Onwards and Outwards

lU^fTANY things in the biography of Felix Neff resemble what is now going on in Paris and Lyons: only his work chiefly lay in the villages, not in the cities; and his pilgrimages or missionary tours were chiefly on foot, across mountains and torrents and snow-drifts, not in the train or the tramway or the voiture. Climbing up to the Alpine hamlets, in rain or snow or sunshine; making his way over rocks amid the dangers of the storm or the avalanche or the deep snow-drift; mounting the slippery glacier which lay in his way, or cutting steps in the ice for the people to reach the chapel; journeying to La Grave, far up among the ridges of the Cottian Alps, beyond the source of the Durance, and almost inaccessible in winter; — these are the things which give romance to the missionarylife of the Genevan evangelist.

Can we imagine any contrast greater than that

Onwards and Otitwards. 125

between this wild mountain-life and that of the Parisian workers, moving from day to day through the streets and lanes of a crowded city, and holding their meetings in the close rooms of some noisy boulevard or dull ‘passage?

Yet the work is very much the same; and it is interesting to find Neff using the word reunion to designate his meetings. In travelling from place to place he used to converse with all he met with by the way, on the matters of eternity. In the towns or villages he visited he would hold a reunion; preaching and expounding; yet seeking no ends of his own, nor trying to found a sect, but always co-operating with the pastors: and we find the police authorities supporting him. Thus he writes: —” The

pastors of M and C presented a petition

to the Government against religious societies, on the ground that they disturbed both the ‘pesice of the Church and civil order. A pastor of Berne was summoned to give evidence on this subject. He stated that there was nothing sectarian among the people in question; that they were devout Christians, who endeavoured mutually to improve each other; and that the best and surest way to avoid divisions was to leave them in peace. Oae of the directors of the central police was then sent to take cognisance of the matter. He came to Montier and went to the prayer meeting. He appeared thouglatful, and on being asked by a companion what he thought of it, he replied, — ‘One thing alone distresses me.’ When asked what it was, ‘It is,’ he said, ’ that there are not such reunions held in every province throughout the canton.’”

The Alpine mission of Neff was a nobly aggressive one. It pressed forward in all directions, over valley and mountain, city and village, bearing aloft the banner of the good news, and carrying life wherever the intrepid standard-bearer went on his mighty errand.

It is hardly correct to call the Paris Mission an ‘aggressive” one. It is more attractive than aggressive.

The difficulties which we feel in our own large cities of “drawing out “the people, and” working up” a station, are unknown to the labourers in France. The people come without compulsion or persuasion. “Compel them to come in” is hardly a suitable motto for these halls: but rather, ‘’Nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee” (Isa. Iv. 5); or, “All the people ran together unto them, greatly wondering” (Acts iii. 11).

I mentioned in a former chapter the case of a journeyman painter of Belleville who at one of the meetings had been rested, and subsequently brought

Onwards and Outwards. i 2 7

out of darkness into light. This ouvrier lives in a crowded loassage, where the dark and the needy and the evil dwell. He has “found the Messias” for himself, and he must tell it, or at least get it told, to others. He cannot rest till he has a meeting in his own centre: and he finds many more equally earnest with himself. The following letter is a better indication of the peculiar state of the Parisian ouvriers than many an important incident. It is addressed to ‘’ Mr. and Mrs. M’All: “—” It is with the greatest respect, and at the desire of more than a hundred residents of my yctssage [an avenue crowded with small dwellings], that I send you these few lines. More than a hundred ijersons have applied to me, and that repeatedly, to beg you, in their names, to open a meeting-room in the passage, assuring me that they much wished to have a reunion in the ^passage.’’

But this is not all. The petition of a hundred inhabitants of a neighbourhood is cheering; but the offer that follows from this poor ouvrier as to the fitting up of the room at his own cost is even more touching. ‘’ J will freely undertake to light and clean the room, as my small contribution; and I am sure that you will have a crowded attendance; and that will correspond with the command, ‘Go into the streets and lanes, seek the maimed, and the halt, and the blind, and invite them to my supper,’ — all these are to be found in the passage. — Your devoted.” — (Report for 1875, p. 19.)

The willingness of the proprietors to allow the Mission the use of their premises is a further indication of the extent to which the work has penetrated. The brother of the landlord of the room at Gare d’lvry, who has a large number of workmen under him, on hearing that the object of the Mission was simply to tell the poor people about Christ, said to his agent, — “We must bear part in this good work; let the gentlemen have the place on their own terms.” An old tradesman of Belleville, after a meeting in that faubourg, was heard to say, — “If there were more of these reunions we should have no more need of policemen in Paris.”

