LI E> RAR.Y 
 
 OF THE 
 U N I VER5ITY 
 Of ILLINOIS
 
 /z 
 C|e ®^isitati0H 0f Jens. 
 
 AN APPEAL TO THE WOMEN OF ENGLAND. 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'WORK AMONG THE LOST.' 
 
 ' So nigh to glory is our dust, 
 
 So nigh is God to man, 
 When Duty whispers low " Thou must,' 
 
 The soul rephes, " I can." ' 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 HATCHAEDS, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1874.
 
 THE VISITATION OF DENS, 
 
 My attention was first directed to tlie subject of the 
 Visitation of Dens, by reading a private journal of 
 Sarah Robinson's, the well-known worker among onr 
 soldiers.* 
 
 In 1864, Miss Eobinson, being then in temporary 
 charge of the Aldershot Military Mission Hall, was 
 led to take an interest in the outcast women who 
 form one of the hideous concomitants of standing 
 armies. She began her work among them by the 
 usual agency, — a midnight meeting, — of which in her 
 private journal she gives the following account: — 
 
 * See a little shilling book called ' Active Service, or Work 
 among our Soldiers,' (Hatchards) 8th Edition.
 
 6 THE VISITATION OF DENS. 
 
 'We got the tea ready for ten o'clock ; the two 
 Bible women were to help me in the Hall, and Mr. 
 Michael was to be in the streets to bring in any he 
 could find and persuade to come. About thirt}^ girls 
 came. T^early all were the worse for drink, and it 
 took an hour's tea - drinking to get them sober 
 and fit to listen. Whilst Mr. Michael was speaking 
 to them they kept slipping out, on one pretence and 
 another, till only a dozen remained ; and one of these 
 went into a fit and made a long interruption ; and 
 another also became faint and hysterical, and the 
 Bible women were wholly occupied with smelling-salts 
 and cold water. I found it quite hopeless to expect 
 the girls to listen to what was being said, so tried 
 to speak separately to a few. One girl greatly in- 
 terested me ; she is well educated and lady-like, the 
 
 daughter of a shire magistrate. She had come 
 
 in, not to tea, but entirely out of curiosity, to see if 
 any lady really would notice such girls, as she had 
 supposed Mr. Michael was joking when he spoke to 
 her in the streets. I took her alone and talked to 
 her just like a sister. She told me all her history '? 

 
 THE VISITATION OF DENS. 7 
 
 but though she seemed quite to love me for my in- 
 terest in her, I could not get her to go into the 
 Refuge ; she said she should soon go mad, for she 
 dared not let herself think. I spoke most earnestly 
 to her of the end ; she knew everything, but said it 
 was too late, and all I could tell her of the love of 
 Jesus and His power to save to the uttermost was 
 of no use. The only thing that seemed to touch her 
 was my caring for her ; so I pressed that point, and 
 begged her to let me be her friend, even if she con- 
 tinued as she was. She promised to meet me next 
 day, Sunday, and go with me on my usual visit 
 to the Eefuge, and I promised no one should know 
 who she was. When I shook hands with her at part- 
 ing, she looked at me and thanked me with tears in 
 her eyes. I talked with four others ; altogether we 
 hoped to gain seven girls from the evening meeting ; 
 they made appointments to see Mr. Michael and my- 
 self, and go with us to the Refuge. The next day not 
 one made their appearance.' 
 
 In consequence of this apparent total failure of 
 the midnight meeting. Miss Robinson was led to turn
 
 8 THE VISITATION OF DENS. 
 
 her whole attention to morning and afternoon visita- 
 tion of the dens where these poor creatures congregate. 
 At that time they herded together in colonies, as 
 many as a hundred inhabiting a row of small tene- 
 ments, all communicating with one another internally, 
 by means of passages, and named after the public- 
 house which generally formed the corner house; a 
 state of things which I am thankful to say no longer 
 exists. 
 
