MARRIAGE 163 



time. Nothing need be said except that she was 

 worthy in every way to be the partner of the servant 

 of God, and to cheer his solitude. A braver and 

 more devoted help-meet was never given to a man. 

 " Fear did not enter into her calculations where 

 the Lord's work and His glory were the object." 



"Is it His will that we should prosecute this 

 work ? " would be the only question, and when 

 the answer was affirmative : Then let us go for- 

 ward " Strong in the strength which God supplies 

 through His eternal Son." 



We are reminded as we read this of the patient 

 persevering faith of the first woman who had any- 

 thing to do with Eskimo missionary work. When 

 Hans Egede embarked at Vaagen for Bergen 

 before proceeding to Greenland nearly two hundred 

 years ago, his friends who had been estranged from 

 him for some time owing to his madness, as they 

 deemed it, in leaving home for unknown perils and 

 hardship, found their love for him revive. They 

 flocked in crowds to see the ship sail and to wish 

 him God-speed. This sympathy and demonstration 

 of affection proved almost too much for his stead- 

 fastness of purpose. Then it was that his wife stood 

 by his side bidding him be brave, play the man and 

 not look back after having laid his hand to the 

 plough. And so it is that not only on the day of 

 Calvary but all through the history of Christianity, 

 women stand closest to the Cross of the Saviour. 



