that it could not be done—that it would bankrupt the Mission to attempt it. To the inquiry, “Brother Butler, how are you going to sustain them? how will you feed, or clothe, or shelter, or educate them?” I could only answer in faith, “I cannot tell, but I believe the Lord will provide.” The ladies soon heartily sympathized with the proposition, and encouraged me to go on and trust God, and erelong we were all united in the great and good enterprise.
I wrote to the Government; they were only too glad to consent, and have the children taken off their hands. We might have as many of each sex as we desired, English magistrates, in whose hands they were, were communicated with, and directed to make them over to us.
On going to Moradabad to receive our children, we found that the Mohammedan wretches connected with the magistrates' court, at whose disposal they had been placed, had actually distributed many of them in the houses of infamy in the city, to be brought up to a life of sin and shame! With an earnestness befitting the occasion, I placed the facts at once before the Governor, who acted with noble promptness, and the children were ordered to be immediately recovered and forwarded to us. The enemies of their souls and bodies were defeated, and we had the satisfaction of rescuing them from hands whose “tender mercies were cruel,” and fulfilling in their case the letter and spirit of the divine Word, “Of some have compassion, making a difference: and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.” Poor girls! what a different fate did Christianity confer upon them, instead of the “deep damnation” of soul and body to which that vile and cruel Mohammedanism would have surely consigned them for time and eternity! They, and their children, and children's children, will certainly remember with adoring gratitude to God, and thankfulness to his people, the great salvation which was wrought out for them. I bless God, and shall always do so, for the part we took in their rescue.
They were sent on to us to Bareilly in native hackeries, fifteen
