86 VIKINGS OF TO-DAY 



now known along the whole coast as the herald of 

 good things, had always proved a sufficient call to 

 prayers. We found no need for adventitious attrac- 

 tions ; where opportunities are so few, we found men 

 and women only too glad to come and join in simple 

 praise to God for mercies past, and prayer for the 

 unknown future before them. Here the uncertainty 

 of things seen, renders things unseen more real, while 

 the impotence of man being so evident, makes the 

 power of his Maker more intensely felt, and the 

 anxiety to be ever ready to meet Him more deeply 

 earnest. Even the sceptic has acknowledged it 

 means something, this " coming to Christ " of the 

 fisherman. His faith, unburdened by " higher criti- 

 cisms," or convenient interpretations, sees in his 

 Master's words a call to follow Him, on earth as well 

 as in heaven. Often I have watched men tremble 

 and hesitate, time after time, when God's Spirit seems 

 striving with them, before the final step is taken. 

 For they count well the cost beforehand, and realize 

 fully the weakness of their own natures. But once 

 " over the line " means following Christ to them 

 means coming out, being separate, marked men. 

 The world sets for them no higher standard than 

 they set for themselves, and their self-sacrificing 

 fidelity to their ideal has stirred the heart of more 

 than one Christian worker. There is little half-and- 

 half following, little "coasting" for fear of "launch- 

 ing out," such as saps to-day the joy and rejoicing 

 of thousands of professed Christians. A fisherman 



