FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, D. D. 
 
 BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO 
 THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 WILLIAM FLEMING STEVENSON, 
 D.D. 
 
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 William 
 
 Fleming Stevenson 
 d.d. 
 
 MINISTER OF CHRIST CHURCH, RATHGAR, 
 DUBLIN 
 
 By HIS WIFE 
 
 NEW EDITION, 
 
 THOMAS NELSON AND SONS 
 
 London, Edinburgh, and New York 
 1890 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In bringing out this record of mv husband's life and work, 
 I wish, gratefully to acknowledge the help I have received 
 from many friends, and especially from the Rev. A. C. 
 Murphy, D.Lit, by whom originally it had been my desire 
 that the book should be edited. Circumstances, however, 
 prevented this, and I would here express my indebtedness 
 and gratitude to him for the time and labour he generously 
 expended in preparing and arranging materials, and for his 
 kind advice and assistance throughout. 
 
 To the Rev. Adolph Saphir, D.D., the Rev. W. S. Swan- 
 son, the Rev. G. T. Rea,.and Thomas Sinclair, Esq., I am 
 also under deep obligation, as well as to those friends who 
 have kindly furnished letters and reminiscences. 
 
 E. M. STEVENSON. 
 
CONTEXTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EARL Y YEARS. 
 
 1832-1848. 
 
 Birth and parentage — Early education — A great sorrow 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 STUDENT-LIFE. 
 
 1848-1854. 
 
 Undergraduate days in Glasgow — Love of literature and music — Theo- 
 logical study in Edinburgh — College friendships— A missionary 
 union — Kingsley's lectures — Reminiscences by Dr. Saphir 20 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 STUDY AND TRAVEL IN GERMANY. 
 
 1854-1855. 
 
 Hamburg — Visit to Wichern and the Rauhc Hans — At the University of 
 
 Berlin— Xitzsch— Hengstenberg — The Wingolf Chor— Strauss — A 
 German Christmas — Gossner — In Wittenberg and Halle— Tholuck 
 — To Erlangen — Hoffmann — Delitzsch — In Nuremberg — Study in 
 Heidelberg — Chevalier Bunsen 35 
 
viii Cmtcnts. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 EARLY MINISTERIAL LIFE. 
 
 1855-1859. 
 
 Return to Ireland — Death of his father — Mission work in Belfa-t — 
 Dangerous illness — Work at Bonn— Visit to Holland — Ministry at 
 Alfred Place, Belfast— Letters 67 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PASTORAL WORK IN DUBLIN. 
 
 1860-1886. 
 
 Call to Rathgar — Ordination — Origin of Christ Church, Rathgar — Growth 
 of the congregation — Church work and methods — Children's services 
 — Missionary enthusiasm — Letters — Pastoral visiting and sympathy 
 — Dr. Smylie Robson 92 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 LITERARY WORK. 
 
 1S55-1886. 
 
 Contributions to Edinburgh Christiam Magazine, Good Words, Contem- 
 porary Review, etc. — "Praying and Working" — Hymnology — Letters 
 from Norman Macleod and Dora Green well— Dr. Saphir on " Hymns 
 for the Church and Home" — "The Dawn of the Modern Mis- 
 sion" 119 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 VISIT TO AMERICA. 
 
 1873. 
 
 Death of his mother — Invitation to the Conference of the Evangelical 
 Alliance in New York — First impressions — Niagara — Chicago — Salt 
 Lake City— San Erancisco— The Yosemite Valley— Account of the 
 Conference 131 
 
C 0)1 tents. ix 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE FOREIGN MISSION. 
 
 1871-1886. 
 
 Appointed Assistant-Convener — Origin of the Mission to India — The field 
 of work — Gujarat and Kattiawar — Statistics of the Mission — Mission 
 to China — Occupation of Manchuria — Letter from Dr. Morgan,, the 
 Convener and founder of the Mission — His death — Founding of the 
 Zenana Mission — Letters to the missionaries and to friends of the 
 Mission 118 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 MISSIONARY JOURNEY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 1877-1878. 
 
 Widespread desire that the Convener should visit the Mission-field — 
 Resolution of the Board of Missions — Valedictory meeting — Across 
 America — Typhoon in the Pacific — Landing at Yokohama — Tokio — 
 Japanese Missions — Daibuts at Xarra — The Inland Sea — Nagasaki — 
 Shanghai — Newchwang — Tientsin — A Chinese inn — Pekin — Southern 
 China — Landing in India — Through Travancore — Madras — Among 
 the Irish Missions in Gujarat and Kattiawar — Calcutta and the cities 
 of the North-West — Cairo — Return to Ireland — Reception and wel- 
 come by the General Assembly — His speech in reply 183 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PUBLIC LIFE. 
 
 1878-1886. 
 
 Abundant labours — Moderatorship — Royal University — Degree of D.D., 
 Edinburgh — Inaugural address as Moderator — List of offices held in 
 1886 — Public lectures — Evangelistic theology — The Smith Lecture- 
 ship—Duff Missionary Lectureship — Appointed Honorary Chaplain 
 to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland— Burden of correspondence — 
 Overwork 223 
 
Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 HOME LIFE. 
 
 1865-1886. 
 
 Marriage — Orwell Bank — The father in his home— Letters to his children 
 — Family prayers — Bright Sundays — Holiday-time — Letters to his 
 son at school 235 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 1886. 
 
 The last winter's work — Unconscious windings up — Death of his brother — ■ 
 Last sermons in Christ Church— Sudden illness— Visit to Wales— Letter 
 to Mr. Swanson — The last days — Called home — The funeral 252 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 IN ME MORI AM. 
 
 Universal sympathy — Memories and letters from the Rev. W. S. Swan- 
 son ; the Right Hon. the Earl of Aberdeen ; the Rev. William 
 Beatty ; the Rev. Hamilton Magee, D.D. ; the Rev. Alexander 
 Rentoul, M.A. ; the Rev. George Shaw; the Rev. Principal Paton, 
 D.D. ; the Rev. Professor Charteris, D.D. ; the Rev. Theodore 
 Cuyler, D.D. ; the Rev. John Hall, D.D. ; the Rev. J. S. Macin- 
 tosh, D.D 265 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 EARLY YEARS. 
 
 William Fleming Stevenson was born on the 20th Septem- 
 ber 1832 in Strabane, a pleasantly situated and important 
 town of County Tyrone. He was partly English by descent, 
 the Stevensons having come from Cheshire to Ireland with 
 Cromwell, while the Flemings, the family of his father's 
 mother, as well as his mother's ancestors, the Mortons, were 
 originally Scotch ; but as his character ripened he became 
 an Irishman, with sympathies and aspirations wholly divested 
 of provincial prejudice, To this twofold descent he doubt- 
 less owed the tenacity of purpose, the unconquerable perse- 
 verance, and the lofty sense of duty which have combined to 
 render the Ulster Irish race such a remarkable factor in the 
 progress of English-speaking peoples. 
 
 His father was an exceptionally intelligent, capable, and 
 well-educated man, a lover of books, of music, and of scenery. 
 He had the faculty of making companions of his children 
 (rarer in those days than it is now), conversing with them 
 freely, reading aloud to them in the evenings, and taking 
 them for afternoon strolls through the glens and lanes of the 
 neighbourhood, calling their attention to anything strange or 
 beautiful in nature — a flower, a flight of birds, a rainbow, a 
 rising or setting sun. Thus their powers of observation and 
 sense of sympathy with all natural objects were called forth 
 
14 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 at an early age, and the result was, that the literary and 
 artistic tastes of the father were not only inherited by the 
 children, but woven through the whole custom of the house ; 
 and, better' still, the germs of a deep, reverent, and loving 
 confidence were implanted in the children's hearts. Mr. 
 Stevenson was more than a man of genial spirit, sound under- 
 standing, and literary culture ; he was an eminently godly 
 man, loyal to the Presbyterian Church of which he was a 
 member, and liberal-minded towards all other Churches. 
 Believing that the Church of Christ was not limited by the 
 bounds of any one denomination, he eagerly sought the bread 
 of life wherever it was to be found. His sympathies (as 
 became the father of the man who was one day to give such 
 a missionary impetus to the Christian life of his generation) 
 were most widely drawn out by the needs of the great 
 heathen world ; and when the Irish Presbyterian Church 
 established its Indian Mission in 1841, he was among those 
 who most heartily welcomed the new enterprise, both for its 
 own sake and as a proof of the quickened life of the Church. 
 His house was always open to the deputations of the London 
 Missionary Society and other kindred agencies who visited 
 Strabane from year to year. The names of Williams, Moffat, 
 and Duff were household words among parents and children ; 
 and to the boy's acquaintance with these heroes of missionary 
 enterprise of different Churches and of various creeds may 
 be traced the beginning of that noble catholicity of spirit 
 which was so characteristic of the man. 
 
 Mrs. Stevenson was a woman of a most quiet, sweet, un- 
 selfish spirit. A devoted Christian, her religion took hold 
 of a character already beautiful and transfigured it. Her 
 influence and example were an abiding blessing to her chil- 
 dren while she lived, and at her death she bequeathed to 
 them the memory of a life of singular unselfishness, of 
 womanly tenderness, and of rare saintliness. She prayed 
 much for her children, and she prayed much with them : it 
 
Early Years. 15 
 
 was at his mother's knee that the child first began to develop 
 that power in prayer which was through life one of his con- 
 spicuous gifts. Her mother was a remarkable woman, of 
 a highly emotional and imaginative turn of mind, and of 
 great power of endurance. In her later years she seems to 
 have lived abidingly in the presence and fellowship of God. 
 Many of her qualities — her enthusiasm, her sensitive sym- 
 pathetic temperament, and her strong force of will — were 
 inherited by her grandson ; while to his mother he owed his 
 gentle, loving disposition, his marvellous patience and self- 
 denying consecration. 
 
 William Fleming was the youngest of five children, having 
 two brothers and two sisters older than himself. He was a 
 bright -minded and affectionate boy, gentle, sensitive, con- 
 siderate, but full of vitality and sparkle. He had a strong 
 and lasting love for an old Roman Catholic nurse who served 
 the family for thirty years \ and no home-letter was closed, 
 as long as she lived, without some kind message or reference 
 to her. From his earliest childhood he delighted in poetry, 
 and reading a passage once or twice to him was quite suffi- 
 cient to imprint it on his memory. When a mere infant he 
 could repeat an extraordinary number of poems and hymns 
 without ever being at a loss for a word. He often regretted 
 in later years that this power had passed away as he grew 
 up. 
 
 He inherited all his father's love for scenery. One day, 
 when a " little tiny boy," his nurse suddenly missed him. 
 The garden and all his favourite haunts were searched in 
 vain. At last he was found in an attic window utterly 
 absorbed, looking at a neighbouring knoll through a tele- 
 scope as large as himself. When asked what he was doing 
 there, he said he was "busy watching the cows grazing and 
 
 the shadows chasing each other among the rocks and over 
 the grass." 
 
 It was their father's strong wish that his two youngest 
 
1 6 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 sons should be trained for the office of the holy ministry, 
 and in his plans for their education he kept this desire in 
 view. Accordingly, when Willie, who was four years younger 
 than his brother, was considered old enough, a resident tutor 
 was chosen to direct their studies. Mr. MacKeown, after- 
 wards minister of a church in Ballymena, and whose early 
 death cut short a career of brilliant promise, was rather 
 taken aback to find that one of his pupils was a boy not six 
 years old. On being set up on a stool, however, before a 
 blackboard, the child soon showed that he could draw maps 
 of various countries with the greatest ease and correctness ; 
 and his tutor discovered, to his great relief, that, thanks to 
 the broad and generous home discipline, the boy both knew 
 many things and could do many things not usual in a child 
 of his age. 
 
 He was educated by private tuition till 1844, when he 
 and his brother were sent to Belfast to live under the care of 
 their tutor, and attend the Belfast Royal Academical Insti- 
 tution. A number of letters written at this time have been 
 preserved. They are simple, artless, outspoken effusions, 
 giving full account of school- work done and holiday pleasures 
 and country walks, overflowing with affection to every mem- 
 ber of the family, the old nurse never forgotten; genuine 
 boy's letters from first to last, full of the warm heart and 
 open eye and gathering wonder of life. 
 
 The following extract from a letter to his father, written 
 in the round, unformed hand of a boy of twelve, shows how 
 susceptible he was to all the impressions of nature : — 
 
 "We drove to Carnmoney last Sunday to hear Mr. M 'Do well 
 preach. The drive was the pleasantest I ever had, and the view the 
 most delightful I ever saw. On the one side was the Cave Hill, 
 with its dark, precipitous sides frowning over us, and beyond it the 
 rugged and higher Mount Divis ; while on the other lay the sea, 
 stretching away down between Holywood and Carrickfergus, undis- 
 turbed by a single ripple and studded with numberless ships fixed 
 
Early Years. \J 
 
 immovably at anchor, while all around was quiet and peaceful, true 
 emblem of the day." 
 
 The two brothers were for the first time separated in 1845, 
 when Samuel became a student of the University of Edin- 
 burgh. He was a bright, high-spirited boy, clever at games 
 and boyish exploits, and idolized by his little brother, who 
 looked up to him with the unbounded admiration due to his 
 four years' seniority, and his greater prowess in all feats 
 requiring strength and muscle. 
 
 AVillie felt the separation very keenly, kept up a close 
 correspondence with his brother, and was constantly looking 
 forward to the day when he would join him at the Univer- 
 sity. But that day was never to dawn. On the 17th March 
 1847, Samuel, who had already begun to make his mark in 
 the University, and who was at this time working hopefully 
 for the Greek and mathematical prizes, went out to spend 
 the evening with some friends of the family who lived near 
 the Calton Hill. He never reached their house, and not- 
 withstanding the most patient and persistent efforts to trace 
 him, no clue to the awful mystery was ever obtained, and 
 the elements for forming even a distant conjecture as to his 
 fate do not exist. An occurrence so dark and tragic cast a 
 gloom over the family gladness, which was never afterwards 
 to be entirely lifted. Down to the end of her days, the heart 
 of the mother refused to accept the alternative that her boy 
 was dead, and she- was always wistfully watching for some 
 token that he was still alive and would yet return to her. 
 The father's life was without doubt shortened by this agon- 
 izing suspense. The shock was felt most acutely -by his 
 brother Willie. From being the merriest boy, brimful of 
 fun and frolic,* he became grave and thoughtful as a man. 
 His whole life seemed lifted into another groove, as if by the 
 heave of an earthquake, and the unseen world was made 
 very real and near to him from that day forward. The fol- 
 
1 8 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 lowing extract from a letter written years afterwards, when 
 visiting his old homestead, shows what abiding impressions 
 the old home-life had left upon his mind : — 
 
 "Home is a relative word, and may mean two or three places hi 
 one's life ; though I hold the first to be the sacred one, as I feel this 
 evening, returning after a year and a half's absence. The old home 
 feeling rushes back, full of thoughts of the joy and gladness of child- 
 hood, of the early loving ways, of my mother's stories ; of games and 
 walks and playfellows, school and tutors ; the river frozen for weeks 
 at a time, and the wonderful slides ; the contracted thoughts, con- 
 tracted to the narrowness of a child's world, but deeper and happier 
 often than the man's ; the intensity of pleasure and pain ; thoughts 
 of my noble-minded father, his delighted love for his children, the 
 strangeness with which I used to watch the occasional careworn 
 look, the pride I took in the respect which everybody paid him ; the 
 household word he had become in the town for whatever was honour- 
 able, spirited, intelligent — above all, Christian. These thoughts 
 rushed upon me as I stepped out on the platform at the station, and 
 
 kept rushing hi like a full stream the whole evening I paid two 
 
 visits to-day — one to the garden, my father's pride, a place that 
 educated his children in the love of flowers and in such culture of 
 thought as the love of beautiful things produces ; and the other to 
 his grave. It seemed as if it were yesterday that I stood by it when 
 it was open, the tears and the dull drizzling ram falling together. 
 That is the most awful moment of life — the opening and closing of a 
 grave. I felt his spirit close to me. I used to worship his character, 
 and he remains for me a perpetual type of a true man. " 
 
 After his father's death his mother resided chiefly in Italy, 
 and a few lines written on the eve of a visit to her, in 1863, 
 seem fittingly to close this record of his early years : — 
 
 "My mother writes the most picturesque letters, full of genuine 
 photographs of Italian life and manners. Costume, scenery, charac- 
 ter, all come under her notice, and are described with such a simple, 
 observant, graphic force that I tell her she has become a genius in 
 her old age, and is blossoming into youth among the orange groves 
 of the Adriatic. We have never been so long separated before, and 
 I grow very restless to see her. She is one of the most beautiful 
 
Early Years. 19 
 
 types of the Christian woman : all the depth of a woman's self- 
 sacrifice and forgetfulness, elevated by love and dedication to God ; 
 very simple and unused to the world ; very shy, and blushing like a 
 child when noticed ; with a pious faith that flows over all her heart ; 
 with the simplest tastes ; she goes about the rooms like a silent 
 prayer, the prayer of a happy heart that shrinks from everj^hmg 
 hut sympathy, and reveals itself only to God. Clever people may 
 attract us, but the good dwell with us ; the very thought of them is 
 fragrant like a wind that has blown over a garden. I never pray or 
 visit the poor without my mother." 
 
CHAPTER IT. 
 
 STUDENT-LIFE. 
 
 In the autumn of 1848, Fleming Stevenson entered the Uni- 
 versity of Glasgow as a student in arts, the intention of send- 
 ing him to Edinburgh having been abandoned after the loss 
 of his brother. He threw himself with oreat eagerness into 
 the work of the several classes, and the range of his study 
 went far beyond the subjects taught in them. His whole 
 student-life — and he never ceased to be a student — was 
 marked by intense application, painstaking accuracy, and 
 thoroughness. He had the rare power of being able to do 
 with little sleep, and, what is still rarer, he could command it 
 when he wished. This habit was acquired when he became 
 an undergraduate, and but too faithfully adhered to through 
 life. After a month's experience of college work, he writes 
 to his elder sister Mary : — 
 
 '• This student's life is fearfully hard work — little sleep, long quick 
 walks, and close, continuous, never-ending study. Some one says a 
 student should .sleep three hours and study seventeen. I go as near 
 to this as I can without injury to my eyes." 
 
 During the three years of his undergraduate course, his 
 professors were Buchanan, Lushington, Sir William Thomson, 
 Ramsay, Reid, and Fleming. There is little to record of his 
 college work ; he did not aim so much at distinction in any 
 special branch as to lay a good foundation for acquiring com- 
 
Student- Life. 21 
 
 prehensive and many-sided knowledge. In his first year be 
 began the study of German, and was fascinated by the wide 
 range of literature opened up to him by the acquisition of 
 that language; and his extensive acquaintance with it helped 
 to enrich his thinking and to form his style. 
 
 To his sister Jane, with whom during his whole college 
 course he kept up a lively correspondence, interchanging ideas 
 on books read, and keeping her abreast of all his doings, he 
 writes : — 
 
 • " I cannot well tell how I am learning German. I study it very 
 little, only about an hour each evening, and I am sometimes amazed 
 when I think it is scarcely a month since I began, and that now 1 
 can read ' Faust ' with comparative ease, about eight or nine pages 
 in two hours. 'Faust,' indeed, is most captivating, at least so far 
 as a blending of all that is most horrible with all that is most sweet, 
 and delicate, and pure can be said to be captivating. My tutor is 
 not a disciple of the school of which Goethe was an eminent master, 
 indeed he holds strong views on the other side ; so that we fight 
 many a battle over Coleridge and Wordsworth, Goethe and Shelley. 
 I never learned a language — that is, tried to learn it — with so little 
 difficulty and so much pleasure." 
 
 In another letter to his sister he gives an account of his 
 holiday readings : — 
 
 "Of my studies I cannot report very favourably since the com- 
 mencement of the holidays. I am much more inclined than I should 
 be to read Macaulay instead of Potter, Wordsworth instead of 
 Thomson, ' Philip van Artevelde ' and ' Faust ' instead of Comstock, 
 and even Gesenius. Tennyson's ' In Memoriam ; is magnificent." 
 
 [To the same.] 
 
 " F>J 
 "I have been quite absorbed in Talfourd's 'Final Memorials of 
 Lamb.' All week I have felt overtasked, so tried the experiment of 
 light reading. Fortunately I have a sort of yielding elasticity in my 
 nature, and a light-heartedness which rises over every depression, so 
 that I can endure this hard labour with tolerable good humour ; and 
 
22 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 the moment the weight is the least degree upraised, my indiarubber 
 temperament pushes it a little further on its upward way. I admired 
 Lamb's letters greatly, though sometimes there runs through them a 
 vein of light sarcasm on religious subjects, rendered more painful by 
 the recollection of beautiful lines written on the sad anniversary of 
 his mother's death. And poor Mary Lamb ! All the sympathies of 
 the reader are enlisted in her favour wherever she makes her appear- 
 ance ; and her chequered life, sweetness of character, and gentleness 
 of disposition must leave a lasting impression on the coldest heart, 
 
 and will survive as long as the ' Essays of Elia.' 
 
 "But 'Chapter the Last' is his triumph. How admirably he 
 draws the portraits of the eminent men who formed the reunions at 
 the Temple ! and with what vividness he paints the ' suppers of the 
 Lambs' and the dinners at Holland House — vividness so nearly 
 approaching to reality, that you can fancy yourself listening to the 
 'gentle voice of Coleridge undulating in music,' or to the outpourings 
 of Wordsworth's noble soul, the dazzling beauty of Hazlitt's criti- 
 cisms, or the sparkling conversation of Moore, the delicate wit of 
 Sydney Smith, or the severe logic of the melancholy Lloyd." 
 
 In a similar vein of criticism he writes of " Villette " and 
 " Moore's Journal and. Letters " : — 
 
 " February 15, 1853. 
 
 ' ' I wish I could sketch you the child with which ' Villette ' opens : 
 so slim, maidenly, precocious, at times positively unnatural, yet 
 somehow always a child. There is a rare power in this, though 
 after all a useless display of it ; it reminds you of a man who will 
 walk on the brink of a precipice to show what strength of head he 
 has. Be sure you read it by the fireside, for it abounds in winter 
 scenes that need a cozy corner, and the red curtains close drawn, 
 thoroughly to enjoy their admirable reality. Besides, there is in it 
 a good deal of what a late writer fancifully terms the winter of the 
 soul. 
 
 " ' Moore's Journal and Letters' have just made a sensation, con- 
 taining as they do a vast collection of the most refined scandal, told 
 in the wittiest and happiest style. Every booby will now know how 
 he ate, and drank, and dressed, and will believe himself vastly 
 advanced in an appreciation of genius by his knowledge. Bessie, 
 shy as 'a violet by a mossy stone half hidden from the eye/ will be 
 the common talk of the nation. The veil will be drawn away from 
 the private life of a very happy, affectionate couple, and their in- 
 
Student-Life. 23 
 
 most thoughts and feelings, known to and only to be known by each 
 other, will be paraded before the heartless curiosity of the world. 
 A man's genius may be the property of the public, but surely not his 
 home. If an Englishman's house is his castle, ten times more sacred 
 and inviolable should be his affections." 
 
 His love of music was intense. His whole soul seemed to 
 be possessed by it as by a spell. The wild enthusiasm of 
 the lad of seventeen on hearing Catherine Hayes (the Irish 
 singer, whom few will now remember) shows the power music 
 exerted upon him then. Years never lessened it ; in after- 
 life, when most weary and overpowered by work, no rest 
 or refreshment could ever equal that given by an evening's 
 music. He thus writes : — 
 
 " Up and down she wavered, performing a series of the most 
 difficult runs with the most exquisite skill, and then higher and 
 higher and higher rang out her clear sweet tones, till we seemed to 
 be listening to some of the fabled 
 
 1 Heaven-born symphonies, those bright-eyed things 
 That float about the air on azure wings.' 
 
 Her voice is like the ringing of a silver bell, and maintains in the 
 highest notes all its beauty and all its softness, and one low shake of 
 great pathos was really, in the words of Keats, 
 
 'More subtle-cadenced, more forest-wild. 
 Than Dryope's lone lulling of her child.' 
 
 The effect upon me I can hardly express. Were I a Mohammedan, 
 I should say she transported me to Paradise : and as it was, her 
 voice sent a thrill through my whole frame, and I Mas actually all 
 trembling with excitement." 
 
 In 1851 he finished his studies in Glasgow, and took his 
 degree of M.A. It was during his first winter there that he 
 met Adolph Saphir, the now well-known preacher and writer, 
 who had come from Germany to study at the University. 
 There was a strong intellectual and spiritual affinity between 
 
24 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 the students, and they became life-long friends. Mr. Steven- 
 son always delighted to acknowledge how much of the im- 
 pulse of his life he owed to his friend. Mr. Saphir spent the 
 summer with him at Strabane. There they read books 
 together, discussed problems, sang songs, and talked over the 
 arrangements for their theological studies at the New College, 
 Edinburgh, then under the presidency of the late Principal 
 William Cunningham, who was at the same time Professor of 
 Church History. It was probably under the teaching of this 
 distinguished man that Mr. Stevenson acquired that love of 
 the study of Church History which afterwards characterized 
 him, and the fruits of which he turned to such good account 
 in his missionary lectures. He spent three sessions in the 
 New College, during the whole of which he enjoyed the close 
 companionship of his friend, Adolph Saphir. 
 
 The same enthusiasm that marked his undergraduate years 
 was carried into the study of theology. Exegesis did not 
 then occupy the prominent place in theological teaching that 
 it does to-day. But he recognized its true value, and he 
 writes to his father : — 
 
 ' ' We are endeavouring to form a select exegetical society of our 
 own, to meet once a week : a passage of the Bible to be given out ; 
 one to read what Luther says, another what Calvin says, another 
 what De Wette says on it, and so on ; and then each to read an 
 abstract of the commentary he has read. Afterwards, we talk over 
 the passage and arrange our own views. Exegesis is lamentably 
 neglected in this country, and consequently one finds the people 
 resting on the form, the minister preaching from the form, texts 
 distorted, and Scripture misapplied." 
 
 [To the same.'] 
 
 "December 10, 1851. 
 " Exegesis is the other study which I have set apart chiefly for 
 this winter, and a most valuable one it is, though, unfortunately, apt 
 to be neglected where a pure form of religion has for a lengthened 
 period prevailed, and the people, accustomed to the form, have grown 
 more careless about the spirit ; where Christianity has been drawn 
 
Student- Life. 25 
 
 away from the inexhaustible well of the Bible, and emptied into the 
 pitchers of Confessions and Catechisms and Church constitutions, 
 from which alone the people have drawn until the supply has been 
 exhausted, and now when they go for water the pitchers stand 
 empty. In many countries and in many ages of the Church this has 
 been more or less the case. Happily, the restless spirit of inquiry 
 which is now prevalent gives promise that it may not occur again, at 
 least in our day." 
 
 The third member of the trio who lived together at 18 
 South Castle Street was Charles de Smidt, who was Dutch 
 by descent, but had been born at the Cape, his father holding 
 an honourable Government appointment there. Writing of 
 him to his sister, Mr. Stevenson says : — " His character is so 
 honest, open, and child-like, that no one could help liking 
 him. We get on very happily together, not a single flaw in 
 our unity, the most harmonious, merriest, stucliousest ' klee- 
 blatt ' that ever was." 
 
 De Smidt's career was a short one. After leaving Edin- 
 burgh he studied in Utrecht, was ordained by the Free 
 Church of Scotland, and resisting every temptation to remain 
 in Europe, where he would have had a more congenial and 
 comfortable sphere; he went back to devote his energies to 
 his native country. He died young, after a few years' good 
 and promising work in a country parish at the Cape. 
 
 In allusion to their birthplace or lineage, the three dubbed 
 themselves Shem, Ham, and Japheth. They possessed quali- 
 ties, intellectual and moral, which so admirably harmonized 
 with or supplemented one another, that their joint Edinburgh 
 life seems to have been joyous, stimulating, and full of benefit 
 to all. 
 
 Living in Edinburgh naturally brought many sad thoughts 
 with it of the great and mysterious sorrow of Mr. Stevenson's 
 young life ; and with that quick reaction that only belongs to 
 the young, he passes from the most lively descriptions, full of 
 fun and frolic, to deep undertones of yearning, for the brother 
 who was sone : — 
 
26 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 [To his Sister.] 
 
 " March 18 J&. 
 "I am not merry just now, though this letter may lead you to 
 think so ; none of us can be. And to me there is no flower calls up 
 so many painful associations as the shamrock on St. Patrick's Day 
 (but don't let the children think so).'*' 
 
 And again : — 
 
 "Much there is certainly to sadden me. Associations there arc 
 here in every street, in every view, in the sky, in the air, for every- 
 thing in Edinburgh speaks of him. There are dark shadows that 
 cross me often, and they make me very gloomy and melancholy, and 
 I go up to my own room and walk about there alone and cry. The 
 other night I went out by myself, and found my way to the Univer- 
 sity, and walked round and round it as if I should have seen some- 
 thing there, I cotild hardly tell what ; and I came home tired and 
 sad, because I had seen nothing, yet I could not say what I expected. 
 That Adolph is here is my greatest comfort, for I feel sometimes 
 that I must talk of our lost one to somebody ; and I tell him of all 
 our happy childhood and our schoolboy life, and how we planned to 
 live together happily in Edinburgh, and how different everything is 
 now. I cannot write you more of this now. I am not able to do it 
 calmly.'* 
 
 It was in Glasgow he first made public profession of his 
 faith in Christ by joining the communion of the Church 
 under the ministry of the gifted William Arnot. In Edin- 
 burgh he became a member of Dr. Charles Brown's congrega- 
 tion, and writes in November 1851 : — 
 
 "He has impetuosity, energy, and earnestness; but what struck 
 me most about him was his remarkable familiarity with Scripture 
 and the correctness of his applications. He was never at fault in 
 this respect ; and his Bible illustrations admirably harmonize with 
 and complete the sermon. Altogether I think him not only the best 
 but the most fascinating preacher I have heard.' 3 
 
 [To his Sister.] 
 
 11 I heard Saphir preach in German last Sunday. He expresses his 
 ideas with great force, earnestness, and pictoriality. He will be a 
 
Student-Life. 27 
 
 celebrated preacher. His piety is deep, earnest, overflowing ; it is 
 not stuck on or into his nature, it is his nature. Not without 
 struggle has it become so. He reminds me often, in his tolerant 
 Catholicism, of Jeremy Taylor, and as with him God-love and 
 human-love go hand in hand : ' Let us love one another, for God is 
 love ; ' ' Let him that loveth God love his brother also. ' This is the 
 main feature in his piety — this, and its straightforwardness and anti- 
 sham. I intend, God helping me, that it shall be my motto also. " 
 
 His high ideal of the perfect brotherhood and unity there 
 should be among those who serve the same Master, without 
 shackling in the smallest degree individual freedom, made 
 him peculiarly sensitive to any bitterness of feeling among 
 Christians. 
 
 [To his Father.] 
 
 " October 5, 185 J. 
 "It makes me sometimes very sad to think that nearly two thou- 
 sand years after the establishment of Christianity its spirit should be 
 so little understood and practised ; that the external, the doctrine, 
 the shell, the pulpit dress of the gospel, should be so studied in the 
 closet, and so preached in the church, but that of the spirit you only 
 see faint glimmerings. Men have put ugly, ill-fitting habiliments on 
 the Christ-spirit, and under such an uninviting cold exterior one has 
 great difficulty in finding out the divine, the true, the Life." 
 
 [To the same.] 
 
 " December 11, 1851. 
 
 " But I most sincerely hope that, while expressing my dislike 
 
 to narrow, one-sided Christianity, I may always be enabled to look 
 beyond the boundaries of a particular Church, and see and gladly 
 embrace the gospel-spirit wherever manifested. " 
 
 [To the same.] 
 
 "I'm afraid, however, the Church will never have peace until 
 those who now steadily contend for distinctive principles will as 
 eagerly strive for the Spirit of Christ. It is most miserable when 
 men prize the shell as of higher value than the kernel, thus under- 
 
28 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 valuing earnest devotion, fulness of spiritual life, deep, intense love 
 of Christ. I feel how much more easily one may slip into tempta- 
 tions when isolated from Christian sympathy and feelings, and lost 
 
 ground is ever hard to recover 
 
 "What a relief it is to turn from all the party bitterness, con- 
 tracted views, and sectarian excrescences, which have grown on Chris- 
 tianity, and bury oneself in the glowing pages of Jeremy Taylor, and 
 his scarcely less eloquent disciple, Archdeacon Julius Hare — glowing 
 with love, with zeal, with faith, with charity for all, with hatred 
 only for the devil ! " 
 
 Mr. Stevenson was an omnivorous reader on all subjects, 
 and possessed the rare faculty of getting the gist of a book 
 and carrying away all that was best worth remembering, 
 while apparently only dipping into it. 
 
 Books were the necessity of his life. He could readily 
 give up many things the loss of which would be a great 
 sacrifice to most men ; but his zeal in collecting books yielded 
 to no obstacles, and no self-denial was considered too great 
 which enabled him to procure some much-coveted volume. 
 
 [To his Sister. ] 
 
 "February U, 1858. 
 
 " I have been reading a medley this week, feeling that the remain- 
 ing time is short — the usual books for the classes, Carlyle's ' French 
 Revolution,' Grote's 'History of Greece,' Spenser's 'Faery Queen,' 
 Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair,' Maurice 'On the Hebrews,' Jeremy 
 Taylor — all of them, you will see, fine books. Grote is in magnitude 
 the greatest undertaking, with the notable exception of Gibbon. 
 The first of the ten published volumes, which I have nearly finished, 
 is altogether occupied with the early legendary history of Greece, 
 and the myths of that period and the chivalric tales and legends of 
 the ' Faery Queen ' harmonize delightfully. In spite of my expecta- 
 tion, I can enter fully into the interest which Spenser throws about 
 his 'Knights of the Round Table,' and find the 'Faery Queen' one 
 of the most fascinating of poems. I feared I had outgrown the age 
 when it could be thoroughly enjoyed, and I am quite happy that I 
 am still in the romantic epoch. ' Maurice * is an answer to Father 
 Newman's development theory." 
 
Student -Life. 29 
 
 Those who have enjoyed the privilege of Mr. Stevenson's 
 letters, so natural, tender, and sympathetic, with vivid pic- 
 tures of his surroundings and doings, or it may be telling of 
 his inner thoughts and fancies, will be amused at his own 
 description of the troubles of letter-writing : — 
 
 [To his Sister.] 
 
 "March 19, 1853. 
 ' ' I would not for all the friendships in the world have to write 
 your two letters a day. It would kill me. There would be written 
 in friendly warning on my grave, ' Died of friendship. ' But then 
 you throw off your easy epistles as you unwind a skein of silk ; it 
 gives you no trouble ; what you wish to say flows from your soul to 
 your fingers, and thence along the pen, without effort, almost with- 
 out will ; you can think of fifty things while you write of one, or vice 
 versa. But with me it is different. I cannot write without severe 
 and concentrated thought ; it is a business to me, something which 
 taxes and strains my powers, just as the unwinding of the silk 
 would." 
 
 It was one of his fixed beliefs that, were sufficient pains 
 taken to give full, accurate, interesting information about the 
 needs of the heathen world, and the results of what had been 
 already done, there would be little difficulty in firing the 
 enthusiasm of the people, and raising their gifts to an incred- 
 ibly high standard. His becoming secretary to the Irish 
 Prayer Union and Missionary Association gave him an oppor- 
 tunity of putting in practice this belief :— 
 
 ' ' I have been able to carry into effect a proposal made at our last 
 meeting, that one of the members should at each meeting read an 
 abstract of missionary intelligence, chiefly Irish of course, but in- 
 cluding also such noble evangelistic work as is carried on by the 
 Inner Mission in Germany, the Church Pastoral Aid Society in En- 
 gland, the colporteurs in France, Switzerland, and Lombardy, and 
 the Missionary Society in China, etc. What we felt was our igno- 
 rance of missionary operations, though we are professedly a missionary 
 association. " 
 
30 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 In the spring of 1854, Charles Kingsley delivered four lec- 
 tures in the Philosophical Institute, Edinburgh, on "The 
 Schools of Alexandria." The enthusiasm he evoked kindled 
 a responsive glow in the heart of the young student, whose 
 whole soul was stirred by the influence, strong yet subtle, of 
 that brilliant genius, and with whose abhorrence of cant and 
 lofty conception of the manliness of true Christianity he had 
 such deep, instinctive sympathy : — 
 
 [To his Sister.] 
 
 " February IS, 185U- 
 
 "Kingsley speaks with the fire and energy of a man in earnest, 
 possessed by a message which above all things he must deliver. 
 
 ' ' His open, clear eyes of bluish brown ; his thin, almost hollos- 
 cheeks ; his delicate, fine lips ; his sweet, gentle smile ; the melancholy 
 voice soft and low and sad; the stooped shoulders; the full, intense 
 earnestness, the brave, fearless truth, the singleness and unaffected- 
 ness, I had almost said innocence, but should say entire absence of 
 self-consciousness, which they who would might read in his fine, ex- 
 pressive, though not handsome, face — these are a living picture to be 
 hung up in the picture-gallery of one's brightest memories. 
 
 "That there is a truth deeper than all falsehood ; that things are 
 not right or wrong according to our mutable opinions, but as they are 
 in themselves ; that we have a craving for wisdom, and teaching, and 
 light, and must find that which answers this our craving ; that the 
 fountain of this eternal truth, wisdom, light, the measure of this 
 righteousness, is God ; that He alone can answer our cravings, satisfy 
 our hopes, end our fears ; that in the manifestation of the Son, the 
 God-man, these cravings, hopes, and fears find a ready solution and 
 end ; that by it they are excited in those who have stifled them ; that 
 through it God is brought nearer to man, and man nearer to God — this, 
 whether you contemplate it as one truth or many, was the beginning 
 and end, the constant though outwardly varying burden, of all he said. 
 
 "It is far from the least proof of his great genius that he could 
 make a ver}^ mixed, though, on the whole, intellectual audience 
 familiar, more or less, in four lectures with a subject so knotty, 
 hard, dry, extended over many centuries, entangled in a succession 
 of events of world-wide importance, involving a discussion of the pro- 
 foundest problems with which the human mind has ever puzzled itself, 
 stretching on either side into the mysteries of our being and God's. 
 
Student -Life. 31 
 
 •"Mrs. C said to me as we came out, 'It is not often our 
 
 thoughts are raised here above earth ; but I never heard a preacher 
 who brought heaven so close to it, and set us so face to face with 
 God. 3 Yet it was a lecture on the downfall of Alexandria, the rise 
 of Mohammedanism, Arabian metaphysics, and the like ; it had in- 
 vestigations into astronomy and decimals, and the burning of the 
 great library, and facts, figures, and quotations from Carlyle. So 
 true it is that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh ; 
 not that it was a sermon substituted for a philosophical dissertation, 
 but that, as it was said Whitfield could move an audience to tears 
 by saying 'Mesopotamia, 3 so a man whose heart is with God will 
 show you God in the dustiest, mouldiest, sterilest epoch, in the most 
 insignificant and commonplace of every-day realities. 33 
 
 Dr. Saphir gives the following reminiscences of his college 
 friend : — 
 
 '•' My acquaintance with Stevenson commenced in the winter of 
 1848-9, when we attended the same classes in Glasgow University ; 
 and, living in the same neighbourhood, had almost every day long 
 conversations on our way to the college. Perhaps the fact that 
 Stevenson was Irish attracted me to him, as it was a new nationality 
 to me. I very soon discovered his kind and genial nature. When 
 we parted in the month of May, we had become friends, though 
 neither of us, I think, was aware of the depth and strength of the 
 bond which united us. Stevenson wrote very characteristic letters, 
 describing Dublin and its attractions, his quiet life in the country, 
 and his varied reading. He was very happy and sanguine, and 
 tried to cheer me, who felt very lonely in a strange country, and 
 depressed by ill-health and other trials. I remember distinctly the 
 time when we, as it were, looked into each other's soul and felt that 
 we were one. That was in reply to a letter in which I had told him 
 of the peace and sunshine which had come to me from the eighth 
 chapter of Romans, when I saw clearly the consolation and firm 
 foundation of election, that they who believe in Jesus know that God 
 is for them, and that all things work together for their good. The 
 experimental view of this doctrine struck him very much, and his 
 reply was full of sympathy. From that time began our real friend- 
 ship. When in 1850 he repeated to me his invitation to spend the 
 summer holidays with him, I gladly accepted it. ' I was received by 
 his parents with the greatest kindness, and soon felt at home in that 
 
32 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 truly Christian and peaceful household. Stevenson and I were in- 
 separable, reading and talking. He was preparing for entering the 
 Divinity Hall, but general literature had great attractions for him. 
 I was then full of German literature — Schiller, Goethe, Tieck, etc. ; 
 he was steeped in the English classics ; and so we exchanged thoughts 
 and information. I noticed during that summer many characteristics 
 which distinguished him all his life. His favourite poet was Words- 
 worth. His taste in poetry was very catholic. He already possessed 
 the calmness, patience, and humility which recognize the merits and 
 beauties of authors who were not congenial to him. But Words- 
 worth was the poet whom he loved, who both expressed and devel- 
 oped his own individuality. Stevenson had an intense and living 
 love of nature, and a warm appreciation of true human nobility in 
 every form and shape, even the simplest and most unpretending. 
 Another feature that was very prominent in his character was his 
 unselfishness, and his great joy in doing acts of kindness. He thought 
 nothing of an immense amount of labour, involving often self-denial, 
 if he could afford help or pleasure to any of his friends, or comfort 
 and aid any sick and suffering. His anxiety to do this in the best 
 and most effective manner, his minute forethought and skilful arrange- 
 ment, and the delicate and unobtrusive way in which he accomplished 
 his object, had something feminine and touching hi them. It was only 
 during this visit that Stevenson told me the sad story of his brother's 
 disappearance. It made me feel, if possible, still more attached to 
 him, and I looked upon him, as I have done throughout my life since, 
 as a gift of God's love to me, who had been separated from brother 
 and sister and relative of every kind since my seventeenth year. It 
 was settled that we, joined by Charles de Smidt, should live together 
 during our divinity course in Edinburgh. Our circle was varied and 
 somewhat cosmopolitan, owing to De Smidt's Dutch and Cape fellow- 
 students, and to my Jewish and German friends. I have no doubt 
 that the missionary spirit which afterwards distinguished Stevenson 
 was nourished by this contact with missionary and Church news from 
 different parts of the world. Our most intimate friend was the Rev. 
 • Theodore Meyer, who was Assistant-Professor of Hebrew in the New 
 College. He came over in the year 1848 to Scotland, after having 
 witnessed the exciting scenes of the Revolution in Berlin. Mr. Meyer 
 came to Christianity out of Judaism and rationalism. Having been 
 brought into contact with the various forms of neology in Berlin, he 
 had a very sympathetic and genial manner with young men who were 
 passing through similar phases and conflicts ; so that, while we looked 
 up to him on account of his experience and learning, we felt quite at 
 
Student-Life. 33 
 
 home in his society, and he frequently joined our Saturday expedi- 
 tions. Stevenson continued his general reading with great diligence 
 while at college ; and as he was at the same time a very conscientious 
 and laborious student, the only time at his disposal for his more 
 severe studies was at night. He often sat up till three o'clock in the 
 morning. He was able to do with very little sleep, and he seemed 
 determined to do a great many things, and to do them leisurely ; and 
 somehow it was marvellous how much he could pack into the short 
 time : for he availed himself of the many social invitations which we 
 received ; and concerts and lectures at the Philosophical Institution 
 (such as Ruskin and Kingsley delivered) had great attractions for 
 him. So he went on cheerily, without any of the features of the 
 hard student, apparently alway s at leisure, and interested in everj- 
 thing that referred to humanity. He was full of earnest purpose to 
 avail himself of all the opportunities afforded him to prepare -for the 
 work of the holy ministry. He never lost sight of this purpose, and 
 sought to make everything subservient to this great object. His 
 faith in Scripture as the word of God, in Christ as the Saviour, and 
 in the work of the Holy Spirit, was clear and strong. He greatly 
 valued the ministry of the late Dr. Charles Brown ; and this fact 
 alone shows that he appreciated spiritual, Scriptural, and experi- 
 mental preaching. While he was inwardly rooted in the truth, and 
 living a life of communion with God in prayer and study of Scripture, 
 his theological views were as yet undeveloped, and he felt, as most 
 thoughtful students do, the disturbing effect of modern speculation 
 and of neology. His mind was candid and active. His tempera- 
 ment was calm. He was determined to examine carefully and slowly, 
 and to collect material diligently. The writings of Archdeacon Hare, 
 of Trench, Maurice, and Kingsley exerted a great influence on him. 
 He was keenly alive to the culture, breadth, and manliness which 
 characterized them, and fascinated by the power and vividness of 
 their mode of thought and expression. On the other side, there was 
 much in the old-fashioned representations of so-called orthodoxy 
 which repelled him, or at least offered difficulties to be overcome. 
 He was very sensitive to any want of justice and candour in the 
 treatment of divergent views, and still more to any want of reality 
 or delicacy in the expression of spiritual experiences. But the real 
 conflict was occasioned by his mind now coming into close contact with 
 the solemn and mysterious doctrines of revelation, with the question 
 of revelation itself, of the authority and inspiration of Scripture, of 
 sin, of atonement. He read more largely than the average student, 
 and perhaps with mure sympathy with what I may call vaguely the 
 
 3 
 
34 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 modern theology ; and those who did not know him intimately might 
 have fancied that he had become one of its disciples, while in reality 
 he had a deep conviction that the simple Scripture truth -which he 
 had embraced in his childhood would in the end shine forth to his 
 mind more clearly ; and that, while many misconceptions and un- 
 essential additions in the old mode of thought would be removed, 
 applications of greater breadth would be educed and a more healthy 
 tone imparted. Although his time was so fully occupied, he under- 
 took the visitation of a district in the poorest part of Edinburgh — 
 the Canongate. Most diligently did he fulfil his duties ; and I have 
 known him, when suffering severely from rheumatism and unable to 
 walk, take a cab to his district and climb with difficulty steep stairs 
 to see the sick and suffering people. Stevenson thought that he was 
 called to the work of evangelization in the west of Ireland. He was 
 very fond of his native country. He loved to remember the bright 
 light of the missionary heroes who in olden days went forth from the 
 Isle of Saints. He sometimes spoke of his possible future missionary 
 labours in the west of Ireland, and of the difficulties and hardships 
 they might involve, and had the idea that he ought therefore to pre- 
 pare himself to endure privation and poverty."* 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 STUDY AND TRAVEL IN GERMANY. 
 
 Ox completing his theological course in Edinburgh, Mr. 
 Stevenson set out for Germany, where, in contact with 
 various forms of Christian activity and in converse with 
 many eminent Christian men, he spent the most spiritually 
 eventful year of his life. He entered by way of Hamburg, 
 spending a month with his friend Mr. Saphir, who was then 
 engaged in mission work among the Jews. In a letter to his 
 father (written October 4th) he notes all that he sees with 
 the fresh, keen enjoyment of a first glimpse of foreign ways 
 and foreign life. Starting from Leith in brilliant moonlight, 
 he describes the passage and the passengers; the quaint dress 
 of the pilot who, on boarding the steamer at the mouth of 
 the Elbe, brought news of the fall of Sebastopol ; the softly- 
 wooded rich green banks, the innumerable windmills, the 
 red-roofed and green-gabled old farmhouses peeping out of 
 their clusters of trees, the pretty villas of Blankenese 
 creeping up the hills, nestling in every hollow and standing 
 out on every projection, green, black, gray, and blue, with 
 high-peaked roofs twisted into fantastic curves, and windows 
 peeping out from the oddest corners. Shrubberies, brilliant 
 gardens, summer-houses, all suggestive of life lived out of 
 doors ; the German boatmen with their red headkerchiefs 
 and aprons and blue jackets, the delightful sensation of 
 being in a new country, all come under his descriptive 
 pen. Finally : — 
 
36 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 ' ' Through a forest of shipping we slowly sail up the middle of the 
 river — stop and swing round — anchor. Meanwhile many little boats, 
 each paddled by one man, come round the ship. I get a lady's lug- 
 gage and my own into one of these ; lastly, with much trouble, the 
 lady and myself. We pull in for the quay, are nearly run through 
 by an iron-beaked gig, wind tortuously till we come off the floating 
 custom-house. Etwas contrabandisch ? Nothing, say we, and pass 
 
 on. On a low jutting pier are A — — and S waving hats and 
 
 handkerchiefs. We are whirled off in a cab to the Hotel de Saxe. 
 My little room opens off their sitting-room on one side, theirs on the 
 other. We are happy beyond measure. " 
 
 But far beyond picturesqueness or novelty of the country 
 was the attraction that lay in the marvellous mission work of 
 Immanuel Wichern ; and two days after his arrival he writes 
 to his sister : — 
 
 ' ' Yesterday we went out to Horn to visit the famous Rauhe Haus. 
 After a pleasant drive of about three miles, we got out and turned 
 into a well-trodden path shaded by chestnuts, and in five minutes 
 reached a wooden gate, through which we entered a broad avenue 
 bordered by flowers, grass, and trees, leading straight up to a quaint - 
 looking, red-gabled house, reminding me in its effect (the approach 
 included) of Hawthorne's 'Old Manse,' except that there was no 
 settled gloom, but, on the other hand, a pleasant light and cheerful- 
 ness. We found that Dr. Wichern had set off that morning for 
 Berlin, so my introduction was useless. However, we were shown 
 into the strangers' room, and, as it was dinner-hour, amused ourselves 
 by looking over the names in the visitors' book, where we found those 
 of Elihu Burritt, the Bishop of Ripon, Hengstenberg and Hoffmann the 
 celebrated theologians. We were told that a candidat (licentiate) 
 would hurry over his dinner and be with us ; and presently lie ar- 
 rived, looking frank and intelligent. He knew the place well, was a 
 sensible Christian man, up in statistics, and very ready with all his 
 information. 
 
 " When Dr. Wichern was a young candidat, twenty-one years ago, 
 he conceived the plan, which he has here by degrees developed, of 
 reclaiming the outcasts of society — thieves and low characters of 
 every kind w r ho were not so old and hardened in crime as to make 
 their reform altogether hopeless by such means as he had in his 
 power. He had no money, and few friends; but he had energy, 
 
Study and Travel in Germany. 37 
 
 strong love, faith, and was possessed with a noble idea. One by one 
 he gathered about him young reprobates from the worst quarters of 
 Hamburg, took a little house at Horn in a pleasant situation, edu- 
 cated these unfortunate and neglected boys under his own roof as 
 members of a family, and gathered friends about him through whose 
 assistance he was enabled gradually to enlarge his plan, to which he 
 very soon added a house for the reception of deserted children. This 
 was the beginning. ' At present the ground which his Institution 
 occupies is as much as a peasant with four horses will plough in a 
 day," said the candidal, who did not know our land-measures. There 
 are twenty-one detached houses, containing eighty - five boys and 
 twenty-five girls who are under training, besides ten candidaten who 
 act as general superintendents, and are so trained for taking charge 
 of similar institutions elsewhere, or for some other office in the Inner 
 (Home) Mission. We visited the workshops, where the male inmates 
 are taught carpentry, shoemaking, etc., so that, when they leave the 
 Institivtion, they can gain an honest livelihood, and where all the 
 trades-work needed on the place is done, including wooden soles for 
 the boys' shoes, making clothing, and such like. Xext to the stables, 
 tenanted by cows and pigs, as the horses were all out at work ; then 
 to the printing-house, where we found the types of three or four 
 works in progress. In the last two years four hundred thousand 
 sheets were issued. Xear this is the bookbinding shop ; and a con- 
 tinuation of it is devoted to lithographic printing, for many of their 
 books are illustrated — exceedingly well, too. Passing through the 
 vegetable garden we came upon a newly-built house, the gift of a 
 German prince. In the under part was a very neat bedroom with 
 thirteen beds, on the other side of the passage a sitting-room with 
 bookcases, slates, etc. , and a kitchen ; above was a sitting-room of 
 rather nicer appearance and better furnished (I noticed three violins 
 hanging against the wall), and a bedroom opening off' it contained five 
 beds. So that here lived eighteen people. Dr. Wichern, in develop- 
 ing his benevolent schemes, held strictly to what might be called his 
 fundamental idea, the training up of these outcasts in family life. 
 Consequently, instead of being, as is the case with us, brought to- 
 gether into one large establishment, and there herding in a public 
 gregarious fashion, he has divided them among several houses, each 
 containing twelve boys, one candidal who sleeps with them, and five 
 1 brothers ' — elder ones who have been brought to Christ through the 
 instrumentality of the Institution. Each little household is thus 
 complete in itself, and is surrounded hy its garden ground, where 
 every boy has his vegetable and flower plot, and also some little spot 
 
38 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 for play, independent of the general playground. The house -was 
 kept daintily clean. We then looked in at one of the girls' houses, 
 where there were about a dozen young girls with bright, happy, in- 
 telligent faces sitting round a desk writing. The neat laundry and 
 kitchen followed in due course ; and then the chapel, a large room, 
 simple and tasteful, with ivy running up and down and across the 
 walls, and a little orchestra -gallery facing the pulpit. Over the latter 
 there is the usual (in Lutheran churches) crucifix, and on each side of 
 it a small statue of Christ. In front of the gallery there are three 
 beautiful, simple statues of children : the central one playing a harp, 
 with the inscription below, ' Praise and sing unto the Lord ; ' on one 
 side a figure holding out a little plate, and with a lovely childlike 
 expression, ' Blessed are the merciful ; ' and on the other a kneeling 
 figure, the hands clasped, the face upward-looking, ' Ask, and ye shall 
 receive. ' The seats in the chapel are plain forms. One is struck by 
 the extreme simplicity, the absence of all pretension and ornament, 
 and the homely air which pervades the whole place. It is a real 
 country life the inmates live, and they have fine scenery, noble trees, 
 a wood on a small scale, fields, flowers, everything to contribute to 
 the development of healthy tastes and to innocent enjoyment. There 
 is service in the chapel every morning and evening, and also on Sun- 
 day for the smaller children. The elder attend one of the churches. 
 In every room a verse for the year, as well as a text for the day, is 
 hung up and framed. It may give you some idea of the class of 
 people who are admitted if I tell you that one boy of nine years old 
 attempted twice, a few months ago, to burn his father's house, and 
 afterwards to commit suicide; now he goes about among his com- 
 panions telling them of ' the dear Lord Jesus Christ,' and urging them 
 to come to Him. The houses are all separated from each other by 
 trees, gardens, and shrubbery. I intend returning to the place on 
 Tuesday to see Dr. Wichern, and probably then I shall glean some 
 further particulars of this most interesting Institution and its founder. " 
 
 " October 19, 1854 — Journal. — Set out this morning for the Rauhe 
 Haus, accompanied by Saphir. On reaching Dr. Wichern's house, 
 which was built for him by the King of Prussia, and is separated by 
 a shrubbery from the rest of the grounds, we awaited the reception 
 of my introduction. Presently we were taken upstairs and through 
 three rooms, furnished with desks, presses, and bookcases, to a fourth, 
 where some clerks were sitting, and where Dr. Wichern cordially 
 welcomed us. He led us by the hand into an inner room, and there 
 we sat down for talk. I was greatly attracted by his frank, genial 
 
Study and Travel in Germany. 39 
 
 bearing, his warmth, cordiality, and enthusiasm. His face is full of 
 benevolence and practical wisdom ; he has a fine forehead and a well- 
 shaped head, clustered over with a mass of gray, almost white, hair ; 
 a clear, searching, honest eye ; and a mouth that when at rest is 
 firmly compressed, and a key to the extraordinary energy, will, in- 
 fluence, and controlling power of the man, but when he smiles has a 
 sweet, innocent, childlike expression. He is of a slight, well-knit 
 figure, and about middle height. 
 
 " Our conversation turned at once on Germany, he maintaining 
 strenuously that ' no Englishman, Frenchman, Scotchman, or North 
 American can understand Germany, either socially, politically, or 
 ecclesiastically, unless by personal observation during residence in 
 the country, if even then ; but that without leaving his home the 
 German can enter into, and sympathize with, the standpoint of other 
 nations. ' I was amused at the energy with which he supported this 
 proposition, and the practical application he was continually making 
 of it to me, evidently fearful lest I should carry away as wrong im- 
 pressions of the nation and literature as one-sided people usually 
 do. ' Archdeacon . Hare, ' he says, ' is among the few Englishmen 
 who understand and fairly judge us.' Of the united Church of 
 Prussia, on which I anxiously questioned him, he does not 
 seem sanguine, does not even profess -to like it. It is still in the 
 pangs, he says, and there he evidently thinks it will remain. Nor 
 would he acknowledge any part of it Calvinistic. ' In Switzerland 
 you find Calvinism ; here, in Germany, we are Lutherisch und Me- 
 lanchthonisch. ' Of the Inner Mission he spoke with remarkable modesty 
 and sobriety. ' It is an institution altogether different from what 
 you are accustomed to. You must not bring to bear on it English 
 notions and English experiences. You must allow for its novelty, 
 for the state of the country, for the general absence of a missionary 
 spirit. There is no central committee governing, managing every- 
 thing ; the Inner Mission is rather a pulse beating in many societies, 
 and linking them to one another ; it is the common life that circu- 
 lates through all and each. Our work is very noiseless, but still we 
 work. Even here, in Hamburg, we have five weekly Bibelstuncle, and 
 good is doing ; yet most people in Hamburg will tell you we are not 
 there at all.' 
 
 "Before we separated he asked me what introductions I had to 
 Berlin ; and on hearing, said they would do excellently — I did not 
 need others. I felt it exceedingly kind of him to take such interest 
 in a stranger. Throughout our interview he was, as they say here, 
 ' very friendly ; ' before we were five minutes together he was rap- 
 
40 Life of Witliam Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 ping his fingers on my knee, or catching me by the arm, as h< 
 ' Yerstehen Sie ? ' 
 
 "It was amusing to observe the pains he "was at to hunt up the 
 simplest German for me. His own language is, however, remarkably 
 simple, his sentences short and telling, and he speaks German with a 
 purity and clearness and music as rare here as it is delightful. With 
 children he must be irresistible : his gentle, playful ways would quite 
 win their love ; his strong self-command and resolution would win 
 their respect and obedience. 
 
 "After a memorable hour and a half we parted. I could have 
 looked for hours at the beautiful play of his expressive face." 
 
 Berlin was reached by the middle of Xovember, and 
 having matriculated in the University, he settled down with 
 the most buoyant enthusiasm to a steady winter's work. 
 " Exegesis will be my chief study," he writes. " With 
 Hengstenberg, Tweesten, and Erdmann for exegesis, and 
 Nitzsch for dogmatics, one must be a sad dolt not ' to get a 
 lift for life that will carry one on through theology and into 
 the inner meaning and connection of Holy Scripture." 
 
 His letters give bright descriptions of his pleasant rooms 
 " looking out over the avoocIs of the Thier-Garten," of the far- 
 famed " Unter den Linden" with its Gate of Victory,' the 
 palaces and public buildings, statues and paintings, the 
 churches and their preachers, the enormous distances, the 
 striking preponderance of the military element ; and he enters 
 fully into all the minutiae of German student-life, its simplicity 
 and brotherliness. He became a member of the "Wingolf 
 Chor," one of the many University guilds, but one which had 
 the distinction of being avowedly a Christian society. He 
 had with him introductions from Edinburgh, which, here as 
 elsewhere, proved most valuable, bringing him into contact 
 with several of the greatest thinkers of the day. Every 
 moment that could be spared from study was spent in 
 investigating the state of the poor, the working of the "Inner 
 Mission," with its many plans for aggressive action on the 
 evils of our modern social life. The noble Christian devotion 
 
Study and Travel in Germany. 41 
 
 of the Brethren of St. John fired him with the enthusiasm 
 which, when describing the conception of their mission in the 
 pages of " Praying and Working," * breaks out into these 
 burning words : — 
 
 "But why should it be a dream? Our young men are thirsting 
 for excitement ; the exuberant life of our age seems to find no suffi- 
 cient outlet ; old and quiet forms, traditional habits and limits are 
 forsaken, burst through with impatience ; the spirit of the time is 
 for adventure. Why should there not be a Christian chivalry ? 
 "Why should there not be hearts to join in the new crusade? Why 
 should there not be life-service for the good of your poor neighbour 
 as much as for war or travel, as heroic spirits to fling themselves into 
 the battle against sin as into the strife of a kingdom ? Romance, 
 adventure, action, sacrifice, a purpose worth living for, the springs 
 of generous minds are touched here, and the delicate subtle springs 
 of religious feeling which the clumsy fingers of the world can never 
 reach." 
 
 The following extracts are taken from his home-letters : — 
 
 [To hi& Father.] 
 
 "Berlin, November 15, 185/,.. 
 " There are about fifteen hundred students in the University, some 
 Americans, several English, Egyptians, Malays, French, Japanese, 
 etc. The University is a noble pile of buildings, and seems every 
 way well adapted to its objects ; has fine lecture-halls, museums, 
 grounds. The lectures are from 8 a.m. till 7 p.m. There are in all 
 ninety-two professors and three hundred and fifty courses of lectures. 
 Here a professor may lecture on any subject which he is qualified to 
 teach, instead of, as with us, having a definite subject allotted to him. 
 When a student joins the University he becomes a citizen of it, what 
 is called a University Burgher. With his matriculation paper he 
 receives a copy of the statutes, and he then finds that the senate has 
 over him a civil authority ; has the power not only of inflicting heavy 
 fines, but imprisonment ; that there is a distinct University police, 
 and that they only have the power to arrest him. His passport (if 
 he is a stranger) is deposited with the senate. He is removed from 
 
 * For a full account of this Brotherhood, th nd aim, see ; ' Praying and 
 
 Working," chapter v. 
 
42 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 all jurisdiction on the part of the city ; he has become a member of 
 a distinct corporation. I don't apprehend much difficulty from the 
 lectures being in German, as I can now follow an ordinary lecturer 
 or preacher with comparative ease. I am tolerably sure of making 
 pleasant acquaintances among the students —they seem a very frank, 
 hard-working, hearty, bespectacled set of men." 
 
 [To his Sister.] 
 
 " November 25, 1851,. 
 ' ' The professors address the men as ' fellow-students. ' In that 
 simple form of address you have one of the great points of the 
 relation subsisting between the two great classes of the University. 
 The professor puts himself at once on your footing. That he has 
 a title and an office does not interpose any barrier. He is still, and 
 must to the end of his life continue, as he believes, just what the 
 young man entering college is, and resolves to be — a student. We 
 are all students, he knows, and when we die we have most to learn. 
 So these German professors think, and in this spirit they lecture. 
 Elected as the best of us, they strive to ' impart the gift of seeing ' 
 to the rest of us : a nimbler runner may take the torch they carry, 
 and bear it further than they were able to go. In that hope they 
 teach, and when it is fulfilled they rejoice for the truth that is won ; 
 they do not murmur that another is the winner. It is this principle 
 that guides their conduct to the University men. They are happy 
 and willing to afford them any help and sympathy it is in their 
 power to bestow ; they feel no shame to confess that problems which 
 are now troubling the mind of their students once troubled, perhaps 
 still trouble, theirs ; that the same doubts have thrown a dark 
 shadow over days and weeks ; that they have had the same strug- 
 gles and fought the same battles ; and even the absence of a profes- 
 sional dress, of all that might mark a distinction between the teach- 
 ing and the taught student, is not followed by want of respect on 
 the part of the latter to the former. On the contrary, the professor 
 here is infinitely more respected than with us. He is looked up to 
 with both reverence and affection. You never hear him carelessly 
 or contemptuously spoken of ; never but as if the heart of the 
 speaker paid him the involuntary homage due to an earnest seeker 
 after truth. You don't see them sleeping during the lecture, or 
 laughing over caricatures of the lecturer, or reading 'green-books;' 
 you don't hear them talk in the class, or when they come out yawn 
 and abuse it. If they don't take notes they pay large attention, or 
 if not they are very skilful at deceiving an onlooker ! " 
 
Study and Travel in Germany. 43 
 
 [To his Sister.'] 
 
 "Nitzsch comes in noiselessly like a spirit, and with a slow, 
 solemn step glides up the room and to his desk. An elderly man, 
 spare, of middle height, with grayish hair, and an eerie look about 
 him, as if he were not of this world, as indeed he scarcely is. With 
 his manuscript lying before him, he rests his chin on his hand and 
 begins to speak in a low thoughtful voice, perhaps two fingers play- 
 ing with his under-lip, his small bright eyes looking far away as if 
 he saw visions, as if he were receiving like an old prophet from the 
 Invisible the thoughts he uttered. Though his voice is low, and 
 passes frequently between his fingers, it is remarkably distinct, and 
 one wishes that his meaning were as easily intelligible as his lan- 
 guage. He is the ' hardest ' theologian in Germany, but also the 
 profoundest ; and when one understands him, which indeed is oftener 
 than I have expected, it is a rare delight. Always you can pick up 
 multitudes of detached and profound thoughts that drop from him 
 with a marvellous prodigality ; but the difficulty is to find the link 
 that binds them to each other, and which, evidently clear and 
 present to his own mind, is too often present to no other. He re- 
 minds me of what De Quincey says of Coleridge, that when in his 
 conversation most people thought he was wandering, and gave up 
 following him, he was then most strictly logical, and was pursuing 
 relations and consequences which, plainly seen by him, were in- 
 visible to his less gifted audience ; and that those could perceive 
 this who, though unable to soar with him, kept fast hold of his 
 point of departure, and compared it with his point of return to their 
 comprehension. 
 
 " Hengstenberg, again, is a stout, short man, .with brown hair. 
 He is active and bustling, speaks slowly, and with a loud voice ; and 
 when reading Hebrew is fond of intoning in the Jewish style. " 
 
 [To the same.] 
 
 " I have tried, and successfully, to introduce English theology to 
 the notice of the students. It annoys and vexes me to find them 
 here so ignorant of our great and right noble divines, quite as well 
 worth study in their own place as the Germans. Ignorance of their 
 writings would not grieve me so much, but there seems to be a pre- 
 valent ignorance of their names. Now, certainly, any respectable 
 student at home, if not well read in the theology of this country, 
 
44 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 possesses some familiarity with its eminent names, from Luther- 
 down to the recent time ; and one might fairly add also with their 
 theological opinions and influences. We not only know of Bengel, 
 and Rambach, and Spener, and Arndt, of Schleiermacher and 
 Neander, and the mighty host which this century has produced, but 
 they are read by us, and many of their writings are translated and 
 widely circulated. But of all the ' bright particular stars ' among 
 our theologians, from Hooker and Jewel down through the golden 
 chain which binds these to Hare and Hampden, Whately and 
 Trench, Alford and Treffry, and the many other men of great 
 ability and depth in our own day, they profess the most entire 
 unconsciousness. They take a deep interest in our Church matters, 
 but they pass over our divinity. It is cpiite true that in scientific 
 exegesis, in the history of the Church, in the philosophical develop- 
 ment of doctrines and systems, and in systematic theology, we are 
 but children playing at their feet ; that, instead of writing on these 
 most important subjects, we translate or pirate or ' crib ' from what 
 they have written, or make as clumsy and rickety a castle as any 
 child of five ever made by the seashore ; but in the systematic 
 theology of the good old Elizabethan and Jacobite eras, in practical 
 exegesis, and in all that pertains to the upbuilding of the Christian 
 life in family, Church, and State, we are no whit behind them, and 
 in the clear exposition of Biblical truth through sermons we are at 
 all times vastly superior. And so I try to induce the men here to 
 read our books, for I know, if they read, it is their noble peculiarity 
 that they have sufficient candour, admiration of genius, and love of 
 truth to admire. I am already beset with applications for the loan 
 of what I can offer, and I am sanguine enough to hope for better 
 things, through the very limited means I can command. Of course, 
 when our theology is held so cheap by the students, it is scantily and 
 
 at haphazard represented in the libraries 
 
 "As to ' Kneipes ' I am no judge, having seen none but that of 
 our ' Wingolf ' in Berlin. I believe in Heidelberg and Bonn they are 
 more like drinking revels than social meetings. The beer in itself, 
 indeed, must be pretty harmless ; for, with the exception of the 
 cabmen, who drink brandy and carry their bottles constantly in 
 their pouch, I don't remember having seen any one intoxicated since 
 I came to Berlin. As to the genial character of the ' Wingolf- 
 Kneipes ' I can bear pretty competent witness. The conversation is 
 not merely such as ought to be heard on any subject from Christian 
 students, but it is predominantly about the very heart and essence 
 of Christianity itself — about the struggles that beset Christian men, 
 
Study and Travel in Germany. , 45 
 
 the thoughts that are stirring in them, the difficulties that beset 
 their path, the practical duties that belong to it. All through the 
 room in the intervals between the songs the members may be seen in 
 earnest little knots of two or three, and if you passed from one to the 
 other you would hear in each a chord on the same keynote, and that 
 keynote the purpose to know nothing but Christ and His cross, since 
 all things find their true meaning there. Of course there is much 
 social relaxation ; the great majority smoke, a third have thrown off 
 their coats, many have on their quaint little caps ; there is plenty of 
 loud, merry laughing at times, and the older members are occasion- 
 ally called on for humorous speeches. The intention is generally 
 better than the wit, but a bad joke provokes more risibility here 
 than a good one anywhere else. The nation seems inexhaustibly 
 good-humoured, and disposed to be on the best terms with every- 
 body and everything. We have occasionally part -singing, quartette 
 or sextette. At the end of the regular ' Kneipe ' — eleven o'clock — 
 there begins, for as many choice spirits as choose to remain, what is 
 called the ' Gemiithlichkeit,' for which there is a particular song to 
 the melody of ' Wohlauf Cameraden ! ' This lasts an indefinite time, 
 but not usually longer than twelve, I am told. We had an inter- 
 esting ceremony on Monday week. Moehring, who had been five 
 times successively elected president (presidentship is for four weeks), 
 was suddenly called home. We had a special ' Kneipe ' in his 
 honour, and near the close the new president, after making a most 
 brotherly address, full of sympathy and kind feeling, and urging 
 him throughout to hold fast the profession of his Christian faith in 
 the changed circumstances of his life, in his active struggle with the 
 w T orld and its temptations, presented him with a New Testament hi 
 name of the ' Wingolf . ' The songs sung that evening were admiral >ly 
 chosen; among others, ' Es ist bestimmt in Gottes Rath,' and ' Juchhe 
 vallera, juchhe vallera. ' On Friday last Moehring went off, and half 
 the ' Wingolf ' accompanied him to the first station — fifteen miles 
 from this— on the Stettin railway, where, as he was detained, they 
 made up their minds to remain with him in the little village all 
 night. What men would do as much for one of their number in 
 Scotland ? But the life in the ' Verbindung ' is so open and brotherly 
 that a friendship, or many, may be rapidly formed, and by the 
 hearty intercourse of each ' Semester ' deepened and ripened. The 
 friends a man has here he knows ; they are the confidants of his most 
 secret thoughts, and his counsellors and sympathizers in all times of 
 difficulty and distress. The attachment is stronger than a similar 
 one with us, and more romantic ; partly because of the greater 
 
4.6 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 opportunity it has for being developed through the peculiar character 
 of the student -life. " 
 
 [To his Father.] 
 
