Round the World | Page 9

see the pile. Not
one of these men could ever have been induced to leave his home
without satisfactory assurance that in case of death his remains would
be carried back and carefully buried in the spot where he first drew
breath. I remember reading in MacLeod's "Highland Parish" that so
strongly implanted is this sentiment in the Highlanders that even a wife
who marries out of her clan is brought home at her death and buried
among her own kith and kin. I confess to a strange sympathy with this
feeling myself. It seems to agree with the eternal fitness of things, that
where we first saw day we should rest after the race is run. Yes, the old
song is right:

"Wherever we wander in life's stormy ways May our paths lead to
home ere the close of our days, And our evening of life in serenity
close In the Isle where the bones of our Fathers repose."
One of our company has kindly shown me "some things in waves"
which I have always passed over before. Hereafter they will have a new
interest and a new beauty for me. I now watch by the hour for some
rare effect and colors to which I was before stone-blind. Some of the
rarest jewels are rated by comparison with the emerald and
aqua-marine tints shown by the pure waves of the ocean. Thanks, my
fellow-traveller, for a new sense awakened.
The albatrosses, which follow us in large numbers, are a source of
pleasure. These are not the sacred birds of the Ancient Mariner, but are
of the same species. They excel all other birds, I think, in power and
gracefulness of flight. It is rather a glide than a fly, as they appear
scarcely ever to flap their wings, but sail on as it were "by the sole act
of their unlorded will." No wonder such woe befell the Ancient Mariner
through killing one. They are too grand to destroy. Last evening I had a
treat in seeing these birds gathering for the night on the waters in the
hollow of a deep wave. A dozen were already in the nest as our ship
swept past, and others were coming every moment from all directions
to the fold; probably thirty birds would thus nestle together through the
long night in the middle of this waste of waters. I was glad for their
sakes, poor wanderers, that their lonely lives were brightened at night
by the companionship of their fellows.
Our second Sunday at sea. As I write, the bell tolls for church. Our
missionary will have a small congregation, for there are only
twenty-two passengers. I trust he will be moved to speak to us, away in
mid-ocean, of the great works of the Unknown, the mighty deep, the
universe, the stars, at which we nightly wonder, and not drag us down
to the level of dogmas we can know nothing of, and about which we
care less. The sermon is over. Pshaw! He spent the morning attempting
to prove to us that the wine Christ made at the marriage feast was not
fermented, as if it mattered, or as if this could ever be known! and I was
in the mood to preach such a magnificent sermon myself, too, if I had
had his place. No; I shall never forgive him--never!
It is an even chance that this missionary will one day inflict such
frivolous stuff upon the heathen as part of the divine message; for of

the majesty, the sweetness, and the reforming power of Christ's
teaching and character, he seems to have not the faintest conception. To
the enquiry one constantly hears in the East, why churches send forth as
missionaries such inferior men as they generally do, whose task is to
eradicate error and plant truth--there is this to be said: churches must
take the best material at their disposal, and men who have the ability to
influence their fellows through the pulpit find their best and highest
work at home. This leaves the incapables for foreign service. The other
class from which missionaries must be drawn are the over-zealous, who
have plenty of enthusiastic emotional fervor, but combined in most
cases with narrow, dogmatic views--the very kind of men to irritate the
people to whom they are sent, and the least likely to win their hearts or
reach their understanding. There are notable exceptions, able men who
still go at duty's call; but such generally see that they can be ill spared
from more pressing home work.
* * * * *
MONDAY, November 4.
Our course is the southerly one, 5,120 miles to Yokohama, some five
hundred miles farther than that of the great circle; but for the increased
distance we have full compensation in