A master-builder on the Nile : being a record of the life and aims of John Hogg, D.D., Christian missionary

LIBRARY

OF

CARL O. DOBBINS

No. 089

Date October 17, 1929

To every man there openeth

A Way, and Ways, and a Way.

And the High Soul climbs the High way,

And the Low Soul gropes the low,

And in between on misty flats,

The rest drift to and fro.

But to every man there openeth

A High Way and a Low.

And every man decideth

The Way his soul shall go.

John Oxenham.

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

A

MASTER-BUILDER
ON THE NILE

BEING A RECORD OF THE LIFE
AND AIMS OF JOHN HOGG, D.D.

Christian Missionary

BY
RENA L. HOGG

Of the American (United Presbyterian) Mission in Egypt

PITTSBURGH, PA.

UNITED PRESBYTERIAN BOARD
OF PUBLICATION

Copyright, 1914, by
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

IN MEMORY OF THE LABOURS
AND SACRIFICES OF HER PAST
WHICH SHE HOLDS SO CHEAP
AND OTHERS HOLD SO DEAR

3032335

Of C^M

QC*~tT~tZn»

(See page

PREFACE

IT is the generous custom in the world of books to
allow a writer one last word that none are bound to
read. What woman could refuse the privilege?

Like the apostle Paul, this biography is " as one born
out of due time " ; and this fact, while branding it as
a rash venture to a reluctant publisher, has brought
to the more reluctant writer both stimulus and strength.
For why should her comrades in Egypt have asked her
to unearth its buried history did it not contain enduring
interest and a special message for to-day?

I want to thank my fellow-missionaries, as I lay down
my pen, for the labour they have assigned me. I thank
them for two years of intimate companionship with one
who was too soon taken from me, and who, as I have
worked, has been teaching me lessons that in his lifetime
I was too young to learn. God grant that tl~ * -ho
read may see what I have seen and feel w1
felt as I have written!

Other friends, too, I thank for help I
spared, friends who I trust will recogT
corded names. I thank them becaus
not falter when my own was weak, tl
me from disgust, and their kindness, r
prayers were my daily portion. 1
are also due for more material
among these is " Hugh Lauren
and fellow-worker, has been
an unfailing helper.

8 PREFACE

All these I thank from my heart. The book is theirs,
not mine ; and if it does not disappoint them, if it carries
to them stimulus and pleasure, I shall feel that the
writing of it has made me rich.

Some may read this book who know little about Egypt,
and I would seek to guard them against misapprehen-
sions. Of recent years an Egypt has come into being
of which little knowledge can be gained from these pages.
A spirit of change has entered the land. It has touched
politics and education, journalism and commerce, the
Coptic Church and Islam, and the manners and customs
of the people. To understand the present, we must know
the past; and unaffected by the march of progress are
large regions and essential elements that remain unal-
tered. But for accurate information about the new
Egypt, the reader must go elsewhere. It is of an Egypt
of yesterday that this book has to tell.

R. L. H.

Q. -V»

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE 13

I. A COLLIER'S WEAN 17

II. STUDENT DAYS 32

III. SERVING His APPRENTICESHIP ... 49

IV. MARRIAGE AND SHIPWRECK ... 62
V. AT THE PORT OF EGYPT .... 70

VI. AT THE HEART OF THE PROBLEM . . 85

VII. IN THE CITY OF THE PATRIARCH . . 99

VIII. IN THE WAKE OF PERSECUTION . . .110

IX. PIONEER DAYS IN ASSIUT .... 124

X. His DAILY TASK 141

XL LAYING FOUNDATIONS 154

XII. FLOTSAM AND JETSAM 175

XIII. WANTED: A COLLEGE 184

XIV. THE CARE OF ALL THE CHURCHES . .211
XV. ARABI PASHA'S REBELLION .... 239

XVI. WINDS OF DOCTRINE 259

XVII. THE END OF THE JOURNEY .... 275

EPILOGUE 292

INDEX 297

9

ILLUSTRATIONS

John Hogg ........ Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

College Days at Edinburgh ..... 34

Egyptian River Boats — ]

-'The Ibis," the Mission Boat j '

Bamba .......... ng

View of Assiut During Nile Overflow ]
Protestant Church at Assiut

Assiut College ........

Village Scenes ........ 228

God's Acre : Grave of John Hogg .... 288

PROLOGUE

THE days of legend have not wholly fled. There
are regions in the Orient where the centuries fall
from us and we seem nearer to the beginnings
of history than in our modern West. Facts, instead of
being- buried under to-morrow's news and forgotten,
are stored in the memory of an unhurried race, repeated
by friend to friend and by father to son, and talked over
with the vivid vocabulary of the East in a. calm and
ample leisure. Thus legend grows.

In many of the towns and villages of Upper Egypt,
tales have been preserved which gain in glamour with
the years, about a man whom the people call " Hoj,"
who " brought light to the land." He was " like an
Egyptian exactly," and yet " like an angel from Heaven."
At his words ignorant Mohammedan robbers were trans-
formed into honest Christians in a night, and his purse,
unfailing as the widow's meal and oil, was used not to
feed an Elijah but to satisfy all who asked. That con-
verts so lightly made would not have endured, or that
indiscriminate generosity would have been the worst of
mission policy, does not occur to these loving souls.
Without thought of untruth, whatever they consider
good they attribute to him. His sermons are remem-
bered ; his love of song, his powers of physical endur-
ance, the illustrations he employed to point a lesson, his
very gestures (as Egyptian as his accent) and the East-

13

14 PROLOGUE

ern modes of thought that made his words win home,
discovering the joints in his hearers' armour, all are
treasured and described.

Twenty-eight years have passed since what was mortal
of this man, so dearly honoured, was laid in his desert
grave, and though love and legend have kept his memory
as green as the Nile valley in December, there is danger
that the message of his life may be lost under a tangled
mass of fact and fiction. Not to be canonised but to
be followed is the tribute such a man would claim.

It is no saint or wonder-worker whom we see in the
records he has left behind him. It is a man of like
passions with ourselves who there reveals himself, but
a strong man with one consuming purpose that made
a unity of all his days.