 " 1 have had a most satisfactory interview with Otto Strauss. He 
 received me in the friendliest, kindest manner. He is one of the 
 three deacons of the cathedral — a Grecian cathedral (the Dom. Kirche) 
 — for which there are, besides, four preachers, of whom his father 
 and Hoffmann are chief. As there are twenty-two thousand in the 
 parish, the deacons and a number of candidats have formed them- 
 selves into a sort of religious order, their employment being to visit 
 the people parochially ; their time is portioned out, and they have 
 regular religious exercises. David Brown of Glasgow,* who spent a 
 fortnight with Strauss during his recent visit to the Continent, calls 
 it an evangelical monastery. Of this monastery Otto Strauss is the 
 resident governor and inspector ; Hoffmann is the president. Strauss 
 at first talked in German, but turned over to English with a com- 
 pliment to my ' excellent German,' and a wish that I would speak 
 English, as he was afraid of forgetting what he had learned from 
 Dr. Brown, and knew I would pardon his mistakes. He certainly 
 did make some odd ones — talking more than once of the ' ghost ' of 
 God resting on a man — but on the whole spoke with remarkable 
 correctness and fluency. He is one of the ' Hiilfprediger ' in the 
 Dom. To-morrow, between eight and nine, I am to see him again ; 
 also his father, with whom he begs me to walk between three and 
 four every fine day I like. What a droll thing to see me arm-in-arm 
 with the courtly old professor ! He is to take me with him to- 
 morrow to see his brother, a University lecturer and a ' Divisions- 
 prediger.' He is an exceedingly pious, fine-spirited young fellow I 
 should say from what I saw of him. I think it will be my own fault 
 if I am not happy and if my stay here does not prove a blessing, as 
 Strauss prayed it might 
 
 "This was actually a fine day, and in the afternoon I went to 
 have a walk with Professor Strauss. These walks are curious and 
 characteristic of the country. The Thier-Garten is turned into an 
 academic grove, where scholars walk tip and down the alleys with 
 their teachers in friendly familiar intercourse, discoursing of all 
 things great and small. The old man has sometimes four or rive 
 student companions, sometimes only one ; but nothing makes him so 
 
 * Xow Principal Brown of Aberdeen. 
 
Study and Travel in Germany. 47 
 
 happy as to feel he is not permitted to walk alone. We wander 
 through by-paths of the wood, ' through bush, through brier, through 
 water, through mire ; ' stop here to listen to a story of Schelling, or 
 there to be told to admire the sunset through the trees ; when the 
 path is broad, arguing theology ; when it is narrow, following in 
 silence the commentaries of our master on nature and on trees, where 
 he is not quite as wise as Solomon. To-day, for instance, we were 
 three students, and left Lenne-Strasse about half-past three o'clock. 
 We had only to cross the street in order to be in the free forest. At 
 first the roads were wide and dry, so we could walk together and 
 hear Strauss *s exposition of the reading of the Psalms in the different 
 liturgical Churches, varied occasionally by little general conversa- 
 tions and remarks of 'the master' suggested by any passing object 
 or thought. By-and-by. however, we got into solitary narrow foot- 
 paths, muddy and slippery, and here he could only roll round an 
 occasional wise saying on us, to keep us in thought or in talk until 
 the briers gave him leisure to utter another. At last, after wading 
 through mud and predestination-from-the-Baptist"s-standpoint, we 
 emerged, a little after sunset, on an open space hedged round by tall 
 fir-trees, over which the moon rose, and through whose bar-like 
 branches came the afterglow of the evening sky. Returning, we passed 
 a walk that he told us now bore the name of the ' Philosopher's Alley,' 
 from Hegel and Schelling both making it their daily haunt. This 
 led on to reminiscences of the latter, and of Xeander, ' his dear 
 colleague, and frequent companion in the Thier-Garten.' This is a 
 fair specimen of our walk, except that when I am alone with him the 
 conversation is' more connected and less didactic." 
 
 The approach of Christmas was signalled by all the joyous 
 preparations that mark its celebration in Germany : the 
 Christmas fair, with its toy and sweetmeat markets, that 
 were like a carnival ; the universal demand for Christmas- 
 trees, which converted some of the chief squares for the 
 time being into fir forests ; the feasts and distribution of 
 gifts to the poor ; and the merry revelries for the children. 
 Mr. Stevenson entered into the spirit of everything with 
 keen enjoyment. " What a marvellous hold the festival has 
 over the people ! " he writes. " How beautifully the child- 
 life shines through, and becomes the central point of all ! 
 f Rupreckt' and the ' Weihnachtsmann ' (Father Christmas) 
 
4 8 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 carry you back into the dimmest antiquity of the Norsemen 
 and of the old hero- world of Scandinavia ! I almost feel 
 about Christmas as a German, and that, T can assure you, is 
 a great deal." 
 
 He was invited, with his friend Hengstenberg, to be present at 
 a " Bescheerung " (a distribution of gifts from a Christmas-tree) 
 for fifty poor children at the house of the then prime minister, 
 Baron Manteuffel. Passing up a wide staircase and through 
 several anterooms, they found themselves in a large salon 
 filled almost exclusively by members of the German nobility. 
 
 " There are but few seats. Most of the ladies stand, but we, vic- 
 tims of gallantry and good nature, must stand in front of the stove- 
 like tea-kettles, as Hengstenberg says, simmering over a strong fire. 
 Souchon is with us, so is his fellow-clergyman. The lights are burning- 
 round the table and on the trees like innumerable stars ; the gifts 
 make a fine show ; and the servants are passing in at every available 
 door. Presently the children come thronging in, little and tall, plain 
 and pretty, but all neatly dressed, and gazing at the tables and the 
 Christmas-trees and the people with a long intense look of happiness. 
 They fill up the side of the room opposite us. When they are 
 settled there is a hymn given out. It is one of Luther's — the 
 beautiful old ' Vom Himmel hoch da Icomrri ich her.' All sang, even 
 those that could only croak ; there was a devotional enthusiasm 
 kindled that passed from heart to heart, and gave a new beauty to 
 the words and the melody, which is also Luther's ; and one felt that 
 the angels with their golden wings overshadowed the room, announc- 
 ing to these poor children now, as to the poor shepherds of Beth- 
 lehem, the birth of the holy child Jesus. The hymn over, the chil- 
 dren were all placed round the table opposite the presents that bore 
 their names. How their eyes sparkled, and what a joy lightened 
 over their features, as they turned over the shoes, the apples, and 
 the pictures, and examined the pattern of their dresses ! How the 
 talking and the merry laughing waxed louder and louder ; how the 
 parents came forward from the shadow of the door to share in their 
 children's joy ; how the little lights were put out that the leaves 
 might be packed in the white handkerchiefs, into which anxious 
 mothers and children were endeavouring to stuff the abundant gifts ; 
 finally, how entirely happy everybody looked, and especially, I am 
 told, your brother, simmering worse and worse by the stove ! — all 
 
Study and Travel in Germany. 49 
 
 this I can't describe to you. One little child drew my attention par- 
 ticularly. It was near us, was a tiny thing about four years old, 
 and not very steady on its feet when walking ; but during the entire 
 hymn it stood with its small hands clasped and its great, full, deep 
 eyes gazing upwards, sometimes with an abstracted expression un- 
 common in a child, sometimes fixed on M. Souchon's face. It was a 
 little poem. And before it was taken up by these charitable ladies 
 it was, I've no doubt, a very dirty little poem." 
 
 Though absorbed in his studies, and deeply interested in 
 all the phases of life to which his residence in Berlin had 
 introduced him, he was yet a watchful observer of everything 
 that concerned the home-land he had left. During the winter 
 of 1854, the Crimean War was the foremost topic in men's 
 thoughts, and one can enter into the pride of the young 
 student in the blessing God gave his country in the person of 
 Florence Nightingale : — 
 
 • • What a noble spirit Englishmen inherit ! Is anything in history 
 finer than the self-sacrifice and devotion during and after the battle 
 of Alma? Can any crusading or pre-crusading era point to a woman 
 of so fine yet purely feminine a type as Miss Nightingale ? Elizabeth 
 of Hungary was devoted to the poor, but after a Middle Age fashion, 
 and not till stricken by the death of her husband. Margaret Fuller 
 nursed in the hospital at Rome, and with a woman's tenderness, but 
 her life Mas not given to it. Caroline Fry had not so much to 
 sacrifice, and by no means so painful a situation. But that a young- 
 girl of cultivated tastes, of most liberal education, richly endowed 
 by nature and fortune, idolized in the love of her numerous friends, 
 should quietly visit one hospital after another, in one country after 
 another, nurse in them all, and after three years' experience in St. 
 John's Hospital, London, listen to the call of her country and leave 
 kindred and home for a military hospital at Scutari ; going quietly 
 and unobtrusively, with a feminine delicacy and sensitiveness that 
 shrinks from publicity, so that till she has gone scarce any one 
 knows that she has the intention of leaving ; — this is grand ! Thank 
 God for this noble spirit. 
 
 " Went to-day to hear old Pastor Gossner, a marvellously hale and 
 hearty man in his eighty-third year, of good height and erect air, 
 who himself trains his own vines, and lives quite alone, and who this 
 morning not only read out the hymns line by line with a powerful 
 
 4 
 
50 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 voice, but the Liturgy, and, besides, had his own prayers and a ser- 
 mon of forty minutes, delivered, it is true, sitting. He wears a little 
 black skull-cap, and his white hair streams out from under it on each 
 side of his head. He has a sweet, intensely calm and peaceful, lov- 
 ing, and spiritual face. On every Sunday and feast-day he holds a 
 service at nine o'clock in the Elizabethan Kranken-Haus, chiefly for 
 the deaconesses, though others may attend ; and I am told through 
 the last severe winter he never missed a Sunday. His address was 
 on the epistle for the day — the preaching of repentance by John the 
 Baptist. It was beautifully simple and affectionate, like the voice of 
 a man whose heart was lifted up to God. Dear old man ! one could 
 fancy it was a little room in Ephesus eighteen centuries ago, and that 
 St. John was addressing his little flock." 
 
 His many engagements w 7 ere never allowed to interfere 
 with deeper spiritual interests. The following extract from 
 a letter to his sister shadows forth the yearnings of his 
 inner life, and show T s also his high ideal of the Christian 
 ministry : — 
 
 ' " I feel sometimes a strange unmanly shrinking from the Church, 
 as if the work were too high and noble, or too arduous and painful 
 for me to attempt, forgetting that we can do all things through 
 Christ who strengtheneth us. But my dear mother's perfect trust 
 and confidence that God has a work for me to do has greatly strength- 
 ened my weak faith and helped to banish these perplexing misgiv- 
 ings. What a riddle and strange hybrid we are, a cross between 
 heaven and earth ; sometimes the one uppermost, sometimes the 
 other — now utterly prostrate before God in deep humility and self - 
 negation, and again filled with the one idea of ourselves, our powers, 
 our thoughts, our work, as if God were not working in us, as if 
 the blessed Holy Spirit were not ever moving in the chaos of our 
 hearts to shape them into some god-like order, to bring our wills 
 into harmony with the all-perfect will of our heavenly Father ! Oh, 
 it is fearful sometimes to wake as if from a dream and find how you 
 have been tossed about by the devil as a play -ball, and to have your 
 good resolutions and pious purposes brought before your face and see 
 how there is not one of them that has not been broken and trampled 
 upon ! And yet how often one has such a waking ! But then the 
 joy to find a higher strength and wisdom than yours ; to be ' an 
 infant crying in the night, and with no language but a cry,' and to 
 
Study and Travel in Germany. 5 1 
 
 have that cry for help answered by all the might of the Almighty ; 
 to sink one's whole being into Christ and be lost in Him ; to have our 
 dear Saviour standing by us, to feel the grateful shadow of His 
 presence on our burning souls, to be shielded by His love, soothed by 
 His sympathy, upheld by His grace ! Surely there is nothing so 
 wonderful as this infinite, ever-flowing, never -failing love of Christ. 
 And love with no upbraiding — love as rich aud full in the misery of 
 our wayward wanderings from Him as in the height of our com- 
 munion with Him. May we ever be kept warm in the folds of that 
 Divine Love, daily pressing closer to Christ, and further from the 
 world, the flesh, and the devil. I do hope and believe that if God 
 spare me I shall be able to do something for the establishment of His 
 kingdom. I am trying to concentrate all my energies and studies on 
 that one end (with what weakness and unsatisfactoriness is known 
 only to God and myself), and I have a firm conviction that if, in His 
 providence and goodness, permitted to join the holy ministry, my 
 present experience, and whatever knowledge of books, of the world, 
 mj-self , and of the blessed evangel I may gain in Germany, will be 
 among the more material helps to my usefulness as a pastor. I don't 
 feel disturbed by the thought that meanwhile the Church may want 
 a labourer, and that precious time is quickly slipping by unimproved ; 
 the Church has no need for raw, unskilled labour, and such, I feel, at 
 present is all I can offer. It is no light office that is undertaken ; it 
 is hedged round with the weightiest responsibilities ; what prepara- 
 tion it requires must precede it, for after it is assumed it admits of 
 no interruption, scarcely of breathing-time to recover lost strength ; 
 and to rush into it while conscious of such unfitness as a little time 
 and study might go far to remove seems little less than to insult the 
 Church and the Church's Head. God will show me what is right ; 
 and I pray that He may keep me mindful that, as what talents I 
 have are given me of Him, so in His service it becomes me to use 
 them with the least possible delay." 
 
 [To the same.~\ 
 
 " Berlin, May 11. 
 ' ; It is now being tolled from the neighbouring bells, and shrilly 
 piped by the watch, the last midnight I am to spend in Berlin. To- 
 morrow morning, a few minutes after eight, I set off for the south 
 and the spring. The leave-takings are mostly over. I have parted 
 from all the friends to whom it is hardest to say 'Good-bye,' though 
 I daresay many of them will be good-natured and romantic enough 
 to come to the railway station. I shouldn't like to repeat two such 
 
52 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 weeks as these last have been — visit has succeeded visit, and parting 
 parting, in such rapid succession. One evening has been my last 
 with old Dr. Strauss, another with the Hengstenbergs, with younger 
 friends, and with the ' Wingolf.' Very rich and blessed by God have 
 I been in warm and kind friends. I never had so many real Chris- 
 tian friends, men to whom to speak of and work for Christ is their 
 greatest happiness, who are so earnest, so grafted into deep and 
 living union with the Saviour, while they retain all the cheerfulness 
 and light -heartedness of children. 
 
 " On Monday the ' Wingolf ' had a special ' Kneipe ' to take leave 
 of one more their guest than member. We had speeches and fare- 
 well lieder, and I received a Testament from the president. They 
 are all turning out, — Foxes, Bursche, and Philistines, — to the num- 
 ber of thirty-five, to see me to the railway. I am fairly done up. I 
 have walked, on the lowest average, fifteen miles a day ; and the 
 exhaustion is not merely physical, but I assure you when in visiting- 
 one passes from Steffan to Lepsius, and Lepsius to Xitzsch, and Nitzsch 
 to Hengstenberg, the strain of keeping up a conversation with these 
 men, though pleasant and invigorating while it lasts, is yet in the 
 end more fagging than walking from end to end of the town. Such 
 is the close of what, with full acknowledgment of all my faults and 
 shortcomings, has been the most valuable winter of my life." 
 
 After leaving Berlin, and before entering upon his studies 
 in Heidelberg, Mr. Stevenson spent the intervening time in ' 
 visiting the Luther country, Leipzig, Dresden, and the Saxon 
 Switzerland. He returned to Leipzig, and thence visited 
 Erlangen, Nuremberg, and Frankfurt on his way to Heidel- 
 berg. Though nominally alone in this journey, yet the 
 warm, brotherly kindness of the " "Wingolf " followed him all 
 through. In the cities he was usually met on arrival by 
 some of the members, with plans arranged so as to enable 
 him to make the best use of the short time at his disposal ; 
 and often one of their number was deputed to speed him on 
 his way by accompanying him to his next stopping-place. 
 He fraternized with the country-folk wherever he went, and 
 gives quaint little sketches of some of the peasant com- 
 panions he picked up on his long walks, as well as of his 
 interviews with the men of note to whom he was introduced 
 
Study and Travel in Germany. 
 
 by his Berlin friends. On looking over the letters of this 
 period, one is struck by the bright happiness of his disposi- 
 tion and the power lie had of finding enjoyment in every- 
 thing, also his rare quickness of observation and the care 
 with which he noted even trifling details. We give a few 
 extracts : — 
 
 ' ' After being whirled by the train through the uninteresting, flat, 
 sandy, pine-covered country that radiates in every direction from 
 Berlin, and discharged at the station half-a-mile outside the town, 
 and huddled up into a high coupe of an ancient vehicle drawn by two 
 lank, uneven-paeed horses, we wound through the tedious fortifica- 
 tions, passed a church with the air of being both ill-used and vener- 
 able, and clattered up a narrow street, to the delight of some ragged 
 urchins, into a market-place crowded with buxom peasant women in 
 their national dress, where I was deposited at the door of the ' Black 
 Eagle.' I was in Wittenberg ; and there hi the centre of the market 
 is the great bronze statue of Luther, portraying him as he may have 
 stood before the Diet of Worms, sublime in his noble earnestness. 
 
 "Accompanied by a Wingolfite, my first pilgrimage was to the 
 Schloss-Kirche, which, however, is not the old church that resounded 
 to the blows of Luther's hammer when he nailed up his theses on the 
 door on the night of the 31st October 1517, for the church has twice 
 since then been gutted by fire, and little remains of the original but 
 the old flagging. 
 
 '•'It is with the strangest thoughts tossing in your mind, with a 
 strange confusion of past and present, that you pass under that 
 portal and in a few minutes stand by the grave of Luther. For 
 better preservation the tablet over the tomb has been let down some 
 feet into the floor and covered with a heavy stone : when that is 
 lifted the inscription is fresh as if newly cut ; and that stone is all 
 that separates you from the dust of the reformer. 
 
 "Luther lies to the right, Melanchthon to the left, and on the 
 opposite wall hang their full-length portraits,- carefully drawn by 
 their warmest friend, old Cranach. Luther's is not very good ; but 
 Melanchthon's, the quiet, gentle scholar, with the placid and ye1 
 suffering face, his slight stoop, long nose, and reddish hair— Melanch- 
 thon's is a perfect likeness. I don't think any accurate drawing of 
 Luther would satisfy one now ; we seek too much for our ideal in the 
 man. He had an honest, somewhat animal and full Bavarian face, 
 prominent cheek-bones, and small eyes deeply sunk in his head It 
 
54 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 is true they are a beautiful hazel, and as clear and honest as the sun, 
 and his mouth has a dignity and a mighty energetic will about it 
 that belong to the great hero ; but his features hare no element of 
 beauty, and the total expression of his face seems to me summed up 
 in an honest purpose and manly integrity and firmness. Cranach 
 has painted him over and over again, but I have never found any 
 head rising higher than this in expression. 
 
 " Two other great men rest here, though perhaps greatest by their 
 association with Luther — John the Steadfast and Frederick the 
 Wise. They lie before the altar, and their figures and the record of 
 their lives are embossed on the chancel wall — records that would 
 take a day to spell through. This is what the Schloss-Kirche has 
 got to show ; and for those to whom the battle of life is beginning 
 these men have a mighty living voice, and from the dust of the four 
 great heroes who fought in the van of the Reformation their battle- 
 cry sounds, ' For Christ and our Fatherland ! ' Would that that 
 were the thought of our heart of hearts in Ireland now ! 
 
 "At the corner of the market-place farthest from Luther lived 
 Lucas Cranach, in a fine old house. Kot far from the cloisters we 
 passed the house where Melanchthon lived, laboured, and died. We 
 entered Luther's house by a faded and ruined courtyard, the re- 
 mains of what had once been a garden making it look still more 
 desolate. It is a large, imposing building, three stories high, and 
 six or seven windows broad — a present from the Elector — and in the 
 centre there juts out a tower with odd, sloping windows. When 
 Luther was alive this tower used to be tenanted by the poor students. 
 His own rooms are kept precisely as when he used to sit in them, 
 pouring forth his table-talk at the simple dinner, or dancing Hans 
 upon his knee and telling him what heaven was like, or writing his 
 wonderful books, or making whatever other use a quiet family man 
 might make of his library and study. We saw his massive deal 
 writing-table, and the enormous stove with porcelain figures of his 
 own designing. Two volumes of the Latin missal lay on the window- 
 sill which his hands had often turned over, and from which he had 
 sung many a chant. From the window in his time he could see the 
 green fields and trees of which he writes so feelingly — a Wordsworth 
 in the guise of a reformer. On the upper part of a closed door in 
 the room is a great sprawling 'Peter,' written roughly in chalk, and 
 carefully framed with glass, for it is the autograph of Peter the 
 Great — a characteristic memento of the man. In a large carved press 
 at one side are preserved several objects of great interest, among 
 them a relic of Catarina, the sampler in which she worked a portrait 
 
Study and Travel in Germany. 55 
 
 of the doctor, faded now and tarnished, but in its day no doubt very 
 precious, especially to the little Hans and Margaret, who would 
 think their mother a very great woman indeed. 
 
 "Descending to the courtyard, I sat down on one of the rough 
 stone seats placed at each side, and hollowed out by Luther for him- 
 self and his wife, that they might enjoy the balmy air and flowery 
 perfumes of the summer evenings. How long I might have sat here 
 would be hard to say, but we had to hurry back to the ' Seminar ' 
 where my ' Wingolf ' friends live— once an Augustinian convent, now 
 one of those preaching seminaries common throughout Germany for 
 the instruction of the speculative theologian fresh from the univer- 
 sity in his practical duties. The members receive instruction from 
 distinguished men, regular courses of lectures on practical theology 
 and kindred subjects are delivered, the students preach publicly in 
 rotation in the church, and after about two years of this excellent 
 preparation, they are thought to be tolerably well fitted for the 
 active duties of a parish minister. Twenty-four is the number which 
 can be accommodated at Wittenberg ; each has a private room in 
 the cloisters, and receives 200 thaler — about £30 — a year, together 
 with free lodging and firing, and except under peculiar circumstances 
 they cannot remain longer here than two years 
 
 " To Halle from Wittenberg is like a journey from the dead to the 
 living. In Halle 3011 think only of the present — of the men who, 
 having their tendencies shaped by that present, are in their turn 
 shaping and guiding those of the future. There is a spell in the 
 names of Miiller and Tholuck that is wanting in names of the 'same 
 reputation at home. A master theologian in Germany not only in- 
 fluences the German mind, but by it America, England, France ; for 
 these countries, unable at present or unwilling to create a scientific 
 theology for themselves, borrow that which is laboriously fashioned 
 here, and if they do not always follow it in its wanderings, at least 
 in general accept its results. 
 
 "Tholuck has not a speculative mind. His popularity here as 
 well as in England springs from his practical common-sense and well- 
 balanced mind. We respect him because he introduces to us the 
 results of the higher German theology in that mode of thought and 
 treatment with which we are familiar. He is respected in Germany 
 because, from the German standpoint, he looks at theology in a 
 practical common-sense way. If he has helped us to understand the 
 theology of this country, and has made us tolerant of it by beguiling 
 us into an interest in it, he has no less made our English method 
 known here, and won for it a hearing it could have obtained at the 
 
$6 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 hands of no Englishman. The little, keen man in his study, his face 
 set in an expression of constant pain, his manner brusque and abrupt, 
 his caustic remarks, his intolerance of 'mere ideas,' his biting satire 
 applied as readily to a first visitor as to any one else — this is no ideal, 
 but a real, every-day man, living in an every-day practical world. 
 When I first saw him, he did not, beyond the coldest greeting, show 
 that he was aware of my presence, but talked fitfully for half an hour 
 with two young trembling students sitting on the sofa. Once, indeed, 
 he turned round, after a fit of absence, to ask how long I had been 
 in Berlin, and when he heard, said quickly, ' Hope you learned some- 
 thing there,' and continued his catechisation of the two youths. By- 
 and-by he relented, his coldness thawed, and before we parted he was 
 even genial, and had asked me to accompany him on one of his walks 
 the next day. When I called again I found him writing a letter of 
 introduction for me to Heidelberg and singing over his work. When 
 he had finished his letter and the song together, we went out, first 
 into his garden, along one wall of which runs a covered arcade to 
 serve as walking -ground in wet weather. He takes immense, quick 
 strides, and might be known at the distance of a mile by his long 
 coat, old hat, and peculiar gait. We walked furiously about the 
 suburbs, and the conversation became more and more animated. At 
 last he fell into a vein of meditation, of thinking aloud, that was 
 very like hearing him read a new chapter in the ' Hours of Devotion.' 
 With his blessing and a hearty shake of the hand I parted from him. 
 He has the most distinctly marked individuality of any man I have 
 met in Germany ; and his great amiability and geniality when he 
 chooses and when he takes to his companion make his company much 
 sought after by the students. He walks twice a day, each time for 
 nearly two hours, and never unaccompanied. It is one of the neces- 
 sary sacrifices he must make to secure even tolerable health, and he 
 uses it as a means of doing all he can for the students and of bringing 
 them into contact with him. His lecture is not scientific in the strict 
 sense of the word. It is more a higher class of conversation, in which 
 he is the sole speaker. He sits comfortably in his chair and works 
 out of the ends of his fingers quaint and excellent remarks, with 
 which he interweaves either a fine thread of poetry or a number 
 of personal stories illustrative of his point and full of peculiar 
 humour. 
 
 "Among the other living names of interest in Halle are : — 
 "Muller, whom I heard dictate a lecture on ' Symholik; giving a 
 remarkably succinct and intelligible account of the early English 
 creeds, grouping them together and stating their mutual bearing in 
 
Study and Travel in Germany. 57 
 
 a philosophical spirit and with a fine criticism that bore out his 
 reputation. 
 
 " Jacobi, who lectures on Church History, his whole countenance 
 and bearing animated almost to inspiration. In the study he is a 
 quiet, thoughtful, gentle student, who when he speaks says something 
 suggestive, and who has the knack of managing the conversation 
 without perceptible effort. 
 
 " And Moll, whom I heard speak admirably, with sound piety and 
 common-sense, on practical visitation of the poor. 
 
 "In Halle I saw a good deal of the students, who have a much 
 jollier, merrier, and, as they delight to say, more historical life than 
 in Berlin. The ' Chors ' (student unions or corporations) here are 
 numerous ; one often sees them marching together thirty strong or 
 more, and feels that being a student here gives one a position in the 
 town, places one among the privileged classes. I was the guest of 
 the ' Wingolf ; ' the men were very kind, planned all sorts of amuse- 
 ments for me, including a ' Kneipe.' But, after all, the most interest- 
 ing building in Halle is the Waisenhaus (Orphan Home), with which 
 the name, and to us in England the life and labours, of Fran eke are 
 for ever associated, and where upwards of two thousand children are 
 at present educated. In one of the large courts which intersect the 
 building stands Francke's monument, with these pregnant words, 
 ' He trusted God. ' " 
 
 After visiting the Saxon Switzerland in all the freshness 
 of its spring beauty — Dresden, with its glorious pictures ; 
 Meissen, with its cathedral and china factory ; and Leipzig, 
 with its records of battles stamped upon its walls, and its 
 reminiscences of Luther and Schiller — .he reached Erlangen, 
 where he met, among others, the great theologians Delitzsch 
 and Hoffmann. Of the latter he writes :— 
 
 "He received me very kindly, even warmly, and we were soon 
 deep in an animated conversation over his 'Princip.' How strange 
 it seemed to be quietly talking over his theories with such a man in 
 his study, a man whom at home I had set up 011 a pinnacle, where he 
 shone like a star and dwelt apart. One by one the difficulties with 
 which I had contended in his book vanished before the clearness with 
 which he unfolded his views in conversation, and I felt half inclined 
 to prefer a petition to him that he would write as intelligibly as he 
 
58 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 spoke ! He was greatly interested in what I told him of Bishop 
 Hampden's opinions in his learned book on the Scholastics, which are 
 almost identical Avith his own."* 
 
 He thus describes his last visit to Delitzsch : — 
 
 " He had left directions that I was to follow him to the ' Harmonie,' 
 should he not be at home when I called. I was rather amused at 
 this new insight into German life, and went to the inn with some 
 curiosity. There he. was reading his papers, his glass of beer beside 
 him, in a room where thirty or forty others were sitting and smoking, 
 and among them the most famous names of our classical literature, an 
 eminent astronomer, a pair of philosophers, etc. Insensibly we fell 
 into close earnest talk, and the conversation ranged over so many 
 interesting subjects that I look back upon the hour or two in the 
 ' Harmonie ' as among the pleasantest I have spent in Germany. 
 Hoffmann had been expected to join us, but did not return to town in 
 time. 
 
 '• After we got into the street Delitzsch took me by the arm, and 
 we walked about for nearly an hour. I parted from him with great 
 regret. He was so hearty, friendly, and unaffected that it was im- 
 possible not to love him. More than this, he is one of the most pious 
 of men. His spirit is something like Baxter's, not so liberal, but 
 every day makes him more catholic. The depth and tenderness of 
 his love for Christ, and the childlikeness and naivete which accom- 
 pany it, are very beautiful. I learned more from him in an evening 
 than I would from sermons and commentaries in a year. And let me 
 not forget to add that he is at present the first commentator on the 
 Old Testament in Germany. His hair is almost white, though he is 
 not much above forty. He has a beautiful, loving, gentle expression, 
 in which one soon forgets his plain features."' 
 
 Thence to Nuremberg, escorted by a " Wingoltite,''" who 
 had been told off to attend him. He gave himself up to the 
 spirit of the place, which still lies under the spell of the 
 Middle Ages, never wearied of exploring the ancient Gothic 
 architecture, endless in its variety, but always picturesque, 
 and delighted in the irregular, straggling old gables and 
 peaked turrets, with rich decoration of dark, carved wood 
 and massive stone, the exquisitely -delicate tracery of its 
 
Study and Travel in Germany. 59 
 
 ironwork castings, the many wondrous memories of departed 
 greatness, and the mixture of real and unreal, that seemed 
 almost like the illusion of a vivid dream. 
 
 He passed from reminiscences of Hans Sachs, the cobbler- 
 poet, to traces of Albert Dtirer, the impress of whose genius 
 is stamped on the entire city ; inspected the houses where 
 they lived, and then wandered in the evening to the quiet 
 "God's Acre'" where they rest in death — a quaint spot lying 
 on a little platform below the castle, where the flat stones 
 covering the graves are laid side by side in long unbroken rows. 
 
 " As I read the inscriptions I felt face to face with the past, and I 
 lingered till the last glimpses of red had died away in the western 
 sky. I was only anxious lest the wind should rise : not that it would 
 howl mournfully through the trees, for trees there were none ; nor 
 that it would drift clouds quickly across the moon, and chase their 
 shadows over the hare white stones, for the sky was cloudless ; but 
 lest it should touch one particular tomb. An old Nuremberger has 
 got screwed into the stone that covers his ashes a metal skull, and 
 the under jaw is made so loose that, when the wind creeps about and 
 touches it, it clatters violently against the upper. Is it not horrible ? 
 Think of the fearful shrill rapping of that black skull in a storm, 
 gnashing its hideous iron jaws in a rage that rises with the fury of 
 the blast ! 
 
 " Just as the flash of the sunset was vanishing hi the dull evening 
 gray, as the moon was rising over the Heidenthurm, as the stars 
 began to peep and twinkle one by one, all the belk rang out slowly 
 nine, and then began the sweetest chiming I ever heard : the great 
 deep bell of St. Lorenz, and the clear mellow bell of St. Sebald. and 
 many another bell from tower and spire far and near, all ringing in 
 soft harmony and tune, filled the air with their dreamy music. Over 
 the quiet town, that lay already indistinct in the fading twilight, the 
 sweet tones came and went and came again, till the whole air vibrated 
 with a delicious melody that ' lingered wandering on as loath to die,' 
 
 ' Like thoughts whose very sweetness yieldeth proof 
 That they were born for immortality.' 
 
 This welcome to the night, or this lullaby to the day, whichever you 
 choose to call it, lasted for about fifteen minutes, and then died gently 
 as one bell after the other softly ceased. 
 
60 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 "I sat down on the low parapet wall and wondered what the 
 twelve statues meant in the garden below, and watched the moon 
 sailing slowly through the faint, pale stars. Suddenly the quiet 
 light fell on one of the stiff white figures, and I saw by the key it was 
 St. Peter, and St. Peter was the key to the rest. The twelve apostles 
 stood in silence among the sweet flowers in the garden, and above 
 was the Heidenthurm, thrown into darker shadow by the same light 
 that revealed them. It was Whitsuntide. Eighteen centuries ago 
 another light streamed down on these twelve as ' they were all with 
 one accord in one place, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. ? 
 On a summer evening eighteen centuries ago three thousand were 
 gathered into the Church by one sermon. How vividly the whole 
 story grew on one ! " 
 
 But Heidelberg and work lay before him, and he could 
 not long indulge in day-dreams in romantic Nuremberg. 
 A summer night's journey through a rich country, here pass- 
 ing by steeply-terraced vineyards, and there through thickly- 
 wooded valleys, brought him to Frankfurt. All along the 
 route the number of small principalities was a novel feature. 
 
 "It is incredible how many grand-dukes' territories you may pass 
 through in a few hours. Between Leipzig and Bamberg, for instance, 
 you may have been lost in thought for five minutes, and when you 
 turn to yotir guide-book you find during your reverie you have shot 
 
 through an hereditary kingdom. If A had purchased in Middle 
 
 Germany instead of Ireland, young A would be hereditary grand- 
 duke, own a regiment, a theatre, a museum, a lottery, and a minis- 
 try ; marry a princess, have a daily bulletin of his movements circu- 
 lated among his tenantry through the court journal, and probably 
 would have felt called on to send Atty M'Swiggin as his special 
 ambassador to the Court of St. Petersburg to offer his condolences on 
 the death of the Emperor Nicholas." 
 
 Dannecker's "Ariadne,"' and all the reminiscences of 
 Goethe, from the house where he was born to his statue in 
 the town library, were religiously visited and their impres- 
 sion fully noted ; but coming from the " delicious, irregu- 
 lar, old-world Nuremberg," he felt "out of tune" with the 
 bustle and gaiety of the busy town, and was glad to leave it 
 
Study and Travel in Germany 
 
 behind him and reach the last stage of his foreign life. At 
 Heidelberg he writes : — 
 
 " The charm of the place began in the station, where every traveller 
 is struck by the profusion of lovely trailing creepers, clematis, wood- 
 bine, and vines that adorn it. Then came the old red castle, with 
 its background of soft, green, wooded hills, all aglow in the western 
 sun. Heidelberg is the most romantic city in the world : it is girdled 
 round with the beautiful. I have not matriculated in the University 
 here, and will not, having received permission from the professors to 
 attend, as a guest, all the lectures they give." 
 
 One of the principal subjects of his study during the two 
 months he spent here was the Roman Catholic controversy. 
 
 [To his Father.] 
 
 " Heidelberg, June 21, 1855. 
 ' ' I am delighted with the University library. I have free access 
 to it, to roam among the book-shelves two hours daily, and to carry 
 away as many books as I choose. This is a high privilege, for the 
 library is one of the most extensive and valuable hi Germany. My 
 reading is at present confined to the Roman Catholic question, and 
 the grounds of difference between that Church and the Protestant, 
 and I find it takes up much time, but is a most interesting study. I 
 had my attention directed to a number of books bearing on it by 
 Professor Hengstenberg, and here Rothe and Schoeberlein have told 
 me of others. I am sometimes in despair when I think of what a 
 huge work it is, and how little of it I can accomplish with the best 
 will and the greatest zeal before August. The greatest man in 
 Heidelberg is undoubtedly Rothe, who also stands at the head -of 
 speculative theology in Germany. He is a very curious little man, 
 with a small face, and he speaks in a finnikin way, like a precise old 
 maid — like the birds in ' David Copperfield. ' There is a peculiar 
 contrast between the little sharp speech, in which all the words have 
 the ends cut off, and the profound, wonderfully comprehensive, and 
 deep-searching views he utters and develops. His eye is remarkably 
 fine, full, gentle, benevolent, and sparkling with a restless light." 
 
 He received much kindness from the Chevalier Bunsen, 
 with whom he had many interesting conversations, of which 
 
62 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 he gave full accounts in his home-letters, the topics being 
 such as "were naturally suggested by meeting an English 
 student of divinity in Germany. He thus describes his first 
 reception : — ■ 
 
 "This evening I drove out with his cousin, who lectures on chem- 
 istry, to see Bunsen. When we arrived at the house we walked in 
 past a huge dog that lay sleeping on the steps, up a flight of stairs 
 to the lobby, past the servants, without ceremony to the drawing- 
 room, where I was introduced to the lady, and a daughter, who 
 proposed we should seek her father in the garden. We walked out 
 through pretty grounds, climbed up higher and higher, and at last 
 caught sight of Bunsen, hat on, walking with a gentleman, and some 
 distance above us. By-and-by we neared him, and he waited for us 
 at the head of a small flight of steps, where I was introduced to him. 
 He said he had heard of me, and that my friends in Berlin were the 
 last people he would wish me to come from, but nevertheless he 
 reached me his hand warmly enough, saying jokingly. ' We'll see.' 
 
 ' ' At a little arbour on the summit he paused and began to point 
 out the great beauty of the view, regretting it was not clear enough 
 to see Speyer. ' Ah ! ' he cried, ' why weren't you here half -an - 
 hour ago, when the setting sun shone on these hills? It was gottlich. 1 
 Going down the hill again to the house, he took me by the hand 
 aside and began a theological discussion at once, making his con- 
 versation brilliant and intensely interesting. 
 
 ' ■ We afterwards went into the house and enjoyed a quiet English 
 tea very much ; his wife and four daughters who joined us were very 
 pleasant and agreeable, one of them serving as tea-maker. During 
 the whole time he talked philology and of the Taeping rebellion in 
 China. After tea we adjourned to the drawing-room, where he 
 assigned us our places, and while he talked every one was expected 
 to listen. His conversation ranged over hieroglyphics, the early 
 modes of speech, the telegraph, etc. Humboldt, he says, has a re- 
 markable talent for languages, and his skill in them is very great — 
 wonderful for a man of eighty-five. He told how he had lately had 
 a long letter from him about a view he had stated in a work written 
 when he was young, which, as well as the curious experiment in con- 
 nection with it, had struck Humboldt, and been most accurately 
 remembered by him. ' He views men and things in relation to the 
 cosmos,' said Bunsen, ' but the cosmos is not wider and freer than his 
 views are.' 
 
Study and Travel in Germany. 63 
 
 '■ We began to speak of my studies. He recommended me espe- 
 cially De Wette for Xew Testament exegesis. ' Exegesis and philo- 
 sophy are the two pillars of dogmatics.' We passed on to speak of 
 Isaiah in connection with Hengstenberg's lectures. This led us on 
 to the Books of Moses, the first of which he declared was not written 
 by him, nor the last ; and as for the second and third, they were 
 probably drawn up from materials he left behind. This brought us 
 at once to Egypt and its chronology. And here for a long time he 
 continued, with the nicest exactness and without pause, to explain 
 his recent investigations and their result. 
 
 " Bunsen had always something good and apropos ready to say, and 
 seems to possess a remarkable knowledge on almost all subjects ; yet 
 where he has not obtained it, is not only willing but most anxious to 
 seek it. He has a very fine face, a glorious face, kindly, and full of 
 thought and cultivation ; snowy hair in abundance. His eyes are 
 full, prominent, and keen ; his manner genial. His daughters and 
 he usually speak English together. He rises at four and works till 
 nine. His daughters seem to know almost as much as himself. When 
 he is at a loss for the name of a man or for a date or fact, he says, 
 : Kinder ! ' and is at once gracefully supplied. 
 
 ' - We spoke of England in general. ' There is not so much a 
 want of science, ' he said, ' as of religious life. How little genuine 
 Christianity there is here, in England, in the world ! In England 
 there are formalism, empiricism, materialism. And yet there it is 
 best. So long as England has its Christian family life and its free 
 citizenship, it is safe. Why, from its constitution it learns a moral 
 discipline and dignity ; every Englishman learns it, unconsciously. 
 And how much there is in the family life of England ! It is the germ 
 of the Christian life.* We spoke of the troubles and discords now 
 prevailing in London.. 'This unrest, and the miserable immorality 
 in high places, and the materialism in low, are only a boil on a 
 healthy body. There is no fear for England, sir.' We spoke of 
 difficulties in signing creeds. I said there were three ways — literally, 
 historically, and esotericalh". He said a creed must be signed in the 
 way accordant with your own belief; you must explain it so, and 
 you must not above all things strain at gnats and affect difficulties. 
 
 •• We spoke of Maurice. I said I had heard him called an atheist. 
 ' Xo man will dare to print it,' he replied eagerly. ; Yes, 
 there are people who will talk madly both before and after dinner. 
 "Dear Maurice! don't mind them," Kingsley said at the time, and 
 I have been always saying it since. But the good man, he minds ir 
 far too much for his own peace; he cannot bear that he should be 
 
64 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 reported for a teacher of evil, and it grieves and depresses his gentle 
 spirit cruelly to be so misunderstood. ' We talked of Red Lion Court. 
 ' Ah, yes ! Julius Hare wrote to him to remind him of how Paul, 
 when put oiit of the synagogue at Corinth, cried, " Henceforth I will 
 go unto the Gentiles ; " and Maurice took the counsel earnestly to 
 heart, and founded the Red Lion University. He is an inexpressibly 
 gentle, earnest, humble, and most holy man. He is as noiseless as 
 charity, and unobtrusive to excess ; but I have no doubt he will 
 overcome in the end. He has already won a great influence over the 
 thinking young men of England. He is gentle and unassuming, and 
 so the people attack him ; but Kingsley comes with his club, and 
 they run frightened into their holes and caves. Kingsley attacks 
 them — he is aggressive.' 
 
 ' ' We talked a good deal over ' Westward Ho ! ' ' It is a splendid 
 book — magnificent,' he said. ' As to the Catholics, Kingsley only 
 shows a picture of the time, and it would have been historically un- 
 just to paint them as other than those who planned the infamous 
 Armada. He protests against their lying spirit and Jesuitry, against 
 what is foul and detestable in them, and he protests like a manly, 
 honest Christian ; but in an epilogue he explains for those of weaker 
 capacity that he does not mean to say the Catholic of to-day was not 
 so brave at Alma as the Protestant. Kingsley is right : we must 
 protest against the foolery that Puseyitism has brought in during 
 these last twenty years. " Westward Ho ! " you should by all means 
 read.' '"Hypatia,"' I said, 'seems to me the most artistic of his 
 works after the "Saint's Tragedy."' 'Yes, you are right: the 
 " Saint's Tragedy " is the most finished of his writings ; " Hypatia " is 
 very noble. Too bad that it is not yet in a second edition. It will 
 make its way, and take my word for it, thirty or forty years after 
 this it will be read as a classic. Have you read that fine article by 
 Kingsley on Raleigh in the North British Revu w ? ' 
 
 " When we were speaking of the struggle liberal opinion on theology 
 had in England — a struggle for the bare life — Bunsen said it would all 
 go right soon, and spoke of the great advance that has been made in 
 the last forty years. ' I have talked with many of your stiffest men, 
 and when they were excellent, sincere Christians, I found strong 
 opinions and narrow enough, but candour and a wish to see what was 
 good in mine. As to inspiration, they have argued it with me step 
 by step, but I hope have found in the end that those views they call 
 loose, if by no harsher name, can coincide with as warm a love for 
 Jesus Christ as their own. They say, "But if you don't believe the 
 Bible in our sense you reject much that is true." I reply, " My circle 
 
Study and Travel in Germany 
 
 of truth is wider than yours. You hold that every word of the Bible 
 is inspired ; beyond that, nothing. I may hold with you ; but I go 
 beyond the Bible, and say God has inspired much more. Which em- 
 braces the most truth, your circle or mine ? " They find that argu- 
 ment won't hold, but they can't be persuaded to give it up.' " 
 
 [To his Sister.] 
 
 " Heidelberg, June 1855. 
 
 "In R 's dangerous illness 1 can't but read a warning and 
 
 lesson for myself. What if it should come to my turn ? What then 
 could I think of that I had done to make others rejoice in the same 
 blessed Saviour ? How have I used these past precious years ? What 
 fruit has grown out of them for others, nay, even for myself ? And 
 I feel that to answer these questions better I must look to the future 
 rather than the past ; that my work has not yet begun ; that I have 
 been one of our dear Master's most unprofitable servants, and I dare 
 no longer trifle ; that there are solemn duties the sad neglect of 
 which is to be redeemed by double zeal. I have rested too much in 
 the want of office to do that which, more or less, it is the office of 
 every Christian to do. Christ has not so many preachers that He 
 can afford to let one follower of His idle. We must all be His mes- 
 sengers ; and we must be His messengers all our life long, not merely 
 from twenty-one years old or twenty-three. Would that I had felt 
 this earlier, that I had not been satisfied with the mere routine of 
 Sunday school and Bible class ! How many opportimities we thought- 
 lessly miss — the common daily speech, the casual visit, the friendly 
 intercourse, even the chance companion on the road ! With God's 
 help it must not continue so. How many little ways we can find in 
 which that most wonderful message of peace and goodwill may be 
 proclaimed ! It need not be noisily in meetings, but silently as love 
 itself ; the quiet influence of an earnest life revealing itself uncon- 
 sciously in manifold forms of Christian activity, noiseless, persistent, 
 gentle, yet full of power. This should be our aim. May we not be 
 more earnest in Sunday-school teaching, strive more to bring Christ 
 before the children, Christ the living friend, teacher, keeper, Savi- 
 our ? There is a good deal in preparing the lesson, but there is more 
 in giving it a centre in Jesus, in making Him the heart of it that 
 sends the warm life beating through it all ; making it felt that He is 
 not the awful, ineffable, mysterious Being who was once very near 
 people on this earth, and whose divinity we prove by texts cut and 
 dry out of the Catechism, so much as the infinitely tender and loving 
 Jesus Christ, who is as near and real to us, nay, more, than to the 
 
 5 
 
66 Life of William Fleming. Stevenson. 
 
 apostles — to Peter when he was sinking in the sea, to Thomas when 
 he cried, ' ]\Iy Lord and my God. ' I have confided to you my inmost 
 thoughts for you and for myself ; may they at least serve to remind 
 us that we are all labourers in Christ's vineyard, and that it is a 
 shame to be idle there.' 
 
 [To his Father.] 
 
 " Heidelberg, June 21, 1855. 
 "How noble and full of dignity and duty, how solemn in its 
 responsibility, the pastoral office is, I feel the more deeply, sometimes 
 even awfully, the nearer I approach it, and can only rest on God's 
 almighty support, and on Him who, our Lord promises, will lead us 
 into all truth, to give me the courage to enter upon it, and the ability 
 and wisdom to discharge it. I know that you also, my dear father, 
 pray earnestly for me that I may not shame the blessed Master ; 
 that, striving to follow in Christ's footsteps, I may be the means of 
 leading many others on the same holy road ; and I cannot tell you 
 what comfort I have in the consciousness that those who are dearest 
 to me, and who know and love me best, are beseeching God on my 
 behalf." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 EARLY MINISTERIAL LIFE. 
 
 Ix July 1855, Mr. Stevenson left Heidelberg and returned 
 to Ireland. Several months were then spent at home in 
 quiet study and preparation. At this time his mind was in 
 a somewhat unsettled state regarding some elements of the 
 creed in which he had been brought up, and to which he 
 clung with loyal reverence. It was by plunging into prac- 
 tical mission-work that light was to come to him upon these 
 thorny points of theology. Meanwhile he brooded over the 
 mysterious system of truth of which he Avas about to become 
 the exponent, and lost no opportunity of gathering guidance 
 from those in whom he had confidence. Especially to his 
 friend Adolph Saphir he wrote fully and freely, but these 
 letters have not been preserved. 
 
 In 1856 he received license from the Presbytery of Stra- 
 bane, and preached occasionally in vacant charges. It was 
 when preaching in Dervock, on the 22nd March 1857, that 
 he received the news of the second break in the home-circle. 
 His father was then a hale man of sixty-five. He had a 
 wonderful love of flowers, and his garden was his special 
 pride and pleasure, being considered one of the show-places 
 in the county. He had only returned from morning service, 
 and was taking his usual Sunday walk with his wife among 
 his flowers, when in a moment the call came, and he was 
 summoned from earth to be for ever with the Lord. His 
 sudden death brought ^rief to the whole neighbourhood. 
 
68 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 The sorrow extended far beyond his own circle, and could 
 only be measured by the love and reverence in which he was 
 held by rich and poor. Their sympathy was deepened by 
 the fact that at the time all the members of the family were 
 from home, and their mother had to bear the first shock of 
 desolation alone. Mr Stevenson hurried back, and wrote on 
 the 24th to the Rev. Theodore Meyer (afterwards his brother- 
 in-law) : — 
 
 "The change 'which that brief minute has brought to us! The 
 centre of the family life, one in whom we all confided all our joys and 
 sorrows, whose laugh made us all merry, whose trouble made us all 
 anxious, never more to be seen among us ! There was scarcely a 
 family, I think, so happy as ours ; none happier. And how much of 
 that happiness rested in him who is now among the saints in light we 
 shall only realize now that he is no longer here. " 
 
 The absorbing labours which were to solve for him many 
 a perplexing question in theology began in the autumn of 
 1857, when the missionary impulse that had commenced 
 to move within him impelled him to offer himself to the 
 directors of the Belfast Town Mission, for work among the 
 poor and outcast in the lanes and alleys of that busy town. 
 At that time the town missionaries were selected by a local 
 committee from among the ablest and most devoted licen- 
 tiates of the Church ; and the Brown Square district, which 
 was that assigned to Mr. Stevenson, opened up peculiar 
 opportunities to a man who was prepared to spend and be 
 spent in the service of Christ. It is a densely populated 
 locality, and in 1857 contained some of the most poverty- 
 stricken and depraved lanes in Belfast, most of which have 
 recently been cleared away. It was, however, just the place 
 for a man who had Immanuel AVichern's faith in the power 
 of the gospel ; and Mr. Stevenson entered on his work in 
 the profound conviction that the same story of Divine love 
 which had softened the hearts of the thieves and vagabonds 
 
Early Ministerial Life. 69 
 
 of Hamburg was able to subdue the outcasts of Belfast. 
 The poverty and sufferings of the people, however, were 
 found to be great hindrances to his work. He used to say 
 how forcibly their reception of his message seemed to illus- 
 trate the mental condition of the children of Israel when 
 li they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit and 
 cruel bondage." Nevertheless, with that unconquerable 
 courage which distinguished him, he went from door to door, 
 visiting every house in the district, and in each presenting 
 the gospel of Jesus Christ, in full assurance of the living, 
 quickening power of the Word of life. In those days there 
 was no agency in Belfast such as the society for nursing the 
 sick poor in their own homes, which now, with its perfect 
 organization, is introducing relief and comfort into hundreds 
 of afflicted households. Thirty years ago any labourer among 
 the poor, whether district missionary or dispensary doctor, 
 had scarcely an available resource in cases of special sickness 
 outside his own limited means. Xot infrequently Mr. Ste- 
 venson carried off his entire dinner in order to provide sus- 
 tenance for some starving family. His work in Brown Square 
 produced a profound impression on the district. The poor- 
 law physician no sooner came into contact with him than he 
 declared, " This missionary is a true man ; he cares for the 
 people's souls." A lady, whose name is still a household 
 word among the poor of the neighbourhood, entered one day 
 the house of a woman crushed by infirmity and want. " The 
 young missionary has been here," said the woman. "He 
 talked to me and prayed with me, and I think I feel the 
 pinches less." 
 
 [To Ms sister MwryJ\ 
 
 "Belfast, Xocember 1858. 
 "I am very busy, of course ; any one beginning a new life will be 
 awkward and irregular, and wasteful both of time and energy. How- 
 ever, I have not been allowed here to do even as much as I should. 
 They are very kind and considerate. There are probably about eight 
 
70 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 hundred Protestant families to be visited ; after these as many 
 Roman Catholics as will not drive the missionary out with the poker. 
 In- some Roman Catholic houses I have read and prayed, but probably 
 that could not be done in more than half-a-dozen in my district. 
 They are very fierce and wantonly irritated by injudicious treatment. 
 There are some cases of terrible distress, and as the mills go on half- 
 time from next week, the pressure of this winter will be most terrible 
 on the poor. It is very hard upon them, and upon the missionary, 
 who has little power to relieve their bodily wants. The meetings are 
 tolerably well attended, but many come out with the expectation of 
 blankets, or coals, or a stray sixpence written on their faces. The 
 Bible-class is filling up ; more importance belongs to it than to the 
 Sunday evening service, for it wins a hold over the young, and espe- 
 cially the mill-workers, who are sorely tempted in many ways. I 
 would like to have it number sixty or seventy. I visit on an average 
 about four hours a day, but gradually hope to increase the time. 
 The visiting is the key to the whole work.*' 
 
 Short as was his connection with the Belfast Town Mission, 
 it exercised a powerful influence on his after-life. The ex- 
 perience which he thus gained of human misery and sorrow, 
 and of the efficacy of the gospel to soothe and assuage it, 
 affected the direction of his whole subsequent ministry ; and 
 he always gratefully acknowledged that it was as a town 
 missionary, and under the direction of the friend of the widow 
 and orphan, the Rev. W. Johnston, D.D., that he learned his 
 first lessons in the Christian ministry. 
 
 But his labours were soon sharply interrupted. He was 
 careless then, as always, of securing for himself sufficient 
 sleep or leisure. He shrank from no exposure or fatigue. 
 The consequences were such as might have been expected. 
 Visiting in an alley where typhus fever raged, and where 
 every case had so far proved fatal, he was seized by the 
 disease and brought to the very brink of the grave. He 
 was tenderly nursed by his mother and sister, but more 
 than two months passed before he could be taken home 
 to recruit ; and even then a severe snowstorm, which 
 came on during the journey, occasioned so serious a relapse 
 
Early Ministerial Life. Ji 
 
 that he remained some months in a condition of great weak- 
 ness. 
 
 As he tossed in the delirium of the fever, the one theme 
 traceable through his broken utterances was his beloved 
 mission work in Brown Square. "Willie constantly offers 
 up the most beautiful prayers for his poor people, but quite 
 unconsciously," Miss Stevenson wrote to her sister. 
 
 As his strength gradually returned, he was able to take 
 charge of a little summer congregation at Moville, then only 
 a pleasant watering-place on the western shores of Lough 
 Foyle, but now the calling-place for several of the American 
 lines of steamers ; and before the autumn had set in he had 
 so far recovered that, at the urgent request of Dr. Morgan, 
 he accepted the post of temporary minister at Bonn during 
 the absence of the Rev. Dr. Graham, who, besides his work 
 in connection with the Jewish Mission, was the pastor of a 
 congregation of English residents. His church and house 
 had become a meeting-place for earnest Christians of various 
 countries and creeds, so that Mr. Stevenson was thrown 
 into intercourse with Christians of many nationalities and 
 beliefs, and, always catholic in his sympathies, he received 
 profit and enjoyment from all. Here again, as whenever 
 he vent abroad, his long home-letters throw a steady light 
 upon his thoughts and movements ; many of them express 
 longings to return to his poor people and his mission. 
 
 We give a few extracts : — 
 
 [To his Mother.'] 
 
 "Bonn, October 25, 1858. 
 
 "My duties will be light enough: to hold the English service, 
 attend to the Sunday school, and visit the people ; and during the 
 week to hold a class for young English ladies on Wednesday, and a 
 prayer-meeting on Thursday 
 
 "It is not merely that the congregation is composed of men of 
 better education than myself, but that they are ripe Christians, 
 among whom I stand up like a child. I have felt often that it Mas 
 they who should speak and I hear, and I hope to get more than one 
 
72 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 to share the prayer-meeting with me. As might be expected where 
 there is warmth of Christian life, there is an absence of denomina T 
 tionalism, and there is a deep religious holy tone in many hearts, 
 and continually manifesting itself. There is a real Christian sym- 
 pathy, intercourse, interchange of thought, a true Christian society, 
 
 such as it would be very rare to meet at home 
 
 " Yesterday was an entirely happy day : the service of the morn- 
 ing sustained by the sympathy and response of feeling which I knew 
 were in the congregation ; visiting some sorely - tried but patient 
 sufferers ; tea with one whose mind is in heaven and with whom 
 heavenly things are ever uppermost, and the quiet Christian converse 
 and simple worship at the house of the Countess von Limburg-Stirum ; 
 and then, on returning here, an hour or two more of interest over 
 some Bible truths. That is a real rest, and I felt so braced that I 
 could have begun the day again with a lighter and more vigorous 
 spirit at the close. " 
 
 \To the same.] 
 
 "Bonn, November 29, 1858. 
 
 " The work here continues to prove a great blessing to myself, and 
 God has vouchsafed me many tokens of its blessings to others. Many, 
 indeed, have begged that I would remain, and forget Ireland. And 
 Dr. Graham is very anxious for that also. But it is impossible for me 
 to entertain the idea for a moment. I feel that I must soon go back 
 to Belfast, and probably remain there. It was where I was happiest 
 and felt most that I was doing God's service, and where my mind and 
 hope have continually turned me since I left it 
 
 " Surely when we follow God's plan it is best. There is very much 
 missed often in the Christian life by looking too much to our feet in- 
 stead of to Jesus our light. If we keep only watching over ourselves, 
 we shall have no time for anything but mourning over ourselves ; and 
 that is weary work, and makes us stumble. How much there is to 
 be learned from the way in which the apostle (Heb. xii. ) joins the 
 riddance of our besetting sins with the looking unto Jesus ! It is 
 perplexing how little, though risen with Christ, we dwell with Christ, 
 for this means daily, hourly looking to Him ; it shows us how feebly 
 we know Him when the world can so draw off our thoughts. 
 
 "At the prayer-meeting I have already taken up Abraham and 
 Communion with God ; Jacob and Wrestling with God ; for next dav- 
 it is Moses and Intercourse with God — all in Old Testament prayers. 
 you see ; and on the 9th I think I will read the ' News of the 
 Churches.'" 
 
Early Ministerial Life. 73 
 
 [To the same.] 
 
 " Bonn, January 17, 1850. 
 
 "As there are so many Indians here, I am trying to establish a 
 united prayer and mission meeting for India. Help is given me by 
 many. One is preparing a large map, another personal recollections, 
 and another will give accounts of such missionary operations as have 
 come under his own knowledge 
 
 "Unions for prayer are the very centre-point of Christian com- 
 munion, energy, and action here. On Sunday I have now two ; they 
 have existed, indeed, for the last two months. On Tuesday next, in 
 the afternoon we begin another. Thursday evening is our regular 
 meeting, and on Monday we hope to have the prayer-meeting for 
 India I have had so long at heart. Thus there is a true vitality and 
 fellowship with one another because it is with the Father and the 
 Son. To gain this blessed experience I would gladly have made any 
 sacrifice — this deeper knowledge of the life that is in Christ Jesus, 
 this higher faith and power and clearer sight of the things that are 
 eternal." 
 
 [To his brother James.] 
 
 " April U, 1859. 
 " Last Monday I took my first holiday : went up the Rhine with a 
 cloudless sky overhead as far as St. Goar ; spent the evening, and 
 especially the sunset, gazing from the ruined windows and ramparts 
 of the great Rheinstein ; went on early the next morning to Lorch, 
 and taking the down-boat there, arrived in Bonn for our Bible-reading 
 on Tuesday afternoon. As Monday is the solitary free day of the 
 week, I have taken advantage of it to visit Kaiserswerth again. It 
 is about six miles nearer than Diisseldorf, washed by the Rhine, but 
 very unromantic— as noticeable, however, for the rarity of its Chris- 
 tian charity as it is wanting in natural beauty. Twenty -five years 
 ago the pastor received a poor fellow out of prison, turned his garden- 
 house into the first reformatory, and in faith and prayer has gone on 
 ever since till now. His institution numbers more than 400 people, 
 and has become the parent of others in Germany, Egypt, Palestine, 
 Syria, and Turkey. His objects are manifold, and embrace the care 
 and cure of the sick, the treatment of the insane, the support of 
 orphans, the restoration of fallen women, the reformation of criminals, 
 the education of servants for Christian households and governesses 
 for Christian families, and through all this the training of deaconesses 
 and supply of them to the Church wherever they are needed. Miss 
 Nightingale was trained here in 1850-51, and the place is now famous 
 
74 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 in the Christian world. Dr. Fliedner is ill, probably dying, of con- 
 sumption : his son-in-law takes his place, and will probably be his 
 
 A lady who had much intercourse with him during the 
 
 winter he spent in Bonn thus refers to the impression made 
 
 upon her by the young- minister : — 
 
 " Looking through my journal of that time,"' she says. " 1 was dis- 
 appointed to find my records so meagre and inadequate, in comparison 
 with the impression that my intercourse with Mr. Stevenson had left 
 on my mind. I know that he opened to me long vistas of thought, 
 and greatly modified and enlarged my ideas on many subjects, while 
 I find that I have recorded chiefly the expressions of opinion which 
 seemed most strange and startling to me. One of the things that 
 impressed me most was his interest in the working of other minds, 
 his power of understanding the thoughts and feelings of others ; and 
 he probably expressed himself strangely sometimes for the sake of 
 argument, or at least put forward some of his ideas in rather an 
 exaggerated form to draw out the opinions of others. His knowledge 
 of books appeared to me wonderful, and I have always felt very 
 grateful to him for making known to me many of the books that I 
 have most valued and delighted in ever since. In lending me books, 
 lie sometimes sent interesting notes and criticisms with them. I find 
 that my records show very little of his helpfulness and readiness to 
 be useful in every way to those with whom he came in contact at 
 Bonn, both English and German. However different we might be, 
 and incapable of sympathizing with one another, each of us found in 
 him a friend who could understand and sympathize. My Bonn 
 entries close with the following sentence : ' I could hardly find words 
 to bid farewell to the friend whose kindness had so often cheered me. 
 May the help and sympathy he is ever ready to give return to him 
 abundantly in every time of nee 
 
 Some extracts from letter^ written to one of his Bonn 
 congregation after he had left may fitly be given here ; they 
 show something of his way of dealing with anxious souls. 
 He always made the dirhculties of each case his own. They 
 lay on his heart, lie thought over them, prayed about them 
 as if he had no other care, and never ceased till God £ave 
 
Early Ministerial Life. 75 
 
 him the joy of seeing the cloud- lifted, driven away by 
 
 sunshine of His presence and peace. 
 
 •• You are still in a deep, if not deeper anxiety than when we talked 
 in the long winter evenings at Bonn. You still believe that you are 
 far from God, far from real peace, far from a new and living heart. ■ 
 You still mourn over unanswered prayer and hope deferred that has 
 made your heart sick. You remember once telling me you feared 
 anxiety would pass away and carelessness set in. How little that 
 corresponds to what you feel ! And I think you see now that your 
 very fear was a proof that the anxiety was not passing away ; it was 
 only a new and more terrible form of it. God be praised that we are 
 kept anxious till we rest in peace ! And the only question, thus 
 early, is, How far is this anxiety true and well-grounded ? We have 
 spoken of that previous time when you felt joy and a new world 
 about you. Xow it is possible that we can deceive ourselves in this, 
 that our own feelings, kindled to an unusual int i taken 
 
 for the abiding presence of God's Holy Spirit. It is quit 
 also that, while the work in our heart is genuine, a mysterious dark- 
 ness may afterwards wrap the glorious thoughts and light in which 
 we exulted, and we may mourn as if forsaken. How is one to fa 
 Best of all by not seeking to know, by going now to our Lord Jesus, 
 who is saying, ' If any man thirst, let him come unto Ale : ' by t 
 His word now, and by asking, not for a state of feeling that is past, 
 or a state of feeling like it, but for His Spirit. It is not our feeling 
 we are concerned with so much as His gift 
 
 "Remember how little the Bible tells us of feeling, how it confines 
 itself to certain objective realities. These will have their correspond- 
 ing subjective states of mind and affection. Only we must seek the 
 former, and the latter will follow. Our feelings are very much a 
 kind of circumstantial evidence, but all we absolutely need is the 
 direct proof given by the Holy Ghost that what God has said is time 
 for us. Till we have that we must never stop, though we pass from 
 agony to agony. Above all, do not grow weary, nor think that God 
 has closed His ears to your prayer. What you seek, a whole lifetime 
 of disappointed waiting would cheaply purchase 
 
 ' ' It seems that there are natures less susceptible of the feeling of 
 sin than others, that by their whole organization they are led : 
 at sin through a different eye from the rest. Such minds will always 
 have difficulty and pain in attempting to reconcile their experience 
 with that of ordinary religious people ; and much more they v 
 perplexed to reconcile it with many passages of the Scriptures, and 
 
7 6 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 what seem to be contradictions of it occasionally rising out of their 
 own minds. They will often feel a sense of want, and many spiritual 
 things will lack reality to them. 
 
 " The Spirit shows every one his sin as He pleases, and as one is 
 able to see it. Every one must see it with his own eye ; and every 
 one who sees it must go to Christ as the only Deliverer. I may not 
 realize sin as St. Paul did, but then just so far as I do realize it must 
 I hasten to the cross of Christ. Any one may be sure from one day's 
 trial that there is more sin behind than has ever been discovered ; yet 
 one is not to await that discovery, nor to mourn because it has not 
 been made, but rather to flee to God with whatever one has found, 
 
 not only to have it pardoned, but removed Do not mind, then, 
 
 what other people, and above all the religious world, say they experi- 
 ence — do not unduly sorrow because sin is less to you than it seems 
 to be to them ; but let the sin as it is be brought to Christ, and the 
 heart purged from the stain. If you steadfastly do that, and so 
 come regularly into God's holiness and Christ's love, the shadow of 
 both will fall upon you." 
 
 [To his Brother.'] 
 
 "Box.w April 1859. 
 
 " It will not be with unmixed joy that I shall turn my face En- 
 glandwards, for Bonn has become associated with blessings that are 
 for life, and friends with whom I have had closer and happier inti- 
 macy, more fraught with the blessing of God's grace, than I dare look 
 for again. But I feel only joy when I think of seeing you all again, 
 and of resuming the work of God among the poor to whom I can 
 speak in my own tongue. Here one is sorely baffled by ignorance of 
 the language, so that frequently what is most needful to be said falls 
 meaningless from the lips. 
 
 "Thank you for sending the funeral sermons. One wonders what 
 words will be left for use when the highest princes in Israel fall. 
 If Elijah receives no eulogy but Elisha's, and if Christ says to those 
 who have most nobly overcome no more than ' Well done, thou good 
 and faithful servant,' the ringing of our human praises must jar 
 strangely in heaven, where faults and sins that have escaped us are 
 seen like a shadow of night across the day." 
 
 [To his Mother.] 
 
 "Bonn. April .'*. 1SJ9. 
 
 " Some good also I have been enabled to do to the glory of 
 
 God : there are some who have been comforted and confirmed : some 
 
Early Ministerial Life. J J 
 
 whose faith has been quickened ; some who have come confessedly 
 as open unbelievers, and have thanked me for the words that were 
 spoken ; some the needs of whose hearts were touched and their 
 darkness removed by thoughts that seemed to have been framed 
 especially for them. I waited upon God for His teaching, and His 
 Spirit gave the words and carried their message. But any review of 
 the past is mixed with regrets so deep that one looks on it more with 
 Borrow than with joy, and turns more eagerly to 'forget the things 
 that are behind, and to press on to those that are before.' Our life 
 should rather be day by day with Christ in the present than either 
 the past or the future. This will keep us in a steadier joy, and more 
 in the way of doing God's will. And joy is wherein we fail. We 
 are more ready to be overcast with clouds and to mourn over our 
 hearts than to walk in the light and fight cheerfully against sin. We 
 should be more calm, happy, peaceful, bright than any ; and that I 
 am convinced we shall not be so long as we do not spend every 
 moment looking unto Jesus, reflecting back His image, content to 
 see our wrong in the mirror of His truth and love, always rejoicing, 
 and yet always bearing about in us the dying of the Lord Jesus ; for 
 if we die daily we shall rejoice daily in Him who is the Resurrection 
 and the Life." 
 
 In such congenial work and society the winter months 
 passed quickly by, and Dr. Graham's two months of absence 
 became extended to six. It was not till the end of April 
 that Mr. Stevenson finally left Bonn, going to Amsterdam 
 by way of Elberfeld and Barmen, where he visited the 
 " Missions Haus," anxious to learn all he could of its man- 
 agement from Herr von Rothe, the inspector. Among his 
 warmest friends in Bonn were several families of the old 
 Dutch nobility, to whose relatives in Holland he carried 
 introductions. Everywhere he was received with the greatest 
 kindness and hospitality, passing from one country seat to 
 another, and enjoying the new life to the full, the music, 
 the private picture-galleries, meeting poets, statesmen, 
 and courtiers, and feeling wherever he went the bond of 
 union was the same — the common love and service of the 
 Master. 
 
7 8 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 [To his Mother.] 
 
 "Amsterdam, May r, 1859. 
 
 ' ' If you hear me describe Amsterdam in the cheerfnlest, friendliest, 
 most laudatory words, you will not think it strange : first, when you 
 know that the sun has been shining down on the tall gabled houses 
 and brown canals through the bluest of blue skies ; second, that I 
 have friends who are very kind, and place their kindness entirely at 
 my disposal ; third, because everybody is clean, and almost everybody 
 good-looking — a tall, well-made race of people, with nothing foreign 
 about them except their speech and a little of the peasant women's 
 headgear ; and fourth, that the only acquaintances I have are earnest 
 Christian people, whose pleasure and life lie in Christian activity and 
 Christian fellowship 
 
 ' ' I dined yesterday with the Von "W 's, who had invited 
 
 some friends to a lecture in the evening. I chose from the seventh to 
 the seventeenth verse of the third chapter of Philippians, and dwelt 
 chiefly on the unity of Christian walk through all the diversity of 
 Christian opinion, showing that it depended on the being ' thus 
 minded,' and then unfolding all that the apostle included in that 
 mind. At the close we had animated discussion, and entered fully 
 into the subject, many pressing me very much afterwards to go to 
 their houses. Thus God is opening many ways in Holland of speak- 
 ing for Him. I only feel ashamed that it is in English, for these 
 Dutch families speak German, English, and French with the same 
 facility as their own language. Before separating we sang together 
 hymns in English and French, and commended one another to the 
 grace of God." 
 
 The condition at that time of the Church in Holland fur- 
 nished some perplexing problems. 
 
 [To his Mother.] 
 
 "Amsterdam, May 1859. 
 "This morning I spent two hours with Dr. Hasebrock, one of the 
 most genial of men, full of heartiness, pleasantry, kindness, and 
 knowledge. He has a sound heart and a wide mind, enters with 
 interest into every side of human life and thought, and has a frank- 
 ness about him that wins a stranger at once. His picture of the 
 Dutch Church was quite as gloomy as that given me by everybody 
 else, though he sees also hope in the future. It has been the custom 
 since the Reformation for the elders and deacons to elect the minister ; 
 
Early Ministerial Life. 79 
 
 but then it has also been the custom for the elders to elect the deacons 
 and each other, so that the people have actually nothing to say in the 
 matter ; and now, when in many places they are quickened, they 
 cannot make their life tell directly upon the Church 
 
 "All the Reformed Protestants in Amsterdam form one parish 
 with a population of about 160,000, with twelve churches, and per- 
 haps twice as many clergy. No clergyman preaches in the same 
 church two Sundays in succession. Round they go like the sun 
 through the zodiac, and their adherents follow them. The conse- 
 quence is, there is no parochial interest, no attachment to a church, 
 and no congregational unity. There is some link — at least it lasts 
 through Sunday — between a favourite preacher and his hearers, but 
 none between pastor and people. Each clergyman, however, has a 
 district assigned to him, in which he is to visit ; but probably the 
 greater number of those he sees may hear him preach only once a 
 quarter, or even once a year, while many may change their residences 
 to another quarter of the town where he cannot follow them 
 
 "It is, as you know, of our kith and kin, a Reformed Calvinistic 
 Presbyterian Church, but dead, unless preachers who deny the re- 
 surrection of Christ can be called living. Many of the people are 
 alive, however, and on the whole far before their clergy ; and if a 
 faithful and believing clergyman preaches, crowds go to hear him. 
 Mr. Schwartz speaks Dutch well, and the consequence is that his 
 church, which holds eighteen hundred people, is crowded to the doors. 
 The congregation is mostly of the artisan class. Of course that is a 
 very wide field, and one that it is needful to occupy. And so with. 
 his paper, which, having started in small compass, and with smaller 
 circulation for the Jews, no sooner took in the Christians than it 
 swelled up to a portly sheet, and more than trebled its subscribers, 
 thus, no doubt, exerting a most healthful influence on the future of 
 the Church here. But by this excessive prominence of what is Chris- 
 tian, I always dread the swamping of the Jewish element. It is 
 certainly a bond fide Jewish Mission field, for there are 30,000 of as 
 bigoted an Israelitish population as could be found in the whole 
 world 
 
 " I went to hear Da Costa lecture at the seminary, and was intro- 
 duced by him to his students. Perhaps you do not know that he is 
 the first living Dutch poet, that his wild and fiery but uncertain elo- 
 quence is renowned, and that as a commentator he is attracting now 
 some notice among learned men in Germany. He has a queer way of 
 slipping out quaint humorous sayings as if they scarcely belonged to 
 him, and he wondered how they were born into the world. His 
 
8o Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 reputation as a poet and wit attracts many to his Friday evening 
 lectures through the winter who would not set foot within a church." 
 
