r«: C-'. OY8 C 01 i3S Great Missionaries Selh ^. Brain tihvavy of t:he t:Keolo0ical ^tminary PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY PRESENTED BY Delavan L. Pierson BV 2087 .B73 Brain, Belle Marvel, 1859- 1933. Love stories of great z_^ *^'»5tst>>^ LOVE STORIES OF GREAT MISSIONARIES BY BELLE M. BRAIN Adventures With Four-Footed Folk And Other Creatures of the Animal World Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net |1.00. No one is able to detect an interesting storv more quickly than Miss Brain. In her latest work sne has selected some of the most thrilling stories from the mission field dealing with animals of all sorts, from Edgerton R, Young's sledge dogs in the Northwest to the man-eating tiger in India. All About Japan A Young People's History of Japan. Illus- trated. 12mo, cloth, net |1.00. "Miss Brain incorporates in a style peculiarly adapted to the juvenile mind, a great variety of interesting facts concerning the history, life, customs and man- ners of the Japanese, as well as brief biographies of some of the most successful of those who nave given themselves to the task of spreading the gospel of Christ throughout the is\znds/'—Liierary Digest. The Transformation of Hawaii How American Missionaries gave a Chris- tian Nation to the World. Illustrated. 12mo, cloth net $1.00 "It is remarkable that one who has not been 9n the ground should have attained such a comprehension of the subject as a whole, and such accuracy of detail. I am in a position to judge of these points, having lived there nearly all my life."— /"rfl/. W. D. Alexander, author of ''A Brief History of the Hawaiian People." Missionary Readings for Missionary Pro- grams 16mo, cloth, net 60c. "Appreciating the wealth of thrilling incident to be found in missionary books, and also understanding that generally these are not written in proper form for public readings, Miss Brain has made extremely interesting extracts from missionary volumes. The selections cover all the prominent missionary coun- tries."— CAWj^/an Endeavor World, Fifty Missionary Stories 16mo, cloth, net 60c. "Selections from a great variety of missionary books, mostly shorter than the selections for missionary readings, but not at all lacking in interest and impor- tance.''— -C/tri-rfian Intelligencer. LOVE STORIES OF GREAT MISSIONARIES By BELLE M. BRAIN Author of ^^All About Japan^ " ^^Ad-ventures ivith Four-Footed Folky ' * " Transformation of Haiuaiiy'"' etc. New York Chicago Toronto Fleming H. Revell Company London and Edinburgh Copyright, 1913, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY New York : 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago : 125 North Wabash Ave. Toronto : 25 Richmond Street, W. London : 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh : 100 Princes Street TO THE GIRL IVHO IS TEMPTED TO SAY "NO'' TO HER LOVER BECAUSE HE IS A STUDENT VOLUNTEER FOREWORD. AT the Ohio State Christian Endeavor Convention held in Zanesville in 1912, it was the privilege of the writer to conduct the conferences on the work of the missionary committee. At one of these, after stating the causes that had led a number of great mission- aries to the field, the young people were asked to teU what had given them their own interest in missions. Many life-stories were told and a deep impression was made. That evening, in personal conversation with the writer, a prominent minister who had been present at the conference in the afternoon, con- fessed that he had expected to be a missionary but that his fiancee (at that time his wife) was unwilling to go and he had given it up for her sake. Next morning another prominent minister made the same statement. What did it mean? Here were two pastors, both highly successful in their work, lost to the foreign field because being a missionary would have interfered with their human affections. Were there others who had rejected the call for like reasons? Alas, that their name should be legion ! Foreword Investigation has proved, what every mission board secretary knows to his sorrow, that many a young volunteer, pledged to foreign missions, turns aside from his life-work because of some love affair. The call of Love, clashing with the call of God, proves the stronger. Yet, per- chance. Love's call was of God as much as the call to the field, and through faith, patience, and prayer, might have been brought into harmony with it. It was in the hope of helping young people to solve aright the problem of marriage and mis- sions that these love stories of great missionaries were searched out and written. Last year they found publication in the columns of The Sunday School Times. Now, through the courtesy and kindness of the editors of The Times, they form the chapters of this little book. God grant they may be blest as they go forth on their mission again. It must not be imagined that these love stories are the only ones in the history of missions worth telling. There are others just as heroic. These were selected because each represents a different type and impresses a much needed lesson. Belle M. Brain. Schenectady, N. Y. CONTENTS I. Winning a Wife in the Homeland 11 ^ t^-p So II. A Case of Parental Objection . 21 i III. Finding a Wife on the Field . 31 \ ^ IV. A Courtship by Correspondence . 40 ^ * ^ V. The Call of God in an Offer of \ ^ Marriage 2?r" 51 ^^JT^Mj^ VI. The Handicap of a Hopeless At- tachment . • . 62 W\ o/CC ILLUSTRATIONS Sailing of Judson and His Bride on the Caravan from Salem, Mass., February 19, 1812 . . . Frontispiece Adoniram Judson and Ann Hasseltine (Judson at the age of twenty-three) . 11 Robert Moffat and Mary Smith. From miniatures taken at the age of twenty . 22 Robert and Mary Moffat. After more than fifty years in Africa . , 30 David Livingstone and His Daughter Agnes . . . . .39 James Gilmour . . . .48 Monsieur and Madame Coillard . 55 Henry Martyn . . . .70 o S ^ A WINNING A WIFE IN THE HOMELAND THE first time Adoniram Judson saw Ann Hasseltine his whole heart went out to her. It was a genuine case of love at first sight. And no wonder. In every way she was ^rthy of the love of such a young man. Tall and slender, with dark eyes and curling hair, and a bright, vivacious manner, she was not only beautiful, but had the added charms of a keen and well developed mind, and a spirit as daunt- less and devout as Judson 's own. It was during the sessions of the Massachu- setts General Association of Congregational Churches held in Bradford in June, 1810 — that historic meeting at which the American Board was bom — that the two first met. Ann lived in Bradford, and Adoniram had come, in company with the three Samuels, Newell, Nott, and Mills, to present a paper to the Association stat- ing their desire to become missionaries, and ask- ing if they might expect support from the Amer- ican churches. The story of their first meeting is told by Jud- son 's son: ''During the sessions the ministers 11 12 Love Stories of Great Missionaries gathered for a dinner beneath Mr. Hasseltine's hospitable roof. His youngest daughter, Ann, was waiting on the table. Her attention was at- tracted to the young student whose bold mission- ary projects were making such a stir. But what was her surprise to observe, as she moved about the table, that he seemed completely absorbed in his plate ! Little did she dream that she had al- V ready woven her spell about his young heart, I and that he was, at that very time, composing r a graceful stanza in her praise ! ' ' An introduction followed, and ere long Jud- son asked her if she would be his wife and go with him to carry the gospel to the heathen in India. It was a momentous question, which she did not answer at once. In every way he was such an one as she would choose. Slender and re- fined-looking, with dark eyes and chestnut hair much like her own, the son of a highly respected New England minister, and first honor man at Brown in 1807, any young woman might have been proud to be offered his hand, and Ann re- turned his affection. Had he been content to Btay in America and serve the ** biggest church in Boston," whose minister wanted him for a coUeague, it would not have taken her long to decide. But to go with him to India, — that was another question. Winniiig a Wife in tlie Homeland 13 It is hard to realize in these days what it meant to be a missionary then. No one had as yet left America to carry the Gospel to India, and public opinion was against it. For a man it was regarded as absurd; for a woman "en- tirely inconsistent with prudence and delicacy. ' ' The voyage was long and perilous, the climate of India unfavorable, and the danger of violent death at the hands of the natives believed to be great. Then, too, the engagement was for life, with no provision for