 Miss Kobinson thus describes in her journal her 
 first attempt at penetrating into these dens. ' I was 
 very foolish about going into the girls' rooms. I 
 walked up and down praying for strength, and feeling 
 wretchedly incapable and without self-control. Even 
 the people in the low lodging-houses advised me not 
 to venture, as I should certainly be insulted. At last 
 I dashed into it, and found it really not so very diffi- 
 cult. Most of the girls were not up ; nearly all, after 
 their first surprise, received me kindly. One poor 
 creature, Lizzie, I found in tears ; she is ill, and fears 
 she will die ; I talked and prayed with her ; she clung 
 to me as if I could save her, and I promised to come
 
 THE VISITATION OF DENS. 
 
 again. Nearly one hundred girls live in this ' Sham- 
 rock/ two in each room, chums as they are called, 
 girls of all grades, some shockingly diseased. I then 
 visited the infirmary to ask where the girls there 
 came from, and so got directed to other dens, and 
 spent most of the day in going amongst them. I 
 could not write down, I cannot even bear to think 
 of, the horrible things I saw and heard ; but I only 
 met with unkindness in one place, where the women 
 who were ironing would have burnt me with a hot 
 iron if I had stayed.' 
 
 With regard to the two modes of working, — mid- 
 night meetings and visitation of dens,— Miss Kobinson 
 says, ' I should alway prefer the morning work, when 
 the drink is out of them, and their time is heavy on 
 their hands. At night they are dressed up, half drunk, 
 eager to be after their wretched gains ; in the morning 
 everything is real about them, no glitter, no illusion, 
 no self-deception, no excitement, but real misery, pain, 
 remorse, and the words you say are more likely to be 
 felt as real too. I have no doubt much of what took 
 place in the Hall last night, seems to the girls a dream 
 
 a2
 
 10 THE VISITATION OF DENS. 
 
 this morning. God helping me, I will work among 
 them hy day in future.' 
 
 And nobly was the resolve fulfilled. Once more to 
 quote from her journal : * When I look back on the 
 work among these poor girls, it seems almost mira- 
 culous to me. Now I can go into any of the dens, 
 and wherever they are herding, I have only to mention 
 my name to bring them all round me ; while I am 
 talking to them, they seem to become softened and 
 womanly again, quite diflPerent creatures. If I meet 
 that horrid customary stare now, I know at once it is 
 a new girl who does not know me. Such a number 
 come in with every fresh regiment, the town is over- 
 flowing with them ; and if there is a hell upon earth 
 it is the streets of Aldershot of a night. No one can 
 imagine it ; they may think they can, but it is im- 
 j)0ssible. It is an infernal carnival. My watchword 
 for May has been, '' The precious blood of Christ " — ^just 
 the word to take among our poor lost sisters. I have 
 felt it so good that we cannot go beyond Christ's 
 *' uttermost," and I am very sure He would not have 
 sent the message by me into these dens without
 
 THE VISITATION OF DENS. 11 
 
 meaning something by it. "Whether T see results or not, 
 I am quite satisfied His word carried there will not be 
 in vain. Lately I have become quite hardened 
 physically to the work, and the joy I feel in it is quite 
 divine ; no other word can express it ; it is in one 
 sense entering into the joy of my Lord. As to the 
 natural aptitude for this work, as far as I can see, it 
 consists in straightforwardness and strength, as well as 
 kindness. These poor things feel, when not excited 
 with drink, so utterly forlorn and helpless that they 
 want to lean on some one. I try to work on this, and 
 get them to cast themselves on the Saviour.' 
 
 So many did Miss Eobinson rescue, and such ter- 
 rible cases, that at last she was actually requested to 
 desist, as the Refuge could no longer bear the medical 
 expenses, the Acts not being then in force. 
 