" The evangelisation of the world in a single genera-
tion " was as yet an unknown watchword, but this ideal
was implicit in the thoughts that moved him, and he
dared to proclaim it possible if the Church would but
yield to her Lord the obedience of faith.

He had certain clearly defined ideas as to the means
by which alone the campaign could be conducted to a
speedy and successful issue. He laboured to win others
to his point of view — his fellow-labourers, the Church
of their planting, and the Church that sent him forth —
in order that neither time nor money might be squan-
dered on " the good " that should have been hoarded for
" the best."

These ideas, rightly or wrongly, he considered to be
the greatest thing in his life. Writing of them, he said,
" I am willing to have them written in large characters
as my epitaph after my mission life has ended, though
all else concerning me and my work were blotted out."

PROLOGUE 15

We are seeking now to write this epitaph in large
characters as he desired ; and that its message may lodge
where he would have it lodge, in the hearts of men,
where the springs of action are found, we are constrained
to tell the story of his life.

A COLLIER'S WEAN

He's up at early mornin', howe'er the win' may blaw
Lang before the sun comes roun' tae chase the stars awa' ;
And 'mang a thoosand dangers, unkent in sweet daylicht,
He'll toil until the stars again keek through the chilly nicht.

See the puir wee callan' 'neath the cauld, clear moon,

His knees oot through his troosers, and his taes oot through

his shoon,

Wadin' through the freezin' snaw, thinkin' owre again
How happy every wean maun be that's no a collier's wean.

Oh, ye that row in Fortune's lap, his waefu' story hear,
Aft sorrows no sae deep as his hae won a pitying tear ;
And lichter wrangs than he endures your sympathy hae

won —

Although he is a collier's, mind he's still a Briton's son.
— WINGATE, the Miner Poet, 183 — .

IN the year 1863, in an old mission house in Cairo,
the man whose life we are to sketch sat imprisoned
as nurse by the bedside of a sick wife. As the
disease was smallpox a rigid quarantine was enforced,
and to while away such leisure as his ministrations al-
lowed him, he turned back in thought to the days of
his childhood and wrote down in shorthand reminiscences
of his past that otherwise would have been buried in
oblivion, " In the hope," as he said, " that some of my
children may read these notes to their mother when their
father is in his grave."

17

18 A COLLIER'S WEAN

The annals thus preserved carry us at once to a spot
remote from that in which they were penned.

We turn from the closely built sun-baked city, the
oriental Cairo of fifty years ago, to an open countryside
in East Lothian on the east coast of Scotland, where
strong winds from the sea make the blood tingle and
nerve a man for action. Eastward the Firth of Forth
opens out to the German Ocean, and the Bass Rock and
Berwick Law stand out as natural pyramids against the
sky. To the north and west, beyond a stony shore and
the waters of the Forth, grey, green, or blue according
to the weather, are the hills of Fife, with an occasional
glimpse on a clear day of the peaks of Perthshire in the
distance. Directly west, Edinburgh and Leith mark the
limit of the view, in smoke by day and in city lights by
night, with Arthur's Seat and the Pentland Hills visible
amid the haze. Southwards no hills appear, but a stretch
of rolling country where fields of grain or pasture are
interspersed by woodland and dotted with villages.

In one of the smallest of these, Penston, not; to be
found on any map, on April 30, 1833, John Hogg was
born. In this region he had his home till he reached
the age of twenty-three, and back to it till the day of
his death memory carried him, any time that music, the
words of a Scotch song, some familiar proverb of his
youth, or a touch of the broad accent of the countryside,
set the old chords vibrating and transported him to the
land of his birth.

That he felt a certain pride in his origin is perfectly
apparent. He had the pride that every one must share
who has come from such a home as his, a home of the
kind that Burns has left pictured for us as typical of
his native land, pride in the solid worth of his parents,
and in the virtues which in a humble sphere had marked

PARENTAGE 19

them out as belonging to the noble of the land, clothing
poverty in the retrospect with a sort of lustre, wedding
it to strength and courage, and crowning it with grace.
He had, too, the pride that a strong man feels in diffi-
culties and hardships so met that instead of marring
him they had strengthened his moral fibre and added
a keener hopefulness to his outlook on life.

Sir Walter Scott in beginning his autobiography as-
sures us that " Every Scottish man has a pedigree,"
and that it is " a right as inalienable as his pride and his
poverty ! " Strange to say, the Scot who sat penning
his own history in the sick-room, while claiming poverty
and, as we have seen, not altogether concealing pride,
seems to have waived the first of his " inalienable rights,"
the right of pedigree. He traces his line of descent no
farther back than to his father and mother, John Hogg,
overseer of Pension Colliery, and Mary Richardson,
daughter of a small country farmer and mother ere she
died of a family of eight — six stalwart sons and two
daughters. John was third of the family, and though
bearing the same name as his father, no confusion could
occur, for his father was known in the district as " the
Jake." Under this title the father's memory still lingers
among the oldest inhabitants as the " benefactor of the
miners of East Lothian and Fife," the man who ven-
tilated the mines and almost doubled their output — " No
an eddicated man, ye ken, but jist a nateral genius";
while the son has been forgotten, or when inquired
about, is cursorily dismissed with — " Oh, ay, I mind, the
Jake had a son that went out to Egypt as a missionary."

The Jake's genius, though it may have increased the
prosperity of his employers and the comfort and safety
of his fellow-workmen, brought to himself no wealth.
The position of overseer carried with it the right to free

20 A COLLIER'S WEAN

house and coal, with a weekly wage of four or five dol-
lars. But there were periods in his life when he was
reduced to working as a common collier. The diary
represents this as due to his having lost his position
through a misunderstanding ; but those who worked with
him declare that he actually resigned it on two separate
occasions for some reason which he did not choose to
explain to his fellow-workmen, and which remained a
mystery, as he continued on friendly terms with the
mine-owner. Considering the sacrifice involved, the rea-
son must have been a strong one.

During one of these intervals of common labour, the
demand for coal being so small that the daily output was
kept at a low limit, the combined wages of himself and
two of his boys, amounted to but two and a half dol-
lars a week. Yet the family was never in debt.

