ates
in the asylums established for their benefit, cannot, except in a few
cases, be of any permanent good. No man who has once been enslaved by
any inordinate appetite can, in my view, ever get beyond the danger of
re-enslavement unless through a change wrought in him by God, and this
can only take place after a prayerful submission of himself to God and
obedience to his divine laws so far as lies in his power. In other
words, Mrs. Birtwell, the Church must come to his aid. It is for this
reason that I have never had much faith in temperance societies as
agents of personal reformation. To lift up from any evil is the work of
the Church, and in her lies the only true power of salvation."

"But," said Mrs. Birtwell, "is not all work which has for its end the
saving of man from evil God's work? It is surely not the work of an
enemy."

"God forbid that I should say so. Every saving effort, no matter how or
when made, is work for God and humanity. Do not misunderstand me. I say
nothing against temperance societies. They have done and are still
doing much good, and I honor the men who organize and work through
them. Their beneficent power is seen in a changed and changing public
sentiment, in efforts to reach the sources of a great and destructive
evil, and especially in their conservative and restraining influence.
But when a man is overcome of the terrible vice against which they
stand in battle array, when he is struck down by the enemy and taken
prisoner, a stronger hand than theirs is needed to rescue him, even the
hand of God; and this is why I hold that, except in the Church, there
is little or no hope for the drunkard."

"But we cannot bring these poor fallen creatures into the Church,"
answered Mrs. Birtwell. "They shun its doors. They stand afar off."

"The Church must go to them," said Mr. Elliott--"go as Christ, the
great Head of the Church, himself went to the lowest and the vilest,
and lift them up, and not only lift them up, but encompass them round
with its saving influences."

"How is this to be done?" asked Mrs. Birtwell.

"That has been our great and difficult problem; but, thank God! it is,
I verily believe, now being solved."

"How? Where?" eagerly asked Mrs. Birtwell. "What Church has undertaken
the work?"

"A Church not organized for worship and spiritual culture, but with a
single purpose to go into the wilderness and desert places in search of
lost sheep, and bring them, if possible, back t