as no foolish farce to them; it
was reality.

There is something in the sight of this ordinary, evident dethronement
of our God which stirs one to one's inmost soul. We could not look at
it.

Again and again we have gone to that town, but to-day those men go round
that tree, and to-day that town is a fort unwon.

Petra, I have called it; the word stands for many a town walled in as
that one is. In Keith's _Evidence of Prophecy_ there is a map of Petra,
the old strong city of Edom, and in studying it a light fell upon
David's question concerning it, and his own triumphant answer, "Who will
lead me into the strong city? Who will bring me into Edom? Wilt not
Thou, O God?" for the map shows the mountains all round except at the
East, where they break into a single narrow passage, the one way in.
There was only one way in, but there _was_ that one way in!

Here is a town walled up to heaven by walls of Caste and bigotry, but
there must be one way in. Here is a soul walled all round by utter
indifference and pride, but there must be one way in.

"Who will lead me into the strong city? Who will bring me into Edom?
=Wilt not Thou, O God?="

CHAPTER XIII

Death by Disuse

"There is a strong tendency to look upon the
Atonement of Christ as possessing some quality by
virtue of which God can excuse and overlook sin in
the Christian, a readiness to look upon sinning as
the inevitable accompaniment of human nature
'until death do us part,' and to look upon
Christianity as a substitute for rather than a
cause of personal holiness of life."
_Rev. I. W. Charlton, India._

"From many things I have heard I fancy many at
home think of the mission as a sort of little
heaven upon earth, but when one looks under the
surface there is much to sadden one. . . . Oh,
friends, much prayer is needed! Many of the agents
know apparently nothing about conversion.

"You may not like my writing so plainly, but
sometimes it seems as if only the bright side were
given, and one feels that if God's praying people
at home understood things more as they really are
. . . more prayer for an outpouring of the Holy
Spirit on our agents and converts would ascend to
God. . . . We do long to see all our pa