America

In September, 1880, the three great French religious societies — Society Centrale d’Evangelisation, Socidte Evangelique de France, and Mission Interieure — resolved to send representatives to the American Churches. They chose M. Reveillaud for this purpose, but it was necessary to find for him an able companion, and one who could speak English as well as French. Although the object was not in the first instance the M’AU Mission, yet, in the interest of the larger French work, Mr. M’All consented to spare his colleague’, and Mr. Dodds prepared to go. They were chosen to represent the Protestant Churches of France at the Pan-Presbyterian Council, to meet at Philadelphia; but, owing to some delay (on the part of the committee acting for them) in taking out their passage, they did not sail till a week after they ought to have done, and so missed

the greater part of the meetings of the Council,

M. Reveillaud’s eloquence is remarkable; but it would have been lost had it not been for the skill of his interpreter. The task of translation was not an easy one. For though to render from one language to another may not be difficult in the case of a simple religious address, it was by no means so easy to transfer into suitable English the rolling eloquence of the French orator. Mr. Dodds proved himself quite equal to the occasion, and those who heard bear witness that the translation fully represented the power of the original.

The American newspapers reported his meetings and detailed his progress, so that by means of their reports intelligence as to the mission was very widely circulated, not merely among Christian men, but among the more worldly and indifferent. His story was one fitted to arrest the public ear, and it was told well. The double way in which it spoke to the audience, both in French and English, increased its effect. These duplicate speeches, which might have been reckoned a drawback, really contributed to the interest of the meetings.

Some of the newspapers, indeed, though they faithfully reproduced the speeches, did not altogether understand either the men or their history. One of them, confounding Mr. Dodds’ narrative of the French persecutions of other days with his own personal history, represented him as having been imprisoned in a Spanish dungeon; not however telling its readers why he was sent there, or how he got out, or whether the inquisitors were not still in pursuit of him. But a mistake of this kind was innocent enough, and by no means did any harm.

He greatly enjoyed the companionship of M. Eeveillaud; and frequently referred to their pleasant intercourse in their various journeys and voyages by sea and land. There was a most brotherly affection on both sides, as will appear from the following narrative, furnished by M. R^veillaud: —

“I knew the Rev. G. Th. Dodds from having occasionally heard him speak in the M’All meetings, and from having met him in the meetings of the committees of the ‘Mission Interieure,’ and of the Paris City Mission. The first impression produced on all who approached him, — by this tall, fine-looking young man of thirty, with his clear frank glance, his kindly and ringing laugh, — was one of well-being, of sympathy, of confidence. One felt one’s-self instinctively in presence of a beautiful soul, and his address, at once affable and dignified, prepossessed men in his favour, and won the hearts of his hearers immediately. And when we remembered that, obeying God’s call, like Abraham of old, he had left his country and his father’s house to come and preach the Gospel to the poor workmen of the Paris faubourgs, in the lowly shops which Mr. M’All has transformed into houses of prayer, one could not help blessing God for having raised up, as a witness of His mercies and of His good- will towards France, this young man, full of life and of strength, for whom these words of Solomon seemed written, ‘The glory of young men is their strength.’

“No choice could have been more agreeable to me than that of Mr. Dodds as co-delegate. Not only did I already love, little as I had seen of him, the brother in Christ who was to cross the Atlantic with me, but I appreciated in him many qualities of which I am much in need. Thus I charged him with the responsibility which weighed most heavily on me, — that of the purse. How many cares and annoyances he spared me in offering from the first day to keep account of our expenses! It was at the cost of his rest that he acquitted himself of this task, for I have seen him racking his brain ise creuser la tete) for a whole day for a trifle of some cents which he could not remember so as to inscribe under its proper head. Nearly every evening he had to take half-an-hour off his sleep to make out an exact account of the daily expenses,which he managed with the utmost economy.*

* These sentences of M. Reveillaud’s would be hardly worth inserting, were it not that those that knew him well know” But I come to our point of departure, the quay of Havre, whence we sailed on the ISth of September in the steamer La France. We had the pleasure of having the cabin to ourselves, and no comfort was missing; so that comparing our situation, as we did often, with that of Paul on his voyage to Kome, or even with that of the Pilgrim Fathers braving the tempests in their frail bark to found new and free hearths on unknown shores, we did not want subjects of thankfulness. M. Mabille, who represented at the Pan-Presbyterian Council the Missionary Church of Basutoland, was our companion, and we both esteemed it a privilege to have him with us. My brother Dodds (for already I had taken his measure and given him that name) had brought with him quite a packet of books, for the most part theological or philological. He wrote foot-notes, rectified on certain points the opinions of his authors; then shutting his books he would reproach himself for the time he had spent, and come back to his Bible — the book of his pillow, of his pocket; his book (from morning to night) of every hour — to this Word of

that to no man was the task of managing money and keeping accounts more distasteful than to him. And yet in the Mission not a day passed but he had the burden of keeping account of money not his own. It was one of the many little duties which he performed against his nature, cheerfully, as to the Lord.