" Sobriety, industry, and thrift," writes the son, " en-
abled father and mother to rear up their large family
well, giving them an education suited to their circum-
stances, and keeping them well-clothed, while others had
eaten up the earnings of the week by Tuesday or Wednes-
day, and were almost famished ere pay-day. During a
long strike of not below sixteen weeks, we had always
food enough, and were even able to lend to some of our
friends who else must have died of starvation."

The diary happily gives some description of the frugal
methods of living that made it possible to lay up against
such a mischance.

The mother and children gleaned during harvest sea-
son. By using their gleaning sparingly and treating
wheaten bread as a luxury to be doled out on special
occasions, their gleanings were sufficient for their needs
during the greater part of the year. Their bread and
scones for common use were made of pea-flour. Oatmeal

PLAIN FARE 21

porridge was the daily breakfast for old and young alike.
Those not yet doing a man's work dined on pease-bread
and sour milk. The older ones had for dinner during
winter, broth with a little meat and potatoes and pease-
scones; in summer, herring and potatoes, potatoes and
milk, or chipped potatoes with a little fat. This may
sound a montonous regime, but once a week came the
day of feasting. On Sabbath morning the whole family
sat down to a diet of " fat brose " which was greatly
relished, followed by tea or coffee of which each was
allowed one munificent cup ! They had, however, to
live on the memory of this till evening, helped by a lunch
of two hard biscuits eaten between services.

Tranent United Presbyterian Church was three miles
distant. The father was an elder there, and he and his
bairns were usually seated in their pew before most of
the people of Tranent had begun to dress for church.
The boys as they grew older joined the choir, and as
the presence of the family was as much to be counted on
as the appearance of the precentor with his tuning-fork,
or the beadle bearing the pulpit-Bible, survivors in the
district have not yet forgotten the weekly procession of
father and sons marching down the aisle, some of them
" giants in Israel," and none stopping in growth short
of six feet. It may be left to the imagination to picture
the appetite of a growing boy by five o'clock on a Sab-
bath afternoon, after six miles of walking in fresh coun-
try air and two long church services, through which he
had been sustained by two hard biscuits. Can we wonder
that the dinner that followed, of fried beef or roast pork
" and sometimes a haggis," followed by tea and " fat
scones," seemed royal fare, and its memory worth trans-
mitting to children yet unborn?

Frugality affected clothes as well as food, so that John

22 A COLLIER'S WEAN

wore no clothes but of his mother's making till well on
in his teens, and rarely donned a suit that had not been
already worn by one or both of his elder brothers. There
was one glorious exception, however, for which he paid
full dear.

" Well do I remember," he writes, " getting a new
velvet jacket all to myself. Three were made at the
same time for the three eldest of us. Mine had a big
hump in the middle of the back, but I did not much
care for that, and when father put a penny into my
pocket to hansel it, I was as happy as a king. But I
was sick of velvet jackets before I got through them.
When George outgrew his it came to me, and then I wore
James's, and when they were past wearing in daylight,
they were worn in the pit until they had entirely changed
their colour."

Coppers were a rarity and worth remembering, and it
is recorded that each year on Hansel Monday, Mrs.
Deans, the mine-owner's wife, gathered the children at
the " Great House " and gave each a halfpenny. When
all had received their dole, she asked, " And where is
the good scholar? " and little John being pushed forward
by the others, received an extra halfpenny as a special
reward for superior scholarship, and was once more as
happy as a king!

In considering the circumstances that governed his up-
bringing, the fewness of his childhood's pleasures, its
rigid economies, its habitual stint, one wonders to what
extent they were responsible for the development in him
of certain characteristics that marked him throughout
life. In some natures their effect would have been the
strengthening of the disposition supposed to be latent in
every Scotsman to weigh a farthing before spending it,
and to keep not the Sabbath only, but everything else

TRAINING AND CHARACTER 23

he can lay his hands on. In him the effect was the re-
verse. It was as though he were in revolt against the
calculating spirit that had been a prime necessity in those
days of his youth, and the generosity that had fretted
against the barriers that poverty set up, inclined to over-
flow in a sort of joyous license. He hated anything
shabby or scrimp. Never again must there be one cup
of tea apiece ! At his table the provision must be such
that he could supply any number, freely and fearlessly,
leaving still enough for more. He inclined always
towards a choice of the better of two qualities, with the
comfortable philosophy that it must always be true
economy to purchase what would last longer. He liked,
too, to buy in quantity, as when during one of his fur-
loughs, in need of a new toothbrush, he came happily
home with a dozen in his pocket, as they would be sure
to come in useful, and it saved time to buy a number at
once!

The same largesse marked his giving, and he was
readier than most to lend, though he suffered for it, as
lenders must. He loved to surprise a friend with a
cheque when times were hard and needs pressing, and
the gift was sure to be a handsome one, surprising in its
amount as much as in its spontaneity, given with keenest
pleasure and in the firm faith, which time proved not
ill-founded, that " our children will never be allowed to
suffer for what we have given to help others."

The " good scholar," in spite of the superior excel-
lence which had been so munificently rewarded at the
" Great House," did not carry into after-life golden mem-
ories of his schooldays. According to his own account,
though by the age of four he had learned to read and
spell in " the fourpenny," he was " not particularly
bright/' and a reputation for cleverness which crowned

him for a time was attributable only to his being trained
at home in Bible knowledge and the Shorter Catechism
more than his companions. With this judgment all might
not agree. There are many amongst us who have con-
quered the land that lies between 2X2 and 12 X 12
only after severe toil and a series of pitched battles ex-
tending over a long campaign. Such may think that a
child who could, in a single afternoon, master that whole
territory so as to have it forever after at his command
must have had, in one line at least, native ability some-
what beyond the average. This feat, the diary tells us,
* he accomplished at the age of five. He had the previous
year been drafted from Penston Infant School to Glads-
muir Grammar School, and there his troubles began.

