We have yet to refer to a few more of Mr
Darling's "works of faith and labours of love." One of the
benevolent agencies with which he identified himself from the
beginning was the Drill Hall Sabbath Morning Free Breakfasts for the
Poor, which began in December 1874. As usual, when he gave his name
in favour of any movement, it was not merely to flourish as a patron
or well-wisher, but to work for it at the full bent of his means and
opportunity; and so he took an active practical interest in this new
enterprise from the first. At the beginning its meetings were held
in a school-room in Stevenlaw's Close, High Street. But soon this
room became inconveniently small, and an overflow meeting needed to
be provided for. What was to be done to meet this new
emergency? Mr Darling was ready with a very practical and welcome
answer. He had recently acquired refreshment rooms at the corner of
High Street and St Giles Street, and the use of these was offered
for the accommodation of the motley guests,—the poorest of the poor.
His zeal and liberality went even beyond what we have yet described.
In the course of time the spacious Drill Hall was needed to contain
the ever-increasing guests.
For many years to come, at a very early hour on
Sabbath mornings, in every kind of weather, cold and tempest never
hindering him, he was present at the preparation of the breakfast,
at which hundreds of hungry ones were to receive their best meal for
the week, as well as to be instructed by short addresses on the way
of life. Not unfrequently he also supplied speakers in the person of
guests who were staying at his hotel, who, catching something of his
own enthusiasm, were more than willing to be present at the strange
gatherings. His daughter Bella was also there to the end of her
brief life, leading the choir, and ready to converse with young
inquirers of her own sex, and to tell them "the old old story of
Jesus and His love." What a deep and holy joy it must have been to
her father,—a joy shared, as we know, by the angels,—to learn from
time to time that these labours of love on the part of his child,
especially in "singing the Gospel," had not been in vain. It is
superfluous to say that this blessing was not confined to the Drill
Hall. A gentleman having occasion to visit one of the wards in the
Royal Infirmary, was brought into conversation with a young man, one
of the patients, who professed to have recently passed from death
unto life. On being questioned further, he stated that a young lady
had sung at his bedside a beautiful hymn, one part of which had been
to him as the revelation of a new world and won his heart to Christ.
It turned out on further inquiry that the young female evangelist
was Bella Darling.