God, which he placed so eminently above all human works, above all scientific authorities.

The Bible; oh, how he prized it, loved it, possessed it, lived it! I do not know if he ever had had his doubts on the perfect authority of the holy book, but at the time of which I speak, any such doubts had been utterly driven back and discomfited by the certitudes and evidences of his spiritual criteriuwj.

“From the first line of Genesis to the last of the Apocalypse, the Bible was for him (what it was for Calvin, for Knox, for the Huguenots, and the Covenanters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) the very Word of God, of which not a jot nor a tittle but shall have its entire fulfilment. His theory of inspiration was thus all of one piece, like that of the Gaussens, the Malans, the Christians of the Revival. A narrow theory you may say; antiquated, and, besides, Judaical in its literalism! It is possible! But what backbone; what solidity {charpente) it gave to his faith and to his life! How it did one’s soul good to see, in the decline of our nineteenth century, after all the havoc which criticism has made in the realms of theology and faith, this young pastor, certainly not ignorant of any of the attacks of this modern criticism, yet as whole in his convictions of the Divine origin of the

Bible as if he had always lived in the atmosphere of our Huguenot academies of the sixteenth century. Such are these rocks of granite, — the Bass Rock or Ailsa Craig, which rise on the Scottish coasts, unmoved in the midst of the stormy waves of ocean, and which, from tempests and from tides, form a refuge for the birds of heaven.

“The Scotch are said to be a people of theologians. In this point of view, G. Theophilus Dodds justified his origin. He was a theologian to the ends of his fingers. He loved theology for itself; he could discuss for hours this obscure point of dogmatics, or that problem of exegesis. He was prepared for these combats as the knights of the middle ages were for their tournaments. He was anointed with holy oil and armed cap-a-2ne against the adversary; for he knew from having read, re-read, and meditated so many times, the sacred text and all its references nsque ad unguem. He would willingly have invited me to these friendly passages-at-arms on certain subjects which were dear to him, and where our views did not always accord, — such as on the return of the Jews to Jerusalem, or the near coming of the Lord. But I had so much pleasure in contemplating that well-tempered faith (tvemiDe de foi), so rare in our day; and, on the other hand, I felt myself so unable to cross swords with him, that I preferred to hide myself and own myself conquered at the first passage. His theology did not wrong his charity. ‘Narrow conscience, large heart’ might have been his device, as of the Huguenots of other days. What largeness of heart, indeed, and what love of souls was his! I have better understood, since I knew him, how it is that St. John, the seer of Patmos, who in the opened sky, sees the Word of God, the Faithful and True, as a horseman armed with a sword to smite the nations, who declares to whoever hears the words of His Book, that if any one adds or takes away, God will add to him the plagues ^mtten in His Book, — will take away his part in the tree of life, and will shut him out from the holy city, — how the St. John who writes these terrible things should be the same apostle who has bequeathed to us the epistles and the gospel which bear his name, the apostle of love, he who under the snows of his old age summed up the teaching of his Master in the words, ‘Little children, love one another.’ Yes, there was something of the St. John in this valiant and faithful servant of Jesus Christ, whom his Master has called so early to Himself. To the firmness of the apostle against the heresies and infidelities which bring down condemnation upon an evil world, he allied the mercy and condescension of the ‘well-beloved disciple’ for the outcasts, the little ones, the poor, the lost, whom the Son of Man came to seek and to save. I seem to see him in that heaven where now he has ’ entered into the joy of his Lord,’ — I see him forming part of one of those mystic tribes of Israel (like the Scottish clans), each of which has an apostle at its head. He belongs to the ’ clan ’ of the disciple whom Jesus loved. He enters and goes out by these doors of pearl, which are never shut at the fall of day; for there is no night. The city has no need of the sun or of the moon to lighten it, — for the glory of God lightens it, and the Lamb is its light. There is no more curse there. The servants of God serve Him, they see His face, — His name is on their foreheads. And they shall reign for ever and ever.

“Though his years were short, yet how full they were; and what a noble sheaf of souls he has been able to lay down at his Master’s feet. He might have answered like Arnaud, the great Jansenist, when they spoke to him of rest, ‘We have all eternity to rest in.’ Was it a presentiment that his time of action would be short, and that he must redeem the time so much the more? I do not know; but all those who knew him know that he was always ready to bear witness to his faith, always disposed for Gospel-work, always in quest of souls whom he could lead to Christ. merica.

“From the second or third day of our voyage, I remember seeing him seeking souls to enlighten and save, distributing his tracts and gospels, always with some kind word of interest and sympathy. Thus occupied, he found something to make his heart glad. Among the passengers were a band of Parisian dressmakers and milliners, going ‘for the season’ to New York. One of these, he found, had attended Mr. M’All’s station of Bercy, and had received religious impressions there, which seemed deep and lasting. Thus the ‘bread cast upon the waters’ was found when we least expected it. Glad to discover one of the fruits of the Mission, my friend did not fail to devote some minutes to this girl each day, fortifying her faith, warning her against the dangers she might meet with in New York, and giving her introductions to some Christian friends in that city.