 After reading the above experience, I was so for- 
 cibly impressed that this was the right agency for 
 reaching outcast women, that I naturally became ex- 
 ceedingly anxious to try if it could be set on foot in 
 Brighton. Often and often I talked it over with 
 Mrs. Yicars, the Lady Superintendent of the Albion
 
 12 THE VISITATION OF DENS. 
 
 Hill Home ; but as we were both of us invalids, no 
 way seemed to open. At last, however, two clergy- 
 men's wives offered themselves for the work. At first 
 I onh^ met them for prayer. But soon finding myself 
 stronger, as a thank-offering for returning health, I 
 offered to go in the place of Mrs. S., who was confined 
 to the house with a bad cold. 
 
 I shall never forget my first visit. We had praj^ed 
 earnestly, even with tears, before going. After visiting 
 one or two rooms together, my companion left me alone 
 with four girls, while she went to find out another in 
 the same house, whom she was seeking. ^ That girl,' 
 said one of them, pointing to a young thing of sixteen, 
 ^ is not one of us; she's only just come in.' At 
 once I crossed over the room, sat down close by her, 
 laid my hand on her shoulder, and pleaded with her 
 as I think I never pleaded with a human being before, 
 to come aAvay with me at once, and let me save her 
 from this horrible life. It was like dashing myself 
 against a dead wall, for any impression my words 
 seemed to make on any of the four. At last I ex- 
 claimed, ' Girls, I can't stand this. / can't touch your
 
 THE VISITATION OF DENS. 13 
 
 hearts, but there's One who can. You must kneel 
 down and pray with me.' 
 
 Eather to my surprise they all knelt down, and I 
 prayed. Praying ? It was more like shedding one's 
 life-blood for them, in one's utter sense of helplessness 
 to save from worse than death. 
 
 The door had not been closed two seconds behind 
 me, as I left, when I heard shrieks of horrid laughter 
 from all four, and fragments of indecent jests, which I 
 in vain strove not to hear. 
 
 I went home literally bruised and bleeding. My 
 prayer seemed to have gone no higher than the 
 ceiling. 
 
 ' thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt ?' 
 Two days after, I heard that that young girl had come 
 away the next day of her own accord, and gone 
 straight up to the Home. She was motherless, and had 
 gone astray for only a few weeks ; she is now doing 
 well, and will, I hope, be a happy, respectable little 
 servant. 
 
 In three weeks between us we had rescued seven. 
 One girl, whom we had never seen, came away simply
 
 14 THE VISITATION OF DENS. 
 
 from hearing that ladies were visiting the dens, and 
 thus realising that there were some Christian hearts 
 who did not despise their lost sisters, but, like the 
 o-ood Samaritan, would even ' come where thev were/ 
 In another case, where den -visitation was tried, six 
 were rescued in the same time. 
 
 But perhaps some will say that this number might 
 have equally been rescued at a midtiight meeting. 
 What are the decided advantages of this plan, they 
 will ask, to lead us to undertake such repulsive work ? 
 
 In the first place, I think it is impossible to deny 
 that this Christian visitation of dens by women in the 
 daytime is a far better agency than midnight meetings, 
 with addresses by men. Let it be clearly understood 
 I am in no way opposed to midnight meetings. Where 
 the evil is so vast, we cannot afford to reject or slight 
 any agency for grappling with it. But in that which 
 I suggest, supplemental, and in no way antagonistic to 
 the other, there is no excitement, no publicitj^, and, I 
 may add, when funds are so much needed for other 
 branches of the work, no expense ; and all may be 
 reached instead of some. On one occasion one of these
 
 THE VISITATION OF DENS. 15 
 
 poor outcasts exclaimed, bursting out into that horrid 
 laughter, which is so emphatically not mirth, ' Get 
 along with you, I don^t want you. What good can 
 you do me ?' Suddenly she became quite grave, and 
 said, ^No, I don't mean that. I do believe there's 
 something in you ladies coming into such places as 
 this after the likes of us. But these midnight meetings, 
 there's so much excitement and preaching ; and of 
 course the men are all paid for it. But, now, with you 
 ladies it is different ; if anything can be done with us, 
 it '11 be by you ladies visiting us like this.' 
 
