“ANOTHER easy text, Hilda; I only read it twice over, and now I can say it quite well;” and Wilfrid Gray, who was not very good at committing verses of scripture to memory, gave a little sigh of relief.
His sister said thoughtfully, "Yes, Wilfrid, our text was easy to learn, not a hard word in it, but I was thinking about its meaning, and I am not sure that I really understand it. You know we sometimes sing—
Jesus came from heaven
Many years ago,
Left His Father's glory
For this world of woe'
And I think the hymn means almost the same as our text. But aunt Fanny is coming, I hear her steps, and she will explain it to us.”
Wilfrid ran to open the door, and Hilda drew up a chair for aunt Fanny. The text was soon repeated by both children. Then Hilda asked, "Please, aunt Fanny, was everybody lost when the Lord Jesus came from heaven to die upon the cross for sinners—for us, you know?”
"Yes, Hilda. All were lost, for the Bible tells us that ‘All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.' (Rom. 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23).) But I should like you to turn to the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, and read the sixth verse. Yes, that is right. ‘ All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.'
"Now there is nothing more easy than for a sheep to get lost, it has only to wander away from the flock, but it cannot find its way back. The shepherd must go to look for it. So you see the sheep is a picture of ourselves: we are lost. But the Lord Jesus, the great Good Shepherd, came Himself to seek and to save us.
“I have been reading a very interesting book, called ‘Memorials of Mrs. Fry,' and I think you would like to hear of some of the strange dark places into which she carried the sweet message of a Savior's love.”
“Oh yes, aunt Fanny, I know we shall like to hear about her, but please tell us something that happened when Mrs. Fry was a little girl. What sort of a house did she live in? Had she any brothers and sisters?”
“Her home, when a very little girl, was in a pleasant Norfolk village. Her father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Gurney, lived in a large old-fashioned house overlooking a common, and Elizabeth, their third daughter, was one of quite a large family of boys and girls.
“She was born in the year 1780, and one of the first things she remembered about her own childhood was how her gentle and Bible-loving mother used to gather her little ones round her and tell them Bible stories. And as Elizabeth, who was a thoughtful child, listened to the story of Adam and Eve, she often wondered if the garden of Eden was anything like the sunny garden behind her father's house, where in fine weather her sisters and herself spent most of their playtime.
“Elizabeth could learn her lessons very quickly when she was steady and attentive, but her love of play sometimes made her careless, and so brought her into trouble. Still she loved, and generally tried to please her parents and teachers, most of all her own dear mother, of whom she was so fond that she would often lie awake at nights and cry, because she thought that during the day she had been looking pale or ill, and she feared her mother was going to die.
“When Elizabeth Gurney was about twelve years old the sorrow she had so feared came, and for a time she seemed almost broken-hearted. Her father, a man of great talent, and, better still, a decided Christian, tried every means in his power to comfort his sorrowing little daughter, and devoted himself to the care and education of his eleven children; and after a time Elizabeth, though she still grieved for the loss of her mother, regained her spirits and sought to repay her father's love by obedience and affection.
“When Elizabeth was about seventeen, one who knew her well, wrote of her ‘She is tall and graceful in person, her mind too is well stored, she is clever at music and drawing, while her disposition is so affectionate that it seems almost impossible to know her without loving her.'
“Still she was not really happy; for while she knew herself to be a sinner she did not see God's way of peace.
“Mr. Gurney was a Quaker, as the ‘Friends' are often called, and Elizabeth and her six sisters were in the habit of attending the Friends' meeting-house at Norwich.
"One Lord's Day in 1798, a stranger, who was on a visit to Norwich, preached the gospel in the old meeting-house. Elizabeth, who was present, listened with great attention, and seemed anxious and unhappy. Her sister noticed that she cried almost all the way home, and refused to be comforted.
"The next morning the preacher breakfasted at her father's house, and presented Christ to the weeping girl as a Savior who was able to meet her need.
“After this conversation Elizabeth went to her own room, where she remained alone for some time. She did not say much to any one of what had passed between the Lord and her soul, but from that day the change in her was very marked. She had become a real Christian, and her great desire was to follow Christ.
“Two years later she became the wife of Mr. Joseph Fry, and went with her husband to live in London. At first she missed the poor people whose cottages she had been in the habit of visiting very much, but she soon found among the hardworking, toil-worn men and women of the great city some who were willing to listen to the sweet story of a Savior's love from her lips; and when, six years after, the family removed to Essex, Mrs. Fry, finding there was no school near where the children of the poor could be taught to read the Bible, opened one in her own house. Seventy children were soon in attendance, and though Mrs. Fry engaged a teacher, she almost always gave the scripture lessons herself, and spent much time in the school.
“Sometimes Mrs. Fry went to the City with her husband, and on almost every visit they passed Newgate Prison, and as her eye rested on its dark walls her heart was moved with pity for the unhappy creatures within, many of whom she was told were women, and some, it was said, had little children with them in that gloomy place.
“Mrs. Fry had a great wish to be allowed to visit the female prisoners and speak to them of Jesus, but there were at that time many difficulties in the way, and it was not till the year 1813 that the Lord gave her the desire of her heart.
“When the governor of the prison gave permission to Mrs. Fry and one friend, who had offered to go with her to visit Newgate, he told them to leave their watches at his house, as he said they were almost sure to have them stolen if they took them into the prison with them.
“But Mrs. Fry answered, 'We are going among these poor creatures in the name of the Lord, they will not injure us or our property.'
“When they were admitted the scene they beheld was one never to be forgotten. Almost three hundred women, with quite a number of children, were crowded into four dark, dirty rooms. All were idle, and some were playing with a pack of greasy cards and gambling for the ragged clothes they wore.
“Mrs. Fry and her friend went among them, speaking kindly to them, and offered to read a few words from the Bible. All listened quietly and many were in tears, and begged Mrs. Fry to visit and read to them again.
“On her next visit Mrs. Fry got all the women who had children with them in prison together, and asked if they did not think it would be a good plan to open a school in which their little ones could be taught to read and sew? The poor mothers were much pleased, and said they should be thankful, and some of them asked if they might attend the school when it was opened, as they had a great desire to learn to read.”
But I cannot stay now to tell you more of the work of this good woman, so must draw my chapter to a close.