 Mr. Stevenson's cherished ideal of Christian deaconesses 
 banding themselves together to nurse the sick and tend the 
 dying has now come to be an acknowledged necessity of 
 Christian philanthropy. Thirty years ago it was thought a 
 visionary enthusiasm. His first conception of what might 
 be done dated from his visit to the Rauhe Haus in Hamburg, 
 but was greatly enlarged and quickened by all that he saw at 
 Kaiserswerth. In Holland he visited and minutely noted the 
 details of any similar institution with increasing interest, 
 and a growing sense of the need that there was for such 
 work at home. After one of these visits he writes to his 
 mother : — 
 
 " Amsterdam, May 18">9. 
 ' ; This morning we drove to the hospital for deaconesses. It is 
 somewhat on the principle of Kaiserswerth, but on a much smaller and 
 more luxurious scale, and there is much less soiling of one's fingers in 
 it. The building is large and handsome, the rooms airy, comfortable, 
 and well furnished, the lobbies all softly carpeted, the windows 
 even in the passage nicely curtained. There are twenty -two sisters 
 at present on the foundation. There were twelve patients, and there 
 is room for fifteen. The sick pay for everything — medical attendance 
 included — five, two and a half, and in the lowest class one and one- 
 fifth guilders per day. Of course this scale of prices keeps out the 
 poor and makes the hospital, so to say, select ; and then the small 
 number taken in is just sufficient to afford practical training to the 
 nurses. Most of them are of the small farmer class, but there is also 
 a sprinkling of gentlewomen. Three sisters were in the house attend- 
 ing the patients, one was sick, and the rest were out nursing. They 
 are available for every part of Holland, and sometimes go to Germany, 
 but cannot stay longer with a patient than eight weeks, unless by 
 special permission. As it was Tuesday, and there was Divine service 
 in the afternoon, as many of the nurses as were in Amsterdam dined 
 at the house, and this weekly union keeps them linked together." 
 
 From Amsterdam he went to Utrecht, 
 
Early Ministerial Life. 8 1 
 
 [To his Mother.] 
 
 " Utrecht, May 1859. 
 " One of my first visits here was to the deaconesses' establishment. 
 It is larger than that of Amsterdam, but not nearly so luxurious. 
 There is more an air of business about it. There are places for forty 
 sick, and they do not pay so much as at Amsterdam. The total num- 
 ber of sisters and probationers is thirty-five, most of them out nurs- 
 ing. They are very particular about admission to the work, and, 
 unless there is good evidence of Christian life, refuse it, avoiding 
 those who offer from motives of mere benevolence or self -mortification. 
 The poorer class lie many in one room, but the rooms are airy enough. 
 There is a separate kitchen upstairs for preparation of particular 
 niceties ordered for the patients. Texts are written on blackboards 
 hung in every room, rubbed out often and changed. In the chapel 
 some of the sisters were assembled, and I was asked to read and pray 
 with them. They were to lay the foundation in the afternoon of a 
 large additional building for children alone, the means for which have 
 been entirely furnished by one of the sisters, an interesting lady of 
 not more than thirty, of noble birth and ample fortune, and who 
 came in dressed simply in checked linen like the rest. I prayed also 
 for blessing of spiritual healing in this building when completed, and 
 as we left was seized by the hand by the deaconesses in turn and 
 thanked. This shaking hands between gentlemen and ladies is a wel- 
 come given to foreign Christians, for here even rather near acquaint- 
 ances would not venture upon it." 
 
 A few extracts from his journal must close the record of 
 his visit to Holland : — 
 
 "Dined with Beets, who is, next to Da Costa, the best living poet 
 of Holland ; as a translator, particularly of Byron's ' Hebrew Melo- 
 dies,' superior to Longfellow. He is also the writer of the purest 
 Dutch, the preacher of the best Dutch sermons, and as a Christian 
 leader in the strife his form is always watched, his word waited for. 
 His poems are mostly of the affections, and remind one of Words- 
 worth, who has not been without influence upon him. He has trans- 
 lated from him also, and among other things the well-known ' We are 
 Seven ; ' but, as he lamented to me, he had to increase the number to 
 eight, to preserve the metre. In former days also he wrote some 
 witty and piquant sketches of Dutch life. And now his real work is 
 preaching, first by word of mouth, and then through the press. He 
 
 6 
 
82 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 is one of the few faithful, fervent men of God in the Dutch 
 Church 
 
 " Visiting a large school called the Diaconie, I was much interested 
 to find among its arrangements a workshop where those who think 
 of becoming missionaries are taught for two hours daily all kinds of 
 carpentry, etc., so as to he able to build houses for themselves if need 
 be when they go abroad 
 
 "I was present to-day at the defence of a doctors degree, one of 
 those Middle Age customs still in vogue here. On the appointed day 
 the student, having hired a band of music and placed it in the orches- 
 tra of the examination hall, and having attired himself in full dress, 
 laced white cravat, knee-breeches, buckled shoes, and a sword, and 
 having two friends or supporters, also in full dress, appears before as 
 many professors and students as choose to assemble. His thesis 
 having been previously printed and circulated, he stands prepared to 
 defend it against all opposition, for any one in these public defences 
 (they can also be made privately before professors alone) may stand 
 iip and offer opposition. The professors usually muster strong, since 
 the student pays each one who is present five guilders, while each one 
 absent must himself pay a fine. The beadle, in mighty cocked hat, 
 mace, and broad cloak, saluted us as we went in. The hall was nearly 
 empty — a few lady friends of the student in the gallery, a few student 
 friends scattered over the benches. The professors were ranged round 
 the upper end. They wear high square velvet caps, but all save 
 one were uncovered. Three bore down upon the poor man, who 
 took it wonderfully, and, being scarce allowed time to speak, seemed 
 not ill-pleased. It was all in Dutch : for theology it is in Latin ; but 
 this was an LL.D. At two a beadle came in with all a beadle's 
 pomp, and assumed the air which belongs to. him of the oldest and 
 most knowing man present (there are three beadles, whose united ages 
 are far over two hundred), and advancing to the front of the pro- 
 fessors' bench, shook his silver mace cunningly, so that all the little 
 scales above the top rattled. The signal was soon taken, and he 
 began to march slowly away, but not until the student had read a 
 brief address of acknowledgment to the faculty, this time in Latin. 
 So soon as the old beadle turned the band struck up a triumphal 
 march, the professors moved over to deliberate which of the three 
 classes of the degree to confer, and the students sprang over the 
 railings to grasp the hand of the martyred doctor. In the evening the 
 ceremonies are concluded by his giving a great supper, where even 
 the professors honour his tabic. Altogether the expenses cannot be 
 less than £100 
 
Early Ministerial Life. 83 
 
 "The simplicity, earnestness, and interest which they show in 
 every work of God's Spirit are very genial recollections of the Dutch 
 I have met. One must remember, however, that they are excep- 
 tional among the nobilhy, and also that such people are somewhat 
 confined to Utrecht. It is the residence of many old families, and 
 among them there is a good deal of pietj- ; yet the prevalent tone is 
 strongly worldly, and on some sides their piety is tinged with aristo- 
 cratic feeling, and they shrink from contact and sympathy with the 
 popular element." 
 
 [To his Mother.'] 
 
 " The Hague, May 26, 1859. 
 " I came here on Saturday, and the kindness of other places has 
 even been surpassed. Mr. von Hogendorf and the Countess take me 
 about everywhere, and already I have come in contact with many of 
 the most notable among the aristocracy and statesmen of Holland. 
 Tuesday evening Dr. Capadose, with whom I dined, invited a large 
 party. Most of the gentlemen wore orders. I anticipated an inter- 
 esting exposition from Capadose, but to my dismay found that they 
 had been invited to meet me, and that I was to speak to them. God 
 gave me courage to speak very plainly, and many came up after- 
 wards and caught my hand and thanked me. I preach in Amsterdam 
 on Sunday, and then have to return here to stay with the Von 
 Hogendorfs some days before I leave for Rotterdam and London." 
 
 Early in July Mr. Stevenson reached home again, realiz- 
 ing with heartfelt gratitude how much his health had been 
 re-established by the change. He had spent a day at Bristol 
 with George Miiller, and marvelled at the wonderful work 
 he was doing, and the faith God gave him. He was the 
 bearer of a letter to him from the Baron Boetzellar, but un- 
 conscious of its contents. On opening it, Mr. Miiller found 
 a thousand guilders (about £80), which came as a direct 
 answer to prayer in a time of special need. Then followed 
 a fortnight at South Shields with the Saphirs, where he 
 writes : — 
 
 ' ' I am resting in a delicious quiet, while our talk flows on from 
 day to day, and we measure over many a question how much we have 
 gained, and preach Christ together through the congregation." 
 
84 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 [To his Sister .] 
 
 " Stkabane, July 29, 1S59. 
 ' ' I arrived here on Wednesday three weeks ago ; preached the 
 same evening, and every evening or day since, sometimes three times, 
 and often in the open air. You see what a new man I have come 
 back. We are in the midst of the revival movement, and these are 
 glorious times on which we have fallen. Immense good has been 
 done, but not according to the newspapers, which are inflated reports 
 of nonsense, and worse. Much evil is being done also — tares and 
 wheat must grow up together. The excitement is cooling down, but 
 the real work is advancing. There is need for great caution and 
 fervent prayer. Men have been converted whom I should have 
 thought it hopeless to attack (I speak of what I know), and the seri- 
 ousness, the Bible-reading, the inquiry, the attendance at public 
 meetings, are extraordinary.*' 
 
 In the previous autumn the devoted minister of a small 
 mission -church in Alfred Place, Belfast — the Rev. David 
 M'Kee — had been most anxious to secure Mr. Stevenson's 
 services as assistant, his own health having broken down, so 
 much so that the post was kept vacant for him during his 
 absence in Germany. Early in August he entered on his 
 duties with fresh vigour, and great thankfulness to find 
 himself once more in his element, at work among the poor. 
 His unstinted labours, the power of making services attract- 
 ive, which he had manifested so conspicuously in Brown 
 Square, and his fervent preaching of Christ, soon filled the 
 unpretending little church to overflowing ; while mingled 
 among its humble worshippers were to be found some of the 
 most cultured people in Belfast, who discovered in his preach- 
 ing a spiritual insight and breadth rarely to be met with. 
 
 He felt very happy during this period in Belfast, and 
 could look back and see how much he had gained spiritually 
 since he had begun his mission work in Brown Square. 
 The time had come of which he had written to his sister 
 two years before, in the weary restlessness of long-delayed 
 convalescence. 
 
Early Ministerial Life. 85 
 
 ' ' In about a year Dr. Browne thinks I shall be well and strong 
 again. As for any settlement, it is less likely than ever ; and as this 
 is God's way, it is for good. ' Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and 
 He shall sustain thee.' If He saw fit to employ me, if there was no 
 need that I should pass through other discipline and training, I know 
 I should have a fixed charge. But if I look at myself and my abili- 
 ties for it (no one dare think of fitness), I see quite sufficient reason 
 for the delay. When God's grace has wrought some mighty changes 
 in my heart ; when my life is really hid with Christ in God, and not 
 covered with daily vileness in His sight ; when I am more content to 
 be taught by His wisdom, and to glory only in the cross of Christ, it 
 will be time enough to winder why I am, as it were, hindered. 
 When I think that I must deny myself, I feel that I am secretly most 
 ambitious and striving to please the flesh. But God is my helper, 
 and though it be through much tribulation and bitterness, yet I know 
 He will give me the victory." 
 
 How abundantly that confidence was fulfilled those who 
 know what his after-life was do not need to be told. It was 
 always a refreshment to him to revisit the scene of his early 
 labours. In July 1863 he wrote : — 
 
 "I had two interesting meetings in Belfast, one at Springfield, 
 where I had not spoken since the Sunday that the fever struck me 
 down five years ago. After service a young lad came up and said, 
 all trembling with excitement, that he wished to beg my pardon for 
 the way he had spoken to me on that Sunday. It had lain upon him 
 and been very heavy ever since, and he wondered would God ever 
 send me back that he might confess it, and tell me that now he had 
 given his heart to Christ. I took also the prayer-meeting in the old 
 church at Alfred Place. What warm grasps of the hand as they all 
 came up when the service was over ! Actually there were old men, 
 hard-featured, hard-handed masons, shoemakers, weavers, with tears 
 rolling down their cheeks, praying God's blessing upon me, till the 
 tears came in mist across my own eyes. I never was happier than 
 among those poor people ; and they stick by me with the most 
 unwavering affection. I often wish that I were with the poor again. " 
 
 A few extracts from letters to his future wife, though of a 
 later date, may be inserted here : — 
 
&6 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 " Those charming mornings, those careless musical hours, those 
 fresh walks, and the merry combats with the children over the poets, 
 are already a dream before this pressing, toiling, matter-of-fact round 
 of homely duties — a dream so airy and delicate that it seems ready 
 to fall to pieces before a steady look. Yet life without duty would 
 be worse than duty without dreams, and duty will always be homely, — 
 
 ' The trivial round, the common task, 
 Will furnish all we ought to ask.' 
 
 Nor can these be either trivial or common, since Christ has once 
 done duty in them, and thus made the simplest act of life more glori- 
 ous to the Christian than the highest heroism without Christ. How 
 it must nerve one against pain that Christ also suffered ! If we were 
 but living Christ in the humblest and pettiest of earthly services, 
 like Him in some ordinary unnoticeable thing, we should have an 
 inward joy and power that would let no work be hard or grinding, 
 but would always impel us to fresh efforts 
 
 ' ' We need to live closely to God in little and indifferent things, 
 not only because they make up so much of life, but because they 
 make living to God so much more easy and consistent. The life that 
 is hid with Christ in God is very sacred ; and when we lower that 
 sacredness in little things and act for ourselves, we can draw little 
 comfort out of that life in higher moments — we are left in doubt, and 
 sometimes in dread. We cannot deviate harmlessly from the strict- 
 ness of Christ. Sheep that wander ever so little suffer before they 
 are brought back. But then the strictness of Christ is very different 
 from what the narrow-mindedness of some good people would make 
 it. Christ will go with us in whatever belongs to the duties and real 
 pleasures of life — in study, intercourse, direction and satisfying of 
 our taste, love of art, enjoyment of nature, all that properly belongs 
 to life ; for there is a great deal that men think belongs to it, and 
 that only belongs to the sin of it, to life as it has been spoiled and 
 changed. But Christ will go with us freely, unless we refuse to take 
 Him ; and His Spirit will point out the besetting sins and defend us 
 from temptation. And we have not reached a healthy and really 
 satisfactory way of life unless we can look frankly up to Him and 
 feel the purity of our enjoyment, and the knowledge that nothing 
 we have done has separated us from Him, made lis ashamed before 
 Him 
 
 "It is the most curious thing how associations grow over places, 
 like the layer over layer of our rocks, and how little wc can spare 
 the earlier while we may remain half unconscious of them. I would 
 
Early Ministerial Life. 87 
 
 not miss the old merry days here, and what they brought with them ; 
 they have faded off into the rest of life, yet I am sure the later days 
 would never have been what they are without them. It is the upper 
 strata that bear the harvest, but I suppose the lower have something 
 to do with it. I came down from Dublin yesterday, to my mother's 
 satisfaction. She had begun to think I was a myth. Most of the 
 Portrush world is as unknown as London ; but there are the old 
 waves with their familiar cadences, and the old rocks with their 
 familiar faces, and the glorious free spaces of sea and sky, the most 
 solemn and wonderful sight on which the eye can rest. And after 
 the city one is filled with a peace that is like the peace of God. 
 People here would laugh at this ; they believe that the chief end of 
 the sea is a bathing-machine, that the twilight was created for pro- 
 menading, and the Giants' Causeway for picnics ! 
 
 " I met a clever young girl last night. Poor thing, she is lame and 
 on crutches, and unreconciled to her misfortune. I tried her with 
 the supreme will of God, and then with His love in Christ, who took 
 all these visitations upon Himself. She fought stubbornly, with a 
 savage earnestness, for her right to grumble; but when leaving she 
 thanked me for my words, so they may have done her real good. 
 But I wonder how I would have felt in her place, cut off from so 
 much of life and all its prospects, and I blessed God humbly that He 
 had not tried me. Do you ever feel as if it was a piece of hypocrisy 
 to reason with suffering people while you are not a sufferer ? I never 
 get comfortably about one of these sad hearts unless I can say, ' I 
 was almost as bad. ' 
 
 " If I were a Dissenter I feel I would be proud of it, or else cease 
 to dissent. But I have so much respect for the unity of the Church 
 and its visible grandeur, and so much dislike to severance from the 
 past, that I am glad not to be a Dissenter, but to belong to an older 
 stock of the Christian body than the Anglican. The Church of 
 England has material to work on very different from ours, more men. 
 of social standing and familiar with the world, the best intellects and 
 scholars. But we can keep abreast of it in piety and intellectual power, 
 and superior to it, I believe, in the excellence of our system. Our 
 defects in church service are traceable to the dominance of intellect 
 over feeling. The very language of the English Prayer-book, the 
 purity and simplicity of thought, are themselves educating and re- 
 fining those who use it. I like silent prayer on entering the church, 
 silent prayer on leaving it ; the prayer of the service to be liturgical 
 in form, though neither read nor stcreotjqicd ; the people to kneel 
 and respond with a hearty Amen ; the Psalms to be chanted in prose 
 
88 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 to plain and slow chants ; the Apostles' Creed and Lord's Prayer to 
 be repeated each Sunday ; the Te Deum to be sung ; church music to 
 be purged of all Christy-minstrel airs and accompanied by the organ ; 
 the Communion to be at least once a month; young communicants to 
 be solemnly and joyfully received by the Church ; the real members 
 of the Church to have frequent opportunities of helping and strength- 
 ening one another, and meeting hi groups for that purpose ; deacon- 
 esses for nursing the sick and attending the poor ; and bright funeral 
 hymns. Dislike of some of our customs had almost driven me from 
 our Church. Saphir gave me up as hopelessly a dean or a minor 
 canon in a cathedral town ! I am thankful and happy to be where I 
 am, to escape the shame of having left a noble and historic Church, 
 with the freest and most workable constitution in Christendom, 
 merely from wounded sensitiveness. 
 
 " A liturgy would be a blessed thing when the minister cannot or 
 will not pray; just as the want of free prayer is an awful thing 
 when the minister can. The tendency of prayer is to be liturgical, 
 and the prayer of the Church of England is at the head of all litur- 
 gies. But all the freedom and inspiration of the Christian life revolt 
 against an absolute form. It is a theoretical denial of the continued 
 presence and teaching of the Holy Spirit. Our own form demands 
 personal holiness of the minister ; the effect of the service depends on 
 that. In theory it is very fine — it is sublime. We ought to demand 
 that holiness in the strictest way. We feel it is the power of the 
 Holy Spirit that has overcome and possessed the speaker, and that 
 unconstrained power thrills suddenly and immediately through a 
 congregation. It goes deeper than the most solemn form, beyond the 
 dim mysteries of feeling, till 'it enters the very soul. I have a great 
 love for our worship, for its purity and unfettered simplicity ; a great 
 thankfulness that I was born a Presbyterian and can enjoy it 
 
 " Your account of B 's end is that of so many — slept peacefully 
 
 away. The consciousness of the Hearer of prayer is a great reality 
 and comfort in such instances ; but greater far, and the only comfort 
 that is not perplexed with doubt, is that of a life for Christ. We 
 can have no peace like that on a deathbed. The sudden flash of 
 spiritual intelligence that occasionally lights up the last moments, by 
 its suddenness induces doubt of its power. But those who walk close 
 to Christ in their life may on their deathbed make no sign. They 
 may sleep away, dream off in morphine, or die suddenly or alone; 
 and yet there remains the undisturbed and blessed faith that God 
 
 has withdrawn them to Himself I have a superstition that the 
 
 family link in Christ is never broken — that the dead are conscious of 
 
Early Ministerial Life. 89 
 
 it — that we are still and always seven. My father is never distant ; 
 he is as living to me as he was. At times the very room seems 
 
 charged with him 
 
 ' : Xo matter how softly death comes into a house, and above all 
 into a home, it is death still, and a great sorrow that wakens a 
 hundred slumbering sorrows. It starts all one's craving for sympathy 
 and whatever is solemn in one's own heart. For the little child itself 
 one cannot be unhappy. Coleridge's lines come up instinctively, — 
 
 ' Be, rather than be called, a child of God, 
 Death whispered :— with assenting nod, 
 Its head upon its mother's breast, 
 The baby bowed, without demur — 
 Of the kingdom of the blest 
 Possessor, not inheritor.' 
 
 "Did Macleod's ' Mystery of Sorrow' reach your friend? I trust 
 sorrow will be no mystery to her, only a filmy cloud through which 
 the great light of God falls softly. The hands reached out to us in 
 our darkness, blind as we are with tears and pain, are more blessed 
 than any others. It is blessed to press them, to touch in them 
 the pulse of feeling hearts. But I think that to miss the hand of 
 Christ among them is unspeakably awful. Just as the first genuine 
 comfort comes when He lays His hand upon ours and takes us aside 
 and says, ' I am the Resurrection and the Life ; ' 'As the Father hath 
 loved Me, so have I loved you." 
 
 " I never hate sin so much as when I come to Christ as one of His 
 disciples might have come, and watch Him there in Judea day by 
 day and Listen. I never feel so much that it will be a steady, con- 
 stant fight as when I follow Him to the cross and see the strength of 
 sin there. But I never feel sin so weak as when I think of Him 
 risen, and — the very same Jesus — gone into heaven, and from heaven 
 watching, succouring, strengthening, fighting for me, just as on earth 
 He prayed and bled for me. I have been betrayed into a sermon, 
 which you can keep for Sunday if you like ; but tell me how you feel 
 about this, if you feel at all with me, that one moment's conscious- 
 ness of the living Christ is worth a thousand sermons upon doctrine ; 
 that indeed the aim and end of doctrine is to bring us to Christ by 
 the shortest, truest, most direct way; and so one might almost define 
 holiness as companionship with Christ. When we confide our thoughts 
 to Him and receive His lessons about life, and note what He is Him- 
 self, and draw towards Him, we are unconsciously growing holy; 
 not puritanical, not starched, not censorious, not narrow-minded, not 
 incapable of the brightest enjoyment, but pure, reverent, holy 
 
90 Life of Willi am Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 "If one has so little conception, without travel, of the exceeding 
 lavishness of heart with which God has arranged the earth, I often 
 think what surprise the world of heaven will open to us ; for in com- 
 parison to that kingdom we are here like people that live and die 
 motionless on the same hillside. And we have not even travellers' 
 tales of it, but will meet its beauties with a sudden amazement, like 
 the peasants in fairy tales that are brought by the opening of a door 
 into the blaze of a palace 
 
 " Sunday is to me a very sacred day — peculiarly Christ's day ; and 
 in the practical spending of it this thought is uppermost. Other 
 days, no doubt, are also His : life is His, week-day and holiday. 
 But He fills the Sunday in a way unlike any other — with memories 
 of Himself and great thoughts, with His sacrifice, and resurrection, 
 and His peace. I feel that whatever would interrupt or weaken 
 those thoughts should be avoided either in employment, or in reading, 
 or in conversation — that what we do should be in harmony with 
 them, as if Christ were present. But conversation and employment 
 branch off in a hundred directions; our human life has a hundred 
 interests. Christ is to be met in all those directions : those interests 
 are sacred to Him ; they cannot be too trivial to escape Him ; they 
 do not escape Him as God, they are part of Him as man. It does 
 not follow, therefore, that we must be naming the name of Christ, or 
 reading the Bible, or singing hymns all Sunday. There would be 
 danger of shallowness and deceit and hypocrisy in that. It would 
 be an undue strain upon thoughts in one direction, a fatal ignoring of 
 the variety of those thoughts and of our life. It is simply the ques- 
 tion, Are we doing what we would not do, or saying what we would 
 not say, in Christ's presence, remembering that He is the Christ of 
 Bethany whom men and women like ourselves called a Friend, talked 
 with and talked before and consulted as a Friend ? There is no day 
 on which one enjoys so much the intimate intercourse of the family 
 or friends; and when intercourse is broken by distance, no day 
 on which we have more pleasure or a better right to renew it by 
 letter. It is peculiarly a home day, and what we would say to others 
 by our side, why should we not say it when they are all the more 
 dear by absence ? There are others also who come before us on Sun- 
 days — sick or Christless friends, or those who have sympathy with us 
 in our spiritual life. If they were near us we would speak with 
 them ; why should we not write ? The quietness and sanctity are 
 encouragement ; only I would say, do not use the day for ordinary 
 correspondence. 
 
 " We need its peace and withdrawal for ourselves ; wc need private 
 
Early Ministerial Life. 91 
 
 thought, time and prayer for private dedication. The public services 
 supply the strength for this, but they can never take its place. It is 
 a day of our own renewal, and we must not let that suffer. And 
 again, while we ought to be perfectly natural, it would be a lax rule 
 to make our conversation the authority for our correspondence. 
 There are many causes that may prevent our conversation being all 
 that it might be on these blessed Sunday evenings ; but in a letter 
 we have more in our own power. I am often ashamed that my 
 thoughts do not urge me to say more of Christ and the treasures of 
 wisdom and knowledge in Him. We ought to live so that it would be 
 more natural and lively to speak of what touches upon Him than that 
 
 pleasant gossip that flows up to the surface of speech 
 
 " I should try to make everybody, children above all, take a natural, 
 lively interest in the day as God their Father's, and even more, 
 Christ their Friend and Saviour's — link it with happy thoughts of 
 God's presence and nearness and love, revealed in the Bible and the 
 world and in ourselves." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 PASTORAL WORK IN DUBLIN. 
 
 We have now to follow Mr. Stevenson to the sphere of 
 work with which his name will ever be associated. The 
 Master was preparing the place for His servant, and through 
 the long months of suffering and discipline was educating 
 him for a ministry of power and blessing. In the autumn 
 of 1859 a movement was set on foot for the erection of a 
 new church in Rathgar, a pleasant and rapidly -increasing 
 suburb of Dublin. It had its origin in a prayer-meeting 
 which had been held for some months previously in the ad- 
 joining district of Rathmines. Dr. Hall, now of Xew York, 
 at that time the junior minister of Mary's Abbey, took a 
 deep interest in the meeting, conducting it for some months 
 during the summer, and urging the members to form them- 
 selves into a congregation. At first the feeling that there 
 did not exist material out of which it could be formed was 
 so strong that there was no response. But Dr. Hall perse- 
 vered, and on making a canvass of the neighbourhood, the 
 two friends who had undertaken the work reported to the 
 Presbytery of Dublin that twenty-one families were prepared 
 to join. In November the little meeting was raised into the 
 status of a congregation, and with constant prayer for guid- 
 ance step by step, and a deep sense of the responsibility and 
 far-reaching issues involved in their choice, they began to 
 look out for a pastor. Dr. Hall directed their attention to 
 the young minister whose earnest, thoughtful preaching was 
 
Pastoral Work in Dublin. 93 
 
 drawing men of all classes round him in Belfast. Careful 
 inquiries were made. They found that the humble mission- 
 church was crowded to the doors ; that many had applied for 
 pews for whom there was no accommodation ; and they found, 
 what they valued far beyond freshness of thought or beauty 
 of diction, a man penetrated by the Spirit of Christ, filled 
 with sympathy for every form of human want and suffering, 
 and with the conviction of the glorious power of the message 
 he carried to meet the needs and satisfy the cravings of every 
 worn and weary heart. Here seemed the very man for the 
 emergency, if he could but be induced to come. Mr. Steven- 
 son, on being asked, took some weeks for consideration, re- 
 quiring much information bearing on the questions whether 
 there was actual need for a church there, and if work there 
 would really advance the Redeemer's kingdom and possess a 
 true missionary element. The courage of the small congre- 
 gation is very evident from the fact that the unanimous call 
 was signed by only twenty-seven persons. On the other 
 hand, it required no small amount of faith and courage on 
 the part of Mr. Stevenson to leave a post where he was 
 deeply loved, where his work was so congenial, and was 
 growing in power and influence, and to enter a field where 
 the congregation had still to be gathered and a church to be 
 built. 
 
 But once the path of duty was clearly seen, no difficulty 
 could ever hold him back ; and after much heart-searching 
 he felt that God had called him to this work, and the way 
 was plain. The consternation among his people in Alfred 
 Place Church on learning the news was very touching, and 
 the separation was a sharp trial to his own affectionate, cling- 
 ing nature. As he was only assistant to their pastor, the 
 people were not in a position to make any effort to retain 
 him, and sorrowfully took part in a farewell presentation at 
 a crowded meeting presided over by Dr. M'Cosh, afterwards 
 the honoured President of the University of Princeton, in 
 
94 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 America. Three months later their pastor died, and imme- 
 diately most earnest entreaties were sent to their loved friend 
 and teacher to return to them ; but the step had not been 
 lightly taken, and the responsibilities could not be lightly 
 laid aside. Once convinced that God had called him to work 
 in Dublin, nothing but the command of the Master would 
 move him till he could feel that his work there was done ; 
 and so, as on many a future occasion, even when an income 
 of six times what he was then enjoying was offered to him, 
 he quietly put all inducements aside, and set himself to face 
 the duties and difficulties of the work he had undertaken. 
 
 On the 1st of January 1860, Mr. Stevenson entered on 
 his ministry at Rathgar, but he was not ordained till the 1st 
 of March. The services were held in a long, low room 
 known as the "Old Schoolhouse." Twenty years later it 
 was purchased by the congregation, and became the centre 
 of their home mission. The arduous work of church-building 
 
 and of raisins the needed funds had now to be beo-un. But 
 
 © © 
 
 never could it be more truly said of any edifice that its 
 foundations were laid in faith and prayer. Little wonder 
 that the structure grew to be a blessing to the neighbour- 
 hood. In the building committee, of which Mr. Stevenson 
 was the never-absent and most active member, no step was 
 taken without earnestly seeking for light and guidance, and 
 more than one of its members have thankfully looked back 
 to its meetings as fruitful in spiritual blessing. 
 
 In July 1860, the foundation-stone of Christ Church, 
 Rathgar, was laid by the Rev. Dr. Cooke. It is a simple 
 Gothic church, surrounded by trees and shrubbery, which 
 in the spring burst into a blaze of golden laburnum and 
 sweet-smelling lilac. Standing at the head of the Rathgar 
 Road, it occupies a commanding position at the meeting- 
 point of five roads, so that its spire is one of the landmarks 
 of the neighbourhood. On the 2nd of February 1862, the 
 church was opened for public worship by the Rev. Norman 
 
Pastoral Work in Dublin. 95 
 
 Macleod, D.D. The subjects of his sermons were: "The 
 Character of Christ as a Test of Christianity," and "The 
 Selfishness of Man and the Unselfishness of Christ." At a 
 public breakfast given to him the next morning, Dr. 
 Macleod, in his own inimitable way, announced that he did 
 not intend to leave his seat until the entire debt remaining 
 on the church was cleared off. The appeal proved irresistible, 
 and the sum required was subscribed upon the spot. From 
 that time the history of the church is a record of steady 
 progress, quiet, uneventful, and, like all true growth, with 
 much of its work hidden from sight. It would be tedious to 
 those not personally interested to give minute details of the 
 Rathgar pastorate. It will be sufficient to say that the 
 church, originally seated for four hundred and fifty, had 
 twice to be enlarged. It became a centre of active spiritual 
 work, complete in organizations and methods, many of them 
 new at the time, but now adopted by every working church. 
 Christ Church and its minister were known far and wide ; 
 the light burning brightly there cheered many a disheartened 
 toiler in lonely districts, and the church with its work was 
 a stimulus to many a young pastor and to not a few con- 
 gregations. Mr. Stevenson's conception of the pastoral 
 office was very high, and he brought to the discharge of his 
 duties every expedient that his varied educational training, 
 his remarkable fertility of resource, and, above all, his 
 humble dependence on his Master, could supply. His 
 preparation for preaching was conscientious and thorough. 
 Before he began to write, and while his subject was still 
 simmering in his brain, he read everything within his range 
 that bore upon it, accumulating round him, as he worked, 
 piles of books on tables and chairs, composing slowly, -and as 
 careful in revising as if he were writing for the press. And 
 when he went to his people it was to teach them what he 
 had himself been taught, and the solemn tones of his rich, 
 tender voice, and his whole demeanour, bore the impress of 
 
g6 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 one who had a message to deliver from his Master. Very 
 specially was this noticeable at the Communion seasons, 
 which were often times of great blessing. There was a 
 peculiar solemnity about them, and the perfect quiet and 
 stillness in which the services were conducted, with intervals 
 for silent prayer, were very helpful to thought and com- 
 munion ; while those who saw the rapt expression of their 
 minister's face, and listened to the outpourings of his soul in 
 prayer, felt as if he had come from the very presence of the 
 Lord. 
 
 In the biographical preface to the latest edition of 
 " Praying and Working," Mr. Sinclair says : — 
 
 ' ' The centre of his work was the public worship of the sanctuary. 
 In conducting it all the spiritual and intellectual force that was in 
 him seemed to be called into exercise. Conspicuous above every- 
 thing was the sense of the presence of God which evidently pervaded 
 his own spirit, and evoked in the hearts of the worshippers a cor- 
 responding impression of solemnity. This was felt all through the 
 service. The announcement or reading of a psalm or hymn was not 
 a formality, but a solemn summons to the people to enter into God's 
 courts with praise. The reading of the Word was to him the delivery 
 of a divine message, and it was a part of the service he never short- 
 ened. In his prayers he seemed to lead his people into the holy of 
 holies, and there to plead the case of every soul before him. His 
 petitions were all-embracing. Individual and household histories 
 were clearly present to him. Each worshipper somehow felt that his 
 own needs had been specially laid before the Answerer of requests, 
 and before the prayer was finished even the most troubled heart had 
 forgotten its sorrows amid the overmastering sympathy with the 
 burdens of humanity which his pleadings had enkindled. 
 
 "In his preaching he seemed to be impregnated with the spirit of 
 Martin Boos' motto: 'Christ for us, Christ in us.' The secret of his 
 ministry may be found in Ins published sermon on the text, 'Other 
 foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Christ Jesus,' 
 in which he enlarges with all his powers of illustration on the success- 
 ive themes — ' Christ is the foundation of the Church ; He is the foun- 
 dation of the Christian congregation; He is the foundation of the 
 Christian life ; He is the foundation of the sinner's hope ; and He is 
 the foundation of the hope of men.' All his teaching centred in 
 
Pastoral Work in Dublin. gj 
 
 Christ and brought men into close contact with Christ, whether to 
 find mercy at His cross, or consecration from His life, or constraint 
 from His love, or sympathy for humanity from His world-embracing 
 pity. His preaching was not expository, at least not in the old- 
 fashioned sense of the term. While based on a thoroughly sound 
 exegesis, its power rather lay in the skill with which he seized on the 
 great principles which underlay his subject, and in the resistless 
 force with which he lodged their lessons in the hearts and consciences 
 of his hearers. It was impossible to frequent his ministry, whether 
 on the Lord's day or at his week-evening service, without gaining 
 the most attractive views of the person and character of Christ, 
 without being fired by a sense of the nobility of a life lived after 
 Christ and for Christ, and without the conviction of the dignity and 
 blessedness of being fellow-workers with Christ in His beneficent 
 purposes towards our race. " 
 
 As might be expected from his catholicity and breadth of 
 view, as well as from the wide reading which kept his 
 preaching abreast of contemporary thought, Mr. Stevenson 
 attracted to his church persons of all shades of religious 
 belief. And here his ready sympathy, warmth of heart, 
 and delicacy of spiritual tone brought him into cordial 
 contact with every honest seeker after truth ; and the pro- 
 foundness and humility of his spiritual knowledge made his 
 teaching helpful to many whom any assertion of dogmatic 
 superiority would have driven from his influence. Men of 
 the most reserved and reticent natures had often such per- 
 fect confidence in him, that they opened their minds to him 
 with a freedom that surprised themselves. Few ministers 
 were larger recipients of the doubts and difficulties of others, 
 and none ever guarded the sacredness of their trust more 
 jealously. His many-sidedness was of unspeakable value in 
 his private intercourse with those who had speculative 
 difficulties. He put himself in the place of his questioner, 
 and tried to get on the same line of thought with him ; and 
 eternity alone will reveal to how many souls he was per- 
 mitted to be a means of blessing by clearing away the dark 
 mists of doubt. Even when they went away unconvinced, 
 
98 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 as one lias recorded, they went away the better of having 
 been with him. 
 
 His work among the young was to him a peculiarly sacred 
 part of his pastoral office. His conviction of its importance 
 in moulding the character of the men and women of the 
 future was intensified by the experience of years. At the 
 commencement of his ministry, children's services, now so 
 common, were comparatively unknown ; and when, at the 
 close of his first year's ministry, he announced that on the 
 last Sunday of each month the service would be especially 
 for children, it was regarded as a rather startling innovation. 
 Soon after that he wrote : — " I still want the faculty of 
 reaching the child's thoughts, and without that it is a very 
 random aim one can take at the child's conscience. A child's 
 thoughts are so subtle and dependent on impulse, that even 
 if you catch them you may find them slip quickly away. 
 One must be as subtle and nimble as they are. It would 
 be a capital school to learn quickness of speech. AVhoever 
 can hold a hundred children in quiet attention for twenty 
 minutes has the power of becoming a true orator." He 
 loved preaching to children, however he might feel his own 
 disqualifications. His intuitive sympathy, his power of 
 putting great truths simply and entering into the child's 
 thoughts, and his rich store of illustration and anecdote, 
 made it a special gift. Further, he believed that the simple 
 words addressed to the young were often blessed to hearts 
 that long indifference had hardened to the ordinary appeals 
 of the gospel. After some time the service became quarterly, 
 but usually a part of every morning service was given to the 
 children, and many of the little ones looked eagerly for their 
 portion, and felt aggrieved when any special subject interfered 
 with the usual course. There was always a bright and 
 happy children's service on Christmas Day, and in summer 
 a flower-service for the benefit of the Children's Hospitals, 
 when each child brought its offering and laid it on the great 
 
Pastoral Work in Dublin. 99 
 
 pile that rose up below the pulpit : and the sweet fragrance 
 filled the church, and the bright faces of the living flowers, 
 and their quick sympathy and earnest attention, seemed to 
 touch their dear pastor's words with a new power and 
 tenderness, and made the whole service one not soon for- 
 gotten by any who had the privilege of being present. 
 
 The following letter to a young girl, one of his children in 
 Christ, who had just gone to school in England, may be 
 helpful to others in similar circumstances : — 
 
 '•' Since you left for school you have been very constantly in my 
 
 mind, and I have been realizing many difficulties and temptations 
 you are likely to meet. By this time it has fairly settled down in 
 your mind that not only are you redeemed by Christ, but are His 
 disciple. You have faith that His atonement was needful for you, 
 that without it you could have no peace, and could not live as you 
 would like to live. The best wishes to be good and the best efforts 
 give no comfort until we trust that Christ has reconciled us to God. 
 Then we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Though your mind may sometimes be swept by shadows, and you 
 may sometimes suspect yourself. I trust you are past all serious and 
 profound doubt on this point. Do not think so much of your interest 
 in Christ as of Christ's interest in you. . 
 
 '•'You now accept this position that God has defined for you : it is 
 the only safe position, that > </. That is now to be the 
 
 position of your whole life, and you cannot too often dwell on what 
 it means, for it will give you great comfort. It will also remind you 
 of your conduct. You know, dear, that you are now a follower of 
 Christ. That is of more importance to you than anything else in 
 your life. It means that you will act like Him, that you will do 
 nothing that you would not do if He were with you — nothing that 
 you will be afraid to tell Him ; that your character will grow to be 
 very like His. You will very likely have to overcome something in 
 your natural disposition ; you will certainly have to watch yourself ; 
 you will have to remember that we unconsciously fall into faults and 
 wrong habits. It is not enough to be sorry when we find out that 
 we have been doing anything faulty, that our temper and spirit have 
 been unlike His. We must be as gentle, as obedient, as patient, as 
 kindly, as meek as He was. That is difficult everywhere, particularly 
 difficult for a girl at school. You may not find others who think and 
 
ioo Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 believe with you. You may sometimes have hard words and jests to 
 bear, when it is found out that you obey Christ. Other girls" tem- 
 pers may try you. The want of privacy and retirement you may 
 feel deeply. Remember all the more that you go to school as a 
 disciple of Christ. If girls who do not trust Him are obedient, quick, 
 ready to serve, gentle, thoughtful, unassuming, you ought to be more 
 so. Meekness, readiness to submit one's own judgment to that of 
 older persons, readiness to conform to rules, are essential qualities. 
 You cannot dispense with them ; you ought to excel in them. And I 
 am sure you will find it hard, because the discipline of a school will 
 be novel, and may sometimes seem unreasonable. And then beware 
 of being dissatisfied or feeling the least like a martyr because your 
 position may not be very comfortable at times. If other girls are 
 happy, you should be happier than they. They should say, ' Why, 
 here is a girl who loves Christ and reads the Bible, and she is the 
 happiest of us all. ' Perhaps they are not tempted to be unhappy, 
 and perhaps you may have to bear some things that are unpleasant 
 from them. You surely would not give up because it is difficult ; you 
 would not desert Christ because it is sometimes unpleasant. 
 
 ' ' Keep very close to your sister. Think of your influence over 
 her, the influence of example, of affection, of the dearest intercourse. 
 Win her to Christ. If you should have different companions, never 
 forget that you two are the closest companions; that you ought to 
 be to one another what no companion will ever be to either of you. 
 As you are the elder and the more formed, this will fall most on you. 
 Think of her, consult with her, work with her, help her. Learn as 
 much as ever you can, and always believe that those who teach you 
 know more than you. But examine everything you learn ; when you 
 understand it, you will remember it and never be ashamed. Set the 
 example of perfect order and submission to all the rules of the house. 
 Implicit obedience is part of the Fifth Commandment, and it is not 
 confined to home, where it is a great charm of character; it extends 
 to ' tutors and governors. ' 
 
 "Be very careful to read, and read thoughtfully, in the Bible. 
 Read it regularly, and think well over it as you read. Read much or 
 little at a time, according as it gives you more or less to think about. 
 You must make leisure for this at any sacrifice. And make also 
 some space for prayer. These are absolutely necessary : you might 
 rather do without food. Value and use the Sunday. I do not know 
 to what church you may go. In some of the churches in England 
 now the service is made everything — there is a feast for the eye and 
 ear, and hunger for the heart : and doctrines are taught little differ- 
 
Pastoral Work in Dublin. 101 
 
 ent from the errors of the Church of Rome ; and many earnest and 
 some good people defend all this. At any rate, you will attend the 
 Church of England, mix exclusively with members of it, and perhaps 
 sometimes hear Presbyterians and Dissenters harshly and contemp- 
 tuously mentioned. I will tell you again more about the difference 
 of one Church from another. People who are Presbyterians believe 
 that the order of their Church and their worship is more scriptural, 
 that it allows less error than in, let us say, the Church of England. I 
 believe so firmly ; and I feel thankful to God, and I feel it as an honour, 
 no matter how men speak, that I was born among Presbyterians, and 
 I am sure so will you — an hereditary honour. Take notes of the 
 
 sermons. It will help you to understand them and profit by them 
 
 You may find some things hard that I have mentioned — all of them, 
 I daresay ; but remember the Holy Spirit is promised to you. You 
 cannot do one of them without Him. You cannot be good and wise 
 of yourself. But there is a grace that is sufficient for you. Claim it, 
 ask for it, trust it. 
 
 " May God's presence be very bright to you, dear , and may 
 
 you daily fulfil His will, and may you grow as Christ grew, in favour 
 with God and man.*' 
 
 \Yhen at home he always came to the Sunday school in 
 time to close it with prayer, and often added a few words of 
 personal appeal to the lesson of the day, or gave some bright 
 little bit of mission intelligence. The love between the 
 children and their minister grew and deepened with the 
 growing years. To see him among them recalled instinct- 
 ively our Laureate's picture : — 
 
 " The child would twine 
 A trustful hand unasked in thine, 
 And find his comfort in thy face." 
 
 Those who went to push their fortune in foreign lands were 
 seldom lost sight of. They looked on him as their wisest 
 counsellor, and used to turn to him in times of sorrow or 
 difficulty; as far as possible he kept up correspondence with 
 them, and often through his large circle of friends was able 
 to be of substantial service. 
 
102 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 To one Avho had opened her heart to him, when much cast 
 down and depressed about her spiritual state, he wrote : — 
 
 "You seemed under the impression that I was perhaps making 
 too little of your depression, and setting it more down to physical 
 weakness than was just. So I only want you to remember that, if 
 that had been so, I would not have entered into it at all, trying to 
 show you the stepping-stones across the quagmire, but would have 
 tried to laugh you out of it. Besides, whatever influence ill-health 
 may have, the condition of doubt and misgiving in which one is is 
 the same painful thing to meet and bear, — the same hard thing to be 
 overcome. And He that overcomes is He that fighteth for us, even 
 God Himself, our God and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 "Now, as I have said already, I want to say again that, no matter 
 what you are or have been, or may think of yourself, one fact you 
 cannot change — the love of God to you, the wish of God for you that 
 you should be perfectly happy. What you have done or may think 
 you have done in your coldness, or let us even suppose self-deception, 
 
 does not change that love. 'God is love' — 'God so loved that 
 
 He gave His Son, that whosoever' — 'I am the Lord; I change not ' — 
 that is, in love Jesus Christ is ' the same yesterday, to-day, and for 
 ever.' No matter how long you may feel uncomfortable, and pained, 
 and restless, and dead, and without response to the love of God, that 
 condition is no more than a shower of rain to the sun. It hides the 
 sun from us for a time ; but the sun outlasts, and is bigger than the 
 shower. And if you mourn that you are so helpless, and worse in- 
 stead of better, is not that what we ought, each of us, to recognize, 
 that of ourselves we can do nothing ? God must quicken us. ' Shine 
 on us with Thy face. ' Only, hard as it may be, we must seek patience. 
 ' It may not be my time, it may not be thy time, but still in His own 
 time the Lord will provide. ' Our times are in His hand, and one of 
 our sweetest singers says, 'My God, I wish them there.' Remember 
 Gerhardt's hymn, 'Give to the winds thy fears,' and its companion. 
 
 And now, dear , remember you are in Christ's hands ; the Good 
 
 Shepherd has you. Leave it with Him. And daily I shall pray for 
 you, and often probably with you." 
 
 For many years he conducted a Saturday Bible-class for 
 young women, and only relinquished it to one of his elders 
 when the day was changed to Sunday, for the sake of those 
 who were engaged on week-days. He considered this and 
 
Pastoral Work in Dublin. 103 
 
 the similar class for young men as the training-school from 
 which chiefly to recruit the inevitable blanks constantly 
 occurring in the ranks of the Christian workers of the 
 congregation. His personal dealing with those who desired 
 to make public profession of their faith in Christ, while full 
 of sympathy, was close and searching, and was often greatly 
 blessed. He had no greater joy than to hear that his 
 children walked in the truth. 
 
 [To , on joining the Church.] 
 
 "ORWELL Baxk, 187 U. 
 "Your note has given me a great pleasure, and I feel very thank- 
 ful that you have decided to come forward for Christ, the best of all 
 masters, and the truest of all friends. A life in Christ is always a 
 blight, peaceful life, for it does not depend on circumstances outside 
 of us, but the brightness and peace are within. It is a life of sur- 
 render to Him, to do His will because we love Him ; and we love 
 Him because He first loved us. It means the confession of our sin- 
 fulness and the forsaking of our sin ; but it means also that we have 
 a Father in heaven, and that Jesus died to bring us there. It means 
 that we walk by faith, joining the great and happy company of pil- 
 grims who have washed their robes and made them white ha the 
 blood of the Lamb. It requires wonderful strength, and firmness, 
 and courage ; but God promises us the entire support of His grace, 
 and we find that when we lean on God all is easy. It means that we 
 live a life of communion with God, and know and delight in the 
 power of prayer and of the Word of God, because we have believed 
 in the Lord Jesus, and are saved." 
 
 [To a member of the Young Men's Bible-classJ\ 
 
 " Orwell Bank, 188k. 
 
 " Your letter gave me a thankful joy. The step of deciding 
 
 for Christ is the happiest in all our life. May He who has drawn 
 you to it through doubt and difficulty now keep you and make the 
 brightness and peace of this life to increase ! May He also keep you 
 steadfast, and earnest, and close to Himself ! Our common danger is 
 that of growing lukewarm, half in earnest only. Therefore use every 
 means of His grace to confirm you — the Bible, prayer, the Lord's 
 day, the prayer -meeting. Seek strength to live out your faith; 
 
104 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 others will see it. Try to influence others to turn to the same Savi- 
 our, and so live the same life. Thank you for letting me know how 
 it came about. I have been always looking for such fruit of that 
 class, and know the good it has already done. Those who have 
 received the blessing, like you, are the best recruiting agents. Try 
 to get others to join under the same teaching. You will want 
 strength every hour; let me give you a strong verse (Isaiah xxvi. 
 3, 4): ; Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose "mind is stayed on 
 Thee : because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever : 
 for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. ' " 
 
 He was deeply anxious about the spiritual character of 
 the Young Men's Association, which was begun in the first 
 year of his ministry, and when away he often travelled long 
 distances to be present at their meetings, and never allowed 
 any home engagement to prevent his attendance. 
 
 " Mr. Stevenson's efforts to cultivate a missionary and 
 philanthropic spirit among his people were unceasing. He 
 had confidence in the capabilities of consecrated lives. He 
 believed that every congregation could, in its own measure 
 and degree, repeat the noble doings of Hermannsburg. And 
 beyond question Fleming Stevenson brought to his work for 
 God in Rathgar the same qualities which he has so vividly 
 portrayed as distinguishing Louis Harms. He had the same 
 'exceeding faith in God,' the same 'nearness and perfect 
 confidence of his relation to God,' the same ' perpetual and 
 most deep communion with Jesus," the same 'utter earnest- 
 ness and consecration.' He became a power in his church 
 'by giving himself up to the power of God,' and under this 
 influence he led the way with striking generosity in every 
 fresh development of congregational energy." * 
 
 His enthusiasm for missions so infected his people that 
 Christ Church, Rathgar, took the first place in the Irish 
 Presbyterian Church in the comparative liberality of its 
 members. Once a month the weekly prayer-meeting became 
 
 * Preface to " Praying and Working." p. 23. 
 
Pastoral Work in Dublin. 105 
 
 a missionary meeting, where a summary was given of all 
 that was most striking in the mission news of the day ; and 
 it was characteristic that this was never confined to the fields 
 in which the Presbyterian Churches are engaged, but took in 
 and enabled the people to follow with intelligent interest* the 
 work of all the Churches and missionary Societies throughout 
 the world. Xor was he in any sense one-sided. He proved 
 in his own person his favourite axiom, that the most earnest 
 advocates of the mission abroad are the most diligent workers 
 in the mission at home. The mission with him was one and 
 undivided, and a congregation without direct work among 
 the poor he considered as not living in the spirit of the 
 Master. A mission Sunday school, a night-school, a band of 
 district visitors, a Bible-woman, a mothers' meeting, a weekly 
 evangelistic service, a Band of Hope, a Dorcas society, and 
 many other agencies were employed. Of one and all he was 
 the centre, keeping his hand firmly on them, and encouraging 
 them in every way by word and work. 
 
 And so, step by step, the work grew, and God set His seal 
 of blessing on the labours of His servant. A few extracts 
 from letters of this period may be inserted here : — 
 
 ' ■ The state of the congregation lately is spiritually more encour- 
 aging than it ever was. People that it was hopeless to rouse., whose 
 hardened indifference used to stab me as I went into the pulpit, are 
 singularly arrested, and listen with the most fixed attention. One 
 man, for whom I had prayed hi vain for years, came to the Com- 
 munion to-day, saying that he dared no longer hold back. One that 
 was in darkness by miserable doubts has been altogether relieved. 
 Several have come to a clearer knowledge of their redemption by 
 Christ.*' 
 
 And again : — 
 
 •' ' You don't know what need I have of your prayers before enter- 
 ing the pulpit. It is unspeakably solemn to realize that you are 
 speaking for God to men ; that for you almost every distinction will 
 
106 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 vanish at the judgment day before these two — preacher and hearer 
 
 There is an awful tendency to fall into routine, and say right tilings 
 without that power that says them to the heart. And there is also 
 the same tendency in the people — the want of spiritual thought, of 
 being earnest about unspeakably solemn truths. Daily life seems to 
 have the power of mesmerizing the forces of our spiritual life, though 
 we know it ought to brace and develop them. 
 
 ' ' One of our elders told me of real good done by these last sermons. 
 It needs a little encouragement of that kind when the work is so 
 uphill, and people sit in the same seats for years without believing in 
 Christ. It gives one a bright hope even when a listless, careless man 
 lifts up his head eagerly for two sentences, though he should drop it 
 again. The man was hit at least. But I long to find the secret of 
 holding these people attentive for a whole sermon, and groan wearily 
 over my want of skill. Probably they go home and groan over the 
 stupidity of the preacher ; which is true, or he would have made 
 them think of the sermon instead. I see their faces often on Sunday 
 night if I lie awake, always in accusation. If they listen to the two 
 courses of lectures I am planning for this winter, on the ' Sermon on 
 the Mount' and the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' I shall feel lightened. Do 
 you not understand the feeling ? It is this : these people have been 
 given you by God. You have the power of speaking to them, a power 
 that angels would covet. They may be indifferent or stupid, but 
 still it depends on you more, than on any human being whether they 
 will be turned from the road they are on to Christ — from death to 
 life. It is a fight with them that ends hi tremendous issues ; and 
 perhaps you have to fight all the time with your own wish to say 
 fine things and send the people away saying, ' What a brilliant ser- 
 mon ! ' I have been preaching the most elementary truths hi the 
 
 most elementary way ; and, above all, what reaches hearts with most 
 directness and comfort — Christ Himself. For Christ Himself is the 
 key to all peace and strength, and there is no way of being happy 
 but by being His friend. 
 
 "I have been busy and specially happy to-day. One of my people, 
 to whom I had often spoken, told me the simple story of her anxiety 
 and her rest in Christ. At one of last week's meetings an address of 
 mine to three classes of sinners seems to have touched her. She fell 
 into great trouble of heart, so much so that she ' could not hear a 
 word of the sermon last Sunday.' Her trouble grew worse until 
 yesterday, when, in her own words, ' I saw all of a suddint I was 
 just to trust myself to Christ.' I found her busy and happy. She 
 had often wanted to hide from me; now she was glad to see me — she 
 
Pastoral Work in Dublin. 107 
 
 could understand what I used to say now. About a year ago her 
 husband was also led to Christ. This is the third instance of the 
 good that has come out of our meetings, and you may be sure it has 
 put me in good cheer for our services to-morrow. Our church is 
 small, but every year has seen some brought into the light." 
 
 In his later years the pressure of public work did not per- 
 mit of his visiting at stated periods ; but he was keenly alive 
 to the importance of pastoral visitation, as well as the great 
 difficulty of making it profitable : — 
 
 " For the last fortnight I have been visit ing from six to eight hours 
 every day, pulling up arrears ; and it is hard work, so exhaustive of 
 all mental and spiritual faculties that after the last visit I am good 
 for nothing. There is a special gift for visiting. I have not got it. 
 To study the character of people, to get below the formalism of the 
 ministerial relations one bears to them, to reach their thoughts when 
 perhaps they have but few, and to speak to them as an earnest friend 
 would if roused this is to me the most wearing of all labour." 
 
 In 1864 his heart was cheered by evidence of a greater 
 interest and earnestness, and he writes : — 
 
 "In visiting it is not such a hard thing, such a sustained and. 
 skilful effort to have Christian conversation. The truth is welcome ; 
 above all, a few words about the sufficiency of Christ to save : and I 
 note this because I cannot bear religious commonplaces, and if people 
 drop into religious phrases and a religious voice I change the conver- 
 sation to the flattest and most directly secular subject. I determined 
 from the beginning to wait, no matter how long, until the heart 
 would be touched and the crust of phrases disappear; for it is an 
 awful temptation both to me and to them to be satisfied with a gloss 
 of words." 
 
 To a nature so simple and true the conventionalities and 
 want of reality in so-called religious life were at all times 
 most repugnant, and he fought against everything artificial 
 by every means in his power. 
 
 " The attempted Bible-reading degenerated into a monologue. I 
 would only admit those who could and would speak. A stiff religi- 
 
108 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 ous meeting is horrible, and the absurdity of a set of decent people, 
 when they come together to speak about their best Friend, sighing 
 incessantly like so many wheezy bellows, irritates me beyond measure. 
 Why can't they be frank and natural, as they were ten minutes ago 
 when you met them in the street, as they would be if you met them 
 at any social gathering the next evening? And then the awful com- 
 monplaces that echo grimly across the dull silence of the room. Oh 
 to banish shams out of such assemblies and make the people and the 
 evenings more sprightly and comfortable ! 
 
 "You are thoroughly right in all you say of the responsibility we 
 bear to others. It meets us every day in some shape. We might 
 use our relationships and intercourse to such blessed purpose, and we 
 pass them over as the merest commonplaces of life ; and what we 
 might have done and did not will be as sure to come back to us as 
 what we did. The feeling is sometimes awful. 
 
 ' ' Last night I was called out to see a young fellow who had come 
 up to town for medical advice, and had become unexpectedly worse 
 an hour before. Two minutes after I went into the room he died. 
 His sister had come up to nurse him. It was the saddest scene ; she 
 could not believe it, and I sat with her till near two, doing what I 
 could. He was her favourite brother, and her whole heart went out 
 after him, always returning sadly to the burden of its pain : ' sir ! 
 if I only knew that he was safe ; but there was no time.' It is start- 
 ling to come face to face with one whom you never saw till you saw 
 him die. Macleod, I remember, dilated once on the sudden meeting 
 of four eyes in carriages going opposite ways. But the meeting on 
 the confines of the two worlds is all over awe. I could not help 
 sketching it as a possible picture in speaking of repentance at our 
 prayer-meeting next day. The horrible final ' too late ' rushes up 
 through every other thought." 
 
 It Avas in times of sorrow and affliction that his people 
 learned to the full to value their minister : — 
 
 " We always remarked in session," says one of his elders,* "how 
 he knew everything about everybody. He seemed to be omniscient, 
 and we felt it was because he cared. Wherever there was sickness 
 or sorrow in any home, there he was to be found ; and not only when 
 first apprised of the trouble, but day after day. He seemed to have 
 
 * [Alexander Gray, Esq.] 
 
Pastoral Work in Dublin. 109 
 
 the faculty of throwing the whole force of his sympathy and power of 
 consolation into each individual case. The service required was the 
 measure of the seiwice rendered, no matter at what cost of time or 
 trouble; and though the increasing pressure of work in his later years 
 made regular pastoral visitation more difficult, I remember on one 
 occasion, when we were discussing the question of visitation, his tell- 
 ing us that he had paid over nine hundred visits in the previous year 
 (1S83). The wonderful charm of his presence, and the unconscious 
 kindly influence that it shed, gave him, as a pastor, special power. 
 He was an eminently wise counsellor, as well as a patient, sym- 
 pathetic listener. When absence made sympathy in person impos- 
 sible, his letter was never wanting, entering so fully into all the 
 circumstances that often it would have been difficult to conceive the 
 pressure under which it was probably penned.'" 
 
 [To Mr. Norman on the loss of his son.~\ 
 
 " Mullaghmore, September 1878. 
 
 " To me it was always a new lesson in patience, cheerfulness, 
 
 courage, and faith to see him or to think of him ; and the presence of 
 such a living sermon among us during these late years has been for 
 good to every one. There is a great power in such a life. Purified 
 by discipline, lifted nearer to God and aloof from the business that 
 engrosses others, it is exercising a continual influence, and every one 
 
 in contact with it is the better for it Unconsciousness may seem a 
 
 hard price to pay for immunity from pain, but there was no testimony 
 that he needed to bear to the Saviour whose love had sustained him ; 
 and since it is not a farewell he has taken, but that he has gone a 
 little sooner than we may beyond the reach of suffering and into the 
 perfect life where we shall rejoin him, God will enable you even to 
 bear the loss of what, no doubt, you longed for with a great hunger — 
 the recognition of his last moments. What you missed then will be 
 
 forgotten in the joy of the recognition yet to come I know what 
 
 faith, what silent endurance, you will need in these days. It is a 
 weary blank that is left by one who fills such a space as he did ; and 
 when the tender occupations that are caused by illness suddenly 
 cease, and the one for whom every one planned needs no planning, it 
 is hard, hard to go on and live through the days. It is hard not to 
 murmur ; and hard to feel so absorbed in the joy he lias found as not 
 
 to have a thousand painful thoughts about ourselves You will 
 
 have very wide and very tender sympathy. And you will experience 
 that there is no sympathy like that of our blessed Lord, who is 
 
no Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and who, in the secrecy 
 of our grief, endues us with the strength to say, ' TI13' will be done.' 
 Let us lean all the weariness on Him. The Good Shepherd has taken 
 one that He tended to the fold where the sheep are folded for ever- 
 more. But the eyes of that Good Shepherd look into our hearts ; we 
 are also His care. He sees the void as clearly as we feel it. Let us 
 be sure that His thoughts are about us, and let us yield ourselves to 
 the consolations of His Word. It is there we find there is a God of 
 all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation. It is there we 
 find that His grace is sufficient for us. Every comforting word in it 
 is the voice of the Lord Jesus, whose own sorrows rise before us, not 
 to drown ours, but to make us certain that He knows what sorrow is, 
 and that the help and pity He offers are such as only the sorrowful 
 can offer. 
 
 1 He sympathizes with our grief, 
 And to the sufferer sends relief.' 
 
 And if you are now in the dark chamber of mourning, you cannot but 
 see how the hand of our Lord has hung it round with visions of heaven. 
 Let us also feel their brightness ; for He died that they might be bright 
 to us, bright with reality." 
 
 [To William Young, Esq.~\ 
 
 " Orwell Bank, February 1S80. 
 "It was with great pain and deeper sympathy that I read your 
 letter, and found out what a trying and hard road God had been 
 leading you both. Sorrows of that more intense kind are apt to 
 make us wonderfully lonely ; and if they only shut us up with Christ, 
 to whom all power is given over and for us, we shall not murmur in 
 the end. I have seen it in others ; it has not pleased God yet to try 
 us in that form, but I can feel what an anguish and burden there 
 must be in it. And yet at every point of life we have openings into 
 that glorious kingdom where there is no death, long avenues of end- 
 less life, down which we look and see our children redeemed, pure 
 and without pain. Yet the old Hebrew longing for the joy that life 
 on earth brings us is very near to us all ; and postponements have 
 their bitterness, while, of course, the exact pleasure the life would 
 have brought us we lose for ever. But we lose it as some struggling 
 ray of sunshine, baffled by the clouds, is lost in the flood of sunlight 
 over a clear sky. Then we go further and remember that our Sun 
 that gives us all our light is Jesus Christ Himself, Sun of grace and 
 of glory ; and the sunshine rests also on the grave." 
 
Pastoral Work in Dublin. hi 
 
 The following letters to a girl of fifteen, cut off by rapid 
 consumption, show how simple he could be when weakness 
 and suffering made all mental effort difficult. A slight inci- 
 dent called forth by her illness reveals the depth and tender- 
 ness of the love by which pastor and flock were bound to one 
 
 another. A was at school in Germany when attacked 
 
 by the disease, which ran its course in a very few weeks after 
 she was brought home. Towards the end of her illness a 
 multiplicity of engagements detained Dr. Stevenson in Scot- 
 land, but his anxiety about her was so great that he crossed 
 iu the teeth of a storm, hurrying from the platform at the 
 close of one of his Duff Lectures in Glasgow to catch a 
 steamer for Belfast, and after a couple of hours in Dublin 
 spent in the sorrow-stricken home, starting back again to ful- 
 fil his next engagement in Scotland :— 
 
 " Southampton, February 1885. 
 
 " My dear A , You were not able to bear much yesterday, and 
 
 I thought I would like to write you this evening just a line or two. 
 I saw you were very weak, but in weakness and sickness we are just 
 as near to our Lord Jesus as in health. I would like to remind you 
 again of His love, and that He is our Saviour. We all need a Saviour, 
 for we have all sinned and wandered away from God. Jesus is that 
 Saviour, and all that He asks us to do is to trust Him. When we are 
 young, we all look forward to living a long time here, and life looks 
 so long that we almost forget it will come to an end. We do not think 
 that our sickness means more than a few weeks in bed ; but some- 
 times when we lie down sick we are never to rise again. And if we 
 should not, and if we trust ourselves to Jesus, we may be sorry to 
 leave those whom we love and so much that is bright in the world, 
 but we need not be afraid. For those that trust themselves to Jesus 
 will always live with Him, and will always he happy with Him. 
 They may feel they have done ever so wrong a great many times, and 
 they may be full of awe as they think of the great holiness of God ; 
 but they know that Jesus came to take away their sin, and that Jesus 
 died for them, taking their place, and that God forgives them for 
 Jesus' sake, and that His Holy Spirit will give them good thoughts 
 and a clean heart, and that there is no one in all the world so gentle 
 and loving as Jesus. 'God so loved the world,' they say to them- 
 
112 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 selves, ' that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
 in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. ' 
 
 "Now, my dear A , you know the doctors do not think you 
 
 will get better, and I am sure when I spoke of that yesterday as 
 possible you may have felt it yourself. But if you did not, do not, 
 dear child, shut your eyes to it now. It is not what you thought life 
 would be ; and I am sure at first you would find it very hard to give 
 up the thought of living here. And Jesus knows how hard that 
 thought may be. But Jesus Himself died that you may not be afraid 
 to die. And Jesus is now in heaven in perfect joy, and He says He 
 went there first to prepare a place for us who believe in Him ; and 
 when you read about heaven in the Book of the Revelation, and think 
 how beautiful the life must be there, and that no one there ever is 
 unhappy, or ever sins, or ever dies, might you not even wish to be 
 there ? Jesus will take you there if you trust Him. And Jesus is 
 saying to you by this sickness, ' Trust Me, ' ' Come unto Me. ' 
 
 "And now, dear child, let me entreat you to trust yourself to 
 Jesus, — yourself, with all you feel is not right in you ; yourself, with 
 all your sin ; yourself, just as you are. Jesus will bring you straight 
 to your Father, and straight to heaven ; for death cannot divide us 
 from heaven and from Jesus. 
 
 "Ask them to read to you the twenty-third Psalm, and the 
 fifteenth chapter of St. Luke, and part of the last two chapters in 
 the Revelation. I would like to be beside you, to read them to you ; 
 but I am obliged to preach here [Southampton] and in Glasgow, so I 
 write now, and I shall write again. Trust yourself to Jesus, and you 
 will hear Him say, ' Let not your heart Vie troubled.' " 
 
 \To the same.^ 
 
 ''Glasgow, March 1S85. 
 "My dear Child, — When I said good-bye yesterday I could not 
 help thinking when I might see you again ; and I thought it was 
 most probable that it would not be on earth. Our heavenly Father 
 alone knows that. But when we went over the beautiful psalm, and 
 I said,— 
 
 1 Yea, though I walk in death's dark vale, 
 Yet will I fear none ill,' 
 
 and you said you Mere not afraid to die, I felt that if you had 
 strength you could sing the last words clear and loud, — 
 
 'And in God's house for evermore 
 My dwelling-place shall be.' 
 
Pastoral Work in Dublin. 
 
 We read in Isaiah that the ransomed of the Lord shall come there 
 with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. Heaven is the 
 brightest, sweetest place we can think of, and Jesus gave Himself a 
 ransom for us that it might be our home. 'I go,' He said, 'to pre- 
 pare a place for you.' He will have all things ready for us, and He 
 will welcome us as we enter, and we shall hear and join in the song 
 ' to Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own 
 blood.' 'Washed from every spot and stain.' Sometimes our 
 memory shows us all the forgotten wrong things and wrong thoughts. 
 Will heaven, the holy place, let us in with all these ? But when we 
 remember how God made St. John write for us, ' The blood of Jesus 
 Christ cleanseth from all sin,' we are made white in the blood of the 
 Lamb, our sins are remembered no more. 
 
 ' I lay my sins on Jesus, 
 
 The spotless Lamb of Gel.' 
 
 Jesus hears us saying that, though we can say it only very softly and 
 like a child, and we can never praise Him better than by just trust- 
 ing Him. Give Him up yourself, dear child ; just let Him keep you. 
 You may feel weaker, but as you say, ' The Lord is my Shepherd,' 
 say also, ' He said, " I will never leave you."' Some day, some hour, 
 He will come for you, some day very soon. The doctors will say it 
 is death ; but you will hear the step of Jesus coming to take you 
 where He is, and you will hear Him saying, ' It is I ; be not afraid. ' 
 And I think you will not be afraid to go away with Jesus to the 
 home you have above." 
 
 [To , on the death of his wife.'] 
 
 " It would not be right to say that the news of to-day has found 
 us unprepared. I hoped and longed, and hoped because I longed, 
 until it was sometimes difficult to look for any issue but the one, and 
 to look forward to anything but a longer life of thankfulness and 
 service upon earth. A short word blots out that dream, and I feel, 
 what you must feel like torture, that we and our lives here are all 
 dream -like, and as against the everlasting future will be only as a 
 dream when one awaketh — a happy dream that will always remain, 
 and be linked with the heaventy life as a part of it. We cannot dis- 
 sever the heavenly from the earthly of our life ; the same threads are 
 in it, only, as they reach near the sun, they glow like gold ; and all 
 our thoughts and affections are easily carried across the river of 
 death to gather round those we love as if they were with us. To us 
 
 8 
 
114 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 who know in whom and what we believe the change can scarcely 
 make a separation. For I cannot conceive there is such a division 
 that you have not all you ever had, and as much belonging to you 
 as it ever did, and, indeed, in a more full and tender way. Being 
 with Christ, close by His side, in the companionship we have longed 
 for when even faith did not satisfy us, must strengthen as it purifies 
 our affections until they reflect the tenderness and depth of His own. 
 It has that effect here, and much more in heaven, where all the con- 
 ditions of life must favour the growth of what is pure and holy and 
 is a part of our better or best self. I do not relish even those words 
 that speak of death as loss. What have we lost ? Not our beloved 
 ones — not a jot of their affection or sympathy, or of the certainty of 
 their fellowship. The great delight they brought us by their love 
 and the running of our lives together, nothing can rob us of it. We 
 shall miss them as we would if they were from home, and therefore 
 we shall long to see them again ; but the only difference is on the 
 side of gain — that when we meet it will be in a fairer house, that 
 will have more of home about it than the home here. Excuse me 
 thinking out what is often in my mind. The best of our life is be- 
 fore us ; and the past is only like a porch to the house that will be 
 really beautiful. 
 