furlough. No wonder Ann hesitated. It does not cost quite so much to be a missionary in these days, yet many a young woman, asked the question that Adoniram asked Ann, even though her heart prompts an afjrmative answer, either re- jects the suit of her lover, or uses all her powers of persuasion to induce him to remain in the homeland with her. Not so Ann Hasseltine. Though the idea ap- palled her, she bravely faced it and sought to know whether it was really God's call. Most of her friends were violently opposed to her going, and of the few to whom she turned for advice, only two or three gave her any encour- agement whatever. Though Judson's whole heart was set on her going, he made no effort to bias her decision by minimizing the dangers or throwing a false glamor of romance over the 14 Love Stories of Great Missionaries future, but appealed instead to her love for Christ and the rewards promised to those who serve Him. "When at len^h she said ** some- thing about the consent of parents," he wrote to her father as follows: **I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world? Whether you can consent to her departure to a heathen land, and the hardships and sufferings of a mission- ary life? Whether you can consent to her ex- posure to the dangers of the ocean ; to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degrada- tion, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death ? Can you consent to all this for the sake of Him who left His heavenly home and died for her and for you ; for the sake of perishing and immortal souls; for the sake of Zion and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this in the hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with a crown of righteousness brightened by the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Saviour from heathen saved, through her means, from eternal wo and de- spair?" It was an honest and honorable letter, though scarcely adapted, in the eyes of the world, to gaining its end. Few fathers would consent to Winning a Wife in the Homeland 15 a daughter entering upon such a career. But the spirit of obedience to the divine will was as strong in Mr. Hasseltin-e's heart as in that o'- Ann and her lover. If God wanted his daughter, dear though she was to him, he would not withhold her. And so they were betrothed, — ^the earnest young student volunteer of twenty-two who had already done so much for missions, and the fair girl of twenty-one to whom belongs the honor of being the first American woman to decide to go as a missionary to the heathen of Asia. Be it not thought this decision was made merely because of her love for young Judson. In a letter to an intimate girl friend, dated Septem- ber 8, 1810, she thus states her motives : **I have ever made you a confidant. I will still confide in you, and beg for your prayers, that I may be directed in regard to this subject I shall communicate. ' ' I feel williQg and expect, if nothing in provi- dence prevents, to spend my days in this world in heathen lands. Yes, Lydia, I have about come to the determination to give up all my com- forts and enjoyments here, sacrifice my affection to relatives and friends, and go where God, in his providence, shall see fit to place me. My de- terminations are not hasty, or formed without viewing the dangers, trials, and hardships at- 16 Love Stories of Great Missionaries tenaant on a missionary life. Nor were my de- terminations formed in consequence of an at- tachment to an earthly object; but with a sense of my obligation to God, and a full conviction of its being a call in providence, and conse- quently my duty. My feelings have been ex- quisite in regard to the subject. Now my mind is settled and composed, and is willing to leave the event with God — none can support one un- der trials and afflictions but Him. In Him alone I feel a disposition to confide. *'How short is time, how boundless is eterni- ty! If we may be considered worthy to suffer for Jesus here, will it not enhance our happiness hereafter? pray for me. Spend whole even- ings in prayer for those who go to carry; the gospel to the poor heathen.** It must have been rather a solemn affair, this courtship of Adoniram and Ann. It could not be otherwise with the Puritan spirit still so strong in New England. At that time, and in- deed for long after, levity was considered most unbecoming in a missionary, and the fitness of a candidate who indulged in much laughter was seriously questioned. Yet neither Ann nor Adoniram was by nature serious and sober. Up to the time of her conversion in her seventeenth year, Ann had been the gayest of the gay, de- lighting in an endless round of parties, and re- Winning a Wife in the Homeland 17 garding herself as entirely too old to say her prayers! And Adoniram, becoming tainted with French infidelity through association with a gay and witty college chum, had started out to see the world, and while seeing it had fallen in with a band of strolling players, whose wild and vagabond life he shared for a time. But now they were as devout and as discreet as any one could wish. Of the frequent letters that passed between them, the three that have been given to the public — letters of Adoniram to Ann, dated respectively December 30 and 31, 1810, and January 1, 1811 — show a complete consecration to God. That of New Year's Day pictures in such realistic terms the sorrows that may overtake them during the year that it is a wonder Ann did not break the engagement at once ! But it breathes a spirit of true love for her, and is not without its playful touch. Long- ing to be united to her and eager to begin his great work, he expresses the wish that this may be the year in which she will change her name and they will cross the ocean and dwell in heathen lands together. Not until the following year were these wishes fulfiUed. On September 11, 1811, Messrs. Jud- son. Hall, Newell, and Nott (Luther Rice was later added to the number) received their ap- pointment as missionaries from the Board, but 18 Love Stories of Great Missionaries as opportunities for obtaining passage to India were of rare occurrence in those days, no time was set for their departure. At length the way unexpectedly opened. In January, 1812, it was found that two ships were about to sail for Calcutta, the Harmony from Philadelphia and the Caravan from Salem, and that by dividing the missionaries iato two par- ties, passage could be secured for them all. The time was short and there were many prep- arations to make, but at length all was ready. On February 5 there was a quiet wedding at Bradford, and an agonizing parting, as Ann and Adoniram Judson went forth, expecting never more to return. The next day, at a sol- emn and affecting service held in the old Taber- nacle Church at Salem, where a picture of the scene and the settee on which they sat are still preserved, Judson and his colleagues received ordination. Then, on February 19, after an un- expected delay of some days, the Judsons, in company with Samuel and Harriet Newell, boarded the Caravan and began their wedding journey to the field. It was well they had counted the cost. The trials in store for them, though of a somewhat different nature, were fully as great as they had anticipated. Contrary to aU expectation, the ocean voyage was completed without disaster; Winning a Wife in the Homeland 19 neither of them met with a violent death at the hands of the heathen; and each, in the good providence of God, was permitted to return once to the homeland. But the expulsion from India ; the separation from their colleagues, and the odium cast on their names resulting from their change of be- lief in regard to the method of baptism; their settlement in Burma, a land they had been led to regard with feelings of horror; and the twenty-one months' imprisonment at Ava and Oung-pen-la — these were things they had not even dreamed of. But, though God permitted them to suffer so sorely, He gave them abundant success. Many notable men and women have gone out since from America, but the service of these two has not yet been surpassed — perhaps not even equaled. In that dark land they dreaded to enter, Judson planted one of the most famous f and successful of missions, and his wife proved 1 herself one of the world's greatest heroines. The ' change in denomination that cost them so sore I resulted in the forming of a second great mis- " sionary society in America, — the society so long known as the American Baptist Missionary Union, — and the recital of their sufferings at Ava kindled fires of heroic self-sacrifice that have never died out. 20 Love Stories of Great Missionaries God evidently made no mistake when He gave Ann Hasseltine to Adoniram Judson to be his wedded wife. "Without her at his side to cheer and comfort and help him, it would have been hard to plant the mission in Burma, and seem- ingly impossible for him to have endured the tortures at Ava. II A CASE OF PARENTAL OBJECTION NOT long after Robert Moffat entered the service of James Smith, of the Dukin- field Nurseries, he fell in love with his employer's only daughter. The father had been afraid this might hap- pen. Returning home from Manchester on that eventful day when he had promised his friend, the Rev. William Roby, to take into his employ the young Scotch gardener who felt called of God to be a missionary, it suddenly occurred to him that perhaps it would cost him his daughter. But Mr. Roby was so anxious to have his young protege near him, and there had been no other opening. Besides, James Smith liked the young man and thought he would make a good workman. Perhaps there was no ground for his fears, after all. The young man had been obliged to give up his plans, at least for the present. The London Society to whom he had offered himself, through Mr. Roby, had declined to accept him. There were so many applicants that only the best could be sent, and young Moffat had had little schooling. 