The last months of 1893 were so full of work and movement that it is difficult to realise that Dr. Grainger Stewart not only confirmed the inefficient action of the heart, but pronounced Mrs. Bishop to be suffering from an affection of the base of one lung, which retarded her pulse and enfeebled her breathing. In spite of this addition to her physical disabilities, she spent October and November in an incessant sequence of lectures and addresses, nearly all on missions, and two of them to Edinburgh students.

The impression produced by one of these appearances was so profound that it made her famous as a platform speaker. So far she had not been widely known as a speaker on behalf of missions, but now, says Mr. Eugene Stock, she stepped at once to the front rank as a missionary advocate, and this speech may rank as perhaps her greatest contribution to the cause of Christ for the heathen. It was an address given (Nov. 1) in Exeter Hall at the “Gleaners' Union” anniversary meeting, which was presided over by Bishop Hill, just before he returned to his diocese in Western Equatorial Africa, where a few months later he gave up his consecrated life. In the history of the Church Missionary Society this address is mentioned as “proclaiming Mrs. Bishop to be one of the greatest of missionary advocates.” It was printed and circulated by thousands all over the world, and “exercised an influence upon the public mind beyond that of any other missionary address of the generation.”