To men who teach and write the oft-recurring question comes, How can we so influence others in heart and intellect as to help them reach a loftier plane of thought and action? As every life has its Gethsemane of sorrow and tragedy, so every life has its morning star of hope and its mainspring of faith.

Our salvation, then, and the lifting up and saving of others is the exercise of that vital principle which has its incarnation in hope. The use of this still further causes the mountains of difficulty that loom portentous in our pathway and tower to the heavens to crumble into mole-hills.

The soul is made optimistic and the life beautified by its possession, while the ear is brought, spiritually speaking, within range of the victorious shout, "More than conquerors!" and the new song, the song of Moses and the Lamb.

CONTENTS

CHAP.
I. [The Appointment]
II. [Mr. Melvin's Marriage and Teachings]
III. [Secretary-Treasurer Thompson's Death—A Surprise from the Far-off East]
IV. [203 Metre Hill and Mukden]
V. [The Battle of Mukden—and Call of Mr. Devoau as Associate Minister]
VI. [Further Teachings and how they are Estimated]

ALTER EGO

CHAPTER I.

THE APPOINTMENT.

In the uplands of Canada was an attractive church with a spire that pointed longing souls to the skies, and the pastor of which had finished his course with joy and was now joining in the hallelujah choruses of the upper sanctuary. The authorities of the denomination to which the church belonged appointed a man to its pulpit who was progressive and independent, as well as being very broad-minded. The necessity for this lay in the fact that the population of the place represented nearly all the languages and creeds to be found in the Dominion, and consequently if a man of narrow views were appointed he would soon make shipwreck of everything.