“In the next cabin to ours was a woman who had undertaken the long voyage to America on account of money affairs, with a child of two years old. She was tormented by sea-sickness and by anxiety; and for many days she could not leave her cabin. My friend interested himself in her. She was lonely, he visited her; discouraged, he cheered her; irritable and anxious, he reassured her. Above all, he directed her to the source of all peace and true comfort.

telling her of Jesus Christ, and giving her a Bible, She received the gift with much gratitude, for, she said, she had long desired to possess this book. She promised, when she should return to Paris, to attend the evangelical meeting in her quarter.

“We had left Havre in a pretty rough sea. But on the 24th, as we were approaching the banks of Newfoundland, we were assailed by a storm. Our ship seemed to writhe like an immense snake under the shock of the sea and the hurricane. But with the exception of some little accidents which delayed our arrival a day, all went well, and we had only the majesty, without the terror, of the spectacle of the ’ great waters.’ On the morning of Sunday, the 26th, the tempest was at rest, and the Lord made His beautiful sun to shine on us again. All hearts were full of thankfulness, and after deliberations between Mr. Dodds, Mr. Mobille, and myself, we arranged for two services, which the captain willingly announced. The first, in English, was held at eleven, in a small first-class saloon, as only about a score of the passengers were English or American. Mr. Dodds’ address, from the 29th Psalm, was particularly suited to our circumstances, impressive, and powerful. At two o’clock a second meeting, in French, took place in the second-class dining-room. We found there about forty Protestant emigrants, men and women, from Switzerland or the country of Montbeliard for the most part. These good people seemed fall of joy at the thought of having a meeting. Mr. Dodds chose a tune which they said they knew, and for some moments there was a terrible discord, in which a hearty country-woman from Montbeliard particularly distinguished herself But so much faith and heart went into the song, that to God it must have been more acceytable than the finest music. Some Catholic emigrants had joined us, and told us the favourable impression which they had received. Mr. Dodds gave them tracts, which they promised to read.

“We noticed one thing. In this crowd of 500 passengers or emigrants, the greater part Catholics, there were, besides the BishojD of New Orleans, two or three priests. But not one occupied himself that day (nor, so far as we knew, on the other days) with the religious wants of these people. Worship, for them, is the mass, and they could not say the mass without altar, acolytes, scarf, stole and surplice, and all the apparatus of their sacred tinsel! What condemnation of Popery in that simple fact! Can you imagine St. Paul, on his way to Rome, hindered from preaching the Gospel because he has not chasuble — nor I’ostensoir et la iatene.

“On Wednesday, the 29th, at six o’clock in the evening, the shores of Long Island were sighted, to our great joy. On Thursday morning we were, at last, at New York, in a hospitable house, that of M. Elie Charlier, son of a French pastor.

“The warm welcome of several Christian friends, notably the Rev. Mr. W. Newell and the Rev. Dr. Beard, — the bright sun which shone that day upon American soil, and which accompanied us henceforth until half November was over, — the pleasure of at last being upon terra firr)ia {le plancher des vaches) after rolling about on the liquid element for twelve days — all contributed to raise our spirits, and to make us feel as if our future journeying were to be begun under happy auspices.

“For we were not come to rest, and were scarcely on land, when we bethought ourselves of continuing our way. The Presbyterian Council was already sitting at Philadelphia, and as our vessel had been delayed, we had not an instant to lose, if we would arrive before the close of that great Assembly, composed of representatives of so many nations.

“Late as was our arrival, a large space had been allotted in the programme of the Council for us and our message. That evening we had to address an audience of more than 4000 persons in the great Music Hall, Mr. Dodds kindly translating into English what I said in my native tongue. Although this task seemed to leave him only the second rSle in our association, when he ought to have had the first; yet he applied himself to it with all his heart, and with the conscientious application which he brought to bear on everything, and I have reason to believe that my discourses lost much of their dross by the transmutation which they underwent, through him, into a foreign tongue.

“I should be very ungrateful if I did not confess all the obligations I owed to him during these three months of our stay in America. As I hardly knew English as a spoken language at that time, I was forced continually to recur to my obliging dragoman to explain to me what was going on, or to interpret what I had to say. Some men would have been impatient, but he was only glad to find occasions to help me, and rendered the service always with the best grace possible, constituting himself not only my interpreter, but my professor, and teaching me to understand and to speak English. He was the eye of the blind and the tongue of the dumb; and to him I owe any power I have at present of enjoying, when far from my own country, the conversation and society of human beings. I may be allowed to mention this personal detail for the sake of expressing my gratitude to his dear memory.