The policemen frequently are found acting not as mere guardians of order, but as helpers in the work of invitation. ‘’Go in, go in,” they have been heard saying to the people, you will hear good things. And when the room was over- crowded, they have allowed the people to gather round the open door, on condition of their listening quietly. “It would be well,” said one of them, “if there were 200 such rooms in Paris.”

A gentleman, once an officer in the French army, visited Mr. MAIL He and his wife attend one of the stations. About a year before he had been passing the mission-hall on the evening of its opening, and curiosity drew them in. He had no religion, — had never read a page of the Bible; there was no Bible in his house. The words they heard that night awakened new thoughts in both. They obtained a Bible, and began to read it with deep interest. They were visited by some friends connected with the Mission, who helped to teach and guide them. Ere long they found their way to the resting-place, and the peace of the cross filled their souls. They would not hide the treasure they had found. “I want,” said the officer, ‘’ to stand up in that room and tell the people of the blessings I have obtained there. When one has been cured of a fierce disease, he wants to recommend the remedy which cured him to the others who are sick. I long to see all Paris covered with these reunions; and I believe that it will be so.”

“I am not quite two years old,” said a lady after a New- Year’s afternoon prayer meeting. She was the head of a business-house, and had, within the last two years, found eternal life at one of the meetings. She and her household had been in deep religious ignorance till then. “How changed,” she said, “is everything in our household since last New- Year’s Day. Great is our thankfulness. You are truly my brother in the Lord Jesus Christ.”

“Father, good-bye,” said a little child at Les Ternes, only seven and a-half years old. He was going out to his “work as his dying daughter was thus bidding him farewell.

“Good-bye, I shall not see you again. I am
going,” said the child.

‘’Where?”

“To heaven. I see Jesus; He is come to fetch
me.”

After a little, and just as she was dying, she said to her mother, “I see Jesus; He has come for me.” She had learned from Miss Blundell at the mission-room all she knew about Jesus.

“A year ago,” said an ouvrier, “we knew nothing of the love of Jesus.” He came with his wife to express their gratitude for what they had learned. Several others of the same class bore similar testimony. With some the insight into Divine truth is a rapid process, considering the total ignorance of Scripture in which they have been brought up. With others it is slow.

“At length,” said a clever ouvrier to Mr. M’All, “I begin to comprehend a little, — a little.” Yet he had been attending the meetings for three years. These people need the instruction of the conscience

%i

as well as that of the “mind. They do not know what sin is; and how difficult it must be to see their need of a Sinbearer, or comprehend His work. Sins against the Church, against the priest, or against the public laws of the realm they know; but sins against God; — they know not what they are. The teachers must begin at the first elements with them, and exercise much patience as well as charity. They are just beginning to spell out the truth that a sinner needs a Saviour; that a great sinner needs a great Saviour; and that the Lord Jesus Christ is

just such a Saviour as they need. ‘’ Mr. told

me that I am lost,” said a poor woman. “Is it so? Am I really lost? “She had to be told what ‘’ lost” meant, and that the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.

The ‘’ birthday letter “came all right. It was promised, as the reader will remember (p. Ill), by an ouvrier and his wife, who intimated their intention of bringing a “lovely bouquet” on what they called their “birthday.” A real bouquet came, as the expression of affection and thankfulness; and with it a letter, which greatly enhanced the gift. Twelve months before (the letter stated), they had entered the room at La Chapelle, dark and thoughtless, and left it under a deep sense of sin, which had soon ripened into faith in Christ. In this birthday letter the writer exhorts his neighbours to

break with the world, and to accept Christ. May

I not give his message to all, in the words of the

German poet, —

“Come and He will give you rest,
Sorrow-stricken, sin-defiled;
He can make the sinfullest

God the Father’s blessed child.
Trust Him, for His word is plain,
Christ receiveth sinful men.”