 But its immense advantages lie in the opportunities 
 it gives for the rescue of young girls who may have 
 been entrapped or led into sin by some careless, 
 thoughtless step, the consequences of which they did 
 not fully foresee. Take an exceedingly common case. 
 A young servant girl— a mere child in years — stays 
 out later than she intended, with some unsteady com- 
 panion : she is afraid of returning to face her mistress, 
 and is taken to a den for the night. Or take the still 
 more common case of a girl who leaves her place 
 from ill- health, too often brought on by over- work.
 
 16 THE VISITATION OF DENS. 
 
 Often without a friend to turn to, in despair of earning 
 a livelihood, in a fit of reckless despondency she takes 
 to the only life which does not involve hard work for 
 a bit of bread. And it is precisely these cases that 
 are too much ashamed of themselves at first to make any 
 effort to rescue themselves, and yet before they have 
 grown hardened to their degraded life, shrink from 
 it with disgust. Can a girl only be rescued before she 
 has been more than a few days, or a few weeks, in sin, 
 no evil habit has been formed, and the task of her refor- 
 mation is comparatively easy, the difficulty increasing 
 with the length of time she remains in degradation, 
 not in an arithmetical, but a geometrical ratio. 
 
 ^N'ot only so, but the visitation of dens may be the 
 means of that prevention, which is so emphatically 
 better than cure. Take the following case which 
 occurred only the other day. A young servant girl, 
 owing to some dispute, was suddenly dismissed from 
 her place, weak and ill from over-work. With that 
 incredible carelessness of some mistresses, which at the 
 last day will lay the sin of so many of these poor wan- 
 derers at their door, she was turned off without a thought
 
 THE VISITATION OF DENS. 17 
 
 or a question as to what would become of lier. She 
 trailed herself wearily through several streets, seeking 
 a respectable lodging in vain, and at last was directed, 
 I am shocked to say by a policeman, to WilKam Street. 
 In perfect good faith she paid five shillings in advance 
 for her lodging, only to discover, during the night, 
 the nature of the house she had got into. She was 
 too ill and too poor to seek another lodging, and could 
 only lie still and pray that God would send her some 
 friend. Falling into a troubled doze, she was awakened 
 by the kind voice and touch of two ladies standing by 
 her bedside. An angel of God could not have been 
 more welcome and more unexpected. In ten minutes 
 she was up and dressed, and being conveyed in a fly to 
 a place of safety. 
 
 I But now having proved its immense advantages, in 
 'what way is it to be done ? 
 
 In the first place, it can only be done by sheer hard 
 praying. If you are content to go to this work in the 
 ordinary prayerful frame of mind in which we go into 
 our districts, you will be simply paralysed by the evil 
 around you. This work has emphatically to be done
 
 18 THE VISITATION OF DENS. 
 
 on the knees. ^' Not by miglit, nor by power, but by 
 my Spirit/' saitb the Lord. One must go emptied of 
 oneself, in the strength of the Lord God, and Him only ; 
 you must pray, till you have got grace to be in 
 earnest enough to plead with the first girl you 
 meet, as if there were no other lost soul in the world 
 but that one. 
 
 In the second place, no lady should go alone. I 
 should suggest that a certain number of ladies com- 
 bine together for the visitation of dens ; that a list 
 of such places be obtained from the parochial clergy, 
 the police, or other sources ; and that they be por- 
 tioned out among the workers, a lady and a parochial 
 mission woman going together, or two or three ladies 
 going in company and dispersing into difierent rooms 
 in the same house, as soon as they have got to 
 know their work, so as not to hamper one another ; 
 and that they should meet before going forth for 
 earnest united prayer. 
 
