“Why do you call it a Church?” asked Mrs. Birtwell.

“Because it was founded in prayer to God, and with the acknowledgment that all saving power must come from him.  Men of deep religious experience whose hearts yearned over the hapless condition of poor drunkards met together and prayed for light and guidance.  They were willing to devote themselves to the task of saving these unhappy men if God would show them the way.  And I verily believe that he has shown them the way.  They have established a Christian Home, not a mere inebriate asylum.”

As he spoke Mr. Elliott drew a paper from his pocket.

“Let me read you,” he said, “a few sentences from an article giving an account of the work of this Church, as I have called it.  I only met with it to-day, and I am not sure that it would have taken such a hold upon me had it not been for my concern about Mr. Ridley.

“The writer says, ’In the treatment of drunkenness, we must go deeper than hospital or asylum work.  This reaches no farther than the physical condition and moral nature, and can therefore be only temporary in its influence.  We must awaken the spiritual consciousness, and lead a man too weak to stand in his own strength when appetite, held only in abeyance, springs back upon him to trust in God as his only hope of permanent reformation.  First we must help him physically, we must take him out of his debasement, his foulness and his discomfort, and surround him with the influences of a home.  Must get him clothed and in his right mind, and make him feel once more that he has sympathy—­is regarded as a man full of the noblest possibilities—­and so be stimulated to personal effort.  But this is only preliminary work, such as any hospital may do.  The real work of salvation goes far beyond this; it must be wrought in a higher degree of the soul—­even that which we call spiritual.  The man must be taught that only in Heaven-given strength is there any safety.  He must be led, in his weakness and sense of degradation, to God as the only one who can lift him up and set his feet in a safe place.  Not taught this as from pulpit and platform, but by earnest, self-denying, sympathizing Christian men and women standing face to face with the poor repentant brother, and holding him tightly by the hand lest he stumble and fall in his first weak efforts to walk in a better way.  And this is just the work that is now being done in our city by a Heaven-inspired institution not a year old, but with accomplished results that are a matter of wonder to all who are familiar with its operations.”

Mrs. Birtwell leaned toward Mr. Elliott as he read, the light of a new hope irradiating her countenance.

“Is not this a Church in the highest and best sense?” asked Mr. Elliott, with a glow of enthusiasm in his voice.

“It is; and if the membership is not full, I am going to join it,” replied Mrs. Birtwell, “and do what I can to bring at least one straying sheep out of the wilderness and into its fold.”