“Our common friend, the Rev. Dr. A. F. Beard — I say our friend, for, from the first day we met him we felt a friendship which time only deepened — was charged, at the request of the American and Foreign Christian Union, with the duty of organising our missionary tour. His active impulse did not let us linger. In fifteen days we had already rolled on all the railways of eastern America; hastening from New York to Philadelphia; from Philadelphia to New York and Boston; from Boston to Lowell, where we took part in the General Assembly of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions; from Lowell to Providence; and from Providence to Norwich, where we found a home of more than ordinary hospitality, in the house of the Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon, who had just published in favour of our mission a pamphlet, entitled ‘God’s Wonderful Work in France; an Introduction of the Deputation from the Protestants of France to the American Churches,’ and which was truly a great help in opening our way and creating sympathy for us. From Norwich, where we had also the advantage of being present at the General Union of the American Missionary Association, we turned our steps successively to Newburyport, where we preached in the church where Whitfield is buried, — to New Britain, New Haven, Hartford, Amherst, Springfield, — received everywhere with a brotherly hospitality which was truly touching; everywhere finding churches ready to receive our message; everywhere seeing interest awakened in the news of France which we brought them; everywhere seeing the sympathy which was felt produce practical results in the shape of dollars.

“My part in these meetings was the easiest. I had only to introduce the subject by speaking of the religious condition of France, the present facilities for evangelisation, and the need we have of help in doing this work, which is much beyond our strength. Mr. Dodds, after having translated my discourse, began to speak for himself, and on the canvas which I had spread out he embroidered a number of considerations, which were original, ingenious, powerful, well fitted to touch and to move the hearers, and to deepen the impressions which my words might have left floating on the surface. After the meetings it was he who had to answer the questions put by one and another. It was he who, in the course of the day, made the visits judged necessary, to Christians interested in our work. It was he who had to take the steps which ended, after a good deal of deliberation, in the gift of 15,000 dollars, made by Mrs. V. Stone to our different societies. But it was not on the visible success of our mission that my friend relied, and toward which he employed all his faculties. Care for the collections did not make him forget the more important work among souls, and each time that he found opportunity, he addressed to one an encouraging word, to another an appeal to come and help in the French mission. I know two or three students of divinity who promised him to come to France, bringing the help of their arms to the white harvest. One of these is now pastor at Dertuis, in the department of Vaucluse, a field once watered by the blood of the Vaudois of Provence.

“Cleveland, Pittsburg, Columbus, were the principal stages of our journey westward. The distances were long, and we were obliged to spend nights in the sleeping-cars. In this necessity of daily locomotion, one may imagine how all our habits were upset; how we slept and took food how and when we could. This reminds me of an involuntary fast which my friend had to make, and which was worth double rations to me. Leaving Springfield for Cleveland, we started immediately after the meeting, and had barely the time to fasten our trunks, and to carry off some sandwiches. In spite of my friend’s warning that these should not be of ham (he laughingly professed a pious horror for the swine’s flesh), we found, when we tasted our sandwiches, that the order had been transgressed, and that the rosy flesh of the unclean animal disclosed itself between the slices. At this sight my friend gave a cry of horror; 1 asked the cause; ‘But, at least, leave the ham, you can eat the bread and butter!’ Alas, no; I had to eat my companion’s share as well as my own, while he contented himself with eating an orange, of which I made the exchange. It was low diet for a man who had eaten nothing since the morning, and who had to wait till ten o’clock next day before he had the chance to procure more. Besides, he had to submit to my pitiless jokes about his anti-Christian prejudices, which I said proved him to be descended from one of the lost ten tribes! I think I hear still his hearty, open-hearted laugh at these witticisms, which the reader may not think very Attic. But far as we were from both ancient and modern Athens, we were not very difficult to please as to Attic salt; and as laughter (as an old author says) is the special property of man, and as joy is also the property of the Christian, we often found ourselves, without any better pretext, beguiling the length of the way by bantering each other, and making jokes without malice, which sufficed to put us in good humour.

“At St. Louis I was seized with sore throat, and my friend, after having done all he could for my comfort, was obliged to double his effirts, and, without interrupting his work a single day, to accomplish alone what we had been in the habit of doing together. What energy and courage were his in the Lord’s work! He thus visited alone the towns of Cincinnati and Indianopolis, and held there successful meetings. In one of these towns he experienced one of the purest joys of his journey. A little community of Chinese — laundryonen by trade — had been converted to the Gospel. On hearing my friend speak of the needs of France, these converts felt pressed in their heart to contribute their part to the work, and at the close of his meeting they brought to him a round sum of thirty dollars, which they had saved from their scanty wages. I was singularly touched myself on learning this fact, that Chinese Christians should contribute to the evangelisation of my countrymen.

