black for Mr. and Mrs. Philip Bliss, whose death by the frightful railroad accident at Ashtabula Bridge, shocked the whole world. They were to have been present on Christmas day, the announcements were out and the public expectant. Mr. Moody stood before the multitude and cried. We all cried with him, and he said between his sobs, "O that lovely, lovely man!" I could but say of Mr. Moody then, and often since, "Thy gentleness hath made thee great."

CHAPTER III.

MOODY'S BOSTON MEETINGS-OLIVER'S DEATH.

Toward the close of his meeting, sometime in January, Brother Moody-that is the only name for him-asked me to call at the Brevoort House. He stood on the rug in front of a blazing grate in his private parlor, and abruptly said to me, "Goodmorning-what was that trouble you and Dr. Fowler had in the University at Evanston?"

I was not a little "set back," as the phrase is, but replied, "Dr. Fowler has the will of a Napoleon, I have the will of a Queen Elizabeth; when an immovable meets an indestructible object, something has to give way."

He said "Humph," and changed the theme. "Will you go with me to Boston and help in the women's meetings?" he asked. "I think I should be glad to do so, but would like to talk with mother, was my answer. 'What are your means of "I have none except as

support?" was his next question. the Chicago Woman's Christian Temperance Union pays my current expenses, and in leaving its work for yours, I should have none at all," I said. "Let's pray about it!" concluded Brother Moody, falling upon his knees. We did pray and he shook hands, dismissing me to admit some other individual of the endless comers-in. My mother liked the plan. "Enter every open door,' she said, and every friend I had, seemed glad. At a farewell meeting in Farwell Hall, Mrs. Carse presented me a Bagster Bible, and John Collier, a reformed man whom we all liked and believed in, gave me on behalf of himself and others who had signed the pledge, a copy of Cruden's Concordance, saying, "We didn't know about the Bible, let alone this big, learned Concordance, till the women fished us up out of the mud and set us walking on the heavenly highway.'

I had studied the Bible a few weeks with Rev. W. J. Erdman, a scholar of beautiful spirit and great knowledge of the

Boston and Beacon Street.

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Scriptures. But I went to Boston with no material on hand save a few temperance lectures. On a fly leaf of my new Bagster"

I find this entry, my only record of that fruitful three months of work and study, for I kept no journal and have not since my return from Europe in 1870:

"My first whole day of real, spiritual, joyful, loving study of the kernel of God's word, simply desirous to learn my Father's will, is this 17th of February, 1877, with the Boston work just begun. And on this sweet,eventful day, in which, with every hour of study, the Bible has grown dearer, I take as my life-motto henceforth, humbly asking God's grace that I may measure up to it, this wonderful passage from Paul: "And whatsoever ye do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. "--Col. 3:17. "

I had lacked specific Bible teaching, having almost never attended Sunday-school, because of being brought up in the country. Mrs. Governor Beveridge is the only teacher who had me in charge whom I clearly recall, and she for a brief period. I had taught in Sunday-school, somewhat, but with the pressure of academic and college cares, my temerity in undertaking a Bible reading daily before the most cultured audience of women on the footstool surprises me as I reflect upon it. Entertained in the beautiful home of Mrs. Fenno Tudor, an Episcopalian lady of broad views, on Beacon Hill, I went to my room at eight o'clock each morning, studied until noon, then met my audience, spoke twenty minutes without manuscript, conducted the inquiry meeting afterward, attended to correspondence for the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union all the afternoon, save when I had an extra meeting, which was not infrequently, and made a temperance address, usually in the suburbs, at night.

I never studied by lamp-light and I had my requisite eight hours of sleep. Sometimes I had four or six hundred, often a thousand, and occasionally twelve or fourteen hundred women in my meetings at Berkeley Street and Park Street Congregational Churches. Usually I spoke on Sabbath evening in Clarendon Street Baptist Church, and when Mr. Moody called a "Temperance Conference," in the Tabernacle, at which Gough, Tyng, Wanamaker and others spoke, he placed my name upon his program, also had me literally preach-though I did not call it that one Sunday afternoon. I said to him, "Brother Moody,

you need not think because I am a Western woman and not afraid to go, you must put me in the forefront of the battle after this fashion. Perhaps you will hinder the work among these conservatives." But at this he laughed in his cheery way, and declared that "it was just what they needed and I need n't be scared for he was n't."

