sion and without any
adequate cause, felt himself slighted. The same spirit breathes through
both, but is richer and fuller in the later letter. God had been
teaching James Gilmour in a hard, but a fruitful school.

'I know of your zeal in working at home as well as abroad, and I am
greatly grieved to find you think you are badly treated. I think it
is very unfortunate that any agent should have that feeling about
his Society, L.M.S. or other. I am alarmed, too, my dear fellow, to
find you express yourself so strongly. It is hardly the thing.
Would Christ have said that? I do hope you will pardon my speaking
so, but you know sometimes a rash word does more harm than a deed
even. And I am anxious that you should have a peaceful mind. _I_
know your value, and wish to see you nearly perfect. Let me remind
you of a thing we both believe, and a thought I have often been
comforted by. Jesus has suffered even more for us than we can ever
suffer for Him, and what you do in raising funds and endeavouring
is done, not for L.M.S., but for Him, _for Him_, and He sees and
knows and won't forget, but sympathises and appreciates, and at the
end will speak up straight and open for His true men. I often lug
portmanteaus, walk afoot, and, as the Chinese say, "eat
bitterness," in China and in England. I am not thanked for it, but
He knows. No danger of being overlooked. Now, don't be "huffed" at
my lecturing you, and don't think I must think a lot of myself to
suppose that I am running up a bill of merit, like a Buddhist, and
think I am Jesus's creditor. My dear fellow, you know better than
that. I point out to you and remind you of the only way I know to
be persistently useful, and at the same time happy.'

But of all the relationships of life--son, brother, friend, ambassador
for Christ--that which most naturally, most profoundly, and most
beautifully reveals his very heart is when he writes as the loving
father to his distant motherless boys. A large number of his letters to
them have been entrusted to the hands of his biographer. Many of them
touch upon subjects too sacred for publication. They deal with those
closest of earthly ties in which not even intimate friends can
legitimately claim a share. But it was felt that they reveal a side of
his nature and character that ought not to be entirely hidden in any
picture of