HOME ONCE MORE, AND RETURN TO AFRICA. 1 37 
reunion was marred by the distressing tidings of his 
brother Sidney’s death. How this terribly sad 
intelligence was received may be gathered from a 
letter he prepared for the Herald \ — “The work of 
the Congo Mission,” he wrote, “has found its way 
deep down into almost all hearts, and the interest in 
it has extended very widely to those engaged in it. 
To very many personally, and to all by name, most 
of us are known, and I am quite sure that a large 
number of dear friends will be praying for us by 
name that in this trial our faith and strength fail 
not 
“ The news of my brother Sidney’s death is a terrible 
blow to us, almost overwhelming, especially to the 
dear brave girl who was looking forward to spending 
her life with him in Africa, and to our father. To 
our sister, too, in Victoria, it will be a dreadful shock ; 
her brothers are all so precious to her. Yesterday 
we had to break the news to our father. It has, as 
you can understand, plunged him into deep grief, and 
yet he cannot and does not regret having given up 
his children to be missionaries. The thought of the 
work to which Sidney had given himself, and in 
which he died, afforded some alleviation to his 
anguish. But, still, it is very hard to bear. Hitherto, 
since the death of a little sister twenty-five years ago, 
we have had no break in my mother’s family of one 
girl and three boys. Twenty years ago our dear 
mother, after committing us all to the care of our 
Heavenly Father, was called away home, and we 
were left to comfort our father. One after another, 
we have all given ourselves to mission work in Africa 
— my brother Sidney and I were on the Congo, my 
sister in Victoria, and Percy, my youngest brother, is 
preparing at Regent’s Park College for the same 
work. Now has come the first break in this family. 
. . , Like many other things which have happened 
in our Congo Mission, we cannot understand it, and 
we are bewildered. But we know and serve One 