The Christian womanhood of Boston rallied around me like sisters indeed. I never had more cordial help, even from my own white ribboners.

Mrs. Myra Pierce, the leading Methodist woman of the city, was made chairman of the Committee to arrange for my meetings, and, with Mrs. Rev. Dr. A. J. Gordon, stood by me stead ily. I tried my best to make the temperance work a prominent feature, and had the satisfaction of seeing some grand new workers develop, among whom were Miss Elisabeth S. Tobey, and Miss Bessie Gordon, now president and corresponding secretary of Massachusetts Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and Miss Anna Gordon, a gifted girl, born in Boston, christened by Rev. Dr. Nehemiah Adams, to whose church her parents belonged, and now for twelve years my devoted friend, faithful secretary and constant traveling companion.

One day as I was about to open my noon meeting in Berkeley Street Church, Mr. Moody came running up the pulpit steps, for his own meeting was waiting, and said, "I see by the papers that you're talking temperance all around the suburbs. Why do you do that? I want all there is of you for the Boston meetings." "It is because I have n't any money and must go out and earn some," I replied.

"You don't mean that I've given you nothing?" he said striking his forehead.

"Of course you've given me nothing," I replied with mildness.

"Who paid your way from Chicago?"

"I did."

"Didn't those fellows"-naming some of his immediate friends-"send you money for traveling expenses as I told

them to?"

"I guess they forgot it," I replied.

"Well, I never heard the like!" and he was off like a shot.

That evening, as I was going into my meeting, he thrust a generous check into my hand, saying, "Don't you go beating about in the suburbs any more."

Everything went on smoothly until a Woman's Christian Temperance Union Convention was announced at Malden, and I was asked to speak there with Mrs. Livermore, then president of Massachusetts Woman's Christian Temperance Union. I agreed to go, and was again taken to task by Brother Moody, but this time on another ground. He held with earnestness that I ought not to appear on the same platform with one who denied the divinity of Christ. In this he was so earnest and so cogent, by reason of his deep convictions and his unrivaled knowledge of proof-passages, that I deferred to his judgment, partly from conviction and partly from a desire to keep the peace and go on with. my good friend in his work; for I deem it one of the choicest seals of my calling that Dwight L. Moody should have invited me to cast in my little lot with his great one as an evangelist. But on returning West, I went over the whole subject of an "orthodox" Christian's duty, for myself, and as a result, sent the following letter to my honored brother, through my gracious friend, his wife :

EVANSTON, September 5, 1877.

DEAR MRS. MOODY-In view of the fact that when I last saw Mr. Moody, I agreed to go with him in h.. work, I think a simple statement of the ground of my changed purpose, due to myself, though I dislike to take his time to listen to it; you will consult your own judgment about presenting my reasons to him.

For myself, the more I study the subject, the more I fail to see that it is for us to decide who shall work in this cause side by side with us, and who shall not. I cannot judge how the hearts of earnest, pure, prayerful women may appear in God's clear sight, nor just when their loyalty to Christ has reached the necessary degree. If to the communion table we bid those welcome who feel themselves fit subjects to come, then surely in the sacred communion of work for poor humanity, I dare not say, "You may come, " and "You must not." "With you I will speak on the same platform, -with you, I will not." Rather let the burden of this solemn choice rest on those who come, and whosoever will may work with me, if only she brings earnest purpose, devout soul, and irreproachable moral character. This has been my course always, and it would be denying my deepest and most sacred convictions to turn aside from it. In denominational lines, we certainly have safeguards enough for the defense of the faith, and I am sadly aware that within these lines there are myriads less true, less Christ