the souls of others.

It is along this road that the Church has always marched to her most
splendid triumphs. Why did the Roman Empire so swiftly capitulate to the
claims of Christ? Lecky discusses that question in his _History of
European Morals_. And he answers it by saying that the conquest was
achieved by the new spirit which Christ had introduced. The idea of a
Saviour who could weep at the sepulcher of His friend; and be touched by
a sense of His people's infirmities, was a novelty to that old pagan
world. And when the early Christians showed themselves willing to endure
any suffering, or bear any loss, if, by so doing, they might win their
friends, their sincerity and devotion proved irresistible.

V

But Michael Trevanion must lead us higher yet. For what Michael
Trevanion learned from Paul, Paul himself had learned from an infinitely
greater. Let us trace it back!

'Let me be damned to all eternity that my boy may be saved!' cries
Michael Trevanion, sitting at the feet of Paul, but misunderstanding his
teacher.

'_I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my
kinsmen according to the flesh_,' exclaims Paul, sitting at the feet of
One who not only _wished_ to be accursed, but _entered into_ the
impenetrable darkness of that dreadful anathema.

'_My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?_' He cried from that depth
of dereliction. 'In that awful hour,' said Rabbi Duncan, addressing his
students, 'in that awful hour _He took our damnation, and He took it
lovingly!_' When, with reverent hearts and bated breath, we peer down
into the fathomless deeps that such a saying opens to us, we catch a
glimpse of the inexpressible value which heaven sets upon the souls of
men. And, when Michael Trevanion has led us to such inaccessible heights
and to such unutterable depths as these, we can very well afford to say
Good-bye to him.

IX

HUDSON TAYLOR'S TEXT

I

The day on which James Hudson Taylor--then a boy in his teens--found
himself confronted by that tremendous text was, as he himself testified
in old age, 'a day that he could never forget.' It is a day that China
can never forget; a day that the world can never forget. It was a
holiday; everybody was away from home; and the boy found time hanging
heavily upon his hands. In an aimless way he wandered, during the
afternoon, into his father's library, and poked about among the shelves.
'I tried,' he says, 'to find some book w