esture. The company listened
breathlessly, now giving vent to deep groans as the persecution of the
children of Israel was described, now bowing their heads in reverence at
the revelation of the burning bush, now waving their arms in excitement
and starting forward with flashing eyes as the lad pictured the passage
of the Red Sea.

Yusuf had heard some vague account of the story before, but, with the
passionate nature of the Oriental, he was strangely moved as he listened
to the recital of how that great God whom he longed to feel and know had
led the children of Israel through all their wanderings and sufferings
to the promised land. He felt that he too was indeed a wanderer, seeking
the promised land. He was but an infant in the true things of the
Spirit. Like many another who longs vainly for a revelation of the
working of the Holy Spirit, his soul seemed to reach out hopelessly.

But who can tell how tenderly the same All-wise Creator treasures up
every outreaching of the struggling soul! Not one throb of the loving
and longing heart is lost;--and Yusuf was yet, after trial, to rejoice
in the serene fullness of such light as may fall upon this terrestrial
side of death's dividing line.

Poor Yusuf, with all his Persian learning and wisdom, had, through all
his life, known only a religion tinctured with idolatry. Almost alone he
had broken from that idolatry, and realized the unity of God and his
separation from all connected with such worship; but he was yet to
understand the connection of God with man, and to taste the fullness of
God's love through Christ. He had not realized that the finger of God is
upon the life of every man who is willing to yield himself to Divine
direction, and that there is thus an inseparable link between the
Creator and the creature. He was not able to say, as said Carlyle in
these later days, "A divine decree or eternal regulation of the universe
there verily is, in regard to every conceivable procedure and affair of
man; faithfully following this, said procedure or affair will
prosper.... Not following this,... destruction and wreck are certain for
every affair." And what could be better? Divine love, not divine wrath,
over all! Yusuf had an idea of divine wrath, but he failed to
see--because the presentation of the never-failing Fatherhood of God had
not yet come--the infinite love that makes Jesus all in all to us,
heaven wherever he is, and hell wherever he is not.

Since leaving