DAILY ENCOURAGEMENT TUESDAY - CLASSIC TESTIMONIES… Catherine McAuley.

They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. – Revelation 12:11.

Even before the famine which began in 1845, Ireland had its share of poverty. Orphans and waifs did not find the kind of governmental support which is now common everywhere in the western world. Although antipathy between Protestants and Catholics existed then as now, it did not prevent one Catholic orphan girl of Dublin from finding Protestant foster parents.

Catherine McAuley was taken into the home of Surgeon Conway. Although he was a rigid Protestant, Catherine refused to attend his Protestant church. When Catherine was 18, another couple, the Callahan’s, adopted her. She converted both of them to Roman Catholicism. When Mr. Callahan died in 1822, he left her a great fortune. She was then about 35.

Perhaps because she had lost her own parents, Catherine wanted to do work among the poor. She had already engaged in relief efforts for the needy and by 1824 contemplated plans for a centre for the charitable works she planned.

On September 24, 1827 she opened her House of Mercy. It consisted of a school and a home for working mothers. Because the need for jobs was great, she soon tacked on an employment agency and before long an orphanage.

Catherine had no interest in becoming a nun. Many of her helpers were inclined to religious vocations, but, except for a daily routine which included spiritual exercises and a uniform adopted for convenience sake, her House of Mercy made no effort to become a religious order. All the same, her inclusion of religious elements led to carping by jealous Roman Catholic orders. Her work was heretical, they griped. Catherine was trying to compete with the Sisters of Charity. An ugly prejudice developed against her.

The archbishop of Dublin, under whose care Catherine had placed her funds, spoke with her. Either she must drop the religious elements from her work or else bring it officially into the Catholic Church.

Rather than give up the work which had come to mean a good deal to her, Catherine agreed to receive religious instruction and develop her work into a charitable order. She adopted the Augustinian rule commonly used by the Sisters of Presentation, adding chapters on the care of distressed women and visitation of the sick. On December 12, 1831, she took her own vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Thus came into being the Sisters of Mercy.

Even in her lifetime the order grew and spread. She established a second house in London "to educate poor little girls, to lodge and maintain poor young ladies who are in danger and to visit the sick poor." After she died in November 1841, the Sisters of Mercy grew to be the largest order ever founded in an English speaking country.

Are you willing to do whatever it takes, and give all you have, to win the lost to Christ? Then like, Catherine McAuley, put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the water, and dare to follow Jesus wherever He leads you?

Loving Father, I thank you for the life of Catherine McAuley, and I pray that anyone reading this may be inspired by her testimony to give their life to you, and that you would use them in the same way, as you used Catherine. By the power of the Holy Spirit, help me to be a person of like faith, that I may bring glory to your name. In the wonderful and mighty name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged.

GBYAY

DAILY ENCOURAGEMENT TUESDAY - CLASSIC TESTIMONIES… Thomas Guthrie.

They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. – Revelation 12:11.

" He was the only father I ever had." The boy was talking of Thomas Guthrie, a man who cared deeply for children.

Thomas Guthrie was born in Brechin, Scotland, July 12, 1803. He was just twelve when he entered the University of Edinburgh. For ten years he studied a wide range of subjects, including medicine and science. After leaving school, he became a pastor.

At his first church, in Arbirlot, he not only taught the gospel, but doctored the sick and helped his people establish a savings institution.

When Guthrie transferred to Edinburgh, he was shocked at the bad behaviour of the children. The population of the towns had shot far ahead of the "means of education and religious instruction." Too often, the state-paid ministers were more interested in gambling, drinking and plays than in caring for souls. "There needs no other evidence of the fact that a lack of real faith exists among some who claim to be religious, than the cold, callous, and heartless indifference with which many bear the sins and look upon the sorrows of their fellow-creatures. They could not do so if they were baptized into the nature as well as the name of Jesus Christ," wrote Thomas indignantly. [Some of the quotes in this story have been modernized.]

He made a tour of his district and reported appalling conditions. "I wandered...whole days without ever seeing a Bible, or indeed any book at all. I often stood in rooms bare of any furniture; where father, mother, and half a dozen children had neither bed nor bedding, unless a heap of straw and dirty rags huddled in a corner could be called so. I have heard the wail of children crying for bread, and their mother had none to give them..."

"I have known a father turn his step-daughter to the street at night--bidding the sobbing girl who bloomed into womanhood, earn her bread there as others were doing. I have bent over the foul pallet of a dying lad to hear him whisper how his father and mother --who were sitting half drunk by the fireside--had pulled the blankets off his body to sell them for drink. I have seen children whitened like plants growing in a cellar...when they cry they are not kissed but beaten...I don't recollect of ever seeing a mother in these wretched dwellings bouncing her infant, or of hearing the little creature crow or laugh as he leapt with joy. There, infants have no toys; and mothers smiles are rare as sunshine."

Thomas Guthrie opened "ragged schools" and fed the children who attended. He had a hand in every good work, fighting alcoholism, improving housing, calling for better work laws. He was one of the preachers who joined in creating the Free Church. Its pastors became directly dependent upon their people rather than living off the state as civil servants. When many were thrown out of their parsonages and suffered severely, Thomas raised over £100,000 (over $1,000,000 in today's money) in less than a year to build parsonages for them.

In addition to his social work, he preached faithfully. Hundreds of lives were salvaged through the efforts of this Godly man. His work became widely known and he appeared before a Committee of the House of Commons on 'criminal and destitute juveniles'. His book The Gospel in Ezekiel sold more than 50,000 copies, an indication of his popularity. He felt that alcohol brought about many of the problems in society and he became a total abstainer in 1845 as well as being heavily involved in the Forbes-Mackenzie Act which reduced public house opening hours. His 1857 work, The City: its sins and sorrows described why he set out on the path he did. In 1862 he became Moderator of the Free Church General Assembly and retired in 1865.

Thomas died in 1873, and is buried in the Grange Cemetery in Edinburgh. There is a Memorial statue in front of Edinburgh Castle.

Are you willing to do whatever it takes, and give your all, to win the lost to Christ? Then like, Thomas Guthrie, put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the water, and dare to follow Jesus wherever He leads you?

Loving Father, I thank you for the life of Thomas Guthrie, and I pray that anyone reading this may be inspired by his testimony to give their life to you, and that you would use them in the same way, as you used Thomas. By the power of the Holy Spirit, help me to be a person of like faith, that I may bring glory to your name. In the wonderful and mighty name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged.

GBYAY