THE PRAYER OF A DRUNKARD'S CHILD

One evening the Rev. Robert H. Carson, of Grace Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, visited the Mission. He had a delightful time with the "Boys." He recognized, from their brogue, the presence of many men from the Emerald Isle, and began his address with the declaration that he, too, was an Irishman. He soon placed himself en rapport with his audience. He spoke from the calling of Matthew from the receipt of customs, and made a powerful plea to the men to follow Christ as Matthew did.

"I want to tell you this," he said; "that no man ever followed Jesus Christ without first feeling himself to be something better than he was before. What was Jerry McAuley? What was he when he died? Was he not one of the grandest men in all the world? What was the beloved Samuel Hadley before he began to follow Christ? What was he when he died? A man lamented the whole world over."

Then came a startling and powerful reference to the man sitting by his side, a leader of the meeting-Bob Williams, one of the Mission's converts of fifteen months' standing.

As Mr. Carson entered the Mission that evening, his eyes fell upon a man walking down the opposite aisle of the hall toward the platform. "Who is that man?" he said. "That is Bob Williams, one of our converts, who is going to lead the meeting to-night," was the reply. The preacher placed his hand upon his brow as though he had received a sudden shock; then a smile, not exactly of incredulity, but of joyous wonderment, came to his eyes as he said, "Why, Bob Wil

liams was a member of my church two years ago. He gave way to drink, and the last time I visited him he threatened to kick me down the stairs if I did not leave at once." Then there came the meeting between pastor and restored member of his flock, which those who witnessed will never forget, and side by side they proceeded in the conduct of the meeting.

On the night that Robert Williams celebrated his first anniversary he gave the following testimony:

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Boys, I am not going to preach a sermon, but to tell you what the devil has done for me, and what the Lord has done.

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'After leading a Christian life for fifteen years, I took my first drink nineteen months ago. My wife was sick. I was attending to her for five weeks and did not go to bed nor take my clothes off during that time. On the 20th day of August I was struck down with nervous prostration, and, in an unguarded moment, I took a glass of brandy which the doctor gave me. At the time he gave me that drink I was feeding my wife brandy and milk, and the effect of the drink I took was so strong that I took the brandy bottle and drained it. That started me off on my drunk. On the 24th day of August she died. On the 27th I buried her, and on the 30th I took my two children to the Children's Court in Brooklyn, and had them put away in an institution. I took what money I had got from my furniture and from her insurance, and with that and the money I had saved I started out on a drunk. The first place I struck was on the corner of Halsey Street, Brooklyn. I stayed there three weeks, for as soon as one bottle of whiskey was gone I had another. Then I left there and went to look for work again; worked a little again and then off on another spree. On the 27th of February a year ago, I started over to Brooklyn to see my children in the institution and on the corner of Eighth Street and Third Avenue, waiting for car, I

slipped on the car track and broke my leg. I was taken up to Bellevue Hospital, and while lying there my sister-in-law got my youngest child out of the institution, and when she came to see me she said: Papa, you are not doing what you promised mama to do-to be a good man and keep the home together-but here you are lying on the verge of delirium tremens with a broken leg.' She knelt by my bedside and uttered a prayer: Blessed Saviour, save my papa and make him a good man.'

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Boys, that broke my heart. I promised her that as soon as I came out of the hospital I would come back to God and serve Him the rest of my life. The Lord has blessed me in many ways since that time up to the present. The Lord has reconciled me to my folks again, and I have got my children back. If they were not suffering from a severe sickness to-night, they would be over here to sing for you. I praise God for what I am. I do not look like what I was, a poor drunkard without anything to eat and no place to sleep; but, thanks to God, I have got everything that a man wants, and all that I ask is, that some of you men will come and taste and see how good the Lord is."

Brother Williams came to the Mission on a pair of crutches, his leg still in a plaster cast. Our President, Dr. Klopsch, being present at one of our meetings shortly after, I took him into the kitchen to see Williams, as an illustration of the many men who are turned out of the hospitals because of their overcrowded conditions, long before they are fit to do any work. Dr. Klopsch spoke words of kindness and encouragement to him, which he regarded as one of the greatest helps to him at that particular crisis in his life. The Mission cared for him for several months while his leg was mending, and when fit to work found him another position. He steadily grew in his spiritual life

and was regularly to be found, either on the Mission platform or in some other mission, telling the wonderful story of "How God Saved Bob Williams."

Then God took him home. A veteran of the United States Army and Civil War days, and a Soldier of the Cross. In the closing days of his life, "he fought a good fight," he "kept the faith," he "finished his course," and is now in the possession of the "Crown of Life."

CHAPTER VIII

THE CHRISTIAN HERALD PRAYER LEAGUE

The announcement of the organization of the Christian Herald Prayer League appeared in the issue of January 14, 1914, and was as follows:

'Will you join the Christian Herald Prayer League? "The correspondence of our Answered Prayer Column has demonstrated that prayer holds a very large place in the lives of the members of the Christian Herald Family. We shall include hereafter in this department not only acknowledgments of answered prayer, but also requests for prayer. These requests will also be sent to the Bowery Mission, where they will be made special subjects of supplication at the meetings of the Mission Brotherhood.

"But more important still is the organization of a Prayer League. This idea took definite form in a letter from Mrs. J. A. Hardy, of Portsmouth, Va. It was this letter which brought to a focus the earnest thought and plans of the editors and this Prayer League is the result.

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Questions of the day and hour were discussed, and it has seemed best to appoint the noon hour each day as the time when every member of the great Christian Herald Family should lift up his heart in earnest prayer for all the other members of the family, for the church, and for the whole world. There will be no formalities about enrolling members. But the Father of all will see the bended knees and His ear catch the whispered or spoken prayers which shall rise to His throne from every quarter of the globe.