“I have in my hands a letter, dated from St. Louis, where Mr. Dodds again joined me, and which well shows the fine qualities of his soul, and the zeal for the Master which devoured him. I ought to have said already that, in the midst of his superabundant occupations, our friend still found time (taking ifc oftenest from his night’s rest) to keep up an active correspondence, not only with his own friends in the flesh, but with those who were his by spiritual ties, — spiritual children, for whom he felt all the love and solicitude of a father. The letter which follows was given me, a short time before her death, by the lady to whom it was addressed, — Madame Twho had been converted at a somewhat advanced age through the ministry of Mr. Dodds: —

“‘St. Louis, Wih November.

“‘My Dear Madame, — I have often tliouglit of you, and also heard of you from Mrs. Dodds, who told me of your frequent visits to them. My children have got to know and love you, and my wife and I often speak of your kindness to us and to them. I have been very busy since arriving in New York, after a rather stormy but, on the whole, agreeable passage. We go from place to place, and travel a great deal, and, consequently, are often very tired. One is hurled along in the railway at a great pace, and at night you can have a sleeping-car with a bed, which looks very comfortable, but where I do not sleep much. Here I am at St. Louis, in the far West; but although it takes a day or two to reach this city from New York, it is only midway in the American Continent, and it would take four days to get to San Francisco. It is indeed a great country, and a great and noble people. Christianity, and the principles brought over by the Pilgrim Fathers when they crossed the sea to have freedom to worship God according to their conscience, have made America what she is. I find a good many French people scattered over the States, and at the end of meetings they come up to speak to us, and thank us for the good news we bring of the Gospel in France, and how multitudes flock to hear the good news. We have very often services three times on Sunday. I hope that we are going to carry back with us from the States a good large fund for the evangelisation of France; but we do not know as yet if much has been collected, and some of the largest cities are still to be visited.

“‘I like being here very much, and meet with many very hospitable friends, who entertain us wherever we go, and do all that can be done to help ns. But I am longing to be in Paris again, and at work in the Mission. It is a long time to be away, and absent from my wife and children, and from all the friends at Paris and in the Mission. But I feel that there is such a wide door open to the preaching of the Gospel in France that I must seize the great opportunity presented to me of interesting friends in America in our work, else the time to do so may never come round again. If France were Protestant, if God’s Word were known and loved, what a great country she would be, and how good would be her influence over other nations in Europe.

“‘I hope, dear Madame, that you are well, and able to take an interest this winter, to some small extent, in the work of the Mission. If your health does not permit you to go out much, remember that you can always pray for God’s work, and the coming of Christ’s kingdom. What consolation, what strength, what joy do we find in prayer! It brings the Lord Jesus so close to us! It makes Him a fnsonal Friend, who sympathises with us in all our troubles and temptations; who knows our hearts and our wants better than we do ourselves; and who loves us with a free, full, and unchangeable love. The more we know of that love, the more shall our soul be filled with His peace, and light, and love. Christ shall be to us a living, faithful Friend — so near, so real to us, that His comforting grace and voice shall be heard amidst all our temptations, and frailties, and sins. “Lo, I am with ijou always; that is, all the days of this life, be they sad or joyful or filled with pain or ease, I am with you all these days, even unto the end of the world,” when you shall enter into His presence, redeemed by His j)recious blood, and never more go out. All the trials and little anxieties of time are nothing in comparison with the eternity of joy which awaits us in heaven.

“‘If you can find time to write me a short letter, and give me “(Zes nouveUes” from Paris, I shall be very much pleased to receive it. I pray that you may grow in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing Him and the power of His Kesurrection.’ *

“‘To grow in the grace of God and of the Saviour Jesus Christ ’ was the aim of this faithful disciple of Christ. He aspired to receive from the fulness of the Master grace on grace and truth on truth. He had the high ambition of holiness; to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. I consider as one of my highest privileges, and the source of much blessing to my soul, the having lived for three months in the intimacy of this beautiful soul, which laid itself bare, as it were, in fervent prayers with me, morning and evening. How I liked to hold my

* This dear friend has followed her young father and teacher in Christ to glory, August, 1883. She was a Protestant by birth, but knew nothing of the personal friendship of Jesus. The deep sorrows of a long life had almost broken her heart. Bereaved of her husband and all her children, left alone in the world with her most loving heart, she could see nothing to live for, and would gladly often have ended it in her despair. She had often, she said, “tried to become a Catholic,” to see if she could get some comfort; but her strong mind refused to be treated thus. At last, at the Trocaddro Salle, she heard the message her soul needed, and the remaining years of her life were happy in the love of Christ, and in making others happy. What a friend she was in many homes! — to little children and to the suffering! How many remember her in connection with the meetings at Passy or Versailles! How many mourn deeply for her now!

’ peace to listen to him praying! What tenderness of conscience! What abasement of himself, and of what he still attributed to himself of self-love and self-righteousness! What boundings of heart toward the eternal hills whence came his help! What filial confidence in God! What hunger and thirst after righteousness! Ah, if any one ever loved the kingdom of Christ, and longed for His coming; if any one ever consecrated himself entirely to the service of the Master, it was he. What a religion it is which begets such men, and forms such characters! To God alone, holy and just, be the glory for ever and ever. A’men!

