Gods Answers | Page 9

play,
but ceaseless toil from light till dark."
Miss Macpherson's first attempt for their benefit was to open evening
schools, the inducement to attend which was the gift of sadly needed
clothing. These schools were opened in various localities, the chief
gathering being held in a house kindly provided for us by Charles
Dobbin, Esq., still one of our unwearied benefactors.
Not only reading, but the art of mending their tattered garments was a
new thing to them, and their outward condition was such, that when for
the first time a country excursion was planned for them, it was with the
greatest difficulty they were made fit to appear.
Whilst making every exertion to raise the matchbox-makers from their
hitherto almost helpless state, her heart yearned over their brothers. A
tea-meeting was given for boys by the veteran labourer George Holland,

at the close of which one lad was noticed so much to be pitied, that it
was felt, if nothing could be done for the others, he at least must be
saved.
Money was not plentiful, the need of the East End was then
comparatively little known, but a young believer, the son of that
honoured servant of the Lord, W. Greene of Minorca, had just set apart
a portion of his salary to help some poor, London boy, and the letter
telling this was on its way from the Mediterranean when this lad's
history became known. Thus he was educated, and eventually raised to
a position in which he became a helper of others.
Many other homeless boys were found among that evening's guests,
and Miss Macpherson felt it was impossible permanently to raise their
condition without receiving them into a Home, where they could be
taught and trained to regular work. The Lord gave the desire, and
through the active sympathy of E. C. Morgan, the editor of the
"Christian," the means were provided. A house was found at Hackney,
and named the Revival Refuge, where thirty boys could be at once
received. A few weeks afterwards, looking at these bright, intelligent
young faces, it was difficult to believe in the dark surroundings of their
earlier years. So great was the encouragement in caring for them,
spiritually as well as physically, that Miss Macpherson could not rest
without enlarging the work, and a dilapidated dwelling at the back of
Shoreditch Church "was fitted up to receive thirty more boys."
In the house first mentioned, besides the matchbox-makers' evening
schools, mothers' meetings and a sewing class for widows were
conducted by Mrs. Merry, and the upper storey was devoted to the
shelter of destitute little girls. But in these, as in all Miss Macpherson's
undertakings, the Lord blessed her so greatly that more accommodation
was required for the constantly increasing numbers.
The needed building was provided in a way that could have been little
conjectured, but the Lord had gone before. Along the great
thoroughfare leading from the Docks to the Great Eastern Railway,
lofty warehouses had taken the place of many unclean, tottering
dwellings formerly seen there. During the fearful visitation of cholera

in 1866 one of these had been secured as a hospital by Miss Sellon's
Sisters of Mercy, and water and gas had been laid-on on every floor,
and every arrangement made for convenience and cleanliness. When
the desolating scourge was withdrawn the house was closed, and many
predicted that it would never be used again. In the following year Mr.
Holland suggested how well it would be to secure it for a Refuge. The
doors had been closed twelve months when Mr. and Mrs. Merry and
three other friends entered the long-deserted dwelling, and joined in
prayer that where death had been seen in all its terrors, there souls
might be born to God, and that the voice of praise and prayer might be
heard within those walls which had once resounded with the groans of
the dying. Then the doors were locked, and for twelve months more
remained as before. Then they were again opened, and on a gloomy
winter's evening, with one candle the vast unlighted dwelling was again
entered. The little company included R. C. Morgan, Charles Dobbin,
and Henry Blair, of the Madras Civil Service, whose interest in the
work now begun, only ended with his death. Through the kindness of
these friends the building was secured, and the rent promised, but then
a new difficulty arose. It had been hoped that Mr. Holland, who had
first suggested the effort to secure the building, would have been
willing to undertake the charge, but the work at George Yard was too
dear to be given up. And now, who would bear this burden? It could
hardly be believed that any woman would undertake the responsibility,
for women had not then been called forward