“Viens a Jesu, — viens a Jesu,” were the last words of a poor aged woman who died during this year (1875). Strange words to come from a poor lodging in the very heart of infidel Montmartre! She had been wholly ignorant of the Gospel, till a Christian ouvrier taught her the things of Christ-This workman and a neighbour opened some small meetings in their house. These small, — “cottage meetings” shall I call them? — had been absorbed in the larger gatherings of the mission-room, and at these gatherings she had faithfully attended. At last the good ouvrier missed her from her place in the meeting, and sought her out in her poor dwelling. He found her very feeble; but she received him with joy, telling him that she had no fear of death, for she had found a Saviour who had conquered for her the last enemy. After several visits, he found her at length sinking. She tried to utter

Onwards and Oittwai’ds. 133

some words. Bending over her, he caught the

words of the well-known hymn,

“Une bonne nouvelle
Descend des cieux.”

And then she whispered the last line of the verse, — “Viens a Jesu.”

It was at this station that an ouvrier had the courage to stand up before 400 persons assembled at the anniversary tea meeting and tell of the change wrought on himself and his aged mother. Montmartre mission-hall, he said, was his spiritual birthplace. At a similar anniversary in the La Villette station, three ouvriers successively bore testimony before their neighbours to their joy in Christ. Two of them had made known their change to Mr.M’All some time before, and declared their resolution, and that of their wives, to serve the Lord. They have been seeking to be useful to others.

“I shall take my grandchildren with me into the wood, and there we shall hold a little reunion among ourselves.” So said an aged female who attended the weekly prayer meeting, but was about to leave for the country: and thus the Mission works its way through the land, entering its villages as well as its towns. The distribution of millions of tracts among the French peasantry towards the close of the late Exhibition, though not directly the doing of the

Mission, yet was part of the working of its machinery in connection with other societies, and must be viewed as one of the marvellous ways in which the Gospel has of late years been sent through all France: cities, towns, and villages.

“He that believeth is not condemned” is the apostolic gospel; and it is the burden of the messages in these mission-halls. This simplicity of the way of life strikes these poor ouvriers, because of the numerous and complex ceremonies which they have been taught in the Romish Church to consider necessary to salvation, and because they never heard before of any religious ordinance that had not to be paid for, even by the poorest. A free pardon! This is something new. Nothing to pay, but all paid for already! Is it true? No money needed for salvation, and no priest for absolution! Can it be possible? “Only believe,” these men say; and they read it out of the Book of God. This is certainly a new religion. So thought some of the hearers at the first meeting in the Rue de Turbigo, who went home wondering at the news. “Salvation on simply believing,” they said; “is it really so? This brings the Saviour close to every man, and every man close to the Saviour.”

“There, my boy, read that book; it will make an honest man of thee,” said an ouvrier to his son. He was a boy of Montmartre, and had come wishing to borrow a Bible. The copy offered was in small type; and the father, observing this, came forward to ask one of a larger type, as ‘’ all in the house,” he said, ‘’ wished to read it.” As the boy carried off the volume under his arm, the father spoke the above words to him, shrewdly indicating his opinion of the Book, as teaching not only religion, but the moralities of life.^

A visitor went into the house of an ouvrier who had newly come to the station. The room was wretched and unfurnished; the man was a drunkard. But lately, said the wife, since he attended the meeting, he has been giving up his intemperance. After some time the visitor returned, and found the whole dwelling changed. All was neatness and comfort. The wife pointed to a new wardrobe they had got, and said, “What do you think we call it? — Mr. M’All’s wardrobe; for we never could have had money to buy it, had it not been for these meetings.”

A young pastor writes to Mr. M’All regarding a
workman who had come to him for counsel. Some

* The following is a singular testimony from an intelligent ouvi’ier which is well worth noting: — “Many people very much misunderstand us [ouvriers]. We are not against religion. In our political meetings we used to speak against oppression in all its forms; but never, never one word against Jesus Christ.”

months previously he had been led to attend one of the meetings in the Menilmontant room. His conscience was touched, and he became a constant attender. In great darkness of spirit, he had with tears asked prayer to be made for him. After a protracted conflict, he found the gospel peace, and, with his wife, joined an evangelical church. All his spare time is now devoted to Christian work.

In general, the converts have joined the most convenient Protestant Church. And this is the answer to the question which has been often asked, — What do the converts do for fellowship and ordinances? Are they forming a separate Church? No. They are just quietly falling into the churches already existing; and this may be most beneficial to these churches and their pastors, infusing new life by means of the fresh glow of their first love and earnest faith. Dr. Fisch mentions some of the Rue de Turbigo hearers as having joined his congregation, giving evidence of a true spiritual change.

