Our Workers.

White Ribbon, Volume 18, Issue 207, 18 September 1912, Page 11

Our Workers.

—- Welcome Home. It is good to know that after a strenuous crusade against King Alcohol in the Australian States our beloved Mrs. Lee Cowie has reached home once more. The Press has given full and glowing accounts of the magnificent addresses given by her in many crowded meetings. We are thankful for the health and strength vouchsafed to her, end the safe transit by land and sea, enabling her to be such a tower of strength to our cause which is seeking to overthrow everything that retards the coining of Christ’s Kingdom. Our readers will he interested in the following extract from an open letter in “ The Alliance Record ” : At lownsville we had a fine open air mission for a week. The weather was ideal for such a mission, and we had a really blessed Line, with many pledges and good results.

From there we went to Charters lowers, 82 miles inland. Here we were a corded a civic welcome in great style. Ihe Mayor and tnanv fr ends received us on the railway platform, and quite a proctssicn of cabs decorated with white ril4w>ns conveved us to the Town Hall, where addresses of welcome were given.

From there to my sister’s home was a drive of two or three miles, and we were so glad to meet again after six years. Mary and

her husband and five children are all Rechabites, and it was a joy to me to see how well the boys were turning out.

The second, Bessie Lee, is a dear, bright, helpful little woman of sixteen —a real gem for her mother. That very evening the terrible drought broke, and the blessed, bountiful showers fell softly on the thirsty land. To thousands of men and women the patter of the rain t'rops on the roofs was sweeter than angels’ music; while to the whole country it meant “ raining gold ”in millions.

Through wind and mire and drenching showers we cheerily struggled, thanking God over and over again for His blessed gift of water, even though it prevented many from coming to our meetings.

The drunkenness is so open, so frequent, so saddening, in all these Northern towns. I find myself again and again comparing our own city of closed bars with these places full of man traps. At Rockhampton we had a great deal of personal work with poor wrecks — both men and women. Five shearers came down with cheques for j£4° each. In one week every t ennv was gone, and one poor fellow told me the publican refused him e'en a drink of cold tea on the Friday morning. I pleaded hard with them to sign the pledge ; but, alas ! though burned so severely by the fierce fire of sin, they wanted to go back again. We find in every place a few heroic souls, who bravely stem the torrents of evil. They make for themselves ch »racters divine, and the world, “ that knoweth them not,” is made richer and sweeter bv their courage and faithfulness. There are two lion.hearts at Rockhampton -» men who have to work hard for daily bread, vet who throw themselves whole - heartedly into everything that makes for the betterment of men. Yesterdav I was deeply impressed bv the words of some who attended mv services 19 vears ago. Said one : “ Ever since I heard you read Ezekiel xxxiii. with vour own name put to it, as though it was God’s letter to yon personallv, T have done the same, and the Bible h *s become a living message to me. Now, he said, “ your special message to me has again been from K/ekiel, though another chapter— l T prophesied as I was commanded, and as I prophesied (while I was doing my part

God did His), and the dry bones lived.’ ” He said, “ I shall never forget it.” Others have remembered either texts, or chapters, or whole addresses, and I find if we take the seed of living love to sow the fields of the world, the harvest is indeed sure and etern il.