THE HEARTS-EASE. 61 



haps, is found : lo plant its flexile roots among 

 heaps of rubbish ; to peep out from tufts of grass, 

 and even to spread its little lovely coat of many 

 colours on the walk of stony gravel. We wonder 

 to see it there ; but never wish it away. And 

 thus, go where you would, into the haunts of utter 

 destitution, of lowest debasement of most hardened 

 depravity, there, ever engaged in his work of 



mercy, you were likely to meet D . Those 



natural characteristics of which I have spoken, 

 more particularly the frank hilarity of his address, 

 endeared him to the open-hearted Irish; and he 

 hailed their evident partiality as a token that the 

 Lord had willed him to work in that most desolate 



corner of His vineyard. But D did nothing 



by fits and starts : all was, with him first planned, 

 then executed ; and what, he once undertook, in the 

 spirit of faith and of prayer, he never abandoned. 

 In one of the streets of that wretched district is 

 a blessed institution, known by the name of St. 

 Giles' Irish Free Schools. Such a collection of 

 little ragged, dirty, squalid beings as assemble in 

 it, can hardly be paralleled in London : and here, 

 on the very top of the unseemly heap, did this 

 spiritual heart's-ease plant himself. No ! here the 

 Lord planted him, and here he delighted to abide. 

 From sabbath to sabbath he was found at his post, 

 directing, controling, encouraging, leading the ex- 

 ercise of prayer and praise, as one whose soul 



6 