 Having fixed upon the house to be visited, do not 
 knock at the front door any more than you would in 
 visiting a public-house, but go boldly in and knock
 
 THE VISITATION OF DENS. 19 
 
 at the door of one of the up-stair rooms.* In this way 
 you will probably not meet the landlord or landlady. 
 But if you do, oh do not pass them by as if there was 
 no Saviour for them. Remember that somewhere, 
 hidden away from all eyes but His, is a soul athirst 
 even unto death, for the water of life, unhappy in its 
 vileness, but never hearing a kind word ; and boldly 
 give the message of the Father's pardoning love. If 
 neither Jew nor Mahommedan will even tread on a bit 
 of paper, lest the name of God be written upon it, may 
 we Christians never trample on a human soul, however 
 
 * With regard to the upper class of dens which possess a 
 locked front door, and a servant to open it, and to which these 
 directions do not therefore apply, we have as yet no experience. 
 To find entrance into them does indeed require tact and care. 
 I should suggest all the formalities of a regular call being 
 ohserved ; to dress in one's very best, and to send up one's card, 
 having, if possible, obtained the name, but if not, asking for the 
 lady of the house, and stating that one calls on business ; and 
 then having once got in, trusting to kindness, and tact, and simple 
 human friendliness to gain one a footing. One has always some 
 sense of lonehness resulting from the feeling of being looked 
 down upon, to work upon. Anything like preaching would of 
 course be out of the question ; deep womanly compassions, the
 
 20 THE VISITATION OF DENS. 
 
 yile, remembering that it was made in the image of 
 God, and that Christ has written His own name on 
 it in His own life-blood. 
 
 *But shall we not get insulted?' I think not. 
 If the owner of the house be a man, look him 
 quietly and firmly in the face ; a man finds it very 
 hard to insult a lady when she is looking straight 
 at him : better still, ask him to direct you somewhere ; 
 it is marvellous how that touch of dependence ^nd 
 trust will disarm the worst. Whenever a man looks 
 as if he was going to say something disagreeable, I 
 
 tender, human-hearted ' Christ in us,' that beauty of the Lord 
 our God upon us which drew all classes of sinners to Him, must 
 do the work here, speaking to them not as a class of sinners 
 apart, but as those who, like us, have wandered from their Father, 
 they in one way, we in another, as those who have tasted the 
 nothingness of human love, and whose hearts want that ' place of 
 rest imperturbable where love is not forsaken if itself forsaketh 
 not,' who need, like us, a Saviour and a Friend. In cases where 
 our visit excites anger, or is resented as an impertinent intrusion, 
 a little gift of flowers the next day, accompanied with a kind note, 
 might open the door again for further intercourse. What an 
 untried field of labour lies open here to any one who would 
 attempt it !
 
 THE VISITATION OF DENS. 21 
 
 always walk straight up to him and ask him the way. 
 If it be a woman, you run more risk ; but either way 
 ask them, quietly and gently : * If you had a sister 
 or a daughter in one of these houses, wouldn't you 
 like a lady to come and be a friend to her ? Well, 
 then, these poor girls are some man's sister, some 
 mother's child, don't grudge them a friend in me. 
 You know I am not paid for coming ; it's love that 
 brings me into such places.' Some such appeal to their 
 better feelings will often do wonders. 
 
 But let us boldly face the worst for a moment. 
 Suppose we do get insulted. What then ? Cannot 
 God turn even that to our advantage ? In the Crimean 
 war a cannon-ball pierced the side of the hill where our 
 troops were encamped, and without injuring any of 
 our men, it shattered the rock and let out a secret 
 spring, which for many months afforded our soldiers a 
 supply of fresh, living water. And so, suppose that in 
 the deadly fight with evil we are struck by cruel insult, 
 it strikes not us only, but Him ; and forthwith from 
 the smitten Rock there gush forth streams of living 
 tenderness : ^ I, even I, am He that comforteth you :
 
 22 THE VISITATION OF DENS. 
 
 who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that 
 shall die ?' ' Fear not, thou art mine, I will hold thee by 
 thy right hand ;' — living streams that flow out, not only 
 for us, but so often for the poor sinful soul who has in- 
 jured us. Once it did happen to Mrs. Vicars to be most 
 grievously insulted in one of these dens to which she 
 had gone alone. Undaunted by the cruel pain it gave 
 her, the brave heart went again two days after ; she 
 found the woman in an agony of repentance, and not 
 only was her own heart opened, but she thankfully 
 allowed Mrs. Vicars to take her own daughter and 
 one of her lodgers to a Penitentiary. 
 
