Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 310

1850.

Report of the Ophthalmic Hospital.

275

voted missionary he is and has been for many years. Since that period it has been my happiness to enjoy the assistance of Mr. S. W. Wil- liams each Sabbath. During a part of the past two years, a religious service has been held with the patients two evenings in the week, at which a portion of Scripture was read and explained, concluding with prayer. In these services, as well as frequently upon the Sabbath, I have enjoyed the coöperation of the Rev. William Speer. Each Monday, on which new patients are admitted, seldom less than one hundred, and often one hundred and fifty persons, are present, and the assembly is addressed, explaining the objects of the Institution, and presenting a summary of the great doctrines of revealed truth, after which they are presented with a Gospel, a Christian tract, and a form of prayer, as stated in the last Report. About 10,000 volumes have been distributed, a portion of which have gone to other and distant provinces, under circumstances calculated to secure for them a favora- ble reception; but 30,000 could have been distributed equally well, had I possessed them.

In June last a case of deep interest occurred, illustrating the power of truth. The work of the Holy Spirit was signally manifested in a lady afflicted with cancer of the face. Her physical malady was beyond the power of human skill. She was a woman of superior intelli- gence and read Chinese with facility. After she had been sometime in the Hospital, during which she had attentively read the Gospel, and listened with solemnity to the explanation of its doctrines, both upon the Sabbath and during the week, the Evangelist called one day and with much joy informed me that this patient, to use his own guarded expression, "believed a little." He was requested to be assiduous in making her acquainted with the Gospel; he replied, "No fear; she now believes she has an immortal soul, is convinced of the sinfulness of human nature, and understands the vicarious atonement of Christ, and is anxious to avail of His salvation." The emotions awakened in contemplating her feelings are more easily conceived than expressed. A person of her intelligence, at the age of forty years, for the first time grasping the sublime idea of immortality, and realiz- ing the overwhelming thought of being a sinner against God, and yet, her solace in the knowledge that there is forgiveness through the atonement of Christ!

I soon visited, and conversed with her, directing her to the 14th chapter of John, and observed that many had come to the hospital afflict- ed with grievous maladies, and had gone away happy in their perfect recovery, yet without embracing the Savior who was there made known