Scarce had she learnt to lisp the name Of Martyr; yet she thinks it shame Life should so long play with that breath Which spent could buy so brave a death. She never undertook to know What death with love should have to do; Nor has she e'er yet understood Why to shew love, she should shed blood. Yet though she cannot tell you why, She can love, and she can die.^
3. It is a mission of Salvation.
(1) In order to save the world He began with loving care showered on little children, with sympathy extending to the out- cast and excommunicate, to the publican, the harlot, the devil- ridden, and the dead. He healed men one by one. He felt the special agony of the widow of Nain and of the family at Bethany. He had saving words for rulers and priests, for Pilate and Caiaphas, for His executioners, and for the dying brigand.
(2) Now in all this He was sent to unveil the righteousness and love of the Father, and He sends faithful souls who have learned His secret to carry out the plan of which He sets the example, the first beginnings of which He wrought alone. When a missionary, with patience, persists in saving one drunkard, one idolater, one cannibal from his otherwise inevitable doom, pursues the proud rebel with the calls of pity, or urgently plies any one
' Kichai'd Ciushaw.
ST. JOHN XX. 21 357
despairing soul with the great consolation ; when a missionary of the cross knows that his Master's order is, " Go, preach to every creature, compel the vile and the most ignorant, the most be- wildered, to come into the light, and accept the conditions of salvation," he shares the burden of Jesus, takes His cross upon his shoulders, and hears and accepts His commission as certainly as if it had been thundered to him from the skies, " As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you."
^ Wherever I see a young man teaching the Gospel to half- a-dozen children, I recognize a living branch of the Church of Christ.i
^ The late Bishop Simpson relates a remarkable instance of the work of a young man in America, who started an institution for the care and improvement of poor imbecile children. Amono- those brought him was a little boy, five years of age, who had never made an intentional act, had never spoken a word, and had never given any look of recognition to a friend. He lay on the floor, a mass of flesh, without even ability to turn himself over. Such was the student brought to this school. The teacher made effort after effort to get the shghtest recognition from his eye, or to produce the slightest voluntary movement ; but in vain. Un- willing, however, to yield, he had the boy brought to his room, and he lay down beside him every day for half-an-hour, hoping that some favourable indication might occur. One day, at the end of six months of unavailing effort, he was unusually weary, and did not read. He soon discovered that the child was uneasy, and was trying to move himself a little. The thought flashed across his mind : " He misses the sound of my voice." He brought his mouth near the child's hands, and, after repeated efforts, the little one succeeded in placing his fingers on the teacher's lips, as if to say, " Make that sound again," The teacher felt that from that moment his success was assured. And, as the narrative goes on to relate, only five years after that time, the child stood on a platform, in the presence of interested spectators, and answered with ready accuracy the questions of a public examination. The patience of love had conquered.^
^ Yes, the ugly old church ! — at first such a failure that Bishop Blomfield was wroth at its appearance, — though it cannot raise its head among the handsome churches of the metropolis, yet it has been the nursery of babes in Christ and the home of
* The Life and Letters of John Cairns, 588.
^T. F. Lockyer, Tlie Inspirations of the Christian Life, 122.
358 CHRIST'S MISSION AND OURS
thousands who have reached a fuller age in Christian experience. I can say this without incurring the charge of egotism, for I am speaking of what the church had become before I knew it. The material fabric was the ugly, uninteresting building I have described. The church which was built up within it was a church of simple, honest souls, whose outlook on life had been raised to such a level that piety had discarded the temptation to be a sham, and a deep, earnest conviction of the reality of spiritual life had laid hold upon their hearts. They formed a society of true- hearted men and women who loved their Lord, and who strove, severally and unitedly, to do His will. The very atmosphere of the church and parish brought me a message which helped, while it humbled me. They were so much better than I — those devout and simple-minded souls to whom I was sent to minister. Whence had this atmosphere come ? Under God, it was owing to the untiring and unique work of one man — the Eev. William Bell Mackenzie — my predecessor, and the first vicar of the church. Fidelity and fixity marked his life. He lived till he was sixty-four years of age. He had been ordained thirty-six years, and in that time he served but one curacy, St. James', Bristol, and one incumbency, St. James', Holloway. The thirty- two years at St. James', Holloway, were devoted to building up his flock in faith and love — a generation's work for the regenera- tion of the people. Slowly he gathered round him, not only an attached and appreciative congregation, but a band of trusty and faithful men and women, genuinely interested in the good of the parish and neighbourhood, and keenly alive to missionary responsibility.^