from time to time revisit her in her house in
Edinburgh, and see her at the table with the quiet Jane moving
noiselessly around, or see her seated at her desk in the corner,
writing letters. Remember me very kindly to your father--fit
brother for such a sister. Their separation cannot be very long at
the longest. For that matter of it, those of us who are here
longest must soon be gone, and when the going comes, or looms
before us, let us look not at the going, but at the being _there_.'

Having paid considerable attention to the work and methods of the
Salvation Army, the publication of _In Darkest England_ interested him
greatly, and on March 9 he sent in a letter the following trenchant
criticism, all the more noteworthy because of his strong sympathy with
much in the Army that others find it hard to accept.

'Got here Saturday. Had a good Sunday with the Christians. To-day
it snowed, and thus we have had time to put our house in order. I
have read Booth's scheme in the _Review of Reviews_. I am greatly
puzzled. It is _so_ far a departure from Booth's principle of doing
spiritual work only. It reads well, but Booth must know just as
well as I do that much of the theory will never work in practice.
What I dislike most in it is, it is in spiritual things doing
exactly what it attempts to do in secular things--namely, it
threatens to swallow up in a great holy syndicate no end of smaller
charities which have been and are working efficiently. Again, the
finally impenitent are to be cast off. Yes, that is just the rub.
It will leave the good-for-nothings, many of them cast out as
before. Nor will Booth's despotism do in the long run. But I am for
the scheme and for old Booth too; but, nevertheless, there is both
a limit and an end to all despotism and despotisms. But I am more
favourable to the scheme than these words would seem to indicate.'

Mr. Parker, who bids fair to be a successor after Gilmour's own heart,
in his first report of his experiences in Mongolia gave a bright and
hopeful view of his colleague.

'On arriving at Ta Ss[)u] Kou we found Gilmour very well indeed;
looking better than he did when I saw him in England. He was
jubilant over our coming, and it has been a great source of
happiness to me to know that God's sending me here has up till now
given happiness and