unrolled,
than to accept them as being for the best; but _before it is
unrolled_, it is another matter, for you would not say, 'I sat
still and let things happen.' With this belief all I can say is,
that amidst troubles and worries no one can have peace till he thus
stays upon his God--_that_ gives a superhuman strength."

It has been asserted that Gordon was very hard on the clergy, and that
he did not believe in a divinely appointed order of ministry. This has
probably arisen from certain statements of his that have appeared in a
disconnected form. Take the following passages from letters written at
different periods of his life:--

_From the Crimea._--"We have a great deal to regret in the want of
good working clergymen, there being none here that I know of who
interest themselves about the men."

_From Gravesend._--"The world's preachers and the world's religion
of forms and ceremonies are hard and cold, with no life in them,
nothing to cheer or comfort the broken-hearted. Explain, O
preachers, how it is that we ask and do not get comfort, that your
cold services cheer not. Is it not because ye speak to the flesh
which is at enmity to all that is spiritual and must die (joy is
only from the spirit)?... You preach death as an enemy instead of a
friend and liberator. You speak of Heaven, but belie your words by
making your home here. Be as uncharitable as you like, but attend
my church or chapel regularly.... Does your vast system of
ceremonies, meetings, and services tend to lessen sin in the world?
It may make men conceal it. Where would you find more hardness to a
fallen one than you would in a congregation of worshippers of the
Church of this day? Surely this hardness is of the devil, and they
who show it know not God."

_From the Soudan, April 20, 1876._--"The sacerdotal class have
always abounded; they are allied with the temporal civil power, who
need their aid to keep the people quiet. 'By whose authority
teachest thou these things?' is their cry; from them alone must
come the authority."

_From Jaffa, July 11, 1883._--"I believe the deadness in some of
the clergy is owing, firstly, to not reading the Scriptures;
secondly, to not meditating over them; thirdly, to not praying
sufficiently; fourthly, to being taken up with religious secular
work (Acts vi. 2-4). I wonder how i