Methods of education have altered since 1837. The
problem of a schoolmaster in those days has been stated
thus, " Given the book, the boy, and the rod ; how to get
the first into the second by means of the third." John
having fallen heir to a grammar-book from which the
first part had been torn, the rod had but a blank to work
upon. That blank it drove effectually into the boy's
mind. As the rest of the class were reviewing the book
for the second or third time, few explanations were
made. The schoolmaster made no effort apparently to
understand hrs difficulty, and to his parents grammar
was a science unknown. Often he would learn carefully
from memory an exercise that should have been parsed,
to receive in consequence, as though he were indolent or
worse, the punishment that had become his daily por-
tion. With childhood's impotent patience he bore dumbly
the injustice, but the shame of it ate into his soul.

Relief came at last. At the age of nine and a half,
times being hard, he was allowed to leave school and join
the rank of workers. The rise in dignity was grateful

IN THE PIT 25

to a small boy's soul, and as his tasks for a time were
light, he imagined himself in a land of liberty. But if
at first a miner's lamp seemed a badge of honour, he was
not long in learning that such badges may be dearly
bought. A miner's life is no child's play even now,
and the primitive conditions of seventy years ago involved
" toil and pain ayont conceivin'." Before many weeks
had passed, the child was labouring in daily weariness
and suffering at work which the law of the land was
soon to forbid to such as he. Merely to reach the pit
involved hardship, and one does not wonder that his
memory retained vivid pictures of rising three hours
before the sun, whose face he saw but one day in the
seven, stumbling along in the dark with heavy, sharp
implements under his arm, and crouching in his thin,
patched clothing behind hedges to shelter from the cut-
ting east winds of winter ; pictures, too, of the fearsome
descent of 120 feet by means of rope and ladder when
the pit's mouth was reached, of the inclination to slip
when older workers impatiently hurried him, and of
occasions when his lamp went out, leaving him in mid-
night darkness to grope his way to the bottom of the
shaft.

But these things were trivial as compared with the
labour itself. His father soon became overseer of two
mines, and was kept so busy that John and his brother
were left to themselves. " Generally," he says, " we
did the work of two men " ; but in truth it was not man's
work that occupied them, but work fit rather for beasts
of burden and now relegated, in many mines, to elec-
tricity. The men broke out the coal; the boys dragged
it in small waggons to the surface up a steep under-
ground passage, 900 yards long, 4 feet wide, and for
the most part about 3 feet high. The little boy went in

26 A COLLIER'S WEAN

front, a chain in each hand, to drag and guide the waggon
on its wooden rails, often knocking his head or grazing his
back on some projecting ridge in the uneven roof, till
the slightest touch on the unhealed sores caused the
acutest pain. His older brother James pushed the waggon
from behind. The work was hard on the temper. The
feeble rails were apt to split and the waggons to go off
the line, on which occasions the bigger boy relieved
his feelings, as big boys will, by throwing the blame
on the younger, whom the slightest word of re-
proof always cut to the quick, making him miserable
for hours.

He did not bid a final farewell to a miner's life till he
reached the age of eighteen and had spent two sessions
at the University. Years of this period were passed
largely in the work of dragging trucks, now in one pit and
now in another, sometimes for what was considered a
good wage and sometimes for the merest pittance. In
one pit the workings were half a mile from the shaft-
bottom, and in some places the roads very steep.

" George and I," he writes, " could push out a box
with considerable facility, but for one of us; especially at
certain places, it was life-and-death work. As we had
strong men to compete with, and there were only two
roads and fifty putters, we were often followed closely
up from behind. I well recollect, at the distance of
seventeen years, how I used to push with my head, pull-
ing myself forward by seizing the rails and sleepers with
my hands, and often I would have to stand for a few
seconds unable to move an inch and in danger of the
heavy box coming back on me and running me over.
... I always blame this work for impeding my growth,
as for three years at this time I did not grow in height
by a single hair's-breadth. I became very stout, how-
ever, and capable of enduring much fatigue without suf-
fering from it."

WORK AND PLAY 27

This power he carried with him through life, and it
stood him in such good stead as a missionary that he
learned to look upon the hard training of his youth as
a providential preparation for the work that was to
follow.

He won from his work also another compensating
blessing that gave more immediate satisfaction — the
added lustre shed by toil on intervals of leisure. Of
one summer which specially impressed him as " a time
of slavery," he writes :

" And yet this was in many respects the happiest time
of my life. No sooner had v/e got home, than after
washing off the coal dust from our faces, we seemed to
wash away all our cares, and no one who saw us after-
wards playing with ball or kite and running races on
the village green, would imagine that we had anything
to do but play all the day long. It was with difficulty
that father could get us in at nine o'clock for family
prayers, and even after that an excuse was often found
for getting a little extra time for more play. But oh,
how sweet was sleep, when wakening in the morning
I found that I had still a few minutes before the ordinary
time for rising! How quietly would I slip under the
clothes again, lest I should awake my elder brother, that
I might have another five minutes ! What supreme
luxury to wake up and find it was Sabbath morning, and
oh! what horror, to dream it was Sabbath and wake to
find it was some other day ! "

So far it has been but the life of a child we have been
sketching, a life therefore for the most part irrespon-
sible and unself-conscious, its course shaped by the will
of others, as the river's by the contour of the land, its
colour decided by the life and thought of those around,
as the colour on the surface of still waters by the verdure
on their margin or the sky above. It is true that a dis-

38 A COLLIER'S WEAN

tinctive personality was already revealing itself. The
intensity of the child's absorption now in games and
now in work, his ambition not to be outdone even by
competing men, and his extreme sensitiveness to praise
and blame, are all suggestive of the man full grown. But
as yet he accepted his lot unthinkingly, — his happiness
play, his horizon the night's rest.

A time, however, comes in the life of every man, when
he awakens to a sense of personality, of a life to live
that is his own, and when he begins to shape that life
consciously from within, instead of passively allowing
it to fall into whatever mould external influences would
shape for it. The awakening may be sudden and
startling, or as gentle a process as the dawn. The es-
sential for a strong life is that it be thorough, and that
there be no second sleep. In the present case the event
was precipitated by an accident that occurred before the
boy completed his twelfth year.

