"YES, I have been a very wicked man, a good-for-nothing drunkard, for twenty-nine years, but in that time, You know, I have tried hard to quit. O, it hurts me to think of it, but it's the last time, and I am so weak, won't You help a poor man? I'm down now, clear down, and You tell me in the writing on the wall that You want to reason with me; and, tho my sins be scarlet, or a crimson red, You will make them white as snow. It's no use, I can't do anything; I know it, I have tried it so many times; but, Lord, look at the writing on the wall. You can do it, and I know it."
It was a solemn time; a poor, penitent Scandinavian was on his knees, talking with God; tears were falling thick and fast, and as he wiped them away with the back of his unwashed hand, traces of dirt moistened with the fluid from the heart's fountain were seen in irregular streaks over his face.
A soul was pleading with the Lord for help. The writing on the wall to which he referred was one of the many texts of Scripture seen on the walls of the Helping Hand and Medical Mission of San Francisco, Cal. It was a rainy night, and the mission was filled to the doors.
Just before the time for the services to begin, every worker in the mission came to the small room in the rear of the chapel to pray, and the burden of each heart was that the Lord would take full possession, so that in all the singing, praying, and preaching, Jesus could be seen and heard.
The text chosen for the evening was Isaiah 1:18: "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." This was the "writing on the wall." At the close of the meeting we invited those present who were tired of sin to raise their hand, and, as usual, several hands came up. Among them was the hand of the man with whom we knelt as he made the prayer referred to above.
The winter is on. Fruit-gathering is over for the season, and idle men are coming from every direction. They are homeless, hungry, footsore, and ragged; they range from fourteen to seventy-five years of age. Some of them are on crutches, some almost blind, others, owing to poverty and exposure, are sick in body and mind, while all of them are cripples, made so by man's powerful enemy.
Somebody's boy, brother, husband, or father is here among this increasing crowd of poverty-stricken men. To help him now, while he is down, would it be wrong? would it be a sin? Would it not be the right time to apply the "Golden Rule," "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so unto them"? Is not the "ox" in "the pit"? and is not this the time to get him out? I am sure this is what Jesus would do if He were here. He says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." Luke 4:18. Then read John 17:18: "As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." Also in Isa. 58:7, that man feed the hungry, give shelter to the homeless, and clothe the naked. Read also in Matt. 25:34-40, "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you [you, you, dear one, who will do as He did] from the foundation of the world; for I was an hungered [I, Myself, Jesus], and ye gave Me meat [food.]" Where were You hungry?—On the earth, everywhere, wherever the children of men dwell, along the "hedges," down in the slums, out in "Shanty Town," up in the "tenement loft," below, in the deserted cellar.10We have no room for any more; the mission is full; but the call for help comes thicker and faster. Not since the mission started, ten months since, have the appeals for help been so great as now. Never before have we seen men in such a deplorable condition, loaded down with sin and shame, manacled, soul and body, with every kind of destroying habits, and clothed in garments that are threadbare and loathsome, made so by long use and by covering a body that is filthy with disease.
The Helping Hand and Medical Mission is now ten months old, and during its short life it has been able to do a little work, relieving a portion of the sufferings of its large family; and as we believe the many readers of THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES will be interested in an up-to-date report, we give the following:—
Penny lunches served . . . . . . . . . . 337,000
Men furnished a bath and clean bed . . . . 25,500
Garments fumigated . . . . . . . . . . . . 35,000
Men furnished employment . . . . . . . . . . 6,575
Suits of clothing distributed . . . . . . . 1,073
Medical treatments given . . . . . . . . . . 2,490
Men who have made a start to serve the Lord . 727
Sermons preached . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Bible-readings held . . . . . . . . . . . . . 618
Quite a number who once raised their voice in praise to God for what He had done for them, have died and are numbered with the great majority. We leave them there, for they are in the hands of the faithful Judge, who will do all things well.
Many hearts have been made glad by the return home of a long-lost son or father, who came to the mission a physical wreck; so, taking a look over the busy ten months of the past, we are brought to say, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name." And as the New Year comes to us, finding the mission full of men who need help, we pray the Lord for more wisdom and strength so that we can do better work for Him in 1899 than we have in the past.
B. F. RICHARDS.
An Interior View of Chapel and Reading-room of our Helping Hand Mission. Altho the assistant chaplain, Brother H. H. Dexter, stands at the desk, it is not a time of regular service. At the regular services there is always a good attendance, and frequently the room is crowded.
