. I loath, abhor, my very soul By strong disgust is stirred Whene'er I see or hear or tell Of the dark beverage of hell ! —Selected. I earnestly appeal to the clergy, the church, and to all who are at all concerned about the Master's work, and I pray you to give the cause of the fallen more special attention, and I insist that you devote more time in the service for them. Many of them will not reward your labor by joining your church or by expousing the cause under your denominational colors. But I wonder if there are not many, yea, very many of Gocl's dear chil¬ dren who are prevented this very important point. Re careful dear friends there is much danger of being too denominational. liemember, that first of all, God asks for the heart, His gospel appeals to the heart first, and the true and effective christian worker aims to reach the heart rather than the head. The human heart possesses an inex¬ tinguishable instinct, the love of power, which, rightly directed, maintains all the majesty of law and life, and misdirected wrecks them. Many are too apt to teach the head first, along the line of denomination, and neglect ever to teach the heart along the line of love and peace. Ever bear in mind that "All the world should be at peace, And if kings must show their might, Then let those who make the quarrels, Be the only men to fight." They are calling to us by the millions from the tur¬ bid seas of immorality. Oh, hasten and go to their res¬ cue. The life-boat, the life-boat, Oh, come with the life¬ boat. The lewrd and abandoned are in need of our help, and many of them are calling to us for help, and God de¬ mands of us to go and carry the gospel to them, and also to bear a light by our example for them to see the way out of the wilderness of sin which they are. Oh, let us pray and act so God will raise up many who will help to save these precious souls to the church for service. IF WE KNEW. "Could we but draw back the curtains That surround each other's lives. See the naked heart and spirit, Know what spur the action gives, Often we should find it better, Purer than we judge we should; We should love each other better If we only understood. "Ah ! we judge each other harshly, Knowing not life's hidden force; Knowing not the fount of action Is less turbid at its source, Seeing uot amid the evil All the golden grains of good; Oh, we'd love each other better If we only understood."