One morning in January, 1845, ms brother James and
he were down the mine together and alone. Their task
was to break in pieces and convey up the shaft a huge
mass of coal of several tons weight. It proved tough
and unmanageable. They were endeavouring by driving
in wedges to break it into two, when there came an un-
expected crash, and before John could save himself, half
of it had fallen away, knocking him down and pinning
him to the ground. His brother rushed for help, while
he lay in the dark alone. In a few minutes nine or ten
men gathered and succeeded with a mighty effort in
slightly raising the fallen block, while one of their num-
ber dragged from underneath the injured boy, who was
then laid in a waggon and wheeled amid excruciating
pain to the pit-bottom.

His mother being worn and weak from the prolonged

AN ACCIDENT 29

and anxious nursing of a sick child, John on reaching
home felt bound to hide his suffering to the best of his
ability. In this effort he attained an unfortunate success
that came near to costing him lameness for life; for the
doctor judged from the mild account of the patient's con-
dition given by a messenger that no fracture had oc-
curred, and that the desired visit might await his con-
venience. In the hours that intervened the broken thigh
swelled to such enormous extent that the task of setting
became almost impracticable. The consequence was a
limb shortened and bent, and though in time he outgrew
the defect so that he carried through the years no painful
reminder of his accident, he faced for months the proba-
bility of a cripple's life.

For six weeks all movement was forbidden, and during
this period of confinement there came to him a revelation
of the delights to be found in a world accessible to him,
yet still unexplored, the world of books that he was ever
after to find so alluring. The day of cheap story books
had not dawned, and so it came to pass that he read his
Bible almost from cover to cover, and feasted his
imagination on Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and the
Arabian Nights. He came back from his imprisonment,
as he says, " a changed boy." New thoughts seethed in
his brain and new ambitions possessed him. His life no
longer fell into the same groove as that of his associates.
As soon as he could use a crutch he was once more on the
school bench, not as a galley-slave, but as one rejoicing
in a new lease of life and opportunity. Books were
henceforth his pastime. When he was again able to enter
the mines, study proved a more tempting bait in leisure
hours than the old games on the village green, and even-
ing classes were eagerly taken advantage of which had
hitherto been attended with reluctance.

so

To such good purpose did he use what margins of
time were at his command, that during the next three
years he attained " a pretty extensive knowledge of
geography, grammar, and arithmetic, went through a
course of Chambers's in mensuration of surfaces and
solids, navigation and trigonometry, studied algebra as
far as quadratic equations, Euclid's elements to the end
of the third book, sundry books on astronomy, Joyce's
Dialogues, Goldsmith's England; in Latin, the Rudi-
ments, Dilectus, Cornelius Nepos, four books of Cassar's
Gallic War, four books of the sEne\d, and the greater
part of Ovid's Metamorphoses; " and in Greek secured
" a smattering of the grammar, and read most of the
four Gospels."

Meanwhile in the silence of his soul a struggle was
going on which was eventually to decide the whole trend
of his future. The atmosphere of his home was so
strongly religious that even as a little boy, " in frock and
daidly," he had been visited by many a thought about
God and salvation. He had been stirred by sermons
preached occasionally for the children of the church.
He dimly hoped himself a Christian. But a time had
now come when no dim hope would satisfy him. He
must reach certainty.

" I was about fourteen years old," he writes, " when
a dear little sister, the pet of all the family, was sud-
denly cut off at the early age of three. This event, along
with the reading of Doddridge's Rise and Progress, and
a sermon on Phil, iii, 18,* set me a-praying as I had
never prayed before for the salvation of my soul. On
my way to work in the morning I would pray, and when
I could be apart during the day I would kneel down and

* " Many walk of whom I told you often and now tell you even
weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ."

JOINS THE CHURCH 31

pray, and often in the evening I would come out and,
kneeling down behind the hedge, would lay open my
heart in long earnest prayer to God for my conversion.
My great delight at that time was in mingling with the
older people and hearing them converse on practical
religion, and when on coming home from church the
conversation took a religious turn, I was always an eager
listener ; but if it diverged into a more worldly strain
I would feel pained, and often fall back or push ahead,
in order to indulge in undisturbed meditation on the sub-
jects on which the minister had been preaching."

He at last gained the assurance he desired, and early
in 1848, along with his brother George, was received
into the communion of the Church. " I have since," he
remarks, " in thinking of my religious experiences during
this period, lifted up the prayer : ' Oh that it were with
me as in the days of old.' "

II

STUDENT DAYS

I say that man was made to grow, not stop.
That help he needed once and needs no more,
Having grown but an inch by, is withdrawn.
For he hath new needs and new helps to these.
This imports solely, man should mount on each
New height in view.

— ROBERT BROWNING.

Tenui musam meditamur arena — " We cultivate litera-
ture upon a little oatmeal."

— Motto proposed by Sydney Smith for the
" Edinburgh Review."

IN November, 1849, the boy laid his pit clothes aside
and was enrolled as a student in Edinburgh Uni-
versity. The door of opportunity could not have
opened for him at a more favourable juncture. Both
mind and soul were straining upward, and he was pre-
pared to throw all his energies into the new life.

His older brother James, who had entered the Uni-
versity a year before him, fully intended to become a
minister. Whether John had made the same resolve is not
apparent, but it was the dearest wish of his parents'
hearts that he should do so. It was the strength of this
wish that had nerved them for the sacrifice involved
in sending to Edinburgh and supporting at college two
of the ablest breadwinners of the family. The ministry
was regarded with extreme veneration by the Scottish
peasantry of the time, and as a sacred calling, possessed

32

EDINBURGH IN 1849 33

for them a glamour that seemed to throw into shadow
the possibilities for Christlike service latent in other
lines of life. This attitude of the community in general,
the desire of his parents in particular, and the example
of his brother, must have combined to form an influence
to which the feelings of the boy were in a condition to
give quick response. His ideas, however, were still nebu-
lous. The aims and ideals that were the passion of his
after-life came to him not as a sudden revelation but as
a slow growth. He tells us plainly that he did not
realise at this time that what had recently occurred in
the recesses of his heart made him debtor to the world,
and a natural tendency to reserve in the expression of
his deepest feelings warred with any impulse to share
the new joy that had come into his life.

It was a great day in the life of the country lad when
he first went up to college. A Scottish mining village
with its shrewd and hardy intelligence was no un-
friendly soil for a growing mind. But under the quicken-
ing influences of an old university and in a city whose
very stones spoke of a storied past, the young life would
unfold its faculties with a new vigour.

In the Scottish metropolis he was entering a wider
world than he had yet known. It was 1849, when men
still heard echoes of that " year of revolution " which
had shaken every capital in Europe. Edinburgh, too,
had felt the impact in the Chartist Riots of 1848, show-
ing that the class to which the young student belonged
was rising to political consciousness. But what would
likely appeal more strongly to a lad coming from a de-
vout village home would be the ecclesiastical associations
of the city. In Edinburgh the Scottish Churches hold
their annual assemblies, an event always of great interest
to Scotsmen, but especially so in those days when Scot-

34 STUDENT DAYS

land had just emerged from one of the great crises of
her religious history in the " Disruption " of the national
Church.

The University, however, with its keen intellectual
life, was the natural centre of the young student's inter-
ests. At the time when he matriculated Edinburgh Uni-
versity enjoyed a European fame through the eminence
of three of its professors — Hamilton, Aytoun, and Wil-
son ("Christopher North"). Within its halls were
gathered the pick of Scotland's youth, drawn from many
a thrifty home. One of his fellow-students was Henry
Calderwood, a Peebles lad who five years later crossed
swords in the field of philosophy with Sir William Ham-
ilton himself, and was destined to succeed him in the
professorial chair. But the life of the Scottish under-
graduate was a hard discipline — plain living and high
thinking. " As a training in self-dependence," says
Froude, speaking of Carlyle's student days in Edin-
burgh, " no better education could be found in these
islands."

The two brothers lived in a small cheap room in the
house of a nice motherly body in Potterrow. Their
home village being not far from Edinburgh, their mother
still attended to their laundry, and the session was short-
ened for them by occasional visits from father or brother
bringing fresh linen and samples of their mother's baking.
The home-faces were the more welcome that the boys
at this time seem to have been comparatively friendless.
The older brother, James, was quiet and shy. The
younger, who had more popular gifts, was beset by a
fear of being despised for his former occupation, an
unworthy fear, of which he learned later to be ashamed,
but which meanwhile shut him in from the companion-
ship he yet craved and needed. He could not forget

Old University

Copyrighted, Judges, Ltd.

The Castle

View of Edinburgh from Salisbury Crags
COLLEGE DAYS AT EDINBURGH

PRONUNCIATION AND ACCENT 35

the pit in which he had dug, and of which his peeled
knuckles were a constant reminder. His broad Scotch
dialect marked his humble rank, and he expected Peter's
fate if he mingled with the crowd. He was ready to
imagine supercilious smiles and read in them the taunt :
" Thou art a common collier ; thy speech bewrayeth
thee."

In consequence he acquired, as he tells us, unsociable
habits that he had afterwards great difficulty in over-
coming. But he also acquired an unusually pure accent,
an interest in phonetics, and a habit of close attention
to minute variations in pronunciation that may have
been the secret of his power in later days to talk Arabic
" like an Egyptian." For no sooner had he become sensi-
tive to his inability to talk like his fellows, than with
characteristic determination he set himself to correct his
defects. He attended an elocution class for several ses-
sions, and with a swing of the pendulum from one ex-
treme to the other, became for the time being, so critical
of all utterance that he could hardly find a man in the
kingdom whose speech was not faulty in some respect !
Broad Scots was dear to him to the end of his days, and
he would use it upon occasion, but the impure mixture
so largely current continued distasteful to his fastidious
ear, even when his hypercritical stage was in the distant
past.

His whole college course was marked by a tendency
to attempt a crowded programme, while his tastes being
too varied for any subject to fail of attractiveness, he
could not agree to content himself with a mere pass-
grade in certain classes in order to specialise in others.
In reading he travelled far afield, and as the habits of
the recluse dropped from him, missionary and debating
societies, the Young Men's Fellowship Association and

36 STUDENT DAYS

Sabbath School work all claimed a growing share of his
attention.

Whatever he took up he could not but take up with
energy, so that already in the university student we see
the man of after years, who with a tendency to complete
absorption in whatever matter he had in hand, combined
an extraordinary capacity for cramming his fire with irons
and keeping them all hot.

This could only be achieved by one who had learned
the value of time and the art of taking care of spare
moments. This art he was conscious of possessing, and
he traced its origin to the necessity of working down
in the mines during the long summer vacations of '50
and '51, when he was hungry for study and anxious
to follow out a special scheme of work that the brothers
had drawn out for themselves in accordance with some
hints received from one of his professors. For to his
honour be it said, however much he disliked his peeled
knuckles and the stigma that might attach to him as a
miner, such feelings did not interfere with its ready
return to the old labour, for his own support and aid to
the family funds, and it was not until he was able to get
a more lucrative post as teacher that he bade final adieu
to life in the pit.

During these summers the intervals spent above ground
were insufficient for the study undertaken. When work-
ing as under-manager and rail-layer he had occasional
spare hours, but these were too few, and he was some-
times engineman and sometimes common collier with no
opportunities of leisure. In any case there were odd min-
utes to be utilised, and every scrap of time being needed,
he would draft at night lessons to be conned down
the mine. So drafted, much could be accomplished by an
occasional glance without hindrance to the work in hand,

THE HOME IN MACMERRY 37

and sometimes the paper or book was set up in a niche
in the irregular wall of the dark passage, a miner's lamp
so arranged that its light fell on the open page, and the
task mastered to the tune of the blows of his pick on
the coal.