 On gaining access to a den, our whole efforts must 
 be directed to getting any girl who may be impressed 
 to come away with us at once. ' Some save with fear, 
 pulling them out of the fire.' Suffer her to delay, 
 make an appointment with her the next day, and in 
 most cases you have lost. her. Those engaged in this 
 work would do well to know of two or three respect- 
 able and, if possible. Christian women, without child- 
 ren, who would take the care of a girl till a place in a 
 bright, well-managed Penitentiary can be found for
 
 THE VISITATION OF DENS. 23 
 
 her. And here I would give a word of most earnest 
 caution. It may be that yoa will have to work for 
 weeks and see no fruit. But it may be that you will 
 rescue such large numbers that it will be a sore 
 dilB&culty and perplexity to know what to do with 
 them. Do not, I beseech you, yield to what will 
 then be a strong temjptation, to send them out at 
 once into service. I know there are some who 
 act on this system, and state that the results are 
 satisfactory. But I contend that the evil that must 
 result is of such a secret kind as not easily to be 
 detected. The first thing an unreclaimed woman will 
 do is to corrupt the minds of the boys of the family, 
 if there are any. I do not speak from conjecture, but 
 from fact. In another case that I know of, a woman whose 
 past history it is a shame even to think of, has been 
 introduced as a nursery governess into a private family 
 without the unfortunate mother knowing the circum- 
 stances of her past life. Now I say, better a thousand 
 times that this fearfal social disease should be localised 
 in certain spots, which we call dens, than that by our 
 hasty and injudicious benevolence it should be struck
 
 24 THE VISITATION OF DENS. 
 
 inward into tlae very bosom of our families. I believe 
 that the true principle is to recognise, with Mrs. 
 Yicars, that these girls have sinned, and to exact 
 some proof of repentance, some penalty, such as going 
 for a time to a penitentiary, which will mark the 
 distinction between a girl who has gone astray, and 
 another who has resisted the same temptations, re- 
 membering that justice is ever the back-bone of mercy. 
 In' cases where the objection to enter a penitentiary 
 is insuperable, it might be possible to try to gain the 
 girl entrance into a respectable work- shop or factory, 
 placing her in some way under Christian supervision ; 
 but I should consider it rather a forlorn hope as to 
 her reclamation, though better than leaving her in 
 a den. 
 
 My own hope and belief is, that out of the visita- 
 tion of dens, if systematically carried out, the gradual 
 formation of Cottage Homes will arise, which will 
 greatly facilitate the work of reformation.* 
 
 I do not know whether I need notice that con- 
 
 * See 'Work among the Lost,' with Appendix, Is. 6c?. Fifth 
 thousand. Hatchards.
 
 THE VISITATION OF DENS. 25 
 
 temptible argument which is so often brought against 
 all efforts of this kind, that in rescuing one you only 
 make room for another. The same argument applies 
 equally to reclaiming a young thief. There is no fixed 
 number of these dens that must be kept constantly 
 filled ; any house may turn into a den, and turn back 
 into a respectable house ; the immorality of a town 
 can be just as much lessened as its intemperance. 
 Let us remember that temptation does not come only 
 from men, as is sometimes supposed, but that these poor 
 lost creatures, with whomsoever the blame of their 
 first dragging down may rest, are the worst seducers 
 to sin, and that in this case lessening the supply 
 must lessen the demand, and diminish prevailing 
 immorality. 
 
