f daring would have won him that
much-coveted distinction the Victoria Cross, had they been performed in
an English campaign; yet the sufferings of a child, or even of an
animal, caused him the greatest grief. He had a keen sense of humour,
and might have cultivated the mere pleasure-seeking part of his nature,
and become socially very popular. It has been well said that "Humanity
wants more than this; it craves to have its best and noblest powers
called into play, and exercised into action that will tend in some way
to promote the general good." It is for this reason that his example is
such a noble one to set before young men. Most young fellows who are
worthy of the name of men have within them a spirit which admires all
that is manly, noble, and chivalrous; and for such it is a grand thing
to have a high ideal, even if they do not attain to it. As it is true
of men that they cannot habitually think mean thoughts without becoming
mean, or set before themselves a low ideal without lowering themselves,
so is it true that men cannot adopt a high ideal without instinctively
cultivating noble and lofty aims.

Frederick Robertson of Brighton once said, "Hate hypocrisy, hate cant,
hate intolerance, hate oppression, hate injustice, hate pharisaism,
hate them as Christ hated them, with a deep, living, Godlike hatred."
It would be difficult to point to one who was more thoroughly
influenced by the teaching conveyed in this short sentence than was
Gordon. But negative virtues of this kind were not enough for him. One
of his most prominent characteristics was his love for that which is
good, and his incessant efforts to do good. His career was one long
effort to relieve the sufferings of his fellow-creatures, to inculcate
Divine truths, and in every way to make the world better. Few labourers
have been called to such a variety of work; but it was all one to him.
He worked for God in China when fighting to quell a civil war; he
served the same Master at Gravesend when he visited the sick and the
dying, and rescued little street arabs from lives of sin; and the same
motives prompted him when, later on, he devoted all his energies to
mitigating and attempting to abolish the horrors of the slave-trade. He
is dead, but his noble example still lives.

"Press on, press on! nor doubt, nor fear,
From age to age, this voice shall cheer;
Whate'er may die and be forgot,
Work done for God--it dieth not."

CHAPTER II