Jula Ward Howe, Reminiscences: 1819-1899

[332] and found quite a numerous company. My procedure was very simple,—a prayer, the reading of a hymn, and a discourse from a Scripture text. I had prepared this last with considerable care, and kept the manuscript of it beside me, but my memory enabled me to give the substance of what I had written without referring to the paper.

My impression is that I spoke in this way on some five or six Sundays. Of all these discourses, I remember only the last one, of which the text was, ‘I am persuaded that neither height nor depth, nor any other creature,’ etc. The attendance was very good throughout, and I cherished the hope that I had sown some seed which would bear fruit thereafter. I remember that our own poet, Thomas William Parsons, happening to be in London at this time, suggested to me a poem of Mrs. Stowe's as very suitable to be read at one of my Sunday services. It was the one beginning:—

When winds are raging o'er the upper ocean,

and I am glad to remember that I did read it as advised.

My work in London brought me in contact with a number of prominent workers in various departments of public service My acquaintance with Miss Frances Power Cobbe was pleasantly