21 22 Love Stories of Great Missionaries End as it might, James Smith had given his word, and he would staad by it. So, about New Year's, 1816, Robert Moffat began work at the Dukinfield Nurseries. Very soon he made the acquaintance of his master's young daughter. Beautiful in face, polished in manners, and the expectant of a con- siderable fortune, she was attractive enough to win the heart of any young man. To her father's new assistant she had the added charm of an interest in missions as deep as his own. Her education in a Moravian school had laid the foundations; and two years before, at a meeting in Manchester, she had been so deeply impressed with the needs of the heathen that she had sent up a silent petition to God that some time she might be permitted to work in South Africa. From the first Robert Moffat and Mary Smith were thrown much together. Ere long they be- came so deeply attached that they plighted their troth one to another. For a time the course of their true love ran smooth. But by and by there was trouble. Through the intervention of Mr. Roby, the Di- rectors in London were induced to reconsider their decision, and bade the young Scotchman be ready to sail within a few months. He was assigned at first to the South Seas with John < bo S.2 A Case of Parental Objection 23 Williams. But presently, deeming *'tliae twa lads ower young to gang tegeither'' — Moffat was twenty-one and Williams twenty — this was changed to South Africa. Thus strangely was God preparing to answer Mary Smith's prayer. To his parents in Scotland his going was a trial of no common sort. Yet they did nothing to hinder, but bade him '^ Godspeed." The old father wrote, with dignified resignation, that "whatever might be his own feelings or those of Robert's mother, they dared not oppose his design, lest haply in so doing they should be found fighting with God." Not so Mary Smith's parents. Both were deeply pious, and ardent promoters of missions. Yet they declared they could not relinquish their daughter and refused to give their consent. Poor young Moffat ! He had not realized that his going might cost him so much. But his life had been laid on God's altar, and he would not withdraw it. Nor did Mary Smith ask it. The idea of a separation appalled them, but their happiness must not interfere with God's work. So Robert prepared to go out alone. By and by a letter came from the Directors that made it still harder. *'A11 candidates are expected to take partners along with them," it said. This was a new sorrow that cost Mary Smith many tears. Yet she offered to release 24 Love Stories of Great Missionaries Robert from his engagement, and let him choose another to go in her place. But to him this seemed little short of a crime. How could he offer his hand to another when his heart was still in Mary Smith's keeping? Yet if God willed it, he must obey. But God did not ask this sacrifice of him. *'From the clearest indications of His Provi- dence, He bids me go out alone," he wrote to his parents, after long hours of prayer; **and He who appoints crosses and disappointments also imparts resignation and grace sufficient unto the day. So I am bold to adopt the lan- guage of Eli, and to say, 'It is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth Him good.' " And so it was settled. The Directors ac- quiesced in the decision, and on October 18, 1816, when Moffat sailed for South Africa, leaving his heart in old England, no new tie had been formed to separate him from his loved one, and there was nothing to prevent his claiming his own should her parents ever be willing to sur- render her to him. Sore as was their sorrow at parting, the young lovers thanked God for this. Moffat's destination in Africa was Africaner's Kraal, in Namaqualand, beyond the confines of Cape Colony, where the Ebners were working. Africaner was the terror of the whole region, and all along the way from Cape Town, the A Case of Parental Objection 25 yoTing missionary heard dire predictions of the fate that awaited him. ''One warned me that he would set me up for a mark for his boys to shoot at/' he says; ''another, that he would strip off my skin and make a drum of it to dance to ; another, that he would make a drinking cup of my skull. One kind, motherly lady, wiping the tears from her eyes, bade me farewell, say- ing, 'Had you been an old man it would have been nothing, for you would soon have died, whether or no; but you are young, and going to become a prey to that monster.' " But when Moffat reached the Kraal, Africaner seemed glad to see him and ordered his women to build him a house. In half an hour they had it all ready! It was a frail structure, in shape like a bee-hive, with a single opening large enough to crawl in, yet he lived in it nearly six months. Africaner's heart was soon won and the work progressed fairly well, but life in the little hut was lonely and comfortless. Soon after Moffat arrived the Ebners withdrew, leaving him alone, with no prospect of reinforcement. He rarely saw a white face, and for nearly a year did not hear a word spoken in English. Great indeed was his need of Mary Smith's care. "I have many difficulties to encounter, being alone," he wrote to his parents. "No one 26 Love Stories of Great Missionaries can do anything for me in my household affairs. I must attend to everything, which hinders my work, for I could wish to have almost nothing to to do but instruct the heathen. I am carpenter, smith, cooper, tailor, shoemaker, miller, baker, and housekeeper — the last the most burdensome. An old Namaqua woman milks my cow, makes a fire, and washes. All the other things I do myself, though I seldom prepare anything till impelled by hunger. I wish many times my mother saw me. My house is always pretty clean, but oh, what a confusion among my linen. '^ During the long winter evenings at the old home in Scotland, his mother had taught her boys to knit and sew, while she told them thrill- ing stories of Moravian missions. Robert had sometimes rebelled, but now he was glad, for he had frequent need to make use of his needle. Meanwhile Mary Smith was breaking her heart, far away in old England. She was sure God was calling her to Africa and was afraid she was doing wrong not to go. But her par- ents showed no signs of relenting. There was nothing to do but to wait and to pray, and this both the young people were do- ing. Thousands of miles lay between them, yet their prayers were ever ascending ia united pe- tition to heaven. Their great solace was letters — long, loving A Case of Parental Objection 27 letters that kept them in touch with each other. But on November 26, 1818, one came to Robert in Africa that he was not glad to receive. In it his dear Mary told him, with sore sorrow of heart, that since her father declared he would never give his consent, she had at last relin- quished all hope of coming to Africa. It well- nigh crushed him, yet in his sorrow he drew closer to God. But God was merely testing the faith of His children, and their prayers had been heard after all. Less than a month later Mary Smithes par- ents suddenly and unexpectedly gave their con- sent to her going! **This is by no means what I expected a week ago," she wrote to Robert's parents. "Previous to the arrival of the last letters, my father persisted in saying I should never have his consent ; and my dear mother has uniformly asserted that it would break her heart; never- theless, they both yesterday calmly resigned me into the hands of the Lord, declaring th^y durst no longer withhold me." "When the