eth light;
Light rejected bringeth night.
Who shall give me power to choose,
If the love of light I lose?"

Why did he still hesitate? Why did his "here am I" linger for hours
unsaid? A sense of the reality of present things and of home
surroundings swept over him. These were the possible things. But
those--? He shuddered. Dim, misty, in a veil of unreality lay China,
a distant land. What relation had he with it? There were
missionaries, a strange, separated, unusual folk, specially created for
the purpose, no doubt; but _he_, a practical, everyday, intensely real
sort of being--what had he to do with things so far away? Oh, no! It
was not for him. Let him put aside the overwrought fancies of the day,
and return to practical life again.

He almost rose from his seat as though to emphasize his sober thought,
but an impression restrained him.

"And so I lose My witnesses!" he imagined his Lord saying with grief.
"They are walking by sight and not by faith, and the seen, tangible
things hold them. Who will stretch out his hands to lay hold upon the
things of eternal life?"

Hubert sank in rebuked silence under the spell of the afternoon's
disclosure. It was reality, if he were a Christian. It must be faced.
But how the seen things wrestled with the heavenly vision! Habit, long
association, and tender love mingled a cup of sacrifice that he must
drink. Could he leave all these for the sake of the joyful message of
his Lord?

Now imagination pictured the leavetaking. How the familiar scenes of
his home and native city remonstrated with his choice! In fancy he
wrung for the last time his father's hand, he bade one last farewell to
the flower-dressed grave of his gentle mother, and--and _Winifred_!

A dry, tearless sob shook him. O sweet sister, loved most of all since
the days when, her jealous-eyed protector, he walked beside her to the
school, shared sturdily but keenly her childish woes and fought all
battles for her! Loved now with a closer, spiritual tie in their
mutual devotion to their blessed Lord! How could he give her up? How
could he leave her undefended now by his watchful love?

The scene of three years ago when he handed the sword of his
self-served and self-defended life to Jesus Christ, and purposed in His
heart to follow Him at any cost, was vividly rehearsed in his memory.
Possessions, home, kindred, all things, were nominated in the bond of
the whole-hearted surrende