Now, has He taken hold? Is
He, at least, as much interested in them as we are? Is His Holy Spirit
preceding and supplementing all our efforts? And, if this is the case,
is an evening at a theatre going to ruin His plans?"
Long before these earnest sentences were concluded Ried had returned
from his distant corner, and taken a seat near his employer; his eyes
were full of tears, and his voice trembled:--
"I beg your pardon, Mr. Roberts; I'm an ignorant blunderer; I did feel
for the moment as though everything were lost."
"We have begun backwards," said Mr. Roberts; "I was reading to-day that
a mistake the missionaries made for years in trying to _civilize_ the
Greenlanders; and what a perfect failure they made of it until one day
almost by accident, a man began to tell them about Christ on the cross,
and the story melted them. I don't think I have thought enough about Him
in this matter."
"I stand convicted," Dr. Everett said; "I've made the same mistake, I
believe, in all my efforts for people. I have been praying for them, it
is true; but, after all, I feel now as though there had been too much
relying on human means, and not enough on God. It is a case of 'these
ought ye to have done, and not to have left the other undone.
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