"Oh, God-sent friend!" she exclaimed, clasping her hands, "you will remain with us—teach us—guide us—show us the way to heaven!"
"If the Lord will," replied Walter Gurney, "I am ready to live and to die in the Eagle's Nest."
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The world would deem the resolution that of a mad enthusiast, carried away by the excitement of the moment. What! should one before whom was opening a brilliant career, with wealth, fame, friendship, love to beckon him on, give up all for what that world would deem a mere philanthropical dream! Could the brilliant genius find no better employment for his talents than teaching ignorant savages, who might at the last reward his labours by taking his life? Were all the comforts, the luxuries of refined civilisation, to be exchanged for exile amongst the mountains, with hardships to be endured, and perhaps a martyr's obscure grave to be filled at the end! "Strange folly!" the world would exclaim, "to give up all that man holds precious, with nothing to weigh in the balance against it!"
Nothing! Oh, how different the calculations of angels! In the balances of heaven what would the crown of a Cæsar weigh against one immortal soul? Did not the Son of God think it worth while to leave heaven itself to win it? Let me quote the words of the missionary Duff—more powerful than any that I can pen: "This great and mighty Being did for our sakes consent to veil His glory and appear upon earth as a Man of Sorrows, whose visage was so marred,—more than any man's,—and His form more than the sons of men. Oh! is not this love, self-sacrificing love, condescension without a parallel and without a name! God manifest in the flesh! God manifest for the redemption of a rebel race! Oh! is not this the wonder of the world; is not this the astonishment of a universe!" Referring to the angels, the missionary continues: "Tell me, oh, tell me, if in their cloudless vision it would seem aught so marvellous, so passing strange, did they behold the greatest and mightiest of a guilty race, redeemed themselves at so vast a price, ... issue forth in the footsteps of the Divine Redeemer into the waste and howling wilderness of sin, to seek and to save them that are lost!"
One more word to the reader ere we part. It may be not to you, O my brother or sister, that the call is given to leave your country to carry the message of salvation to the heathen; for you the pillar of cloud and fire may rest over some Elam; God may bid you watch over an aged parent, make a home happy, bring up children for Him. Your work may be in Scotch or English parish; perhaps in the crowded city, perhaps in the peaceful village. But is your eye fixed on that pillar, the emblem of the will of your Heavenly King? Is the calm peaceful resolution of your heart, "Wherever Thou wilt, however Thou wilt, O my adorable Lord! but guide me, and I will follow!" Then blessed is your path, whether in wilderness or green pastures, whether through roaring billows or beside the still waters! Dispensing blessings to the poor around, teaching the ignorant, comforting the afflicted, fighting against the power of Satan both within and without, you may be as truly serving the Lord, as truly pressing forward to the prize, as if planting the banner of the Cross on the height of some
EAGLE'S NEST.
FINIS