Shadows that soon gathered and deepened made the
vacations of the year 1850 stand out in sunny outline
in the memory of those who shared in their pleasures.
The family were living at the time in Macmerry, a tiny
village that straggles along the Haddington highroad at
four miles distance from that town. The home was a
low cottage, one of a row, with the customary white-
washed stone walls, red-tiled roof, and small-paned win-
dows of houses of its class, but surprisingly roomy if
one entered expecting to find only the usual " butt and
ben." It contained two good-sized bedrooms, and be-
tween them the long, low-ceilingecl, stone-paved kitchen
in which the family was wont to forgather. One window
opened on the road and on the opposite wall another
looked out across fields towards the sea. At the farther
end was the wide-open fireplace which, however far
from ideal to modern ideas of cookery, cannot be equalled
for a certain generous warmth it has the magic power
of diffusing into the hearts of the circle it attracts, and
for the air of cosy comfort it bestows upon the room
it ornaments. For the rest, there was the usual deal
table and wooden chairs, " grandfather's clock," sturdy
wooden bedstead and patchwork coverlet, kitchen dresser
with rows of plates and shining tins, and all the other
et ceteras of a clean, comfortable, Scottish kitchen. In
a certain corner stood a barrel used for flour, and en-
throned upon this on certain occasions sat a little girl,
who, no longer little but with many silver threads

38 STUDENT DAYS

amongst the black, still delights to revive those treasured
memories.

Though the boys had their time carefully planned, the
plan seems to have included recreation, and the favourite
recreation was music, which was as engrossing a passion
as study. Into the big kitchen gathered on Saturday
evenings all the music-loving souls of the district, spe-
cially the young men and women. Impromptu concerts
followed, the father playing the riddle, James a small
violin, John the violincello, or sometimes by way of
variety the flute or accordion, while all joined in song.
Their store of Scotch songs was endless, songs pathetic
and songs quaint and comic, the latter often given off in
dramatic style with suitable gestures, and parenthetical
remarks thrown in on occasion to accentuate the nonsense
or point a harmless joke at any one present whose head
the cap might fit. They usually ended up with some
reels and strathspeys, when the little girl would climb
down off her barrel and join other little ones in dancing
to the music.

On the last Saturday of the winter vacation, when
they had reached this point in the usual programme, the
family were surprised by their mother catching infection
from the children and dancing a hornpipe for them to the
tune of the fiddles, an art she had learned to perfection
when a girl. But behind the merry mood there were
thoughts in the mother's heart that none had guessed,
that would have darkened the days for all of them had
they known.

When the boys returned to college, she stood out in
the road on the cold January morning watching them
for the last time till they rounded a corner and were
lost to sight, and meeting a neighbour as she returned
to the house, she remarked : " Puir laddies, I'll never see

DEATH OF HIS MOTHER 39

them again." She had been fighting disease ever since
the death of her little girl, and in a few weeks suc-
cumbed rather suddenly, after acute suffering, but with
a mind at peace and a Christian's fearlessness for the
future.

When the brothers returned in the summer of '52 to
their motherless home, they were greeted by other
troubles that had followed in the wake of their bereave-
ment. Trade was dull. Mr. Cuthbertson, of whose mine
their father was manager, was bankrupt, and had lost
along with his own money all the savings of his man-
ager's family. In an effort to regain his footing he had
taken into partnership a man of difficult temper, hard
to work under. The father, discouraged, mooted emi-
gration. John, at his suggestion, wrote to a friend in
America, and receiving an encouraging answer, began
to dream dreams that turned his studies into the line of
geology and engineering. He had the prospect of a
fairly lucrative position as a start, and thoughts of rising
to worldly prosperity grew alluring. But the further
he drifted from the idea of the ministry, the more did
the father swing back from his momentary weakness.
To see his boy in the pulpit would be a greater privilege
than to see him wealthy. He gave up the thought of
emigrating, decided to fight his battle through on Scot-
tish soil, and prayed in secret that his boy's ambitions
might return to their previous channel.

The boy felt the silent pressure of his father's long-
ings, but for a time his day-dream still allured him.
James now entered the Divinity Hall, which opened
every summer for two months only, the entire curriculum
stretching over five years. The leaven of his weekly
letters fermented in the younger brother's mind. He

40 STUDENT DAYS

began to be restless and ill at ease. At last the silent
conflict reached a climax. A night came when he felt
that he could not sleep till the question of his future
was decided. When he had delivered his maiden speech,
a missionary address in Tranent Church, his father had
borne him so much on his soul that, unable to face the
nervous strain of listening in the pew, he had spent the
time on his knees at home praying for his boy, that all
danger of public failure might be averted. But now the
father lay unconscious, while graver issues were at stake
and momentous questions were being faced and settled at
his very side. In the small hours of the morning a choice
was made from which John never wavered, and knowing
his father's heart, he could not keep from him till day
dawned news that would give him such great happiness.
They were alone together, sharing a bed. He awoke
him and announced the decision that closed to him the
door of secular life forever and sealed his dedication
to the ministry. It was the father's turn now to lie
awake — not in anxious thought or prayerful conflict, but
in the joy of answered prayer and the glo\v of a great
gratitude.

Next morning the boy's books on geology and en-
gineering were replaced by Whateley's Logic, Thomson's
Laws of Thought, Lewis's History of Philosophy, and
the notes of Sir William Hamilton's lectures. A few
weeks later, having funds enough for one session's neces-
sities, he rejoined his brother in Edinburgh to continue
his university course.

It has been said to be the experience of teachers of phi-
losophy that students who excel in classics or mathematics
rarely show metaphysical ability. This rule did not hold
good in the present case. A prizeman in Latin and
Greek and attaining distinction in mathematics, he yet

A MOMENTOUS DECISION 41

but narrowly missed prizes in Mental as well as in Nat-
ural Philosophy ; and to the end of life a new philo-
sophical volume had more fascination for him than a
novel, and could happily beguile for him the tedium of
missionary travel.

There now occurred an interval of fifteen months,
during which he taught, first in Forfar and then in
Rothesay, to secure funds for completing his course.
When at length he returned to Edinburgh, and after
two months spent at the Divinity Hall re-entered the
University in November, 1853, for his fourth and last ses-
sion, he was still forced to spend half of each day in
teaching.

Private study had been carried on meanwhile by sheer
force of will. For months his daily programme had in-
cluded seven hours of teaching, and oversight of boys,
whether at work, at meals, or at play, from 6 A.M. till
10 P.M. Lights being extinguished promptly at ten, the
only way to secure time for his own use had been by
early rising. He had consequently risen for study at
four every morning. It was long before he regained the
power to sleep past that stroke of the clock, no matter
how little he had slept earlier in the night. Violent
headaches ensued, which threatened to become chronic,
and when sorrow followed in the wake of overwork, he
lost sleep entirely for a fortnight and felt as if his brain
were giving way.

