was in truth a most indefatigable worker, and no
matter how hard his official work was, he always seemed to find time to
do something for his Master. A case in point is the time he spent in
South Africa, when it is difficult to understand how he got through all
the official work he managed to compress into his brief sojourn. Yet we
find that the herculean task of reorganising the colonial army was not
the only thing that occupied his attention, for on the 12th August 1882
he writes to his sister:--

"How odd, those leaflets[6] being in Dutch, and my wanting them,
and your sending them just as I am about to go up to the Free
State, when, as in the 'Auld time long ago,' I shall be dropping
them along the road near the Boer towns. What hundreds I did give
away; how I used to run miles, if I saw a scuttler (boy) watching
crows in a field! If I, or any one else, went now to Gravesend and
dropped them, how quickly men, now grown up, would remember that
time. Send me the whole lot out unless you want them, I mean of all
languages; it is the loveliest leaflet I ever saw, and it still
looks fresh."

[6] This leaflet consists principally of a few choice and
carefully selected passages of Scripture, and shows how intensely
he valued the _ipsissima verba_ of God's own word, as a means of
reaching the human heart.

Francis de Sales, an eminent saint of the Roman Catholic Church, when a
famine was prevailing, and he wanted to preach in a certain village,
purchased twelve waggons and packed them with bread. He sent the
waggons forward one at a time, going on the last one himself. "For,"
said he, "we must get at the poor through their physical natures. They
will be the more willing to receive our message for their souls when
they see that we care about their bodies." Gordon used to act on the
same principle, and made a great point of caring for the physical wants
of any he found in trouble. It would be difficult to enumerate all the
instances of this to which publicity has been given, but a few cases
may suffice. One lad who exhibited consumptive tendencies he sent at
his own expense to Margate. The boy recovered, grew up to be a man, and
christened his eldest son "Gordon," in memory of one who, he used to
say, had "saved both his body and soul." Another story is told of a
case in which Gordon handed over a dirty little urchin to one of his
lady friends, with the remar