2. And then, with regard to his successor, he is no tyro going out to learn his work for the first time; he is already one of the best-known missionaries in the whole of the nearer East; he has for years been the superintendent of the Church missionary work in Egypt and the Soudan; he has had the control of many workers, and has had, moreover, thousands of pounds passing annually through his hands. He is a good Arabic scholar, and can not only take services, but can speak and preach freely in Arabic, and what that means in the East every traveller knows. His long experience of dealing with the Coptic Church in Egypt, and the great respect in which he and his colleague, Mr. Gairdner, are held in it, are a certain guarantee of the respect and loving reverence with which he will treat the other ancient Churches of the East; and he has himself assured us, in words which have been printed and circulated, that, so far from wishing in any way to alter the simple and beautiful service in St. George's Cathedral, he will love to fan and foster the flame of devotion which will always burn, it is hoped, more and more brightly at the central shrine of the Anglo-Catholic Church in this city of Jerusalem, which is itself the cradle of the Christian Church.
It is therefore, dear brother, with very high hopes and many earnest prayers we send you forth to-day. The horizon is clouded at present with the heavy clouds of war; Christ's work will be crippled for a time, and further extension for a time will be impossible; but when the great clouds of war have, in the mercy of God, rolled away, and the Sun of Righteousness has arisen with healing in His wings, and Christianity has been proved to be more than ever essential to the prosperity and well-being of the world, then we believe that you are singularly fitted in the providence of God to avail yourself of the mighty opportunity which will open out.
"O pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee." There will be many who will pray for its peace from to-day more fervently than ever, and they will uphold your hands as they pray it, as Aaron and Hur held up the hands of Moses; and if, as we believe from the bottom of our souls, God will hear that prayer, then Jerusalem shall once again be built as a city at unity with itself, and from the farthest bounds of the earth there shall come, at least in spirit, "turning their faces thitherward," more and more every year, the converted, thankful and adoring "tribes of the Lord."