Friday, 26th.—Home again! How infinitely good is the gracious Lord, who permits one to go on His errands, and meanwhile takes care of all that is so dear! We were off Margate when I went on deck, about 7 A.M., and shortly afterwards secured a powerful little tug, which towed the "Harmony" swiftly up the Thames to London Docks, where she now lies at her usual moorings, awaiting the hundred and twentieth voyage.
"Then, at the vessel's glad return,
The absent meet again;
At home, our hearts within us burn
To trace the cunning pen,
Whose strokes, like rays from star to star,
Bring happy messages from far,
And once a year to Britain's shore
Join Christian Labrador."
I lay down the pen which has transcribed those lines of Montgomery's as a fitting close to my chapter, "Homeward Bound." If it has had any "cunning," it has been simply because I have described what I have seen with my own eyes in Christian Labrador. Traversing nearly three hundred miles of that grand, but bleak and desolate-looking coast, I met with scarcely any heathen. Only at Ramah I found one or two who had no Christian names, because they had not yet publicly professed Christ. They were, however, candidates for baptism, and their few heathen countrymen to the north of that station are, from time to time, attracted to the sound of the Gospel. But if the mission in that land be nearing the close of the evangelistic phase, our task is not done, and still we hear the voice of the Divine Spirit saying: Separate me this one and that one for the work whereunto I have called him in Labrador.
Yet I hope and pray for a wider result from these pages than increased interest in the one field so closely connected with Britain by the good ship "Harmony." Labrador in its turn is linked to all the mission provinces in the world-wide parish given to the little Moravian Church, and I trust this glimpse into the life and labours of our devoted missionaries there will quicken the loving intercessions of my readers for their fellow labourers in all our own fields, and for the whole great mission work of the Church of Christ.
I will conclude with a stirring stanza[[D]] from another poet, who found a theme and an inspiration in contrasting the wretched condition of the people of Labrador, prior to the arrival of missionaries, with the wonderful change wrought among the poor Eskimoes through their noble efforts under the blessing of God.
"When round the great white throne all nations stand,
When Jew and Gentile meet at God's right hand,
When thousand times ten thousand raise the strain—
'Worthy the Lamb that once for us was slain!'
When the bright Seraphim with joy prolong
Through all eternity that thrilling song—
The heathen's universal jubilee,
A music sweet, O Saviour Christ, to Thee—
Say, 'mid those happy strains, will not one note,—
Sung by a hapless nation once remote,
But now led Home by tender cords of love,
Rise clear through those majestic courts above?
Yes! from amid the tuneful, white-robed choirs,
Hymning Jehovah's praise on golden lyres,
One Hallelujah shall for evermore
Tell of the Saviour's love to Labrador."
G. NORMAN & SON, PRINTERS, HART STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
FOOTNOTES: