on became incarnate in
the person of Mrs. Pettifer. When Janet's distracted _mind_ needed
counsel and guidance, religion became incarnate in the person of Mr.
Tryan. But when Janet's sin-laden _soul_ cried out for a Saviour Who
could deliver her from the stains of the past, and keep her amidst the
perils of the future, religion became incarnate in the Person of the Son
of God!

_The Incarnation Motherly!_

_The Incarnation Ministerial!_

_The Incarnation Mediatorial!_

'_Come unto Me!_' the Saviour said. And Janet came! She was a changed
woman! '_A delicious hope_,' George Eliot tells us, '_the hope of
purification and inward peace, had entered into Janet's soul, and made
it spring-time there as well as in the outer world!_' '_She felt_,' we
are told again, '_like a little child whose hand is firmly grasped by
its father, as its frail limbs make their way over the rough ground: if
it should stumble, the father will not let it go._' She had opened her
heart to the living Lord as the living flowers open their petals to the
glad sunlight; and He had become the strength of her life and her
portion for ever. Temptation came, fierce and sudden and terrible; but
He was always there and always able to deliver.

IV

In the correspondence with her publisher as to whether or not the
manuscript should be printed, George Eliot assures him that the
characters are drawn from life. And, in the closing paragraph of the
story, she tells us that Janet--an old woman whose once-black hair is
now quite gray--is living still. But Mr. Tryan, she says, is dead; and
she describes the simple gravestone in Milby churchyard. '_But_,' she
adds, '_there is another memorial of Edgar Tryan, which bears a fuller
record; it is Janet Dempster, rescued from self-despair, strengthened
with Divine hopes, and now looking back on years of purity and helpful
labor. The man who has left such a memorial behind him must have been
one whose heart beat with true compassion and whose lips were moved by
fervent faith._' It is the last sentence in the book; and every
minister, as he closes the covers and lays it aside, will covet for
himself some such incarnate monument. Only as a preacher's preaching is
'_made flesh_' in that way, will it be understood and appreciated by the
generations following.

XVIII

CATHERINE BOOTH'S TEXT

I

Who that was in London on October 14, 1890, can forget the extraordinary
scenes that marked the funeral of Cather