news reached Robert in Africa he wrote to his parents at once: ''I have just re- ceived letters from Miss Smith. The whole scene is changed. I have now reason to believe that God will make her path plain to Africa. This, 28 Love Stories of Great Missionaries I trust, will be soon, for a missionary without a wife in this country is like a boat with one oar. ' ' Mary Smith lost no time in preparing to go to her lover. The wedding, of course, would take place in Africa. It was out of the ques- tion for Robert to come for his bride. It was a hard journey for a young girl to take all alone, and there was some delay in securing her pas- sage; but at length, on September 7, 1819, she boarded the *' British Colony'' and sailed for the Cape in the care of a minister of the Dutch Church and his wife. Be it not thought that her going cost her no sorrow. Eager as she was to be at work with Robert in Africa, the anguish of parting with father and mother and brothers was almost un- bearable. Meanwhile in Africa Robert was being put to another sore test. Early in 1819, Dr. Philip and Mr. John Campbell arrived from London to in- spect the various stations, and begged Moffat to make the tour with them. They needed his help, but it would take nearly a year and prevent his meeting his betrothed when she landed in Africa. Was it his duty to go? Could he let strangers meet her, even though they were dear friends of his? But God had been good, and His work must be first. So he said he would go, and God accepted his spirit of sacrifice but did not exact A Case of Parental Objection 29 its full payment. About midway in the journey war broke out with the Kaffirs, and the party had to turn back, bringing Moffat to Cape Town when the *' British Colony" swung into port. Their meeting was very affecting. **My cup of happiness seems almost full," Mary Smith wrote to her parents. *'I have found my dear friend all that my heart could desire, except his being almost worn out with anxiety, and his very look makes my heart ache. Our worthy friend, Melville, met me on board and conducted me to his house, where a scene took place such as I never wish to experience again. We have re- ceived each other from the Lord and are happy." To this Robert adds in the same letter : *' When the news of your beloved daughter's arrival reached me, it was to me nothing less than life from the dead. My prayers were answered, and the promises which had long been my refuge were fulfilled. Mary, my own dear Mary, is now far distant from you; but let this comfort you, that, although in a land of strangers, she is under the care of our ever-present God, and united to one who promises to be father, mother, and husband to her, and will never forget the sacrifice you have made in committing to his care your only daughter." Three weeks later, on December 27, 1819, the long-deferred wedding took place in St. George 's 30 Love Stories of Great Missionaries Church, Cape Town, Dr. Philip taking the place of the absent father, and the Melvilles opening their house for the feast. Shortly after, the young couple left in ox- wagons for their wedding journey of six hundred miles to their field. Such was the happy ending of the romance of the Moffats. Theirs was a union truly ideal. For more than fifty years they walked hand in hand, doing God's work with a zeal that has rarely been equaled. Through it all Mary Moffat was the truest of helpmeets. ''My father never would have been the missionary he was but for her care,'' says their son. When God took her home, the sense of her loss overwhelmed her poor husband. "For fifty-three years I have had her to pray for me, ' ' was his first pitiful cry when he found she was gone. But what a precious gift of God she had been! ^£ Ill FINDING A WIFE ON THE FIELD DAVID LIVINGSTONE was fancy free when he sailed for Africa in 1840. He had ideas of his owr. on the subject of matrimony and missions, and no fair young girl crossing his path had as yet led him to change them. The Directors of the London Missionary So- ciety had asked him the usual questions when he applied to them two years before. One of them was in regard to his matrimonial prospects. In answering this he was very explicit. * ' I am not married/' he said, *'nor under any engagement of marriage, nor have I indeed been in love ! I would prefer to go out unmarried, that I may, like the great apostle, be without family cares, and give myself entirely up to the work." His interest at that time was centered in China, but the Opium War broke out and pre- vented his going. Just then Robert Moffat came home and won him for Africa. Good, motherly, wise Mary Moffat did all she could to persuade him to marry. She could not forget what her own Robert had suffered in Africa before her parents allowed her to go to 31 32 Love Stories of Great Missionaries him, and was loath to see another young man go out with such prospects. But Livingstone thought he knew best and declin-ed to take her advice. The first weeks in Africa did not change his opinion. He still thought he had done well to go out alone, with no wife to hamper his move- ments. To his friend "Watt, a missionary in India, who, like himself, had elected to go out unmarried, he wrote, soon after landing: "Mrs. Sewall writes that she believes you are heartily sorry you had not a helpmate with you. I have told her I am sure you are not. I am conscious myself that I am better without. All the missionaries' wives I have seen denounce my single blessedness in no measured terms. Some even insinuated that the reason I am thus is that I have been unable to get a spouse. But I put that down very speedily by assuming that it is a great deal easier for a missionary to get married in England than to come out single. In the latter case a vigorous resistance must be made, but in the former only yield up the affair into the hands of any friend, and it is managed for you in a twinkling! This is a digression, but perhaps it may come in seasonably if your colleague 's spouse is hard on you. ' ' But bachelor life in Africa did not prove the ideal thing he had thought it. Seeing none but Finding a Wife on the Field 33 black faces for weeks at a time gave him a great sense of loneliness; and being his own house- keeper, laundress, and seamstress was hard work and took up too much of his time. Besides, there was work for the women and children that only a woman could do. After three years of roughing it, he began to wonder if marrying for a missionary was such a bad thing after all. Perhaps, if he could find the right kind of wife, he might do it himself after all — ^not now, but some time far off in the future. A letter from Watt put his mind on it harder than ever. From the ' * apologetic-f or-marriage strain" in which it was writt-en, Livingstone in- ferred that his friend was about to marry, and wrote him as follows: * ' I hope you will be happy. Here there is no one worth taking off one 's hat to. Daughters of missionaries have miserably contracted ininds. Colonial ladies are worse. There's no outlet for me when I begin to think of getting married than that of sending home an advertisement for the Evangelical Magazine, and if I get old it must be for some decent sort of widow. In the meantime I am too busy to think of anything of the kind." The next year a dreadful thing happened. Livingstone's station at Mabotsa, two hundred 34 Love Stories of Great Missionaries miles northeast of Moffat's station at Kuruman, was infested with lions which did a great deal of damage. Nine sheep were killed in one day, and Livingstone started out with the natives to put an end to the lions. But iQstead of Livingstone's killing a lion, a lion nearly killed him. Springing on him un- awares from the bush, it caught him by the shoulder and shook his as a terrier dog shakes a rat. His life was saved by a kind of miracle, but the bones of his arm were crunched and broken, and the flesh torn in a terrible manner. In this pitable condition his thoughts turned to Kuruman as affording the best haven of rest near at hand. No place in Africa could seem so much like a home to him. For three years, while the Moffats were absent in England, it had been his headquarters, and now the Moffats were back. He had ridden a hundred and fifty miles on horseback to meet them on their way up from the Cape a few months before. So to Kuruman he went to rest and recuperate. Notwithstanding the pain, he found himself greatly enjoying his visit. Doctor and Mrs. Moffat were both very kind to him; and Mary and Ann, their charming young daughters, whose education, begun at the Cape, had been completed in England, soon led him to feel that there were, after all, young ladies in Africa Finding a Wife on the Field 35 *Vorth taking off