“We are the youngest of six brothers,” said an engaging and well-dressed boy of twelve, who came to the Turbigo station leading a younger brother by the hand. He wished to buy a Bible, but had not money enough. The small extra sum was given by friends of the station, and the Bible was obtained. The next Sabbath he came, after the meeting, with Bible in hand, to express his thanks, and, after telling of the six brothers, he added, “I desire that they should all read this book.”

As the messages of life, printed and spoken, have gone into all streets and alleys, so have they reached all classes and all trades; — the soldier, the police, the concierge, the chiffonnier, and street sweeper. The various agents and agencies connected with the Mission have done something for all these; but the immensity of the field so prepares one for discouragement that the least success is cheering. Faith works in the dark, yet finds light there.

The omnibus conductors have not been overlooked. Amid the rush of the ever-pouring crowd, — now flowing out, now in, — it is not always easy to get at them. Yet the gift of a tract or book in passing has done its work; and warm thanks have been expressed by these men for the interest thus shown in their welfare. “The evident delight,” says the report, “with which these men, and the keepers of bureaux, cab-drivers, &c., receive the Portions and numbers of LAmi de la Maison, &c., is most striking. Sometimes all the men in an omnibus bureau have rushed out on seeing us, inquiring whether we had a new number of the magazine for them. Several have framed the pictures; and those who live in the districts which we visit once a-month watch for the time of our return.”

During the year 1875 several new stations were added and some old ones enlarged; so that the number of sittings increased from 1610 to 2774; and the attendance rose in a still larger proportion, showing that something higher than curiosity was at work, and that novelty was not the attraction. Deeper seriousness pervading the different meetings was even more cheering than the increase of numbers.

This year there came a fraternal letter of pastors and elders, of the most gratifying kind, showing the interest which the work is excitino among the French Protestant churches.’”

* I give this interesting letter in a note. It is addressed to Mr. M’All, and is dated, “Paris, 29th April, 1875” : —

“Dear Sir and Honoured Brother, — We, the undersigned, Pastors and Elders assembled in conference in Paris on occasion of the Anniversaries of the Protestant Religious Societies, desire to take this opportunity of publicly expressing to you our gratitude and our fraternal sympathy for the work of evangelisation which you have undertaken with so much courage and pursued with so much devotion and perseverance in a constantly increasing number of districts of Paris.

“Many of us know your work from having personally taken part in it, and we are happy to have been able to give you our cordial co-operation. We all associate ourselves with you in prayer; we rejoice to bear testimony to the spirit of fidelity and of charity in which the work is conducted; and we bless God for the visible success and for the great encouragements which He has granted to you.

outwards and Outwards. 139

M. Rosseeuw St. Hilaire thus writes concerning
the progress of the work: —

“Thanks to the Divine Head of the Church, the spiritual siege of our great heathen city continues, and advances from day to day. To the fourteen detached forts planted around it, the Rev. Mr. M’AU is on the point of adding three others. Our suburbs, with the hard-working ouvriers who inhabit them, are already under assault, and awaiting the attack on the centre of the town, commenced by the station of the Eue Turbigo.

“Our dear English friends will be surprised, perhaps, to be informed in the same Report, of the pecuniary exigencies of the work, of the insufficiency of its resources in workers and in money, and, at the same time, of the necessity for extending it. But any one who had attended our meetings would be at no loss to explain this contrast. Those who have not witnessed the earnest attention of those present, above all that of the men, who drink in your words rather than merely listen to them, cannot fully understand how difficult it is for us to stand still, and withhold further aggression, when the Lord

“Pray accept, Dear Sir and Honoured Brother, the expression of our respectful and fraternal sentiments.

“Signed: — Eug, Bersier, Geo. Fisch, F. Lichtenberger, E. Eobin, Eosseeuw St. Hilaire, Ernest Dhombres, Th. Monod, N. Eecolin, Samuel Bost, J. J. Keller, Aug. Fisch, J. Bonhoure, V. Lepoids, Ate. Saillens, J, Vignal, J. Gaubert, P. Eouffet, Vincent, Aim Cadet, L. Boileau, Vernier, A. Pilatte, A. Bastide, A. Malan, Cologny, E. Voreaux, F. Lemaire, F. A. Vincent, H. Andrieu.”

Note by Mons. Bersier. — “More than twenty pastors belonging to the National Reformed Church and the Lutheran Church, whose signatures do not appear to this letter, have charged me to state that they adhere to it with all their heart. The address could not be completed while they were on the spot.”