 ' ' The passages in the Bible that speak of death are full of a sweet 
 music ; the words seem striving which shall comfort us the most, 
 because they are written by those who feel that death is dead in 
 Christ, and those who have fallen asleep in Jesus are as living as we. 
 They comfort, however, because comfort is needful, and they will 
 gather round you now. It must be a great agony to have to bear it, 
 and it is a great mystery why sorrow should light so soon on some 
 lives and not on others ; but God thinks of us in our agony, and I 
 can try to understand with what great love and fenderness He will 
 deal when I think how tender grief makes me. 
 
 ' ' In this long cry we lifted up for life we did not trouble the 
 Master, we obeyed Him ; and He has been doing something in us all 
 the time, and carrying out His ministry of sorrow. 
 
 "There is a space around you into which even our affection can- 
 not enter, where every man must bear his own burden — a sacred, 
 private place, at which we stop ; but Jesus, blessed be His name, 
 crosses the line and fills even all that vacant space with Himself, so 
 that we are not left alone. May you find the fulness of His present 
 comfort, present and abiding ! May you find that His presence links 
 the dead and the living ! The sting is taken from death, and even 
 we who remain can say, in a very solemn way, but truly, 'Thanks 
 
Pastoral 1 1 r ork in Dublin. 1 1 5 
 
 be to God that we have so blessed a hope ; ' and after we have borne 
 our burden we lay it down and join those whom we love, and by our 
 love of whom we are now drawn more than ever to the throne of God, 
 where we find them. ' I am persuaded that neither death nor life 
 shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ 
 Jesus our Lord.' " 
 
 At the close of twenty-five years of work in Rath gar 
 he writes to the Rev. Hamilton Magee, D.D., enclosing a 
 card of invitation to the annual congregational meeting : — 
 
 "Orwell Bank, January 10, 1885. 
 
 " My dear Magee, — It is not simply this formal invitation I send, 
 but a wish from my heart that you will come out on Wednesday 
 evening next'. You and I now belong to the Old Guard, though I 
 suspect we are younger than our juniors ; and it would be a grati- 
 fication after these twenty-five years, so swiftly flown, if you would 
 be with us — a greater gratification than I can express. 
 
 "Now kindly do make an exception for us this time. We are 
 scarcely likely to meet here after another quarter of a century. — 
 Yours ever, W. Fleming Stevenson." 
 
 " Orwell Bank, January 16, 1885. 
 " My dear Magee, — I cannot let a day pass without thanking you 
 warmly for letting me feel and everybody hear you were at our con- 
 gregational silver wedding. May God bless us to stand together in 
 the dear old city for some time longer ! You do not know how often 
 you have quietly stimulated and greatly refreshed me." 
 
 [To T. J. Aimers, Esq.] 
 
 "Liverpool, March 16, 1885. 
 
 " I think there is a good deal in this, that— independent of 
 
 the difficulties in the Confession being no more than in the Word, 
 save that they are presented more in the form of a theological system 
 and under needful theological phrases — a confession or creed must 
 always be interpreted, more or less, as by the mind of the living 
 Church at the time. It is possible that a Church drawing up a 
 creed now would vary it a good deal in form, and in the proportion 
 in which doctrines are stated, from 1643 ; and yet it does not feel 
 that it should change a Confession which substantially expresses the 
 theology of the Word of God. 
 
I 1 6 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 "I am sorry I looked tired, though I felt it. Yesterday fortnight 
 I preached twice and lectured once in Glasgow in large churches and 
 to large congregations. On Wednesday I lectured again, and crossed 
 immediately after to Dublin, to be with little Annie M , return- 
 ing same night to Glasgow. Yesterday week the University author- 
 ities insisted that I should preach before the University of Glasgow, 
 and I lectured in the evening, and again on Wednesday evening, and 
 spoke besides at some meeting or other every day I was in Glasgow ; 
 crossed to Dublin Wednesday night, reached this Saturday night, 
 and after preaching yesterday for the Moderator of the English 
 Synod to two crowded congregations, I lecture to-night, and then 
 catch the 10.30 train for Holyhead. 
 
 "You can imagine I am thankful to be from to-morrow onward at 
 home." 
 
 Pre-eminent among the willing helpers who gathered round 
 Dr. Stevenson was the Rev. Smylie Robson, D.D., whose 
 death in 1884 was a sharp sorrow r to his pastor. The two 
 men were curiously complementary in character, and the 
 affection they bore each other was unique and beautiful. No 
 one knew so well as Dr. Robson the overwhelming burden of 
 work that lay upon his friend, and no one could have more 
 lovingly laboured to lighten it. Dr. Robson had spent many 
 years in Syria as missionary to the Jews, and his health had 
 never recovered the trying experiences of the Damascus 
 massacre in 1856, when his fellow -missionary, William 
 Graham, was killed, and he and his wife escaped as if by a 
 miracle. Coming to Dublin in 1872, he settled in Rathgar 
 for the sake of the ministry there, and became an office-bearer 
 in the church. His health was delicate, and he suffered from 
 sleeplessness, but the vigour and acuteness of his mind re- 
 mained unchanged to the last, and his clear judgment and 
 wise counsel were always at the minister's service. Knowing 
 well what late hours were kept at the Manse, it was no un- 
 common thing for him, if some helpful suggestion occurred to 
 him regarding any point which was a subject of anxiety at 
 the time, to appear at midnight or later, with some quaint 
 apology for housebreaking, and the two would hammer away 
 
Pastoral Work in Dublin. 117 
 
 for hours together in the study, regardless of the flight of 
 time. Quiet and gentle by nature, there was yet in Dr. 
 Robson a noble indignation against wrong, which, when 
 roused, showed itself in the flashing eye and reverberating 
 tone, and sometimes broke out into vehemence of speech, but 
 always fell back easily and sweetly within the bounds of 
 Christian courtesy. Every one who knew him mourned for 
 him, but to Dr. Stevenson the loss was irreparable. Though 
 usually capable of great self-control, he was quite unnerved 
 in conducting the funeral service over the remains of his 
 stanch and loyal friend. 
 
 [To Alexander Gray, Esq.~\ 
 
 " Dublin, June 16, 188U. 
 "Hearty thanks for your thoughtful, comforting letter. It is like 
 you to have written it. God lent us a blessed gift, and we made full 
 use of it. Certainly there should be no mourning for him. That has 
 come which he expected and often wished. But few men will be so 
 much missed ; and I feel that parting from him is hard, although it 
 may not be for long. He was a wonderfully unselfish and inspiriting 
 helper. One could not dwell on dark sides with him. This is the 
 first member of the session we have lost by death."' 
 
 " No one.'" says a friend. " was ever more loved by those who knew 
 him than Fleming Stevenson. From the moment he opened his lips 
 one felt him to be a man of rare capability, refinement, and elevation 
 of soul. The soft light in his kindly eyes, the tenderly wistful lips, 
 which even the full beard of later years did not quite conceal, the 
 rich resonant voice, the curious felicity of speech, the quickness to 
 catch not only the meaning of the word, but the quality of the feel- 
 ing behind the word ; the power to put himself into the speaker's 
 place, and make all allowances, and say the word that was at once 
 kindly and wise ; the overflowing humour, never sharp-edged, yet 
 always dying down in a sort of seriousness, as if to make amends for 
 its momentary play ; the eager sympathy ; the almost invincible re- 
 luctance to refuse a favour to a friend ; the singular detachment and 
 leisureliness of manner by which he disarmed the fears of the most 
 scrupulous that they might be intruding on his time ; the winning 
 smile, the lingering clasp of the hand, all conspired to make of him 
 a man whom it was a distinction and delight to know ."' 
 
1 1 8 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 Such was the minister who for twenty-seven years lived 
 and laboured among his people in Rathgar. Their best friend 
 and human counsellor in trouble and in dark days, the first 
 to sympathize with their happiness and joys, he was always 
 to them the same. When the severe strain of work for the 
 Church at large made heavy inroads on his time, he toiled 
 late and early, and wore himself out rather than bring to 
 them the fag-ends of his labours. He stayed by them when 
 tempted as few men have been by calls to larger and more 
 influential spheres. He died among them, and was laid to 
 rest in their midst ; and in generations yet to come his 
 memory will be fragrant, as the older ones tell the children of 
 the first pastor of Christ Church, Rathgar. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 LITERARY WORK. 
 
 The published works of Dr. Stevenson do not give a fair 
 estimate of his literary power. It had always been his 
 cherished desire to reach men's hearts by his pen, a desire 
 strengthened by the consciousness that he had the power of 
 doing so, and that herein lay his special gift. He had com- 
 prehensive and carefully arranged plans for doing much in 
 this way, and it was with a weary sigh that he saw the possi- 
 bility of accomplishing them recede into the distance, and his 
 literary work become more and more pushed into odd snatches 
 of time redeemed from other engagements, and too often 
 taken from the hours of sleep. He always wrote slowly and 
 carefully, and was most fastidious as to the finish of his com- 
 position. In later years his contributions to religious litera- 
 ture were few, and his aspirations reached buoyantly forward 
 to a time of possible rest in the future, when he might give 
 to the world a History of Missions from their earliest dawn 
 down to the present day. This was the dream of his life, and 
 in preparation for this great undertaking he had collected a 
 vast number of books bearing on the subject, and had pre- 
 pared a mass of notes and material which could only be utilized 
 by himself. Fruitless and perhaps wasted work it may seem, 
 but yet surely this preparation was fitting him to arouse en- 
 thusiasm for " the mission " all over the Christian Church — a 
 purpose in which he succeeded beyond almost any other man 
 of his time. A little incident referred to by Dr. Mackintosh 
 
120 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 of Philadelphia, in his graceful sketch in " The Church at 
 Home and Abroad," explains in a single word the non-fulfil- 
 ment of these high hopes. He says : — 
 
 " On a sweet June morning some three years ago I was sitting in a 
 wide sunny window, looking ont on green grassy slopes and garden- 
 beds fragrant with many a blushing rose, and across the thick-piled 
 books on the library floor, gazing at a loved friend, who, with his 
 kindly eyes warm with a brave heart's glow and sparkling with 
 Irish fnn, looks at me cheerily yet steadfastly. ' Stevenson ' — for it 
 is Fleming Stevenson (who gave the world 'Praying and Working,' 
 and made himself one of the foremost authorities on Christian Mis- 
 sions) to whom I am talking—' Stevenson, when is that big book of 
 yours to be ready ? You remember telling me of it just before I 
 went to Philadelphia ? ' The broad, honest face saddens just a little : 
 then it brightens, at last settles into almost stern fixedness — the 
 hardness of heroic resolve and self-denial— and the answer comes 
 slow, deep-toned, and short, ' India and China are now my book." " 
 
 His literary faculty ripened early. After his return from 
 Germany in 1855 he was asked by Dr. Norman Macleod, who 
 was not slow to perceive his peculiar gift, to write for the 
 Edinburgh Christian Magazine, of which he was then the 
 editor. He contributed several papers on German hymnology, 
 one or two sermons, and a criticism on the character and 
 writings of the Rev. Frederick Robertson of Brighton. In 
 the latter paper he analyzed w T ith acuteness and sympathy the 
 peculiar features and excellences of Mr. Robertson's preach- 
 ing. His sketch was so accurate that it drew forth grateful 
 acknowledgment of its power and perception from his father, 
 the late Colonel Robertson of Cheltenham, who furnished 
 him with additional particulars, which were embodied in a 
 later article in the second number of the Contemporary Review. 
 From these papers the publishers extracted largely for notices 
 of Mr. Robertson's sermons, and they are included in the 
 American edition of his life. 
 
 On the establishment of Good Words, Dr. Macleod enrolled 
 him as one of its regular contributors, and was anxious to 
 
L iterary Work. 1 2 1 
 
 assign him a more prominent position ; but Mr. Stevenson 
 felt that his ministerial duties would not permit him to give 
 up the requisite time. His advice, however, was constantly 
 sought, and Dr. Macleod used often to call him his " right 
 arm." The tie between them was very close and tender, and 
 Mr. Stevenson's admiration of the genius and great loving 
 heart of "the chief," as the Good Words staff used to call 
 their editor, deepened a friendship which lie regarded as one 
 of the great privileges of his life. 
 
 In the early numbers of the periodical, besides the articles 
 which were afterwards embodied in "Praying and Working," 
 there appeared a remarkable paper on " Matthew Claudius, 
 Man of Letters ; " a sketch of three young Bavarian Jesuit 
 priests and the revival they effected within their own Church, 
 entitled "Three Lives Worth Knowing About;" several 
 papers on hymns ; a series of mission sketches under the 
 heading " Devoted Lives," and many others. The later 
 articles contributed were nine papers on " The Mission-fields 
 of China and Japan," written after Dr. Stevenson's return 
 from his journey round the world ; and another series, "Bible 
 Truths and Eastern Ways." Other magazine articles are to 
 be found in the Sunday Magazine, the Day of Rest, the Cath- 
 olic Presbyterian, and the Contemporary Revieiv. 
 
 " Praying and Working, being some account of what men 
 can do when in earnest," appeared in the autumn of 1862. 
 It consisted largely of papers which had previously appeared 
 in Good Words, but which were now given to the public in 
 a fuller and collected form. Without doubt the germ of the 
 thoughts that issued in this work may be traced in the deep 
 impression made on Mr. Stevenson by his visit to the Bauhe 
 Haus when in Hamburg in 1854, and his coming into per- 
 sonal contact with the remarkable man whose faith and com- 
 passion lay at the root of the beneficent work carried on 
 there. Wandering through the narrow lanes and alleys of 
 Hamburg, he had found the most repulsive forms of sin and 
 
122 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 suffering, childhood tainted with moral leprosy, distorted from 
 the Divine image in which it had been created ; and side by 
 side he had found a mighty tree of blessing with its leaves of 
 healing, that had grown from the tender slip planted by 
 Wichern on that dim October evening twenty-one years be- 
 fore, when, he and his mother passed under the low thatched 
 roof of the little Rauhe Haus and began their life of Christ- 
 like self-sacrifice. During his residence in Germany Mr. 
 Stevenson studied closely the working of what is known there 
 as "The Inner Mission." Wherever he went he visited all 
 institutions aiming at the alleviation of suffering, the rescue 
 of the fallen, and the elevation of humanity, feeling painfully 
 how far behind we in England were in the practical develop- 
 ment of charity involving personal effort and self-sacrifice. 
 Happily the state of things that existed thirty years ago has 
 long since passed away, and there is no more striking feature 
 of the present day than the number of earnest lives, beautiful 
 in their self-surrender, that have been devoted to the service 
 of their fellow-men. 
 
 The sketches embodied in "Praying and Working" were 
 written" with a definite aim and earnest purpose to awaken 
 the Christian conscience of the country. The vivid and pic- 
 turesque style of the book, its pure and lucid English, keen 
 analysis of character, accuracy of detail, and the burning en- 
 thusiasm of the w r riter combined to rivet the attention of 
 every thoughtful mind. Alike in religious and literary circles 
 on both sides the Atlantic it was warmly received and favour- 
 ably reviewed. A nephew of John Falk translated into Ger- 
 man the chapter describing his uncle's life and labours, and 
 had it published in parts in the chief newspaper in Dantzig, 
 Falk's native town ; and permission was asked to translate 
 the book into several European languages. On reading it a 
 London philanthropist sent a thousand copies to the colonies 
 at his own expense, and the Bishop of Argyle gave a copy to 
 each of the clergymen in his diocese. But no appreciation 
 
Literary Work. 1 23 
 
 gratified its author so much as the abundant evidence he re- 
 ceived that the book was the means of stimulus and direction 
 to other lives. Several philanthropic institutions, as their 
 founders have cordially acknowledged, owed their inspiration 
 to these noble examples of faith in prayer. 
 
 The Rev. Bowman Stephenson, D.D., says :- — 
 
 "'Praying and Working' has always appeared to me one of the 
 most fascinating and fruitful of the many Christian books published 
 in my time. I met with it early in my ministry, when my mind was 
 much occupied with the social aspects of Christian church work, and 
 I trace to its powerful influence much of what is best and most 
 valuable in the system of Christian philanthropy under my care, and, 
 indeed, I doubt whether that book was not the most powerful in- 
 fluence used by Divine Providence in turning my thoughts and 
 energies towards the work for children with which my life has been 
 so largely identified. I am still in the habit of urging every helper 
 in my work to read it, in the hope that they may catch something of 
 the spirit which breathes through every page." 
 
 In many cases it was used by God to change the whole 
 course of men's lives. One instance may be given here. A 
 thoughtless young Englishman, stricken by fever in the Aus- 
 tralian bush, had a copy lent him during convalescence, and 
 as he read, listlessly at first, in the weary hours of enforced 
 idleness, he was so fired by the nobility and grandeur of such 
 lives, and so penetrated with a sense of the uselessness and 
 selfishness of his own, that he resolved from that day forth 
 to consecrate all his powders to God and his fellow-men, and 
 became one of the most faithful and earnest servants of the 
 Cross. 
 
 One of its critics says that " the secret of the power and 
 persuasiveness with which the author has written, lies in his 
 having been guided by a simple spiritual purpose, both very 
 noble and very practical," and introduces the book to "all 
 who have any tenderness and responsibility of feeling as to 
 the due worth of Christian life, with confidence- that it will 
 
124 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 arouse, direct, and encourage them ; that they will learn from 
 its facts the great principle ' that prayer never nullifies a 
 man's wit, or thrift, or counsel, or prudence, but intensifies 
 and purifies and guides them.'" " ]STo man," says another, 
 "with one particle of true life within him can peruse the 
 volume without his conscience smiting him for the little 
 that he has done for God or for man, or without forming the 
 resolve that, with God's help, he shall henceforth become 
 by prayer a worker for the cause of Christ and the good of 
 humanity." 
 
 Six weeks after its publication Mr. Stevenson writes to his 
 sister : — ■ 
 
 "'Praying and Working' goes on its way, and I hope will do 
 good equal to its popularity. Already the eighth thousand is almost 
 exhausted. Many notices show that the meaning and spirit of the 
 book have been caught, and I have cause to feel abundantly thank- 
 ful. If in any way it spreads the faith and kingdom of Christ, God 
 will have used a very humble and unworthy servant." 
 
 [To Ms Mothen] 
 
 ' ' No vember 1S62. 
 ' ' ' Praying and Working ' has met with an extraordinary reception 
 from all parties — highest of Churchmen, bluest of Presbyterians, 
 Baptists, and Wesleyans. I enclose some newspaper notices, among 
 them a Parthenon. I could not help going back to the old boyish 
 days when the Parthenon was the Literary Gazette, and came in with 
 breakfast. How little I ever dreamt then of seeing my name in its 
 pages ; and I thought how glad my father would have been, and felt 
 how much the pleasure of working, and altogether the pleasure of 
 being praised had passed away with him, without whose generous ex- 
 penditure at every step it could not have been written ; and long since, 
 dearest mother, and all through the writing of it, it was inwardly 
 and devoutly dedicated to you — your book, indeed, more than mine." 
 
 [From Dr. Norman Macleod.~\ 
 
 " Alklaide Place, Glasgow, Oct. ,',, 1862. 
 " Thanks, dear friend, for your kind words, but I would to-morrow 
 gladly give up the authorship of the ' Old Lieutenant ' for ' Praying 
 
Literary Work. 125 
 
 and Working.' Therefore more thanks for your delightful volume. 
 No Presbyterian has before written in such a catholic spirit, and this 
 I feel to be a great want in our Church. We ignore sixteen centuries 
 almost. We dig trenches deeper and deeper, which genial nature 
 was kindly tilling up with sweet flowers, to keep up the old division 
 lines, instead of building bridges to connect us as far as possible with 
 the Church Catholic. Judaical separation won't do — far less Phari- 
 saical. The only separation which is good is that of greater praying 
 and working, which, like love, is at once the most separating and 
 uniting element." 
 
 The following extracts from the letters of Dora Greenwell 
 will be of interest here : — 
 
 ' ' Will you allow me, a stranger, to thank you for your deeply in- 
 teresting papers in Good Words, and to tell you how anxiously I, 
 with others, am looking for their appearance in a collected form ? 
 The very look and name of one of them before I begin to read it 
 always gives me a feeling of comfort and inner joy, and I find others 
 in our Church read them with the same interest, and the wish to be 
 able to say of our own country, ' Like as we have heard, so have we 
 seen.' I believe, however, that bright days are yet in store for the 
 various branches of Christ's family — days such as we have not yet 
 seen. We have certainly more light to work by, and the warmth 
 will come, and we shall help on both the light and the warmth by 
 communications such as these you are now engaged with; passing 
 them on from hand to hand as in an Athenian torch-race — no matter 
 who is first so that we run all. I am sure you have quite an un- 
 usual gift for this peculiar line of writing — that of engaging the heart 
 and passing by, maybe, without ignoring vexed questions. But you 
 must tell us a great deal more about Sailer and these good Romanists. 
 We must now hope and pray much for that branch. It is so won- 
 derful and interesting to a Christian thinker to find such a core of 
 vital religion in such a system as theirs is. In them too there must 
 soon be a great change, breaking up, and renovation, when once the 
 power of Rome is gone ; and we may surely say now, ' Delenda est 
 
 Carthago.' 
 
 "I do not feel so much inclined to thank you for your book as to 
 tell you how delighted I am to see it ; its arrival has made quite a little 
 holiday in my heart, connected with so much warmth and gladness, 
 and so many cheering hopes for our own Church and nation. I can- 
 not tell you how much I admire the preface ; it seems to me so full of 
 
126 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 wisdom and Christian discretion, touching as it does upon points 
 where a delicate yet firm hand is needed. How I love, too, all that 
 you say about the rationale of prayer, viewing it as De Maistre doe?, 
 as the dynamic force of spiritual life. My own thoughts have been 
 led far of late in this direction, but you have the gift of bringing 
 forward these deep and, if handled scientifically, difficult truths in a 
 way that is at once both common-sense and affecting. I sent the 
 book off before nightfall to a friend in the country, who of all persons 
 I know will the best appreciate it, so that my own reading of it was 
 necessarily very hasty; but when I awoke this morning my mind 
 seemed full of happy and hopeful thoughts. I wondered at first 
 where they had all come from, but soon traced them all to one place. 
 I must congratulate you again and again on having brought home 
 such a blessing to many, many waiting hearts. I hope you will yet 
 make us many more presents 
 
 "I mean from time to time to stick a pin into you, or a thorn (!), 
 until I get you stirred to write a history of the Moravian Church, 
 that 'dove in the rock,' so blameless and harmless, and continually 
 abiding in the wounds of her Lord. I never lose the idea of this, 
 and of your doing it ; it would be a present to the universal Christian 
 Church, part of its great Saga to stir a pulse of heroism in the hearts 
 of the young. In addition" to the two great branches of missionary 
 interest in Greenland, and those of such affecting beauty to the 
 North American Indians described in Carne's book, I met with an 
 account of a Moravian settlement in Africa, begun by a solitary man 
 among the Hottentots, and (I think) nearly fifty years after his death 
 and the decay of almost all his pious labour, continued by the 
 Brethren with sucoess. I found an account of this, full of touching 
 poetry, under the head of 'An African Valley,' in a now old- 
 fashioned book of miscellanies, by J. Montgomery, called ' Prose by 
 a Poet.' The Church of England wants stirring and stimulating to 
 missionary enterprise. Do think of this. Have you done much 
 more at the ' Hymns and Hymn-writers ' ? 
 
 "I find Mr. Strahan has mentioned my idea to you, and that you 
 are disposed to receive it favourably ; so I wish to send you a few 
 desultory thoughts on the subject, that you may revolve them at 
 your leisure. I feel that you are rich in accumulated materials ; 
 rich, too, in that peculiar turn of thought which would remove the 
 work out of all that is dry and external into its true spiritual region ; 
 so that perhaps you only need some outward impulse to make you 
 begin. Two thoughts press greatly on my mind. To begin with 
 perhaps the least important — that in- my opinion the German hymns 
 
Literary Work. 127 
 
 in themselves are not such valuable contributions to our devotional 
 literature as we are apt to consider them in these days, when they 
 have become a sort of fashion, — not so valuable, I mean, to us. A 
 hymn, above all other compositions, is a flower that must be plucked 
 on the spot where it grows. It has its roots in the heart, entwined 
 ■with all manner of individual and social associations. A translated 
 hymn is an exotic flower, fair to the eye, but far less eloquent to the 
 heart than those we have cherished in our own little gardens. Then, 
 too, the peculiar merit of the German hjmns is one which realizes the 
 truth of the Latin proverb, ' It is more easy to paint the rose than to 
 convey its odour. ' I could dwell much longer on this point, but you 
 will see how it is that I am inclined to lift the weight and value of 
 the book 011 to another basis — to make the hymns illustrative of a 
 deep religious national life, as Madame Guyon's hymns, in her Life 
 lately published, sweetly and fully illustrate a wonderful individual 
 life. Oh, how valuable a contribution this will prove in your hands 
 to the true Church History, in which there are so many blanks ! " 
 
 The last reference is to a work of considerable magnitude 
 which both had at heart, and which they had planned to 
 undertake jointly, "The Hymns and Hymn -writers of 
 Germany." Various circumstances, however, caused delay, 
 and the work was never completed. Hymnology was a 
 favourite study of Mr. Stevenson's, and was the subject of 
 his first published articles. Very early in his pastorate he 
 printed a collection of hymns for the use of his own con- 
 gregation, a forerunner of the larger volume which was 
 given to the public in 1873, under the title of "Hymns for 
 the Church and Home." In reference to this work Dr. Saphir 
 says : — ■ 
 
 " When he commenced his ministry, the Presbyterian Churches of 
 Scotland and Ireland did not use hymns in their public services, but 
 only psalms and metrical Scripture paraphrases. From his child- 
 hood he had known the hymns in which the Christian experience 
 and devotional feeling of England have found expression. He had 
 learned to love them, and they had been helpful to him in his spirit- 
 ual life. His interest in hymns was much increased dining his stay 
 in Germany, where he became acquainted witli the wonderfully rich 
 treasure of Christian song which the German Church possesses, and 
 
128 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 which has proved an important and powerful element in the pre- 
 servation of Christian doctrine, and in the promotion of Christian 
 life in the individual, the home, and the Church. The study of 
 hymnology had great attractions for him, both on account of his love 
 for poetry and on account of his great interest in all that referred to 
 the development of the inner life, personal and congregational. He 
 began to collect hymn-books and books bearing on the writers, the 
 history, and the editions of hymns, and he was in possession of most 
 ample and valuable material for the production of a book which was 
 ultimately published in 1873. It was entitled ' Hymns for the Church 
 and Home.' Dr. Stevenson's primary object was to furnish his con- 
 gregation with a hymn-book adapted not merely for the public ser- 
 vices of the Church, but also for private and domestic use, and for 
 the Sunday school and children's meetings. The selection and ar- 
 rangement of the hymns are admirable. The book is divided into 
 three sections: Hymns for Public Worship, Hymns for Private 
 Worship, and Hymns for Children. Each division is arranged alpha- 
 betically. Both these points are very practical. The first, because 
 many hymns which do not reach the objective grandeur and dignity 
 which ought to characterize the hymns of the Christian congregation 
 met for worship are suitable and helpful either for private devotional 
 reading or in the family circle. The second, because the first line of 
 a hymn is almost always remembered, and thus the use of the book 
 is greatly facilitated. 
 
 "A copious Index of Subjects is prefixed to the book, and shows 
 how very comprehensive and full the compiler's view was of the 
 doctrine and experience which should be expressed in his selection. 
 The hymns are chosen with great care, the text restored to its 
 original form with wonderful accuracy ; and while the classical 
 catholic hymns of English Churches constitute the chief portion of 
 the book, some of the most excellent German and Danish hymns are 
 added. The twofold appendix is particularly valuable, and the result 
 of great industry and research. The first, entitled 'Notes,' is in- 
 teresting to the student of hymnology, containing much bibliograph- 
 ical information and criticism of various readings ; the second is a 
 Biographical Index, and supplies information which before was access- 
 ible only to a few. Dr. Stevenson had made the lives of the hymn- 
 writers a study, and sometimes in his Sunday evening services he 
 would illustrate the truths of the hymn sung by a sketch of the life 
 of the author. 
 
 "This hymn-book attracted much notice, and was the admiration 
 of some of the most competent authorities on church praise. It has 
 
Literary Work. 129 
 
 proved a valuable book to the student, and is highly appreciated in 
 many congregations. It is a book very characteristic of its author — 
 of his devoutness, catholicity, large sympathies, as well as of his 
 culture and taste. It reminds us of that inmost worship in spirit and 
 in truth from which alone 'praying and working ' can emanate." 
 
 No one w T ho is not acquainted with the labour involved 
 in verifying the accurate text of even the commonest hymns, 
 or balancing the merits of the various renderings, could 
 form a conception of the painstaking research required in 
 compiling such a book ;• for example, no fewer than thirty 
 variations of the well-known hymn " Rock of Ages " had to 
 be examined. The hymnals in various languages which he 
 acquired during the preparation of this work exceeded five 
 hundred, and have been for the most part preserved in the 
 " Fleming Stevenson Memorial Library " in the Assembly's 
 College, Belfast. He revised the entire volume eight times 
 with the most punctilious minuteness and thoroughness ; and 
 his reputation for accuracy was so well established, that in 
 most of the hymnals since published by the leading Protestant 
 Churches of the United Kingdom the text found in his 
 collection was accepted as the correct version. He was asked 
 by Mr. Murray to undertake the subject Hymnology for a 
 forthcoming Encyclopaedia, and had procured a number of 
 new works on the subject and begun his preparations at the 
 time of his death. 
 
 The posthumous work, " The Dawn of the Modern Mission," 
 wdiich was the subject of his Duff Lectures, published in 1887, 
 is only a fragment of what he had meant it to be, the pres- 
 sure of engagements at the time causing him to give a great 
 part of these lectures extemporaneously from the briefest notes. 
 
 This chapter may seem to be almost as much a record of 
 unfulfilled plans as of work accomplished. Engagements 
 multiplied with the years, and the time of leisure for which 
 he longed never came. 
 
 And yet we cannot speak of failure, though we may wish 
 
 9 
 
130 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 the literary record had been greater. The faithful servant of 
 Ids Master does the work as it is laid to his hand, and waits 
 patiently for time to undertake what is less pressing. If the 
 literary record is small, another record has been written in 
 the outcome of a life busy in every good and great enter- 
 prise of his time. It can be read in the revival of the 
 missionary spirit in his own and other Churches, and traces 
 of it are to be found in India and far-away China. And so 
 the Master gave him his reward. He conquered his longings 
 for more leisure by a new buckling of himself to the work 
 before him and a cheery acquiescence in what God had 
 appointed for him. With him we join and say, " He doeth 
 all things welL" 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 VISIT TO AMERICA. 
 
 Many events combined to make 1873 a marked year in 
 Mr. Stevenson's life. Early in the spring a unanimous 
 call to a church in London caused him weeks of anxious 
 deliberation, intensified by the distress of his people at the 
 possibility of his removal. Scarcely had the decision to 
 remain brought relief, when his mother, who for some time 
 had been in failing health, was called to her rest, and her 
 death cast a deep shadow over the circle of which she had 
 so long been the centre. What she had been to him his 
 early letters abundantly testify ; and her love and example, 
 which had done so much to mould his character, never 
 ceased to be a living power within him. His friends 
 rejoiced when a pressing invitation from the American 
 branch of the Evangelical Alliance to take part in the 
 Conference which was to be held in New York in October 
 gave him the opportunity of a complete change of thought 
 and scene. 
 
 The prospect of a visit to America was full of pleasant 
 anticipation. With his inborn love of travel and keen en- 
 joyment of nature and scenery, he had many inducements to 
 visit the glorious new country, with its unsolved problems, 
 its magnificent future, and the marvellous growth of its 
 past. There were dear friends and relatives of his wife 
 whose home in the far West he longed to see ; and by this 
 time his name and work were well known in America, and 
 
132 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 had made for him manv friends who urged his coming, 
 and whose warm-hearted welcome and hospitality when he 
 arrived remained a grateful recollection to the end of his 
 life. 
 
 A few extracts from his journal and letters to his wife will 
 give some idea of his tour, and the impressions made by the 
 three months' visit. He left Dublin on the night of the 31st 
 July ; the next morning the little tender steamed out from 
 Queenstown in brilliant sunshine to meet the American 
 steamer on its way from Liverpool. 
 
 " Suddenly a gruff voice at my elbow exclaimed, 'By King- 
 George and King David, that's a clipper ! ' How two such saints got 
 coupled together in his mind has never been clear to me since ; but 
 the speaker used the strongest language at his command, and evi- 
 dently considered that no one would dispute their testimony to the 
 undeniable beauty of the Celtic as she approached Queenstown har- 
 bour with a swift, easy grace like a waterfowl. We had sailed for 
 about twenty minutes, until Queenstown behind us looked a white 
 glare of stone along the hill-face. As we turned a point the harbour 
 opened out to the sea, and there was the steamer gliding along in 
 soft curves, apparently with as little purpose as a skater on the ice. 
 
 " Two forts guard the passage to the ocean — one with slopes of 
 that hard, yellow grass that is dear to fortifications, and the other 
 on the left putting a steeper and greener front to the sea. We 
 steamed all day along the coast, near enough to see the few houses, 
 and the surf beating gently on the shore ; a flat, dull land at first, 
 then higher and rising into mountain ranges that gathered their mass- 
 ive folds together to sleep among the evening shadows. As the 
 shadows deepened we left them, but first passed right below a rough 
 pyramid of rock two hundred feet high, and crowned with a light- 
 house — a curious, lonely spot, miles from shore ; then in the misty 
 distance some narrow rocky islands slanting landwards, and with a 
 wall-like face to the west to meet the dash of the rough Atlantic, and 
 then water, and water only 
 
 "To-day the wind blows from the N.-W., and the sight is mag- 
 nificent. The waves grow long and stately. They march like an 
 army, crest after crest ; their bulk grows enormous, and for the first 
 time dwarfs the ship. As far as the eye can reach, they advance line 
 upon line ; they tower fifteen or twenty feet above the deck ; but it is 
 
Visit to America. 133 
 
 all in play, for as they swoop down with curling ridges and streaming 
 plumes they catch the vessel in their arms, raise it gently up, and rush 
 with a hiss of foam and a smooth black ridge away on the other side, 
 and toss and play with their companions, leaping, dancing, and fling- 
 ing jets of water up in sport till they are out of sight." 
 
 The restful sense of quiet and leisure to read, and the 
 invigorating sea-breeze " damp with brine," made the voyage 
 a rare enjoyment, and lie landed in New York in high 
 spirits on the 10th of August. 
 
 " The real perils," he wrote after his return home, " did not begin 
 till we were well in sight of land, and most of us passed by them un- 
 consciously. The peril of being ' interviewed ' is perhaps the chief. 
 I heard of only one who came safely through this trial. ' We are so 
 glad, sir, to find you arrived,' said one of the interviewing party to 
 Mr. Arnot of Edinburgh, not knowing but determined to find out 
 his name. ' Your writings have gone before you, sir, and prepared 
 a place for you in the hearts of our countrymen. You will receive 
 quite an ovation among us. We were scarcely prepared to see you 
 so young. You are — you are — ?' The Scotchman was not to be 
 taken off his guard. 'Yes,' said Mr. Arnot, 'I am — I am — .' No 
 place, indeed, seems safe from the reporter. The man who politely 
 shows you the missed street may put your innocent remarks in the 
 morning paper. Reporters haunt the houses, the steps of public 
 halls, the churches, the trains, the cars. They are like the frogs that 
 covered the land of Egypt. When crossing the plains by the Pacific 
 Railway and making some entries in a note-book, I observed that a 
 fellow-passenger winced uneasily, shifted his seat, and was after- 
 wards suddenly taciturn. ' I beg your pardon, sir,' he said the next 
 day, ' but I thought you were a reporter for the New York Herald. ' 
 On Sunday morning in New York, about eight o'clock, a gentleman 
 was ushered in. ' Excuse me, sir, but I have come to report your 
 sermon. I have four on my list, and I find they are all preached at 
 the same time. Kindly give me your leading thoughts. If I have 
 the skeleton, I can put on the flesh and blood. Never fear, sir; you 
 may feel perfectly safe with me. ' " 
 
 Leaving the city, which at that season was deserted by 
 all his friends, he started immediately for Niagara, making 
 a detour to visit some relatives at Pocasset. lie spent 
 
134 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 three days at Niagara, giving himself up to the fascination 
 of the mighty rush of waters, and enjoying in every variety 
 of light and shade the exquisite beauty of the colouring. 
 Thence to Chicago. All along his route the rapid growth 
 of the cities he passed was one of his most striking impres- 
 sions. "They want," he writes, "the picturesqueness, the 
 quaintness, the beautiful irregularities, the colouring, the 
 rich and stately histories of Europe. They want all the 
 mellowed tone, the subtle and powerful charm, the glory 
 even in decay, which only time can bestow. They are 
 uniform in character, repeating the same broad and rectan- 
 gular streets, the same shops, the same suburbs and public 
 buildings, the same spick-and-span newness. But for 
 stately modern streets — streets where the eye is content 
 with the rich and long succession of lofty and decorated 
 buildings piled up of marble or granite as high as the 
 Old Town houses of Edinburgh — there are none in Europe 
 that surpass some of the avenues in New York and the 
 thoroughfares of Chicago that have been built since the fire." 
 
 " Palmer House, Chicago, August 21, 1873. 
 ' ' This is a city of magic. Burned three years ago ? Not a bit of 
 it ! It is as old as London or Methuselah. I have walked through 
 street after street to-day of the stateliest houses I have ever seen, not 
 broken into by mean ones as in New York, nor run up in a hurry ; 
 but tall, solid, dignified buildings, row after row, about uniform in 
 height and seldom less than seven stories, but delightfully varied in 
 design. London and Paris have nothing to show like it in continuous 
 stateliness, street crossing street. And these are the shops of a city 
 in the middle of the prairies. I can understand Palmyra and Tad- 
 mor now. " 
 
 At Cedar Rapids there was the happiness of a meeting 
 with his brother-in-law, Mr. Thomas M. Sinclair, and of 
 seeing something of the many-sided usefulness of a life that 
 had become interwoven with all the interests of that growing 
 city. 
 
Visit to America. 135 
 
 "It is curious," lie writes, "how our home feelings groAV up. 
 Cedar Rapids is his home, and his associations and likings are clus- 
 tering round it as well as his interests. It is the settled place for 
 wife and child ; that is the secret. Given this, we begin to weave 
 our web of home ties, affections, and preferences. And how well for 
 him and for us all ! We bring the sunshine and the rest to the spot 
 where we pitch our tent, and do our work in peace without the 
 hungry longing to be elsewhere. " 
 
 Then past Omaha, over the rolling prairie sea, with its 
 gray grass and dwarf cactus, its prairie-dogs and buffalo 
 skeletons, through desert alkali plains, where nothing seems 
 to live but the sage brush, over low spurs of the Rocky 
 Mountains, and down through canons and gorges to Ogden, 
 where nearly half the passengers turned out of the train for 
 Salt Lake City, which is reached by a rough side-line of 
 thirty-six miles, running between the Lake and the range of 
 mountains that rise up steeply and encircle it. The neat 
 comfortable houses, the orchards and greenery, the air of 
 tidiness, the visible thrift and order, the Swiss-like effect of 
 the mountains glowing in the glorious purple and gold of 
 the setting sun — all combined to make a most favourable 
 impression, which was confirmed next day, so far as externals 
 go, by the beauty of the situation and the marvellous 
 fertility of the gardens and the trees laden with fruit which 
 surround every house, the clear streams of fast-flowing water 
 that take the place of our gutters at home, the handsome 
 residences, the utter absence of poverty. " Such was the out- 
 side of life ; but within, what horrors ! " He visited the 
 Tabernacle, "inside like a soup-tureen, with the lid forming 
 the roof;" and chanced to hear the annual sermon on polygamy 
 delivered by Orson Pratt, " a blasphemous rhodomontade, but 
 considered by the saints superb and overwhelming. There 
 were no intellectual faces ; humble origin and present comfort 
 were stamped on nine-tenths of the male portion of the con- 
 gregation, while the women either look bold and hardened, 
 
12,6 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 or have a crushed, soulless expression, as if nothing was 
 left but the animal qualities. Inquiring of an elder with 
 whom I got into conversation if the women liked it, ' No, 
 sir,' was the answer. ' You see, it goes against their training ; 
 and I may say there is something in the grain of a woman 
 that it goes against ; but many of them get to see it as a 
 Divine doctrine, though of course it is a cross ; but you know 
 our life here is in the wilderness, and the cross must be borne, 
 and they come to look at it in that light.' " When, four years 
 later, he was again in Utah, Mr. Stevenson visited Brigham 
 Young about a month before his death. " I found him less 
 repulsive in appearance than I had been led to expect,'" he 
 writes; "with a firm mouth, a look of great determination, 
 and some dignity and command of manner. He admitted 
 that they had but few Irish in their community." Mr. 
 Stevenson, however, found his countrymen ubiquitous. " In 
 the dusk, as the passengers stepped out among the crowd at 
 a busy station in the desert, it was refreshing to hear a 
 burly voice and an Irish tongue — 'Boys, we're at Corinne.' 
 I could have shaken that rough, coatless fellow by the 
 hand. And in Salt Lake City, as a polite Mormon elder 
 explained that ' Holiness to the Lord ' was not inconsistent 
 with the after-part of the signboard above our heads, which 
 ran, ' Licensed to sell spirituous liquors,' because they were 
 only allowed as a drug in case of sickness, there was no mis- 
 taking the nationality of the voice that rolled in unceremoni- 
 ously behind us, ' Bedad, then, there's a power of sickness in 
 Salt Lake.' " 
 
 Four hundred miles had now to be traversed before begin- 
 ning the ascent of the Sierra Nevada. An unbroken desert 
 lay between, varying in character from baked mud to dry 
 sand, with distant mountain ranges forming the horizon. 
 As the train slowly crawled up to the summit the views were 
 magnificent, but constantly interrupted by aggravating snow- 
 sheds. Then down seven thousand feet in nine hoars, through 
 
Visit to America. 137 
 
 pine forests, past Cape Horn, a thousand feet above the val- 
 ley, down into tropical luxuriance of growth and magnificent 
 trees, recalling an English park ( save that at this season the 
 grass is burnt brown and the dancing streams are dry beds of 
 sand), through a fiat country with the comfortable cultivated 
 look of a brown England, past Sacramento and Stockton and 
 Lathrop, ascending by a wooded and beautiful gorge a low 
 range of hills. At the top they caught the first glimpse of 
 the waters of the Pacific. 
 
 San Francisco was reached by a huge ferry-steamer from 
 the station, which at that time was built out in the bay on 
 an island formed by wooden piles, at a distance of two miles 
 from land, and approached by a narrow wooden jetty about 
 two feet above water, along which the train rushed out into 
 the Pacific at the rate of thirty miles an hour. 
 
 Among the chief points of interest to Mr. Stevenson in 
 this Western capital, besides the Chinese settlements, which 
 he thoroughly explored, from the "Joss House" or Temple 
 to the theatre and the opium dens, were the beautiful ceme- 
 tery, "the brightest resting-place of the dead that I have ever 
 seen,'"' and the great public school which perpetuates the 
 memory of Lincoln. 
 
 On the 8th of September he started for the Yosemite 
 Valley, feeling with a joyful heart that he had turned his 
 face homewards. At Lathrop he changed the rail for a 
 stage-coach. 
 
 "We toiled over the plains ; and then among curious low humps, 
 like sand drifted by the wind, and covered with thin withered grass, 
 occasionally plunging into a drift of loose stones down which in wet 
 weather some river runs, wheels up and down, out and in, jolting 
 intolerable. Then passing the foot-hills, we came to a loftier range, 
 where pines began to show themselves, and up which we climbed 
 with a weary, dust-smitten crawl, seeing them rise higher, while our 
 waggon creaked and strained after them till we reached the half-way 
 house, kept by a woman and a savage dog. More climbing, more 
 dust, and we turn the summit among the firs, and whirl down, the 
 
138 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 horses flying off at a gallop, until half an hour after sunset we run 
 across a meadow in the dark, aud pull up at the lights of White and 
 Hutching's." 
 
 The Big Trees in Mariposa Grove were reached two days 
 later. "The gigantic character of their vegetation/'* lie 
 writes, "can be felt. You dream of the stillness in which 
 these trees have grown for a thousand years, and feel as you 
 look round you are in the forest primeval." 
 
 Altogether nine days were spent in the enjoyment of this 
 wonderful Californian valley, sometimes riding on horse- 
 back for twelve hours at a stretch, and then wandering out 
 alone to some point of special beauty, "where I experienced 
 the most intense sense of stillness and solitude I have ever 
 felt." On the Sunday he arranged with some difficulty 
 to have a service in a small room at "Hutching's," the 
 only service they had had that year. " About thirty people 
 collected — one or two students from Yale, some coloured 
 people, a few Indians or half-breeds, some of the helpers 
 about, and a sprinkling f the other folk in the valley. 
 I gave out the hundredth Psalm. Nobody knew it, and I 
 had to sing it alone ; so I read the remaining hymns, 
 choosing the most simple and those most expressive of the 
 gospel. It was by no means an ideal service, but it affected 
 me peculiarly, — the motley congregation of careless people, 
 the various races represented, the secluded spot, the still 
 night (for the hush of all nature is very deep), the sense of 
 being walled in by rock, the only voice lifted up there for 
 Christ that whole summer, and to me the solitude of feeling 
 so far from home." 
 
 Rejoining the railway at Lathrop, his next stopping-place 
 was Denver, then a rough mining centre whose population 
 had increased in four years from 4,000 to 20,000. 
 
 "De> i '. 1873. 
 
 "Forty-one years old to-day ! and what to show for it": Well, I 
 feel as if there was more to come than has been. Perhaps the years 
 
Visit to America. 1 39 
 
 already spent have been seed-time. I hope so. I am often planning 
 better things for this winter, but not sanguinely, knowing how one 
 hard necessity will bowl down a hundred plans. I would like to 
 have some free time for chat and rest and music and fun with the 
 children from dinner-time till nine. Perhaps some evenings that can 
 be managed. How the birthdays get intertwined, yours and mine 
 and the children's, all to be woven together with the fadeless lilies of 
 heaven ! Our thoughts are busy crossing to-day, mine hastening to 
 you from the Rocky Mountains, now spread out in panorama before 
 me. I have a growing, gnawing hunger for St. Louis and letters — 
 and then for home ! 
 
 "This country is the paradise of advertisers. The rocks that rise 
 a few inches above water are gay with announcements of ' Bitters ' 
 and ' Blacking.' As we entered Fall river the tide was out, and on a 
 huge piece of wrack-covered stone there stared us in the face, ' Closer 
 than a brother sticks Spalding's Glue.' The rail fences for thousands 
 of miles exult in ' Sozodont ' and ' Hall's Cough Candy. ' On the 
 great divide between the Atlantic and the Pacific a few masses of 
 sandstone stand out to the left. On every side the rolling prairie 
 stretches away to the foot of the mighty hills. It is a place of soli- 
 tude and almost awe. But the sandstone is painted over with ' Ris- 
 ing Sun Stove Polish,' and ' Plantation Bitters ' glares out from the 
 wild red cliffs that border Echo Canon." 
 
 From St. Louis to Louisville, and thence by Cincinnati to 
 New York, which lie reached in time for the Conference of 
 the Evangelical Alliance, which began on the 1st of October. 
 The meetings were most remarkable, and left an impression 
 on those who were present that could never be effaced. The 
 essential unity of Protestantism was demonstrated most un- 
 mistakably. Mr. Stevenson felt stirred to his inmost soul, 
 and entered with enthusiasm into the work of the Alliance. 
 Of his own paper, of which the subject was, "The Working 
 Power of the Church, and how to utilize it," he writes to his 
 wife : — 
 
 "The papers were all of an unusually high character, and this 
 made me sufficiently nervous about my own ordeal, which was to 
 come off on Saturday, at the very end, when everybody would be 
 tired and exacting. It turned out better than my fears 
 
140 Life of Willi a m Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 "It must have struck some chord of which I was unaware, since 
 there was no merit in itself, and I have said it in substance in Rath- 
 gar twenty times. Many persons have since come up and introduced 
 themselves to express their thanks." 
 
 All through his journeyings he wrote long, bright, strength- 
 ening letters to his congregation, and we give some extracts 
 from an account he gave them of the Alliance after his 
 return : — - 
 
 " The meetings were held in the rooms of the Young Men's Chris- 
 tian Association, itself the youngest creation of the busy Christian 
 life of that young world. The Lecture Hall was the central point of 
 the Alliance. Its motto, ' Unum corpus sumus in Christo,' hung 
 above the platform ; underneath ran the other ancient words, ' In 
 Necessariis Unitas, In Dubiis Libertas, In Omnibus Caritas ; ' while, 
 as if smothering the asperities of their difference under sweetness 
 and light, masses of flowers were heaped round the names of Luther 
 and Calvin, Knox and Wycliffe, Wesley and Edwards and Bunyan, 
 and Jesus shone down upon them all. In mere size the Conference 
 was not remarkable, for there were not cjuite five hundred delegates ; 
 nor had they the stamp of any special rank, nor was there any 
 show of dress to lend dignity to the assembly. The impression made 
 upon the mind was of a dignity that was in no way derived from ex- 
 ternal accidents, but depended solely 011 the object for which these 
 men were met. They had come, many of them, from the other side 
 of the sea, to testify that the body of Christ is one, and in that unity 
 ' to discuss the great matters of Christian faith, Christian life, Chris- 
 tian work, Christian hope, and Christian destiny.' The proceedings 
 were very simple. Every morning there was a united prayer-meeting 
 in a neighbouring Presbyterian church — a crowded meeting, earnest, 
 hearty, and effective, as such meetings are in America. There is 
 magnificent swing and impulse about American Christian life — a 
 mingled enthusiasm and practical good sense that are very beautiful 
 together. There is energy in it, but not mere rude, reckless force : 
 it is the energy of passionate conviction of men whose Christian im- 
 pulses act at once upon their Christian conduct. Their enthusiasm 
 does not evaporate, but, as far as one may judge, is a steady force. 
 If their religious life exceeds ours in warmth and impulsiveness, it 
 is not inferior in the more solid and staying qualities that we reckon 
 our best. From this meeting, and bearing something of its fervour 
 
Visit to America. mi 
 
 away, the Conference adjourned to the halls where the sections met. 
 each presided over by its chairman. The reading of papers followed 
 until one, when there was an hour's adjournment for luncheon, lav- 
 ishly provided in the rooms of the Association. On reassembling at 
 two, the sections continued at work till after four, and in the even- 
 ings there were public meetings. 
 
 "As the business and the audience increased it was found needful 
 to have various sections meeting simultaneously, and occasionally a 
 paper that had attracted notice in one was re-delivered in another. 
 The attendance was quite as striking as the rapid growth of interest. 
 As many as three large buildings were occasionally occupied at the 
 same time, and some of them crowded. Yet on the very eve of the 
 Conference there were well-informed persons who mistrusted its suc- 
 cess. There was little apparent public interest, and a financial panic 
 was running its course. The country shook under the monetary 
 storm. One strong house went down after another. Banks began 
 to close. The millionaires of yesterday were the paupers of to-day. 
 Xothing could be more unpromising than the outlook of the Alliance. 
 Even the newspapers were filled with the panic to the exclusion of 
 almost every other topic. Yet by the Friday of the first week they 
 were filled with the Conference. 
 
 "The reporting of the Conference- was a wonder by itself. One 
 paper (the Tribune) devoted as much type to the meeting as would 
 print half the Bible. Essays which occupied several hours in delivery 
 could be read with leisure in the morning issue. There was nothing 
 left unreported, down to the prayers and the benediction. The 
 Tribune was said to have increased its circulation by forty thousand 
 a day, and a greater and more immediate publicity was secured than 
 at any similar meeting in any country. There was not a town in 
 the United States to which a daily summary of the proceedings was 
 not telegraphed. The halls were so crowded that it was a favour 
 even to stand, and political associations were held so slight at the 
 time that one of the largest assemblies was packed into Tammany 
 Hall and presided over by a well-known republican. It was impos- 
 sible to keep pace with the interest, which grew with every sitting, 
 and the number of men always present was very striking. 
 
 "For the rest, the Conference was like. those that had preceded it, 
 with some salient and characteristic features that lent it distinctness, 
 and with the old features enlarged, as befitted the vast continent 
 that had welcomed and, it might be said, imported it. Generous 
 and exceeding hospitality had never been wanting ; but in New 
 York, and in New York no more than everywhere else, the hos- 
 
142 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 pitality was unbounded. Merchants shortened their summer trip 
 to Europe that they might receive their guests ; public institutions 
 were thrown open ; the Mayor and Corporation placed a steamer at 
 the disposal of the delegates, and conveyed them round the famous 
 municipal charities. One day they were driven in open carriages 
 through Greenwood, another day through Central Park ; one evening 
 it was a dinner at Brooklyn, the next a reception in a Fifth Avenue 
 palace ; there were excursions up the Hudson, and first-class railway 
 passes to and from Niagara, and special trains to Washington ; hotel 
 lulls and ferry-boats were paid, and return tickets were given, not 
 only free, but usable to the remotest period ; and all this was due as 
 much to the spontaneous kindness of individuals and companies as of 
 the general committee. No more thoughtful courtesies could be ren- 
 dered than were at the service of every deputy. The kindness had 
 even its ludicrous side, for photographers tendered applications for 
 sittings, and an enterprising dentist offered to draw the teeth of 
 members at half-price. But, these trifles apart, it might fairly be 
 said by those who looked on, ' See how these Christians love one 
 another.' No promise was ever more strictly fulfilled than that 
 which greeted the strangers as they entered Association Hall, ' We 
 bless you in the name of the Lord, and welcome you most heartily 
 to our country, our churches, our pulpits, and our homes.' 
 
 " The subjects were also on a larger and more comprehensive scale 
 than had been attempted before. Starting from a discussion of the 
 true unity of Christendom, they included a survey of Protestantism 
 as it is, both in its settled Churches and in its missions, a keen and 
 many-sided examination of the prevalent forms of unbelief, and a 
 distinct attempt to grapple with not only the problems of the Church, 
 but the weighty social problems that demand solution. 
 
 " The Protestant Churches defiled before the spectator, marching 
 like troops on review, some strong, others only a handful, with 
 banners that had been borne in many a battle, faded and ragged and 
 never lowered, the names of their glorious and imperishable dead 
 flashing out through the mists of history as they passed. They came 
 from English Canterbury and the heather braes of Scotland ; Wal- 
 denses from their valleys of the Alps, and Spaniards from the cities 
 of the Inquisition ; from Holland with its memories of Orange, and 
 Belgium with its memories of Alva ; Huguenots from France, and 
 Genevese from the city of Calvin ; from sunny plains of Italy and the 
 white snow-fields of the North ; from Ireland, that had once covered 
 Europe with its missionaries, and from the Mission Churches that are 
 now covering India; from the stately German Empire that has sprung 
 
Visit to America. 143 
 
 of Martin Luther, and the statelier Republic of the children of the 
 Mayflowt r. As the spectacle swept by there was no possibility of 
 misreading the lesson. The vital energy of Protestantism was there. 
 The powers of the world had been hurled against it ; it had been 
 chained, tortured, butchered, burnt ; it had been wasted by incessant 
 strife, and crushed by its own carelessness and formalism. If it had 
 flourished in some countries, it had been almost stamped out of 
 others ; it had been a prey to contending political factions, and had 
 no visible unity to bind and control it. Yet it was there in its old 
 undaunted power. If there were districts where its forces were 
 small and scattered, it was bravely labouring to attack sin over as 
 large an area as elsewhere. If there were states disordered and dis- 
 organized, it was the sound and healthy and stable element in them. 
 There could be no doubt about its intense and abundant earnestness. 
 
 "It is impossible to review the proceedings in detail. Nearly a 
 hundred and fifty papers were read, and there were almost as many 
 addresses at extra public meetings. Discussion was rarely possible, 
 and the exchange of views was confined to private intercourse — a seri- 
 ous loss of the real gain that such a Conference may be expected to 
 secure. The range of papers covered every question of moment that 
 is at present agitated in the Christian Church. The various forms of 
 unbelief, and the relations of the Church and of Christian thought to 
 scientific truth, were treated with abundant care, and by so skilful 
 oversight that even the local forms assumed by unbelief in particular 
 countries came under notice. It was impossible not to be struck by 
 the masterly power with which these subjects were treated, the 
 thorough, painstaking way in which men of brilliant reputation went 
 into each, the absence of all superficial, perfunctory work, so that 
 what was done was evidently done from a sense of duty that was 
 more than usually earnest, in some intensely earnest. The writer of 
 the most brilliant paper in this section, and indeed at the Conference, 
 spent, I have learned, many months in its preparation, and simply 
 because he felt he was discharging a debt to the doubting ; and 
 scientific as it was, wrestled over it in prayer as a message to the 
 souls of men ; while just as noticeable were the breadth and dignity 
 of these papers, without a trace of that fretfulness and dogmatism 
 that often mark the scientific apologetics of Christianity, perfectly 
 manly, honestly fair. 
 
 "The most noticeable was an essay on modern scepticism by Pro- 
 fessor Christlieb of Bonn. In spite of the variance of country and 
 language, it was remarked that every speaker used English, that it 
 was the bond of a common tongue not only between the cities of 
 
144 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 Phirope, but between Europe and America, and between Asia and 
 them both ; but this German student, by long residence in London, 
 had made himself master of English idiom, and by study and prayer 
 had devoted himself to his subject with a really beautiful enthusiasm, 
 that it might not end in an intellectual triumph, but ' be a message 
 of God to wounded consciences.' 
 
 • ' If another point may be singled out of many, it would be the 
 appearance of the Old Catholics, though it was only by letter and 
 not in the person of their representatives, of whom Von Schulte, 
 Huber, Friedrich, and Hyacinthe were unable to attend. Already 
 meeting for worship in many of the Protestant churches of Germany, 
 and claiming the Reformation right for every man to search the 
 Scriptures, and by them to prove all things, it was the less difficult 
 for them to hail the members of the Alliance as brethren. Yet it was 
 with strange and solemn feelings that an assembly of Protestants re- 
 ceived a greeting and a God-speed in their work of union from the 
 members of the Church of Rome, and possibilities of a great return 
 and crowning victory of truth and love rose to the mind in response 
 to their prayer for ' that object unto which we should all strive — that 
 under one Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, the members of His holy 
 Church may form a single flock. ' 
 
 "But the clearly outstanding features of the Conference were two — 
 the evening meetings and the common communion. It was announced 
 that on the first Lord's-day meetings would be held in the Academy 
 of Music or Opera-House, and in the large Steinway Concert-Hall. 
 Had it not been for my companion, an eminent Irish and now Xew 
 York minister, it would have been impossible to obtain footing in 
 either building, vast numbers having been turned away from both ; 
 and a more impressive spectacle could not easily be found than these 
 huge areas as seen from the orchestra or the stage. There was the 
 dense mass of faces eagerly bent upon the platform, and so close to- 
 gether that the audience, look where one might from the pit to the 
 upper gallery, seemed one enormous face ; the burst of song that 
 swept over it when some familiar tune was sung, like Coronation ; 
 the stillness with which it listened ; the reverent hush of pra}er, 
 more like the quiet of a private room. And there was the knot of 
 earnest men gathered from every part of the world, some of them the 
 foremost theologians, philosophic thinkers, and brilliant scholars of 
 the time, but all addressing the multitude in language as simple as it 
 was affecting, urging upon them the claims and majesty and the sweet 
 tenderness of Christ, taking up one pleading of the gospel after an- 
 other and pressing it close to the weariness and misery and emptiness 
 
Visit to America. 145 
 
 and hunger of human hearts — men of the most various speech, nation- 
 ality, culture, and gift, yet all, as at a Pentecost, pointing to the same 
 Lamb of God, and declaring the wonderful work of His redemption. 
 
 " On the next Lord's day these scenes were repeated on a larger 
 scale. Additional public halls were taken, and churches were pressed 
 into the service, but even this accommodation was insufficient. Eager 
 crowds beset each building before the doors were opened, and poured 
 in until every inch of ground was occupied, and yet it was computed 
 that almost as many were disappointed as had been fortunate enough 
 to secure admission. The addresses were of the same character as 
 before, touched then, indeed, with the brightness of welcome, and 
 now with the sadness of parting — a sadness that lent them a pathetic 
 solemnity. There was no more attraction than then ; and it was 
 now everywhere known that nothing was to be expected but plain, 
 brief, simple preaching of Jesus. By this time the novelty had worn 
 off, and most of those who cared had seen the strange faces, while 
 the very brevity and simplicity of the services forbade any expecta- 
 tion of oratory, or even much freshness in the statement of old truth. 
 But there is no magnet to attract men like 'the old, old story,' and 
 the Churches that are content, humbly and in faith, to hold up Jesus 
 will find the truth of His divine Word : 'I, if I be lifted up, will 
 draw all men unto Me.' It was, perhaps, the most impressive lesson 
 of the Conference, the one of which men have thought the most since. 
 And these meetings were not the only illustration it received. 
 
 "It happened that the two Lord's days on which the Conference 
 fell were those usual for the communion of the Lord's Supper in some 
 of the prominent Presbyterian congregations, and when ministers of 
 the various Churches Mere invited to take part in these several com- 
 munions, they gave a hearty consent. The form was the simple one 
 of Presbyterian use. Episcopalian, Baptist, Wesleyan, Moravian, 
 Congregational, Conformist and Nonconformist, Germany and France, 
 England and America, white and black, took part after this ancient 
 ritual. And as the bishop and the Scottish minister, the subject of 
 Emperor William and the citizen of republican France, drank of the 
 same cup and broke the bread together, there was a thrill of union 
 so touching that no one might wonder when those who shared in it 
 said they had not expected to be so near heaven on this side of the 
 grave. The Dean of Canterbury and his brother deputies, and Bishop 
 Cummins and others of the Episcopal Church in America, were carry- 
 ing Christian union a great stride forward when they dispensed the 
 sacrament under the presidency of a Presbyterian minister and within 
 the walls of a Presbyterian church. 
 
 10 
 
146 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 " Though the Conference formally closed its sessions in New York, 
 it was compelled, by the pressure of American hospitality, to prolong 
 its existence and make a stately progress to Washington. The rail- 
 way companies furnished trains of palace-cars, and the cities over- 
 flowed with practical courtesies. The first halting-place was Prince- 
 ton, flooded with sunshine and buried in its beautiful trees, that 
 were now all crimson and gold, and looking, in the pleasant autumn 
 weather, the ideal of a studious retreat. The long procession wound 
 up from the cars between rows of students, who discharged, as it 
 passed, volleys of the famous Princeton ' tiger ' with a gravity that 
 was irresistibly comic ; and under the guidance of President M'Cosh, 
 who within a few years has received for his college over £220,000, 
 the little university town was thoroughly explored, almost every 
 step of the way revealing some new building among the many that 
 have risen up, like palaces of fairyland, since his accession — among 
 the rest, a library, hall of science, and gymnasium that would not be 
 unworthy of any European academy. After a few hours the train 
 was again reached, and the Alliance left for Philadelphia, Princeton 
 lying midway between it and Xew York. A reception was accorded 
 here in the historic hall from which had issued the Declaration of 
 Independence ; but the real reception was in the huge halls and 
 churches, crowded by thousands who came to listen to such simple 
 and earnest addresses as had been already spoken in Xew York, and 
 by merging all denominations in their welcome to act out the happy 
 appropriateness of their motto, ' The Church 0/ Philadelphia saluteth 
 you. ' Early the next morning the trains swept the delegates away 
 to Washington, where they were received at the White House by 
 the President and his Cabinet. The prayer by the Dean of Canter- 
 bury before the members were presented, and the speeches called for 
 afterwards, were novel features to most of those present, and marked 
 a simplicity and an elasticity of form peculiar to American people. 
 Their directness, frankness, freedom from routine, and quickness to 
 seize and act upon a salient thought, so that a single word will gather 
 to it the simultaneous response of a vast multitude, were nowhere 
 more noticeable than at Washington. Whether it was the singing of 
 a hymn under the dome of the Capitol, or when the crowd swarmed 
 on the steps, and a clear voice cried, 'Jesus shall reign where'er tJu 
 sun,' the hand of the speaker pointing at the same time to the sun 
 in the cloudless sky overhead, and with a sudden burst the song 
 leaped out from every lip ; or even when, with inimitable earnest- 
 ness, 'three cheers' were given 'for the whole world,* there Mas the 
 same absence of conventionality, the same swiftn< ss of infectious im- 
 
Visit to America. 147 
 
 pulse. The eager welcome to the Alliance spread as fast and wide 
 as the telegrams that flashed the news of its meetings, until the 
 entire country was up with open arms of welcome, and invitations 
 poured in so incessantly and with offers of such reckless generosity, 
 that but for the difficulty of time, the delegates might have made 
 the tour of America, and been the guests of every city and railroad 
 board of the States. The final leave-taking, however, was to be 
 among the dignities, and magnificent buildings, and lavish hospitali- 
 ties of the capital. There were not only the reception by the Presi- 
 dent, and the dinner by the Governor of Columbia, and the inspection 
 of the Government offices, where the heads of each department re- 
 ceived the strangers ; but, as before, the densely packed churches, 
 the warm, loving, earnest addresses, enthusiasm, a sense of unity 
 more vivid and more practical and abiding than men had yet felt, 
 welcomes and farewells." 
 
 The 3rd of November saw the joyful return to the dear 
 home-circle at Orwell Bank, to which Mr. Stevenson had 
 looked forward so longingly during the months of separation. 
 
 America, in its religious and social aspects, had deeply 
 impressed him, and he spoke of the country and the people 
 with admiration and love. And he, in his turn, had im- 
 pressed them, for again and again they tried to wean him 
 from the mother-country, and to get him to settle among 
 them ; and though his loyalty to duty made such efforts 
 fruitless, he never ceased to feel that among his w r armest 
 friends he could count those he had made in the great Western 
 Republic. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE FOREIGN MISSION. 
 
 The early life and training of Mr. Stevenson's home fostered 
 his interest in everything connected with Foreign Missions, 
 which in later years grew into a supreme conviction of the 
 importance of the Mission as regarded the Church itself. He 
 felt that the Church of Christ must be aggressive, and that 
 if she was to grow in spiritual power, the Mission, in its 
 widest sense, must be kept in the forefront of her work — 
 that, in the last words of her Lord on earth, the command 
 and the promise joined together by Him must never be put 
 asunder: "Go ye and teach all nations," and " Lo ! I am 
 with you alway." When he became the pastor of a congrega- 
 tion he spared no effort to fire his people with the same 
 enthusiasm. He believed that at the bottom of much of the 
 half-heartedness and lukewarmness of Christian people lay a 
 want of reality in their conception of the state of the heathen 
 world. And so in the preparation for his monthly mission- 
 ary meeting he took infinite pains to make his information 
 interesting, throwing into it all the picturesqueness of de- 
 scription of which he was master, and by side-lights drawn 
 from all sources — the newspapers of the day or the latest 
 book of travels — making his audience realize intelligently 
 the need and the remedy. By lectures, missionary sermons, 
 letters, and special appeals, lie kept this subject before his 
 congregation. His home had a warm welcome for the mis- 
 sionary, and he never was happier than when he could bring 
 
The Foreign Mission. 149 
 
 some labourer fresh from the field to tell his people what he 
 had seen, and how God was fulfilling His word. 
 
 He made himself thoroughly acquainted with the details 
 of the history and development of the mission-work in which 
 the Irish Presbyterian Church was engaged, and ere long he 
 was recognized by a wide circle outside his own Church as 
 an authority on all missionary subjects. 
 
 The conduct of the entire mission- work of the Presbyterian 
 Church of Ireland at home and abroad is intrusted to a Board 
 or committee appointed by the General Assembly. Each 
 separate mission is represented by its "convener," who is 
 virtually the director of the mission, and the medium of 
 communication between the missionaries and the board, and 
 between the board and the Church, holding the post (which 
 is honorary) by appointment of the Assembly. Such a posi- 
 tion demands from its occupant gifts of organization and 
 administration of no common order. It requires tact and 
 judgment, firmness and discrimination, patience and sym- 
 pathy.- For thirty-one years the venerable Dr. Morgan 
 held this office, and his administration of it commanded the 
 esteem and gratitude of the whole Church. In 1871 he felt 
 that advancing years and the growing responsibilities of the 
 work were making it impossible for him to continue longer 
 in a post that demanded all the vigour and energy of the 
 strongest man, and when the Assembly met in Dublin in 
 June, he asked to be allowed to retire. The Church refused 
 to dissociate his name from the mission with which it had 
 been so long identified, but proposed to relieve him of the 
 burden of work by appointing a coadjutor. When asked if 
 there was any one to whom his mind had been turned as 
 suitable for this post, Dr. Morgan replied that there was one 
 man whom he considered pre-eminently qualified, and that 
 for years it had been his prayer that Mr. Stevenson might 
 be chosen as his successor. ]S"o sooner was the name of I\I r. 
 Stevenson mentioned than the Assembly assented to the 
 
150 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 proposal by an outburst of acclamation. A friend who was 
 sitting near him at the time, turning to congratulate him on 
 the honour so spontaneously and enthusiastically conferred, 
 was struck by the solemnity of his countenance and the 
 words of deprecation and misgiving which followed. Never 
 was a charge less lightly assumed. Had it not been for the 
 pressure exercised by those whose pleading it was difficult 
 for him to resist, it is probable that he would have given a 
 courteous but firm refusal ; but after earnest prayer and due 
 deliberation, he felt that he could not disobey the call of the 
 Church so heartily given. In it he heard the voice of the 
 Master bidding him go forth to new labour and a fresh 
 sacrifice of self, and he loyally acquiesced, bringing to his 
 work all the enthusiasm which such a conviction inspired. 
 
 The following is an account of the beginning of the Mission 
 to India in Dr. Stevenson's own words : — 
 
 "It is a little more than half a century — it was in September 1833 
 — since the Synod of Ulster held a special meeting ' in the Scots' 
 Church, Mary's Abbey, Dublin.' The object was to consider the 
 most efficient means of promoting a missionary spirit. Four sermons 
 were preached, the Report of the Synod's Mission was read, speech 
 followed speech upon the great question, and the Rev. Duncan 
 Macfarland and the Rev. Norman Macleod were present to bring the 
 blessing of the Church of Scotland. The meeting stood out with a 
 happy prominence. In 1811 Dr. Hanna had shrunk from proposing 
 so simple a motion as that the Synod should support the London 
 Society for promoting the Conversion of the Jews. The very next 
 year missions were denounced in the Synod as absurd and impious, 
 and a hearing could scarcely be obtained for Dr. YVaugh to plead for 
 the London Missionary Society. Those who now took part spoke of 
 the Church as 'experiencing some degree of revival,' and as 'im- 
 pressed with the grandeur of the missionary cause.' No one, it was 
 said, could have dared to predict such a meeting in the capital. The 
 venerable Dr. Horner declared that ' his delight almost stifled his 
 powers of utterance ; ' and the interest was sufficiently great to induce 
 the separate publication of the proceedings, in the hope that the profits 
 of the sale would be of advantage to the cause. It was resolved that, 
 ' though the attempt may be difficult, it is within the power of the 
 
The i Mission. 151 
 
 Church to extend her missionary operations to other lands ; ' and the 
 Presbytery of Dublin was 'instructed to prepare a plan for the for- 
 mation of a Foreign Missionary Society.' 
 
