A SOLEMN FAREWELL.

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Ernest

later two of the number had won the martyr's crown, and the chairman, seemingly in full vigour of body, mind, and spirit, had "fulfilled his course," whilst the aged Isaac Sharp still bore testimony to the goodness of his God. Of that evening he wrote: "It was a solemn season, and one of quiet power. William Johnson spoke. Robson, having given his young life to the Lord, goes forth to Madagascar at the age of twenty-two, there to live and labour. He also spoke briefly. My heart was in it, and I was glad to be there. John T. Dorland read a portion from John iv. and commented on it, with his singularly illustrative power. He quoted, 'In all their afflictions HE was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them.' Then followed a season of reverent waiting upon the Lord. It might be said in truth, 'It was good to be there.' It fell to my lot to offer prayer in which I felt helped. There was no lack of vocal service, but it was a season of deep feeling more than of prolonged utterance. John Sims, recently returned from Madagascar, also spoke. John T. Dorland gave me the opportunity to address those assembled. I did so out of the fulness of my heart, in love and sympathy. 'What thy hand findeth to do,' etc., personal application. The perpetual presence of the Lord Jesus. The mainspring of labour must be love. After a time of great solemnity in silence, John T. Dorland offered prayer, and made touching allusion to the tender ties and the separation. I feel, as I write, that in the severance alluded to there is also a service for the Lord. Many were the loving farewell greetings. John Sims told me that the natives and others still speak of my visit, and tell of the old Isaac Sharp."

About this time he attended a Monthly Meeting at Kingston. In the meeting he spoke from the text, "Iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." This was refreshing in daily life, how much more so when met for the worship of the Lord, and with a blended sense of the nearness of His love. Isaac Sharp

spent that night at the house of his "valued and indefatigable friend" Edwin R. Ransome, and after supper they conversed till bed-time about the pending visit to France, and the route, etc.

Frequent mention is made in the journals to Isaac Sharp's widowed invalid sister Rebecca Swann. Of a visit paid to her in her home at Dulwich, about this time, he says: "Her sweet, loving face was beautiful to look upon ! I bore away with me a delightful brain photo, exquisite in expression, and vividly before me. Her voice was low, and I could only partially make out her loving words. But it was, and is, a joy to see that smile, and to realise that we were once more together."

Half-past eight on the same evening found Isaac Sharp at the Hart's Lane Mission, attending a Farewell Meeting to Esther Beckwith, who was about to sail for Chung King, as the bride elect of Isaac Mason, who had been Isaac Sharp's fellow-voyager when ascending the Yangtse River. "China was much before me," he writes. "I spoke towards the end for about twenty minutes; the meeting was over at 10.15 p.m."

To Isaac Sharp's journals at home and abroad are frequently confided reference to serious symptoms of illness, whilst record is also made of the prompt and patient application of remedies. Sometimes he mentions these symptoms in letters to a nephew, adding playfully, and yet in earnest too, some such remark as, "Tell it not in Gath," or, "Give no hint of this,"-so much did he dread anything becoming known which might make others think him unfit for finishing the service to which he believed the Lord had called him. He did not "count his life dear" unto himself, so that he might finish his “course with joy," and the ministry which he had "received," much as he might have hesitated to apply the great Apostle's words to his own case. We are not surprised in the middle of September to find him "thoughtful "-he seems to abjure the word anxious-about his symptoms.

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WITH THE FRIENDS" IN FRANCE.

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"Another lesson," he writes, "for earnest and confiding trust, in looking to France and the pending visit there." Twelve days later he is en route for France. Of his companion he writes: "Samuel Alexander takes care for the expenditure and general arrangements for the pending journey; ready, able, willing, and executive, answering to the four points of the compass. We had our evening portion together before going to rest."

In the Friends' meeting at Fontanès he spoke from the text, "A seed shall serve Him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation." "The feeling on my own

mind," he says, (6 was that for more than a century there have been among the people of these parts those who have borne the name of Friend, serving the Lord from one generation to another ere they fell on sleep, and that for those who still survive, younger and older, there is a place to fill, and to fill for Him, who is Lord of all, and to fill it to His praise. There is a gracious assurance granted me of being in my right place in this southern part of France. The wind was very searching, and I felt it a good deal. It was between nine and ten p.m. before we got to our quarters. A day of sixteen hours stress and strain, mental and physical, after a night of considerable unrest, rendered a prompt retiring to rest desirable.”