Himself, in multiplying the successea as we advance, seems to say, ‘Go forward! ’

“At last, the laymen are moved; the volunteers so much needed are beginning to join themselves to our ranks. They have, at length, come to understand that the pastors of Paris are fully taxed by the duties of their churches, that there is need to come to their aid, and that, beyond the ecclesiastical confines, there are works awaiting Christians, who are all ‘priests and kings.’ A number of young men, members of the Young Men’s Christian Associations, and students of the Missionary and Theological Institutes, take an increasingly active part in our work, while some brethren more advanced in age lend to it the weight of their experience, and strive to lead perishing souls to Jesus Christ.

“We could not over-estimate the sphere and importance of this work. Excellent as it is, it is but of a preparatory nature. To carry it out to its highest results, there is need of the fully organised churches, side by side with our mission-rooms, to gather into fellowship those whom we are enabled to attract towards it. All that, by God’s help, we can do is to lead them to love the Gospel; it is for the pastors to instruct them. It is our part to enlist the recruits; theirs to discipline them. It is ours to sow; it is for them to gather in the harvest. And far from being envious of their part in the undertaking, we feel happy in making it ready for them. The faithful pastors of the city are fully alive to this, and evidence great pleasure in rendering their aid in our meetings when other unavoidable occupations permit. This co-working between the pastors and our evangelistic meetings is the only method by which to arrive at lasting and large results. There is need of scouts to smooth the rugged ground and prepare the way for the regular troops; and that is the humble task which we endeavour to fulfil. But, in order to keep hold of these newly-awakened minds, and to nourish them with the bread of life, churches instinct with spiritual life are needed; for it is vain to go to draw water except where a spring exists!

“As a Frenchman, I rejoice once more to thank our English brethren for all that they have done for France during and since the war. First of all, they occupied themselves with our physical needs; and God only knows what resources they expended in alleviating so much suffering, and repairing such vast ruins. But this was not enough; after the bodies, they have thought on the souls of their neighbours; and this work is in itself a living evidence of the tender sympathies of the Christians of England for our poor country, which owes to them so much already, and which would yet owe to them far more if, by them, it should be eventually brought to the knowledge of its Saviour.”

Five adult Bible classes are reported. The Sunday schools and children’s meetings are extending themselves; and in Mr. Maitland Heriot, Mr. M’All finds a most valuable worker among the young. Classes for teaching English go on and a series of useful lectures is begun. An ouvroir for poor women has been commenced at Les Ternes, and some of the mission-rooms elsewhere have been made use of for a similar purpose.

The Hymnal of the Mission has been doubled; and the people are greatly interested in the meetings for the practice of psalmody. Each part of the spiritual machinery is coming into fuller operation, and is telling upon the people.

Several prayer meetings are reported this year; — a weekly one at Ornano and Grenelle, and a daily forenoon one in Belleville for the little band of workers resident there. Praying and working go hand in hand. There is a danger of work superseding prayer: of the hours being so filled up with external activities that retirement and solitude can hardly be obtained. Work in that case becomes either bustle or mechanical routine. The soul gets empty; the workman loses spiritual health and vigour; the mind gets fretted, and the body worn-out; distance from God comes in; life becomes unreal; and bondage succeeds to the liberty of happy service. The late hours and the distances are hindrances to both morning and evening fellowship with God. These hours, of course, cannot be altered, and the over-wrought worker requires a tranquil forenoon to make up for all this. Excessive work, in visitings and meetings, is apt unconsciously to dry up the spirit; and when the labourer is obliged to toil on in this dried-up state, and to speak for God, when jaded and wearied, an amount of spiritual unreality is superinduced which is exceeding dangerous, and of which we must, if we would not do imperfect work, be stripped, — it may be by lessening the labour, it may be by retirement from the field for a season, or it may be by Divine discipline.

