“’Do tell us if there isn’t something;—­if it is ever so little—­that we women can do for the Home; we never can forget what it has done for us!’

“Such words, heard again and again with every variety of expression, attests the sincerity of those who, in widely differing circumstances, perhaps, have yet this common bond, that through this instrumentality, they are rejoicing over a husband, a father, a son, ’which was dead, and is alive—­was lost, and is found.’

“Surely, such proof of the intrinsic worth of a work like this, is beyond all expression—­full of comfort and encouragement to persevere.”

Again:  “Through their instrumentality families long alienated and separated have been happily brought together.  This branch of the ladies’ work has been peculiarly blest; and their reward is rich in witnessing not only homes made happier through their labors, but hearts so melted by their personal kindness, and by the Gospel message which they carry, that husbands and wives, convicted of the sinfulness of their neglect of the great salvation, come forward to declare themselves soldiers of the cross, and unite with the Christian church.”

THE TESTIMONY OF INMATES.

As the value of this and similar institutions is best seen in what they have done and are doing, we give two extracts from letters received from men who have been reformed through the agency of the “Home” in Philadelphia.  In the first, the writer says: 

“It has now been nearly two years since I left the Franklin Home.  I had been a drinking man ten years, and it got such a hold on me that I could not resist taking it.  I had tried a number of times to reform, and at one time, was in the Dashaway’s Home, in California, where they steep everything in liquor, but when I came out I still had the desire to drink, and only kept from it for nine months.  I again commenced, and kept sinking lower and lower, till I lost my friends, and felt there was no hope for me.  On the 31st day of May, 1873, I came to the Franklin Home, and have never tasted intoxicating liquor since, which is the longest time I was ever without it since I commenced to drink.  I feel now that I will never drink again, as I do not associate with drinking men, or go to places where liquor is sold.  It was so different at the Home from anything I had ever met or heard of, that I went away with more strength to resist than ever before.  When I came to the Home I could not get a position in Philadelphia, nobody having confidence in me.  Since then I have been engaged as foreman in a manufacturing establishment, by the very man that had discharged me several times for drinking, and have been with him a year.  I feel more happy and contented now than any time in ten years past, and if I had a friend who I found this was taking hold of, I would bring him to the Home, for I believe any one that is sincere can be reformed, and I would recommend any man that needs and desires to reform to go to the Home, as I did.”