to be drawn
through his name in the baptismal register. It was painfully affecting
to turn over the pages of that register, and see those ominous-looking
lines drawn from top to bottom of various entries. One could not see
anything like it anywhere else, I suppose. It carried the mind back to
the early days of the Faith, and to that sad class known as the _lapsi_
("lapsed"); to the lament over Demas, who had forsaken S. Paul and gone
back to the world; and to such promises as "I will not blot out his name
from the book of life."

There is much in the work at Warsaw to take one back thus in spirit to
the days of the Apostles. One felt it a little at the Confirmation
itself, when saying the sentence which accompanies the laying on of
hands, first in German for the young Jew, and then in English for the
girl who followed him; but most of all on the Sunday evening, when the
services of the day in the little chapel were all over, and everything
was quiet.

That is the time always given to "inquirers"; and they came one after
another, that first Sunday of mine at Warsaw, stealing in, just as
Nicodemus came by night and for the same reason, sometimes singly,
sometimes husband and wife together, and sometimes a whole family--the
children going off to join the chaplain's children, while the parents
came to us. When the room in time was quite full we began by singing a
few hymns in German, after which the chaplain prayed for guidance and
the sense of God's presence; and then a most interesting time followed.
He took the holy Gospel for the day, every one reading a verse in
turn--in German--during which questions were encouraged if the literal
meaning of the verse was not clear.

It was a particularly arresting Gospel for those present to consider, as
it included our LORD'S words, "If I by the finger of GOD cast out
devils, no doubt the kingdom of GOD is come upon you." There is no more
striking symbol for a Jew than that of the "finger of GOD," nor anything
more absorbingly interesting than "GOD'S kingdom"; and I have always
thankfully felt that I was fortunate that night. The Chaplain of Warsaw
is not one who loses or wastes opportunities, and he did his very best
with that one. It was an extraordinarily interesting scene as I watched
the faces of that little gathering of men and women gazing with the
keenest and most penetrating of expressions upon their teacher; and now
and then, as he mentioned psalm or prophecy, taking u