 "The resolution -was a great advance, but for some years it was 
 the point at winch advance was stayed ; and it was not till 1839 that 
 the directors of the Home Mission were instructed to take steps to 
 have this work carried out. Letters were written to twenty of our 
 ministers, who were thought qualified for the work, and when six- 
 had placed themselves without reserve at the service of the Board, 
 two were finally chosen, the Rev. James Glasgow and the Rev. 
 Alexander Kerr. 
 
 " The principle that underlay this method of selection is important, 
 and it was emphasized at the time. 'We have proceeded,' it was 
 said, 'on the principle that all the ministers of the Church are the 
 servants of the body, and are bound to labour wherever the Church 
 may think proper to send them.' It was the assertion of the true 
 theory of missions, in which there is no room for rivalry between 
 Home and Foreign field-, and which regards all the work as one, the 
 various expression of the same response to the love and authority of 
 Christ, and the various fulfilment of the one divine plan which is 
 represented by the idea of the Church. 
 
 "It was on the 10th of July 1840, that two processions, issuing 
 from two of the churches of Belfast and mingling their ranks as they 
 met, defiled through crowds of spectators up to the Presbyterian 
 Church in Rosemary Street. They were the Secession Synod and the 
 Synod of Ulster, each headed by its Moderator ; and on that summer 
 day, under the venerable presidency of the Rev. Dr. Hanna, the}' 
 consummated their union into the General Assembly of the Presby- 
 terian Church of Ireland. It Mas only fitting that an occasion of such 
 high and solemn service should become the beginning of the Foreign 
 Mission that we find to-day, and that the first public act of the new 
 Assembly should be the dedication of its first missionaries to India. 
 Those who were present still recall the enthusiasm with which the 
 Mission thrilled that meeting. The ministers subscribed £500 upon 
 the spot ; the people of Belfast soon added £600 ; ' our Secession 
 brethren had a little stock of near £200, which they cast into the 
 common treasury ; ' an appeal made to all the congregations in the 
 November of the same year was met by £1,700 ; and the support of 
 the enterprise became a matter of certainty. 
 
 "No time was lost. The Assembly met in July, and on the 29th 
 of August the missionaries sailed from Belfast. They went out on a 
 wave of prayer. Those who \\ ished to commend them iwded 
 
152 Life of William Fleming Steve7ison. 
 
 one of the largest churches of the town ; and half an hour before they 
 left the quays, the cabin of the steamer was turned into a prayer- 
 meeting, where Dr. Cooke's fervour so moved men who usually 
 resented the signs of emotion that the tears ran down their cheeks. 
 
 ' ' The work of our Church began upon historic ground. Bombay 
 had been occupied by Scottish missionaries since 1827, and Dr. John 
 Wilson (already rising to his place of the foremost European in 
 Western India) had cherished the hope that some Church would 
 commence a Mission towards the north, and was on the point of 
 urging it upon the Synod of Ulster, when he received a letter from 
 Dr. Morgan asking his consent to the new enterprise. It was easy 
 to forecast his answer, and before our missionaries sailed, they were 
 aware that their destination was the Gujarati -speaking district of 
 Kattiawar. 
 
 "Gujarat lies north-west of Bombay, and is separated only by 
 Scinde from the famous and mighty Indus. It is a fertile and well- 
 watered region, directly south of the tropic of Cancer, ' one of the 
 richest and most populous districts of Hindostan,' covered with 
 groves of mango, guava, cocoa-nut, and plantain, and, besides growing- 
 cotton for the English market, yielding rice and other sustenance for 
 about five millions of people. The Tapti and the Xerbudda, the 
 Sabarmathi and the Mahi, pour their waters across a level plain that 
 varies from thirty to sixty miles in width, and the breezes from the 
 Gulf of Cambay temper to some extent the excessive heat. 
 
 " The towns of Gujarat were once far better known than the capitals 
 of modern India. Surat and Ahmedabad, Gogo, Broach, and Baroda 
 were places of note when Bombay was so insignificant that the map- 
 drawers spelt it with a small ' b. ' Broach was a famous seaport when 
 Christ was born, and Broach cloth has been prized in the market 
 since the second century. Two hundred years ago Surat was ' the 
 prime mart of India, all nations of the world trading there ; ' its 
 brocades and coloured cottons were famous over Asia ; two of its 
 merchants were once said to be the richest men then living, and its 
 population rose to nearly half a million. 
 
 "It was not to Gujarat itself, however, although to a people speak- 
 ing the Gujarati tongue, that the first missionaries directed their steps. 
 As it reaches the west, this district runs into the broad hammer- 
 headed peninsula of Kattiawar, less wooded, but also fertile and 
 populous, and broken up into a multitude of native and independent 
 states. There were a million and a half of people in it, and towards 
 this point the Irish Church directed its slender Christian army : and 
 others looked on with the more interest because ' up to this time 
 
The Foreign Mission. I 5 3 
 
 there had been no instance of a Christian mission in a native - 
 and the new venture was to solve a new problem of religions liberty. 
 Dr. Wilson eagerly used his influence with the chiefs, the people, 
 and the Government, and he was able to enclose to the Assembly a 
 permission from the Governor's Council ' for these gentlemen to pro- 
 ceed to and reside in Kattiawar, so long as they conduct themselves 
 according to the principles set forth in your communication.' 
 
 "The stations chosen were Rajkot, a military settlement, almost 
 in the centre ; Poorbundur, on the west coast ; and Gogo, a port on 
 the shore of the Gulf of Cambay, nearly opposite the mouth of the 
 Xerbudda. and a ' nursery of seamen.' Since the sixth century the 
 Mohammedan element has been dominant at Poorbundur ; the com- 
 mon Hindu faith prevails at Rajkot and Gogo ; and the Jains have 
 their points of pilgrimage at Joonaghur and on the curious mountain 
 that towers above Palitana, and where, from eveiy part of the broken 
 and precipitous summit, there spring the walls and pinnacles of some 
 fantastic temple. It was into this unknown territory that Mr. Glas- 
 gow and Mr. Kerr ventured with implicit faith ; and Dr. Wilson 
 wrote, with characteristic kindness and eagerness, ' I propose to 
 accompany your dear brethren to Kattiawar, and to give them such 
 advice and assistance in the formation of their plans as the experience 
 of twelve years may warrant me to offer.' " 
 
 The early work of the Mission was similar to that of all 
 such enterprises at their beginning. At the close of the first 
 ten years a large portion of the Scriptures had been trans- 
 lated, sixteen vernacular schools established, twenty-one con- 
 verts baptized, and although Poorbundur, where the first 
 baptism took place, had been abandoned, the large and 
 influential town of Surat had been occupied. Gradually the 
 Mission was extended to the magnificent old capital of 
 Ahmedabad, and to Borsad, which became the chief centre 
 of its country work, the London Missionary Society having 
 generously handed over to it, for a nominal money considera- 
 tion, their valuable buildings there and at Surat, on the 
 condition that they should carry on the work already begun 
 in these places. The little Christian settlement at Borsad 
 increased and threw out colonies into new neighbourhoods, 
 while the villages all around became more or less pervaded 
 
154 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 by Christian influence. Six agricultural colonies have been 
 founded, for which the Government granted land on very 
 reasonable terras, and in them there is growing up a popu- 
 lation of robust and independent farmers, who will be the 
 supporters of the Church of the future. 
 
 And so from small beginnings the Mission grew, and year 
 by year new means of usefulness were devised. The following 
 summary may give some idea of its extent at the time of 
 Dr. Stevenson's death : — 
 
 Stations 16 
 
 Xative evangelists 19 
 
 , , colporteurs 6 
 
 ,, Christian school teachers 43 
 
 , , non-Christian school teachers 67 
 
 Xative church — 
 
 Communicants 299 
 
 Baptized, but not communicants 1,174 
 
 Unbaptized adherents 797 
 
 Vernacular schools — 
 
 "For boys, 21, with 1,309 scholars. 
 For girls, 15, with 828 scholars. 
 Orphans — Boys 49, girls 56. 
 
 There were thus 2,270 native Christians in Gujarat, 36 
 vernacular schools with over 3,000 scholars, and 2 high 
 schools at Surat and Ahmedabad with 900 on the rolls, wheiv 
 students are instructed up to the standard of matriculation 
 in the University of Bombay. Over 320 children have been 
 cared for in the orphanages, the majority of them girls ; and 
 from the ranks of these many of the mothers of Christian 
 families and best helpers of the missionary have been derived. 
 The press at Surat employs from thirty to forty hands, 
 printing some three million pages annually, which comprise, 
 besides the Bible, of which the original Gujarati version of 
 the New Testament has been revised, a large number of 
 religious tracts and books. By the report of 1886-7 the 
 income from all sources, including the women's association, 
 
The Foreign Mission. 155 
 
 amounted to £12,728. Twenty-four missionaries had been 
 sent out since the foundation of the Mission, of whom ten 
 were still at work, nine having died and live retired. 
 
 Where the Lord's Supper was celebrated by five or six 
 in an upper room some five-and-twenty years ago, it is cele- 
 brated now by hundreds in separate churches. Congrega- 
 tions have sprung up in the country districts, not strong in 
 themselves, yet large enough to require separate places of 
 worship, of which eleven have already been built. Their 
 members are for the most part poor and scattered, but they 
 have already begun to face the problem of a self-supported 
 native ministry.* 
 
 But, in addition to the work in India, there was also the 
 burden of the more recently established Mission of the Irish 
 Church to China. Dr. Stevenson realized, as few men did 
 twenty years ago, the unlimited possibilities that would lie 
 before a Christian China, and the corresponding importance 
 of mission-work in that country. Of its origin he wrote in 
 1855:— 
 
 "Our mission to China has been sustained for over fifteen years. 
 William Burns and Carstairs Douglas urged the occupation of Man- 
 churia on the Irish Church ; the prayer was granted, and the Church 
 sent out two missionaries, one of whom was a medical man. Some 
 years after, the missionaries of the United Presbyterian Church came 
 to the same region. It was at the port of Newchwang that Burns 
 closed his brilliant career, the most northerly of those open trading 
 towns, and certainly the most depressing. A collection of mud 
 houses spreads along the river, large enough to house fifty or sixty 
 thousand of a population. The shores are flat and oozy ; the nearest 
 hills are two days' journey ; the outer world is shut off by ice during 
 half the year. A migratory character is stamped upon the people ; 
 for, in some aspects of it, Manchuria is to the rest of China like 
 Australia to Great Britain, a field for emigration. Yet there is a 
 vast region to which the port is the key, and there are cities in the 
 interior with 70.000 and 80,000 inhabitants, and one at least with a 
 
 * In February 1888 the first two native pastors were ordained over practically 
 self-supporting congregations. 
 
156 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 population of about 250,000. The land is moderately fertile, the 
 scenery often beautiful, and the people are fairly well to do. Long 
 journeys have been made over it, sometimes by the seller of Bibles, 
 sometimes by the missionary. Dr. Hunter of the Irish Mission was 
 up as far as the Amoor, has shaken hands with Russian soldiers, and 
 found the books of the Greek Church in the houses. He wrote that 
 he had carried one end of the gospel chain until he put it into the 
 hands of those who met him from the other side, and thus put a 
 blessed girdle round the globe. The response to the gospel has not 
 been great, and the apparent lack has tried the faith of the Church. 
 But there is a huge territory to evangelize, and although we have 
 had but five missionaries, only three of whom remain, it seems as if 
 a reaping-time had come. " 
 
 In the face of discouragement and difficulty, of disappoint- 
 ment and almost despair, occasioned by failing health and 
 by death, the Mission held on its way. The dawn was just 
 breaking when Dr. Stevenson went to his rest. That daAvn 
 is now brightening into day ; and although he has not lived 
 to see its brightness, yet his name will be associated with 
 the rise and early progress of the Mission to Manchuria. 
 The missionaries there yielded nothing to those in India in 
 their love to him when living, and their mourning for his 
 early removal. 
 
 It was to this great work that, for fifteen years, Mr. 
 Stevenson consecrated all his powers with unflagging energy, 
 and an ever-increasing desire for the spread of the kingdom 
 of Christ in the dark places of the earth. What incessant 
 labour that work involved w T hen added to his previously 
 busy life ; what thought, and care, and anxiety it brought, 
 only those within the home-circle fully knew. But they 
 also knew how willingly and unreservedly the sacrifice was 
 made — rather how the sense of sacrifice was lost in the joy it 
 brought him to be able to help on the work so dear to the 
 heart of his Lord. 
 
 At the close of the meeting of Assembly Dr. Morgan 
 wrote to the missionaries in 1871 : — 
 
The Foreign Mission. 157 
 
 ' ' You will he desirous to know what arrangements were adopted 
 at the Assembly in reference to my proposal to resign the office 01 
 Convener to the Foreign Mission. I did as I intended, and asked 
 the Assembly to accept my resignation. The greatest kindness and 
 deepest interest were shown toward the Mission and its interests, as 
 
 well as to myself personally I was requested to accept a colleague 
 
 and continue to appear with him as representative of the Mission. 
 To this I was willing to consent, if I was satisfied with the fellow- 
 labourer they would give me. I had made reference to Mr. Steven- 
 son of Rathgar as a brother into whose hands I could gladly transfer 
 the work. He was offered to me, and I may say this was all I 
 wanted. I agreed to the offer, and all was settled harmoniously and 
 pleasantly. He accepted the appointment as the resolution was con- 
 veyed to him, and all, I trust, is now arranged in a way that promises 
 well for the Mission. I do not know any minister so well acquainted 
 with the subject of Missions as Mr. Stevenson. I believe he is pre- 
 paring a volume as a History of Missions, so that the work is most 
 congenial to him. Professor Wallace proposed his election and Dr. 
 
 Smyth seconded, and it was carried unanimously and heartily I 
 
 have thus reason to be thankful that I stand to the Mission in the 
 same relation as I do to my congregation, having a colleague in whom 
 I can confide, and in whose hands I am satisfied all will be well when 
 it pleases God to separate me from both." 
 
 An extract from Mr. Stevenson's first letter to the mis- 
 sionaries in the field reveals the spirit in which lie approached 
 the work :— 
 
 "You have already heard from Dr. Morgan of the decision to 
 which our Church has come at his request, and that the General 
 Assembly, at its last meeting, agreed to relieve him of some of the 
 burden and responsibility of his work by appointing me to assist him 
 in whatever way he should deem needful. To this proposal I could 
 offer no objection but one. It is a happiness and privilege to assist 
 the father of our Mission in any way. and to be associated with the 
 Foreign Mission is not only the highest honour the Church could 
 bestow, but it is work round which all my sympathies and longings 
 gather at once ; and I wish to throw myself upon your sympathy 
 and to ask of you your constant prayer that such grace and wisdom 
 ami energy may be given me as the Lord can abundantly bestow. 
 With some of you T may claim a personal acquaintance and fellow- 
 
158 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 ship, and for yon all I have learnt a profound regard, and cannot feel 
 as if I was writing in any way to strangers. May our God strengthen 
 and sanctify our intercourse ! Some of you are my fathers in age 
 and experience : remember me as Paul remembers Timothy. You 
 will be as glad as I am relieved to know that Dr. Morgan continues 
 to occupy his post and hold relation to the Mission ; that I am simply 
 his helper ; that we reap all the benefit of his tried wisdom and per- 
 sonal interest ; and our prayers will unite that he may be long spared 
 such health as to make the help rendered chiefly nominal and in 
 matters of detail. Of the Mission, or of the relation of the Church 
 to it, I do not trust myself to speak in this letter. We need a mighty 
 kindling of the missionary spirit, and God will surely send it. May 
 He greatly bless you in your daily work, and in every place may your 
 faith to God- ward be spread abroad ! " 
 
 Two years after the appointment of his successor the 
 venerable Convener, after many months of weakness and 
 suffering, was called home, and the sole conduct of the 
 mission devolved upon Mr. Stevenson. 
 
 " November 13, 1S73. 
 " My dear Brethren, — Since my last letter, Mr. Wallace's deatli 
 has been rapidly followed by that of the father and founder of our 
 Mission. The tidings did not reach me for many weeks, and till I 
 was on my way back from the far West. A day or two before I 
 sailed I was with him to say good-bye, and, though in pain, he was 
 as full of the Mission as ever. We both looked forward to meeting 
 again before he joined the saints in glory, but it was to be otherwise. 
 He had been spared to hear and rejoice in the blessed tidings from 
 Borsad, and happy thoughts of the victory of Christ's kingdom must 
 have been with him in his death. Dearly beloved brethren, left as 
 we are without his counsel and sympathy and continual prayer, let 
 us be cast more and more upon God. Pray much for me, unfit and 
 unworthy to bear the burden which he bore. Pray much for our 
 Church, that to her may be given the spirit of grace and of supplica- 
 tion for you and for the bringing of the heathen unto Christ. Pray 
 for the breath of a divine spring that will break through the crust 
 of our indifference and unwillingness at home. Let us pray for our 
 own spiritual life, that it may be heightened and purified, and made 
 richer in self-sacrifice and all real power to the glory of Jesus. — 
 .Yours affectionately in the Lord, 
 
 \v. Fleming Stevenson." 
 
The Foreign Mission. 1 59 
 
 With tin- exception of a single annual meeting in Dublin 
 and in Derry respectively, the ordinary bi-monthly and all 
 special meetings of the Board of Missions were held in 
 Belfast. Nothing but illness prevented Mr. Stevenson's 
 attendance, or induced him to relegate his business there to 
 another. Even when in Cornwall for much-needed rest, lie 
 insisted on taking the long and weary journey thence to 
 Derry and back, involving four days' continuous travel by 
 land and sea. The business he had to bring before the 
 Board was arranged beforehand with the most scrupulous 
 exactness, that no time might be lost. Seldom was any paper 
 or letter required which he could not instantly produce. To 
 gain the unanimous assent of so large a body of men to any 
 proposal required no little tact and judgment in the presenta- 
 tion of his case; and to those who, on the one hand, knew the 
 intensity of his anxiety on various points that he believed to 
 be vitally important to the welfare of the work, and, on the 
 other, saw the unruffled patience with which he bore delay 
 or disappointment, it will be no surprise to learn that often 
 much of the preceding night was spent wrestling in prayer 
 for the presence of the Holy Spirit at the next day's meeting, 
 and that " his own impatience might be curbed " and seeming 
 mistakes over-ruled for the good of his beloved Mission. 
 
 On assuming the sole responsibility of the Convenership, 
 the stirring up of the Church at home appeared to him to 
 be his first and most imperative duty, and he wrote to the 
 missionaries : — 
 
 "It rests much with ih {<> cry in earnest pra}-cr, ' Thy kingdom 
 come ! ' Would that the Lord would fill our people with this holy, in- 
 tense desire, that they might give Him no rest day or night, and that 
 we might be bold to ask for signs and wonders to be done in the name 
 of Jesus ! It is so easy for us to get satisfied witli a little, with the 
 regular average progress. We want the faith to go forward and 
 conquer, the restless faith that hurries us into the future for greater 
 thin.-, and laughs at impossibilities: we want this, as well as the 
 patience of the husbandman that waiteth for the precious fruit. May 
 
160 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 God give it to His Church and servants everywhere, a faith that 
 groweth exceedingly, a zeal that will burn like fire ! The immediate 
 future of India is a pressing problem. The Mission is only one of 
 many forces at present operating to loosen the attachment of the 
 people to their faiths ; and with the advance of European culture and 
 the development of commerce and the spread of the knowledge of 
 English, this process of detachment from ancient beliefs is sure to 
 be accelerated. But the Mission is the only force that can create 
 a future for the people, and preserve the country in the time of 
 danger. Statesmen can see this. May the Church not be blind to 
 it !'" 
 
 He was always eager to get missionaries from other 
 Churches to stimulate his own by accounts of what God had 
 wrought through them, and he felt specially grateful to the 
 Presbyterian Church of England, who, in 1874, gave him for 
 six weeks the valuable services of the Rev. W. S. Swanston, 
 one of their foremost missionaries from China. Together 
 they visited numbers of the churches, not only in the towns 
 but in the country districts, where the interest awakened 
 was so great that Mr. Stevenson looked back with the 
 liveliest gratitude to his friend's rousing addresses ; and one 
 of his last efforts on behalf of the Mission was the endeavour 
 to arrange for a repetition of Mr. Swanston's visit in the 
 winter of 1886-7. 
 
 In May 1874 there were good tidings to send to the field. 
 
 ' ' Three candidates for India will be proposed at the Board on 
 Monday— the Rev. Mr. Hewitt of Whitehouse, Mr. W. Wallace 
 Brown, and Mr. John Shillidy. They are all offering themselves 
 with their whole heart, and are sacrificing the certainty of high 
 distinction and rapid advancement at home. Mr. Hewitt is a tried 
 young minister, who will move the adoption of the Foreign Mission 
 Report at the Assembly. Mr. Brown and Mr. Shillidy are two of the 
 most distinguished students in our Church, and their resolution has 
 caused no small stir. There is little doubt but that one or two of the 
 same stamp could be sent each year for the next two or three, and 
 thus not merely the Mission sustained but enlarged. Meanwhile, 
 we should be glad to hear from you of new stations, if you think it 
 desirable that any should be opened." 
 
The Foreign Missi n. 161 
 
 Two years later came the shadow of a great sorrow. 
 
 '■ The illness of our beloved brother, Mr. Hewitt, is a heavy trial 
 that lias been making our hearts sore. An extract from a letter I lit 
 reached me this morning gives a more alarming account of the fever 
 than I had been at all prepared for. The Lord restore him ! is our 
 constant prayer. When, just on the eve of the Assembly, I had a 
 bright, happy letter from him, there was no anticipation that almost 
 the next news would be that he was brought so low. My heart 
 aches all day from the news of this morning. A darkness seems to 
 gather over the summer, and I write more by way of relief than for 
 anything I can say 
 
 " Your letter lies like a dead weight upon me that I cannot shake off. 
 Until to-day I had had great hope that the fever, if not conquered, 
 was on the way to be conquered; and still I cling to hope, but with 
 the impression that hope has been long over even while I write. 
 There is the widest and keenest anxiety everywhere. So much was 
 built upon Mr. Hewitt, so much was known of the proof he had 
 made of his ministry at home, and so much affection was entertained 
 for him, that this tragic illness has excited universal sympathy 
 throughout our Church. Here we wrestle in prayer, but at this 
 
 distance we wrestle in the dark, and we ask for faith and light 
 
 We rejoice to think of the wonderful care our brother has experienced. 
 Such tender, brotherly consideration as Mr. Conder's, and such un- 
 wearied and loving attendance as Dr. Macdonald's, cannot be 
 measured by our gratitude. " 
 
 "It was difficult, when I wrote a fortnight ago, to surrender the. 
 hope that our brother, Mr. Hewitt, would be spared; it was also 
 difficult to resist the impression that made way against all hope. 
 The letters received have put all uncertainty to rest, and you and 
 we at home are alike bearing the burden of a personal sorrow and a 
 heavy trial to the Mission. The letters were read by the Ihrectors 
 with the most painful interest and the deepest sympathy. The good- 
 ness of God has been wonderful, and another illustration of how 
 precious in His sight is the death of His saints. It was touching 
 and it was a comfort to read of the kindness of every one, ami to 
 realize the genuine brotherhood of the missionaries of every Chinch, 
 from several of whom we have had letters. The burden of all is the 
 same — a lament for the early loss of promise so great. When Mr. 
 Hewitt resolved to go to India, it was only after long and deliberate 
 reflection, and much questioning of himself, much weighing of cir- 
 
 11 
 
1 62 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 cumstances, and much argument with friends. But when he had 
 decided, there was no after hesitation, and his heart went straight 
 out into his work; and what his work was you know. His letters 
 about it reflected his character. The last I had was written just 
 before going to Bombay, from that tent at Khadarna, where, speak- 
 ing of the heat, he said he was passing through a baptism of fire. 
 It is we, the Mission and the Church, that are passing through that 
 baptism now, to be tried, we shall pray, as silver is tried. When he 
 was sixteen he made a covenant with God that he would do His will, 
 follow His call, and be entirely in His hand. It was in that spirit 
 he met the summons from India. The sorrow has produced a deep 
 and widespread impression ; it has been felt as a very solemn mes- 
 sage The Board has authorized the sending of more missionaries 
 
 as soon as they can be found. Pray for us that the best men may be 
 moved to go." 
 
 Far and wide over the Church his influence w^as felt. By 
 lectures and sermons, by public circulars and private letters 
 to individuals, by securing the generous help of friends in 
 scattering broadcast Mission literature and giving large sums 
 for special objects, by direct and pointed appeals, and by 
 urgent and passionate pleadings — by all the force of all 
 the faculties God had given him, he sought to rouse the 
 congregations to a sense of the glorious possibilities before 
 them in the conversion of a people to whom, in the provi- 
 dence of God, theirs was the only mission throughout the 
 length and breadth of a district equal in area to their own 
 Ireland. 
 
 "July 10, 1S76. 
 
 "I am hoping during this summer and autumn to reach some 
 districts where the work of the Mission has been halting, and to stir 
 up the churches, and will try to use in this way the usual rest I take 
 in summer. Trade is still so bad that it has seemed hopeless to 
 launch the Medical Mission circulars ; but I am only waiting the 
 opportunity. I have hopes that our Sabbath schools alone may raise 
 £1,000 this year for the Mission in India and China; and when these 
 children grow to be men, the Foreign Mission will meet a proportion- 
 ate response. 
 
 "I am staying at Finaghy, mar Belfast, and trying to overtake 
 work in a quieter place than Dublin. Next Sunday I hope to address 
 
TJic Foreign Mission. 163 
 
 two congregations for the Mission, and the Sunday following I hope 
 to be in the neighbourhood of Coleraine. Little by little, as the 
 Jews drove out the Canaanites, I hope God will spare me to do 
 something to drive out the narrow spirit that shuts its love against 
 the Mission." 
 
 The following graphic picture is taken from the bio- 
 graphical preface to the late edition of " Praying and 
 Working " : — 
 
 "He was an intense believer in the reflex benefits conferred at 
 home by the cultivation of the missionary spirit. Consequently his 
 appeals on behalf of the heathen were unceasing. His yearly state- 
 ments preliminary to the annual collection were marvels of industry, 
 presenting in striking and compact form information and statistics, 
 both as to his own Mission and as to those of the leading Churches of 
 Christendom. Illustrations, maps, diagrams, were freely used ; the 
 local religious press was enlisted on his side ; his brethren in the 
 ministry were earnestly urged to plead the cause, and a wealth of 
 missionary literature was placed at their disposal. But not alone at 
 collection-time was he thus energetic ; his enthusiasm burned all 
 through the year. He was constantly preaching and lecturing on his 
 all-absorbing theme. To-day he is found in some provincial town 
 forming an auxiliary for the Zenana Mission ; to-morrow he turns up 
 at a sewing-party to communicate the latest intelligence ; next day 
 he spends the forenoon among the students in Belfast or Derry, 
 pressing the claims of the heathen, and at night he is delivering 
 stirring appeals to a crowded gathering of the young men of the city. 
 No foreign missionary ordination took place without his being present 
 to deliver the charge ; no missionary band left our shores without his 
 assembling them to address to them, amidst the anxieties of parting, 
 brave and cheery words of farewell. He seemed to work for the 
 Mission as if he had no other work to do. And ere the banner fell 
 from his hands lie thought he saw marshalled under it a company 
 and an enthusiasm greater than at any period of the history of the 
 
 The difficulty of getting suitable men was at times a heavy 
 burden; but nothing tempted him to lower, by the smallest 
 degree, the high standard of qualifications he deemed essen- 
 
164 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 tial. "Better starve the Mission by want of men," lie often 
 said, "than send out any but the best." 
 
 "Jo a" 2-, 1879. 
 "I have been trying to secure suitable missionaries all spring, but 
 as yet without success. The men suitable decline to go ; and unless 
 men are suitable, increase of numbers is no strength." 
 
 "December 11, 1879. 
 
 "The Day of Intercession for Foreign Missions was observed by 
 all the Presbyterian Churches of the kingdom, and, as far as I can 
 learn, very generally observed in Ireland, and many sermons were 
 preached on that day on our duty to the heathen. Meanwhile there 
 are no new missionaries at present ; but let us be earnest and cease- 
 less in prayer that God will raise them up by next autumn. It is 
 melancholy to find such a continual repulse and timidity. 
 
 ' ' The Lord has been trying us lately ; and I feel it has been good 
 for me to be driven back to the very foundations of the Kingdom, to 
 the Rock on which it is built. The necessity of privacy in some of 
 these trials, the consequent sense of isolation and want of sympathy, 
 have all driven me back to Christ, and enabled me to realize more 
 powerfully that He is able to stay and comfort His servants and to 
 maintain His work, and that the work itself rises above all the tempor- 
 ary embarrassments and moments of failure in its history ; and I do 
 not doubt that, as far as it has been needed, the same blessed assurance 
 has been quickened, dear brethren, in you." 
 
 " X'arch 18, 1SS0. 
 "Our students in Belfast asked me to meet them on Friday Last, 
 when about forty came, and for two hours we had a constant fire of 
 questions and answers about Missions, specially our own ; so that I 
 was very reluctant to break off the conference. There are some ex- 
 cellent men among them bent on the Mission, but unfortunately none 
 in the last year." 
 
 The following letter to a young minister who had some 
 thoughts of the foreign field is very characteristic. The 
 need of men, and men of the right stamp, pressed on him 
 continuously, and he lost no opportunity of pleading with 
 those who seemed to him to possess the spirit and the 
 necessary quali fications. 
 
TJic Foreign Mission. 165 
 
 "August 1U, 1879. 
 " My DEAE Sir, — When I wrote last, it whs only to ask the favour 
 of your preaching in my pulpit. There is another pulpit that I am 
 anxious to bring under your notice now. I do not know if the ser- 
 vice that can be done for Christ in the East has already crossed your 
 mind with anything like a personal application, but it is of that I 
 wish to speak. "We have vacancies at home ; and I catch myself 
 always looking beyond them to the wide gaps rather than vacancies 
 in India, gaps which remain year after year. Our Church has a 
 noble Mission to Western India — a Mission that will be well dis- 
 charged in proportion as our best and most vigorous men respond to 
 it with warmth "and self-sacrifice. Our field of work has- many ad- 
 vantages, and not the least the variety of method by which the mis- 
 sionaries endeavour to approach the people. We have room there for 
 almost every gift of the Church, and the powers and grace that a man 
 lias received are drawn there into a more quick and many-sided, and, 
 E do not hesitate to add, a happier activity than in any but the rarest 
 places at home. Our Mission in India has in it, moreover, something 
 of a national as well as a Christian summons, and the vast population 
 there is so bound up with us to whom its welfare is committed, that 
 it seems as if the cry from India were irresistible. Home work is 
 sure to be done ; but men postpone the work yonder, apparently, 
 until there is no more to do here. All the while God is opening up 
 so many opportunities, that it is like treason to Him if we let them 
 pass ; and thus this Mission work, which is the crown of Christian 
 service, gathers to it a great intensity at present. I need not pursue 
 that line of thought, but come at once to what I beg of you to con- 
 sider as fully and as fairly as you can. Would you allow me to sug- 
 gest your name as a missionary to India ? I mention India because 
 we are sorely crippled there for want of workers. But there is China 
 as well. I am simply putting it for your consideration ; not ignoring 
 nor making little of what it may seem to involve, sacrifices and sepa- 
 rations that it may demand. Work for Christ is worthy of these. 
 And I question if there is much nobler or more inspiriting work than 
 out in India and beside our brethren who are building up the Church 
 there. Pardon me if I beg you will weigh it earnestly in the light of 
 God, and if you will be so good, write frankly your mind on the 
 matter to yours very truly, W. Fleming Stevenson.' 3 
 
 Equally typical of his care for those who had decided to 
 join the Mission is the following letter to a young missionary 
 
1 66 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 on the eve of embarking for India. Though of a later date, 
 it may fitly be inserted here. 
 
 [7 T o the Rev. Robert Boyd.] 
 
 " Orwell Bank, November 11, 1880. 
 
 "You have enjoyed, I hope, your days in London; and now the 
 work that lies out in India will be bulking before you. The voyage 
 will give you a quiet time to think over it and pray for strength and 
 guidance, and for entire surrender to it. Whole-hearted makes 
 strong-hearted. You will be met, of course, on arrival at Bombay, 
 and I dare say you will spend a day or two there and make your 
 first acquaintance with India. Keep a record of expenses, extra 
 charges, etc., and send me the memorandum when you are settled 
 down. Write at least three times a year ; oftener if you can. Don't 
 think of laboured epistles, but tell about what you see. Incident, 
 quiet talk, what runs off the pen, these are what I want. Don't 
 think there must be a given length. What I suggested before I 
 repeat, that if you jotted down anything that struck you, or any 
 piece of pleasant news, and just put the loose leaves of jottings together 
 into an envelope, you will have an excellent letter. You need not 
 mind writing about what Hinduism is, but tell as much as you like 
 about the Hindus. 
 
 "Pray much. If ever you prayed in your life, pray now. Pray 
 for consecration to Christ in the work. Pray to be content with 
 nothing but soul -winning. 
 
 "Cultivate and profit by the other missionaries. They are men 
 you can thoroughly trust. Trust them, and take their advice. The 
 Mission had its time of trial a few years ago ; you go to strengthen it. 
 Feel that you are among brethren, and be brotherly. You can won- 
 derfully help by the power of God ; but keep out all lower motives. 
 
 " Be always frank with me ; be frank with the brethren. Be care- 
 ful in the acquaintances you make outside the Mission. Christian 
 acquaintances, spiritual men, will help you : others will not. If you 
 cultivate them, they will draw you down towards themselves. 
 
 "Make the preaching of the gospel first.' There are indirect 
 methods, but lay all the stress on the direct. Keep up the fire ; do 
 not be ashamed to be enthusiastic. It is easy for a man to drop into 
 routine ; keep out of it. The Lord bless you, and fill you with His 
 Spirit, and make you His messenger. Ask for converts, for the souls 
 of men. ' They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the 
 stars.' Eph. vi. 10." 
 
The Foreign Mission. 167 
 
 In 1879 permission was granted to establish Congrega- 
 tional Associations. Mr. Stevenson had long and anxiously 
 desired this. It seemed unwise that a work involving such 
 heavy expenditure should depend chiefly for its support on 
 a single yearly collection, which might be affected by the 
 weather to the extent of hundreds of pounds. There were, 
 however, many difficulties to be overcome, and he wrote : — 
 "It will need to be used at first gently and judiciously; 
 ultimately it will no doubt work a great improvement in the 
 annual income." It was a great disappointment to him that 
 the danger of confusion with the auxiliaries of the newly 
 started Zenana Mission prevented this scheme being freely 
 launched, and as yet it has only been very partially 
 adopted. 
 
 The pitiful wail of hopeless, down-trodden, heathen women 
 sounded in his ears, and the thought of their imprisoned, 
 colourless lives weighed heavily on his heart. In 1873 he 
 arranged that two of the deputies from the Free Church 
 of Scotland, the Rev. Dr. Murray Mitchell and the Rev. 
 Narayan Sheshadri, should address a meeting of ladies on 
 the work of Female Missions in the East, and at the close 
 of the meeting it was resolved to establish a Female Asso- 
 ciation in connection with the Foreign Mission, with the 
 aim of taking the gospel to the women of the East. It 
 was proposed to carry on four forms of work, teaching in 
 private families and in schools, together with orphanages and 
 a medical agency ; the funds to be raised by a system of 
 branch auxiliaries in central places, and local auxiliaries in 
 connection with these branches. India was to be the first 
 field occupied, but it was hoped that the blessings of its 
 ministry would be extended to China, and that ere long the 
 Female Association would spread its agencies over the area 
 covered by the Foreign Mission of the Church. The success 
 of the new undertaking exceeded all expectation ; and Miss 
 Brown, its first missionary, was sent out in 1^74. 
 
1 68 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 \To the Missionaries.] 
 
 " June 23, 1875. 
 "On Saturday we had the first annual meeting and report of our 
 Women's Association. It has not only to show a receipt of £1,227, 
 but has done very much to stir up interest in the Mission, and, re- 
 garded from that point of view alone, is of the utmost importance. 
 We have done nothing in this work (which is promising to become 
 very popular) without the co-operation and advice of our brethren 
 from the field at home, who take part with us at all meetings of our 
 executive committee. They have strongly approved of the medical 
 department of our work, and urge its extension ; and we should be 
 very grateful if you would let us know your further thought upon the 
 subject — your opinion on the multiplying of this form of agency, on 
 the places that might be occupied, and on house accommodation. It 
 might not be desirable that a lady visiting constantly among the 
 sick, and practically a nurse in many illnesses, should reside under 
 the same roof as a missionary's household. Some of the societies 
 arrange for the missionaries living two together in a detached 
 house." 
 
 And again : — 
 
 " The Female Association, which our missionaries at home are 
 busily planting in new districts, helps us greatly ; and we find, as is 
 natural, that what makes the people think and talk of the Mission, 
 though it be only of one department, strengthens the hold it has on 
 them." 
 
 A sentence may be given here from the closing paragraph 
 of the first annual report : — 
 
 " In many — and they are the most accessible — parts of India the 
 strong desire among all the native educated gentlemen is for the 
 education of their women. They say it is the hope of India. We 
 say so in a far profounder sense than they. 'There is not in the 
 whole world,' cried Martin Luther, 'a sweeter thing than the heart 
 of a pious woman.' And we labour that the bitter waters of female 
 life in heathen lands may be touched and transformed by that sweet 
 and holy potency. There are no more effectual nurses of the fanati- 
 cism of the Mussulman and the superstition of the Hindu than the 
 women of India : and there will be no more effectual propagators of 
 Christianity. Ambrose was the son of a Gothic prefect : Chrysostom 
 
The Foreign Mission. 169 
 
 of an imperial general ; Augustine's father was a heathen. It Mas 
 by the daily influence, it was in answer to the constant prayers of 
 Christian mothers, that the early Church gained these bearers of its 
 standard. We want to win the mothers of India. We are not too 
 bold ; it is simple faith to expect that India too will have its Chry- 
 sostom, its Ambrose, its Augustine ; and when the Church of India 
 recalls her past, there will be none remembered with more gratitude 
 than those who sought to bring the gospel to the women of the 
 East." . 
 
 In 1879 lie wrote : — 
 
 "We had a successful meeting, though the day was wildly and 
 mournfully wet. It is still undecided whether we can recruit our 
 small female force this year ; but if not, there will be no difficulty in 
 supplying the want next year, if God spare us all ; and at present 
 our Christian women have more of a missionary spirit than their 
 brothers." 
 
 In the last year of his Convenership the income of the 
 Association had risen to .£2,600. Of the eight ladies in the 
 field, two were medical, one being a fully qualified medical 
 practitioner. There were fifteen girls' schools, with 828 
 pupils, and in the two dispensaries, one of which had only 
 been opened for a few months, over 10,776 cases had been 
 treated. 
 
 After Dr. Stevenson's death one of the zenana missionaries, 
 who had been highly honoured by God in the success of her 
 work, wrote : — 
 
 "I have lost my best earthly friend. His letter, which I enclose, 
 was the means of deciding my mother to let me go to India. I hesi- 
 tated on account of her feeble health, and wrote Di. Stevenson to 
 that effect. I read his reply to her, and when I had finished she 
 took it in her own hand and repeated slowly and firmly the text he 
 epioted: 'He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not 
 worthy of Me,' and added, 'or son or daughter;' then in a few 
 minutes she looked up and said, ' You must go. 5 
 
 The following is an extract from the letter referred to : — 
 
170 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 " Illness is not sent or suffered to break off our work for Christ, 
 
 but to purify and strengthen us in it. The missionary leaves his 
 wife behind him ; though the minister's wife may be in sore illness, 
 the minister must, as a shepherd, care for the sheep all the same. 
 And though the wrench is hard — and I know something of the pain 
 of it — I would say that, unless there is immediate danger, your way 
 was plain to return. Work for Jesus will be done the more solemnly 
 when it is done under the shadoAv of the illness of those we love ; and 
 this seems to me just one of the instances where our Lord's words 
 operate : ' He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not 
 
 worthy of Me.' The Lord sustain and guide you now, that He 
 
 may be glorified, and that you may walk in light and peace. In all 
 present and coming sorrow, may you find Him the (rood Shepherd 
 that calleth His own sheep by name and loveth them, so that He laid 
 down His life for the sheep." 
 
 But his earnest desire to advance the cause never blinded 
 his judgment. The following letter to a young girl eager to 
 enter on Mission work in China shows with what wisdom he 
 weighed conflicting duties : — 
 
 "June 19, :■ ■ . 
 
 "But that you have some notion how busy I get among perhaps 
 often little things, but of which not one can be put off, I would feel 
 myself in deep disgrace not to have acknowledged long since the 
 pleasure of your letter, and continued the conversation which it 
 suggests 
 
 rt Our conduct, as we follow Christ, will always be shaped more or 
 less by the reconciling of often apparently opposite counsels. We 
 are to care first for our own; are to begin at Jerusalem : are to seek 
 the fullest work within the relationships immediately round us. We 
 are, at the same time, to leave father and mother, to deny ourselves, 
 to wrench ourselves away from home ties, to go into all the world. 
 Each has to decide how these opposing but yet not really opposed 
 views may be reconciled in his own circumstances ; and it is here we 
 need the greatest care, so as to act, not from impulse or craving, 
 however generous, or under the impression of a need, however vivid, 
 but from duty and from Christ like love 
 
 "There are certain difficulties being taken out of the way, and I 
 do not disagret with the interpretation you put upon them, that their 
 removal is one of those finger-posts that God places for us in His 
 loving and guiding providence; but it is perhaps premature to a<jree. 
 
Tlie Foreign Mission. 17 1 
 
 We have to be very careful, in construing these signs, not to let 
 them wear even a little the complexion of our own desire; and self- 
 denial and taking up the cross may sometimes mean crushing back 
 for a season our most cherished hopes and expectations, just as much 
 as giving up a career at home or going into foreign service. There is 
 always a large and pressing duty for the time, and we have each to 
 discover what that is " 
 
 [7'. < the same.] 
 
 " June S3, 1885. 
 
 " I have been disappointed at not being able to continue my letter 
 before now ; and even yet, of much continuance there is some doubt. 
 I feel like a top that has been set spinning, and a dozen small boys 
 gather round it — Congregation, Meeting, Mission, Zenana, Com- 
 mittee, and such other chappies — and every one gives a scourge to 
 keep the top going 
 
 "But if the Mission is to be the end, God will take His own way 
 to train you for it, very likely a way of unexpected and unwelcome 
 disappointment about the how and the when of the matter. Dis- 
 cipline of that kind may be just as needful as the first strong enthusi- 
 astic thought of dedication. If I had had time, it would have been 
 spent writing that I thought you were going too fast hi one or two 
 of the things you mentioned — at a pace that took the wind out of 
 your old-fashioned friend, who, like 'panting time,' 'toiled after you 
 in vain.' Looking frankly out on the circumstances, I do not see 
 that the way is yet clear for you to go, or that the time has come to 
 make any arrangements about going. Now, you will be vexed with 
 me for saying that, and were I in your place I would be vexed with 
 anybody who said it to me. For, God be praised ! the longing to 
 carry the gospel to the heathen is upon you, and you feel that while 
 you and they are waiting time steals away with a horrid noiseless 
 certainty. Xow. if that longing is deep and true enough to carry 
 you helpfully and not simply enthusiastically out to the East, it will 
 outlast the delays and broken hopes that prevent you from immedi- 
 ately fulfilling your design. If I could make so violent a supposition 
 as that circumstances would arise that would hinder you from ever 
 going, it would still be the brightest and strongest passion of your 
 life; and though you never went, your desire, burning brighter as 
 you drew nearer the source of it, would inspire a crowd of others to 
 do what you would have done if you could. 
 
 "But as I am not making violent suppositions, but contemplating 
 you in the Mission, you will say, ' What about age?' A young age 
 
172 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 is thought desirable because we are all more plastic then, both in the 
 acquiring of a new speech and in the power of submitting to new 
 conditions of life ; and there are those who profanely say that this 
 is specially true of women. It is also desirable from its greater 
 eagerness and enthusiasm ; though I believe, if Adam and Eve had 
 lived to the same age, Eve would have preserved her enthusiasms 
 when Adam was only a shrunken old bagful of dry bones. They say 
 it is also desirable because of the greater ease with which it bears 
 the change of climate. No society observes rules as to age strictly, 
 and many of those who have gone out in full womanhood, or even in 
 
 gray hahs, have served splendidly 
 
 "Now, shall I venture to say what I would do, and try to do, in 
 your place ? In such leisure as I had, work up China, if China it 
 was to be ; marking out my course of reading so as to get from it the 
 most good. Also, come in contact as much as I could with those 
 here who need teaching about even the elementary truths of God's 
 kingdom. That is the work of the missionary ; and the better we 
 can do it, and the larger the variety of our experience, the better for 
 the Mission. Further, interest all others in this blessed work of the 
 Mission. Quietly propagate its enthusiasms. It keeps our own en- 
 thusiasm warm, and it stirs the Mission sympathy in this inert and 
 unreflecting mass of the Philistine Christian public. I should get all 
 the mastery of the Word that I could : that comes first — that sword 
 of the Spirit which is the Word of God. But I would take no other 
 preparatory step ; when the time is ready the arrangements will all 
 fit into then- places. My dear child, you must be weary of this end- 
 less letter, and I have not said a twentieth part. Am I not longing 
 for the sands of New Quay and the talks ! Till then I break off, like 
 a story, with 'to be continued.'" 
 
 In the number of the little quarterly paper called Woman's 
 Work which appeared immediately after his death, the editor, 
 now for the first time no longer Dr. Stevenson, writes : — 
 
 "Nowhere, perhaps, was he seen to better advantage than in the 
 Zenana committee-meetings. So wide, so sympathetic, so ready to 
 take the best and kindliest view of everything, so full of information 
 on all points of Mission work, we felt that Dr. Stevenson Mas the 
 very beau ideal of a missionary Convener." 
 
 And in the same strain the Missionary Herald* says : — 
 
 * The organ of the Mission work of the Irish Presbyterian Church. 
 
The Foreign Mission. I 7 3 
 
 "The band of zealous men and women who surrounded him in the 
 enterprise felt they owed everything to his ceaseless industry, his 
 unquenchable courage, trust, and enthusiasm. Of Dr. Stevenson and 
 our Zenana Mission it may be truly said, 'Si monumentum quceris, 
 circumspice. 1 " 
 
 It was Dr. Stevenson's custom to write long monthly 
 letters to the Mission staff generally, which were passed on 
 from one missionary to another. But sickness or trial always 
 drew forth the special letter that, as one of their number 
 wrote, " showed a perfect comprehension of our difficulties, 
 and a brotherly sympathy in our sorrows." Another says, 
 " He seemed to come close to us then, to write as if he were 
 one of us; and so, indeed, he was." His thorough master- 
 ship of details was a striking characteristic ; while the clear 
 perception he had of the individualities of character, and the 
 delicacy with which he arranged points of difficulty and 
 soothed over-sensitive feelings, keeping at the same time a 
 firm hand on the reins of government, were no less valuable. 
 A few extracts taken at intervals from the mass of corres- 
 pondence which has been kindly furnished by the missionaries 
 are all that the necessities of space will allow us to add to 
 those already inserted : — 
 
 " O well Bank, April 1S73. 
 "Our hearts, and the heart of our Church, have been greatly 
 cheered by the news of the blessed awakening and ingathering at 
 Borsad ; and not the less because it is so evidently linked with the 
 impulse by which the Church was moved to pray for the mission- 
 field. We have reaped almost as soon as we sowed, and we ask, in 
 this merciful and gracious rebuke of our little faith, that we may be 
 quickened to pray much more often and fervently for the blessing to 
 descend upon your labours. The admirable narrative of the Allaha- 
 bad Conference which has just come to hand, has also greatly cheered 
 us, and filled us with fresh and glorious hopes for India. And the 
 tidings of literary work have been very gratifying. We have also 
 been noticing indications of a Government policy more favourable to 
 missions, and that the mission schools and colleges are receiving the 
 very highest tribute to their efficacy and influence. All these signs 
 
174 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 must be as encouraging to you as they are to us. May they draw ua 
 more and more together to the throne of grace, to wrestle there till 
 the breaking of the day ! Now from China Dr. Hunter writes to us 
 of the free access that he has, of the chapel filled, of the Bibles sold, 
 and of journeys he has made to distant markets and fairs. And yet 
 the Church is unwarrantably slow in sending help. One after an- 
 other has declined the call, and the general reply is, ' Our sphere is 
 at home.' There is, no doubt, a want of the true, burning missionary 
 spirit, of enthusiasm for Christ, of the self-sacrifice and willingness of 
 hearts wholly consecrated to the Lord. And you must pray with us 
 for a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost, that our Church may be 
 lifted up into higher things, and may experience the drawing power 
 of Christ lifted up upon the cross. But you will also take into 
 account that there were never so many good openings into fields of 
 great usefulness in the Church at home as now, and that there are 
 few more likely students than will fill the vacant places here. It 
 may not be that the missionary spirit is less, but I fear it is no 
 greater. Yet our students are volunteering ; and when God is 
 pleased to quicken us as a Church, no doubt the flower of cur youth 
 will embark for India and China. There have been but few applica- 
 tions for the office of lay teacher. .Still, we do not bate one jot of 
 our faith that in the autumn we shall be sending you the sorely 
 needed recruits, and meanwhile cheer you with words of faith to 
 hold on under your double burden. Whatever ebb there may have 
 seemed to you in the missionary affection and sympathy of the 
 Church, the tide is now again in the flood. In many ways the Lord 
 continues to prosper us. The Sustentation Fund has reached £26,000 
 this year, so that its equal dividend to the ministers is £20 beyond 
 the Regium Donum ; and yet all other contributions have increased, 
 although the harvest in the north is unusually bad. Evangelistic 
 services, of which I wrote you already, are multiplying. One very 
 interesting series was arranged, by which the ministers of the Dublin 
 Synod (which met at Galway) evangelized on their several routes, and 
 reached their meeting warm from that work ; and the meetings were 
 crowded and blessed. And here and there over the north of Ireland 
 there is the breath of a spiritual spring. Near Randalstown between 
 eighty and a hundred persons have been converted within the last 
 few months in one of our congregations ; and the capacious old 
 church, which is in a district that seemed hard and cold enough, is 
 crowded with frequent assemblies. The converts have stood a severe 
 test for some months, and stood it well. They are mostly young, 
 hut the old are also brought in ; and one evening there was the 
 
The Foreign Mission. 175 
 
 touching scene, in one of the pews, of an aged woman stiff and almost 
 rigid in her seat as she thought of her sins, and unable to speak or 
 stir, while at her side a grandchild was artlessly praying that 
 ' Granny might see Jesus.' This good work sprang from a little knot 
 of praying people ; and similar knots have lately been tied all over 
 Ulster, and often in places marked by revival in 1859, but from 
 which the spirit of prayer had decayed. Then the College in Belfast 
 has been furnished with a new library at a cost of nearly £2,000 by 
 Mrs. < ramble, the widow of one of our ministers ; and, besides a 
 bazaar last month that produced nearly £700, an anonymous friend 
 has just sent it a donation of £1,000. And large donations are made 
 to various objects, such as £1,000 to the Su.'stentation Fund, another 
 £1,000 to the China Mission, and from one gentleman £1,500, divided 
 equally between the Orphan Society, Sustentation Fund, and a new 
 work projected by our indefatigable Moderator (now kindly sen- 
 tenced to a second year of office) for the education of ministers' 
 children. 
 
 "For myself I have little to say; though it may interest you to 
 know I have accepted an invitation from the Evangelical Alliance to 
 read a paper at their Conference in Xew York in October, and hope 
 to leave for America in August. But let me close by assuring you all 
 of the warm interest of the Church in your work, and asking of you 
 often to remember us at home, dear brethren, whose hearts are 
 -wounded by carelessness, as yours are by idolatry." 
 
 "June 23, 1 
 "Three persons have undertaken to build and furnish each an 
 entire church for the Dherds at their own cost, so that there is now 
 a church -building fund of over £1,000 at home. A friend in America 
 has sent me £70 to place seven of our missionaries as life members on 
 the Society for the Orphans of Ministers and Missionaries, thus secur- 
 ing a preference for their children. May the Lord give us all to walk 
 in the light as He is in the light, and may He abundantly bless our 
 labours, and bear our burdens in the dark time of trial ! 
 
 "And here let me say how much I feel indebted for the letters 
 that have lately reached me. It may not be possible to put them 
 entirely in print ; but even if not, it is putting me in possession of 
 a far clearer knowledge of Gujarat and of the Mission than I could 
 otherwise hope to have. Incidents and conversations — anything of 
 detail — are eagerly read, but 1 find that people with us, as a rule, 
 skip general statements. I would also at all times be grateful for 
 any intelligence of local interest, local reports that may fall in your 
 
176 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 way. papers or paragraphs from the local press. Conveners have a 
 huge digestion." 
 
 " April SO, 1876. 
 " We would gladly have welcomed fuller news from Mr. Taylor of 
 what must have been his most interesting visit among the Dherd 
 villages with Mr.- Hewitt. It is details and incidents that quicken 
 the interest of our people ; and I do not mean by that glowing de- 
 scriptions or coloured narratives, but the simple experiences of such 
 a missionary journey, with now encouragement and then discourage- 
 ment. How is the old Patidar ? What led some of these people to 
 profess being Christians ? Are they still evangelizing of themselves ? 
 About how many are there altogether of this Dherd £>eople ? " 
 
 " December 11, 1879. 
 "This evening I heard from Mr. Rea of the death of Kimchund. 
 We both here feel this blow keenly. Kimchund had so marked a 
 personality that he was very often before me as I thought back over 
 India, and recalled his manly, energetic figure moving about Sbaha- 
 wadi, his quick and eager ways, and heard him (as at Xeriad with a 
 group that he had gathered round him in the veranda) reading the 
 Bible to them by the light of a dull-burning oil- wick, or preaching in 
 the bazaar. You will all feel this loss deeply, and together we can 
 realize that the Lord is able to raise up many more of the same stamp, 
 and no doubt He is, though unseen by us, raising them up even now." 
 
 " October 7, 1880. 
 
 "We enjoyed our stay in Cornwall to the end as much as you 
 enjoy Mahableshwar. Nor were Missions absent. Two of the great 
 English Societies were represented by deputations while we were 
 there, the S.P.G. and the C.M.S., and I found a house where 
 Sherring (who had been in the town for his own Society) was bitterly 
 lamented. 
 
 ' ' I was asked to be one of the deputies at the Church Missionary 
 Meeting, and had the opportunity of telling of the work of other 
 Missions, and rambled on for, I fear, an unconscionable time. There 
 was no clock in the room, and when I looked at my watch, which 
 had been laid on the table, it had disappeared, the chairman having 
 quietly put it in his pocket, so that I had simply to go on until my 
 conscience grew mutinous. At an evening service last Sunday, and 
 at t wo meetings, they raised about £30 in this quiet country place, 
 and I noticed that ladies went round every house beforehand leaving 
 papers about the work of tbe Society." 
 
Tlie Foreign Mission. T?~ 
 
 In 1880 the Rev. Robert Montgomery, one of the fathers 
 of the Indian Mission, and one of the most loved and revered 
 of all the missionaries, died. 
 
 " well Bank, November h, 1880. 
 "My dear Brethren, — The heavy tidings I must write to-day 
 will fall upon you with as little preparation as they came upon myself. 
 Our beloved father, Mr. Montgomery, has passed from us into the 
 presence of God and to his everlasting rest. The only news I have 
 is by telegram, and letters will not come until too late for me to 
 catch the mail. All we know is that, after a brief illness of only 
 thirty minutes, he died peacefully last night at twelve o'clock. The 
 suddenness of this loss has overcome us with awe. On Tuesday I 
 went down to Belfast to see him. We were meeting with the Pres- 
 bytery of Kattiawar, for there were five of the members in the room 
 besides Rama Kalyan; and as I drove up he was walking in with 
 Rama, and looking more active and bright than when I had last seen 
 him. We were two hours together, and he struck me as wonder- 
 fully cheerful and animated. When we parted, it was to meet again 
 on Saturday, for he was coming up to spend some days with us, and 
 our parting greeting was more an anticipation of our meeting. The 
 meeting on earth will never take place, but the long heavenly inter- 
 course is before us. I remarked on Tuesday that it was evident that 
 his heait.was full of joy to see the old faces round him. It was like 
 a dream of the India he was never to see again ; and I like to think 
 that in those last days he had the companionship that he liked the 
 best. Elisha's cry may well befit us; horsemen and chariots of 
 Israel were with us while he was spared. His ripeness of wisdom, 
 his intense and affectionate nature, his passion for India, and the 
 universal regard and even honour in which he was held, were a 
 strength to the Mission that pervaded the whole Church. There was 
 something in his spirit that was infectious of good; and while there 
 was no lack of the old fire, a wonderful sweetness was the character- 
 istic that drew men to him. I do not think there was a more welcome 
 guest in our house, and in the congregation every one loved him. 
 And it was all because he was so true to Christ, and so full of Him. 
 I think of the sorrow that will pass over every part of our Church as 
 the news makes its way ; I think of the sorrow that will be felt in 
 India among those to whom he was a spiritual iather ; and then I 
 think of the home that has been smitten so often, and the shadows 
 darken over the thoughts until Christ breaks through them with His 
 words of comfort and power. The mystery of sorrow is deep and 
 
 12 
 
178 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 full of awe. A sorrow like this is unspeakably trying, and perhaps 
 perplexing to our faith. We must look for grace, and wait. One 
 day we also shall be behind the veil. May we catch his spirit, that 
 true prophet's mantle. Like him, may we be ready, our work finished 
 and without arrears. He lived and died for the heathen: so may 
 we." 
 
 Among those on whom Dr. Stevenson felt he could always 
 rely for sympathy, counsel, and help in any case of difficulty, 
 there was one who stood out pre-eminently as the friend to 
 whom he could confide all his anxieties, and who was always 
 ready to second him in any cherished enterprise. This was 
 his brother-in-law, Mr. Thomas M. Sinclair, of Cedar Rapids, 
 whose sudden death by accident, in the spring of 1881, cut 
 short in its prime a life of rare beauty and usefulness. In 
 the previous year Dr. Stevenson had written to him : — 
 
 "Our Mission work in India goes bravely forward. Letters last 
 week reported twenty-seven more baptisms, the founding of another 
 Christian village, and the very high and spontaneous testimony borne 
 by Government officials to the wisdom of the methods by which the 
 Mission pursues its work. It is now drawing in about a hundred 
 every year to the Church, and is making its influence felt as a power- 
 ful element in the district. You ask, Is there anything that could 
 be further done ? Well, I have an old plan. The experiment I tried 
 of inducing the annual collection to run up to £4,000 by the offer 
 (anonymously) of £200 of your money has been tried for two years, 
 and failed to elicit the full advance. We shall now, however, be 
 able to manage it by the permission of the Assembly to create auxili- 
 aries. Our greatest want is a Medical Mission With about £600 
 
 or £700 I would undertake to float the project upon the support of 
 the Church, and all I wish is to know if you would approve of this 
 use of what I still have unapplied of your former donations." 
 
 In his first letter to the missionaries after Mr. Sinclair's 
 death, he says : — 
 
 " May 12, 1SS1. 
 "My brother-in-law was forming many plans with me for the 
 development of our Mission, in which he took as much interest as if 
 
The Foreign Mission. 179 
 
 he did not live in America. Many of those plans must now be de- 
 ferred, for the papers will have carried you the news of his death, 
 and I write crushed by the sorrow of a great loss. His early death 
 is spreading the perfume of an unselfish, Christ-like life, yet I miss 
 
 mournfully the sympathy that was always encouraging us to go on 
 
 " I see the Free Church raised for foreign missions this year £7,000 
 more than last, an increase more than double our whole collection. 
 In our own little congregation the people respond heartily. They 
 sent £1G0 to the Foreign Mission, and £140 to the Zenana. I would 
 like to see the time when we could support a missionary for each 
 Society." 
 
 But, brave as was the spirit in which lie braced himself 
 up to meet new duties, increasing cares, and growing restric- 
 tions, the loss of one so like-minded, and whose heart for so 
 many years had beat in unison with all his aspirations and 
 responded with unwavering fidelity to every demand upon 
 its sympathy, was a searching trial, which left traces of 
 depression that w T ere never quite to pass away. He seemed 
 to have lost something of the old vitality which rebounded 
 after the strain of overwork, and in many of his letters the 
 weariness is all the more pathetic because it is forced back 
 by the iron will that would not give in. Had it not been 
 for his power of sleeping soundly for hours after a long spell 
 of work, his brain could not have stood the ceaseless labour 
 imposed upon it. 
 
 " January 5, 1882. 
 "I am writing, as you may recognize, hurriedly, not knowing in 
 these days of office anything but the distressing tendency of over- 
 work ; so much of the labora that it is sometimes perplexing to find 
 time for the ora. May God give you daily the grace of patience and 
 the hopefulness of faith ! and may you see the work grow ! Dear 
 brethren, while we pray for you, do not forget to pray for the Church 
 at home, for her spiritual power and missionary outcome.'' 
 
 His usual answer to frequent appeals made to him to take 
 more care of his health was, " God has laid the work upon 
 me, and I must do it/' He had an impression that he was 
 
180 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 slower in doing work than most people, the fact being that 
 he was more painstaking, and less content with anything 
 done hurriedly or without careful research. 
 
 The statistics he compiled on all sorts of subjects connected 
 with the Mission were marvellous in their minuteness and 
 accuracy, and are a valuable legacy to those who come after 
 him. Scarcely had the yearly circular gone its rounds, till 
 his mind was full of some new idea that might be worked 
 up for that of the next year. The following letter to his dear 
 and valued friend, Mr. Young of Fenaghy, is typical of his 
 energy in this direction : — 
 
 " Dublin-, October 15, 1S83. 
 " An offer was made to me last week, and required to be promptly 
 seized. It was of Christlieb's admirable book on foreign missions, at 
 about 6d. a copy. The one I have cost me 2s. 6d. I have accepted 
 the offer with a view of sending a copy to each of our ministers in 
 the end of January next, so that they might get a little inspiration 
 before their missionary sermons. Now, would your ' Uncle Ben's 
 Bag ' be in a condition to bear the cost ? I have many plans simmer- 
 ing in my lazy head, and shall write you soon, perhaps, of one or two 
 of them. One is a scheme for auxiliaries, which is almost matured. 
 I shall also send you our Presbytery scheme as soon as ready ; and I 
 am busy with a project for getting single congregations to support 
 each a missionary. I have had our three men, who are to be ordained 
 in a fortnight, successively with me, and thank God for such mis- 
 sionaries ! In November it may be possible to go down among the 
 students and secure men for next year, but it becomes increasingly 
 difficult to work a mission, in Belfast and a congregation in Dublin; 
 and then we are facing the necessity of enlarging our church. The 
 last news from China is the most encouraging for years. It would 
 seem as if we were at last striking root. I write this before going 
 down by the early train to Belfast, a journey which church-meetings 
 of many kinds have made an almost weekly necessity for a long time. 
 But the constant round of work is keeping back the lectures on 
 Missions, which ought long since to have seen the light." 
 
 In the beginning of 1885 he was greatly touched by a 
 spontaneous contribution sent him for the Foreign Mission 
 by the members of a working-men's Bible-class which ho 
 
The Foreign Mission. 181 
 
 had addressed a few weeks previously. The following is his 
 reply :— 
 
 " January 1885. 
 ' ' Thank you very warmly for the good cheer contained in your 
 letter, and thank your men warmly from me for so generous a contri- 
 bution to our Mission to the heathen. It lies very close to my heart, 
 and I am glad to find that it lies close to theirs, for it certainly lies 
 close to the heart of our blessed Saviour. I know something of what 
 this large amount must mean to those who gave it — that it represents 
 a great deal of thought and saving ; that sacrifice lies away behind it. 
 Is it not pleasant that we can make sacrifices and show our love to 
 Jesus, and that He can use what we give Him to help our brother- 
 men ? I am sure a blessing will go with their money out to India, 
 and I will consult with Mr. Beatty, who is just now reaching England, 
 how it may be best spent, and will let you know. Wish your men 
 from me a very happy New Year. Some of them will find it the hap- 
 piest year they have ever spent, because there is more of Jesus in it. 
 If there are any who have not yet put their trust in Him, may they 
 take Him as their Saviour now."' 
 
 And the last extract we can give will show how, busy as 
 he was, he sought to make the missionaries sharers in what- 
 ever of special interest was going on at home. He realized 
 how sorely those who labour in heathen lands must often 
 miss the stimulus there is in Christian fellowship. 
 
 "Belfast, July 10, 188U- 
 " We have all greatly enjoyed the meeting of the Pan-Presbyterian 
 Council. Belfast outdid itself. There was not a hitch in the ar- 
 rangements, and a happy impression has been left. Those who have 
 been prominent at previous Councils tell me this was decidedly the 
 best. It was felt to be the critical meeting, which would greatly 
 help to make or mar the Alliance; and the conviction is universal 
 that there has been a consolidation and a practical outcome that 
 insure vitality to the organization. The debates were admirable, 
 the leaders of different Churches taking part, and sometimes realizing 
 what one has thought one of the early Councils may have been. 
 Those of you who studied under Dr. M'Cosh would have been glad 
 to see his face once more and witness the heartiness of his welcome. 
 But the striking feature of the Council was this, that the Mission 
 
1 82 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 became the centre of it, and that men of all parties, schools, and 
 Churches were one in the conviction that the strength of the Council 
 lay in developing missionary activity. A long step was also made 
 forward in the direction of co-operation, and, where possible, cor- 
 porate union in Mission territories, and by the expressed conviction 
 that the largest freedom must be allowed to the missionaries while 
 building up the kingdom of Christ. The missionary evening — when 
 St. Enoch's Church was crowded, and missionary followed missionary 
 from seven till half -past ten o'clock — was not only a touching spec- 
 tacle, but has left the deepest impression. The next Council is ap- 
 pointed for London in 1888, two centuries after the Revolution. It 
 has been very refreshing to meet Mr. Jeffrey, the Murray-Mitchells, 
 and your still later visitors, the MacDonalds. It is the next best 
 thing to being in Gujarat, where I often wish we both were once 
 more. 
 
 "Mr. Balfour gives us the pleasant news that a lady, formeily a 
 member of his congregation, has handed him £150 to found a scholar- 
 ship for our girls in the Normal School. To-day I was sent another 
 brooch. God does not forget His work nor lis. We are just found- 
 ing a prayer union, where you will all be remembered before the 
 throne. May you all find the riches of His grace, and may the 
 infant Church grow in graciousness and spiritual power, and spread 
 itself over all the land : " 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 MISSIONARY JOURNEY ROUND THE WORLD 
 
 At the first meeting of the missionaries after the appoint- 
 ment of Mr. Stevenson as Convener, they expressed their 
 strong desire and hope that he would visit them and their 
 work. In 1875, "with one mind" they again urged the 
 matter on the Board of Missions, stating that, though the 
 expense might be an obstacle, " the fruits would many times 
 repay the outlay ; " and so strong had the wish become that 
 one of their number, at home on furlough, pleaded in their 
 name for its fulfilment in the meeting of Assembly. Mr. 
 Stevenson, however, could not entertain the proposal. He 
 felt that it was surrounded with difficulties ; that his own 
 congregation could not safely be left until it was further 
 consolidated and strengthened ; and while fully realizing the 
 value of such experience in the future conduct of the 
 Mission, he could never consent to allow the expense of this 
 journey to be a charge on the funds of the Foreign Mission. 
 He was, moreover, convinced that, if such a visit was to be 
 practically useful, it should not be limited to a survey of the 
 work of his own Church, but should include as far as possible 
 the fields of work of other Churches and Societies, so that he 
 might be able carefully to study their methods and observe 
 their results. Much as he desired to visit scenes already 
 familiar by description, and to see face to face men whom 
 he loved and honoured, as well as to acquire, by personal 
 acquaintance with the work, additional fitness for carrying 
 
184 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 on his own part in it, he felt the time had not come, and he 
 put the idea away from him with a strength of will that had 
 often been of substantial service when duty and inclination 
 pointed different ways. 
 
 But the time came sooner than he anticipated, and friends 
 who saw the immense benefit to the Mission of such a visit 
 urged it on. Early in 1877, the Rev. George Shaw brought 
 the matter up again, enforcing his appeal by the assurance 
 that the means would be furnished without any expense to 
 the Mission funds. At the meeting of the Directors of the 
 Mission Board, on the 21st of February, the proposal was 
 submitted to them, when the following resolutions were 
 unanimously and cordially passed : — 
 
 " I. That the Board have received with very great satisfaction the 
 proposal now made to them by the Rev. George Shaw and Mr. 
 Charles Finlay, that the Convener of the Foreign Mission should be 
 requested to visit the stations in China and India, believing it would 
 promote the highest interests of the Mission in these foreign fields, 
 and be of special advantage in stimulating the missionary spirit at 
 home ; and that, by observation and intercourse with the various 
 agents and members of the native churches, Mr. Stevenson would 
 obtain that thorough acquaintance with all the departments and de- 
 tails of the work which can only be acquired by a personal visit. 
 The Directors all the more readily approve of the proposal, seeing it 
 has been coupled with the assurance that some generous friends of the 
 Church will defray the pecuniary expenses of the journey, and they 
 earnestly make the request desired, and recommend it to the favour- 
 able consideration of their beloved brother. They also agree to ask 
 the General Assembly to sanction whatever arrangement may be made 
 with the Convener. 
 
 "II. That this minute be communicated by letter to the Presby- 
 tery of Dublin, and to the session and congregation of Rathgar by 
 deputation, with the expression of the earnest wish of the Board that 
 they will kindly facilitate the object which the Directors have in view. 
 
 " The Moderator of the General Assembly, the Rev. George Bellis, 
 General Secretary of the Board of Missions, the Rev. W. B. Kirk- 
 patrick, D.D., and the Rev. Charles L. Morell were appointed us the 
 deputation. " 
 
Missionary Journey Round the World. 185 
 
 In accordance with this resolution the deputation, accom- 
 panied by the Rev. George Shaw, met with the congrega- 
 tion, and laid before them the desire of the Board and its 
 assurance that, should they consent to this temporary 
 separation, the Board would willingly undertake all arrange- 
 ments necessary for sustaining the services of his church 
 during the absence of their minister. The congregation 
 loyally and unanimously consented, no small sacrifice on 
 their part ; but they made one distinct condition — that his 
 wife should accompany him. The idea was new to both, and 
 at first sight seemed impracticable ; but the wisdom of the 
 suggestion commended itself to every one, as it was felt that 
 in making it the congregation had taken the best possible 
 means to preserve their pastor's health. When it was 
 finally arranged that their children were to be left in the 
 loving care of their grandmother, Mrs. Sinclair of Beech 
 Lawn, Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson felt that the last difficulty 
 had been taken away, and that they could hear a voice 
 bidding them "go forward." 
 
