IMPOSSIBLE WITH MEN 
 POSSIBLE WITH GOD. 
 
 New Year’s Eve, 1892, in the town of Calais. 
 In a modest Mission Hall in the Boulevard de 
 Lesseps, some thirty people were gathered to 
 spend the last hour of the Old Year in praise 
 and prayer. M. and Mme. Brun, who have so 
 long been labouring in this town, little thought 
 that the first Watch-Night Service they had 
 held was to be memorable in the life of one, at 
 least, among them. 
 
 As the little meeting was in progress, a man 
 came quietly in and was shown to a seat by 
 Mme. Brun. To outward appearance he was 
 miserable enough, but within, his heart was 
 filled with a sullen rage, the very bitterness of 
 sin, and he was so incensed against what he 
 heard that he could hardly restrain himself 
 from seizing a chair and trying to knock the 
 speaker down ! But the words spoken seemed 
 to soothe him, and he sat still, listening eagerly, 
 till the meeting closed, and then slipped away. 
 It was his first visit to that hall, but for him the 
 New Year just dawning was to bring, indeed, 
 --rtewnexTreriences. 
 
2 Impossible with Me 7 i—Possible with God. 
 
 Who was this poor fellow? According to 
 his own confession, 
 
 “The Greatest Anarchist in the 
 World.” 
 
 According to the testimony of the police and of 
 the people of the neighbourhood where he 
 lived, the most incorrigible drunkard, and one 
 altogether past saving. S. had been four times 
 in prison. He had fought with the police, and 
 was known as a most violent character. A 
 clever workman, being brought up as a lace- 
 maker, or “ tullist,” he could make as much as 
 four pounds a-week, when steady. His wife 
 was a dressmaker, so that between them they 
 could have lived in a most comfortable way. 
 
 But the power of evil had obtained possession of 
 them, and strong drink held them in its fatal grip. 
 So bad was the state of things in that family that 
 the authorities took away the younger children 
 from their parents, and placed them in homes 
 where they could not trace them. The scene 
 when the children were forcibly taken was fearful. 
 Seven policemen were there to overcome the 
 resistance, and the poor mother, taking the 
 baby of a few months in her arms, would not 
 surrender it, and squeezed it so tightly that she 
 
Impossible with Men—Possible with God. 3 
 
 broke its little ribs, so that the poor little child 
 died a few days after. The mother would 
 wander day and night in the villages and towns 
 near by, searching for her children that had to 
 be hidden from her to preserve their lives. 
 
 It was a rapid descent that they made in the 
 way of perdition. 
 
 In fear of her life, the poor woman would go 
 and beg for bread in the streets, and when 
 Saturday evening came, and she heard her 
 husband coming back, all his wages gone, and 
 he furious with drink, she would have to take 
 her children in her gown and flee to hide in 
 some corner for the night, so that the husband 
 and father might not find them. 
 
 When our story opens the family consisted of 
 the father and mother, one son of about nine¬ 
 teen, at home, the three children hidden, and a 
 little infant, the child of a daughter who had 
 died. The son had come to the meetings 
 before, and had for a time taken the temper¬ 
 ance pledge, and it was through him that the 
 father was induced to go to the Watch-night 
 Service. For four days S. had lived on raw 
 turnips stolen from the fields. On the fourth 
 day he made a violent effort, and worked for 
 hours discharging sacks of flour from a vessel. 
 
4 Impossible with Men—Possible with God. 
 
 Could any case seem more hopeless than 
 this ? Mind and body were ruined by sin, 
 and for him there seemed indeed nothing but 
 an untimely end. So great was the power of 
 strong drink that on one occasion, having 
 worked for some days, he spent two pounds 
 or more in buying furniture wherewith to 
 garnish his miserable room; but having a little 
 money still left, he entered a cabaret, and, 
 returning mad with drink, he proceeded to 
 smash up and throw into the street everything 
 he had purchased! 
 
 But the mercy of God was yet to be mani¬ 
 fested towards him. He began to attend the 
 meetings, and signed the pledge. Finding the 
 great change that abstinence effected on his 
 bodily health, he took courage, and hope 
 entered into his soul. There was, then, a 
 chance for him that he might one day be able 
 again to lift up his head and gain the respect of 
 his fellows. His sight became clearer, and he 
 could once again take his place as a skilled 
 workman at the loom. The change wrought in 
 him could not be hid. 
 
