The Black-Bearded Barbarian | Page 6

couple of men,
but they had gone back to the dock, and were lost in the crowd. He
seemed entirely alone. He leaned against the deck-railing and gazed
intently over the widening strip of tumbling wafers to the city on the

shore. But he did not see it. Instead, he saw a Canadian farmhouse, a
garden and orchard, and gently sloping meadows hedged in by forest.
And up behind the barn he saw a stony field, where long ago he and his
brother and the neighbor boys had broken the stones for the new house.
His quick movements, his slim, straight figure, and his bright, piercing
eyes showed he was the same boy who had broken the big rock in the
pasture-field long before. Just the same boy, only bigger, and more man
than boy now, for he wore an air of command and his thin keen face
bore a beard, a deep black, like his hair. And now he was going away,
as he had longed to go, when he was a boy, and ahead of him lay the
big frowning rock, which he must either break or be broken upon.
He had learned many things since those days when he had scampered
barefoot over the fields, or down the road to school. He had been to
college in Toronto, in Princeton, and away over in Edinburgh, in the
old homeland where his father and mother were born. And all through
his life that call to go and do great deeds for the King had come again
and again. He had determined to obey it when he was but a little lad at
school. He had encountered many big stones in his way, which he had
to break, before he could go on. But the biggest stone of all lay across
his path when college was over, and he was ready and anxious to go
away as a missionary. The Presbyterian Church of Canada had never
yet sent out a missionary to a foreign land, and some of the good old
men bade George Mackay stay at home and preach the gospel there.
But as usual he conquered. Every one saw he would be a great
missionary if he were only given a chance. At last the General
Assembly gave its consent, and now, in spite of all stones in the way,
here he was, bound for China, and ready to do anything the King
commanded. Land was beginning to fade away into a gray mist, the
November wind was damp and chill, he turned and went down to his
stateroom. He sat down on his little steamer trunk, and for the first time
the utter loneliness and the uncertainty of this voyage came over him.
He took up his Bible and turned to the fly-leaf. There he read the
inscription:
Presented to REV. G. L. MACKAY

First missionary of the Canadian Presbyterian Church to China, by the
Foreign Mission Committee, as a parting token of their esteem, when
about to leave his native land for the sphere of his future labors among
the heathen. WILLIAM MACLAREN, Convener.
Ottawa, 9th October, 1871. Matthew xxviii: 18-20. Psalm cxxi
It was a moment of severe trial to the young soldier. But he turned to
the Psalm marked on the fly-leaf of his Bible, and he read it again and
again.
"My help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth.". . .
"The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand."
"The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night."
The beautiful words gave him comfort. Homesickness, loneliness, and
fears for the future all vanished. He was going out to an unknown land
where dangers and perhaps death awaited him, but the Lord would be
his keeper and nothing could harm him.
Twenty-six days on the Pacific! And a stormy voyage it was, for the
Pacific does not always live up to her beautiful name, and she tossed
the America about in a shocking manner. But the voyage did not seem
long to George Mackay. There were other missionaries on board with
whom he had become acquainted, and he had long delightful talks with
them and they taught him many things about his new work. He was the
same busy G. L. he had been when a boy; always working, working,
and he did not waste a moment on the voyage. There was a fine library
on the ship and he studied the books on China until he knew more
about the religion of that country than did many of the Chinese
themselves.
One day, as he was poring over a Chinese history, some one called him
hastily to come on deck. He threw down his book and ran up-stairs.
The whole ship