 " Orwell Bank, June 2, 1877. 
 " Since I wrote, I decided on the proposal made by the Board, and 
 was able to mention at our communion on the 1st of April that my 
 mind was made up to go, if the Assembly agreed to the Board's 
 request. I was unstrung at the time by the thought of so long an 
 absence and of all that might take place in the interval ; but ever 
 since I have been in perfect peace about it, the peace of fulfilling a 
 clear duty to which God has led me. The decision also affects Mrs. 
 Stevenson, who has made up her mind to do what has been from so 
 many sides urged upon her, and to part with the children that she 
 may accompany me. It will be a hard struggle yet, I have no doubt, 
 for both of us; but it may help us to sympathize more truly with 
 your struggles. If I went, the following is pretty much the outline 
 that is before me : — Reach Ceylon from China about the middle of 
 November ; from Ceylon visit the Travancore and Tinnevelly Mis- 
 sions, and work up by rail to Madras, and from Madras on to Surat, 
 to be there by Christmas, if possible ; stay as long as practicable in 
 our own field, and learn all I can be made to learn from you all : then 
 to Calcutta by Central India ; from Calcutta visit the North-west 
 
1 86 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 Missions ; and then from Bombay to Suez. The undertaking is large, 
 but I feel that I would not be justified in this serious separation if I 
 did not try to get acquainted with the characteristic Mission-fields 
 of every important Church in India, wherever there may be time to 
 reach them." 
 
 The proposed journey was a matter of interest not alone 
 to the Presbyterian Church of Ireland, but to all the other 
 Protestant Churches engaged in missionary work. All the 
 great Societies that have missionaries in the East, English, 
 American, and German, furnished warm letters of intro- 
 duction and commendation. Letters were also received from 
 the Marquis of Salisbury, Secretary of State for Foreign 
 Affairs, and from the Earl of Derby, Secretary of State for 
 India, as well as from the Government of the United States, 
 " all of which," as Mr. Stevenson acknowledged in his speech 
 before the Assembly on his return, tk not only enabled me 
 to receive the most valuable information, but led to many 
 courtesies that have laid us under the pleasantest obligation." 
 
 On the eve of their departure from Ireland, a valedictory 
 service was held in the largest Presbyterian church in 
 Belfast, to commend them to the loving care of God during 
 their long journey. The sympathy with the travellers and 
 their mission shown by the numbers who came to the 
 meeting was very cheering, and the fervent prayers that 
 God would watch over their children during their absence 
 strengthened them to face the long separation. 
 
 On the 23rd of June they sailed from Liverpool for New 
 York in the Cunard S.S. Abyssinia. With the long journey 
 before them, they found in America little more than the 
 shortest route by San Francisco to Japan ; but the rapid 
 progress across the great continent realized in a fresh and 
 striking way the vastness of the area covered by the rule of 
 the President, and how like, and yet unlike, the land was to 
 their own. Even four years had added considerably to the 
 belts of farming that line the road for hours after passing 
 
Missionary Journey Round the World. i 87 
 
 Omaha, but the loneliness, and the absence of cities, houses, 
 and villages, were as striking the second time as the fi] 
 
 The extracts which follow have been taken from various 
 sources, and Dr. Stevenson's impressions are, as far as 
 possible, given in his own words. 
 
 " There are no people in the fields ; there is no highway ; we miss 
 the carter's whip and the ploughman's whistle. When the train 
 stopped once and a man got down and walked off across the gray 
 plains, we watched him with a curious pity as if he must get lost."' 
 
 "On the 8th of August, with hearty God-speed from a crowd of 
 friends, we sailed out of the stately harbour of San Francisco, in the 
 S.S. City of Tolio. past the ends of successive streets that climbed in 
 painfully regular straight lines up the hill, past the mountain slopes 
 that ran with rough bare face down into the sea, out between the 
 pillars of the Golden Gate into the rough swell that rolled before the 
 stormy coast Mind." 
 
 " Our cabin passengers were not numerous, but we carried twenty- 
 five returning Chinese in the steerage, as well as the coffins of some 
 more, that their bones might rest in their native soil. The anxiety 
 to die at home is so great that people in the last stage of illness 
 are sometimes helped up the gangway, and one who was in this con- 
 dition died before we reached Japan, and Mas embalmed by the ship's 
 doctor, according to contract. It was a lonely journey, for we never 
 saw a sail. We might have been ' the first that ever burst into that 
 silent sea.'" Every day a feM" albatrosses flew round the ship with 
 heavy wings, but as swift as arrows ; noM* and then there were por- 
 poises, at the end some flying fish — and that Mas all. As M*e crossed 
 the parallel, there was the excitement of the lost day. Sunday 
 should have been dropped out, but our commodore declared that 
 Monday M-ould be sacrificed instead. One captain is so scrupulous 
 that he contrives to have two Sundays on the return journey, Mhen 
 the days allow it ; M'e were content not to lose, and bade each other 
 good-night on Sunday evening, to meet again on Tuesday morning, 
 with the puzzled sense of a loss that Mas not deserved. We had been 
 taking the northerly course through rough and foggy Meather, which 
 disturbed all our ideas of Pacific warmth and calm, and made us 
 thankful for ulsters and wraps, M'hen, on the 23rd. we burst into a 
 sudden heat, the thermometer rising twenty-three degrees during the 
 night, and the air feeling clammy with moisture. That evening there 
 was a wondrous sunset. To the left three-fourths of the heavens 
 
1 88 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 were covered by a curtain of cloud, extending in soft folds from the 
 zenith to the horizon in a golden drapery, each fold distinctly marked 
 and flushed with a marvellously rich and pompous glow, which re- 
 mained for nearly twenty minutes, deepening in warmth to blood- 
 colour, and then fading down, till the last we saw of it was only the 
 red light upon the lower folds, as if a host of angels had lit up the 
 sky with their wings, and were slowly passing in a long procession 
 out of sight. To the right the unclouded belt of sky assumed the 
 most exquisite and tender hues, from pure deep blue to dainty pink, 
 and at the horizon the faintest apple-green. That night the moon 
 looked sickly, and had a huge ring ; we felt that it boded ill. Be- 
 fore morning every sail was down, every boat made fast, the sailors 
 hurrying here and there, preparing for the fight. The wind had 
 freshened to a moderate gale, and the scud flew along the sky ; the 
 sea looked angry, and the rumour spread that we were ' in for a 
 typhoon.' Up till luncheon we amused ourselves watching the lively 
 gambols of over a hundred porpoises tossing over and over in the 
 white caps of the waves, leaping out of the crest of a sea and touch- 
 ing the water in the trough with giant springs, sometimes fifty in the 
 air at once. They seemed the very spirits of the storm. But about 
 two o'clock the wind suddenly burst upon us. It shore the white 
 top off the sea and smote it into a sheet of foam. It hurled a furious 
 rain along the decks ; it howled in the rigging. Till after seven in 
 the evening it kept increasing in force. The sight was magnificent : 
 all around us a dense curtain of storm, and white seas dimly seen 
 through the gloom, while about the ship the masses of water rose ten 
 to fifteen feet above the bulwarks. At sunset the sky was a mass of 
 glowing, uniform, blood-red — like pandemonium, the captain said. 
 The barometer was still falling one-tenth of an inch every hour. The 
 sea leaped up in pyramidal heaps that mocked the great ship they 
 overlooked, and the wildness and height of the waves defied descrip- 
 tion. Everybody had been ordered below, after the crashing of some 
 furniture which broke loose from its screws in the deck saloon, and 
 injured some of the passengers. The heat below was insufferable, 
 and it was only by constant exertion that any one could keep either 
 on sofa, berth, or chair. From nine in the evening till 2 a.m. the 
 wind almost ceased, though the sea retained all its motion. We 
 were then in the centre of the cyclone. About 3 a.m. it commenced 
 with redoubled fury from an opposite quarter, and was at its height 
 by about seven in the morning. That afternoon it had all passed 
 away like a frightful dream ; we were in smooth water, the sails were 
 spread ; and as we joined in the thanksgiving service in the evening, 
 
Missionary Journey Round the World. 189 
 
 to some of us at any rate the 107th Psalm came with a depth of 
 meaning it had never had before. Two days later we neared the 
 coast of Japan. Right before us, flushed with the rosy sunset, 
 Fusiyama, the sacred mountain of the islands, rose 14,000 feet into 
 the air, clearly seen from base to summit, though ninety miles away. 
 To the south a tall island cone flung a column of smoke from its 
 volcanic peak high into the sky. The ship glided through the still 
 water ; the stars shone out brilliantly ; the phosphorus bubbles 
 danced on the dark, warm sea. We turned the lighthouse point, and 
 sailed up the Gulf of Yeddo, while the moon shone like a soft sun, 
 putting out the stars, and the shadowy ranges of the mysterious land 
 slipped by on either side. We ran out the anchor ; the engines 
 ceased, leaving a stillness that might be felt. Yokohama was three 
 miles away, and at daybreak we were to steam up to the town, 
 
 through the crowded shipping that lay between 
 
 " [September 5, 1877.] Safely packed in the hotel boat, the rowers 
 chanting an incessant mournful groan, as if expiring from want of 
 breath, we threaded our way between monitors, gunboats, swift 
 China clippers, and such picturesque but ungainly junks as might 
 have been built before Columbus. We landed at a custom-house, and 
 had our luggage inspected, while the coolies who carried it withdrew 
 attention from their want of clothes by the rich colour of the marvel- 
 lous patterns with which they were tattooed in blue and red. We 
 walked through streets bordered by tall stone buildings, and past 
 shop-windows that would have been no discredit to a European city; 
 then in a moment turned into a region of dark, brown, low-roofed 
 houses, gay with coloured signs, while the road between was filled 
 with figures that had walked off fans and tea-trays. No one would 
 recognize the fisher -village of yesterday in the Yokohama of to-day. 
 with its fifty thousand people, its broad streets lighted by gas lamps, 
 its handsome public buildings, and the lines of charming villas along 
 its bluffs. But the population of the fisher-village is still about the 
 town, and Europe and this primitive Asia meet at every corner. The 
 watering-cart was a man with a pair of wooden buckets slung one to 
 each end of a bamboo pole across his shoulders, a slight aperture 
 where the bottom joined the side allowing the water to splash out 
 while he gently ran and sang. Sweetmeats could be purchased from 
 another coolie, whose pole suspended a deep lacquer-box as brilliant 
 as vermilion. Sounds of smothered entreaty drew near, and a heavily 
 laden cart lumbered up, drawn by two men and pushed by two more, 
 who were chanting a quaint sad refrain that seemed to express the 
 weariness of life. A policeman, in dark frock-coat and white trousers, 
 
190 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 loitered in the shade ; soldiers went past in the baggy trousers of 
 Zouaves, and sailors in the garb of the British navy. 
 
 " We strolled through the crowd of gay, lazy, curious folk, full of 
 good nature and politeness ; then drove along the bluffs and out 
 among the rice-fields. The carriage — little bigger than a child's per- 
 ambulator and of the same shape — was almost too large for the mud 
 causeways that led through the farmers' lands. Here and there a 
 light brown house ; liere and there a village of them. Then, at the 
 summit, the paper lanterns were lighted, and we dashed down the 
 steepest of lanes among a multitude of other lanterns, brilliant and 
 restless as fire-flies, and past rows of quaint interiors apparently illu- 
 minated, shops and family parties, artisans at their trade and students 
 at their books, some men writing accounts, and others tramping oil 
 and flour — down this interminable lane and past the railway station, 
 with cabs drawn up in front. 
 
 ' ' W e drove one morning to the station. It was not in a cab exactly, 
 but in 'man-power carriages,' the perambulator already mentioned, 
 and known as a jinrikisha, with hood and apron of oiled paper, and a 
 man to run between the shafts at six miles an hour, for two cents a 
 mile. This man-power wears a solitary garment, which, as he warms 
 to his work, is hitched up, tuck after tuck, like reefs in a sail, until 
 presently he is running under bare poles. If he is tattooed he is an 
 art exhibition, and by judicious change a new picture may be studied 
 every day. There are fifty thousand of these vehicles in the large 
 cities of Japan, rushing about in all directions, swift, cheap, and con- 
 venient. We took tickets for Tokio, more familiar by the old name 
 of Yeddo — tickets that were printed in English and French, as well as 
 in Japanese. They were taken at the orthodox ticket-window, and 
 nipped by the inevitable porter. As the luggage was checked we had 
 leisure to look round the waiting-room. One corner was -sacred to the 
 bookstall, with its newspapers, cheap books, and time-tables, the 
 latter either with a map or on a fan. There were also the odds and 
 ends of things that belong to this institution in other parts of the 
 world, and a pile of little cushions, from which a third-class passen- 
 ger could hire one for a trifle, and return it at the station where he 
 stopped. 
 
 "Close to the suburbs of Tokio we come upon the Tokaido, the 
 great thoroughfare that for centuries has connected the eastern and 
 western capitals. The sea stretched to the right, and the boats, 
 with their heavy sails, lay becalmed in the soft autumn haze ; to 
 the left ran old Japan, this street of shops and tea-houses and ceaseless 
 traffic, that for picturesqueness has perhaps no rival in the world. 
 
Missionary Journey Round tJie World 191 
 
 "Friends met us at the station ; man-power coolies drew lots for 
 our persons ; and in half an hour we were sitting in the room of a 
 former dai-mio's home, in the native quarter of the modern capital of 
 Japan, and with a missionary for our host. The house was sur- 
 rounded by a trim grass lawn, crossed at more than one point by 
 large stepping-stones that connected the walks and kept the feet dry. 
 Big, vulgar, impudent crows pushed about here with a perpetual 
 caw-caw that was dictatorial. A small basin of rockwork, where a 
 few pretty ferns hung over the waters, was filled with goldfish ; the 
 rockwork, the fish, and some attempt at green, or perhaps a grotesque 
 and twisted root or two, or a dwarfed tree, are a universal arrange- 
 ment for the house -yard : a walk along any street will reveal a hun- 
 dred such interiors, sometimes of the tiniest and poorest, but always 
 neat and clean. Broad eaves projected round the house, and covered 
 a wooden ledge that ran outside and made a passage to the rooms, 
 which were formed at will by sliding panels of paper and bamboo, 
 that could be pushed aside at any point ; so that, it was impossible 
 to tell where one person might enter or another emerge, or at what 
 moment an inadvertent hand might reveal the strictest privacy. 
 These frail and movable walls were hung with narrow scrolls, six or 
 seven feet long, charmingly painted in faint colours, and varying hi 
 subject with the season of the year. The floor was formed of mats 
 deftly woven of fine straw, and tightly stretched on frames about two 
 inches thick that fitted closely together, soft, pleasant, and spotless ; 
 for Japanese rooms are not to be entered with the reckless muddy 
 boot of Britain, but in slippers or on stocking-soles ; and as these 
 mats are of a uniform length and breadth throughout the country, 
 they serve as a convenient measure,* and a house or a room is simply 
 so many 'mats.' 
 
 " The men in power would have no objection to Christianity, but 
 they have no great wish for it, and they will certainly not hurry in 
 that direction. The bulk of the converts belong to the middle class, 
 and are persons of education ; and there is freedom to teach the 
 gospel, and no actual persecution. Few, however, of those who have 
 been educated in Europe and America stand by Christianity when 
 they return. They have little depth or moral courage, and are 
 Romans in Rome 
 
 "The heads of the present Government would have exterminated 
 the Christians, and intended it ; but pressure was applied by foreign 
 Governments, and as the people made no stand against tolerance, 
 
 * .Six feet by three. 
 
192 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 tolerance gained the day, tolerance even of their old enemy the 
 Church of Rome. Yet, though the edicts against Christianity are no 
 longer hung up at Nihon, the Government would say they are taken 
 down only because the boards on which they were written are de- 
 cayed ; and in point of fact, the edicts against murder and other 
 crimes were taken down at the same time. Until the Japanese learn 
 to distinguish between the men who can serve them and those who 
 cannot, there is nothing certain. They have an absurd notion of 
 their own superiority and their power to absorb and master what they 
 learn ; but they skim over their instructions, as quick and shallow 
 people skim the pages of a serious book 
 
 " These are the opinions expressed to me by two of the shrewdest 
 men in Japan, and who have had the best opportunity of forming an 
 opinion. They are not sanguine opinions, and they may be erroneous ; 
 for, after a revolution so recent and complete as that which has taken 
 place, there is room for little but conjecture. They have a use, how- 
 ever, beyond their own value, that they may help to moderate the 
 expectations which sanguine people entertain at home. It is natural 
 that the large changes which have taken place should breed large 
 hopes, and that they should encourage dreams of a Christian conquest 
 that may be remote ; and it is, perhaps, impossible to state these 
 changes as they fall under the eye of a traveller without suggesting 
 as probable what is only possible. All that the Government implied 
 in the creed of 1872 might run, ' Fear God, honour the king, keep the 
 fifth commandment, and obey the laws of nature.' Japan may even 
 return to its exclusiveness, as some of the residents are bold enough 
 to think ; but at present Christian teaching has a singular vantage- 
 ground, and Christian missionaries have not been slow to seize it. 
 
 "It needs to be remembered, however, that much of this advance 
 may be only apparent, that in many directions it is recent, and that 
 there are thoughtful and well-informed men who say it is only skin- 
 deep. It is a country where a stranger, taken by surprise at what 
 he sees, may easily form erroneous impressions, and especially in 
 noticing Christian progress. Foreign sermons and foreign doctrines 
 will be listened to with apparent eagerness ; for the Japanese is 
 polite. Politeness is almost his present creed. He would not wound 
 a foreigner by not hearing what he has to say. He will often veil 
 his real indifference, and even hostility, under courteous phrases. 
 For months, and perhaps longer, a crowd will gather round a mis- 
 sionary, cheer his hopes, and then disperse ; and he may be forced 
 to remember that Japan is proverbially fickle, a land out of which 
 religion has almost died, where religious yearning scarcely exists. 
 
Missionary Journey Round the World. 193 
 
 and where there is a reign of indifference, for the religions heart of 
 the people has withered till it is dry 
 
 "While we were at Tokio, a conference of all the missionaries in 
 that city was assembled at the house of our host. They were of 
 several Societies — the Church Missionary Society and the Society 
 for the Propagation of the Gospel, the United Presbyterians of Scot- 
 land and the American Presbj^terian Board, the Episcopal Metho- 
 dists of the States and the Wesleyan Methodists of Canada, the 
 Dutch Reformed and the American Lutherans — so that there were 
 about thirty-seven in all, men and women. From four o'clock until 
 after nine we were together, hearing and answering questions ; en- 
 joying practical unity, which at home we always pray for and yet 
 never seem to reach ; feeling (for I can use no other word) the fine, 
 brave, humble, patient, confident spirit of all these workers, and 
 recognizing in their unity the room and mission for the special gifts 
 and temperament of each. There were thus eight Protestant Socie- 
 ties represented ; but there are others in Japan, besides the Greek 
 and Roman Churches, so that the staff of missionaries is large. The 
 head of the Russian Mission is a man of singular earnestness and a 
 most striking appearance, with a face that is full of dignity, suffering, 
 and love. He holds the principal service in a chapel simply fitted 
 up in his own house, reading the liturgy from a manuscript transla- 
 tion. We found his little chapel crowded, and his day occupied by 
 incessant work, among which a Bible-class is well spoken of ; but he 
 has helpers serving in different parts of the town, and his official 
 position in the Russian Embassy has given him influence over many 
 of the official Japanese. 
 
 "The oldest Missions are the American, and, on the Sunday we 
 were in Tokio, one of the native chapels was opened after its enlarge- 
 ment, of which the cost (about £100) was defrayed by the effort of 
 the Christians themselves. The building would accommodate more 
 than three hundred, and was crowded with a reverent and earnest 
 congregation. Two of the native elders assisted at the communion : 
 and the communion addresses, the passing of the bread and wine 
 among the dusky worshippers, the bowed heads of young and old, 
 and all the quiet of the solemn service, so natural, and yet, in t he- 
 very centre of this heathen people, so unlikely, stirred many deep 
 and blessed thoughts. Ten minutes' walk from this spot, and ten 
 minutes of a very hot day, there was another native service, where 
 the sermon was preached by a native, and where the church, a school- 
 room adjoining, and rooms for residence and an orphanage, have all 
 been built by a native Christian at his own expense. The next ser- 
 
 13 
 
194 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 vice wo attended had not been long begun, but from forty to fifty 
 persons were present, and many of them are communicants. It was 
 late in the afternoon before I was able to return to the Union English 
 Church. One of the native congregations has permission to use the 
 building till it has completed one for itself. Here also there was the 
 communion, and had we been able to arrive a little earlier we should 
 have had the joy of seeing six adults baptized. We closed a very 
 happy day by accompanying our host to his final service. It was 
 rather a free talk than a service, and was held in a low room that 
 opens directly off a crowded and, as usual, a narrow street. A lamp 
 hung above the door bears on one of its sides an invitation to enter. 
 The room could hold about sixty people. They squatted on the 
 matted floor as they entered, men from their work (for, except in 
 Government offices, there is no Sabbath in Japan), and women with 
 children at the breast. They filled up all the space, and then a 
 crowd of figures, just visible through the semi-darkness, blocked up 
 all the room about the door. Some would move away, but others 
 always took their place. First the catechist spoke, and then the 
 missionary. All listened, though in the gloom there could sometimes 
 be seen little but the sparkle of the dark eyes. One old man of 
 eighty-two, clearly visible under the light of the lamp, was absorbed 
 and happy. He had been a physician and a keen student of Con- 
 fucius, and after a struggle had yielded to Christ, and was baptized 
 the week before. Near him sat three jinrih'sha-meii, who were en- 
 treating baptism for themselves and their families. After the service 
 was over, a number remained for conversation, and it was late when 
 we got to rest, wearied, but beyond measure thankful 
 
 "Although some of the congregations I had visited were among 
 the most characteristic and the largest in Tokio, there were many 
 other points in the city where there were bands of worshippers, and 
 beyond the city there were meetings in the neighbouring villages, so 
 that there were probably twenty voices proclaiming on that day and 
 in that district the blessed gospel of our Lord. 
 
 "The number of hearers at some of these stations was no doubt 
 small, and of thoughtful hearers smaller still ; yet it was impossible 
 to forget that five years ago, for example, there were only eight 
 members in the congregation that has now a hundred and seventy- 
 five, and that most of these additions have been led to Christ through 
 the earnest persuasion of their converted neighbours. 
 
 "Preaching plays a large part in these services, for the Japanese 
 are great sermon-hearers, even when heathen, and the sermons of 
 some of their own priests are justly celebrated. The sermon is ir- 
 
Missionary Journey Round the World. 195 
 
 regular in form — a frank and inartistic l>ut not unstudied talk over 
 the topic that has been in the preacher's mind. He takes a passage 
 for a text, and then probably passes on to some cognate passages as 
 he proceeds. Beginning with the soft low voice of his people, he soon 
 warms, and often uses much gesture and eager rhetoric ; but one of 
 his strong points, as it is of the old Buddhist sermons, is his power 
 of illustration. To take an example or two only from the sermons I 
 heard. Speaking of the impatience of the Christian under trial: 
 'Summer and winter are each hard to bear; but they are soon over, 
 and we take them as they come. Let us also take trial as one of 
 God's seasons, and believe that it is only for a season. ' Of faith and 
 works : ' A hawk and a crow ' (the two common birds here, and the 
 former the model of the Japanese kite) — ' A hawk and a crow, you 
 know, can fly away when they have two wings. And if one wing be 
 maimed or shot off, the bird flutters to the ground and cannot fly. 
 We also have two wings on which we fly to heaven: the one is faith 
 and the other works. But we can only fly thither with two ; and if 
 we try with one we fall to the ground, and flutter and crawl there 
 like a maimed bird.' Of the hopes of heaven: 'When you fly a 
 kite' (a universal amusement in Japan), 'if you tie the string to one 
 place the kite will fall ; if to another, it will whirl and tumble un- 
 steadily in the air, but never mount; if to another, it will rise a 
 little way, and then flutter and begin to descend ; but if to the right 
 spot, it will soar into the sky. So, if we tie our hopes to anything 
 earthly, they come to nothing, though they sometimes seem, by our 
 affections and aspirations, to mount unsteadily for a little space ; but 
 when we tie them to heaven, they soar into the sky, and dazzle us 
 with the sunshine of Cod.' 
 
 ' ' Among the courtesies received at our Embassy in Tokio, not the 
 least were the suggestions of what it was best to see, and what, with 
 our limited time, it was needless to attempt. The ride to Nikko 
 would have given the best impression of the country; and finding 
 that impossible, we did as wc were told, and chose the ride to Narra, 
 with its temples and its great bronze Daihuts, or image of the sitting 
 Buddha. Narra lies twenty-seven miles out of Tokio, and as we 
 proposed going and returning the same day, we started early, long 
 before it was light, hurrying through the silent streets, the brown 
 houses all shut up and lying in dark shadows, fragile, and indeed 
 rickety-looking, now that the gaiety of life had deserted them. A 
 young student from the Christian College was our companion, and do 
 one could have a more thoughtful or a better. We crossed the long 
 bridge at Fujimi half an hour before the dawn, and full twenty 
 
ig6 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 porters, their bundles slung from bamboos, stood to watch us 
 We had made the first seven miles in an hour, and our thoughts 
 wandered back to Xavier, who reached Fujimi walking, with a wallet 
 on his back, frozen feet, and a body covered with ulcers. As the 
 light broadened, we found all round us a sweep of lofty mountains, 
 and from the woods that clothed them the smoke of charcoal-burning 
 rose straight into the sky. The road was irregular, sometimes on 
 the top of an embankment that divided the waters of a still lagoon, 
 where tall white cranes and Japanese fishermen vied in their motion- 
 less watch ; and sometimes between fields, or bounded by the curious 
 glint of the bamboo groves that spread their feathery crowns fifty 
 feet above our head. We ran for miles between tea plantations, and 
 noted how the shrub took the place of the cabbage in the peasant's 
 plot at home, and that it was not shy of even winding in and out 
 between the open spaces of a village, and making the hedge round a 
 villager's garden. Rice shared the culture with tea, and at some 
 points the freshly-picked cotton was spread upon a mat or a tray 
 for sale. As the sun rose, so did the people, and, like children of 
 the sun, came out into the light. The paper screens disappeared, 
 and the quaint, neat, modest interiors came into view. Women 
 cooked the early meal, the father dandled the baby in front of the 
 door, and made him laugh to see the white-skinned strangers, and 
 toilets went on without reserve. Endless shops revealed their wares, 
 for in Japan every one has something to sell, yet so little that a 
 pound would buy up a large establishment. There were pots and 
 pans, vessels of wood, kerosene lamps, blouses and sandals, hats and 
 umbrellas, books and stationery, and mysterious forms of cookery; 
 while fox-like curs haunted the doorsteps. 
 
 "Our men sped on with their ceaseless chant, steering carefully 
 among the ruts in the sandy track, and when a plunge was made, 
 looking round with a merry smile. We crossed wooden bridges, and 
 passed Shinto shrines with the priest's house beside them like a 
 manse; we climbed low hills where the mosses and ferns were as 
 vivid as at home ; we ran by the bank of a rapid river, then dis- 
 appeared among narrow paths through the weedless fields, wound in 
 and out among the walls and houses of a village as if we proposed to 
 visit every family in turn, and without warning emerged on a country 
 road as wide as one of our own. There were few birds and few 
 flowers, and of the latter little more than some patches of chrysan- 
 themums, the purple bell of the egg-plant, and coxcombs that stood 
 six feet high and were sometimes broad in proportion. We met 
 perambulators packed with vegetables on their way to market, and 
 
Missionary Journey Round the World. 197 
 
 men with the bamboo shoulder-pole innumerable; one carried si 
 barrels, presumably empty, eight to each end, and another rose vip 
 from a well with seventeen small kegs of water: if one basket was 
 full, a baby, an umbrella, or a hat was slung into the other. M< - 
 sengers met us ; a parcel-post swift as Mercury, and no better 
 clothed; porters pushed their loads; and farmers with broad hats 
 pressed forward on business to the nearest town ; bands of pilgrims 
 clothed in white, long staff in hand, and wearing huge rosaries and 
 scallop-shells, with usually one that had a bell about his neck to 
 keep the rest from straying, would stop as we went by. Every one 
 was good-humoured, and every one said, 'Good-morning' (Ohaio); 
 and the boys from school courtesied low as they did this pretty piece 
 of manners. Only the yellow-robed priests, with shaven crowns and 
 sly small eyes, looked at us askance, as if some evil speech was in 
 their heads. And all the way it seemed as if every one was bent on 
 doing the opposite of what we do at home. The cows had bells on 
 then- tails instead of their necks; the horses are clothed in winter, 
 the men naked; the draught bullocks wear straw shoes, carry an 
 extra pair, and leave the worn ones untidily about the streets ; the 
 horse stands in his stable with his head from the stall, and when he is 
 brought out the rider mounts him from the right ; when acquaintances 
 meet each tenderly shakes his own hand; people write down the 
 page, and they kneel at dinner ; the tailor sews from him, the car- 
 penter planes to him; the teeth of the saw and the thread of the 
 screw run in the opposite direction to ours, and their locks turn to 
 the left; the blacksmith pulls the bellows with his foot, the cooper 
 holds the tub with his toes; house-contractors begin to build from 
 the roof ; gardens are watered from a little pail with a wooden spoon ; 
 it is not the nightingale but the crow that is their bird of love ; the lamb 
 is an emblem of stupidity ; suicide is a pleasure which has to be pre- 
 vented by royal decree ; and it is a compliment to be called a goose 
 
 "We were sailing among the three thousand islands of the Inland 
 Sea. The islands were often little more than a single rock, with 
 probably one tree peering over the summit ; but there were numbers 
 of them big enough to allow the brown-roofed villages to nestle 
 among the rice-fields, or to lie at the foot of steep hillsides terraced 
 up to the very top ; and sometimes there were glorious mountains, 
 range behind range, till the highest had a delicate crown of cloud, 
 superb mountain amphitheatres, and masses of bumbled hills, and the 
 soft light of the grass upon them all, like Killarney on a summer 
 day, blended with the mighty sweep from Mull to Ben Cruachan. 
 It was the most shifting view I ever saw, and sky and sea and land 
 
198 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 all shared the inconstancy. Now a calm strait that reached for miles 
 between two islands on our right, speckled with boats, and fringed 
 with woods and little bays of pure white sand fit for the feet of 
 fairies, and the heaven above a clear pearl gray ; then a blue sky 
 and a merry breeze, scattering foam over the sea, and sweeping on 
 the ungainly junks, with their white, full-bellied sails, the hills gray 
 and blue and purple, and dim and mighty islands like clouds in the 
 far distance : now so close to the shore that we were under the 
 shadow of the cliff, the rocks and wooded points narrowing in on 
 both sides till we could believe we were sailing on some Eastern 
 Rhine ; then, in a moment, out into an open sea with space and 
 light and far-off land. And this procession passed us unceasingly 
 from sunrise until sunset. It might have been Loch Limine or Ross 
 Island, Arrochar or Windermere, until we rubbed our eyes and saw 
 the junks at anchor, the spectral fringe of trees along the hilltops, 
 the brown roofs, and the curves of country temples. Then, in the 
 late afternoon, we ran below a lighthouse rock, and the light-keeper 
 ran up his flag ; and, looking back, we saw long stretches of the 
 loveliest green water, changing, as we looked, under every play of 
 light and shade and colour ; then a line of telegraph poles, and a 
 green point jutting out on the left to meet the hills upon the right, 
 so that the steamer has little more than room to pass in the clear, 
 still water, and we were in a land-locked bay, anchored off the pretty 
 town of Simonasaki, and the setting sun lit up the woods and sea and 
 sky with crimson and gold. When the evening falls and the sea is 
 calm, the fishing -boats crowd it with the sparkle of their lights ; but 
 away from shore there are many junks that carry no lights, and are 
 slow to answer their helm, and a cause of much explosive speech 
 among sea-captains. In the morning the sea was smooth, the sky a 
 lovely blue, broken with motionless spots of soft white cloud, and 
 the bays and hills, the low cliffs, and the gaps into narrow glens and 
 upland valleys, the pebbly beaches and sandy bays of yesterday, 
 were repeated ; until, at last, through a passage seemingly not wider 
 than a hundred yards, we entered another harbour girt about with 
 pleasant mountains, and glided by swards of vivid green that wan- 
 dered up into a maze of wooded heights and knolls ; then swung 
 round among the men-of-war, and before us there was Nagasaki, 
 stretching its streets up the steep spurs, and behind the streets in- 
 numerable gravestones, and behind the gravestones meadows and 
 
 trees and the dark shadows of the mountain 
 
 "The captain had run us close by an island rock. It was scarcely 
 picturesque ; a steep slope of grass upon the landward side, and sea- 
 
Missionary Journey Round the World. 199 
 
 ward a precipitous fall of perhaps fifty feet to a beach that dipped 
 rapidly into the water ; but every one looked at it with interest, for 
 it was Pappenberg, the Rock of Martyrs. .How many hundreds or 
 thousands of native Christians were flung over that sea-wall we may 
 never know. It was a cruel death, for they must first have been 
 mangled on the sharp ledge below before they were drowned. But 
 two hundred and forty years ago that islet of modern picnics was 
 spattered with blood, and one of the most painful and perplexing 
 episodes of Christian Missions came to an end. 
 
 ' ' Nagasaki was our last peep at Japan, and we wandered through 
 the streets reluctant to bid them good-bye. Two men with a huge 
 drum-like tambourine beat a long tattoo, and when they stopped, a 
 third man called out in a loud voice the name of the play at the 
 theatre, and invited the people to come. A blind man passed along 
 blowing a shrill, plaintive note upon a reed, and thus clearing the 
 way. We had not seen any tubbing of this much-bathing people in 
 the open street, nor that promiscuous washing of their person which 
 appears in travellers' tales. We missed here the light-hearted cour- 
 tesy of other Japanese towns, where no man ever seems rude to his 
 neighbour, where common porters will salute one another with an air 
 of perfect breeding, and where a cabman helps his weaker fellow up 
 a stiff bit of hill and is repaid by a charming ' Ohaio.'' But the shop- 
 keepers were as busy with their smallwares ; the children toddled 
 about as happily, sisters carrying brothers as big as themselves, and 
 every one of them with a shaven head on which the hair grew in four 
 black tufts — the forehead, the crown, and above each ear ; their 
 fathers laughed with them as they flew dragon-flies like kites, tying 
 a light thread round the body of the unfortunate insect so as to let it 
 up or down ; the women walked about painted and powdered like 
 their own dolls ; peasants came in from the country thatched from 
 head to foot in a mantle of straw against some passing shower ; broad 
 umbrellas (each stamped with the owner's name) lay out in the street 
 to dry, and the sun streamed through their oiled paper of every shade 
 of brown ; paper wares were vended of every kind — parasols, over- 
 coats, and carriage -aprons, fans and twine, and paintings on paper 
 instead of canvas, and paper pocket-handkerchiefs, which as a lady 
 uses she throws away ; and anxious people chewed paper prayers well 
 in their mouths and spat them at their god. 
 
 "Then we lingered about Desima, the little scrap of artificial 
 island or 'made land,' covered to the water's edge with Dutch ware- 
 houses and native churches, the tiny foothold which the Dutch- main 
 tabled with such magnificent patience, and surely the strangest of all 
 
200 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 trading factories or sea-prisons. It was impossible not to think of 
 what Japan had been till thirty years ago. Then it was absolutely 
 shut off from the world, now it is represented at every European 
 capital ; then it was a capital crime for a Japanese to leave his 
 country, now he studies in a dozen foreign colleges ; then it was death 
 to a foreigner to be seen on the public road, now he takes his seat 
 beside the Japanese in a railway train ; then their only ships were 
 junks, pierced by a hole in the stern that was to warn them against 
 pushing out to sea — junks that occupied months in a journey between 
 two of their ports — now they own steamers that trade along the coast 
 as steamers trade along the Clyde, and they have a line to China ; 
 then the sea was their bulwark, now it is their pathway ; the taxes 
 were then collected in kind, now in money ; then Buddhist temples 
 made the bravest show, now hundreds of them have been suppressed, 
 their revenues diverted to the State and their bells sold for old 
 bronze ; then there was a perfect feudal tyranny, now there is a 
 limited monarchy, a responsible cabinet, and the Code Napoleon ; 
 then the emperor was absolutely invisible, now the people are not 
 even compelled to kneel as he passes ; then there was the bitterness 
 of caste, now even the outcast Ainos have received citizenship ; then 
 the edicts against Christianity were posted up at the street-corners, 
 now there are over a hundred missionaries, and Christian men are in 
 the employment of the State 
 
 "In the evening we sat in the veranda of our host's house, some 
 hundreds of feet above the sea. The harbour was brilliant with the 
 lights of the shipping, and through a fringe of flowers and tropical 
 trees we could see them gleam distinctly in the water, and a misty 
 moonlight in the air revealed the soft mountains beyond. We were 
 talking of the Missions and the converts. The next day we steamed 
 past Pappenberg once more, and passed the lonely rocks through 
 which successive storms have worn the stateliest archways, fifty or 
 sixty feet in height, the hills seen through them looking like pictures 
 in a frame. We coasted all day below the woods and mountains ; 
 the blue islands that had been far ahead were now far astern : and 
 there was at last nothing but sea. It was long after sunset when the 
 captain called us to take farewell of Japan : it was only a solitary 
 rock, scarcely visible among the shadows of the evening ; but Japan 
 claimed it, and would have the honour of crowning it with a light- 
 house." 
 
 "September SO, 1877, 
 
 ■• We reached Shanghai to-day. after some unfriendly tossing in 
 the Yellow Sea. We start to-morrow for four days' similar tossing 
 
Missionary Journey Ron in/ the World. 201 
 
 up the coast water to Newchwang. Wonderful storms are predicted, 
 as it is the equinox, but no other ship will sail for ten days, and we 
 could not miss the chance. They are planning to have two meetings 
 here on our return — a conference with all the missionaries, and a 
 general meeting of all the native Christians. But now for the north ; 
 for the home faces of our own missionaries, and for our own Mission. 
 As yet it is a tiny speck upon the map, but it lies with the Church 
 at home how big that speck will grow." 
 
 "Off Newchwang, September 25, 1877. 
 " We left Shanghai on Friday, and it is now Tuesday afternoon. 
 We have just crossed the bar, with its heavy rollers and dirty yellow 
 water, and are in a broad river bordered by reedy banks. The China- 
 men have come upon deck, gorgeously arrayed in wonderful leggings 
 and armless overcoats quilted with blue satin. Thirty or forty miles 
 away there are ranges of blue mountains to the east, but the view at 
 hand is of low, swampy, featureless ground, made inexpressibly dreary 
 by a few melancholy hovels. We pass endless ranges of junks, 
 anchored in rows, eight and ten and twelve deep, faded and dirty- 
 looking, with pennants flying, and some with tall bamboos at the 
 stern covered over with coloured balls, while a broad crimson flag 
 droops over the water. The setting sun makes a ruddy glow behind 
 the forest of low masts and the tall spars of the foreign ships. Some 
 meagre trees rise from the muddy shore among low-roofed foreign 
 houses, in compounds surrounded by mud walls. The evening wind 
 is cold, the sky looks chill, the shore dull and friendless. The 
 anchor-chains run down, and we are at Newchwang, the most 
 northerly of the treaty-ports, not long since only a village, though 
 now a bustling town, with a population of sixty thousand. The 
 principal street runs parallel with the river for more than two miles ; 
 but to call it a street might convey an erroneous impression. We 
 reached it by a number of what we should call lanes lined with mud 
 walls. At frequent intervals the walls were pierced with doorways, 
 opening into vast, irregular courts, of perhaps three to four hundred 
 feet square, and littered over with carts, mules, dogs, pigs, and men — 
 great inn-yards, which in winter present a curious spectacle, thronged 
 with the traffic from places hundreds of miles away. Now these 
 streets or lanes were deserted, often filled with water, and elsewhere 
 deep in mud. But once in the main thoroughfare, a crowd was always 
 coming and going. The street was lined with substantial shops — 
 shops for the sale of clothes and shoes, caps and furs, tobacco-pipes 
 and opium. Carts wandered up and down, drawn by five to eight 
 
202 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 mules apiece, and absorbing all the room, most of them freighted 
 with merchandise, but some with people. Men stood at the fruit 
 and vegetable stalls with bamboo tubes in their hands, rattling the 
 dice ; and people stopped to buy, for a Chinaman would rather pay 
 double for his food than not gamble to have it for nothing. Huge 
 mangy dogs were everywhere. An awful drain crosses the thorough- 
 fare, six feet wide and twelve or fourteen feet deep, black with the 
 most horrid filth, and polluting the air. Manchus and Cantonese, 
 Buddhists and Mohammedans, people of Shanghai and people of 
 Amoy, people with turbans and people with skull-caps, the coolie 
 and the merchant, the long rough dray and the blue-covered country 
 cart, donkeys and oxen, junk-sailors and Tartar soldiers, jostled each 
 other in the narrow way, where one Irish cart would scratch the wall 
 on either side. Beggars followed in tattered garments, asking for 
 alms with a leer ; and here and there a temple lifted its carved and 
 storied roof high above the crowd. The foreign settlement lies at the 
 upper end, made up of the usual four elements of society — consular, 
 customs, mercantile, and missionary. The houses are placed upon a 
 bare bank of mud ; a mud square interposes between them and the 
 native quarter ; little rough causeways, raised above the yielding 
 mud, lead from one house to the other ; melancholy trees struggle 
 out of the muddy soil. It is the broad road to the north, and mules 
 flounder and carters swear in this Slough of Despond. Close by 
 where the traffic runs to the lower temples is our chapel, which often 
 quickly fills when a foreigner begins to preach. In the foreign settle- 
 ment are the houses and compounds of our missionaries, with the dis- 
 pensary and another chapel. The United Presbyterian Mission is not 
 far off, and their chapel for preaching is in the middle of the busy 
 part of the town. 
 
 "It was here that William Burns spent his last days. At the 
 lower part of the town, not far from a temple, there is the house he 
 lived in, already considerably changed, and tenanted by people who 
 never heard his name : they were merely two little rooms in a Chinese 
 house, for he had adopted many of the Chinese habits as well as dress, 
 and could live on eggs and Chinese scones that to any one else have 
 the flavour and consistency of putty. The families change rapidly 
 at these ports, ten years effecting more than forty would at home ; 
 but there are a few that preserve the pleasant traditions of the man. 
 his earnestness and holiness, his genial ways and bright smile. He 
 did not lay much stress upon his costume, though they tell that long 
 habit had rendered it natural, and that his face had wonderfully 
 caught the Chinese expression. He used to say that he was content 
 
Missionary Journey Round the World. 203 
 
 if it allowed him to pass among men without notice. He was revis- 
 ing his translation of the ' Pilgrim's Progress,' and would slip into a 
 quiet corner of a tea-house, sip the tea, and listen eagerly to the 
 conversation. As soon as he had heard a new colloquial phrase he 
 was content, and would withdraw rejoicing, and the first greeting 
 that his friends had would be, 'I have got a new phrase,' as he 
 repeated it in high glee. There is no personality, apparently, so 
 marked as his among the Christian missionaries. Men spoke of him 
 everywhere with regard and admiration, and the impression he left 
 upon Chinese whom he did not win to Christianity seems to have 
 been profound. It was mainly the impression of a noble and un- 
 selfish character, of a pure and single-minded and intensely earnest 
 
 man 
 
 • • We were thirteen days in Newchwang before a steamer came to 
 take us off, and I was thus able not only to visit the out-stations, 
 but to form an acquaintance with all the families of the settlement. 
 The territory that is open to the missionary from this point is enor- 
 mous. A great part of it is thick with villages and towns. The 
 population is orderly, industrious, and thrifty, and one may travel 
 with as much safety, and be sure of as much civility, as at home. 
 So far the conditions of missionary work are extremely favourable, 
 and judging by the analogy of other Missions, they are the condi- 
 tions of success. We have since seen several Missions that for more 
 years than we have laboured bore no fruit, and have now groups of 
 powerful native churches. The same man has had ten years of dis- 
 couragement, and nearly twice ten years of plentiful return. These 
 all sowed in faith, and we must sow likewise ; and when the day of 
 harvest comes, there will be no richer grain than that from the 
 Chinese of Manchuria." 
 
 Tientsin, where some pleasant days were spent, and where 
 there were many glimpses into the busy Mission life and its 
 powerful influence, was reached after three days of sea 
 travel, and two more of impatient detention among the mud- 
 banks of the river Peiho. 
 
 "For hundreds of miles round Tientsin, it may be said, there is 
 a Christian boundary — a track marked by the villages where there 
 are Christian families, villages never so far apart but that one holds 
 easy communication with the next. This roadway is of recent years, 
 and every year will now add to the villages in the line of it and the 
 
204 Life of WiHiam Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 roads that will branch off it in every direction. Our Protestant 
 Missions are no longer a fragment of fringe along an enormous coast. 
 The fringe is extending so steadily that it will soon be complete, and 
 already lines of stations are pushing off from it into the interior. 
 Few of us probably have any more definite conception of Tientsin 
 than that it is a treaty-port and the scene of an ugly massacre. Yet 
 Manchester and Liverpool together have not so large a population, 
 and it is the great mart of Northern China. We attended several 
 services here. There are now many congregations that support their 
 own pastors, and build their churches, and look after their church 
 property, just as we do. 
 
 ' ' We heard a sermon there, preached in the ordinary course by a 
 young native clergyman, which, if preached in English, would have 
 produced a very striking impression anywhere at home — such a ser- 
 mon as is rarely heard from any pulpit. We found devout congre- 
 gations, and had delightful meetings with them ; and there, as well 
 as elsewhere, we had meetings with all the missionaries, and learned 
 more of the character of the work than could be gathered from years 
 of correspondence and sending of reports. Nor has this been the 
 only gain. We have learned many lessons of faith and patience, and 
 carried away a constant stimulus from the unselfish, unsparing, try- 
 ing, yet always cheerful, work of hundreds of men and women who 
 are not known beyond their own Mission, but whose names are writ- 
 ten in heaven." 
 
 The journey to Pekin can usually be made in a comfortable 
 house-boat, but the state of the river at the time of our 
 visit, owing to a strong north-west wind, left no choice, and 
 the ride of eighty-seven miles in a Chinese mule-cart, spring- 
 less and seatless, was a never-to-be-forgotten experience. For 
 seven-and-twenty hours it jolted over roads that w r ere a suc- 
 cession of ruts often a foot deep, or made tracks for itself, 
 bumping across the hard furrows of a field, while the unfor- 
 tunate occupants, stiff and aching, held wearily on by the 
 sides, and felt as if every joint was being dislocated. 
 
 " At last, when the sun had gone down, the mules, which had 
 once or twice intruded their noses into inns, were turned into a 
 large courtyard, about sixty feet long and not half as wide, and 
 filled with carts, waggons, and beasts of burden. Hotels vary in 
 
Missionary Journey Round the World. 205 
 
 China; and one or two in Manchuria had a spacious dignitj r about 
 them, and rooms that were bright and fairly kept ; and some are 
 worse than that we entered now, for we were on a highroad where 
 foreigners are becoming frequent. At the upper end was a small 
 building for superior guests. It was divided into three compart- 
 ments with earthen floors : the eating-den had a broken table and ;i 
 broken chair ; the other two were for sleeping, and a lamp cast a 
 dim light into the darkness — a tiny wick that floated in a sea of oil 
 in an iron saucer crusted with the dirt of centuries. A meal under 
 such circumstances was not exhilarating. The beef we had carried 
 with us was so manipulated in the cooking that it looked exactly 
 like a dish of caterpillars ; there was egg-plant stewed in pork broth 
 — but pigs and dogs are the scavengers of China ! There was season- 
 ing of sea-slugs, and of other condiments that were spread at an open 
 window in reach of the cook's brawny arm ; there were messes in 
 bowls, balls of soft cakes, like putty from a glazier's shop, and there 
 was musty rice. The trusty Li changed the uneaten courses with 
 evident concern. At last, in triumph, he carried in hot water for the 
 tea ; but against the bowls which he offered for tea-cups, lip, nose, 
 and stomach revolted, and we withdrew to bed, cold and supperless, 
 like naughty children. A mattress was stretched upon the hollow 
 brick counter which serves as bedstead, and underneath which we 
 forbade the usual fire, afraid of what the heat might bring forth. 
 We shivered through the early hours of the night, with otir feet to 
 the bare, repulsive wall and our heads to the passage. In the dull 
 light it seemed as if hideous things crept along the ceiling, shining 
 things rested on the walls, and crawling things gnawed among the 
 paper and straw on the floor ; fingers were thrust through the paper 
 panes of the little lattice -window, and curious eyes peeped in, and 
 the rush of chill air was welcome because it was pure ; and as we 
 dozed and watched, the mules munched outside, and the carters 
 talked, and the querulous song of some gayer spirit rose above the 
 other voices. There was a patter of little feet, a squeak, a rat — more 
 rats : ; They sometimes fall down through the thin ceiling,' a friend 
 had said. We could stand it no longer. The ' Hall of Ten Thousand 
 Felicities ' had become to us a 'Temple of Horrors ; ' and in the third 
 watch of the night we had taken to the road once more, and saw 
 below the frosty stars the lamps of other carts as they sparkled over 
 the plain. " 
 
 Owing to many previous delays, a week was all that could 
 be given to Pekin, where the travellers were the guests of 
 
206 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 the American Legation, and where every facility was afforded 
 them of making the best use of their time. One day was de- 
 voted to the sacred Temple of Heaven, which Mr. Stevenson 
 explored with especial interest. An exciting expedition was 
 made to the ruined Summer Palace, forbidden ground to all 
 barbarians, and where entrance was only made possible by 
 the fortunate accident of a gap in the wall not having been 
 repaired. Among other places, the Observatory, with its 
 gigantic astronomical instruments, some of which have with- 
 stood exposure to the elements for six hundred years, the 
 great Llama monastery, and the temple of Confucius were 
 visited, as well as all the Mission schools and agencies. 
 
 ' ' We met one evening, at the invitation of onr host, more than 
 thirty missionaries, and there were some who could not come. Some 
 of these men have pushed on their journeys as far as Thibet, others 
 occupy the districts round the capital, and there was not one of them 
 but was encouraged by the prosperity of the Mission, by the feeling 
 that its influence was increasing, and by the character of many at 
 least of the native Christians among their people. They belonged to 
 half-a-dozen Societies, and they were a friendly brotherhood, meeting 
 together every Sunday evening, and preaching to this little company 
 in turn. They had more than one native congregation. The church 
 of the London Mission, where I heard a striking sermon from the 
 native pastor, was formerly a temple in a public street ; and on the 
 Sunday of our stay a pretty chapel was opened for the American 
 Presbyterian Mission, when all the other missionaries joined in the 
 dedication, and the native Christians from other quarters flocked to 
 the service, so that the church could not hold nearly all the people. 
 There are schools and medical missions and meetings for instruction 
 scattered over the city. It was evident that the Christian doctrines 
 had gained some substantial hold — that the work was at least a stage 
 further advanced than at Newchwang. It was a thoroughly inde- 
 pendent work, making way by its preachers and books, its schools 
 and hospitals, and asking nothing from the Government but tolera- 
 tion. And there were two features in it that were certainly en- 
 couraging — that it had grown in a few years, and that part of the 
 secret of its growth was that it had extended to and not from the 
 capital. It was not sixteen years since the first foreign lady had been 
 seen in the streets, and Christian ladies were now not only freely 
 
Missionary Journey Round the World. 207 
 
 moving through the city, but teaching the girls and even practising 
 medicine ; and the Christian doctrine, with the Bible well in front, 
 was advancing from the coast dine as its base deliberately and steadily, 
 and preserving its communications by the way." 
 
 Coasting southwards to Hong-Kong, the travellers halted 
 to inspect the Mission work in Chefoo, Shanghai, and Foo- 
 Chow, and some delightful days were spent with the mis- 
 sionaries of the English Presbyterian Church at Amoy and 
 Swatow. 
 
 " It would be impossible to tell you now of the wonderful street in 
 Foo-Chow which runs in a narrow tortuous course for three miles, 
 past every variety of shop and handicraft, and with every unutterable 
 form of evil odour, bounded, it may be said, by a missionary settle- 
 ment at one end and a theological college at the other ; or of the 
 conference of almost 200 native Christian workers that met in this 
 same city ; or of the view from the highest point of the island at 
 Amor, where village and river and mountain pass lie under the eye, 
 each with its own story of the widening of the kingdom of God ; or 
 of the Christian hospitals that are rising at Swatow, and the Christian 
 Bible-women that are trained there for patient, wise, and welcome 
 service in many a native town ; or of the nineteen chapels that, almost 
 every day, are open in Canton ; or of the Missions among the rude 
 people that, like similar Missions elsewhere, have been wonderful in 
 their perseverance, and then wonderful in their success 
 
 '•While we were at Canton an intimation was received from the 
 Anti-Opium .Society that if I could fix a time to meet them, it would 
 be esteemed a great favour. This Society is, strictly speaking, only 
 a department of a general association which has been formed chiefly 
 by the gentry and literati to protect the faith and morals of the 
 people. The activity of Christian Missions has called it into exist- 
 ence, and it has borrowed from them its mode of action. For some 
 years it has maintained halls in the city, and supported literary nun, 
 who there expound the popular faiths and defend them from the new 
 doctrine. The audiences are considerable, and I am told the ad- 
 dresses are often clever and so full of gossip and droll stories that 
 they can scarcely fail to be entertaining. A missionary who had 
 gone to hear one was amused at the dexterity with which the speak* t 
 turned his presence into an admission that Confucianism was right : 
 * Even the missionaries are coming over to us.' The work of the 
 
208 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 Society (which is supported by voluntary contributions) covers a 
 wide field, and allows of this anomaly that, while the members were 
 drawn together by hostility to Missions, in the reform or anti-opium 
 section the missionaries are honorary members. 
 
 " At the close of a service of the London Missionary Society I was 
 requested to speak. When concluding, I told them that we in 
 England believed China would be given to Christ. Was I to carry 
 back the message that they also believed it ? To my surprise, one 
 man, almost stopping me, cried out what meant, ' We do ; ' another 
 held up his hand, and then every man present did the same, and I 
 held up both mine. One of them asked leave to speak : ' That was 
 the message they returned,' and then added some of the usual warm 
 words of welcome and thauks." 
 
 The night before they left China, all the missionaries in 
 Hong-Kong were invited to meet them at the Basel Mission- 
 house. During the evening a number of Hakka girls from 
 the school came into the veranda and sang some German 
 chorales deliciously in parts, led by one of their number who 
 was blind ; and as the music floated in with the moonlight 
 through the open window, Mr. Stevenson was obliged to 
 reverse his opinion of the musical capabilities of the Chinese. 
 
 India was reached on the 11th of December, the three 
 weeks' journey from China having been broken by a day or 
 two at Singapore, Galle, and Columbo. Wherever he went 
 the Mission work was his first interest, and his visits, though 
 brief, cheered many a lonely worker. Taking a coasting- 
 steamer from Ceylon, they were landed in a native * bunder- 
 boat, and carried through the surf to the little village of 
 Allepey, whence they rowed along the backwater to Trevan- 
 drum, and were the guests of the London Mission :— 
 
 " It seems as if one day we had fallen asleep off the coast of China, 
 and on the next awoke off the coast of India. There is no proper 
 bridge between the two, but an almost violent contrast, affecting 
 both land and people. The bare and hard mountain range, the weary 
 miles of featureless sand, the turbid and troubled waters yellow 
 with the muddy deposit of vast rivers, are all gone; and instead we 
 have shores that are fringed with feathery palms, broad-shouldered 
 
Missionary Journey Round tJie World. 209 
 
 hills clothed with woods of the most glorious green and streaked 
 with the white foam of falling waters, and seas so lovely and trans- 
 parent that the sand and stones at the bottom are like the floors and 
 jewels of a palace. The change of feature, habit, and costume is 
 quite as great. Instead of the vague roads and narrow streets 
 crowded with a throng of busy, eager, bustling Chinamen, sullen- 
 faced, and dressed in a universal dull blue, we had got accustomed 
 to, there are lithe and graceful forms, brilliant with every gay 
 harmony of colour, and with all bustle quenched in them by the hot 
 sunshine and languid air. Only, you will remember that these are 
 simply the contrasts of the coast-line, and the impressions of first 
 sight 
 
 "We have not yet been more than a week or two in India; but 
 the number of Christian congregations, the high and manly type of 
 many of the native Christians, and their genuine acquaintance with 
 the Bible, have made it a time of singular interest. It is with a 
 curious sensation that one finds hi part of Travancore and Tinnevelly 
 Christian churches as near each other as in Ulster, Christian men 
 giving a tenth of their income to further the kingdom of God, 
 Christian mothers better acquainted with Bible truth and more 
 familiar with Bible language than a vast majority of professing 
 Christians at home, and a meeting for worship on a week-evening in 
 a country village drawing hundreds of people. Xot that this would 
 be a fair picture of missions over India, or that where we found it 
 there are not dark shadows to be filled in. But this is what has 
 come among a large class of people after more than half a century of 
 patient toil saddened often by disappointment; and this, if we are 
 resolute and have faith, is what will come in Gujarat. 
 
 " Trevandrum is the capital of a spirited native state, Travancore, 
 ruled by .a Maharajah who speaks excellent English, and who was 
 dressed when he received us hi English costume. It is so much in 
 the power of bigoted Brahmins that a foreigner dare not enter into 
 the temples, and there is even trouble about walking through some 
 of the Brahmin streets. Yet in the Government High School the 
 Bible is taught to eight hundred natives, mostly Brahmin lads ; the 
 Prime Minister was educated in a Christian school, and the First 
 Prince,* one of the ablest men in India, gives public lectures in the 
 College Hall. Like all the towns we saw in Southern India, Trevan- 
 drum, seen from one of its high places, is a mass of foliage, out of 
 which a tower or a roof projects at one point or another, and the 
 
 * The title of the heir apparent. 
 
 14 
 
210 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 streets, even when one is in them, are like shaded roads in a pleasant 
 suburb. It has a museum, an observatory, a reading-room and 
 people's library, and a charming botanical and zoological garden, 
 where a native band plays European waltzes and the airs of the last 
 opera. Native ' society ' drives about in open carriages on broad and 
 well-kept roads that rival any in England. The Government has its 
 inspectors of schools, and even experiments in female education; it 
 publishes Blue-books and makes an annual statement to the country ; 
 it has its public works, canals, and tunnels, that would draw notice 
 anywhere, and telegraph-wires run below the cocoa-nuts to the sacred 
 shrine at Sechundram. Yet we could never forget we were in India. 
 Tigers lurk in the glorious folds of hills which the Maharajah pointed 
 out with pride from his country villa ; advertisements were up offer- 
 ing a handsome reward, besides the tusks, for the capture of a 
 ' rogue ' elephant ; our hostess had killed a snake in her bathroom 
 the morning before we arrived ; while we sat at breakfast a monkey 
 chattered and gambolled behind the chair. Beyond the veranda lay 
 the hot sunshine, like something tangible, on scarlet and purple 
 flowers, heavy-winged moths as large as wrens, and broad glossy 
 leaves that covered the ground like a tent. Out on the road, dusky 
 forms slightly clad in white moved softly past ; the streets were full 
 of Brahmins with the sacred cord over the shoulder and the broad 
 streaks on the forehead that marked the worshipper of Vishnu or 
 Siva. There were the spacious tanks where only Brahmins bathed, 
 and the spacious caravansary where only Brahmins were fed, but 
 where the State must feed as many of them as may come ; the pagoda 
 towered high above the arch through which a stream of worshippers 
 poured into their sacred place ; hideous and battered figures of stone 
 lay below some tree where • these gods were served ; and now and 
 then an ascetic, or fakir, with matted hair and filthy body, would 
 
 glare at us from the depths of his fierce eyes 
 
 "We were to leave Trevandrum by moonlight. An hour or two 
 before the time some figures issued out of the dark and came on the 
 veranda. One of them had a violin, and presently, to this accom- 
 paniment, a number of voices joined in a plaintive air. We could 
 distinguish the word ' Stevenson,' which came in at regular intervals ; 
 and when the song was over the leader presented us with a copy of 
 this Malayalim poem which he had composed in our honour. It was 
 a deputation of the native Christians (and all round among the trees 
 we could see the white turbans of others who did not venture so 
 near) to thank us in their fashion for our visit. They recounted in 
 these irregular stanzas every address, lecture, and sermon of the 
 
Missionary Journey Round the World. 21 1 
 
 three busy days we had spent among them, and commended us to 
 the care of God. The poet is a man of culture, several of whose 
 hymns are sung at Christian worship all through North Travancore ; 
 and as we found in many more striking and picturesque, as well as 
 very touching, instances afterwards, the native Church in the south 
 of India is rich in Christian poets, and the way in which they sing 
 Christian lyrics to their popular airs suggested what one might 
 imagine of Luther's hymns on which he floated Reformation truth 
 among the people 
 
 ' ' A page or two out of these past days must be all that I can give ; 
 and time even for this is by no means easy to find. To travel all 
 night, sometimes through a wild tropical thunderstorm, in a leaky 
 boat — or in a bullock-cart without springs, and jolting over a muddy 
 road, where, perhaps, the bullocks lie down or the cart overturns — 
 or in a loose hammock carried by bearers, not a word of whose 
 language one can understand, and over roads that have been swept 
 away for perches by the rains, and are still mostly under water — or 
 in a railway train, where the dust never ceases to vex the eyes or 
 the mosquitoes to vex the ears ; and then all day, from early morning 
 till night again, to visit schools, examine classes, pass from institu- 
 tion to institution, lecture, preach, and in the interval to talk with 
 perhaps thirty men, and weigh, or try to weigh, the answers to a 
 hundred questions ; and then to wind up with a dinner at one house, 
 and an evening meeting at another — when all this is put together, there 
 is not much time or strength for correspondence 
 
 " Much of what I would fain write must be passed by with but a 
 word. Edeyengoody, where we passed the days about Christmas 
 with its noble-minded and primitive bishop, to whom, as Dr. Cald- 
 well, all that is good in India looks up, and in whose simple church 
 I had the privilege of preaching to the people of his Christian village ; 
 Palamcottah, where we could make but the briefest stay with Bishop 
 Sargent, whom we found presiding over his Church Council (and both 
 these missionary bishops, with their European but mostly native 
 clergy, care for a Christian population of nearly fifty thousand) ; 
 Tnmquebar, where the waves have swallowed many a spot on which 
 the first Protestant missionaries in India preached, but have spared 
 their church and their graves ; Tanjore, where we found the native 
 Christians on New Year's Eve following their own poets through the 
 streets, singing hymns by torchlight, and then crowding into the 
 church which holds the tomb of Schwartz ; Arcot, where, in the 
 Relief Camp, we saw awful traces of the famine, and pictures of 
 misery that can never be described ; Madras, where we had a de- 
 
212 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 lightful conference with seventy missionaries, men and women, where 
 the mission of a Christian education is wrought out in its highest 
 form, where we renewed and formed acquaintance with the ministers 
 of the native churches, the Rajahgopauls, and others, and where such 
 a pleasant network of kindness was cast round us by everybody, from 
 Government House down, that it seemed hopeless to get away. And 
 then from Madras we swept for hundreds of miles right across the 
 Dekkan by mail-train into Bombay, joined at Poonah station, one 
 morning before dawn, by Mr. Taylor of our Mission, who had kindly 
 come so far to meet us, and with whom I have since travelled more 
 than two thousand miles, chiefly through Gujarat and Kattiawar. 
 We spent Sunday- in Bombay, and then pushed on to Surat, reaching 
 our own stations and our own people, among whom we spent nearly 
 five delightful weeks 
 
 "At Borsad, as elsewhere, our missionaries had kindly planned 
 out what was to be done, and filled in every corner of every day, 
 from even before sunrise till long after sunset, with work ; and there, 
 as elsewhere, the native Christians gave us a welcome which had a 
 peculiar value in its spontaneity and purely native character, and 
 which testified to the affection cherished for the Church at home. 
 Torches and illuminations marked our way to the Mission-House ; 
 and we were scarcely seated there when the native Christians came 
 singing to the door, and at midnight led us away in procession under 
 triumphal arches bright with mottoes from the Bible and strung with 
 little lamps of cocoa-nut oil. They led us to the church, where a 
 short service was extemporized. We were presented with an address 
 of welcome, and a hymn of greeting, composed for the occasion, was 
 sung steadily through twenty-six stanzas. All the members of the 
 Presbytery, except those in Ireland on furlough, were present, and 
 for five days there were incessant meetings and addresses ; for many 
 Christians had assembled from the neighbouring districts, and all the 
 native workers that could be spared from the Mission field. There 
 were as many as five hundred, besides the people of the Christian 
 village, on the spot ; and it was a striking sight, and very touching 
 to those who could remember the Mission in its infancy, to look at 
 the upturned faces with which the church was crowded. As the 
 people sat together on the floor, and so close that one touched the 
 other, the eye took in a greater number in the same space than would 
 be possible with us. 
 
 "The people filled up the passages, flowed out of the porch upon 
 the sandy walk, and looked in at the windows. Though most of 
 them belong to the poor and despised, there are many fine faces and 
 
Missionary Journey Round the World. 213 
 
 tine men. One has mastered the principles of a somewhat obscure, 
 yet in many places powerful, Hindu sect ; there is a native poet 
 whose versions of the Psalms are sung in all our churches ; there are 
 blind musicians who wander about singing native hymns ; some are 
 gray-headed in Christian service, and many are the children of Chris- 
 tian parents. We had meetings of Presbytery, conferences, evan- 
 gelistic services, ordination of elders, street -preaching, baptisms, and 
 even a marriage ; and whatever time was not thus occupied was spent 
 in visiting the surrounding villages, seeing the people, and inspecting 
 the schools. 
 
 "One evening the Christians of Khasawadi, the native Christian 
 quarter of Borsad, entertained us. We walked under an avenue of 
 trees and up the village street, between brilliant rows of lights. A 
 band preceded us, entirely native, and marked by the fitful blasts of 
 a gigantic horn, that wound like a serpent high above our heads. 
 Rockets and other fireworks were discharged at every step, and their 
 glittering stars fell back through the soft moonlight. A slight barrier 
 of wood kept off the dense mass of people on either side. When we 
 reached the entertainment, we found it was spread under the open 
 sky and in the open roadway. The heads of the city and the Parsee 
 judge had been invited, and there was the curious spectacle of Dherds, 
 whose touch was supposed to be pollution, entertaining high-caste 
 men, while high caste and low caste crowded outside the barrier, 
 pushing patiently against each other to catch a view of the strange 
 sight. It was an assertion by the Christian community of its own 
 free and casteless life, and we are told it produced a deep 
 impression 
 
 " Ahmedabad is the literary centre of the province, the place of 
 education and culture, and a place of august memories and of ruins 
 (mostly mosques) of the most exquisite beauty. I gave a lecture 
 here, which was attended by the principal natives of the town, who 
 filled the room till it overflowed, and most of whom, with the En- 
 glish students in our own and the Government High School, attended 
 the English service which I was asked to take next day in the com- 
 mon hall of our school. What a stranger realizes most forcibly in 
 the cities is the enormous growth of the changes which are spreading 
 among educated men in India, the result of influences that are not 
 directly Christian, and to which a thousand causes outside the Mis- 
 sion contribute, but to which the ^Mission has contributed the largest 
 share of all. That these influences are playing a great part at present 
 no man doubts whose opinion has any weight in India, There is no 
 fixed direction which the change is taking — certainly not towards 
 
214 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 Christianity ; but it is the Mission alone that proposes to lead and 
 control it to a definite end, and were the Mission on as large a scale 
 as the Churches of Great Britain could easily place it, one can 
 well believe that that end would be reached, and at no great dis- 
 tance of time. A few miles from Ahmedabad there is an illustra- 
 tion of the more direct change wrought through preaching of the 
 gospel ; for there, at Shahawadi, we saw one of the thriving Chris- 
 tian villages of our Mission — the houses numerous and comfortable, 
 fat oxen and good horses in the compound, wells from which the water 
 is drawn to irrigate the farms, and English ploughs in the fields. In 
 the middle of the village is the Christian school, and at one end of it 
 the Mission bungalow and the church, of which you have read already 
 in the Herald. These people, with their industry and comfort, arc, 
 one may say, the creation of our Mission : they have grown to be 
 what they are through the preaching, and the anxious, wise, and 
 kindly care of our missionaries ; and though, compared with one of 
 our country congregations, they are few and poor, yet they give to 
 the kingdom of Christ with a liberality larger than our best. I had 
 told them one day that they must be prepared to take up the burden 
 of Christian manhood and maintain their own ministry, and, as the 
 wind swept through an empty belfry above our heads, I suggested 
 that they might gain courage for the larger by attempting the smaller 
 work of procuring a bell. The next morning we drove out to see 
 their farms, and the people met us in their schoolroom. A few words 
 from our missionary at Ahmedabad, and one man offered twenty 
 rupees for the bell ; another followed ; promises of fifteen, tens, and 
 several fives came dropping in as one neighbour stood up after an- 
 other, till every one had given something, and the total was above 
 two hundred and forty rupees. Presently one or two of the women, 
 at a hint from their husbands, and being not only good wives but 
 faithful bankers, stepped out and brought the money subscribed. 
 The example was infectious, and in a few minutes almost the whole 
 amount was shining in silver rupees on the table. It was consider- 
 ably more than the cost of the bell, and (relatively to the means of 
 the people and the value of money to the native) it probably repre- 
 sented at least five times the amount that it would at home. I dan- 
 say it was a sacrifice, and made with what might be called a spurt, 
 but it was a willing and generous spurt. For not only has the church 
 here not cost our Mission funds one penny, but the congregation has 
 largely subscribed to it ; and this incident shows the tine Christian 
 temper into which, through patient years, our missionaries are mould- 
 ing the native Christians 
 
Missionary Journey Round the World. 2 1 5 
 
 ' ' Northern and Central Kattiawar were visited on the way to our 
 pleasant old station at Rajkote, which, on a small scale, without 
 ruins, and with nothing like the same pretensions, occupies a similar 
 relation to Kattiawar that Ahmedabad does to Gujarat — a scholastic 
 centre, and possibly a centre of intellectual life to that curious pro- 
 vince of feudal chiefs and feudal customs. Like many another jour- 
 ney we have had, it was fagging, an endless ride at two miles an hour 
 in lazy, jolting bullock-carts, on and on, night and day, with now a 
 hasty meal in a caravanserai among camels, buffaloes, and donkeys, 
 and now in the open road, with only the stars above us, the soft 
 thick dust below, and from the neighbouring hamlet the voices of 
 children at play, singing idol-hymns that float over a land of idol- 
 stones and idol-temples, where the eye searches for a church spire in 
 vain. The last Sunday we spent in Gujarat most of the missionaries 
 were able to be with us at Neriad, some under canvas, and some in 
 rooms off the new church, which attracts the eye of every traveller 
 who passes the railway station. The day might be said to have been 
 spent in public worship ; for we had not only frequent services, the 
 people, as at Borsad, crowding the building and sitting out in the 
 open, but they themselves spent the intervals sitting in a picturesque 
 circle, under the shade of the great trees, while one evangelist ad- 
 dressed them after another ; and when the last service was over we 
 sallied out into the town, a place larger than Derry, where, in the 
 twilight, preaching was commenced in the bazaar or market-street, 
 and soon turned into an animated discussion on the respective merits 
 of Siva and Christ. At Neriad, as at other halting-places, the day 
 was marked by the solemn joy of baptisms, between thirty and forty 
 persons having been baptized during these weeks ; and to me it was 
 most affecting to have the privilege of seeing so many received into 
 the Church of Christ, and of pronouncing over them the ancient words 
 that have been taught us by the Lord of Missions. The next day we 
 spent at Anund, a rural district, which is likely to be one of our 
 strongest missionary centres, and where Mrs. Stevenson had the honour 
 of laying the foundation-stone of the Children's Church. Before the 
 ceremony, which was a novel one in the district, very touching words 
 of gratitude to the Church at home and for our visit were spoken by 
 some of the native Christians, words which no one could hear un- 
 moved. If the children could see what we have seen and hear what 
 we have heard, they would not only try who would be first in giving 
 most to build this house of prayer, but every household would have 
 its own treasury-box, where offerings would be kept for India and 
 China." 
 
