steal away from me, as being ashamed of what he had done. At
the same time also I had my sin and the blood of Christ thus represented
to me: that my sin, when compared to the blood of Christ, was no more to
it than this little clod or stone is to the vast and wide field that
here I see. This gave me good encouragement.'

Neither Martin Luther nor John Bunyan would object to my setting them in
the company of Donald Menzies. For, like them, Donald was at war with
principalities and powers, with the rulers of the darkness of this
world, with spiritual wickedness in high places. In the lonely anguish
of that grim struggle it seemed as though, at the last, the gates of
hell must have prevailed against him.

'Then,' he says, 'I heard a voice, oh, yes, as plain as you are hearing
me: "_The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin._"
It was like a gleam from the Mercy-seat, but I waited to see whether
Satan had any answer and my heart was standing still. But there was no
word from him, not one word. Then I leaped to my feet and cried, "Get
thee behind me, Satan!" And I looked round, and there was no one to be
seen but Janet in her chair with the tears on her cheeks, and she was
saying, "Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ!"'

'_When I uttered those words,_' says Luther, '_the evil spirit vanished
and the walls were clean!_'

'_When I made a stand upon those words,_' says Bunyan, '_the tempter did
steal away from me and I entered into peace!_'

'_When I heard those words,_' says Donald Menzies, '_I waited to see if
Satan had any answer, but there was no word from him, not one word!_'

This, surely, is what the seer means when he says that he saw all the
hosts of evil routed and scattered by the virtue of the blood of the
Lamb.

VI

Down at the library yesterday afternoon I spent an hour in glancing
through the various volumes of Southey's _Commonplace Book_. And, among
a vast assortment of musty notes that are now of interest to nobody, I
came upon this: 'I have been reading of a man on the Malabar coast who
had inquired of many devotees and priests as to how he might make
atonement for his sins. At last he was directed to drive iron spikes,
sufficiently blunted, through his sandals, and on these spikes he was to
place his naked feet and then walk a distance of five hundred miles. He
undertook the journey, but loss of blood and exhaustion of body
compelled him