On the following Sunday he writes: "Breakfast, followed by earnest prayer which arose in my heart with the committal of the day and the way to the Lord under no small exercise of spirit, and need of heavenly help and grace. .. At 4 p.m. a meeting was held for the public. Marie Bernard was a lively and fluent interpreter, ready in catching the spirit of the words as well as their intended teaching. I could not doubt the presence of the Lord was known in our midst. My friend, Samuel Alexander, took part acceptably."

The Friends of Congénies must have been cheered by this visit. The meeting-house there is the only one in the whole of France. Family visits were paid, and a mothers' meeting and infant school were visited.

To a nephew, Isaac Sharp writes from Nîmes: "I expect to be in Paris on the 28th inst. Justine Dalencourt was very kind to us in 1890 when Captain and Marianna Pim watched over me in that vast city, somewhat doubtful of the issue, whether for life or death. I do not forget all this, nor the over-ruling providence of God our Saviour. It is my privilege to feel no manner of doubt as to our being here—Samuel Alexander and I—in the ordering of the Lord. After this, Syria alone remains of the unfulfilled under the certificate of 1890. 'Truly this is the Lord's doing, and marvellous in our eyes.' I close, half asleep, for midnight post."

To the same correspondent he writes from Valence : "Yesterday was a day of days, Captain and Marianna Pim's silver wedding. About sixty guests at the afternoon reception; five Protestant pastors, a Russian lady, two or three Roman Catholics, a military Christian with a sword at his side-more safe within than without the scabbard ; moreover, a lady of eleven years residence from Stoke Newington who interpreted for me fluently, never once having to hesitate or cough up a difficult word! It is a joy to be here, and it feels to me a part of my service.”

His friends Captain and Mrs. Pim have been diligent workers in connection with the McAll Mission, holding meetings in the mission boat in some of the rivers of France, meetings which have had much of the Lord's blessing.

In his journal, Isaac Sharp writes: "A hymn of thanksgiving is in my heart in the renewed remembrance of the loving care of our Father in heaven." In reference to a meeting at St. Gilles he says: "My mind was under great exercise and I felt helped in the delivery of my message to young and old. . . . There is to me solid comfort in the retrospect of this visit.” In his account of one little meeting we find the words, "A silence not of death, a stillness not of the grave, but a measure of living silence in the presence of the Lord Jesus." When addressing some

children, he told them of the Modoc Indians and of the little Modoc girl who said, "I love Jesus because He was the very first that did love me."

By the writer's side is a letter from Samuel Alexander, with a few recollections of this time in France. He writes: "Isaac Sharp could not speak a word of French. When in the railway carriages he would read, not very clear print, without spectacles, and when I remarked to fellow travellers that he was quatre-vingt-huit ans,' they would lift up their hands in astonishment.

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His. addresses all abounded with so much of love as to be an exemplification of the Master he was representing. Kindness and thoughtfulness for others were marked features of his character, and so loving was he that wherever he went there was at once a feeling of loving interest and sympathyshown for those visited. The meeting at the Rue St. Honoré in Paris, held in one of the mission halls of Mr. McAll, was a memorable time. In that very hall Louise Michel used to tirade against the authorities, so that the police were in terror when on duty there.

"At times, Isaac Sharp would entertain his friends by most graphic accounts of his early missionary visits to Greenland, Iceland, and Norway, and keep them spellbound for one or two hours."

The kindness and thoughtfulness for others above referred to led him to take an interest in their interests for their sake.

A niece writes: "Not long ago he met Louie at station quite unexpectedly. He not only recognised her in a moment, but knew in a moment just what to ask after-her dogs. As soon as he had shaken hands with her, although it was at the booking office, where an old man might have been forgiven if he had been too much occupied with his own affairs to notice anyone else, he said, How are the dogs?' Pre-eminently he had 'a heart. at leisure from itself."