“I will pass quickly over the last stages and incidents of our journey. My friend was not insensible, any more than myself, to the great scenes of nature, and to the marvels of human industry; and he might have said, with the Latin poet, ‘Homo sum, et nihil humani a me alienum puto;’ or rather (for he made a choice between one art, one taste, and another), he might have repeated, with the great apostle, that ‘All that is true, all that is honourable, all that is just, all that is pure, all that is lovely, all that is of good report, all that is virtuous and worthy of praise,’ was thought of by him. At Pittsburg, the black city, the city of the coal and the trades that spring from it, we ascended, to enjoy a view which is quite unique, the heights which bear still the name of “Fort Duquesne,” — a fort built in days when the French banner floated over the basins of the Mississippi and the Ohio. At St. Louis we gazed on the majestic course of the Mississippi, and had admired the gigantic bridge which the Americans have thrown over its turbid waters. At Chicago, the immense slaughter-houses, whence goes out the preserved meat of the world, excited our astonishment; while the glorious views of Lake Michigan filled our hearts with admiration for the magnificence of creation. Detroit, daintily situated on the wide canal or strait which unites the Lakes Huron and Erie, and which has given its name to the town, left us also pleasant remembrances. But the crowning-point of our journey, as far as picturesque impressions went, was the spectacle of Niagara.

“After this day, marked with letters of gold, spent at Niagara, we separated for a week, he going to Toronto, I to Montreal, to plead the same cause among the French Canadians of Quebec. We met again at Boston, where arrangements had been made for our speaking many times. The last part of our journey was not the least fatiguing, for in three weeks we had to respond to appeals from the principal congregations of New York, Brooklyn, Princeton, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, but also it was the most fruitful. One Sunday alone at New York we collected 8000 dollars, having spoken before three assemblies, which meant that Mr. Dodds had given (counting the translations which he made for me) six addresses. We might now reckon up the tangible results of our mission; we carried back to France (including Mrs. Stone’s gift) about 150,000 francs (£6000), and we left behind us a current which would not cease to flow, of active sympathy for the work of God in France. The result had surpassed our hopes, and we rejoiced both for ourselves and in thinking of the satisfaction of our senders, of the directors of the Societies which had sent us out, the excellent M. Fisch, Mr. M’All, M. Lorraine, and Mr. Gustave Meyer. It was enough for my ambition, and I felt inclined to say with the old Entellus,

“‘Hie coestiTS artemque repono.’

‘* My companion, however, did not sympathise with me. Fatigued no doubt he was, and often feverish, his muscles wearied, his nerves on the stretch, his features sharpened (etires), everything said to him rest. But he never reckoned with his weariness, never spared his strength when his Master’s service required it. It seemed to him that he had done nothing while there remained anything to do. Encouraged by the yesults which we had obtained, he thought of them only as the first-fruits of what we might yet achieve in America. Everywhere friends assured him that the interest of the great American continent was only beginning to awake around our work, and that if we could remain two months, — three months, we might carry back to France many times what we had as yet received. His heart leapt at these assurances, which were confirmed by the steadily progressive rate of our collections.

“‘Our duty is to remain,’ he said to me, one day. I assured him no; — our duties recalled us to France; besides we were exhausted, we had done what might be reasonably expected of us, &c. He insisted, with what persuasive force, with what infectious warmth, I shall always remember. He had convinced my conscience and my heart, but my selfishness resisted still. ‘At least a fortnight V ‘No!” Eight days?” Impossible, remain if you will, I am going to leave on the day originally fixed.’ We had, on this subject, our first conflict since we had known each other, the first shade which threatened to trouble our perfect intercourse. The cloud was very ephemeral. My generous friend yielded to me, gave up his own desire, and, moreover, he did not bear me any malice, but was as cordial, brotherly, amiable during our return voyage as he had ever been. He told himself, doubtless, that he only relinquished the work in

America to take it up in another form in France, and that it did not matter how he served, provided he served. Scarcely, indeed, had he returned, than he was again in harness at the M’All Mission, and his first leisure-time has been in the eternal plains! There he rests from his labours, while his works continue here below to bear fruit. That fragrance of Christ which he always bore with him, and which won so many souls to the cause of the God of love, still lingers over the place which he occupied, the spots which he passed over while on earth. Among those who knew him, how many there are for whom his contact has been a blessing for the present life and for that which is to come. And he who writes these lines, though he knows well his unworthiness in comparison with that choice vessel which God has taken to Himself, yet, moved to the depths by the stroke which has taken from him the dear companion of his pilgrimage, believes that the love of Christ which brought them together here, for a few days. too quickly passed, will bring them together again for an eternity of happiness.”

Such is the vivid narrative of M. Reveillaud.

