Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-29

xl:o-12.
g. And he said, 1t is a light thing that
thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the
tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserv-
ed Of Israel: I will also give thee for
light to the Gentiles that thou mayest be
my salvation unto the end Of the earth.
Z. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of
Israel, and His Holy One, to him whom
man despiseth, to him whom the nation alb
horreth, to servant Of rulers, Kings shall
see and arise, princes also shall worship,
because of the Lord that. Is faithful. and
the Holy One of Israel and he shall choose
thee.
s. Thus saith the Lord. In an acceptable
time 1 have heard thee. and in a day OF
salvation have 1 helped thee, and l will
preserve thee, and give thee for covenant
of the people. to establish the earth, to
cause to inherit the desolate heritages.
0. That thou mayest say to the prisoners,
go forth; to them that are in darkness,
shew yourselves. They shall feed in the
ways, and the pastures shall be In all high
places.
10. They shall not hunger nor thirst;
neither shall the heat nor sun srite them;
for he that hath mercy on them shall lead
them, even by the springs Of water shall he
guide them.
H. And 1 will make all my mountains
way, and my highways shall be exalted
II. Behold, these shall come from far, and
10, these from the north and from the west,
and these from the land of Sinim.
The Lesson.
James Gilmour was canny Scotch boy,
brilliant, merry and earnest He was born
near Glasgow in 1S43, and. like his Master.
he was the son of a carpenter. Yet his
home was one Of comfort and plenty and,
like most Scotch boys, an education was
to him necessity.
From his boyhood he seems to have had
a strong character and an earnest pur-
pose in life, yet he loved fun and teasing
more than most boys. He had way of
teasing his friends almost numerically,
yet they loved him everywhere, and he
seems to have brought JOY wherever he
went.
While attending college 1t became neces-
sary for him to walk several miles every
morning because the early In the morn
ing train did not reach the city In time
for his classes. His mother always pro-
vided hearty breakfast for him, and was
frequently distressed because he could not
stay to eat more, when he would so COM
ically and tragically remark that 1t seemed
to her as If he were repeating verse OF
scripture: Mother, suppose the door
should be shut!' And she would say no
more.
His ways were irresistible. Even the col
lege faculty were won over to his way Of
thinking when he headed a band of stu
dents to protest against some heavy pres
sure in the line Of studies. or some unfair
regulation.
Always with him there seems to have been
the realization of eternity and Of the re-
sponsibility Of life. Even in the midst of
fun he was ever ready for sober thought.
On one occasion. when he was to go on
brief vacation involving a short ocean voy-
age, some Of his companions rallied him
on the dangers Of a trip by water. and
loosely asked him to whom he would
leave his library in case he never came
back. But he took 1t all in earnest, and
said that was well thought of. Taking
them back to his room he made them
choose which books they would have, and
told them which to send to his father and
mother in case anything happened to him.
After a time the long walks became too
much for him and he boarded himself in
some rooms in town. where he was very
happy studying hard.
But in spite Of hard study and brilliant
attachments he devoted much time to the
Bible After he had won all the highest
college honors save one, the first prize, he
was minded to try for that also. but some
thing held him back. He wrote In his diary
his great desire to obtain this first prize
also, showing how it had been his ambition
from his first entering college, and then
calmly set 1t down that he would not try
because it would take too much time from
his Bible!" After reading that 1t is not
hard to understand why this brilliant man,
whose intellectual attachments were such
even in his college days that he might
have ranked foremost in his own land
among the famous, gave his life that he
might carry to an ignorant race the knowl-
edge of Jesus.
He was a tremendous" temperance man.
On one occasion when liquor was brought
into his room at college by a fellow student
to treat a number of them gathered there,
he calmly opened the window and pitched
it out remarking: Better on Gods earth
than in His image" And later, when in
China he worked among the natives and
saw the havoc wrought by whisky. he did
his best to have not only whisky but to-
bacco put entirely away from native con-
verts. Some of his colleagues felt that if
convert gave up opium that was all that
could be asked but he went further STILL
and the following is a brief extract from
letter he wrote to another missionary on
the subject
Pardon me fo- expressing myself on the
Chinese teetotal business. l believe were
Christ here now as missionary among US
He would be an enthusiastic teetotaller and
q non-smoker Tobacco IS comparatively q
harmless matter, but 1t is not SO unimpor-
tant as it seems to us foreigners. Whisky
should go, and I feel the Chinese would be
ready, If led, to turn both whisky and to-
bacco out together. They are born brothers
in China, useless and acknowledged to be
such, harmful as far rs they are anything
and comparatively expensive. l would like
to see you start in your church an anti
tobacco and whisky society
Such was the man who in 1870 gave him
self to the missionary cause and went to
| hna to begin his work saying simply that
he was only obeying Christ's command. and
| he went because he could see no reason for
| his staying at home.
| 1t was the year of the Tientsin massacre
| that he arrived there, and many of the
| missionaries soon after he Joined them took
! the precaution to move to protected places
where they could be got out of the country
| If necessary, but he felt that he would
| be wasting a great deal of time, went
| into the interior right in the midst of dan
ger, and quietly set about learning to speak
| Mongol. When his teaching plainly told
him he was slow about 1t. the brilliant
scholar who had won many prizes at home,
nothing daunted, went into the wilderness
! and lived with Mongol in tent among
Mongols that he might the better learn
the language and come into closer touch
with the people he had come to help.
Among q people who were suspicious Of his
motives from the first. and stubborn and
hard to move. he patiently stayed and
worked. writing in his dairy almost merrily
OF the danger of death that daily menaced
the foreigners about there. yet most trust
ingly. wondering what death was like. and
If he could meet it bravely. yet never finch
| ing nor even thinking of turning back to a
place of safety.
His remarkable trust in God was mani
| tested in the marriage he made. He saw
! the picture of Emily Prankard, the sister
| of a missionary's wife, heard of her beauti-
| full Christian life, heard some Of her letters