al perils is growing steadily less. The missionary
must now fight for a hearing before a public which is too often willing
to let him alone. In many places it does not care enough for his
message to persecute him for bringing it. It is ready to patronize him
with an assumed air of liberality and resist the message which burns in
his heart and upon his lips. They are willing for him to speak, but not
willing to listen to what he has to say. He must fight for a hearing
with this patronizing indifference. It is this that tries his spirit.
It is this that bleeds his heart of its strength. It is this that calls
out the heroic in him as never does the dart of the savage, the weapon
of the fanatic or the fury of the mob. To hold on true to his purpose
in the face of such soul-harrowing indifference is the crowning act of
heroism upon the part of our missionaries. No one of them has ever
drawn back and given up his work for fear of death at the hands of his
persecutors, but it must be said for the sake of the truth that some
have succumbed before the rigors of blasting indifference. The saints
at home ought to support valiantly with their prayers our missionaries
who at the front are engaged in a battle even unto death with
indifferent souls unwilling to accept their message.

There is another count in this subject of indifference to which we at
home should give more prayerful consideration. It is the failure of the
churches at home to send out an adequate number of missionaries to
reinforce the workers at the front and make it possible for them to
take advantage of the opportunities that have come to them already.
What could take the spirit out of a man more quickly than the feeling
that those who had sent him out do not care enough about him to give
him support and reinforcements for his work? It is a shame upon us that
we at home add another burden to our missionaries by failing to loyally
support them. What must be a man's thoughts after he has toiled and
sacrificed on a field for years and has unceasingly begged for a mere
tithe of the helpers he really needs and which we fail to send?

When that brave garrison of English soldiers were shut up in Lady
Smith, South Africa, during the Boer War their courage to hold out
against overwhelming odds and on insufficient rations through many
weeks was kept up by the assurance that the patriotic English nation
was doing its utmost to send relief, though the relief was long
delayed.