his hat to"! Ere long his prejudice against the daughters of missionaries vanished away, and presently the last remnants of his long-cherished objections to marriage dis- appeared likewise. Finding in Mary, the elder, his ideal of a wife, he (to use his own words) *' screwed up courage to put a question beneath one of the fruit-trees," the answer to which being *'Yes," the two were betrothed. Livingstone had found his heart at last. Yet he had not obeyed its dictates without due de- liberation. He had so long regarded a wife as a hindrance that he dared not *'put the ques- tion beneath the fruit-tree" without carefully consideriQg what effect it might have on his future career as a missionary. This he made plain in a letter to the Directors announcing that he had at last decided to marry. Without doubt his choice was a wdse one. Had he searched the world over he could not have found a more suitable bride than the one God had ready in Africa. Born and bred in the country, adept in all the arts of the household, and already at work in the mission, she had every qualification for the wife of a pioneer mis- sionary such as Livingstone then expected to be. At the same time, she had the culture and re- finement that made her an acceptable companion for a man of such scholarly bent. 36 Love Stories of Great Missionaries Livingstone was jubilant over the prke lie had won, and become the most ardent of lovers. His betrothed was not blessed with very much of what the world would call beauty — "a little, thick, black-haired girl, sturdy, and all I want, ' ' was his description of her. Yet she had a true beauty that he was not slow to appreciate. "I see no face now to be compared with that sun- burnt one which has so often greeted me with its kind looks," he wrote her long after. Their courtship was short, but exceedingly happy. Livingstone was fond of his jokes, and Mary Moffat knew how to take them. Notwith- standing their deep piety they were very merry together, and even in later life, when David was so famous, and both were, to all appearances, so decorous and sober, they continued to be playful at home. The happy days at Kuruman soon came to an end. Toward the close of July Livingstone re- turned to Mabotsa to build a house and lay out a garden in anticipation of the coming of his bride. At Motito, eighteen miles up from Kuruman, he wrote, on August 1, 1844, the first of his many love-letters to her. In it he talks much of their plans for the future, and asks if her father will write to Colesberg about the license for their marriage. *'If he cannot get it we will license Finding a Wife on the Field 37 ourselves," he jokingly says. Then he closes as follows : **And now, my dearest, farewell. May God bless you ! Let your affection be much more to- ward Him than toward me; and, kept by His mighty power and grace, I hope I shall never give you cause to regret that you have given me a part. Whatever friendship we feel toward each other, let us always look to Jesus as our common Friend and Guide, and may He shield you with His everlasting arms from every evil!'* At Mabotsa, though his arm still gave him much trouble, he began at once on the house. He had almost no help, and it proved a slow and laborious task. But love spurred him on. In a letter giving an account of his progress, he wrote: ''It is pretty hard work, and almost enough to drive love out of my head, but it is not situated there ; it is in my heart, and won 't come out unless you behave so as to quench it ! " Mary Moffat treasured the letters he wrote during their courtship as long as she lived. Years after, when they were far apart and feel- ing the separation most keenly, he wrote her as follows : * ' You may read the letters over again that I wrote at Mabotsa, the sweet time you know. As I told you before, I tell you again, they are true, true; there is not a bit of hypo- crisy in them. I never show all my feelings; 38 Love Stories of Great Missionaries but I can say truly, my dearest, that I loved you when I married you, and the longer I lived with you, I loved you the better.'^ Before the year closed the wedding took place, and she who bore the honored name of Moffat exchanged it for one, little known at the time, but soon to be famous throughout the whole earth. It was a joyous and happy occasion, with few tears and no anguish at parting. The Living- stones, back in the old home in Scotland, re- joiced that their son had foimd such a wife, and the Moffats thanked God that their first-born was marrying such a promising young pioneer. They would miss the dear daughter, in both the home and the mission, but she was not going very far from them and would still be in the same work as they. The young couple proceeded at once to Mabosta. Strange to say, the name means ' ' marriage-feast. ' ' The house was ready and the garden in beautiful order, and Mary Living- stone took up her new tasks with great ardor. To her husband it was all joy, having her with him. **I often think of you," he wrote to his mother, **and perhaps more frequently since I got married than before. Only yesterday I said to my wife, when I thought of the nice clean bed I enjoy now, 'You put me in mind of my DAVID LIVINGSTON AND HIS DAUGHTER AGNES Finding a Wife on the Field 39 mother; she was always particular about our beds and our linen.' I had had rough times before.'* Livingstone's marriage, connecting him with the Moffats, was one of the great providential things in his life. **No family on the face of the globe could have been so helpful to him in his great work," says Dr. Blaikie. And no wife could have done more than his own Mary Moffat. "When God called him to open up Africa, after their marriage, she could not make the long journeys with him on account of their children. She tried it at first and proved a great traveler. **Your mamma was famous for roughing it in the bush, and was never a trouble," Livingstone wrote to their daughter, after the death of her mother. But the children suffered so much that at last she consented to take them to England and let her dear David plunge into the forest alone. It was hard, yet she had no thought of holding him back. The iaterests of the great continent was as dear to her as to him, and she endured, for years at a time, suffering and suspense and separation that he might be free for the work. Opening up Africa cost them both sore, but many shall rise up and call them blessed be- cause of it. IV A COURTSHIP BY CORRESPONDENCE JAMES GILMOUR'S courtship was as out- of-the-ordinary as everything else about him. Yet, like all that he did, it bore the stamp of complete consecration to God. "When he sailed for China in 1870, a strong, manly young fellow of twenty-seven, he went without either a wife or a colleague. Yet it was a lonely task that awaited him — ^the reopening of the London Missionary Society's long sus- pended work in Mongolia — and at times he was almost overwhelmed at the prospect. *' Companions I can scarcely hope to meet," he wrote before sailing, *'and the feeling of be- ing alone comes over me till I think of Christ and His blessed promise, *Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. ' No one who does not go away, leaving all and being alone, can feel the force of this promise. When I begin to feel my heart threatening to go down, I betake myself to this companionship, and, thank God, I have felt the blessedness of this promise rushing over me repeatedly when I knelt down and spoke to Jesus as a present compan- 40 A Courtship by Correspondence 41 ion, from whom I am sure to find sympathy. I have felt a tingle of delight thrilling over me as I felt His presence, and thought that wher- ever I may go He is still with me/' On the barren plains of Mongolia, the loneli- ness proved ever greater than he had antici- pated. Christ was indeed an ever-present friend, but young Gilmour, though so intensely in earn- est, was merry and full of fun, and craved human companionship. In August, 1870, when he began his first great journey among the Mon- gols, a strong feeling of aversion came over him to traveling alone in a region entirely unknown to him. An unexpected companion, in the per- son of a Russian merchant, relieved this some- what, but at Kiachta, the southern frontier of Siberia, the loneliness became well-nigh unbear- able. ** To-day I felt a good deal like Elijah in the wilderness," he wrote in his diary during a brief period of enforced inactivity. * * He prayed that he might die. I wonder if I am telling the truth when I say that I felt drawn towards sui- cide. I take this opportunity of declaring strongly that on all occasions two missionaries should go together. I was not of this opinion a few weeks ago, but I had no idea how weak an individual I am. My eyes have filled with tears frequently these last few days in spite of myself. 