m still _just
there_. Not a step forward seems to have been taken, and meanwhile
time--weeks that grow to months, and months that grow even to years--
time that might be full of service, runs to waste. The heart gets sick
with this hope deferred.

Then there are cases of disappointment. Bright hopes have darkened
almost to the blackness of very despair. A brother whose conversion,
(_must_ I say _apparent_ conversion?) has seemed to be unusually clear;
whose walk as a Christian seemed, while he was with us, to be well-nigh
perfect; whose spirit was singularly humble, devout and Christly; who
was growing rapidly in knowledge of the word, and could already preach
the word with power, goes back to his home in China. Sore pressure is
brought to bear upon him, and he pays some sort of homage at an idol's
shrine. He feels forthwith condemned. He will not be a hypocrite, and
therefore will no longer profess to be a Christian. Now that he has
returned to California, he is ashamed, he says, to show himself among
the brethren. He stands aloof; keeps out of sight, and thus takes the
very path along which Judas hastened to his doom. In vain do we show him
the better way of faith; in vain speak to him of Peter, or of the
Father's welcome to the prodigal, and the delight we once had in him
adds soreness to the heartache of our disappointed hope.

These are not solitary cases. Yet we may thank God that they represent
not the general rule, but the exceptions. The general rule is that of
constancy and faithfulness, and these exceptions are such as occurred
even in the Apostolic ministries: how much more to be expected in ours!
Yet the pain they bring and the shadow they cast are none the less real
and deep.

Another element in shady side arises in a quite different quarter.
"Coming events cast their shadows before," and these shadows just now
obscure our sunny side. We resolve not to be worried about to-morrow,
and yet we must not enter doors that open except we first count the
cost. That coming event is a deficit that seems inevitable, unless we
shut our ears to what sound like the calls of God. Our plan heretofore
has been to listen to these calls and answer them if possible, believing
that he who gives the commission will not fail to supply the means. Nor
has this faith been put to shame. Yet, when the rules of arithmetic
confront one at every summing of his probable resources and subtracting
of his fixed expenditures, and the figu