et us
face it; or, if we be overwhelmed, let us be overwhelmed with
undaunted faces looking in the right direction. By the mercy of God
may we be saved; and if saved how splendid it will be--no trouble,
no trial, no indigestible beef and brick-tea: everything _better
than_ we could wish it, and complete joy.

'All this is not imagination or rhetoric, but _really before_ us;
so, by the strength which Christ gives, let us go on to it. Pray
for me. I pray for you; and if we don't meet on earth, you know
the trysting-place, "_the right-hand side_."'

It can readily be seen that, under conditions of the kind sketched in
this letter, time was not likely to hang heavily on his hands.
Interviews like the following were held from time to time, and were not
only encouraging and hopeful but reacted strongly upon his own heart and
brain:--

'This afternoon (Sabbath, November 24), I met Toobshing Baier in
the dispensary of the London Mission Hospital. At first I could not
remember the man. The face I knew. After a time his name came out
without, I flatter myself, his perceiving that I was fishing for
it. He was most anxious to see the doctor's medical instruments and
appliances. After he had seen quite a number of these, he came to
my room, and we sat down for a talk which lasted nearly from 5 to 7
o'clock. He began by reading a part of the rough draft of the new
translation of St. Matthew in Mongolian, which happened to be lying
on my table. He suggested that in place of "prophet," a word which
has been transferred bodily, we should use _juoug beelikty_. He
also remarked that our translation of "the foal of an ass" was not
the thing, and gave the word he thought was right. He was
accompanied by a young lama, who agreed with him in this
suggestion. The lama seemed well up, read Mongolian as easily as
Toobshing himself, and when Toobshing gave the Thibetan word for
_juoug beelikty_, the lama looked over his shoulder, spied a book
on a shelf, took it, found the place at once, and showed me the
Thibetan and Mongolian side by side.

'Shortly after this Toobshing set himself up and proposed questions
and cases such as:

'"Is hell eternal?

'"Are all the heathen who have not heard the Gospel damned?

'"If a man lives without sin, is he damned?

'"If a man disreg