42 Love Stories of Great Missionaries Oh! the intense loneliness of Christ's life, not a single one understood Him! He bore it. O Jesus, let me follow in thy steps ! ' ' At Peking, his headquarters between trips, he had no home of his own, but lived in rented rooms with a native Chinese servant. His meals he took with a fellow-missionary, Mr. Edkins. Going to his home broke the monotony and helped not a little; nevertheless he was lonely and his life sorely lacking in comfort. His two great needs were a wife and a col- league. The colleague he asked the Directors in London to send him. The wife he attempted to find for himself. A true son of Scotia, he pro- posed first to a Scotch girl — ^whether in person before he left home, or by letter from China, he has not divulged. But the Scotch girl said * ' No. ' ' He had asked her too late. She was al- ready pledged to another. His own efforts to fiaid a wife being thus thwarted, Gilmour turned to the Lord. ' ' I then put myself, he says, *'and the direction of this affair — I mean the finding of a wife — into God's hands, asking Him to look me out one, a good one, too." And God did what he asked. In May, 1873, when Mr. Edkins returned to England, Gilmour lost his boarding-place. But he soon found an- other. Mr. Meech, an old college chum who had 'A Courtship by Correspondence 43 recently come to Peking with his bride, took bim in. In the old home in England, Mrs. Meech (nee Miss Prankard, of London) bad a young sister, Emily, who was inexpressibly dear to her. Com- ing in to bis meals, Gilmour saw her picture, read extracts from her letters, and heard her praises sounded continuously. By and by he found himself so greatly attracted to the absent young lady that he wondered what it all meant. Could she be the bride God was going to give him? Toward the close of the year, he told Mrs. Meech all about it and asked if he might cor- respond with her sister. She was delighted and gladly gave her consent. The prospect of hav- ing Emily with her in China filled her with joy, and she and her husband had already learned to love and trust Gilmour. GUmour was not slow to make use of the per- mission Mrs. Meech gave him. Early in Janu- ary, 1874, he wrote to Miss Prankard, opening up a correspondence with her. Gilmour-like, the very first letter contained a proposal of mar- riage ! By the same mail he wrote to his parents in Scotland. '*I have written and proposed to a girl in England, '* he said. *'It is true I have never seen her, and I know very little about her ; 44 Love Stories of Great Missionaries but what I do know is good. Her mother sup- ports herself and daughter by keeping a school. One of the hiadrances will be perhaps that the mother will not be willing to part with her daughter, as she is, no doubt, the life of the school. I don't know, so I have written and made the offer, and leave them to decide. If she cannot come, then there is no harm done. If she can arrange to come, then my hope is fulfilled. If the young lady says *Yes,' she or her friends will no doubt write you, as I have asked them to do. You may think I am rash in writing to a girl I have never seen. If you say so, I may just say that I have somethiQg of th-e same feeling; but what am I to do? In addition I am very easy minded over it all, be- cause I have exercised the best of my thoughts on the subject, and put the whole matter into the hands of God, asking Him, if it be best, to bring her, if it be not best, to keep her away, and He can manage the whole thing well." Having posted these letters, Gilmour started on a long tour through Mongolia, and tried to forget all about it. "When Emily Prankard received his l-etter in London, she at once took the matter to God. She had never seen this would-be husband, but she had heard much about him from her sister in China and friends of his in the homeland. The A Courtship by Correspondence 45 spirit of missions was strong in her heart, and at length she wrote him that she would come to China and join him in his work for Mongolia. Receiving one another on trust from the Lord, neither of the young people took long to decide. "The first letter I wrote her was to propose, '^ says Gilmour, **and the first letter she wrote me was to accept — romantic enough!" Owing to a delay in the mails, the announce- ment did not come to the old folks in Scotland through their son 's letter as he had planned, but in a note from Miss Prankard 's mother in Lon- don. ''My parents were scared one day last year,'* Gilmour wrote after his marriage, **by receiving a letter from a lady in England, a lady whose name even they had not known be- fore, stating that her daughter had decided to become my wife! Didn't it stir up the old peo- ple ! My letter to them, posted at the same time, had been delayed in London." It was a shock at first, but Gilmour 's parents soon became reconciled to his engagement. Be- fore sailing for China, Emily Prankard spent two weeks with them in Scotland, and so com- pletely won their hearts that they wrote to their son that ''though he had searched the country for a couple of years he could not have made a better choice." Meanwhile Gilmour himself was quietly pur- 46 Love Stories of Great Missionaries suing his work on the plans of Mongolia. On the way back in July, he thought much about the question he had asked six months before. Would there he an answer waiting for him ? If so, what would it be? At Kalgan he found a package of letters. One bore the London post- mark and the hand-writing he had grown famil- iar with on Mrs. Meech's letters. It was from Emily Prankard, and her answer was, *'Yes!" *^I proposed in January,'' he says, ''went up to Mongolia in the spring, rode about on my camels till July, and came down to Kalgan to find that I was an accepted man!" A short, but happy courtship by corres- pondence followed. *'You will be glad to hear that I have had some delightful letters from Miss Prankard," he wrote to his mother in Scotland. **She has written me in the most unrestrained way concerning her spiritual hopes and condition, and though we have never seen each other, yet we know more of each other's inmost life and soul than, I am quite certain, most lovers know of each other even after long personal courtship. It is quite delightful to think that even now we can talk by letter with perfect unreserve, and I tell you this because I know you will be glad to hear of it. I knew she was a pious girl, else I would not have asked her to come out to be a missionary's wife, but A Courtship by Correspondence 47 she turns out better even than I thought, and I am not much afraid as to how we shall get on together.'' Early in the autumn, Emily Prankard sailed for China, and in November, Gilmour and Mr. Meech went to Tien-tsin to meet her. For two weeks nothing was heard of the steamer, but at length, on Sabbath evening, November 29, word came that she was outside the bar, waiting for the tide to bring her up to the city. Next morn- ing, at five o'clock, Gilmour and Meech boarded a steam launch and started down the river. About eight o'clock they met the steamer com- ing up, and Mr. Meech recognized Miss Prank- ard on deck. But the steamer did not stop, and poor Gilmour had to wait another three hours! Emily Prankard 's first view of her lover must have been something of a shock. * * The morning was cold," says Mr. Meech, *^and Gilmour was clad in an old overcoat which had seen much service in Siberia and had a woolen comforter round his neck, having more regard to warmth than appearance. "We had to follow back to Tien-tsin, Gilmour being thought by those on board the steamer to be the engineer!" But there was a charm about Gilmour that was irresistible, and, nothwithstanding his unbecom- ing attire, Emily Prankard soon found him all she had hoped for. No one ever came within the 48 Love Stories of Great Missionaries sphere of his influence without learning to love him, and, divested of old coat and woolen com- forter, he was a fine looking young fellow whom any girl might be proud to own as her lover. *' There was an aspect of good humor about his face and a glance of his eye revealing any amount of fun and frolic," says one of his fel- low-students. ** Honesty, good nature, and true manliness were so stamped upon every feature and line of it, that you had only to see him to feel that he was one of God's noblest works, and to be drawn to him as by a magnetic in- fluence." On Tuesday, December 1, Miss Prankard left for Peking, with Meech and Gilmour as escorts. On Thursday she reached the home of her sister, and on the following Tuesday the wedding took place. **I think I must have said *I wiir ia a feeble voice, ' ' says Gilmour, ' * for my wife when her turn came sung out *I will' in a voice that startled herself and me, and made it omnious how much will she was going to have in the matter!" In a letter to his friend, Mr. Lovett, the bride- groom annoimced the wedding in true Gilmour- fashion as follows: **I was married last week, Tuesday, Decem- ber 8! ''Mrs. Meech 's sister is now Mrs. Gilmour. 