 And now having shown that a lady can do this 
 work, and grapple with the evil in the worst and 
 most intensified form in which it has ever existed in 
 England — the Aldershot dens — and that therefore it 
 must be possible for Christian women to undertake it 
 in the milder form in which it exists in our large 
 towns, I would ask my sisters in Christ one solemn
 
 26 THE VISITATION OF DENS. 
 
 heart-searching question. Have we not been faithless 
 and disloyal to our Master in adopting the code we 
 have, that these dens are to be passed over as a matter 
 of course, and never entered, even when they are in 
 our own districts ? Is not the very essence of Christ- 
 ianity just this, that the kingdom of God is come, and 
 that now every spot of God's earth can, and ought to 
 be claimed for Him and His Christ ? And whatever 
 code we may adopt, are not the solemn words out 
 against us, ' If thou forbear to deliver them that are 
 drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be 
 slain ; if thou sayest, Behold we knew it not ; doth 
 not He that pondereth the heart consider it ? And He 
 that keepeth thy soul, doth He not know it ? And 
 shall not He render to every man according to His 
 works ? ' 
 
 It is computed that in London alone there are 
 many thousands of these outcasts from God and man, 
 and yet we Christian women can stand like the fair 
 white marble idols of old. Feet have we, but the}^ can- 
 not hasten to the rescue — eyes have we, but they are
 
 THE VISITATION OF D:ENS. 27 
 
 stone blind to our lost sisters' misery and degradation 
 — hands have we, but they cannot deliver those who in 
 all fearful senses are ' drawn unto death.' Do not tell 
 me it needs a remarkable woman, it needs peculiar 
 gifts to do this work. It seems to me we talk se 
 much about gifts now-a-days that we have forgotten 
 that one gift that cometh down from the Father ol 
 lights, who giveth liberally, the gift of simple soul- 
 saving earnestness, which ' can do all things through 
 Christ strengthening,' the only gift I ever hear St. 
 Paul speak about when a lost soul is to be saved. 
 With simple womanly kindness, and the strength 
 that comes from faith in Christ, many women after 
 thirty, married or unmarried, can do this work. li 
 . Miss Robinson is a remarkable woman, ive are not 
 ; remarkable women. God has helped us to do it ; He 
 • will help you. 
 
 I God knows I do not want to make light of the 
 
 J! anguish of this work. He only can know what it 
 
 costs a pure-minded woman to undertake it. But, my 
 
 sisters, our Christ stands in our midst, and shows us
 
 28 THE VISITATION OF DENS. 
 
 His feet and His hands with suppliant palms that bea 
 the wounds of His love, dumb mouths that surely plea( 
 with us for love and loyalty unto death. Dare we shoi 
 Him in return unwounded hands and feet — feet tha* 
 have refused to be pierced in treading sharp am 
 difficult paths of duty ; hands that have refuse( 
 to be wounded in saving those, for whom He wae 
 content to be wounded unto death ? Must I nol 
 repeat the words of Bishop Selwyn, uttered before 
 the University : ' If, as soldiers of the Cross, we sticl 
 at anything, we are disgraced for ever ; ' he paused 
 and then repeated in an emphatic voice, ^ we are t 
 graced for ever.' 
 
 The evil is enormous, crushing. But at least let 
 it be said of you and me, 'She has done what she 
 could.' Let there be no longer in our large towns 
 certain number of spots abandoned to the devil, th 
 threshold of which no Chridian foot ever crosses, am 
 where large numbers of girls are practically impri- 
 soned from the want of moral courage to effect theii 
 own escape. And when our Lord asks us, ' Where is
 
 THE VISITATION OF DENS. 29 
 
 ly sister ? ' let us no longer have to say, ' I know 
 ot ; ' but even from the dens of our great cities may 
 e be able to answer, * Here, Lord, and I am with 
 er, striving in Thy strength to be her keeper and 
 reserver.* 
 
 London : Printed by John Strangewats, Castle Street, Leicester Square.
 
 1
 
 w ' 
 
 J?% 
 
 M^ 
 
 ^1 
 
 4 
 
 ^ 
 
 rnimt