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regulations adroitly compassed by making his daughter, not himself, recipient of their liberality-an honour which she well deserved-he spoke of the three sanctities which dated back to Paradise: the sanctity of marriage, the Sabbath, and the covenant of grace, which had its ground on the first promise of the 'seed of the woman.'

These three sanctities he had made it the one great object of his episcopate to witness to, and to enforce by his private counsels and public teachings.

'The sanctity of marriage dates from Paradise. Wherever our Lord's feet trod there was Paradise. He honoured Cana with His presence, and it is worth noting the wedding festivities there follow immediately a statement of the sublimest mysteries of our faith, "Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man," on which the words straightway follow, "Two days after there was a marriage, and the mother of Jesus was there, and Jesus was invited and his disciples." And surely there is no spot a truer Paradise now on earth than the genuine Christian home and family, where Christ's presence and abode is; and of the Paradise that is to be, one of the loveliest and most expressive symbols is drawn from the ceremonies of the wedding feast: "The marriage of the Lamb is come, and the bride hath made herself ready." At that most blessed of all marriage reunions God grant us all to be reassembled.'

After the wedding Mrs. French left for home from Bombay at the beginning of December, and the bishop went on visitation to Karachi.

TO MRS. FRENCH.

Steamer en route for Karachi, Dec. 2.

I have offered up most fervent prayers for protection, guidance, and comfort during your voyage, and that both of us may perceive and know what things we ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil the same-a beautiful prayer that just fits our present need. . . . I wish you could carry this beautiful sea weather all the way to England, but I fear you must have trying seas and biting winds-the last part at any rate, and perhaps much earlier. Your steamer seemed to bear itself nobly along as it left its moorings to take its position opposite the Bunder.

Dec. 6, Karachi. What a grand and noble scene the opening of the Truro Cathedral seems to have been! I hope you will get the

THE RESIGNATION-DAY

213

Guardian's account of it. The archdeacon was there, and is enthusiastic about the occasion.

Dec. 11. I must appreciate the great kindness and affectionate condescension the archbishop shows in setting such store on my coming to help them in their difficulties, but the whole matter of the Board of Missions would complicate me so much with the C. M. S. that I should be walking on a porcupine's bristles, I fear, if I talked all my mind out, and really it seems at my age as if a little doing were better than very much talking. Talkers there are to satiety, and always will be; and I do feel I should carry your views out best-if we must be parted for a while-in taking a small department of my old work up again, and searching for some hidden native apostles.

TO MRS. FRENCH.

Sukkur, Dec. 22, 1887.

... And so at last the long anticipated day of resignation has come and gone. On the way home from the ordination service yesterday, I turned aside to the telegraph office and sent off an express telegram to the Secretary of Government to say, 'My resignation takes effect from 4 p.m. this afternoon.' I mentioned that hour because it is just two-thirds of the month, and the salary bill is so easily calculated, without minute fractions and decimals for my poor head. You will smile! As I write these words a telegram comes in from Sir C. Aitchison to say, 'We think of you to-day and bear you upon our hearts.' I am sure you are embraced in this. Now I shall seem to be almost more yours ... that I sign myself no longer Lahore,' but T. V. French.' Mr. Tribe writes with wonderful affection :

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'I may frankly confess that when you first came to Lahore as bishop I was extremely prejudiced against you, and I am afraid a few other clergymen were also, but your courtesy and largeminded views at once made me feel my own littleness and the injustice of listening to what other people say. I feel sure that not only I but all the clergy in the diocese sincerely regret your departure, and our earnest prayers will be offered that you may be spared many years, and that God's blessing may rest upon your labours. To thank you enough for all your past kindness and forbearance is quite beyond my power.'

Ought I not to be thankful... for so many tokens of affectionate regard as I have so unexpectedly received?

Dec. 29.

Did I mention that another great trouble removed, I trust, is the apprehended closing of the Divinity School, as Mr. Weitbrecht is directed by the Society to take it up for the next twelve months? . . . One of the officers gladdens me by telling me that the new Church foundations at Quettah are being vigorously proceeded with. This takes one of my deepest regrets

out of the way, as the two recent ordinations dispelled two others, besides fulfilling Miss Holmes' anxious desires to have her frontier evangelists' posts filled satisfactorily.

It is interesting thus to see the bishop's two early interests, the frontier mission and Lahore College, holding his heart till the last. This long chapter of correspondence may be closed by a short letter to Cyril from Shikarpur, Dec. 28:—

'The new bishop has made a noble sacrifice in accepting the office, and that always promises well for the issues of an enterprise. It is a marvel to me all along that I have been permitted to commend such a man to our Church and State rulers, and that they have so graciously made all straight and smooth for the new appointment. ... How well I remember the pleasant smile on your face at breakfast, at Weymouth, when I announced to the family group that I was not to be released from taking the bishopric of Lahore. It is strange to think more than ten years have elapsed; it seems like yesterday.'

CHAPTER XXII.

THE CHURCHES OF THE EAST.

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FROM BAGDAD TO BEYROUT.

Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.'-St. John

vi. 12.

'The hungry sheep look up and are not fed,

But swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw,

Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread;

Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw

Daily devours apace, and nothing said.'

'Lands of the East, awake!

MILTON.

Soon shall your sons be free,-
The sleep of ages break,

And rise to liberty!'

OAKLEY.

THE bishop left Karachi on Jan. 5, 1888, with a general view of seeking rest in the Lebanon, but still undecided as to his exact route. He compared himself to the Pilgrim Fathers going forth not knowing whither they went. Some friends urged him homewards, but he could not feel he had earned home yet, so long as any strength remained to him for missionary work, having been out only three and a quarter years.

He took with him a small representative library of all sorts of books almost, except high mathematics and novels, and prepared to face the unknown perils of a desert journey of about 1,000 miles, in some respects almost a repetition of his experience in Persia, except that now the midland sea of Europe and not the Caspian was his objective point.

With his usual strong feeling for Church order he had written to Bishop Blyth in Jerusalem before he started for leave to preach within his diocese.

Being the sole first-class passenger on board the B. I. Company's Arabia, he passed perhaps the quietest week that he had ever known as far as Bushire, but threw himself at once with enthusiasm into the study of colloquial Arabic, in which he found some help from the ship's crew. Whilst he was reading the Sermon on the Mount' with them they had their dinner brought, spiced rice, meat, and dates for garnishing.

'I perforce,' he said, 'sat down on the floor with them. and took a date or two to please them. I could not venture on rolling up in lumps in my fingers and pitching into the mouth the savoury food, which they evidently loved like Isaac !

At Bushire he was met by the sad (telegraphic) intelligence of Mrs. Matthew's death. He spent a week there, and held frequent services both there and at Resheerah, the telegraph station-the last ministrations in what may fairly be considered an appendage of his former diocese. He preached on,' We which have believed do enter into rest.'

BUSSORAH TO BAGDAD AND BABYLON.

An untoward detention on a sandbank at the river bar involved a week's delay at Bussorah, a most uninteresting little town, where the bishop and his fellow-passengers, Dr. McAlister, an American professor, and Mr. Hodgson, a C. M. S. missionary, were entertained by Mr. Buchanan, one of the leading merchants. The Shut-el-Arab, as the joint river is called, is fringed on both sides for some fifty miles up to this point by a thin line of palms, and indeed for some twenty miles further where the Tigris and Euphrates join. Four days from Bussorah up the Tigris brought them to Bagdad: the point most interesting to the bishop was the junction with the river Kerrah or Kerkhan, the old Choaspes, which flows beside the ruins of the ancient Shushan. Upon the way, on February 3 he wrote

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