 “It is all so changed now,” 
 said the poor wife. “ Formerly it was shouting 
 
Impossible with Men—Possible with God. 5 
 
 and swearing all day long ; now one does not 
 dare to speak above a whisper. ‘ Cest une rude 
 affaireP* Pointing to a bottle, she said, “Yes, 
 that is the bottle that held the genievre (gin). 
 You see now it serves for the salad oil. Before, 
 we could not afford such luxury.” Another 
 time she said to Mme. B., “ We have all we 
 need now, for we both work and earn plenty. 
 And we find there are so many poor about who 
 need help. We can give them a little soup, or 
 a little bread, or a few sous to enable them to 
 live.” This from the poor woman who not long 
 before was begging on the highway for bread 
 for her children! 
 
 The man himself is witnessing a good con¬ 
 fession before his comrades. He has often 
 much to bear for his total abstinence principles, 
 but he stands firm. “You may laugh at me 
 for being a water drinker, but I am a drinker of 
 happiness.” Lately he has given up a good 
 position because he would not work on Sunday. 
 He has found another, but with a considerable 
 diminution of pay. He found he was being 
 deprived of his Sunday morning attendance at a 
 place of worship, and was being brought under 
 evil influences, so he at once made the sacrifice. 
 
 One day he said he saw a man pick up a 
 
6 Impossible with Men —Possible with God. 
 
 piece of silver of the value of fivepence. “ That 
 is not yours,” said S. “Yes, it is ; I have just 
 found it.” “No, it belongs to the publican, for 
 you will go straight to the cabaret and spend it 
 in drink.” Speaking in a little meeting, he 
 said, “ People complain that trade is bad. It is 
 all our fault. To-day I have been emptying 
 the shops.” (Mme. Brun had been that day 
 admiring a large quantity of clothing he had 
 been purchasing as presents for his wife and 
 children, as well as for himself.) “ If all had 
 done as I have to-day, trade would soon be 
 prosperous. But instead, you spend your money 
 on poison, which makes you ill, and you lose 
 your day’s work.” “Yes, that is true,” said the 
 listeners. “You serve the devil, and you take 
 your beef-steaks to the publican.” “ But you 
 were not always like this?” “No, alas, for if 
 I had been I should be a rich man by this time, 
 as you all know. They may laugh at me for 
 going to the meetings, and say that I go there 
 to get clothes. It is quite true, the meetings do 
 clothe me, for there I have found the Way of 
 Salvation.” 
 
 S. is very ignorant of the Word of God, for as 
 yet he cannot read, but he is learning hard, 
 being taught by a good Christian lady, and he 
 
Impossible with Men—Possible with God. 7 
 
 hopes that by Whitsuntide he will be able to 
 read fluently. He needs much help, for he has 
 many things to.contend with. But his feet are 
 on the Rock of Ages, and he has found the 
 Saviour, who has put forth His great power to 
 deliver him from his sin and misery. 
 
 In November last, S. and his wife applied to 
 the authorities to be reinstated in their rights 
 as citizens, and to have their children again 
 under their care. The pastor of the town of 
 Douai, where the magistrates sat, was allowed 
 to be present at the session, a great exception 
 being made in his favour. He gave the account 
 of the whole case, and the magistrates were 
 greatly interested. They were much surprised 
 to see them looking so respectably dressed. 
 After a long interview, and after being very 
 seriously warned of the great harm they had 
 done, their appeal was granted, and last 
 February the children were restored to them. 
 So the family is now complete, and the poor 
 parents are reaping the result of their blessed 
 change, walking before God in honesty and 
 sobriety, and seeking to serve Him. 
 
 As may be supposed, this extraordinary 
 transformation has made a deep impression 
 in the place. The police say they cannot 
 
8 Iinpossible with Men—Possible with God. 
 
 understand it, but they see for themselves the 
 reality of it. Thus the Lord has given His 
 servants at Calais this great encouragement and 
 this seal to their ministry for Him. These 
 striking conversions, and marked answers tO| 
 prayer in the reclamation of the slaves of strong 
 drink, seem to have been graciously given as 
 encouragements to those who are now endeav¬ 
 ouring to stem the tide of drunkenness which is 
 threatening to overwhelm the land. In the 
 little booklets entitled “Much Forgiven” and 
 “ Worth Saving,” we have given other instances 
 of the salvation of those who were far gone in 
 sin and wretchedness. We desire to stir up 
 prayer for this work in France, that the Lord 
 will give His people increasing power in their 
 testimony, and make them strong in faith, real¬ 
 ising that now and always the Gospel is most 
 surely “the power of God unto salvation to 
 every one that believeth.” 
 
 •-^- 
 
 Copies, price 4d. per dozen, post free, may 
 be obtained from Colonel Finch White, 112 
 St. Martin’s Lane, London, W.C.; and from 
 Miss Cousin, ii Greenhill Terrace, Edinburgh. 
 
 OFFICES OF THE McALL MISSION IN FRANCE, 
 
 86 Rue Godot de Mauroy, Paris. 
 
 LORIMER AND GILLIES, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.