all these years, Andrew Bonar was a minister, and the text
was the keynote of all his utterances.

_Fullness! Fullness! Fullness!_

_Receive! Receive! Receive!_

_Grace for grace! Grace for grace!_

'_Of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace!_'

In his study there hung a text of two words. He had had it specially
printed, for those two words expressed the abiding fullness on which he
loved to dwell. '_Thou remainest!_' One day, we are told, a lady in
great sorrow called to see him. But nothing that he said could comfort
her. Then, suddenly, he saw a light come into her face. 'Say no more,'
she said, 'I have found what I need!' and she pointed to the text:
'_Thou remainest!_'

That was it! Come what will, He abides! Go who may, He remains! Amidst
all the chances and changes of life, He perennially satisfies. Like the
thirsty toilers in the city, I draw and draw again, and am each time
refreshed and revived.

'_His fullness fills my heart!_'

'_I do nothing but receive!_'

'_Of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace!_'

XXI

FRANCIS D'ASSISI'S TEXT

I

Oscar Wilde declares that, since Christ went to the cross, the world has
produced only one genuine Christian, and his name is Francis d'Assisi.
Certainly he is the one saint whom all the churches have agreed to
canonize; the most vividly Christlike man who has ever submitted his
character to the scrutiny of public criticism. His life, as Green says
in his _Short History of the English People_, his life falls like a
stream of light athwart the darkness of the mediaeval ages. Matthew
Arnold speaks of him as a figure of most magical potency and sweetness
and charm. Francis called men back to Christ and brought Christ back to
men. 'All Europe woke with a start,' Sabatier affirms, 'and whatever was
best in humanity leaped to follow his footsteps.'

II

A blithe saint was Francis. He loved to laugh; he loved to sing; and he
loved to hear the music of laughter and of song as it rippled from the
lips of others. Every description that has come down to us lays stress
on the sunshine that played about his lofty forehead and open
countenance. The days came when, though still in the heyday of early
manhood, his handsome figure was gaunt and wasted; his fine face
furrowed with suffering and care; his virile strength exhausted by
ceaseless toil, wearisome journeyings, and exacting ministries of many
kinds. But, emaciated and