Were it not for unduly prolonging the narrative of this American episode, I would give several of his own letters at length, both on board ship and during his stay in the country. In one of these he speaks of setting himself to study the Icelandic, and remarks, “It is a fine, noble, vigorous language, like the Gothic; for that reason I am studjdng it, but one can’t do much on board.” In another, he writes of his companion, “After dinner, went to the Council; Rdveillaud had the time to himself from nine o’clock, and I to translate, and that before 4000 people, his success depending on my translation. You may imagine I felt shaky. I ‘m not the man for such huge public work. Such sentences as he gave — ponderous and very literary! I had to do my very best, — no easy matter. But the people applauded, and seemed to welcome him warmly. His sentences were in themselves most effective. I can easily understand his power over a crowd.” *

He felt the want of devotional exercises at the Council. There was too little of these; and rather much hilarity. But he enjoyed exceedingly the fellowship of the brethren. He speaks of having found the Huguenot element strong in many places,

* “It is no easy task translating. M. K. piles up such huge sentences sometimes, in such fine, terse, nervous French, with such correct metaphors! I enjoy the work; I feel that we are indeed pleading for the Gospel in France, and that it is a solemn, most momentous crisis for that great country; every door open, and a welcome to the Gospel; one must seize it. No one can tell when it may come again. ... I am getting quite famous as a translator; it needs one to know his style — long involved sentences in sentences. Now I can manage him, though he sometimes goes on to an alarming length; but it is of no use trying to stop him.”

and adds “that in America at least he had not found the seed of the righteous begging bread.” Speaking specially of New England, he writes: ‘’ There the Pilgrim Fathers, though they are dead long ago, have left the strong impress of their character and religion on their descendants. I found in them more of the quiet, reserved, gentle dignity of an English home than anywhere else. They are recognisable everywhere by their energy and devotion in church work, and their healthy orthodoxy.

“The Puritan element in America makes itself felt everywhere, and to it the nation owes much of its ideas of uprightness, of justice, and love of truth.”

After saying regarding one district, “We do not always get much money,” he adds, “but we are not here only to get dollars, but to tell God’s people what is being done in France, and to ask their prayers. I ‘d rather have a hundred praying people behind us than a hundred thousand dollars; but both are good.” In another place, after referring to an audience that “did not allow themselves to be touched deeply in their pockets by anything I said,” he goes on to speak of France, and its “great crying and pressing needs “: —

“France, that great country, struggling with two demons, — superstition and infidelity; what would I not give to see her set free and drawn to Christianity by the attractive power of the crucified Christ. Oh, if men only knew how great the opportunity and how critical a time, nay a moment, it is in France, and how the rise or fall of the people is trembling in the balance, how the chains are heavy which Rome and Satan have welded link by link for centuries, and how they bind and enslave a noble people, susceptible, as are few others, to all the noble, tender, and generous impulses of the heart; if they only knew what that craving is which seeks for satisfaction to the deep ineradicable wants of man’s soul — the need of God, and an expiation for sin — a craving which one can hear and see and feel in France at the present day, they would give of their means, and young men would crowd to the mission-field, rejoicing to offer themselves for the advancement of Christ’s kingdom. It may be the last opportunity that Europe shall have. I wonder if the Church will ever rise to the full consciousness of its duty regarding missions? Ah! I feel how backward I have been, how little I have felt the importance of my work, and how superficially I have understood and slightly experienced and partially preached the great wonderful fact of the love of God in His Son. Pray that I may return to Paris more fitted than ever to use every moment of the short space of time God gives us, in which to work.’*

The following incident relating to Chinese generosity and politeness is touching: —

“There are some Chinese men and boys at Indianapolis; they are generally poor, being laundrymen, or having some other such occupation. Some are members of Dr. Bartlett’s Church, where I preached in the morning. At their Sunday school afterwards, one of them told the others that I had asked for help to teach the French about Jesus Christ. These Chinamen made a short collection among themselves and I was asked to come and receive it. They met me standing, and bowed with all the grace and dignity of gentlemen. The collection was 4.70 cents, almost 19s. In a big Methodist Church one day we did not get as much as that!

Then he closes his letter thus: —

“It ’s a race for riches in this country, and a fight for life; and all Creation groaneth. I often weary of it, and long for the coming day of the new Creation, when the Holy King shall reign over a holy people in a peaceful and holy land.

“Kiss my bairns, and give affectionate regard to all.” *

* Frequent are the home-references and home-longings in his letters. “I cling to that crowded city of Paris. My little weans, Horace, and Boz, and Cornelius (Henry), how I wish I could see them all. Well; ’tis a lesson of patience, and it is good to learn it. Lex tua Domine mi, lex salubris.”

Of Philadelphia he writes: — “I do love this quiet Quaker town with its streets narrower than elsewhere, its white marble steps and fronts; sometimes the whole buildings are marble; they import it from Italy as ballast in the ships, and pay less for it imported than when they bring it from their own quarries.”