Yet there is a certain way of dealing with this

Onwards and Onlzuards. 143

state of things, which we deprecate as unscriptural. “Out of communion,” and “in communion” are the set phrases made use of by some in speaking of work for God. Now, ‘’ communion “in Scripture means” partnership “(kolvcovlo), not intercourse of mind with mind, or heart with heart. A believing man, therefore, can never be” out of communion,” unless he is broken off from Christ. His “partnership “never ceases, however low his frames may be. I knew one who said that he had given up working, for he was” out of communion.” I suppose he meant ‘’ the enjoyment of communion,” for he could not mean that his “partnership” with the Son of God was destroyed, because his feelings had become dull. Yet he “condemned trusting in frames and feelings,” while he was doing the very thing under a high-sounding name. His joy had got low, and he called that being “out of communion,” and he would not work till he had got “into communion.” But neither should he have prayed, nor praised; nay, neither should he have eaten his food, ‘’for whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, we are to do all to the glory of God,” and we cannot do aught to the glory of God when “out of communion “in the scriptural sense. No lowness of spiritual feeling can make void our Divine ‘’partnership,” which depends on what we believe, not what

144 White Fields of France.

we feel; and it is the knowledge of this great truth, that as believing men we are always “■ in partnership,” how poor soever may be our joy, that lifts us from the dust into liberty and gladness.

It is to be hoped that such peculiar expressions, which some in our own land have much on their lips, will not find their way either to the workers or the converts of Paris. It is by these that Satan introduces division and false teaching. The ‘’catchword “of a sect often contains more than meets the ear; and when that catchword is taken up and pressed, it is sure to lead astray. The frequent use of it is often the indication of spiritual pride, and assumption of superior teaching, as well as of higher attainments; and the stress laid upon it by the speaker is meant to say, “I have got something which you have not; you had better reconsider your standing and associate with me.” The work in Paris has been as yet undisturbed by these “diverse and strange doctrines;” and the noble spectacle is presented of a large band of workers from all the different evangelical churches of Great Britain, co-operating with one mind and one heart; not seeking to teach new doctrines, nor to erect sectarian congregations, or to abuse “systems,” nor to attack churches, but to gather in the wanderers into the one body of Christ.

Perish the human Shibboleth that splits up the one household of faith, or introduces discord and suspicion into the communion of saints. Even true doctrines are not always to be used for division; and there are not a few truths which Christians may differ about calmly and honestly, but which if made the foundations of separate sects, or magnified into necessary grounds of disunion, become snares and stumbling-blocks to the morbid, or the weak, or the fickle. Calvin declared, in his own fervent way, his willingness to cross ten seas in order to unite the Churches of God, in his day. There are some, we fear, who would not shrink from compassing both sea and land to divide it, in ours. In most religious awakenings there have been found men who, taking advantage of the warm state of feeling among the converts, have tried to raise a sect of which they might be the head. Hitherto Paris has been spared this humbling spectacle; and Popery has not been able there to boast of her own unity, and point the contemptuous finger to a divided Protestantism. They who ‘’creep into houses” and “beguile unstable souls” have, as yet, been restrained from exercising their ignoble vocation in France. It is no small matter of thankfulness that the Parisian Mission should have been spared this evil; thus far permitted to work in peace, and to abide in happy unity.

To intrude upon “other men’s labours,” when the whole world lies before us, is more like “the thief and the robber” than the shepherd; to “boast in another man’s line of things made ready to our hand” is not the part of a true-hearted Christian man. To “cause divisions” (except in Satan’s kingdom) was not the apostolic vocation, nor in accordance with the taste of the primitive Church.

The single-mindedness of the Reformers in their noble labours, concerning this thing, is very noticeable. To draw men to themselves, or to found a sect was altogether too low a thing to mind, or to think of. Whether (according to Beza’s epigram) we hear Calvin docte docenteni, or Viret viella fundentem, or Farel fortiter tonantem, we feel that we are listening to preachers whose grand thought was how to draw men to the cross.

Not that we count upon smooth progress, or think that the great breaker up of peace and truth and unity will overlook Paris. Offences will come; and we must be prepared for them.

The history of the last days is to be a tale of shipwreck; of which we have the prophetic warning in the seven apocalyptic epistles, which contain the sad story of seven shipwrecks, — the foreshadows of something still more sad. But that is no argument against cheerful, hopeful labour. The evil day will come soon enough; meanwhile let us, with songs upon our lips, go forward to do the work committed to our hands.

Nor let us forget that our labour does not end with the ingathering. The tending, the watching, the feeding of the flock are matters of earnest care. The sheep wanders away on its own feet, yet it does not return on them, but on the Shepherd’s shoulder. It cannot be trusted otherwise. It takes the Shepherd’s strength to carry it back, and when thus brought back, to keep it within the fold. This is one of the most solemn lessons that an under-shepherd can learn. It is a lesson which the Parisian labourers will find more and more pressed upon them as the work widens and prospers.