'A Courtship by Correspondence 49 "We never saw each other until a week before we were married, and my friends here drew long faces and howled at me for being rash. What if you don't like each other? How then? It is for life! As if I didn't know all this long ago!" After a honeymoon of one week, Gilmour started out with Mr. Meech on a nine-days' tour iQto the country. Two days before Christmas he returned and settled down in Peking for a whUe to get acquainted with his wife. She proved all he hoped for and more. To a Scotch friend, whose letter, warning him not to take an English girl for a wife, came after his marriage, he wrote, ** About my wife: as I want you to know her, I introduce you to her. She is a jolly girl, as much, perhaps more, of a Christian and a Christian missionary than I am. .... The whole thing was gone about on the faith principle, and from its success, I am in- clined to think more and more highly of the plan. Without any gammon, I am much happier than even in my day dreams I ever imagined I might be. It is not only me that my wife pleases, but she has gained golden opinions from most of the people who have met her among my friends and acquaintances in Scotland and China. You need not be the least bit shy of me or my Eng- lish wife. She is a good lassie, any quantity 50 Love Stories of Great Missionaries better than me, and just as handy as a Scotch lass would have been. It was great fun for her to read your tirade about English wives and your warning about her. She is a jolly kind of body, and does not take offense, but I guess if she comes across you, she will shake you up a bit!'' Unusual as their courtship had been, their marriage proved one of the happiest on record. In the bride God gave him, Gilmour found not only a wife, but a colleague — the only one he was ever permitted to have. Hand in hand they worked for the Mongols, her zeal fully equal to his. Delicately nurtured though she had been, this refined English lady accompanied her hus- band on many a long, hard journey through Mongolia, not only to relieve his loneliness, but to do her share in wianing the Mongols to Christ. For eleven years she endured privations and faced dangers of no common sort with a heroism that has rarely been equalled. Then God took her home, and GUmour was left with his mother- less lads. But she had been a great help to him, and their union the one great joy of his twenty years' lonely and difficult toil. THE CALL OF GOD IN AN OFFER OF MARRIAGE WHEN Francois Coillard reached Leribe, Africa, in 1859, clean-shaven and un- married, the Basutos were greatly per- plexed. Could this beardless, wifeless youth be the missionary they were expecting? He was nothing but a boy ! *'What could he teach T' asked the women drawing water from a little well at the close of his first day among them. * * He is a young man ; he has neither a wife nor a beard." But his case was not hopeless. There were remedies for defects such as these. Coillard heard what was said, and in a very short time had grown a beard which raised him immeasurably in the eyes of the natives. He thus quickly and easily acquired one of the marks of a man among the Basutos. Would he ever acquire the other? This was a question the young French- man was ever asking himself. Coillard was not without a wife because he did not want one. "When the Paris Missionary Society assigned him to a lonely pioneer post, 51 52 Love Stories of Great Missionaries he knew he would need a woman *s care and com- panionship. But his reverence for womanhood was so great that his ideas of matrimony were BO high and exalted that he was unwilling to marry merely for the sake of comfort and com- panionship. He wanted a ' ' wife from the Lord ' * and was willing to wait until the Lord sent her. One evening, not long before he sailed in 1857, he thought he had found her. He had gone, as he frequently did, to the home of the rich and pious Madame Andre-Walther, then the rendezvous of all Protestants of note in Paris. In her brilliantly lighted salon, crowded with students and professors, deaconesses and court ladies, he was presented to a newcomer among them. Miss Christina Mackintosh by name, who had come over from Scotland to assist her sister, Miss Kate, who had been teaching for two years in Paris. From the moment they met Coillard knew that Christiaa Mackintosh was the wife that he wanted. But he said nothing to her. There was no time for their acquaintance to ripen into even an ordinary friendship, and he feared to act on such a sudden impulse lest it be a mere human desire, and not ''of the Lord.'' So he sailed away without revealing the hope in his heart that some day she would come to Africa and share his work for the Basutos. Call of God in an Offer of Marriage 53 The foundations of his hope were very slight. Th-ere was no ground for it whatever save that he knew her heart was in the mission field. "When little more than a child, she had resolved to be a missionary to Africa. But this purpose had lain dormant until an address of his own, which she had heard soon after coming to Paris, revived it again. Nevertheless the vision went with him. Throughout the long journey by sea and by land the conviction steadily grew that she was The One. At length, in obedience to what he be- lieved to be diviae guidance, he wrote from Af- rica, offeriQg her his heart and his hand. In the orthodox fashion of France, the proposal was made through their mutual friend, Madame Walther. Six months passed and then came her answer — a refusal on the ground that she did not know him well enough! This was true. Yet had it not been for the storm of opposition it raised, her answer might have been different. She had heard God calling her to Africa, and she had seen enough of Coillard to know that he was one of the noblest and most lovable of men. Her sister Kate alone favored her going. She had known Coillard in Paris, and felt that it was an honor for her sister to be asked to share the life of this heroic young missionary. But 54 Love Stories of Great Missionaries every one else was opposed to it. Her mother refused to entertain the idea, and Coillard's friends, as well as her own, expressed their dis- approval very frankly. She was implored not to bury her talents lq Africa, and he was warned that a young woman who was more at home in the class-room than the kitchen would be a hindrance instead of a help. So Christina, strong and self-reliant though she was, yielded to the opposition and stayed at home. But from now on she devoted every spare moment to work among the poor — to quiet her conscience, perhaps. It was a sore disappoiatment to Coillard, and a great test of his faith. He had been so sure she would come. But it was all a part of God's plan. At this time Coillard was somewhat lack- iQg in self-confidence, and much too dependent on human sympathy and help. But now, alone with the heathen, he l-earned to find God all in all. It was a sore experience, but it gave him new beauty and strength. But it was hard. Entries in his diary and letters to his mother show how intensely he suf- fered from isolation among a people entirely heathen. The loneliness was almost unbearable, and added to it were the burdens of housekeep- ing, with no help save from careless and in- 1-1 c c;s W o II P^^«5g^e.