Speaking of another place, he says: — “There ’s a great lot of religious life and zeal here, and energy and enthusiasm, but the world is the world here as much as anywhere else, and it seems to me that the great thing to be aimed at is to influence society through individuals, and these must be trained up.... There is a great deal of theatre-going among professing Christians in the States.... This worldliness in the Church is the greatest evil.”

“Some of them had been to see Sara Bernhardt act; they seemed to think it quite the thing. Did they know what we know in Paris of the bright young lives that are drawn into the vortex of vice by the theatre and the opera, perhaps they would have been less clamant in their praise of her. Oh! these worldly would-be Christians; they abound in this country. Christian parents let their children do things which I hope never to see our children think of.”

Let me give a single sentence on Niagara: — “And yet the rocky perpendicular clitF, which bounds the stream, is more to me an emblem of strength than the rushing tumultuous water; the still immoveable rock contrasted with the never-ceasing stream. The rock is a symbol of strength. ‘The Lord is my Rock: ’ it is the enemy that comes in like a flood; and the flood is the emblem of destruction: ‘As with an overflowing flood thou carriest them away.’ The rock watches and waits, the flood passes on.”

He passes into Canada, and thus writes of it, and gives his impressions: —

“I enjoyed finding myself once more in a land where royalty flourished as well as loyalty. It was a pleasure to see V. R on waggons and house-stores, and the Queen’s head on the silver!

“I addressed the students in Knox College (Toronto), the professors a fine body of young men, whose faces and singing carried me back to Scotland.

“I have been greatly rejoiced in many places, and not least in Toronto, by the deep Christian interest shown in our work. I feel that there are many praying for France, and if these prayers go up, and are mingled with the yet unanswered prayers of the slaughtered, banished Huguenots, shall we not see an abundant answer, and a rich blessing vouchsafed to France.... How unfit and unequal I am to this great task of rousing the people here, and raising up France.... All this speaking is trying, one is apt to get lifted up, and yet I often return to my room at night humbled, and unworthy in my own eyes; how much more in God’s. I feel He needs pure, clean vessels for the work of the sanctuary. I long after this purity, after the great grace of humility and self-forgetfulness in doing God’s will.” Writing from Norwich, he says: —

“The coimtry is charming as we swept along from New York. There was one constant succession of rivers, sometimes lakes, wooded to their banks and shores by trees in all the glory of American autumn foliage. It is perfectly exquisite; the maple is sometimes tipped with a rosy red, sometimes still preserving its lovely tender green; these are intermingled again with dark pines, and feathery fading birches, and here and there are tracks of land never yet redeemed from barrenness, as far as the farmer is concerned, covered with wild vine, and with the ‘Sumack’ (you remember it in France in our garden at Belleville), which becomes here in autumn a flaming crimson red. So you see there is colour all the way; a blue distant sky, with scattered fleecy clouds, and as evening comes on, a golden glow of sunset lighting up the long line of forest trees on the horizon with its own light, and making the varied foliage in the foreground to stand out in striking contrast with the heavy shadows that are cast by the setting sun.”

Links between the old and the new are thus
touchingly noticed: —

“There are old memories even in this new country.

We had a meeting in the church where Whitefield preached; a good congregation came out to hear us, and we got a collection. There is a cenotaph to Whitefield in the church, and beneath, in a sort of vault, the coffin. The sexton opens the lid of it, and you see all that remains, — a skull, some bones, and mouldering dust. Though it is rather American to exhibit skulls in that way, I gazed with interest and awe on the remains of that mighty evangelist. The head is striking; a broad prominent brow. Oh, for one or two men like him, to shake our old country in Scotland to its foundation, and to sweep away the deadness and indifference and security that are bearing such disastrous fruit in modern unbelief” *

I have compressed the American narrative into as short a space as possible. Rather a difficult task!

* “Life is at high pressure here, and the candle is being burnt at both ends everywhere in cities, I am sure matter will be more obedient to man in the New Earth. The other day, in one of the streets of New York, I could not help feeling that matter is Iceyi under by man, not mastered. She is not obedient to his will, and the whole creation groaneth and travaileth. On both sides of the streets the elevated railway spouting out steam and pouring down water and bits of coal from time to time; the noise was deafening, and yet men boast of all ‘that as the product of civilisation. They never think that nerves are overstrung and disease nourished, and that the men that work these are toiling, suffering mortals; and that a new kingdom and king and a purer, loftier civilisation are needed.” — Extract from Letter.

What with letters and journals and oral statements, the details are both numerous and interesting. I have not done justice to his western tour. It would require to be written more fully in justice to himself, and no less in justice to that great country in which he would have been delighted to linger.*

I give his summation of his Transatlantic work: — “I was eighty-three days in America, attended ninety meetings, and spoke and interpreted at eighty-three. That was pretty hard work, and astonished even the Americans.”

He passed through America in haste, just as he
passed through life. Yet, not in vain. He has left
traces behind him; and many Americans warm at
the mention of his name.

* The American newspapers gave full reports, for which alone a volume would be required.