'And now what will the next few days bring forth? It may be God's will that the opening for the Gospel may be given to us now. Sometimes I feel as if I were almost too importunate in my longings for some beginning here; and I try not to be impatient, and to wait His good time, knowing that it will come when it is the fulness of time. Then, again, I am tempted to think, "If not soon, if not now, the trading vessels will make it almost impossible, as men think, to obtain any opening here." But I am on the whole hopeful, though sometimes faint-hearted.
'To day's First Lesson has a good verse: Haggai, ii. 4;l and there is Psalm xci. also.'
Then follows a good deal about further plans, and need of men; ending with the decision that the present 'Southern Cross' ought to be sold, and that a new one could be built at Auckland for £2,000, which the Bishop thought he could obtain in New Zealand and Australia.
'Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work: for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts.'
A much smaller additional vessel would be useful; and he merrily says:—
'You don't know an amiable millionaire, with a nice quick yacht from 70 to 120 tons, to be given away, and sent out to Auckland free of expense, I suppose.
'We must give up all idea of our Chapel for a time, but we can do without it. And a vessel is necessary.'
The last of this letter is on Delitzsch and Biblical criticism, but too much mixed up with other persons' private affairs for quotation.
Reading Hebrew with Mr. Atkin, or studying Isaiah alone, had been the special recreation throughout the voyage.
His scholar Edward Wogale has given a touch of that last morning of the 20th:—