216 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 Leaving the Irish Mission at Surat and returning to 
 Bombay, they went by rail to Calcutta, stopping near the 
 top of the Ghauts at Nassick to see the work of the Church 
 Missionary Society there ; and from Nandgeon, a station two 
 hours farther on, branching off to Jalna, to visit the Chris- 
 tian village built by the Rev. JSarayan Sheshadri. 
 
 In Calcutta, where they were received everywhere with 
 unbounded hospitality, and entertained by the Viceroy, Mr. 
 Stevenson wrote : — 
 
 •• We have been in Calcutta for more than a week, staying in an 
 honoured house (for our host tells us the room we occupy was Dr. 
 Duffs) ; visiting schools and Missions and missionaries ; talking with 
 native students, editors, clergy, and professors; visiting zenanas 
 (that is, Mrs. Stevenson) with the devoted women who make this 
 their work; preaching, attending meetings, seeing idol-worship of 
 the most repulsive kind side by side with a culture like the best at 
 home; wearily peeping at the lions; and as wearily dining out after 
 each hard day 
 
 " Xow, at a bound, we have got into one of the wildest spots, and 
 to me the most intensely interesting, in modern India. We are at 
 Ranchi, in the heart of Chota Xagpore, the seat of the German Mis- 
 sion which the faith of Gossner planted thirty-three years ago and 
 sustained through fruitless years of trial, where there are now forty 
 thousand Christians, and where three to four thousand were baptized 
 last year. Yet all this has happened so rapidly, that I have been talk- 
 ing with the first missionary who came out, and who was five years 
 without a convert. To gain leisure at each place, we have had to 
 travel harder than is the custom in India. Small ponies, changed 
 every few miles, took Mr. Taylor and myself to Jalna at a constant 
 gallop through the day and through the night. They Mere har- 
 nessed to a tonga, where you have scanty support for your back, sit 
 upright all the time, and bear the jolting of the gallop with philo- 
 sophy. A missionary who has roughed it for sixteen years here told 
 me that nothing hut a solemn sense of duty would take him by the 
 mail tonga on that road again 
 
 "As we return by another route, we have to time our Leaving so 
 as to pass an ugly spot by daylight: for a man-eating tiger has 
 haunted it these two years, and killed between a hundred and fifty 
 and two hundred people, lately carrying off even a he. tier from a 
 
Missionary f on nicy Round the World. 217 
 
 palanquin, so that the men, I suppose properly, decline to be there 
 at night. Seventeen hours of palanquin, then seven hours' rest in the 
 afternoon, two-and-twenty hours in another vehicle, what is called a 
 gharry, drawn by men instead of horses, the rest of a short night, 
 twenty hours of rail, and then we shall be among the missionaries at 
 Benares. 
 
 •• You can imagine how weary one often is, and how wistfully we 
 look to home. But work like this can be done only once, and must 
 be honestly faced and not shirked as long as strength and health 
 holdout." 
 
 Nearly a month was spent among the cities of the north- 
 west, going from the dense superstitions of Benares to 
 Cawnpore, Lucknow, and Delhi, with their memories of the 
 Mutiny. From Agra a detour was made into Rajpootana 
 to inspect the Mission stations of the United Presbyterian 
 Church ; and before reaching Lahore, the farthest limit 
 of their journey, they spent a happy Sunday among the 
 hearty workers in the Church Missionary Society's Mission 
 at Umritzar, visiting, on their return to Bombay, the 
 American Missions at Dehra Doon, Missouri, and Allahabad. 
 
 The long strain of incessant labour had taxed Mr. Steven- 
 son's energies to the utmost, and, weary and exhausted, he 
 was ill-fitted to bear the shock of the news that awaited 
 him at Jubbalpore of the death by accident of his brother- 
 in-law, Mr. John M. Sinclair. After a short farewell visit 
 to Surat, the Bombay doctors imperatively ordered him to 
 Mahableshwar, to await the sailing of the homeward-bound 
 steamer. 
 
 A letter to the missionaries after his return closes this 
 slight record of a missionary journey which covered 47,000 
 miles 
 
 'Orwell Bank, July SI, 1878. 
 
 •• My dear Brethren", — Although 1 have been able to write brief 
 notes to one or two of you, I have not been able to return to the good 
 old habit of a regular letter, and I seize the opportunity now, just to 
 tell you how it fared with us since we parted. Every day we were 
 on board we had a Bible-reading, to which as many as eighteen of 
 
2i8 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 the passengers were willing to come. The American Mission in 
 Egypt seems admirably manned, and its success is at present very 
 cheering to the missionaries. In Cairo they are raising a building 
 which is almost as substantial as the citadel, and which will be the 
 largest block in the handsome street which it adorns: judging by the 
 stone and lime, it is certainly like taking possession of the land. The 
 Mohammedan University in Cairo was also full of interest. Dr. 
 Lansing kindly procured us the necessary firman to visit it, and was 
 himself our interpreter and companion. I do not know that anything 
 in my journey produced on me a more profound impression than to 
 see that enormous crowd of evidently eager and attentive students 
 grouped around their professors, and to see the teachers, each ab- 
 sorbed in his own subject, and seeming to carry with him the full 
 attention of the class ; and then to realize that these students came 
 from every part of the world (the Mohammedan world), and were 
 
 being moulded there into future teachers of the great system 
 
 ' ' Taking passage by the Rubbatino steamer from Alexandria to 
 Genoa, we got out at Leghorn to save time, having first enjoyed, as 
 we sailed on a perfect day along the coast of Sicily from Catania to 
 Messina, the most lovely views, I think, that I have ever beheld, or 
 rather the most lovely succession of views, unfolding themselves in 
 every variety of beauty as we steamed slowly past. From Leghorn 
 we went, for the only real rest that I had enjoyed since leaving 
 home, to Bellagio, on the Lake of Como, a lovely spot about four 
 hundred feet above the lake, where, though the house was full, there 
 was, except at meal-times, a sense of being absolutely alone, and 
 where the rest consisted in trying to read and write up old note- 
 books in our bedroom, which from its window commanded a view 
 of the Lecco arm of the lake ; but then in two minutes one was 
 among gardens and woods, where the songs of the countless nightin- 
 gales vied with the songs of the blackbird and the thrush, and where 
 roses, a triumph of the gardener's art, seemed to grow wild among 
 thorns and in shrubberies. I had scarcely begun to feel the benefit 
 of stopping when it became necessary to push on for home ; and by 
 travelling all night for three or four nights in succession, we reached 
 our children near Belfast on Friday, the 31st May. Our thankfulness 
 to find them well was deepened when we found that a letter had 
 been written during our absence to announce that by the next mail 
 we must be prepared for tidings of the death of our youngest, of 
 whose recovery, after a long illness, the doctors had given up all 
 hope. God, however, had mercifully spared them all ; and evt n in 
 my own congregation the only two deaths recorded weie of persons 
 
Missionary Journey Round the World. 219 
 
 who had been hopelessly ill before I left home, and to whom I had 
 then bidden farewell. On the Saturday we went up to Dublin, and 
 our first Sabbath in Rathgar was, like the last Sabbath we had spent 
 before leaving, devoted to the communion of the Lord's Supper. You 
 will readily understand what a joyful and what a touching meeting' 
 it was, and how many thoughts came crowding on one's mind. You 
 will scarcely understand, however, how the sight of faces that seemed 
 exactly as they had been left a year before, and under exactly the 
 same circumstances, produced an impression that the twelve months 
 of constant travel were only a dream, from which one had awoke ; 
 and sometimes still I feel as if it had been a strange and wonderful 
 dream, until the edge of a note-book or the sight of a pile of Govern- 
 ment blue-books reminds me to the contrary. 
 
 "On Monday we returned to Belfast, and on that evening there 
 was begun one of the happiest Assemblies, one of the most brotherly 
 in spirit, one of the most important in its appointments, and one of 
 the highest in its tone, at which I remember to have been present. 
 You will already have received, I trust, papers that I sent contain- 
 ing the report of the evening devoted to the Foreign Mission. I 
 suspect that the effort, and the wonderful warmth of welcome offered 
 by the Assembly, and the sight of so vast a multitude, were too 
 much for one already overwrought. The next Sunday was unwill- 
 ingly spent in bed. I returned to Dublin again towards the end of 
 the week, and have been here ever since ; not, however, that I have 
 been doing much work. Fagged and weary and listless, both in 
 body and mind, almost incapable for the present of exertion, and 
 having tried to fight down the feeling of intense lassitude and pros- 
 tration, I have been at last compelled to consult the doctors hi Dub- 
 lin, who have agreed in their description of what is astray, and in 
 the imperative remedy that they prescribe ; and by their orders we 
 have to start again this week for the seaside, the most bracing place 
 and the quietest that can be found, and to stay there, short or long, 
 until there comes perfect restoration of tone. You will be glad to 
 know that, after the closest examination, the heads of the profession 
 here agree independently that I have contracted no organic disease, 
 and tell me I should consider myself particularly fortunate in that 
 condition of things, since such a journey, so undertaken, ought to 
 have left some organic wrong behind it; and they also say that, if 
 their instructions are rigidly carried out and work absolutely stopped 
 during this time of change, I shall be able for even the additional 
 burden that must be expected during the coming winter. I have 
 scarcely yet even thought of taking the r^ins from the hands that 
 
220 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 have held them so prudently and with so great advantage to the 
 Mission during the twelve months of absence,* not feeling in any 
 way equal to the task ; but I suppose I shall gradually fall into the 
 old groove, although with a wonderful change of scenery and thought 
 when thinking of the East. 
 
 ' ' I dare not begin in this letter, or it would never end, to tell you 
 of all the deep and happy and solemn thoughts that have been left 
 by our visit to not only the broad fields of Missions in the East, but 
 especially to Gujarat. Every day we feel more thankful that it was 
 put into the hearts of any in our Church to think of this visit, and 
 that God so wonderfully prepared the way ; and we shall carry with 
 us, almost as freshly as we feel them at present, those recollections 
 of all that you and we witnessed together. The memory of those 
 delightful talks and interviews, and the sight of those congregations 
 of Christian worshippers — first-fruits of the Mission work — can be 
 now renewed every day as we talk round our table 
 
 ' ' Our work is a spiritual work where every qualification that a 
 Christian man may have is needed, but all else sinks low beside spir- 
 itual fitness and spiritual power. Let us for our Church at home, . 
 let us for those who may propose to serve in the Mission-field, let us 
 for ourselves covet this earnestly as the best gift — a gift for which we 
 will pray without ceasing. It is the impression that, deep already, 
 has been made deeper than any other, that only through the right- 
 eousness and power of spiritual life, a life that is very holy because 
 it is very close to Jesus Christ, will the real work of the Mission be 
 ever done. Intensity of spiritual life, intensity of spiritual fervour, 
 let us ask for these ; and surely, as we ask in the spirit of the Master, 
 we shall receive. 
 
 "It is, I suppose, somewhat irregular in a letter like this to 
 introduce any one but myself as correspondent ; but this time at 
 least I must bring Mrs. Stevenson along with myself in the most 
 cordial remembrance to every one of you, and in the prayer that all 
 we saw of the Mission in Gujarat, much blessed and in many ways 
 wonderful as it is, will soon be far eclipsed by what you on the spot 
 will see. — With warm regard, affectionately yours, 
 
 "W. Fleming Stevenson." 
 
 At the meeting of the General Assembly, on the night set 
 apart for Foreign Missions, the large building in which the 
 
 * The Rev. Robert Montgomery, senior missionary to India, who acted as tem- 
 porary Convener. 
 
Missionary Journey Rou?id the World. 221 
 
 Court mot was filled to overflowing. As Mr. Stevenson 
 entered the Assembly the whole house rose and greeted him 
 with an outburst of welcome, which was repeated again and 
 again. The enthusiastic reception took him by surprise, 
 and it was only by a strong effort he was able to master his 
 emotion. His account of his mission had been eagerly looked 
 forward to, and the expectations of the vast audience were 
 not disappointed. Many, after an interval of years, have 
 said that his speech was the noblest piece of Christian 
 oratory to which they had ever listened. The address, when 
 printed, had a circulation of nearly 40,000 copies, and one 
 who read it forwarded anonymously £500 to the Mission. 
 
 Mr. Stevenson began by enumerating the general im- 
 pressions produced by his contact with the strongholds of 
 heathenism. Among these were the enormous populations of 
 India, China, and Japan, amounting to at least 700 millions, 
 the traces he met everywhere of a high culture and a forward 
 civilization, and the antiquity of the religious systems and 
 religious life. Over against all this he had an ever-gathering 
 sense of the vast and beneficent forces which were being 
 brought into play by the Church of Christ. With few ex- 
 ceptions, the Missions in these countries were of quite recent 
 origin, scarcely dating back further than to the beginning 
 of the century. The work already accomplished had quite 
 surpassed his expectations. Nor was it only the direct re- 
 sults which were to be regarded ; almost everywhere faith 
 in heathenism had been weakened. The first rough work of 
 making grammars and dictionaries and the grand task of 
 translating the Bible were over, and the missionary proper 
 was rapidly replacing the pioneer. The Home Missions were 
 not to be neglected for the Foreign. Once the heart of the 
 Church was touched, the strength of her quickened pulse 
 would be felt in every Mission; and there was need of that 
 quickening power. He had borne away with him from the 
 field the painful and universal impression that the Mi.ss.ion was 
 
222 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 undermanned. On the other hand, the catholicity of spirit 
 and frank co-operation subsisting among the missionaries of 
 the different Churches formed a delightful spectacle, and one 
 that might be better imitated at home. In the face of an 
 infidel English press, and the growing indifference towards 
 the old idolatries, he was convinced that the Christian Mission 
 was the one power that would keep India loyal and make 
 India great. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 PUBLIC LIFE. 
 
 Before his long journey Mr. Stevenson had become widely 
 appreciated. On both sides of the Atlantic his earnestness, 
 eloquence, and ^Christian devotedness had won for him an 
 honoured name among all the Churches. The demand for 
 his services in the management of Christian and other public 
 institutions was widespread and incessant. He never coveted 
 publicity, and yet no man was better known. The duties 
 that fell to him as pastor and as Convener of the Foreign 
 Mission of his own Church were more than sufficient for 
 any man, as has since been recognized.* If to these be 
 added the innumerable calls for lectures and services of all 
 kinds, which came from England and Scotland as well as 
 Ireland, some idea may be formed of the pressure under 
 which he was working. All these conditions were intensi- 
 fied after his return from his missionary tour. His life then 
 became one of labour and toil without end. It almost appals 
 one to look at its details during these last years, and to find 
 that he went through it all. It was the pathetic effort of a 
 strong and noble nature to do the work of two men, and to 
 do it perfectly ; and to the very end he united the instincts 
 of a student and the ideals of an artist with the dogged per- 
 severance of a practical worker. 
 
 These busy years may by some be regarded as hastening 
 
 * These duties are now shared by the Rev. William Park, M.A., the Rev. Wm. 
 Rogers, D.D., and D. G. Barkley, Esq., late Judge of the Chief Court of the Punjaub. 
 
224 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 the end ; but one can easily see how, with the sense of his 
 serviceableness, the compass of his engagements widened and 
 their grasp tightened, while to spend and be spent in the 
 service of Christ he accepted as a postulate of his Christian 
 calling. He worked through them with all his energy and 
 power, and all the while kept planning for the future, how- 
 ever long or short it might be. Even under such continued 
 pressure, his mind was clear and his spirits buoyant. It is 
 not possible to detail all he did ; we can only touch on some 
 of his abundant labours. He had fulfilled the aspiration of 
 an earlier day, when, in 1864, he wrote to his brother-in-law, 
 Mr. Thomas M. Sinclair : — 
 
 <; The life of a clergyman is not the life of a man who fills his barns 
 and dies in plenty, but of one who trusts in God to satisfy very 
 moderate wants, whose first wish is to do His work, and who sets an 
 example of humility and faith. It might please God to keep me 
 poor, but I trust it will never please Him to keep me idle." 
 
 During his absence in India there was a very widespread 
 desire that on his return home he should be elected Moderator 
 of the General Assembly, the highest honour the Presbyte- 
 rian Church has in her power to bestow. On hearing of this 
 intention, although deeply touched by the sympathy with the 
 Mission which it indicated, Mr. Stevenson at once telegraphed 
 from India to request that it should not be carried out, feel- 
 ing that, after so long an absence from his own congregation, 
 it would not be fair to subject them to a year of such irreg- 
 ular service as would have to be given by one occupying a 
 position charged with so many duties as the Moderator's chair 
 entails. The Church submitted to his wish, and his friends 
 felt all the more thankful for his decision when, soon after 
 his return home, it became evident that the long strain of 
 unremitting toil and incessant travel had completely over- 
 taxed his strength, and he was imperatively ordered a period 
 of absolute rest. 
 
Public Life. - 225 
 
 In 1879 the Government appointed Mr. Stevenson a Sen- 
 ator of the Royal University of Ireland, which was founded 
 in that year. 
 
 Thirty years before, to meet the needs of the Roman 
 Catholic population, as well as of all Protestants outside the 
 Episcopal Church, who were at that time excluded from any 
 share in the government or emoluments of the University 
 of Dublin, Sir Robert Peel's Ministry founded the Queen's 
 University, to which were affiliated the three colleges of Bel- 
 fast, Cork, and Galway. This University had no religious tests 
 whatever, denominational instruction being given by Deans of 
 Residence belonging to the various Churches in the country. 
 
 After some years, however, the University had become un- 
 popular with the more ultramontane section of the Roman 
 Catholic Church, and it was to meet their demands that the 
 Royal University was founded, to take the place of the 
 Queen's University. The new body was, like London Uni- 
 versity, purely an examining board for the purpose of 
 granting degrees to students of all denominations, wherever 
 educated ; while the three Queen's Colleges, as well as the 
 denominational colleges in Ireland, continued to exist merely 
 as teaching institutions, a number of their professors being, 
 however, selected to be the fellows and examiners of the new 
 University. A large number of the candidates for ordina- 
 tion of the Presbyterian Church had received their educa- 
 tion in arts through the Queen's University; while Magee 
 College, Derry, an institution under the control of the Gen- 
 eral Assembly, possessing complete faculties both in arts and 
 divinity, now sent up its students to receive their degrees 
 from the Royal University. Apart, therefore, from the 
 general interests of education in Ireland, it was of the high- 
 est importance to the Presbyterian Church that a man of 
 Mr. Stevenson's experience and character should have a scat 
 on the Senate. 
 
 In 1881 the University of Edinburgh conferred upon him 
 
 15 
 
226 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 the degree of D.D. ; and in June of the same year, when the 
 General Assembly met in Dublin, he was unanimously elected 
 Moderator. The following passage from the inaugural address 
 shows his wide vision and high ideal : — 
 
 ' ' We have nourished by the reading and preaching of the Word of 
 God. If we have any moral firmness and reliance, if we have made 
 any prosperous advance, we owe it to the freedom and the love of 
 that blessed Book. We make no secret that we wish that Book to 
 be as free to all our countrymen as it is to us. As Irishmen, we can 
 do Ireland no greater service. It is the spiritual conquest that we 
 keep before us, not the prevailing of one special Church, though we 
 may think it the purest and best, not even the prevailing of Protestant 
 over Roman Catholic, but the prevailing of Christ over all. That is 
 the Irish mission, the Home mission, to which all our history seems 
 to point ; that is the mission which it is the province of this Assembly 
 to foster, till the spirit and ambition of it seize on all our members, 
 and we ' rise on stepping-stones of our dead selves to higher things. ' 
 The very strife of these discordant times is summoning us ; the sense 
 of past neglect is urging us. There is a legend that lingers in the 
 wilds of Donegal, that, before Columba, the founder of Iona, was 
 born, his mother saw in a vision a fair robe that an angel took from 
 her and flung into the air, and as it floated there it grew until it 
 covered the mountains and all the country round, and there was a 
 voice that spoke of innumerable souls that would be gathered to their 
 heavenly home. May our history fulfil the dream ! May the fair 
 robe of primitive doctrine and the primitive simplicity of worship and 
 order that our fathers brought with them from Scotland — the robe 
 that has been always spreading wider its folds of royal blue — grow 
 until it cover every mountain, valley, and plain in this dear Ireland, 
 and may the voice that is heard be the voice of a living Church ; the 
 one great eminence that we covet, the witness of innumerable lives 
 that God has redeemed by His grace ! There is one mission which, 
 by its overwhelming magnitude, overtops the rest. Twelve centuries 
 ago there was a gigantic problem to be solved. Christianity had 
 conquered the races of culture. It had found the world like a weary 
 spendthrift, sated, dissatisfied, and in want, and the fulness of its 
 message had fallen on the emptiness of life. But the vast hordes of 
 the North had swept down from their forests in Gaul and beyond the 
 Danube. Would the same power cope successfully with these bar- 
 barian races, full of rude joy and strength ? 
 
Public Life. 227 
 
 '•It was left to a little speck of land in the outer fringe of the 
 Roman Empire to lead the way in settling that question then ; and 
 this narrow island of ours, beset with the restless breakers of the 
 Atlantic, became for three hundred years a starting-point of mission- 
 ary impulse, its surface studded with missionary colleges, its princes 
 not disdaining to be missionaries, and from its moors and mountains 
 a race of brave and large-souled men issuing in a stately and unique 
 procession to scatter the pagan shadows that brooded over Europe. 
 That Irish Church sowed its workers with a lavish hand, reaping as 
 it sowed. It was not a Church supporting a mission, which is our 
 modern innovation, but a missionary Church. Its schools of theology 
 and its peculiar constitution pointed mainly in that direction ; and I 
 would ask you, fathers and brethren, to keep up the repute of that 
 old Irish mission. 
 
 "In an eager and impetuous age, an age of fervour and triumph, 
 we stand perplexed and full of shame that we should be confronted 
 by thick belts of heathenism, representing a larger population than 
 was in all the world when Christianity began, and, if we add Moham- 
 medans, a population vastly larger. If it needs, apparently, the 
 presence of forty thousand clergymen, with a countless company of 
 other Christian workers, to maintain Christianity in Great Britain 
 and Ireland, what provision are we making to reach a pagan world 
 as huge as if thirty kingdoms like our own lay side by side ? What 
 we are to do with these thousand millions of heathen is the gravest 
 and greatest problem of our time. History teaches us that there is a 
 force capable of solving it, that that force lies in the Word of God. 
 The Word of God teaches us that the Church is, in one respect of it, 
 a vast missionary institution, planted, sustained, and ministered to, 
 that it may subdue the world under Christ. The roots of this divine 
 idea twine round the roots of revelation. It is as essentially in the 
 one Testament as in the other. Abraham is the father of the mission, 
 the prophets are its seers, the psalmists its poets. And when the 
 command, 'Go and teach all nations,' is at last uttered in its mag- 
 nificent breadth, the new dispensation is only bursting like a flower 
 from the restraining sheath of the old. Lines of promise run through 
 the Bible from the beginning to the end of it, promises that can be 
 fulfilled only when the passion for this conquest seizes on the whole 
 Church of God. Lines of prophecy lie beside them — lines of prophecy 
 ever widening with the suns, prophecies that can only be fulfilled 
 when forces of some divine intensity will break up the crust of things 
 at home. There are other lines that we can trace to-day com 
 upon the same point — lines of the intellectual energy and the rush of 
 
22! 
 
 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 commerce and the enterprise that are characteristic of our time, and 
 along which, as we hear of new lands uncovered, and of how the 
 East and West are touching at innumerable points, we hear also a 
 voice that cries, 'Prepare ye the way of the Lord ; make His paths 
 straight."' 
 
 The pressure upon his time and thought was greatly in- 
 creased by the new and by no means idle dignity conferred 
 upon him. To his pastoral duties and mission work, not to 
 speak of the numerous committees on which he served, was 
 now added that of Chairman of the Church and of all the 
 Church's Boards, and the necessity of representing her on 
 all public occasions, opening new churches, preaching anni- 
 versary sermons, corresponding with the Government, plead- 
 ing for charities, and addressing public meetings. Into this 
 work, common to all Moderators, Dr. Stevenson threw him- 
 self with an energy that made him seem almost ubiquitous. 
 His previous life had been so busy, that it was only by short- 
 ening the hours of rest that more w r ork could be done. He 
 was seldom able to take more than four consecutive hours of 
 sleep during his year of office. The multiplicity of commit- 
 tees or boards on which he served made dire inroads on his 
 time. It may be interesting to insert a list of the offices he 
 held in 1886, taken from his pocket-book : — 
 
 Duff Lecturer, Whitsun 1S82 to Whit- 
 sun 1SS6. 
 
 Senator of the Eoyal University. 
 
 Member of Standing Committee, Eoyal 
 University. 
 
 Examiner, General Assembly's Theo- 
 logical Committee. 
 
 Member of Dublin Libraries Committee. 
 
 Honorary Secretary, Hibernian Bible So- 
 ciety. 
 
 Honorary Secretary, Dublin Social Pur- 
 ity Society. 
 
 Convener, Foreign Mission. 
 
 Convener, Zenana Mission. 
 
 Trustee, Magee College. 
 
 Trustee, Orphan Servants' Home. 
 
 Vice-President, Dublin Y.M.C. \. 
 
 Vice-President, Hibernian Band of Hope. 
 
 Vice-President, Indian Vernacular Edu- 
 cation Society. 
 
 Vice-President, Sunday-School Society. 
 
 Vice - President, Presbyterian Associa- 
 tion, Sackville Street. 
 
 Director, Presbyterian Orphan Society. 
 
 Member of Committee of — 
 
 United Services Committee, Dub- 
 lin. 
 Conventions Sub-commit tee. 
 Evangelical Alliance. 
 Bible and Colportage Society. 
 Turkish Missions Aid Soci< ty. 
 British and Foreign Sailors' Society. 
 Pan-Presbyterian Council on Mis- 
 sions. 
 Pan-Presbyterian Council on Wo- 
 man's Work. 
 
Public Life. 
 
 229 
 
 Member of Committee of — 
 
 Waldensian Aid Society Consulting 
 Committee. 
 Member of General Assembly's Com- 
 mittee on- 
 Elementary Education. 
 Higher Education. 
 Home Missions. 
 Psalmody. 
 
 Systematic Beneficence. 
 
 Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund. 
 
 Committee in Correspondence with 
 
 Government. 
 Mission Board. 
 Member of Dublin Presbytery's Com- 
 mittee on State of KeligioD. 
 Secretary of Dublin Presbytery's Com- 
 mittee on Missions. 
 
 From the time of his return from India it was his ardent 
 desire to be able to preach or lecture for Missions in every 
 congregation of his Church in Ireland. The demands of 
 his own congregation and other duties naturally made the 
 accomplishment of this plan a work of time, but he kept 
 it steadily before him ; and when an engagement to preach 
 on the Sunday took him to some country district, he often 
 arranged to deliver four or five lectures in different places 
 before returning home. 
 
 In June 1879 he wrote to the missionaries : — 
 
 " I am, as usual, overworked, but see no way to work less. At 
 the urgency of the United Presbyterian Synod and of the Free Church 
 Assembly, I addressed both those bodies upon Missions, the one in 
 the beginning and the other in the end of May, and was refreshed to 
 see those vast audiences which ' only Missions ' drew together in the 
 Synod and Assembly Halls. Since then the College Committee of 
 the Free Church have written with such frequency and urgency, that, 
 after refusing, I must probably yield to their request to deliver the 
 lectures of the Duff Evangelistic Chair to their students in Edinburgh 
 and Glasgow during this winter. They can be compressed, I hope, into 
 a few weeks, and of course.it is delightful to have a try at these young 
 fellows, and perhaps stir them up for the Mission. We have as yet 
 no chair of that kind in our colleges ; but having been appointed to 
 deliver the first course of lectures on the Richard Smyth Foundation 
 — a course of ten, to begin in December 1881 — it may be that it will 
 be possible for me to deliver them in Belfast as well as Derry, and I 
 have chosen as the subject, 'The History and Methods of Christian 
 Missions.' Of course, I have been pleading for the Mission in many 
 of our congregations, and Mill be continuing this work during the 
 autumn ; and as these are all extra labours, it is sometimes rather 
 fagging, though the cause is worth it all." 
 
230 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 The enthusiasm with which he was received in Edinburgh 
 and the interest his addresses excited were quite remarkable. 
 Soon after, the Rev. Hugh Macmillan, D.D., wrote : — 
 
 " It will be an honour to preach in the pulpit of one whose praise 
 is in all the Churches, and a gratification to show in this way, in a 
 small degree, the sense of gratitude which I feel, as a member of the 
 Free Church, for the most valuable services which you are about to 
 render to her. I was thrilled by the most admirable and eloquent 
 address which you gave at the last meeting of our Assembly, and felt 
 inclined to go up and almost wring your hand off at the close ; but 
 you were borne off in a whirlwind of applause and a chariot of tri- 
 umph, and I saw you no more." 
 
 The allusion in this letter to future services refers to a 
 request which had been preferred, that for one winter he 
 would undertake the lectures in connection w r ith the Chair 
 of Evangelistic Theology in the New College, Edinburgh, a 
 chair instituted and endowed by the friends of Dr. Duff, who 
 was the honoured occupant of it till his death. 
 
 In reference to these lectures Mr. Stevenson wrote to the 
 missionaries in the following spring : — 
 
 " Dublin, March 18, 1880. 
 ' ' I need not repeat what I have already written about Scotland. 
 Since the death of Dr. Duff his chair has been put into commission. 
 Dr. M. Mitchell, Dr. Thomas Smith, and Mr. Wilson of the Barclay 
 have all given lectures in connection with it. This winter I Mas 
 asked to give twelve lectures to the first-year students in Edinburgh 
 and Glasgow. In Edinburgh the professors sacrificed their own 
 lectures that the students might attend, and, to my discomfiture, 
 there were always professors, ministers, and elders among the audi- 
 tors. Nothing could be warmer than the welcome given, or greater 
 than the kindness shown ; and the feeling among the men was de- 
 lightful. A good many seem bent on Mission work, and they include 
 some of the best students in both the Colleges, while I understand 
 there are others in Aberdeen. The lectures were delivered daily 
 (except Saturday) for five weeks, and a student was scarcely ever 
 absent. But as there were public addresses besides, one in Edin- 
 burgh, where even the passages were crowded in the Assembly Hall, 
 
Public Life. 231 
 
 and one in Glasgow to over 4,000, and missionary sermons, I was 
 fairly tired out; yet have now a requisition to return in April and 
 give at least half the lectures to the public, a requisition signed by a 
 very Evangelical Alliance, for it includes a Moderator of the Free 
 Church, the leading ministers of the Established, the Bishop of Edin- 
 burgh and the Dean, the Principals of the various Colleges, the 
 Provost, and laymen as well as ministers of every denomination. It 
 is plain, from the interest in Mission subjects, that Missions have got 
 a mighty hold upon the Scottish people ; and yet if the interest were 
 analyzed it would be found that it is meagre, and that it does not 
 yet affect the bulk of the Church members ; and if that is true of 
 Scotland, we are much further behind." 
 
 Among the subjects chosen were — -" The Helplessness and 
 Hopelessness of Heathenism," " The Mission of the Church 
 of God," "Missionary Epochs and Methods," "The Apos- 
 tolic and the Modern Mission," " The Mission of the Church 
 at Home." On the conclusion of the series the Senatus of 
 the New College passed the following resolution : — 
 
 "The Senatus, in taking leave of Mr. Fleming Stevenson, record 
 their very strong sense of the thoroughly able manner in which he 
 performed the duties of the Evangelistic Theology Chair, the admir- 
 able character of the lectures he delivered, and the interest which he 
 excited in the minds of the students. They believe that the impres- 
 sion produced by the lectures and by the personal intercourse with 
 the students is likely to bear abundant fruit in years to come." 
 
 In forwarding this resolution, the secretary, Professor 
 Duns, added : — 
 
 " Your visit has been of the very greatest profit to us all. I have 
 seen its influence in my class. We have a half hour of prayei \\ e< U\ . 
 conducted by the students of the class — my part being only to give 
 out a psalm — and I have been much impressed by the directness and 
 earnestness of the cry for blessing on Mission work." 
 
 The immediate practical result of these lectures was, tlt.tt 
 a large number of students resolved to devote themselves to 
 Mission work. With these he came afterwards into personal 
 
232 Life of William Flailing Stevenson. 
 
 contact, inviting them to meet him, and dealing lovingly with 
 them one by one. After his return, the requisition already 
 referred to followed him. The catholicity of its spirit, em- 
 bracing so many representatives of all Churches and schools 
 of thought, gave it a peculiar value in his eyes, and he felt it 
 to be an opportunity that he dared not put aside, though the 
 pressure of other engagements was so great that, in order to 
 lessen as much as possible the period of absence from home, 
 the lectures, which were to be delivered in Glasgow as well 
 as in Edinburgh, were most of them given in both cities on 
 the same day. Many friends were anxious he should be 
 appointed permanent successor to Dr. Duff in this chair, and 
 he was nominated by a number of Presbyteries in the Free 
 Church ; but more and more he felt that God had given him 
 a work to do for the Missions of the Irish Presbyterian 
 Church, and he gratefully but firmly put their proposals aside. 
 
 In the winter of 1881-2 he delivered eight lectures in 
 Derry in connection with the Lectureship founded as a memo- 
 rial of the labours of Dr. Richard Smyth. They were con- 
 cluded in the spring of 1883. The subjects were — ''The 
 Kingdom of God," "The Mission of the Church," "The 
 AVorking of the Leaven," "The Ages of Delay," "The New 
 Era," "The Church and the World," "Problems in Solution," 
 "The Work before Us." 
 
 Dr. Alexander Duff, the missionary to India, whose devo- 
 tion and labours have left an imperishable monument in the 
 triumphs of the gospel among the people to whom he conse- 
 crated his genius and his life, died in 1878, and, in accordance 
 with his wishes, the Duff Missionary Lectureship was founded 
 by his son, and committed to trustees of various denomina- 
 tions representing the catholicity of his own spirit and life. 
 The Lectureship was to be held for four years, and the subject 
 of lecture was to come "within the range of Foreign Missions." 
 In 1882, Dr. Stevenson was offered the appointment. The 
 overwhelming amount of work to which he was pledged made 
 
Public Life. 233 
 
 him hesitate to accept an honour which, for many reasons, was 
 peculiarly gratifying to him ; but through the courtesy and 
 consideration of the trustees, represented by their chairman, 
 Lord Polwarth, several difficulties were removed, and in the 
 winter of 1884-5 he delivered a series of lectures in Edinburgh 
 and Glasgow, repeating them in Aberdeen in 1886. One of 
 the conditions of the trust required the publication of the lec- 
 tures; and this condition has been fulfilled, so far as was pos- 
 sible after his death, in the little volume bearing the title of 
 the first lecture, "The Dawn of the Modern Mission." 
 
 The General Alliance of the Presbyterian Churches, which 
 meets every four years, and represents twenty-two million 
 of Christians throughout the world who have adopted the 
 Presbyterian form of Church government, assembled in Bel- 
 fast in June 1884. Dr. Stevenson read a paper on "The 
 Missionary Consecration of the whole Church,"* which at the 
 late meeting of the council in London was characterized by 
 Professor Charteris of Edinburgh as the nearest approach to 
 inspiration of any paper he had ever listened to. 
 
 In April 1886, the Earl of Aberdeen, then Lord-Lieutenant 
 of Ireland, appointed him one of his honorary chaplains, the 
 first Presbyterian clergyman in the present century selected 
 for such an office. Lord Aberdeen has recorded with touching 
 affection his impressions both of the man and of his ministry. 
 
 More and more, as the Christian public recognized his 
 capabilities, he was pressed into service far beyond his 
 strength. Seldom was any philanthropic work started in 
 Dublin without his assistance being sought. Only his indomi- 
 table energy, coupled with his ready spirit of self-sacrifice, 
 could have enabled him to accomplish what he did ; but it 
 was at a terrible cost, a cost of which those who each in turn 
 pressed him to undertake some fresh duty had no conception. 
 Urgent appeals to preach anniversary sermons, to lecture on 
 
 * See "Report of the Third General Council of the Alliance of the Reformed 
 Churches holding the Presbyterian System," page 173. 
 
234 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 all subjects and for all conceivable charities, to attend mission 
 conferences, to help forward this or that sorely needed work, 
 were constantly pouring in, and, with his boundless sympathy 
 and his readiness to help any work for the Master, were un- 
 dertaken, when a more careful and less generous character 
 would have hesitated. The effort to overtake work which 
 had accumulated during absence ; the meetings, night after 
 night, both at his own church and in the city, from which he 
 would return wearied, to find a pile of letters on the study 
 table waiting to be read, many of which required answers to 
 be written till far on into the night (since the busy hours of 
 the next day were all filled up) — all this, and much more, 
 combined to break down a naturally strong constitution. 
 
 The burden of his correspondence was very heavy, and was 
 constantly increasing. Once, in reply to the incredulity of a 
 friend, he kept an account of the letters written and received 
 during a year, and found that in 1885, they considerably ex- 
 ceeded 1 1,000. It is true that, as one of his brother ministers 
 in Dublin* has written, — 
 
 "He did not suffer from sitting up late and early, as most men 
 would. He could fall asleep in a railway carriage or in his easy- 
 chair ; he could start from lecturing in Limerick, catch the night 
 mail for Dublin, cross to Holyhead, and lecture the next evening in 
 Edinburgh or London. But it was killing work. It was such work 
 that killed him. Only, to me it is a relief to think that it was pos- 
 sibly not the burden, oppressive as it was, laid on him by the Church 
 that killed him. It was his own determination to work while it was 
 day, his own idealism, his spirit of consecration. I do not say it Mas 
 right ; I do not even excuse it ; but he had looked at the whole 
 question on every side of it. He had counted the cost, as he believed : 
 and I for one have not the heart to say a word against it. He was, 
 in splendid labour and in grand spirit of consecration, so much above 
 the best of us, that possibly the best of us cannot quite understand 
 him. I have my own view of it. But I am just forced to bow my 
 head ami to whisper, 'I am dumb, opening not my mouth, because 
 Thou didst it.' " 
 
 * The Rev. Alexander Rentoul, M.A., Sandymount. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 HOME LIFE. 
 
 Ox the 1st of June 1865, in the church erected to her 
 father's memory,* William Fleming Stevenson was married 
 to Elizabeth Montgomery, eldest daughter of the late John 
 Sinclair of the Grove, County Antrim. The family of the 
 Sinclairs had long been loyal members of the Irish Presby- 
 terian Church, and generous supporters of all her enter- 
 prises. After their marriage some weeks were spent wander- 
 ing through Switzerland and by the Italian Lakes, over the 
 Apennines to the shores of the Adriatic at Ancona, where 
 Mrs. Stevenson was then living, "to crown our happiness," 
 he wrote, "with my mother's blessing." The holiday wound 
 up with the Handel Festival in London — an unspeakable 
 delight to one whose love of music was a passion which in 
 after-life he could only indulge in very rare intervals of 
 leisure. During the first years of Mr. Stevenson's ministry 
 in Dublin he had lived in Leinster Road, Rathmines ; but 
 the place with which his memory will always be associated 
 by those who knew him in the innermost circle of his home 
 life is Orwell Bank, the birthplace of his children, for twenty- 
 one years his dearly loved home, and, since 1878, the Manse 
 of Christ Church, Rathgar. It stood on a high, wooded 
 bank, at the foot of which the little river Dodder sped on 
 its way — a quiet, sluggish stream in fair weather, but often 
 rising in a few hours into a foaming mountain torrent, which 
 
 * The Sinclair Seamen's Church, Belfast. 
 
236 Life of Willi am Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 burst its bounds and flooded the fields and rushed down the 
 high weir close to the house with a noise of thunder, to the 
 infinite delight and excitement of the Manse children, who 
 in very early days regarded it as a second Niagara. Beyond 
 the river to the south stretched the long range of the Dublin 
 mountains, with the clear outlines of the Three-Rock and 
 Glendhu, and the rounded curves of Tibradden, and Mont- 
 pellier crowned by its ruined castle ; while away to the west 
 lay the far-famed "green hills of Tallaght." The lower 
 slopes were thickly wooded, from the beautiful demesne of 
 Killakee to the glen of the little Dargle, whose deep hollow, 
 as seen from the Manse windows, proved an unfailing 
 weather-prophet. In the valley to the right was Rathfarn- 
 ham Park, with its fine old trees and "wilderness walk," and 
 the. picturesque entrance-gate, said to be copied from the 
 triumphal arch of Constantine in Rome. It was a rarely ex- 
 tended and beautiful view to be enjoyed so near a great city, 
 especially when the hills were touched with purple and gold 
 in the evening lights, or when, on bright autumn days, the 
 shadows came and w T ent across them in fitful beauty. To 
 one with Mr. Stevenson's love of scenery, the view from his 
 study window across a foreground of dark fir, holm-oak, 
 copper-beech and lime trees was a constant inspiration and 
 refreshment, to which he returned from the multiplied 
 absences of later years with an ever-increasing sense of rest- 
 ful enjoyment. The place was very dear to him ; he had 
 watched the growth of every shrub and tree on the steep 
 bank which divided the grass terrace, with its flower-beds and 
 shrubbery, from the low-lying garden by the river side. It 
 was to this bright home that Mr. Stevenson brought his wife 
 on a dark November evening in 1865. Into the tenderest, 
 deepest side of his nature we dare not enter, nor touch on 
 the passionate devotion, the strong, chivalrous, and self- 
 forgetful love that blessed the life of her " who is so proud 
 to have been his wife," and will bless it through all eternity. 
 
Home Life. 237 
 
 Such memories are too sacred to be laid bare to the public 
 eye, and yet only through them could be fully understood 
 what that nature was in its innermost depths — how joyous, 
 sympathetic, earnest, and pure, how full of "sweetness and 
 light." In the spring of 1866, the home was gladdened by 
 the birth of his first child, a daughter. Two years later a 
 son was born, named after his grandfather, John Sinclair, 
 and the after years added two daughters and another son, 
 who was but a little child of three when his father died. 
 Busy as was their father's life, the time sacred to the children 
 was the last to be encroached upon. He had the power of 
 being able completely to throw aside his own cares or business, 
 and to enter with all his heart into their games and pleasures, 
 no matter how trifling they might seem to others. A very 
 child among children, delighting in fun and frolic, it went 
 hard with him to pass the nursery door without looking in 
 for a romp, or, if time failed, for a bright greeting. Each 
 child's character was carefully studied, and their different 
 traits watched over and guided. Absolute obedience and 
 truthfulness were expected as a matter of course, but their 
 father depended chiefly on the love and trust and perfect 
 friendship between him and them ; and although he defended 
 corporal punishment as a last necessity in certain cases, he 
 would have felt deeply humiliated had he ever been obliged 
 to resort to it himself. After all, his deepest teaching lay 
 in the influence of his own life of unselfishness. Scolding in 
 any form was a thing unknown : if anything went wrong, a 
 quiet, loving talk in the study, and the pain the child felt as 
 well as saw in its father's face, made a far more lasting im- 
 pression. When absent for a year on his Mission tour, he 
 wrote to them regularly, simple little letters such as they 
 could understand by themselves. 
 
 " On board the 'Abyssinia,' July 3, 1S77. 
 "My dear Ethel, — If you were here now you Would see the 
 
 ocean all round. It is all tossing water as far as we ran see <>n any 
 
238 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 side. Some days we have seen a steamer a great way off, rising and 
 sinking on the waves, and almost every day we have seen sailing- 
 ships with all their sails spread, and they looked like beautiful birds, 
 and in the setting sun they shone like gold. There were birds about 
 the ship every day. I do not know where they slept, nor if they 
 ever rested; but whenever they were seen, they were flying round 
 us and after us ; and I suppose they rested on the waves when they 
 were very tired. They could fly a good deal faster than the ship, 
 though they were so small; and though man can make many things 
 that are wonderful and strong, some little creature that God has 
 made is more wonderful than them all. We are always feeling how 
 God must keep the people who are at sea, for some of these waves 
 are a great deal larger than the ship." 
 
 "New York, July 5, 1877. 
 " My dear Clair, — One day your mother and I were taken down 
 by the engineer to see the steam-engines of our ship, down steep iron 
 ladders slippery with oil, into a large room, as large as a church, and 
 quite dark, except for the light of huge fires. There were four-and- 
 twenty of these, twelve on each side, and a great many men who did 
 nothing else but pour shovels full of coal in upon the fires, so that 
 in one day every one of those fires burns as much coal as would be 
 burned in Orwell Bank from Hallow-eve till Christmas. The flames 
 roared, and the fire was scorching, and the men and all things were 
 black with coal-dust, and we were glad to get up on deck, where the 
 wind blew across the sea. But first we saw a beautiful little marker 
 that is connected with the screw and writes down in iron figures the 
 number of times the screw goes round. There were more than five 
 hundred thousand times when we saw it. And I was thinking how 
 the angels watch over us, and write down all we say and do, so that 
 it is always kept in an open book in heaven. And it they write 
 down many naughty things, how ashamed and sorry we shall be ! 
 Let us try how many kind and gentle and unselfish and brave things 
 we can give them to write, and every morning let us give our hearts 
 to God to keep. — Ever your affectionate Father." 
 
 "Niagara, Juhj 7, 1877. 
 " My dear Lilian, — I wrote to Clair about the dark fires and the 
 boiling water on board the steamboat; but we saw a much more 
 wonderful boiling of water to-day — a great river, that is a great 
 many times broader than the Liffey in Dublin, and is so deep that, 
 if you were to put five men one on the top of the other, the head of 
 
Home Life. 239 
 
 the topmost would only reach the surface of the water. This river 
 comes to a great rocky wall, a great deal higher than the spire of 
 papa's church, and with a great rush it leaps over it down to the 
 bottom. The water boils so much that a great steam rises from 
 it, through which you can scarcely see, and it makes so much noise 
 that you can scarcely hear. But what we did see was very wonder- 
 ful and beautiful, like all the works of God. We saw the clear 
 green mass of river-water tumbling over; and rainbows upon rain- 
 bows that the sun wove in the white steam ; and water that came 
 down in soft streams like a fall of feathers ; and as far as we could 
 see the water seemed falling. We went down to the river to a little 
 house, and though the sky was blue, the spray of the fall dashed 
 against the windows and made everything dark like the heaviest 
 rain in November. Then we went out into the spray in flannel dresses, 
 and in a moment we were wet ; and Ave crawled along the rocks with 
 a guide, and walked into the rushing water, and lay down in it till 
 it came tumbling over our heads and carried papa's spectacles quite 
 away. Afterwards we crossed the river lower down in a little boat, 
 and were tossed up and down like a bit of cork. We felt how help- 
 less and small we were, and how mighty and glorious God must be, 
 who could make such marvellous things ; and we thought how good 
 it was of Jesus Christ to come down and die for us, that we might 
 be kept from all that is wrong, and might live in heaven. And papa 
 is quite sure that Lilian will often think of Jesus Christ, who loves 
 her. — Ever your affectionate Father." 
 
 "Cedar Eapids, Juhj . :, 
 "My dear Ethel, Clair, Lilian, and Muriel, — We are now 
 staying at ' The Farm ' with all your merry cousins. It lies on the 
 slope of a hill, and down below it is the river, and beyond the river 
 fields of Indian-corn and wooded hills. There is a wood behind the 
 house where there are wild raspberries, and in front there is an 
 orchard. The cows wear bells round their necks, and the pleasant 
 tinkle, with the fresh odour of the woods and the cool air, makes us 
 think we are in Switzerland. Yesterday a family of nine little pigs 
 came tumbling in and began to eat the grass, and when they were 
 put out, they ran as fast as if they had been dogs. There are also 
 dogs and sheep and horses here, so that it is a very lively and merry 
 place. There are also Bohemians here and Germans, and a German 
 pastor will preach to-morrow in a box-factory. We have been se< ing 
 new towns and new people almost every day. so that you may think 
 this is a very large country. One town that we saw on Wednesday 
 
240 Life of Willi inn Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 was nearly all burnt down six years ago ; but when we drove through 
 it, the houses were so large and beautiful you would think they had 
 always been there. This town (Chicago) is on the banks of a beauti- 
 ful blue lake, that stretches away as far as the eye can see; and when 
 you are on this lake in a steamer you can see no land, and indeed you 
 could nearly put all Ireland into it. There is a river there that is 
 about fifty feet deep. It ran into the lake, but the people wished it 
 to run another way, so they turned it back, and now its waters run 
 into the Gulf of Mexico, which you will find on the map. Tell nurse 
 that she could walk through green corn here, and if Clair was on the 
 top of her head and baby on Clair's shoulders, it would cover them 
 all. We kept mamma's birthday at a place where there were a great 
 many waterfalls and a lake, and it was very quiet, and Ave wondered 
 where you would think we were. Now, dear little ones, good-bye. 
 When you get this we shall be on the Pacific Ocean perhaps, or in 
 San Francisco, and we shall have seen the first Chinese people. Pray 
 that they may all become Christ's people. Kiss each other ever so 
 many times, and say, 'This is mamma's hug,' and 'This is papa's.' 
 God bless you, dear children. — Your very affectionate papa, 
 
 "W. Fleming Stevenson." 
 
 "S.S. 'Zambesi,' December 5, 1S77. 
 
 " My Dear Lilian, — If grandmamma was to cut a line just round 
 the middle of an orange, it would be like the equator, which runs 
 round the middle of the earth, near which we have been sailing in 
 our steamer for many days. Indeed we were one day as near the 
 equator as you are to Dublin when you get to Drogheda. Now this 
 is the hottest part of the earth ; but just here it is the open sea. and 
 cooler than if we were on land. It should be very bright, clear, 
 sunny weather, with a cool wind from the northward ; but the 
 weather with us has never been as it should be, so we have a warm 
 wind from the south, and heavy rains, and the fog-whistle. We shall 
 be very glad to-morrow to see the land again. It will be a beautiful 
 island that you often sing about, called Ceylon, and I suppose we 
 shall see the groves of cinnamon and cloves that make the ' spicy 
 breezes. ' 
 
 "But a great deal rather than see Ceylon, we would like to see 
 four dear little faces that are in Beech Lawn ; and the happiest day 
 of all these months will be when we do see them. But every day we 
 ask ( iod for the little people that wear these faces, that they may 
 have pure and happy hearts, and be kind, loving, obedient, and 
 gentle, true in every word, and never selfish. Won't you ask God 
 
Home Life. 241 
 
 every day, my dear little Lilian, to make you all that ? What story- 
 telling we shall have when we get home ; for the stories are all too 
 big for these little sheets of paper, that just leave room to say how 
 much mamma and papa thank their little girl for the letters she 
 wrote. — Your affectionate father, 
 
 "W. Fleming Stevenson." 
 
 Many visitors to the Manse have recalled the simple 
 service at morning prayers. The formal way in which 
 family worship was conducted in many homes was a matter 
 of great concern to Dr. Stevenson. He felt how seldom the 
 children were considered in the service, and how often they 
 became careless and inattentive because they were not in- 
 terested ; and he tried to plan for his own home a service 
 that would be bright and helpful to old and young, children 
 and servants. First came the singing of a hymn and read- 
 ing a portion of Scripture. Then the Psalms were read 
 responsively, after which each one present repeated a verse 
 in turn, and the brief prayer was closed by all joining in the 
 Lord's Prayer. In his prayers he generally embodied one 
 or more of the verses given that morning, and was always 
 careful to use the very plainest words. Any sorrow in the 
 household or the congregation was tenderly remembered, and 
 the little special needs of the children, it might be a journey 
 in prospect, or a difficult lesson, or an examination ; and while 
 he taught them that nothing was too trivial to bring "as 
 children to a Father," yet there breathed through his simplest 
 prayers the spirit of deep reverence. One of the earliest 
 problems the parents had to solve was how to make Sunday 
 a genuinely happy day, and yet keep its sacredness very 
 distinct. The children had special Sunday games, drawing 
 Bible subjects or filling in texts. A favourite one was to 
 tell a Bible story, giving all the details, but leaving fche 
 names to be guessed by the listeners, at which even the little 
 ones grew expert The greatest treat was when their father 
 turned story-teller, and held them breathless over some 
 
 16 
 
242 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 thrilling incident, or chose some quaint character that no one 
 else had thought of, but through which he always led their 
 thoughts up to the Christ-life lie desired they should make 
 the pattern of theirs. It was a real joy to him when he 
 once overheard one of them telling a friend, " We call 
 Saturday our silver day because we have a holiday then, but 
 Sunday is our golden day." It exactly expressed the feeling 
 he had so earnestly tried to implant. The afternoon ended 
 with hymn-singing, till it was time for evening church, and a 
 skilful choice of his known favourite hymns seldom failed to 
 draw him from the study to join the young voices at the 
 piano. Their father was essentially the centre of all their 
 pleasures. He read aloud delightfully, with admirable feel- 
 ing and emphasis, and among the children's happiest recollec- 
 tions of holiday-time are those of long summer afternoons 
 spent lying on the deep, springy beds of sea-pink that cover 
 the Cornish cliffs, or among the heather braes of Ross-shire, 
 while they rested after some long expedition listening to 
 one of Scott's novels, or to some poem or story from the 
 collection that was so carefully made by their father for this 
 purpose before leaving home. He realized the ideal of which 
 in early years he had written : — 
 
 ''There must be some susceptibility to poetry in all but a few; 
 and I have often dreamt, if any one would place me with a group of 
 children, of educating them in simple and natural ways to feel the 
 poetry there is in nature, to watch the colours in the sky and the fall 
 of the leaf, teaching them simple reverence for the Father who cares 
 for all His creatures, encouraging them to observe the harmony and 
 regularity in all His common works, quickening in them a watchful- 
 ness and love of outward things, and they would soon turn of them- 
 selves to our written poetry, and would understand before they could 
 parse it." 
 
 While his children were very young, his ideal relaxation 
 was a ramble among the Swiss mountains ; but as soon as 
 they were old enough to join in walks, his enjoyment was 
 
Home Life. 243 
 
 bound up in theirs. Mullaghmore, on the west coast of 
 Ireland, and various places in Wales, Scotland, and Corn- 
 wall, were successively visited, and have furnished those old 
 enough to remember with a priceless legacy of happy memo- 
 ries. From New Quay he writes to his brother-in-law, Mr. 
 Sinclair of Cedar Rapids : — 
 
 "August 1880. 
 "Since we came here not a day has passed, nor has a spot been 
 visited, without a chorus of wishes, ' If everybody from Cedar Rapids 
 were only here ! ' Of all the seaside places I have seen or tried, this 
 bears away the palm for a children's holiday, and for the weary seek- 
 ing rest in the most unsophisticated enjoyment of nature. Situated 
 on the north-west coast of Cornwall, about forty miles north of the 
 Land's End, facing the restless surge of the Atlantic, on a coast-line 
 which presents for innumerable miles a level of the smoothest and 
 hardest sand, divided by promontories on which the moss is a foot 
 thick into numberless bays, and backed by a wall of cliff from three 
 to four hundred feet high, where the rocks are shining with all the 
 colours of the rainbow, and where at every few hundred yards there 
 is some magnificent cavern or group of natural arches ; a sea excep- 
 tionally clear and exceptionally lovely in its hues ; charming wooded 
 valleys and country walks inland ; so quiet and primitive, that you 
 are constantly the sole figure on the headland where you stand, that 
 the rabbits scamper about your feet, that there are no bathing-boxes 
 and you dress in caves, — yet with rail direct to London ; in fact, as 
 quiet, and more quiet, than Mullaghmore, as bracing, and with a 
 still grander sea and far finer sands — what more could one want ? 
 I came pretty tired, but resolving to overtake work that I never 
 could touch at home ; and the only trouble is that the glorious fresh 
 air and views have continually beguiled me from books and writing. 
 The children now swim pretty well, thanks to your early lessons 
 and their present practice, and if we were to return another season 
 here the family would be amphibious. If yours and ours were to- 
 gether, the sea would be as lively as if there was a shoal of mackerel. 
 You must be enjoying life still more primitive among the Indians, 
 and the sense of doing good as well. Would I not like to be with 
 you ! Your last letter was a plea that deserved any notice the Ob- 
 server could give it ; and I expect, between your Assembly speeches 
 and newspaper correspondence, the Indians will find you one of their 
 best friends."" 
 
244 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 [To Miss Sinclair. ] 
 
 "New Quay, Cornwall, August 188/f. 
 "Your 'Rondo Capriccioso ' round by Loch Maree seems to have 
 been a most successful performance, and it did us almost as much 
 good to think of you all enjoying it as we have had from the sight 
 and air of this delightful spot. With an ocean as open as ocean 
 can be, a surf more constant and high than at Portrush or Mullagh- 
 more, air as bracing as a tonic, more lovely colours in the sea than 
 anywhere outside the Mediterranean, a primitive and independent 
 population ; sands, caves, cliffs, and bare feet for the children ; one 
 or two charming drives and wooded valleys for their elders ; a rail- 
 way to London, the daily papers, lawn tennis, and clotted cream — 
 what more could weary minister want ? Besides, as things go, it is 
 not expensive, and we cannot grumble if the holidays bring us here 
 when the season and the prices are at their height. Well, what are 
 we wishing you ? Health and pleasure, the one that you may have 
 the other, and that highest form of pleasure which you enjoy of 
 working for Jesus. So may our heavenly Father crown the year 
 with His goodness, and make it the best of years, the sunniest with 
 the Sun of Righteousness, the sweetest with the fragrance of grace." 
 
 His thoughtfulness in little things was characteristic. 
 
 On his wife's return after any absence her room was always 
 filled with flowers, which he arranged himself, to welcome 
 her back. Birthdays and all family festivals were held 
 peculiarly sacred by him. It was part of his household 
 creed to make much of them ; he held that much of the 
 brightness and joy of family life lay in these apparently 
 trivial things. He had great sympathy with the young in 
 their eager activity and high spirits ; they never wearied 
 him, and he believed that in a joyous, sunny childhood 
 they would best gain strength for the graver duties of life. 
 Especially he delighted in all the joys and pleasures asso- 
 ciated with Christmas-tide. As a student he had written to 
 his mother : — 
 
 "I like the festival of Christmas far better than New Year's Day, 
 which is always associated in my mind with gloomy, melancholy 
 thoughts of duties neglected, time misspent and wasted, and such 
 
Home Life. 245 
 
 sad statistics as are the results of, I suppose, every one's yearly 
 retrospect. Be that as it may, I had rather welcome^ in the birth 
 of Christ than bid farewell to an old year. Dearest mother, you will 
 join me in praying that He may be born in very many hearts during 
 the year that is advancing, and born again in each of ours." 
 
 [To a child on her thirteenth birthdayJ\ 
 
 " My dear L , — So your age has grown by almost a- year since 
 
 last I saw you. And I hope it will grow on, dear L , on and on 
 
 by one at a time, and every year happier than another. For I would 
 like you every birthday to say, ' Oh, how happy I am ! how good 
 God is ! * God has all the years in His hand — thousands of them ; 
 and He has all the gifts that make life happy ; and so you and I will 
 ask Him to-morrow to open His hand and let the years and the gifts 
 fall down upon you like May-blossoms. The secret of being happy 
 is to love God, and the secret of loving God is to trust in the Lord 
 Jesus and not to love ourselves ; and that is a secret which I hope 
 you have found out ahead}*, and which will be far better to you than 
 any birthday present in the world. Thirteen ! and you will be very 
 thoughtful and wise and diligent, and try to learn and know a great 
 deal ; for it will soon be fifteen ! — seventeen ! — so there is not much 
 time to spare. And if one grows tall, one must grow wise and good, 
 and not be like a tree that shoots straight up and has no leafy 
 branches, where the birds can sing, and the sun hides his arrows." 
 
 \To one of his nephews.] 
 
 "Orwell Bank, Eathgar, July 15, 18S1. 
 " My dear Boy, — You may be sure we were astonished to hear of 
 your being so suddenly berthed, and yet you will only reckon it good 
 fortune to be in so fine a ship. We had hoped to have you with us 
 before you sailed to anywhere, but we must be content now to wait 
 until your return from your first voyage. Last summer seems won- 
 derfully near, with all our pleasant boating and fun, and watching 
 the big ships sail along the horizon. It is perplexing to think that 
 you will be dropping out of sight in one of those white-winged crea- 
 tures within a few days I am sure you will be a good sailor and 
 
 will like it (after you have been sea-sick), and if you live, will rise 
 high in the service. But mind there is one thing I Mould like to 
 hear about alongside of all that. Of course we all know that steady 
 men are the only men that are sure to rise ; and I predict that you 
 
246 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 will be what many men would call steady. But the only really steady 
 man, in my judgment, is the man that honestly fears and loves God- 
 fears Him with reverence, loves Him because He is so good. There 
 are captains and captains ; and I would like to see you a captain that 
 was not ashamed of being a Christian. 
 
 "Of course there are plenty of fellows who will tell you not to 
 mind the parsons. But you know better than that ; and if there 
 were no parsons in the world, there would still be sin, and conscience, 
 and God, and the love of Jesus Christ, and the future. 
 
 "Stick to the Bible. It will never lead you astray. If you do 
 what it tells you, you will never do what you would be ashamed of ; 
 you will never do an unrighteous or unkind or a mean thing, and 
 nobody will ever be ashamed of you. 
 
 " Best of all, if you would take Jesus Christ for your own Saviour, 
 and let Him be your pattern. It will never he right till it comes to 
 that. You will be strong, then, because He will make you strong. 
 And all your strength will be to do what is right and manly and 
 noble, and to help others to do the same. I don't like to make 
 people promise, but I just ask you* sometimes on the voyage to think 
 of this. 
 
 ' ' Supposing anything was to happen to you, as it befell your 
 friend last winter, just think of the difference it would make if at 
 home (and we are part of home) they knew you had behaved like a 
 Christian, God-fearing lad when you were on board ship. ' Wait on 
 the Lord, and keep His way : behold the upright man, for the end of 
 that man is peace.'" 
 
 As his children grew older and went to distant schools, 
 however busy he might be he never allowed anything to 
 prevent his driving with them to the steamer, making all 
 arrangements for their comfort, and giving the last cheery 
 words of advice and guidance. 
 
 [To one of his daughters ivhile at school.] 
 
 "My darling Child,— Your letter gave me unmixed joy, and 
 made for your mother and me one of the happiest days through which 
 we have lived. 
 
 "You have just suggested what we talked over — that, as you 
 could not be here before the class for young communicants was held, 
 we should correspond about it. I would have made the suggestion 
 
Home Life. 247 
 
 to you when the time came ; but, dear child, you have made me far 
 happier by proposing it yourself. 
 
 " This summer has been far more than pleasant for us all. God has 
 been doing His own work in His own way behind our pleasant holi- 
 day. I am sure you have felt Him very near you, and that He has 
 been drawing the trust of your heart to Himself. And if you feel 
 sometimes weaker than others, ' Trust ye in the Lord for ever : for in 
 the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.' 
 
 "I shall write to you very soon more particularly of the Lord's 
 Supper. Meanwhile I shall pray for you, that God may make you 
 more and more to feel how good it is to trust Him, and how surely 
 His good Spirit will keep us doing right, and make us choose always 
 the better side." 
 
 Some of his letters to his son while at school at Clifton 
 College will show the minuteness of his interest in all his 
 boy's doings, and the perfect confidence existing between 
 them. 
 
 " Orwell Bank, October 3, 1883. 
 
 " My dear Clair, — Your letter gave us a very bright day. It was 
 as welcome as the sun would have been at Gairloch, and your details 
 help us to understand your daily life and surroundings. We keep 
 them very constantly before us, and you need never be afraid of 
 writing too much of them 
 
 "I would like (if you had time) you would sometimes mention the 
 text and subject of the head-master's sermon. Of course the Sunday 
 will be very different from ours. You will also be left more to your 
 own judgment in spending as much of it as is free. Your comrades 
 may not help you much to be true to Christ, or sympathize with what 
 they might think your greater strictness. Do not be ashamed of 
 your old Sundays and their old ways, for all that ; and if others do 
 not help you up, perhaps, without being at all a prig, your firmness 
 and your honest love and reverence for God's Word may help them. 
 You may not have the support of finding others in sympathy with 
 you, the support that makes our Sunday life so easy ; but we must 
 often walk without other support than the grace to be true to what 
 we believe to be right. Keep to Sunday reading. You will find 
 Geikie's ' Hours with the Bible ' a help, and you might make your 
 own Bible-reading on Sunday be what he writes about. Never take 
 what even the best writers say on trust ; you will always find some- 
 thing fresh in your own reading of the Bible passage. You may 
 
248 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 sometimes find it difficult to get a quiet corner, but there is a key to 
 
 it and patience turns the lock. ' Seek, and ye shall find.' 
 
 "Now remember, my dear old Clair, how much pleasure it is to 
 hear everything about your life. If you are in any perplexity, write 
 to me or mother. Keep true to God, to prayer, to the Bible. Be sure 
 you tell us all about your ways and doings. God will strengthen 
 you to be the manly, truthful, unselfish, high-minded boy that we 
 pray for • to resist temptation, and, when necessary, to dare to stand 
 alone.— Ever, with all our love, your affectionate father, 
 
 ' ' W. Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 " P.S. — The old cat now walks with me at night to the Orwell 
 post-office box, usually in front, grave and steady, with uplifted 
 
 tail." 
 
 "January 25, 18S3. 
 
 i ' We are having a very lonely time, and after to-day it will be 
 still lonelier. It makes the time at Christmas wonderfully bright, my 
 dear boy, to have you with us. May God guide you now and always, 
 and give you strength always to stand up for what is right, and for 
 Him ! " 
 
 " February 3, 188k. 
 
 "My dear Clair, — A bright greeting on your birthday! May 
 God spare you, my dear boy, to see very many of them, and ;is to 
 greet you 
 
 " We have been full of interest in all you have told us about your 
 promotion, duties, and place both in house and chapel. May you 
 long be able to hold, not your own, but God's gifts to you, and to 
 hold them against all comers, by His grace ! My dear, dear boy, I 
 do not think you will forget that our highest promotion is in the 
 kingdom of God — the promotion to be a humble, faithful, self-denying 
 citizen in the unchanging city of God. If you have more freedom 
 and privilege now in school, you have also more responsibility and 
 are more noticed by others. 
 
 "It is lonely not to greet you here, but our love loses no warmth 
 by crossing the Channel. Write often ; every scrap from you makes 
 the day brighter. — Ever your affectionate father, 
 
 '• W. Fleming Stevenson - ." 
 
 "Orwell Bank, November - 
 •' My deae Clair,— The days have gone by and gathered into 
 weeks since I wrote, and I am sure you would know it was nothing 
 hut hard work postponed the pleasure 
 
1 Iodic Life. 249 
 
 "I see you are finding the comfort of the library and the Times 
 and the illustrated papers. I only say, have a care. Xothing dis- 
 sipates the energy of work like a newspaper, and next to that an 
 easy luxurious seat by the fire. One of the worst temptations is the 
 temptation to be desultory, to find an interesting book and read in 
 it, and then turn to another. The only way to distinction at Clifton 
 will be downright hard work while you are at it, and I feel sure you 
 are bent on distinction. Overwork would be too dear a price to pay 
 for it ; but hard, intense work for the time need not be overwork 
 
 " Xow this is a very long letter, but you hear too seldom from your 
 affectionate father, W. Fleming Stevenson." 
 
 " September 21, 1885. 
 
 "My dear Clair, — Thank you for card and letter; for that de- 
 lightful greeting that I had on Sunday morning, smothered in a 
 wreath of flowers and fruit. For the day was kept thus in royal 
 fashion. It was a very bright day. And now I have turned the 
 road past the fifty-third milestone, not knowing how much further 
 there may be to walk, but wishing that along the road there may be 
 more seeking of the things that are above, and more work done for 
 Christ. Thank you for the card and for the verses and for the 
 thought. 
 
 " Our two subjects yesterday were — in the morning, our work for 
 Ireland (Ex. iv. 2), ' What is that in thine hand ? ' We have always 
 the means, if we will use them, for every work to which God calls 
 us. In the evening we were thinking, as at Xew Quay I sometimes 
 used to think, of the converse of Mark vii. 24, where we read that 
 Jesus could not be hid. It is so easy when we have received Jesus 
 and He dwells in us as the very light and spirit of our life, to hide 
 Him. We may effectually hide Him by our worldliness, our self- 
 seeking, our low morality, our want of courage, our choice of company. 
 Ma}- we never be tempted to hide Christ ! 
 
 "I am very thankful (as were we all) for your calm passage. 
 To-day I suppose you are in the swing of business. We are getting 
 into the lonely epoch. Our united, hearty, constant love is always 
 about you, my dear boy. And Jesus is by your side. — Ever your 
 affectionate father, W. FLEMING STEVENSON." 
 
 "Mydeab Clair,— So to-morrow will be your birthday. ! 
 
 to rush for some engagement far from Dublin when that day would 
 
250 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 come round (at least all you naughty people at home said so), and 
 now the rush of school has swept you away from us. "Well, my very 
 dear boy (for you seem to grow dearer every year), absent or present, 
 it will be a strange fourth of February that does not fill our minds 
 with thoughts and love of you. So, whatever else may be in this 
 letter, a scent of Irish love — home-made — should pervade the room 
 when you open it. May God continue all His blessings to you. and 
 may He add all that He thinks for your good ! You are moving 
 steadily up out of boyhood, and will soon be crossing the border-line 
 among the ' men ' at the university. If you can say to-day, as we 
 were saying here all last year, 'Hitherto hath the Lord helped us,'* 
 so you will be able to say then, as we are saying now, ' Be strong 
 and of a good courage. ; + You will be saying it to yourself; rather 
 God will be saying it to you, which is far better. And we need it 
 said, ringing out cheerfully among our disappointments and fears. 
 As the years steal thus quietly over us, is it not pleasant to think of 
 the seed that is all the while growing in us, 'one knoweth not how,' 
 
 but growing over more of our life? 
 
 "From 's repute, I am scarcely surprised at the views he 
 
 expresses on Genesis. You have come close to the time when you 
 will meet many such opinions, and many that will seem to you more 
 strange. They are not new. Under one form or other they are 
 almost as old as the time of the Apostle John. At present a great 
 many men of influence hold them, and during the last eighteen 
 centuries there have been several periods when this happened. But 
 the prevalence of such opinions never lasted long. The hearts of 
 men grew restless, their consciences unsatisfied, and the old truths, 
 as you have been accustomed to them, resumed their place, and have 
 been always growing in power. The more you read and think over 
 the Bible, I am persuaded you will find it a clear and simple book, 
 and the book described in the Catechism as telling us what man is 
 to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. 
 Such opinions, however, openly expressed, show you that you must 
 read and think for yourself. If you are puzzled, or are following 
 out any thoughts in these directions, write to me all about them. 
 Geikie's 'Hours with the Bible,' vol. i., and Saphir's 'Christ and the 
 Scriptures/ would help you. Keep to your own steady reading and 
 to prayer. The closer we keep to God, the closer God seems to 
 keep to us. — Your very loving father, 
 
 "W. Fleming Stevenson." 
 
 * The Christ Church motto for 1885. t The motto for 1886. 
 
Home Life. 251 
 
 " July 2, 1886. 
 
 "My dear Clair, — How the time flies, and without hearing you 
 a letter from me ! And how I long for a line from you, but feel I do 
 not deserve it. 
 
 "It has been very helpful and bright for you, I have no doubt, to 
 have had the meetings so often, and to feel that good was being done 
 to leave behind you. For we must think twice of others for once of 
 ourselves. We must remember also to be true to our own character, 
 as David was to his sling. Christ lives in us and works Himself out 
 through us by the channels of our own individuality. 
 
 ' ' I am looking forward constantly to August, when you will be 
 back. I am sure you are rather down-hearted about leaving. It has 
 been a genuinely pleasant term of years. More of character has 
 been built up in them than you are aware of ; and happily that up- 
 building has been in far more than what is taught at school. Then, 
 if the school gates are closed behind you, the college gates are open- 
 ing, and, God sparing you, there are happy years to come for real 
 joy of spirit, and development, and friendships the richest in a man's 
 life. And for serving Christ there are no finer opportunities." 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 During the year 1885 two series of evangelistic services 
 were held in Christ Church, Rathgar, one in May and the 
 other in November. Dr. Stevenson was extremely anxious 
 that the spiritual gain from these meetings should be definite 
 and lasting. In the winter he began a Bible-reading, in 
 which all who came were expected to take part, and which 
 occupied the half -hour preceding the Wednesday evening 
 service. The first subjects of study were the letters to the 
 Seven Churches. Prizes were also given by the pastor to 
 the young men of the congregation for essays on Scriptural 
 subjects ; but though his efforts never relaxed, he had often 
 during the winter a great sense of weariness and longing for 
 rest. Little wonder, since, between the pastorate, the Mis- 
 sion, and the multitude of other public duties, the work of 
 two lives was being crowded into one. 
 
 The spring of 1886 saw the beginning of- the various 
 improvements and additions in the church buildings which 
 he had so long desired ; but strange and mysterious as 
 it may appear to us, the year which left the instrument 
 perfect took away the agent for whose hand it was prepared. 
 As the operations involved considerable outlay, he determined 
 that the autumn should not close till the entire sum needed 
 had been secured. It was to be a year of unconscious 
 windings up ; and many things which his friends would 
 have wished otherwise were best as they were, considering 
 
The End. 253 
 
 the nearness of the end. In the spring he concluded the 
 delivery of the Duff Lectures at Aberdeen, and he intended 
 to devote the autumn to preparing the lectures for the press, 
 and collecting for the new building fund. During the summer 
 he was urged by many who believed he had peculiar fitness 
 for the post to become a candidate for the vacant Chair of 
 Sacred Rhetoric in the Assembly's College, Belfast. He 
 deeply felt there could be no higher work than that of mould- 
 ing the future ministry of the Church. He was aware also 
 that the long summer vacation would provide a much-needed 
 rest, and allow him to realize his old literary dream of a 
 history of Christian Missions. But his allegiance to the 
 duty of the day proved a barrier which nothing short of the 
 unanimous call of the Church would have been sufficient to 
 remove, and he quietly stood aside. The same principle 
 induced him to refuse a very generous and tempting invita- 
 tion to himself and two of his family to spend his holiday in 
 America. 
 
 The last meeting of the General Assembly he was ever to 
 attend was a wonderfully happy time. As usual when the 
 Assembly met in Belfast, he stayed with his wife's mother, 
 Mrs. Sinclair, who had been living for several years at Beech 
 Lawn, Dunmurry, and whose improved health enabled her 
 to gather around her, in the old generous way, friends who 
 were attending the meetings. Dr. Stevenson's eminently 
 sociable nature opened out to his friends in the full en- 
 joyment of intercourse which the press of intervening- 
 years had largely interrupted. " That week at Beech 
 Lawn," he said, ''had a flavour of the old Grove days 
 about it." 
 
 But the clouds were gathering. Early in August he at- 
 tended the Mission Board in Derry for the la>t time, going 
 sadly from the new-made grave of his last surviving brother, 
 Mr. James Stevenson of Strabane. Shortly afterwards, in 
 sending a birthday greeting to a dear relative, he wrote : — 
 
254 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 "I am not to be outdone by other scribblers, and, like them, 
 acknowledge the inspiration of this day. If I were to fashion my 
 own wish, it would be that when they each came round we might 
 not be farther from each other, and I hope often nearer. It does me 
 good every time I think of your work, and how God has blessed it 
 and encouraged you. It often strengthens me in mind. Then I feel 
 you are only at the beginning, and that as it has been, so it will be, 
 and that God will show you fresh work, and give you the strength 
 and the wisdom for it. Is there not a wonderful refreshing stimulus 
 in working for Christ ? The permanence of it, reaching into eternity, 
 and the thoroughness of it, as it influences the whole nature and 
 colours all the springs of life, make it delightfully different from all 
 other work. Sudden death like my brother's makes no difference in 
 the plan of life, but I feel it has emphasized many things. "We stand 
 very near the edge, and we must see that our work is done ; and 
 when Christ says there are twelve hours in the day, perhaps He 
 means there is time enough to do it all, and that there should be 
 no flurry or pressure ; and I do not intend to work at pressure any 
 more. " 
 
 Many years before, he had written to his wife : — ■ 
 
 "Death itself should be no shock to us. It is only the beginning 
 of life ; a great change indeed for all who are still spared, but one of 
 hope and joy. And our turn will come, perhaps, the next, and the 
 better we do our duty it is the more likely to come. God grant us 
 to be ready and waiting ! " 
 
 On the 22nd of August he preached in Kilkenny on behalf 
 of the Foreign Mission. That afternoon a young man, who 
 had strolled into the church to hear the stranger, met his 
 death by being thrown from a car a few minutes after the 
 close of the service. The incident was made the basis of a 
 very solemn appeal in his own church the next Sunday even- 
 ing, when he referred to it, pleading with those who had not 
 yet come to Christ to accept Him without delay, and adding, 
 " To some of you also I may now be speaking for the last 
 time." 
 
 While preaching in the morning, he had so sharp an at- 
 tack of pain that only his strong power of self-control enabled 
 
The End. 255 
 
 him to close the service. It yielded, however, to home re- 
 medies, and he made light of it, declaring that he was quite 
 able for the evening service. Afterwards, as they walked 
 home together in the bright moonlight, in reply to his wife's 
 anxious questioning, he assured her he had felt quite well 
 all the time he was preaching, adding with eager emphasis, 
 "Oh, it's a grand thing to speak for Christ !" All arrange- 
 ments had been made to start next morning with the elder 
 children for a ten days' ramble in Wales, and he was speak- 
 ing cheerily of some of the preparations, when suddenly the 
 pain returned with such increased intensity that it was with 
 great difficulty he reached home. His kind friend and phy- 
 sician, Dr. Henry Kennedy, remained all night with him, 
 trying one remedy after another. It was not till the morn- 
 ing that the agonizing pain abated, but his family were 
 relieved to learn that the cause was simply acute indigestion. 
 For a day or two he was very weak and prostrate from the 
 effects of such extreme suffering ; but even while confined to 
 bed he worked incessantly, keeping his wife and daughter 
 busy writing letters to his dictation. 
 
 He was restlessly anxious to get off to "Wales, having the 
 feeling that he could not get well till he had left the atmos- 
 phere of work behind him. On Thursday he was able for a 
 country drive, and felt so exhilarated by the fresh air that he 
 determined to leave next morning. The start w as accordingly 
 made, and the party reached Beddgelert in the afternoon, after 
 an easy journey. While waiting for a carriage at Rhyddu, 
 where the railway ended, he began to make inquiries about 
 guides to Snowdon ; and so sanguine was he of being able to 
 make the ascent, which had been a long-cherished plan, that 
 he did not relinquish the hope till a few days before he left. 
 It was a great pleasure to find Beddgelert such an unsophis- 
 ticated little village. Here they were soon established in 
 comfortable quarters facing the rugged heights of Moel 
 Hebog, and looking across the village down the pass of 
 
256 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 Pont Aberglaslyn ; while below the windows a mountain 
 stream ran by with a pleasant murmur, and the birds sang 
 in the apple-trees, laden with fruit, in the little rock-crowned 
 garden. Dr. Stevenson declared he felt better already, and 
 it was with a sense of lessened anxiety and good hope for 
 the future that they all joined in the evening prayer, into 
 which, as was his custom, he gathered all the events of the 
 day with heartfelt thanksgiving. On Saturday he dictated 
 several letters, among them the following to Mr. Alexander 
 Gray, one of his elders : — 
 
 " Beddgelert, September h, 1886. 
 "I am keeping rigidly by the doctor's directions, and, though 
 absurdly weak as yet, am certainly stronger than he expected I 
 should be. I had a short walk, or rather saunter, and am now rest- 
 ing. Very sorry not to see you after your return from, I hope, 
 health-giving holidays. God willing, I shall be back for Wednesday 
 the loth, for, though this will be my only breathing-space this sum- 
 mer, there are important engagements that cannot possibly be post- 
 poned over that week. To-morrow week I have to fulfil a long- 
 standing engagement to preach at Sefton Park in Liverpool, and for 
 which I hope this invigorating mountain air will make me able. I 
 felt it very solemnly, the awe of preaching last Sunday evening — awe 
 of responsibility, I mean — and still more when illness seized me with 
 such a sudden grip as I was going home, and I was only thankful that 
 it had remitted its grasp so as to allow of the service." 
 
 In the evening Miss Sinclair arrived from Ireland. Her 
 coming was a great joy to her brother-in-law, and he was 
 full of interest in all her home news, bright and merry in 
 spite of his weakness and the evident shake he had received. 
 
 Next day he felt equal to writing himself the bulletin that 
 was so eagerly watched for in Eathgar. 
 
 \_To John Gailey, Esqi\ 
 
 " P.EPDGEI.ERT, s 
 
 " You were kind in coming so often ; it was like the medicine in 
 Proverbs ; but I was very sorry Dot to be allowed to see you.* Yet it 
 
Tke End. 257 
 
 was right — I was not able, an unusual condition for me. I am writ- 
 ing you my first letter ; it must be brief, but will report progress. 
 Indeed, it would be a sin not to feel better in a spot like this ; and 1 
 am positively gaining something every hour. Last night we Lad one 
 of the fiercest thunderstorms known for many years. The flashes lit 
 up every mountain to the summit. This morning there is perfect 
 Sabbath peace. We have had an hour's delightful Bible-reading 
 over John xiv. and xv. If you saw me, you would admire my 
 caution and obedience, and though I must be back next week I shall 
 still rest. Our sicknesses are clouds with a very broad silver lining ; 
 and I see so much of the silver, I have lost sight of the cloud. " 
 
 All through the week that followed he was the life of the 
 party, reading aloud in his old way the usual medley, making 
 light of his wife's anxieties, enjoying long drives without 
 fatigue, and rebelling against her strictness in insisting on a 
 day's rest between each excursion. He revelled in the wild 
 mountain scenery and freedom of the country, the clear 
 rushing streams fringed with moss and fern under the fir 
 trees, and the quaint simplicity of the people, with whom 
 he loved to get into talk as he sauntered along. One after- 
 noon, when they had wandered as far as Lake Dinas, they 
 were obliged to seek shelter from a shower in a shepherd's 
 cottage. A little blind girl sat by the fire, to whom he 
 spoke with the wistful tenderness that suffering childhood 
 always drew from him. That little child was lovingly re- 
 membered in the evening prayer. On Tuesday they made 
 an expedition to Harlech Castle and Criccieth, driving to 
 Port Madoc through the beautiful pass of Pont Aberglaslvn. 
 The day was so clear that Snowdon was seen for the first 
 time free from cloud. As they drove home, the changing 
 colours of the mountain -tops before them tilled him with 
 delight, and he joined the children in their singing. So fresh 
 was he, notwithstanding the long drive, that for over two 
 hours in the evening he read aloud " Christmas Rose," a poem 
 by his son's house-master at Clifton, and sang with the rest, 
 " Lass mich gehen, lass mich gehen, class ich Jesu m'Oye W<< <>." 
 
 17 
 
258 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 Thursday was devoted to another excursion, driving to 
 Llanberis through the wild rocky pass by Pen-y-gwryd. 
 ]S~ext day they left Bedclgelert very regretfully. It had been 
 a most happy week. Before starting, Dr. Stevenson wrote in 
 his landlady's book that he had come there an invalid, but 
 was now leaving almost well. Each day there had been the 
 morning Bible-reading which had latterly become associated 
 with the leisure of holiday-time, and in the evening, among 
 other things, he had read aloud the " Life of Henry Bazely, 
 the Oxford Evangelist " — a book which had so strongly at- 
 tracted him that he wished all to share the great pleasure he 
 had had in reading it. 
 
 They went to Bettws-y-coed by Ffestiniog for the sake 
 of the lovely views of the valley beneath, seen through the 
 trees that clothe the steep banks of the Toy railway. In 
 the evening they drove to the Swallow Falls and Capel 
 Curi£, D r# Stevenson having determined to visit the latter 
 place, that he might give Mrs. Sinclair a description of it, 
 as she had stayed there on her wedding-tour fifty-one years 
 before. That evening, Bazely's Life was finished, and before 
 they separated all joined in repeating the 121st Psalm. On 
 Saturday the pleasant holiday came to an end. His wife, 
 whom all week he had constantly rallied on her "morbid 
 anxiety" about him, had done her utmost to prevent his 
 fulfilling his engagement in Liverpool, but in vain. As two 
 of the party were going into Yorkshire, and the remaining 
 children with their mother returning to Dublin, they se- 
 parated at the station, little conscious that they were never 
 all again to meet on earth. It was like his thoughtfulness 
 that, when the travellers reached Orwell Bank late in the 
 evening, they found a telegram awaiting them to welcome 
 them home, giving also a cheery report of himself, to lessen 
 his wife's anxiety. On Sunday, the 12th of September, he 
 preached the anniversary missionary sermons in Sefton Park 
 Church ; and though he was terribly exhausted at the close 
 
The End. 259 
 
 of the services, he was able to telegraph that he had had 
 less difficulty than he had apprehended. The morning text 
 was Psalm xxxvi. 8, and in the evening his last sermon 
 was preached from Isaiah lv. 3. One who had often been 
 his auditor said he had never heard him preach with more 
 mastery and power than on the evening of this his farewell 
 Sabbath on earth. He reached home next evening, and as 
 he came up the steps, the little child of three, who more 
 than any other member of the family recalls the features 
 of his father, darted across the hall and ran straight into 
 his arms. All his children, except his eldest daughter, had 
 returned, and two of his nieces were with them on a visit. 
 He was thankful and happy to be at home again, and as 
 he lay resting in an arm-chair, his niece playing from his 
 favourite Bach and Beethoven to refresh him, he entered, in 
 spite of weariness, into all their fun with the greatest zest 
 and enjoyment. 
 
 Early on Tuesday he was busy putting his study into 
 order for his winter's work. The Rev. Mr. Buchanan, 
 Secretary of the United Presbyterian 'Church of Scotland, 
 came to the Manse by appointment to arrange about various 
 missionary matters affecting their common work in Man- 
 churia, and Dr. Stevenson was closely engaged with him 
 for three hours. In the afternoon he proposed a drive to 
 one of the lovely wooded glens that run in among the 
 Dublin mountains. On the way home he joined the young 
 people in walking down the hill, talking hopefully about 
 Ireland and the spread of the Bible through the country. 
 As the sun set among rosy clouds, he said softly, " The 
 crimson of the sunset skies," leaving it to his companions 
 to finish the verse for themselves. That night he was <li> 
 turbed by a ticklish cough for half-an-hour, but slept well 
 af tor wards. 
 
 On Wednesday he dictated twenty-one letters, most of 
 them about engagements for the nexi tw<> or tin-'.' weeks. 
 
260 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 and wrote one with his own hand to the Rev. Mr. Swanson. 
 It was his last letter. 
 
 "September 15, 18S6. 
 "Clair has just written twenty-one letters as amanuensis for his 
 father (he goes to Oxford next month, gravitating there through a 
 scholarship he took at Lincoln), but I must write to you myself. 
 Sunday fortnight, after evening service, I had a savage attack of 
 indigestion : the doctor was up with me all night and a good deal 
 of the next day ; and it has left some complications which may be 
 tedious and will hinder me from work — I mean for some time from 
 a good deal of the work I have been in the habit of doing. As soon 
 as I could crawl from bed I felt an irresistible impulse to be away 
 in some absolute quiet, and persuaded the doctor that, as I had an 
 old engagement to preach at Sefton Park, Liverpool, on the 12th, 
 I might be allowed to rest in Wales. So Mrs. Stevenson and the 
 three elder children came with me ; and at Beddgelert, under Snow- 
 don, I found the place I wanted— a trout-stream hurrying past the 
 window, the mountains stretching into the sky, absolute privacy and 
 quiet. It was broken weather, but the place was so restful that 
 after a week, on Saturday last, I said I would face Liverpool. So 
 Mrs. Stevenson, Clair, and Lilian turned towards Holyhead, Ethel 
 went with her aunt to Ilkley, and I encamped under Mr. Guthrie's 
 care at Mossley Hill until Monday. I found it was Foreign Mission 
 Sunday, and used a little liberty hi preaching. Xow there is a good 
 deal of autobiography in all this ; but you drew it on yourself, for 
 your letter found us at Beddgelert just before we moved, or would 
 have been answered sooner. What a joy it was to hear from you ! 
 You see all my plans about our stumping Ireland together broke 
 down ; and I really had not the heart to tell you. After fifty, a 
 good many of one's plans break down, and I sometimes wonder, as 
 one thing gets postponed after another, whether any of my plans 
 will work out to the end. I thought I would have ready for the 
 press this summer the old Edinburgh lectures. But with the thou- 
 sand-and-one things that must be done, it is still ' to-morrow and 
 to-morrow and to-morrow/ Just now I want to get off my hands 
 an article on Irish Hynmology for Murray's 'Cyclopaedia of Hymns.' 
 And then I have promised Dr. Charteris to prepare a lecture for the 
 Young .Men's Guild in Edinburgh, on (whatever the title may be) 
 the mission of the Church — an appeal to young nun to organize and 
 carry out the plan of Christ and redeem as much of the world as 
 lie means to be redeemed, every man round about his own door 
 
The End. 261 
 
 and his own life, and then crusading to the ends of the earth as 
 well. 
 
 ' ' Autobiography still ! I may as well go on with it and finish. 
 If able, I have to give the charges at the ordinations of two splendid 
 young fellows for India (we are looking out a medical man for China, 
 which would give us four in Manchuria) within the next three weeks ; 
 then to be at the Conference in Edinburgh on the 6th of October ; 
 and the last two Sundays of October in Cambridge. The dream of 
 conquering the heathen is steadily making way. What a year of 
 Conferences on Foreign Missions ! They crowd upon each other in 
 October; and prayer seems going before this revolution of the Church, 
 as it went before that of a century ago 
 
 "What else? My dear Swanson, I can write no more, neither 
 
 sense nor nonsense. But now do tell me about yourself and your- 
 selves, and all that interests you and me." 
 
 In the afternoon he sauntered about the garden watching 
 his children play tennis. He took the evening service 
 himself without much apparent effort, but with a weaker 
 voice than usual. The subject was " Christ, our Great 
 High Priest," taken from the seventeenth chapter of St. John. 
 Discussing some of the thoughts started by the address as 
 they walked home, his son recalls with what deep solemnity 
 he repeated the words, "This is life eternal, that they might 
 know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom 
 Thou hast sent." At prayers that evening he chose Char- 
 lotte Elliott's hymn, " Let me be with Thee where Thou 
 art," read part of the First Epistle of St. John, and prayed 
 very tenderly for his brother's sorrowing family in Strabane. 
 
 Thursday the 16th was a lovely, bright morning, and he 
 came down to breakfast full of plans to give his nieces a 
 long day in the country. With some difficulty he was 
 induced to abandon a long drive to the foot of the Sugar- 
 Loaf, on account of the fatigue, and the wild valley of 
 Glen-na-smoil, beyond the hills of Tallaght, was decided on 
 instead. The party was a very merry one, and Dr. Steven- 
 son took his full share in all the conversation, and read aloud 
 several interesting newspaper cuttings which he had brought 
 
262 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 with him. As they descended the valley, they were all 
 quieted down by the extreme beauty of the sunset, which 
 flooded the whole landscape with golden light. On his 
 wife's expressing her uneasiness lest he might be too much 
 tired, he replied he only wished she was as well as he felt. 
 When they returned, he had a romp with his little boy who 
 was going to bed, chasing him round the room till inter- 
 rupted by the summons to tea, when he bade him good- 
 night, saying, " Never mind, Will, we must finish the game 
 to-morrow." Later the Rev. Wyndham Guinness and his 
 son called and spent part of the evening. The conversation 
 turned chiefly on Ireland, and on different aspects of foreign 
 missionary w r ork. At prayers he gave his niece the choice 
 of a hymn in reward for her music, which he said was his 
 best doctor, and seemed pleased when she repeated his choice 
 of the night before. He read the third chapter of the First 
 Epistle of St. John. The opening sentences of his prayer 
 were about heaven and habitual readiness for it ; then he 
 prayed for ministers of all denominations, and finally for his 
 own beloved Ireland. After prayer, an interesting conversa- 
 tion arose out of the hymn. Characteristically enough, he 
 began to criticise the scansion of the last line, maintaining 
 that the version given in his own Hymnal was correct, and 
 arose from the author's desire to give the hymn a personal 
 reference. The discussion then turned on the resurrection, 
 and finally, as if the ruling passion of the missionary enthu- 
 siast as well as of the hymnologist must be strong in death, 
 it wound up with the Mission-field ; and almost his last 
 words were expressions of strong confidence in the ultimate 
 triumph of Christianity over the nations. "He seemed to 
 me," said Mr. Guinness afterwards, "like one just waiting to 
 enter into his rest." After their friends left, he begged some 
 more music from Bach and Schumann, and the family parted 
 for the night in the cheeriest way, making plans for tho 
 next day. 
 
The End. 263 
 
 What followed his wife has tried to recall : — 
 
 " We were chatting as usual in our room. He stood a good while 
 watching baby, who looked so rosy as he lay asleep in his little cot ; 
 then kissed him and said, ' Dear little man ! ' I told him of a talk 
 I had had with a young girl who was perplexed as to whether her 
 present occupation was the life Christ meant for her, and who had 
 said to me, ' If I knew the Lord Jesus were coming next week, I 
 would not go on teaching.' 'That is simply a morbid feeling,' he 
 replied. I said, ' Why, would you ? ' He answered very emphati- 
 cally, ' I would go straight on doing my business.' 
 
 "He had only been a few minutes in bed when the slight cough 
 that had disturbed him two nights before again began. He rose to 
 walk up and down the room, but the cough changed immediately 
 into asthmatic breathing. I asked had he any pain ? He said, 
 ' None whatever ; don't be foolish, it's only a touch of asthma, and 
 will soon pass off.' I brought various remedies, but he would not 
 try anything, nor hear of my sending for the doctor. Presently he 
 consented, to please me, adding, 'Perhaps a doctor could suggest 
 some temporary relief.' I ran to call Clair ; he had not gone to bed, 
 and was off in a second. 
 
 "When I came back my husband was sitting in the arm-chair, 
 leaning forward a little. His breathing seemed to be getting worse. 
 Up to that time it had been comparatively but slightly affected, and 
 he could speak quite easily. I told him that I had sent for the 
 doctor. He said, ' Don't be so anxious,' and made light of my un- 
 easiness. Presently he began to walk up and down again, and asked 
 if the windows were open. One was. I threw open the other, and 
 pulled up the blinds. His breathing was now much worse. Sud- 
 denly he stopped in his walk, his voice quite changed, and there was 
 the most wonderful look in his face. It had come to him as if by 
 a lightning flash that God was calling him ; yet his first thought was 
 for me. With an almost superhuman effort to speak, he put his 
 arms around me, and in a few words said good-bye. Then he sat 
 down on the sofa, lying back in my arms. His breathing grew 
 gentler and gentler, and in about ten minutes more I knew he was 
 with Christ. 
 
 "It was a lovely, clear, still, moonlight night, and it seemed as if 
 one could almost see into heaven." 
 
 All day long, on the following Sunday, a constant succes- 
 sion of mourners passed through the Manse, taking a lasl 
 
264 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 look at the dear face of their pastor, as he lay asleep, 
 surrounded by the flowers he had so loved in life. 
 
 On Tuesday, the 21st September 1886, he was laid to rest 
 in Mount Jerome Cemetery. 
 
 After a brief service in the Manse for the members of the 
 family, public service was held in the church so identified 
 with his life,* and few eyes were dry, as the coffin, covered 
 with tokens of love and affection, was laid before the pulpit, 
 where for nearly seven-and-twenty years he had faithfully 
 proclaimed the gospel of Christ. An immense concourse of 
 all classes had gathered to pay the last tribute of respect to 
 his memory, not alone from his own Presbyterian Church, 
 which sent her members from every part of Ireland, but 
 representing the sympathy of the Irish Episcopal Church, 
 through the Archbishop of Dublin and numbers of her 
 clergy, as well as that of almost every other Protestant 
 denomination in the country. Deputations were sent by 
 the Royal University and many other public bodies ; while 
 outside the church a group of Roman Catholic clergy and 
 laymen waited to join the sad procession as it moved slowly 
 away through the crowd of sympathizers who had been 
 unable to gain admission. All along the route to the ceme- 
 tery the blinds were drawn, a spontaneous tribute from rich 
 and poor. The brave, strong words of the 23rd Psalm rose 
 high above the broken sobs of men bowed by grief; and 
 sorrow and bereavement Avere written on every face as the 
 grave closed over all that was mortal of William Fleming- 
 Stevenson. 
 
 * The service in the church was conducted by the Moderator of the General 
 Assembly (Rev. Robert Ross, D.D.), the Rev. J. Whigham, D.P., and the Rev. 
 Hamilton Magee, D.D., and that at the grave by the Rev. W. Johnston, D.P., and 
 the Rev. George Shaw. 
 
CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 IN MEMORIAL. 
 
 The intelligence of his death, so sudden and so unexpected, 
 brought gloom to many hearts. To his own Church the 
 loss was felt to be irreparable ; and the Church of Christ 
 everywhere mourned the removal of one whose heart's sym- 
 pathies were as wide as the world. Letters of sympathy and 
 sorrow poured in from every quarter of the globe : from 
 high and low ; from his smitten congregation ; from dear 
 friends and fellow-Avorkers ; from those who regarded him as 
 their father in God ; from many who only knew him by 
 his writings ; and not a few tributes came from those 
 whose lives he had unconsciously quickened and influenced. 
 For six months they never ceased to come, till they numbered 
 nearly a thousand : from America and Germany ; from 
 Italy and Holland ; from India and China and Japan, where 
 the memory of his visit and his sympathy was still tenderly 
 cherished ; and from lonely toilers in distant corners of 
 Australia.* 
 
 * Addresses of condolence were sent to his family from many public bodies, 
 including, among others, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of 
 Ireland ; the Synod of Dublin ; the Presbyteries of Dublin, Connaught, Gujarat, and 
 Kattiawar ; the Foreign Missions Committees of the Pan-Presbyterian Council, 
 the Church of Scotland, the Free Church, the United Presbyterian Church, and 
 the Presbyterian Church of England; the Royal University; the Hibernian Bible 
 Society ; the Evangelical Alliance ; the British and Foreign Sailors' Society ; the 
 Female Missionary Association of the Irish Presbyterian Church; the White Cross 
 Association (Dublin branch); the Hibernian Band of Hope Union; the Dublin 
 Y.M.C.A. ; the Belfast Y.M.C.A.; the Bible and Colportage Society; the Dublin 
 United Services Committee ; the Rathmines Young Men's Services Committee ; the 
 
266 Life of William Flemi?ig Stevenson. 
 
 A few of his friends have desired to add their memories to 
 this record of his life and labours. 
 
 The Eev. W. S. Swanson says : — 
 
 "It is difficult to picture to others your dearest friends. They are 
 yours by an indissoluble tie, and they are so endeared that it seems 
 almost sacrilege to attempt to tell why they are so. ' It is not pos- 
 sible to have many such friends. Their place in your heart is sacred 
 to them, and it can hardly ever be filled by others. In one sense it 
 can never become vacant. And such a friend was Dr. Stevenson to 
 me. I met him first many years ago, and I admired him then for 
 his own sake and for the work he had done. But the friendship 
 arose at a subsequent meeting, and sprang into an intensity that was 
 a joy and a strength to me. I only knew the measure of that in- 
 tensity when I was stunned and broken by the startling intelligence 
 of his sudden death. More than twelve years ago I spent some days 
 with him in Orwell Bank. That visit opened up to me the full flood 
 of a sympathy strong and tender, and so sweet and restful in some 
 conditions of life's battle. And this was the foundation on which 
 the friendship was built up. It began as if by a flash, and we knew 
 each other. At any rate, he read in me what I would fain have con- 
 cealed, but to reveal which to him soon became a privilege. And 
 tender and true I ever found him ; and while I loved him dearly as 
 my friend, I looked up to him as a master. 
 
 "It did not take long to learn that one was dealing with a man 
 penetrated by the purest and noblest Christian principle, and also 
 
 Waldensian Aid Society ; the Sinclair Seamen's Church Sunday School ; and from 
 the following organizations in connection with Christ Church, Rathgar: — the 
 Session ; the Congregational Committee ; the Zenana Mission Auxiliary ; the 
 Sunday-schoolteachers; the Rathgar Y.M.C.A. ; the Rathmines Mission ; the Band 
 of Hope, etc., etc. 
 
 On the Sunday following his funeral, many touching references were made 
 throughout the kingdom to his life and work, and kind notices of the press 
 in reference to his death were very numerous, both in this country and in America. 
 
 A memorial fund has been started by friends who sought to honour his memory, 
 and, by the wish of his family, it is to be devoted to training a native pastorate in 
 India. 
 
 From his library, which had grown to be one of great value, over 6,000 volumes 
 were presented to the General Assembly's College, Belfast. 
 
 In the south transept of Christ Church, Rathgar, a stained-glass window of 
 great beauty has been placed, in loving memory, by the past and present members 
 of the congregation. The subject is St. Paul taking leave of the elders of the 
 Church at Ephesus. Of this window it has been said that "in the boldness and 
 vigour of its design, and in the wonderful depth and richness of its colouring, it is 
 unapproachably beyond anything that has yet been seen in Ireland." 
 
Li Menu riatn. 267 
 
 with one possessed of the most powerful intellect. I wondered at 
 the extent of his scholarship and the breadth of his thinking. Trained 
 in the very best schools in this country and in Germany, of wide and 
 varied reading in general literature and theology, with an exquisite 
 literary taste and a complete literary furnishing, one soon felt that 
 .he was no ordinary man. that he towered above the ordinary run 
 even of those distinguished in the special departments named. For 
 there was with him such a perfect unconsciousness of his own supe- 
 rior powers as I have never met — no spurious humility, for he was 
 too noble and manly for that, but the transparent simplicity of a 
 truly great man. 
 
 " And this was the man whose heart the Lord touched, and whom 
 He thrust forth into His own harvest-field with an education and 
 equipment rare!; :. with the very simplicity of Christ, will- 
 
 ing ever to be the servant, tired with the conception of the true 
 mission and ideal of the Church of Christ, as bearing to men the 
 knowledge of Him who alone could meet human wants and cure 
 human woes. And this conception rilled his heart and moulded his 
 life. He was true to it with a zeal ever growing, a love ever widen- 
 ing, an intentness of purpose never wavering, and an energy and 
 activity that wore him out. 
 
 "To myself this soon became the mam factor in our friendship. 
 We were one here. For us the Church existed for the [Mission. And 
 I gathered strength of purpose and read' - crifice from the 
 
 entlvusiasm that was rilling him and infecting others. With him 
 this was no fancy idea, no mere romantic pursuit. His acquaintance 
 with missionary literature and missionary hi- - unequalled, 
 
 and his enthusiasm was the outcome of what he knew the M 
 had done ami was certain to do. He looked at these matters with 
 no narrowed vision, but over the broad sweep of past history, and 
 he felt confident as to the future. In all his writing and sp- 
 on this subject he seemed to have a remarkable faculty of seiz:: _ 
 those very details that involved advance. His rang) mpre- 
 
 hensive as his sympathy. 
 
 •• This is not the place to speak of his public work and of his | 
 of impressing his fellow-men. He was a man fitted to be a leader, 
 but not a leader in Church politics or Church courts. In ti. 
 took his own place, and his words were always highly valued. In a 
 wider and freer sphere he found his congenial place. In every enter- 
 prise that involved the well-being of man his heart v, 
 The Mission, in its m i - his sphere for action.. H 
 
 one of the most eloquent men of his time. He had a rich] ■ 
 
268 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 diction I have never heard equalled ; not diction without thought, 
 but packed with richest thought. His style was simple and forceful, 
 brimful of the fire that burned in him, and he swept his audience 
 along with him. Few who were present can ever forget the spell of 
 his marvellous address on the Mission at the meeting of the Pan- 
 Presbyterian Council in Belfast, and his sermon preached before the 
 General Assembly of his own Church at the close of his Moderator- 
 ship. It was worth living to hear him on such occasions. 
 
 "He was to me the very embodiment of a pure-minded, chivalrous, 
 Christian gentleman. He was tender as the tenderest woman, and 
 as brave as he was tender and gentle. Against meanness, selfishness, 
 and duplicity I have seen him blaze out with a force that astonished 
 me. And when it passed, I felt it was but another evidence of the 
 great and brave Christian soul of my friend. I learnt some new les- 
 sons of Christian heroism in his quiet and sweet patience, and in his 
 warm and keen resentment of everything that was mean and untrue. 
 
 k ' In the quiet of his own home and at his own fireside he shone 
 most brightly : where the light was keenest on him he came out 
 best. It would be presumptuous in me to picture that home ; it- 
 would be wrong if I did not testify to its beauty and charm. The 
 union of hearts and aims in the heads of that household was perfect ; 
 and while it was never obtruded in expression, its depth and inten- 
 sity were most marked. He was brimful of fun and frolic, had a 
 merry infectious laugh, and his inexhaustible store of story and of 
 legend was ever ready. He had rare conversational powers, and 
 with them he never failed to charm. But these powers were never 
 allowed to run to excess ; and he stood out as the Christian head of 
 one of the happiest homes. To go there was joy and rest ; and Or- 
 well Bank, to those who knew it, was ever fresh and green. I go 
 back to it now in memory as one of the brightest spots of my own 
 experience, and I reckon it a privilege to have ever had a joyous wel- 
 come there. And the brightness of the light that was there is the 
 measure of the darkness to those who knew and loved and have lost 
 him for a while. 
 
 "Within the bounds of his own Church he was honoured and 
 loved, and he served her with rare devotedness and self-denial. He 
 consumed himself with the energy and zeal that kept him working 
 as few men have ever worked. While a Presbyterian of strong con- 
 viction, he was a man of the broadest catholic spirit. So single was 
 his aim, so transparent his motives, so filled was he with the grand 
 ideal of the great mission of Christianity, and so unsparing of him- 
 self in its prosecution, that sectarianism and narrowness found no 
 
/;/ Memoriam. 269 
 
 quarter with him. His aim was so high and his range so sweeping 
 that every one saw in him a true Christian man and minister. He 
 was the property of all the Churches; and when he passed away, 
 the representatives of all joined to mourn for a common loss. 
 
 ' ' I part from him now, thanking God that I ever knew him. I 
 cherish his memory as one of my most precious possessions. He has 
 gone, but he lives ; lives in the work that he has done, in the lives 
 he has influenced, in the impulse he has given to the mission of 
 Christ, ami in the hearts of many of us who loved him deeply and 
 love him still. We shall not see his like till we see himself again ; 
 and we regard it as one of the rich and precious treasures of our life 
 that he gave us a place in his own large Christian heart, and won 
 from us our tenderest, deepest love." 
 
 The Right Hon. the Earl of Aberdeen writes : — 
 
 '■ The circumstance of Dr. Fleming Stevenson having been an 
 honorary chaplain to the Viceroy of Ireland when I occupied that 
 post, gave me the great privilege and advantage of frequent inter- 
 course with him, leaving memories which can never be effaced ; and I 
 feel a melancholy satisfaction and a sense of privilege in undertaking, 
 however inadequately, to contribute anything to the memorials of 
 that bright and noble life. 
 
 '"' My personal acquaintance with him Mas brief, but long enough 
 for the formation of a warm friendship, and, on my part, a sincere 
 admiration of his gifts, and a deep sense of the value of his work 
 and influence. I first saw him in the pulpit of his church at Rath- 
 gar, .Dublin. The impression produced by the sermon and whole 
 service led me to remark, on leaving the church, that we were ap- 
 parently fortunate in having been present on that particular Sunday, 
 as it could hardly be supposed (although we were, of course, aware 
 of his high reputation) that the sermon was not, even for him, more 
 striking, more deeply spiritual than usual. Subsequent experience, 
 however, soon showed us that this high standard, both as to sermon 
 and prayers, was uniformly maintained. He was shortly afterwards 
 appointed an Honorary Chaplain to the Lord-Lieutenant. 
 
 "His mode of receiving the offer of the post was characteristic. 
 He replied that he regarded it as intended to convey a mark of 
 courtesy and respect towards the Church to which he belonged, and 
 in that sense accepted it with appreciation. Certainly no better 
 representative of any Church could have been found. We had 
 various opportunities of hearing him. both at hia church and at the 
 
270 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 private chapel of the Vice-Regal Lodge ; and I will only add that 
 his ministrations were, as Principal Brown once remarked in a letter 
 to myself, 'a combination of spirituality and culture.' It is im- 
 possible to overestimate the lastingly beneficial 'influence of such a 
 sympathetic and, in the best sense, tolerant spirit and disposition as 
 that manifested by Dr. Fleming Stevenson, combined as it was with 
 great firmness of purpose as well as gentleness of manner. 
 
 "No one could know much of him without observing his great 
 love for children, and it is brought out in the large number of hymns 
 for children contained in the valuable Hymnal which he compiled. 
 Our own children treasure many tokens of his love and kindly thought 
 for them. We were present at his last annual ' flower-service ' for 
 children. In the course of his address, he affectingly illustrated some 
 lesson by alluding to the fondness of children for flowers, and the 
 eagerness with which they cultivated little gardens of their own. 
 And in a few short weeks some of those young hearers, who were 
 then intently listening to his wise and tender words, were sending 
 flowers from their own gardens far away to deck the last honoured 
 resting-place of that form then so full of life and vigour. 
 
 "The amount of work accomplished by him must have been im- 
 mense ; but, like some other men whose whole time is filled up, he 
 never seemed to be hurried or restless. His letters had usually a 
 graphic force and character of their own. When reading them it 
 often seemed to me that one could imagine that the living voice was 
 uttering the words. Doubtless this was the unconscious exercise of 
 that literary ability which he so largely possessed. 
 
 "I must not now linger on the attractiveness and value of his 
 society personally. It is with regretful sadness that I think over 
 the many projects for future work which we discussed together. In 
 all such conversations he seemed to impart a peculiar strength and 
 inspiration, always impressing one with a sense of a life ever lived in 
 the presence of a loved Master. He set a bright example of Christian 
 cheerfulness, courtesy, and unselfishness, and even those who knew 
 little of him will have known enough to lead them to deplore his 
 loss, though' we may well mingle with our sorrow a true thankfulness 
 concerning all that he was enabled to accomplish during his com- 
 paratively brief but intensely active life; and especially will all wish 
 to join in the feeling of profound and deferential sympathy towards 
 her who so nobly and brightly helped him in all his life-work. 
 
 "But 'he being dead yet speaketh.' This is emphatically true 
 with reference to his vigorous and long-sustained labour in connection 
 with the great work of Foreign Missions. His large experience, his 
 
In Memoriam. 271 
 
 energy, and, above all, his broad and sympathetic catholicity of 
 spirit must have been invaluable in the furtherance of that work, 
 surrounded as it so often is by peculiar difficulties and perplexities ; 
 and in that, as with all the home-work in the country which was so 
 dear to him, and in connection with which his last prayer was uttered, 
 we must surely believe that his influence and example will remain as 
 a permanent heritage towards the promotion of the kingdom of the 
 Lord and Master whom he loved and served so well." 
 
 From the Rev. William Beatty, senior Missionary in India 
 of the Irish Presbyterian Church :— 
 
 " While I speak for myself, I believe my personal views of Dr. 
 Stevenson are those of all the brethren, and would be subscribed by 
 them all. 
 
 ' ' He was a man of unusual ability, and of great intellectual power. 
 His mind was broad and deep. There was no narrowness about' him. 
 He combined qualities usually dissociated in other men. He was 
 many-sided and all round. Whilst extremely cautious, he was full 
 to overflowing with enthusiasm. His mastery of details, which was 
 unrivalled, never prevented him from seeing the important and 
 salient features of a subject. He hated conflict, and, rather than 
 encounter it, would wait patiently for an open door through which 
 he could enter without opposition. He would yield much for peace ; 
 but when peaceful means were exhausted, and the stand had to be 
 taken, he was immovable. 
 
 "He was quite an artist. He beautified everything he touched. 
 All his letters were written in chaste and charming English. He 
 gave expression to his ideas clearly, and yet with the sweetness of a 
 saintly Christian, a master painter, and a true poet. 
 
 "There was a great charm in his manner. He put strangers at 
 once at their ease, and made them satisfied with themselves and with 
 him. He was naturally kind, and could not bear to hurt the feelings 
 of any one. 
 
 " He was the brother of the missionary more than an official of the 
 Assembly, the friend rather than the Convener. We missionaries 
 were perfectly sure of one thing, that the Mission, in all its aspects 
 and concerns, was as dear, ay, far dearer, to the Convener than to 
 any one of us, and I think it is the passion of all our lives. We felt 
 that, no matter how much we loved it, he loved it more : it was the 
 supreme, the absorbing passion of his life. There was nothing he 
 could do to advance it which he was not ready to do, even to the 
 
272 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 minutest detail ; and his whole family shared his spirit. If there was 
 one place in the world where we were welcome it was Orwell Bank, 
 and we all knew that. He would never deny us anything for our 
 work or ourselves he could possibly do for us. "We depended on 
 him, indeed, so much, that when we heard of his death we felt as if 
 a strong pillar had given way beneath us. In our prostrate condition 
 we did not see how we were to rise again, and we felt as if the life 
 and the glory of the Mission had been extinguished. 
 
 " The central point of his Convenership seems to me to have been 
 the organizing of the Mission abroad in such a way as to make it self- 
 supporting. He held that the aim of the missionaries should be to 
 train the natives to be missionaries to their fellow-countrymen. A 
 Divinity School for the training of a native ministry and native 
 missionaries through the medium of their own language he believed 
 to be a prime necessity. That the memorial to his name should take 
 this form will appear exceedingly apposite to all who knew his aims 
 and hopes. 
 
 "He strove to bind the workers in the field together in fraternal 
 bonds. There is, perhaps, no Mission in India where there is greater 
 harmony among the workers than in ours, and much of this no doubt 
 is due to the example of Dr. Stevenson. And his letters were written 
 so as to fill them with hope, courage, and genuine enthusiasm, and 
 make them feel the grandeur and nobility of their calling. 
 
 " Dr. Stevenson never underrated the difficulties of the field. He 
 knew more of the paganism of the world than any living man. He 
 had a high ideal of the qualifications needed in a missionary. He 
 looked for a solid basis for enthusiasm in true piety, sound judgment, 
 and a fully educated and well-balanced mind. 
 
 " Knowing the great systems of religion to be encountered, and the 
 absolute necessity of able and thoroughly educated men, he would 
 accept none but the very best our Church could produce. I look 
 upon his insight in selecting and his power in inducing such men to 
 volunteer for the Foreign Mission as showing a remarkable judgment. 
 
 " Dr. Stevenson was careful to know every detail of Mission work. 
 He knew the field by personal inspection, had met many of the 
 native agents, was aware of the needs of every spot, could under- 
 stand every missionary's references to his work, and thus provide for 
 the wants of every station. 
 
 " He always encouraged the missionaries to confide their troubles 
 and difficulties to him. They could do so with perfect trust. He 
 was extremely cautious lest injury might be inflicted on a cause so 
 precious, and yet bold and daring in his plans to advance. 
 
In Memoriam. 273 
 
 "Another thing ever present to his mind was the blessing Missions 
 conferred on the Home Church. Missions were to him signs of life 
 in the Church which originated them and carried them on, and not 
 only so, but means of grace ; and just in proportion as individuals 
 and Churches engaged in this blessed work, might they expect the 
 strengthening and developing of their Christian life. As he loved 
 the Home Church, he wished her to rise to the height of her responsi- 
 bilities and privileges. 
 
 " Other Missions were proud of our Convener ; he belonged to the 
 Church Universal. He was a source of power to all. We were proud 
 "of 1 laving such a man at our head. He honoured our Church and 
 Mission. His very name was a tower of strength. 
 
 "We have had no man like him in the past, and we may not see 
 his like again. He was unique. We can thank and praise God for 
 the honour and privilege he gave our Church in conferring such an 
 eminent servant on her. I, for my part, will ever esteem it one of 
 the highest privileges a man and missionary can have had to. have 
 known him as a friend, and to have laboured under his guidance and 
 leadership for the beloved Master whose right it is to reign." 
 
 One of his oldest friends in Dublin, the Rev. Hamilton 
 Magee, D.D., says : — 
 
 " I never knew a man so immeasurably raised above petty personal 
 pique, and the disturbing influences arising out of it. I often con- 
 sulted him in difficulty, and ever met with brotherly sympathy, and 
 with advice characterized by great caution and great breadth. 
 
 "He was the life of our ministerial meetings. To the pleasant 
 evenings thus spent socially together once a month the remarkable 
 brotherliness prevailing in the Dublin Presbytery is to be largely 
 attributed. Xo matter how busy he was, he generally cheered us by 
 his bright and genial presence. So far back as 1862, I remember Dr. 
 Norman Macleod's saying to me that for information, versatility, con- 
 versation, and literary power, he regarded Fleming Stevenson as one 
 of the most remarkable men he had ever known. 
 
 " Though capable of the loftiest flights of pulpit oratory, he would 
 sit at the feet of an unordained evangelist as a learner ; and his 
 sympathy and help could always be counted on in any kind of true 
 evangelistic or mission work. He latterly showed a marked advance 
 in the spirit of consecration in his prayers, letters, addresses, work, 
 and entire intercourse with others. 
 
 "Though a member of the Presbyterian Church by intelligent con- 
 viction, he was an utter stranger to ail narrow and selfish bigotry. 
 
 18 
 
274 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 He rejoiced to recognize the image of Christ wherever it was to be 
 seen. Perhaps no man had a wider range of Christian brotherhood 
 in all the Churches, and it is not too much to say that the choicest 
 spirits in all branches of Christ's great family on earth felt themselves 
 enriched by being privileged to regard "William Fleming Stevenson as 
 their personal friend. It is a touching evidence, too, of his large- 
 hearted catholicity, that, while some might have concluded from his 
 unparalleled devotion to the cause of Foreign Missions that he had 
 little care for mission- work at home, the Irish Mission collection w; s 
 wrought up in Rathgar better, perhaps, than in any other congrega- 
 tion of the Church, and the last audible prayer that passed his lips 
 was a prayer for Ireland. 
 
 "Humanly speaking, he would have been with us to-day if he had 
 been able to spare himself more. But where there was work to be 
 attended to, he must be up and doing. He laboured constantly, ' in 
 season, out of season,' and, like the Master, never for himself, ever 
 for others. He undertook too much work for others. He could not 
 say 'No,' when most others would have had no difficulty. His con- 
 gregation lay close to his heart. The cares and difficulties of his 
 brethren in the ministry he made his own. But above all he carried 
 about with him everywhere the mighty load of the great world's 
 heathenism. His soul was straitened for the redemption of India and 
 China." 
 
 Another Dublin minister, the Rev. Alexander lientoul, 
 closes a short sketch, to which reference has already been 
 made, in these words : — 
 
 "When I took up the evening paper of the 17th September and 
 read the news of his death, I remembered the words he used at the 
 first induction at which I ever heard him speak — ' When some great 
 one falls, we are inclined to cry with Elisha, " The chariots of Israel, 
 and the horsemen thereof," as if Divine power had vanished from the 
 Church. A great rush of fear, the dread uncertainty of all things, 
 comes on us, and we hardly know on which side to look for help.' 
 It is under such feeling that I write even now. I know not how the 
 loss can be made up. God knows, and we must leave it to Him. 
 
 "On the Saturday, as I uncovered the face, it seemed to me that, 
 but for the great brown beard, it might have been the boy's round 
 face over which his mother bent long ago. A strange look of inno- 
 cent childhood seemed to come back again. Cod -rant that we who 
 are left, when, in the last sleep, the pain leaves our hearts and the 
 
/;/ Memortam. 275 
 
 trouble vanishes from our brows, may have passed with spirits as 
 truly childlike to 'see Him face to face.' 
 
 " For the thought struck me then, and clings to me now, that this 
 man was of so childlike a spirit that he permitted the Church to lay 
 on him a burden greater "than he could bear. It is little to me that 
 he would have worked as incessantly in any case. 
 
 " And yet all highest work is done thus, with a blessed childlike 
 unconsciousness, and with no true appreciation from others till, in 
 the after-time, they see more clearly. I am not sure that his friends 
 would have it otherwise. Possibly even the nearest can rise into 
 that glorious atmosphere of martyrdom in which all God's worthiest 
 witnesses live and die. When we think of the nights spent over the 
 Foreign Mission, or with some wakeful invalid who could sleep in 
 the day but lay sleepless all the night-watches; when we think of 
 the gray dawn breaking on him as he sat in his study or walked home 
 after his watching ; when we remember the crowded church and the 
 great throng with sorrow-stricken faces, the long sad procession to 
 the cemetery, and the bowed heads and great sobs of strong men 
 around the open grave, we are inclined to think it was better that 
 "William Fleming Stevenson died at the age of fifty-four, leaving 
 behind him an orphaned home and a bereaved congregation, and a 
 bereaved Church and a bereaved Mission, than to have died at eighty, 
 leaving behind what work he might have done as other men work — 
 better for the Mission and for the whole Church, better even for what 
 lay nearest his heart, in his own home. For as the falling leaf of 
 September is but the preparation for spring's emerald green, so I am 
 sure his life and death are the sure precursors of such gifts of liberality 
 and such deeds of consecration and of sacrifice as our Church has 
 never yet imagined in her most blessed hours." 
 
 In a letter to Mrs. Stevenson the Rev. George Shaw, 
 Belfast, says : — 
 
 "I need not speak to you of that strange, sweet attractiveness 
 which drew all hearts to your beloved husband. What rests upon 
 my memory most, I think. Mas his wonderful sympathy— sympathy 
 not in kindly and fitting words only, but in that great tenderness of 
 spirit which made you feel instinctively that he truly shared 
 soi rows or your joys. Hardly ever did I meet one to whom I felt I 
 could so fully and so freely speak of the d« ep thoughts thai lie within. 
 In truth, he seemed to have so much of the blessed Master's spirit, 
 that one felt one had got away into a purer, serener atmosphere when 
 conversing alone with him. So gentle, so pure, so much of Christ, 
 
276 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 so emptied of self, is it strange that many, like myself, felt the power 
 and the charm of so lovable a nature, that wondrous unconsciousness 
 that drew us closely to him ? Often did I urge him to spare himself. 
 But it seemed a hard thing to do. One and another and another were 
 gently laying hold of him to urge their suit, or sought some kind, 
 brotherly advice, and well they knew how ready he was to respond 
 to such appeals 
 
 ' ' Let us not forget that a true life is not measured by days or 
 years. Fain would we have kept him here ; but is it not something 
 for the Church, and for the world too, to have the example of a noble 
 life consumed with the love of Jesus, and whose history may be 
 summed up in the words, ' To me to live is Christ ' ? The holy radi- 
 ance of that short life will not soon fade away. Coming generations 
 will, I believe, thank God for the memory of one who seemed to 
 reflect so much of the light which comes from fellowship with Jesus. 
 For myself, I count among the blessings of my life the sweet hours 
 spent with your loved husband, and the times when, in the quiet of 
 my study, we two knelt in prayer. Never shall I forget those hours, 
 when I felt as though we had entered within the veil ! Our converse 
 was often on Missions — that cause which lay so near his heart. I 
 was much impressed by the calm, clear judgment and thorough know- 
 ledge of men, combined with enthusiasm, which glowed in his public 
 addresses. He was no visionary. His faith in the ultimate and 
 universal triumph of ' the glorious gospel ' was based upon the sure 
 Word of the living God. His soul yearned to see this unfaltering 
 faith taking fast hold of the whole Christian Church. For this he 
 lived ; for this he worked ; for this he prayed. "Who of lis can fail to 
 see how, in the growth of the missionary spirit throughout our Church, 
 that word is abundantly verified : ' He being dead yet speaketh ! ' 
 
 " India was much in his thoughts, and he longed for the strength- 
 ening and enlarging of our Indian Mission. But China was not for- 
 gotten, and he earnestly desired to see our little band in that vast 
 empire greatly increased by the addition of gifted, true-hearted, and 
 devoted men. Often, when we got on the missionary theme, it was 
 hard to separate, though the midnight hour was past, and I well 
 knew that rest was sorely needed. Many a time I have gone with 
 him to his room after a long day of exhausting work, when he looked 
 weary and spent ; and when about to say good-night, some thought 
 about India or China would come up. In the fulness of his large. 
 loving heart, he seemed wholly to forget himself and the sleep that 
 was so needful, and again and again one more word Mas spoken, until 
 at last we parted, one at least refreshed in spirit." 
 
/;/ Memonam. 277 
 
 The Rev. Principal Paton, D.D., of Nottingham, writes : — 
 
 "It always seemed to me that the German heroes and saints whose 
 life-histories Dr. Fleming Stevenson had so brightly sketched were 
 his own spiritual kindred. He had been attracted to them, and had 
 so clearly interpreted and pictured their aims and methods, because 
 of his profound sympathy with them and likeness to them. Like 
 them he had the Teutonic passion for labour, which, in his preface to 
 'Praying and Working,' he tells us, belongs to this age, 'probably 
 the quickest and busiest of any the world has seen ; ' but he also had 
 that peculiar grace of patience, of inward peace and victorious per- 
 sistency, which so wonderfully impresses us ha all these calm German 
 workers with whom he .has made us familiar. By faith he saw, like 
 them, the spiritual root of all the world's wrongs and woes in sin, and 
 therefore he felt and knew that only the Divine power of a salvation 
 which forgave and subdued sin would avail for the true redemption 
 of the world ; and the secret of his strength and peace lay in his com- 
 munion by faith with the Almighty -Saviour from sin. But, like 
 "Wichern, Fliedner, and other wise master-workers of his book, he 
 also saw that the business of the kingdom of heaven needed the con- 
 summate power of true statesmanship, instinct with the spirit and 
 
 life of the King they served And 'Praying and Working* was 
 
 thus to me not only a portraiture of great heroes of faith, it was a 
 self-revelation. My friend there unconsciously, but most faithfully. 
 disclosed himself 
 
 " Dr. Fleming Stevenson had three great endowments which I did 
 not at first recognize, but which soon impressed and interested me. 
 His subtle and critical sense of music, in speech and in song, made 
 him one of the best judges of hymns and of psalmody. I might in- 
 deed have conjectured his eminence in this sacred art from his pure 
 literary taste, the rhythmic beat of his style, his true ' Church ' feel- 
 ing, and his impassioned sympathy with the grander impulses and 
 movements of faith which always ring out in reverberations of song ; 
 but as I knew him better, I learnt to admire his fine inner sense for 
 the 'harmonies' of spiritual thought in the ancient and modern 
 hymns, and in the chorales and tunes which they have inspired. He 
 had joy in the grand rhythmic march of words and sounds so in- 
 breathed into one another as to make one music, which is in all its 
 cadences the voice of faith. 
 
 "Then there was the bright bonhomie, the unfailing spring of 
 cheerful energy and affection, the loving sympathy that touched and 
 opened the heart like sunlight, and the willing helpfulness that sought 
 
278 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 and carried the burdens of many ; these made Dr. Fleming Stevenson 
 the beloved pastor of a large congregation, formed under his ministry. 
 Other gifts made him an eminent preacher ; but these several qualities, 
 blending in a most happy unison, attracted multitudes like myself 
 who were not privileged to hear him preach. A wide circle in many 
 lands knew and loved the friend who had always a pastor's heart in 
 his friendship. 
 
 "And filially I was enabled, during many years of acquaintance, 
 to discern the powerful gifts for organization, the capacity for busi- 
 ness, the knowledge of men, and the instinct to catch the fluctuating 
 movements of opinion in a public assembly or a church, which gave 
 him so great influence and won him such gratitude and honour in the 
 Irish Presbyterian Church. He was a true ecclesiastic in the noblest 
 sense of that word, a man who embodied and governed the catholic 
 life of the Church of which he was a member and a leader. And few 
 ' churchmen ' have kept their dovotion to the Church, and their 
 power within the Church, so blamelessly pure from the least stain of 
 selfishness. Laboriosus et diuturnus ecdesice miles — he died, as he 
 lived, for the Church of his Lord. 
 
 "The 'Inner Mission,' which first united us in brotherly bonds, 
 continued to be the watchword till the last. And we both hoped 
 that we might be associated in drawing together all Christian Churches 
 in our country in the fellowship of this Mission, even as they are 
 united in their Missions in foreign lands. Reunion may not at present 
 be obtained by any act of comprehension, or by any agreement in ritual 
 or polity or creed ; but all our Churches might unite in the practical 
 service of man without any unworthy compromise or sacrifice 
 
 "How often have we together, and with other deeply pledged eon- 
 federates, prayed that God might lead lis and help us thus to estab- 
 lish the ' Inner Mission' in this country. He is gone — his aspiration 
 and vow remain. May they inspire others to fulfil that task he 
 wished to be his own ! And may the Church of Christ realize her 
 unity in spirit and in life as she realizes her one mission to preach 
 good news and heal the world, sick unto death with divers diseases ! " 
 
 In answer to a request for letters, the Rev. Professor 
 Charteris, D.D., writes: — 
 
 "You know that he and I had little time for writing letters; so, 
 though I had known him personally for hve-and-twenty years, our 
 intercourse in the last few years of his life was not by letter, but in 
 times of respite and recess, when we had something like a holiday 
 
In Memoriam. 279 
 
 together. He was all but overwhelmed by the multitude of letters 
 to missionaries and on Missions which he was writing day and night, 
 and often in the train, on his way to hold missionary meetings 
 through the country. I do not mean that he gave less of his strength 
 to his pastorate than other people give. I think he gave more ; for 
 his living force was so great, and he so completely did all his work 
 with all his might, that, alike in preaching and in visiting, he exerted 
 an unusual influence at great cost of his vital energy. I scarcely 
 understand how he stood the strain so -long. It was doubtless be- 
 cause of his peace of mind and purity of heart. There was little 
 inward friction, except when some one disappointed him. 
 
 " I had few letters from him except notes fixing appointments. I 
 remember one he sent me in answer to an intimation that the Univer- 
 sity of Edinburgh proposed to confer on him the degree of D.D. It 
 was very lively. He was pleased that he had been thought of ; but 
 assured me that his gifts were not academical, that the greater part 
 of his time as a student had been occupied with practical subjects, 
 that his work as an author was not dignified or learned, and that it 
 would be absurd to make a doctor of so desultory a man. But then 
 he bethought him that, in his modest disclaimer, he was in danger 
 of being ungracious, and so he assured me that he was very proud of 
 the offered honour, although too much surprised to understand how 
 it had come about that our staid Scottish University had proposed to 
 lay its hand on a restless Irishman. In answer to this delightful bit 
 of thinking aloud, he was told to appear to be capped on a certain 
 day in April, because the University was quite able to judge of his 
 worthiness. And he came, and ever afterwards was an enthusiastic 
 member of the University. During our Tercentenary rejoicings, he 
 threw himself with characteristic fervour into all our proceedings. 
 On one occasion he not only joined a student procession by torchlight, 
 but prevailed on an Anglican theologian, who was our guest along 
 with him, to follow the rejoicing lads till the last lights were put out 
 (on the Calton Hill, if I remember rightly) about midnight. 
 
 "It was at that time, and in your dear mother's house, and in 
 your own Orwell Bank, that I saw him and knew him as he was. 
 What humour there was in him, as there is in all men "whose pathos 
 is true ! What quick Irish wit he had ! What wealth of information 
 from his wide reading ! And how inevitably all things were seen by 
 him to bear on the twin objects of his life — to raise the neglected poor 
 at home, and to call in the heathen in foreign lands. After an even- 
 ing with him one wanted to build a Rauhe Haus in every British 
 town where rough boys need to be broken in, and to send a mis ion- 
 
280 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 ary — or oneself to go — to every heathen city where men and women 
 live and die without Christian hope. I do not wonder that he moved 
 so many; my wonder is, that any one could resist him, and that all 
 of us have not grown more like him. 
 
 " If I were asked to say what he was, I know not how to describe 
 what rises in my mind. He was so strong and tender, so bright and 
 patient, a man of such wide knowledge and deep feeling, a man with 
 his heart so true to home, while sensitive to every movement of 
 Christ's Church in the distant mission-field ; so powerful, therefore, 
 as a pastor, while so truly a missionary to the heathen, that the 
 titles of his own books strike me as an epitaph on himself : ' Praying 
 and Working,' a ' Hymn of the Church and Home.' 
 
 " 1 always think of him as of music and light and love, for he was 
 full of all God's best things. No one who did not know him well had 
 any true idea of what he was. He could have done so much greater 
 things, and let all men better know how richly he was endowed. 
 But then he would not have been so great as he was in self -repression, 
 in quiet helping of others, in leading a life that was like Christ's, falling 
 into the soil of other hearts to grow up with eternal harvest joy when 
 they are reaped. I never knew any man with half his gifts so de- 
 livered from self. You and your children have a great possession 
 in having had him." 
 
 From America also came touching tributes to his memory. 
 
 From the' Rev. Theodore Cuyler, D.D., Brooklyn : — 
 
 " I regret exceedingly that I cannot lay my hands on any letter of 
 my beloved friend, Dr. W. Fleming Stevenson, but I send you in- 
 stead some brief reminiscences of his visits to America in 1S73 and 
 1877. In the autumn of the first-named year he came over as a. dele- 
 gate to the Evangelical Alliance. The paper which he read before 
 that distinguished assemblage in New York was one of the finest 
 that was presented during the whole week. 
 
 "During the month which brought so many distinguished ministers 
 to the Evangelical Alliance (October 1873) I determined to give my 
 congregation a taste of royal dainties. And so I invited four repre- 
 sentatives of as many different nationalities to occupy my pulpit on 
 four successive Sabbath evenings. 
 
 "After my people had listened to an Italian, an Englishman, and 
 a Scotchman, I told them I would give them a chance to hear one of 
 the princes of the Irish Presbyterian pulpit. The spacious church was 
 packed to the door, hundreds standing in the aisles and the vestibule. 
 
In Memoriam. 28: 
 
 ' ' Dr. Stevenson was that evening at his best. He was inspired 
 by the vast assemblage. Wishing to give him also a hymnological 
 treat, I selected two of his favourites, and they were sung with 
 immense enthusiasm by the audience. Under the quickening in- 
 spiration of this grand burst of sacred song, he rose and announced 
 his text. It was Paul's answer to Agrippa (Acts xxvi. 27 and 29). 
 Although his discourse was written, yet he was not pinioned by his 
 manuscript, and for nearly an hour he enchained the crowd with a 
 most fervid, direct, and powerful presentation of the pure gospel. 
 It was argument made red-hot with holy enthusiasm. 
 
 "Four years afterwards I was startled one evening by the appari- 
 tion of Brother Stevenson ! He "was on his way through America to 
 India, and had halted overnight at Saratoga Springs. Hearing that 
 I was in the town, he kindly came up and bestowed the evening upon 
 me. It was my last interview with him, and he was charged with 
 the electricity of Foreign Missions like a walking battery. Of that 
 memorable tour to the harvest-fields of Asia, and of the magnificent 
 and unrivalled oration on Foreign Missions which he delivered to 
 your General Assembly on his return home, I need not write. 
 Thankful I am, and ever shall be, that I have been permitted to 
 see and hear, to know and to love, that beautiful combination of 
 manhood and modesty, and that consummate fruit of the Christian 
 graces, William Fleming Stevenson. Beautiful and beloved herald 
 of the Cross ! How fervently I loved him, and how deeply thousands 
 will mourn him ! He has made a deep, broad mark on the religious 
 history of his native land ; he has influenced many a life and inspired 
 many a Christ-loving heart by his ' Praying and Working : ' his will 
 be the brightness of the firmament, and of the stars, of them who 
 turn many souls unto righteousness." 
 
 From the Rev. John Hall, D.I)., New York : — 
 
 "For true eloquence in preaching and true earnestness in pastoral 
 effort the country had no superior to. Dr. Stevenson ; and for chaste, 
 exact, scholarly, dignified, and attractive presentation of the cause 
 of Missions it had no equal. Many remember his appearance at the 
 meeting of the Evangelical Alliance in New York in L873. Modestly 
 taking his place at the desk, with nothing remarkable to arrest at- 
 tention lmt a striking face and an impressive voice that betrayed no 
 provincialism — that might have been English, Irish, or American — 
 lie laid his manuscript on the desk and proceeded to read As his 
 own feeling, and that of the audience, which kept pace with it, 
 
282 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 warmed, an energetic swinging, motion of his hand, becoming more 
 and more vehement as he proceeded, recalled the descriptions one 
 gets of Chalmers, and certainly the riveted attention, the sympathy, 
 the enthusiasm of the audience, as he painted picture after picture 
 and flashed out appeal after appeal, realized the accounts we have 
 of the effects of Chalmers's influence on an audience. Many a time 
 the like triumph was achieved by him since, in his own land and in 
 Scotland, where he again and again rendered brilliant service to the 
 cause of Missions. His preaching was no less attractive than his 
 speaking, thoroughly scholarly in style, evangelical in its substance, 
 delivered with entire forgetfulness of self and complete absorption 
 in his subject. But behind his preaching, speaking, and writing, 
 there was the man — generous, loving, large-hearted, and noble, whom 
 to know was to admire, whom to know closely was to love with an 
 affection mingled with enthusiasm. 
 
 "While his presence and his efforts will be widely and sadly 
 missed, they who loved him the most will rejoice in the blessed 
 memory he leaves behind, will try to believe that the Master will 
 provide for the continuance of the work, and will hope for renewed 
 fellowship by-and-by." 
 
 From the Rev. J. S. Macintosh, D.D., of Philadelphia, 
 formerly of Belfast : — 
 
 " I was first introduced to Dr. Stevenson in 1862 ; in IS60 I came 
 to know him well ; and in 1867 we grew close and confiding friends. 
 As I met him in Church courts, in committees, in evangelical conven- 
 tions and public meetings, he continued to grow in every sense a 
 larger and more lovable man. It was not by any means a man of 
 one phase or a single feature who Mas laid down, at fifty-three years 
 of age, in Mount Jerome Cemetery, a willing sacrifice to the exhaust- 
 ing work of Missions. Dr. Stevenson was, in all truth, many-sided. 
 A student — yes, all his life. There were few departments of appro- 
 priate knowledge with which he had not intermeddled. His library 
 was large, carefully selected, and well read. In the many literary 
 societies of which he was a specially honoured member, his words and 
 papers were always hailed with gladness ; for lawyer, minister, 
 teacher, and journalist were forced to feel that those simply spoken 
 utterances were the fresh thinking of one never forgetful of the past, 
 yet ever abreast of the present, literature. His reading Mas all laid 
 under contribution to advance Missions. A student — yes. but also a 
 wise man of affairs. Year after year 1 sat beside him in the Psalmody 
 
In Memoriam. 283 
 
 Committee and on the Mission Board, and I saw, as all others did, 
 how painstaking, self-possessed, judicious, and practical he was with 
 all his enthusiasm. A man of affairs — yes, and a power on the plat- 
 form, a foremost authority on hymnology, a brilliant journalist and 
 writer, and an eagerly welcomed preacher. A decided Churchman of 
 the strongest Presbyterian frame, one who loved his Church to the 
 last fibre of his being, gloried in her God-sealed history, strove to 
 hold her where the Master placed her, in the very van of His host, 
 and magnified all in her and of her ; yet lived so true and gentle and 
 generous a brother in the common family of the common Father, 
 that, as the good men bore him to his burial; seventy ministers of the 
 Episcopal Church, including the Archbishop of Dublin, and honour- 
 able representatives of all denominations, followed the large-hearted 
 presbyter, on whose coffin lay the flowery tributes of three lands. 
 All Churches felt that it was the strongest of arms from which death 
 had taken the banner with this high device — 'The World for Christ !' 
 
 ' ' Yes ; and only death could take it. Nothing in life could move 
 him to lay it down. For the sake of Missions, as represented in the 
 work of the Irish Presbyterian Church, he resisted every temptation 
 to change, and refused to hear the loudest summons from man. The 
 public was ever seeking him for large spheres and important posi- 
 tions. Literature courted him eagerly, and with no stinted doles of 
 tribute. Professorial chairs again and again were within his easy 
 reach. Foremost churches called him frequently and with force. 
 Great cities set before him influential seats of far-reaching oppor- 
 tunities. But Missions had mastered him. Behind the heathen he 
 seemed always to see Christ, and to hear Him say, ' Do not forsake 
 'them. Too few care for their souls.' And he had come to say, with 
 all a Scotch-Irishman's dogged determination, and with, what is far 
 holier and more constraining, the deepening conviction of a Spirit- 
 taught man realizing more and more the love of Christ and the value 
 of souls, ' This one thing I do. ' Fleming Stevenson came back from 
 his great life-taxing Mission pilgrimage, from his personal contact 
 with actual heathenism and with the noble men and women fighting 
 it for Christ, an intensely moved and fully consecrated man. Stir- 
 ring ambitions and sacred aspirations cherished beforetimes and 
 stimulating him as he toiled in certain lines of studj and fields of 
 action, had all yielded to the expulsive power of a not wholly new, 
 but a wholly renewed and now overmastering, affection. 
 
 "The day after the news of his death reached us, I was stopped 
 by a gentleman — 'Is it the Stevenson who wrote "Praying and 
 Working" who is dead — the man who made that splendid speech 
 
284 Life of William Fleming Stevenson. 
 
 at the Evangelical Alliance in New York?' 'Yes, sir.' Then came 
 a pause, and then, ' It was that man first made me really believe in 
 Missions and work for them. I heard him in Edinburgh. ' It was a 
 noble tribute. How easily it might be multiplied ! All the younger 
 missionaries in the Gujarati field of India and in the Manchurian dis- 
 trict of China, where our Irish brethren labour, are the trophies of 
 his glowing appeals to college men. ' How many consecrated youth, 
 called forth by him, are to-day in the seminaries at Belfast and Deny, 
 I know not. Not a few devoted men and women from Scot hind and 
 England are doing good service in Mission-fields because he stirred 
 them to go forth. Scores of aroused pastors and quickened Churches 
 trace their new life of zeal and labour for Missions to his unstinted 
 work. Elders in Belfast and Dublin, in Deny and Cork, in Edin- 
 burgh and even New York, date their new departures in honest giv- 
 ing to his forceful statements. Stevenson had come, to take Duffs 
 place in Britain, the great authority on Missions, the great orator 
 and worker for them. The whole man went into his work. The fire 
 burned purer and hotter. Some of us saw that the fire was eating 
 him up. He was often spoken to about rest in his weariness, and we 
 ever got the answer, ' I have no time to be weary.' So the life flamed 
 on and flamed out. But that life told, and mightily. And now he 
 is not, for God took him. But this so fast -sped life reads afresh and 
 sharply to Presbyterian Churches the old lesson so often taught us 
 by the Church of Rome — set apart the special man for special work ; 
 make him do that special work' with all his might ; let him do no 
 other ; and thus save waste and gain completeness. Keep the God- 
 sent man for God-set work." 
 
 On the simple stone which marks his resting-place in 
 Mount Jerome Cemetery is written the prayer of liis life : — 
 
 " THY KINGDOM COME." 
 
 Amen. 
 
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