-^^^g^^^i^£yZAt^ ^:^^^^tayt^. Handicap of a Hopeless Attachment 71 It was weary waiting for Lydia. ''Ever, through the solitude, the suffering, and the toil- ing of the first twelve months at Dinapore,'* says Dr. George Smith, "the thought of Lydia Grenfell, the hope of her union to him, and her help in his agonizing for India,, runs like a chord of sad music." Once he dreamed she had come, but awoke with a sigh to find it only a dream. "Perhaps aU my hope about her is but a dream!" he wrote the next day in his diary. "Yet be it so; whatever God shall ap- point must be good for us both, and I will en- deavor to be tranquil and happy, pursuing my way through the wilderness with equal steadi- ness, whether with or without a companion." At last, on October 24, 1807, after more than a year of suspense, her answer reached Dinapore — a refusal on the ground that her mother would not give her consent. It was a blow that well-nigh crushed Martyn. "Lydia refuses to come because her mother will not give her consent," he wrote to the Rev. David Brown, who had advised him to send for her. "Sir, you must not wonder at my pale looks when I receive so many hard blows on my heart. Yet a Father's love appoints the trial, and I pray that it may have its intended effect. Yet, if you wish to prolong my existence in this world, make a representation to some persons at home 72 Love Stories of Great Missionaries who may influence her friends. Your word will be believed sooner than mine. The extraordi- nary effect of mental disorder on my bodily frame is unfortunate ; trouble brings on disease and disorders the sleep. In this way I am labor- ing a little now, but not much; in a few days it will pass away again. He that hath delivered and doth deliver, is He in whom we trust that He wUl yet deliver ''The queensware on its way to me can be sold at an outcry or sent to Corrie. I do not want queensware or anything else now. My new house and garden, without the person I ex- pected to share it with me, excite disgust.'' On the receipt of Ly dia 's letter, Martyn wrote at once to ask whether, if he agreed not to urge her to leave her mother, she would consent to an engagement ia order that they might still correspond. But she refused this too, and bade him a final farewell. It broke Martyn 's heart and cost her much sorrow. Why, then, did she not go ? To Charles Simeon, who went to intercede for his beloved young friend, she gave four reasons, — her health, the indelicacy of going out to India alone on such an errand, her former engagement to an- other man, and the unwillingness of her mother to give her consent. But these, alas ! were excuses, rather than in- Handicap of a Hopeless Attaclunent 73 surmountable obstacles. Had she really wanted to go, the first three would have carried no weight, and the fourth would doubtless have yielded to prayer and persuasion. Her diary is full of intense love and d'evotion to God, but one may search its pages in vain for a single sentence expressing a desire to join her lover in India and share in his work. She loved Martyn and she loved God, but not enough to make such a sacrifice. The poet probed deep into her heart and laid bare its secrets when he wrote : **The woman of his Jove Feared to leave all and give her life to his, And both to God.'' Yet few dare blame her. Let those heroic souls whose sacrifices match those of a Christina Coil- lard or an Ann Judson cast the first stone. Thus ended Henry Martyn 's wooing. But his friends were loath to let the matter drop. They thought he needed a wife and when the sister of his dear friend, the Rev. Daniel Corrie, came to join her brother in India it was suggested that perhaps she might be the one. By and by a rumor reached England that they were soon to be married. Lydia heard it and was greatly dis- turb-ed! Simeon heard it and wrote to David Brown to confirm it. 74 Love Stories of Great Missionaries **How could you imagine/' Brown wrote back, *'that Miss C. would do as well as Miss L. G. for Mr. Martyn ? Dear Martyn is married already to three wives, whom I believe he would not forsake for all the princesses on earth — I mean his three translations of the Holy Scrip- tures/' Ill-health, lack of visible results, his hopeless attachment, and the death of both sisters, leaving him the last of his family, filled Martyn 's cup of sorrow full to overflowiag, yet he continued to work without ceasing. "When the news of the death of his second sister reached him in March, 1810, his grief was excessive. But Lydia now took compassion on him and wrote offering to take the place of h-er who was gone. This acted as balm to his sorrowing heart. * ' My long- lost Lydia consents to write to me," he wrote to David Brown. The correspondence that followed was the great solace of the two weary years that re- mained. He had given her up but she was ever **his dearest," and the last letter he wrote was to her. On October 16, 1812, when Martyn ** burned out for God" at Tokat, he was only thirty-one. Humanly speaking, had Lydia been there, he need not have died. With a wife to care for and comfort and cheer him his life might have Handicap of a Hopeless Attacluneiit 75 been lengthened and his service for India great- ly prolonged. *'It was the greatest calamity of his whole career that Lydia did not accompany him," says Doctor George Smith. *'But we cannot consider it a 'bitter misfortune/ as some do, that he ever knew her. His love for her worked a higher elevation for himself and gives to his Letters and Journah an intense human interest. ' ' Lydia Grenfell saved herself; but she cut short and marred Martyn's career, and lost the high honor of being his wife. Would her de- cision be different, could she come back and live her life over? Printed in the United States of America. FOREIGN MISSIONS AND YOUNG PEOPLE BELLE M. BRAIN Love Stories of Great Missionaries Illustrated, i2mo, cloth, net 50c. Miss Brain has made a distinct place for herself in mis- sionary literature. She is preeminently a story-teller, know- ing well how to invest her subject with charm and interest. In these love stories of the World's great missionaries she is at her best. It is evident from these romances of Judson and Gilmour and Livingstone and Moffat and Caillard and Martyn, which she portrays with such fascination, that love, courtship and marriage are very vital factors in the Mission- ary Enterprise. JULIA H. JOHNSTON Fifty Missionary Heroes Every Boy and Girl Should Know Illustrated, i2mo, cloth, net $1.00. The author of that popular Mission Study Text Book, IN- DIAN AND SPANISH NEIGHBORS, has supplied a real need in this volume for Junior readers and leaders. Miss Johnston gives living portraits of a large number of mission- ary heroes well adapted to interest and inspire young people. EMILY E. ENTWISTLE The Steep Ascent Missionary Talks With Young People. i2mo, cloth, net $1.00. Martha Tarbell says of the book, "It is exceedingly well and interestingly written, adapted to the Junior and lower Intermediate grades for which so few books of this sort are written." BASIL MATHEWS, M.A. The Splendid Quest Stories of Knights on the Pilgrim Way. i2mo, cloth, net $1.00. Ite Prologue, "The Pilgrim's Way," serves as a back- ground for the life stories of famous Knights of the Quest which follow. The stories are suitable for children of from 8 to 15. REV. W. MUNN Three Men on a Chinese Houseboat The Story of a River Voyage Told for Young Folks. Illustrated, i2mo, cloth, net $1.00. The story of an actual trip up the Yang-tse river taken by three missionaries on the way to their stations. In breezy, easy-flowing narrative one of the three tells the very inter- esting story of their fifteen hundred mile journey. The book should be a very acceptible addition to missionary stones and side-light reading. MISSIONARY— BIOGRAPHY JOHN T. PARIS Author of 'Men Who Made Good'' The Alaskan Pathfinder The Story of Sheldon Jackson for Boys. Illus- trated, i2mo, cloth, net $i.oo. The story of Sheldon Jackson will appeal irrcfistibly to every boy. Action from the time he was, as an infant, rescued from a fire to his years' of strenuous rides through the Rockies 'and his long years' of service in Alaska, per- meate every page of the book. Mr. Paris, with a sure hand, tells the story of this apostle of the Western Indians in clear- cut, incisive chapters which will hold the boy's attention from first to last. MRS. S. MOORE SITES Nathan Sites : Introduction by Bishop W. F. McDowell. Oriental Hand-Painted Illustrations, gilt top, net $i-50. This is one of the notable books of the year. China looms large in current political and religious interest, »o that this life story of one who for nearly half a century has been closely identified with social and religious reform in that country must have a large place in current literature. G. L WHARTON Life of G. L. Wharton By Mrs. Emma Richardson Wharton. Illustrated, i2mo, gilt top, cloth, net $1.25. A biography of a pioneer missionary of the F. C. M. S., written by a devoted wife who shared the experiences of her husband in a long service in India and Australia. It 13 a life of unusual interest and an important addition to the annals of modern missionary effort. MRS. LAURA DELANY GARST A West Pointer in the Land of the Mikado Illustrated, i2mo, cloth, net $1.25. The story of a great life given unreservedly to the service of God in Japan — a life storjr representative of the best the West sends the East and typical of that missionary spirit in America which is one of the marvelous things in the growth of the Christ life in man. Ihe Christian world will be proud of and wish to study such a record — coming generations will find here inspiration and incentive for yet greater ef- fort and larger sacrifice. 'illMMlSi;i??,V:,J?,S-y Li6ra.es 1 1012 01198 6256