The family prospects had greatly brightened since the
days when emigration seemed their one door of hope.
Not only were the three oldest sons now making their
own way in the world, but the father had secured a
good situation near Dunfermline at a higher wage
than had ever yet been granted him, and as he speedily

42 STUDENT DAYS

established in Fife the same reputation he had won
for himself in East Lothian, all promised fair for the
future.

But no sooner had John returned to Edinburgh than
shadows began to gather. His brother James had, like
himself, been straining every nerve to the accomplish-
ment of one great aim. With his brother, the absorbing
ambition of life was " to carry the Gospel to the heathen."
He had offered for the foreign field and was under
formal appointment, though with years before him still
of special preparation which he was striving, under many
hindrances, to secure. In his case, intellectual powers of
no mean order, intense devotion, and indomitable pur-
pose were lodged in a weak frame. A breakdown came
at last, and consumptive tendencies developed rapidly.
Instead of remaining with his younger brother in Edin-
burgh, he was forced to go home, and the younger
brother knew that he went home to die.

This of itself might have made the winter of 1853 the
saddest he had yet known, but blow followed upon blow.
The session had not advanced far when he was suddenly
summoned to nurse his father through an attack of acute
bronchitis from which he never rallied. The son in after
life had few equals as a nurse, and the father clung to
him in his sufferings and wras uneasy if he left his side.
The tie between them was a specially tender one. For
five days and nights the nurse remained faithful to his
post, but the danger then seemed over and, not daring
to absent himself longer from his teaching, he unwillingly
returned to Edinburgh. He was followed three days
later by news of his father's death.

The event was viewed by all as a public calamity. He
was only forty-five years of age. and had already won
his way into the hearts of the community. His employers

DEATH OF FATHER AND BROTHER 43

evinced their appreciation of him by showing the greatest
consideration to the family, who felt dazed by the blow.
They offered to George, the second son, the position his
father had filled, which he gladly accepted; but George
had a family of his own to support. James, the eldest,
was on his deathbed. Eliza, the only daughter, was sud-
denly stricken down also with disease of the thigh-bone,
which kept her in bed for a year. John took Andrew,
the youngest, back to Edinburgh with him, becoming re-
sponsible henceforth for his board and education, and
an aunt undertook the charge of the others.

Three months later James passed away. John had
been with him a fortnight before the end. and some
things then whispered to him by the failing voice left an
indelible mark on his life. Nearly fifteen years later he
wrote of him to an aunt who was nearing death : " If
you see James before me, tell him that the remark which
he made to me before he died — ' I have done nothing for
Christ — nothing! Oh, if I had only strength left to
preach but one sermon ! ' — has never been forgotten and
has been as good as many a sermon to the brother to
whom it was addressed and through him to hundreds in
Egypt." In his diary he writes in the same strain. He
speaks feelingly of his brother's high character, his intel-
lectual power, the wide range of his literary knowledge,
his heroism under excruciating pain which was of chronic
recurrence from childhood, and the intensity of his con-
secration to the mission cause for which he had hoped
to live. The younger brother felt that it was James who
had broken up the way before him, that but for him he
might still have been labouring in a coal mine, and that
he was accordingly pledged to fill the place left vacant by
his death. From this view he never swerved. The for-
eign field was henceforth definitely his goal.

44 STUDENT DAYS

Of his life at the Divinity Hall the diary gives no de-
tails, merely telling that he greatly enjoyed it and that
there grew out of it prized friendships, one of which
incidentally shaped his future. This does not mean, how-
ever, that the Divinity Hall played an unimportant part
in his preparation for the work to which he was after-
wards to devote himself. The five professors who formed
its staff were a singular group of men to be found at the
same time in the same institution, and that an institution
belonging to so small a denomination as the United Pres-
byterian Church of Scotland. One, Dr. Eadie, was a
man of wide reputation for massiveness of learning. All
were men of sound scholarship and deep piety, and these
gifts were blended with rarer qualities of heart and soul
that rendered each in some distinctive way a striking and
attractive personality.

The tone of religious feeling among the students seems
to have been on a level worthy of the teachers provided
for them. They were men who all year had been facing
the problems of life, some of them working at trades to
supply the wherewithal for their support, others teaching
and others in mission work. Having worked hard for
the privilege of entrance, they were in little danger of
becoming satiated and weary of lectures. Familiarity
with the strain of teaching and preaching made a seat
on the student's bench a luxury. How they regarded the
privilege, and in what spirit they gathered, is revealed
by the fact that many were in the habit of coming to
Edinburgh a week before the session began, to meet for
prayer in each other's lodgings. Five sessions, however
short, spent in this atmosphere, with such congenial com-
panions, and under the teaching of professors of the type
we have described, could not fail of lasting influence on
a nature already attuned to high issues.

AT THE DIVINITY HALL 45

Change of country cuts deep into a life. Friendships
must not only have been well rooted, they must already
have achieved a somewhat sturdy growth, if they are to
live past that cleavage and attain further development
during years of separation. With a few of the students
such ties were formed, but these friends have long since
journeyed, as he has journeyed, to a better land, and
from them we can gain no light upon the life we are
trying to trace. One friend still survives, however, Rev.
James Henry of Melbourne, Australia, one of the closest
arid most valued of all.

" I cannot tell you why," he writes in a recent letter,
" but somehow I fell in love with him at first sight, and
the love has not in the least abated. We agreed to live
together economically in Edinburgh, occupying one
room, . . . and I was very happy in his companionship.
We studied, debated, wrestled, sometimes even to tem-
pestuous glee. I felt him my superior in many ways.
. . . We maintained a regular and loving correspond-
ence to the end, and when I received word of his death
I went to my room and wept like a child. With a bright
and winning manner — in those early days playful — he
was absolutely devoted to the person and kingdom of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Amongst all the young men
I ever knew, he had the purest spirit — all his thoughts
were pure. ... I can truly say that not a day has passed
without my thinking of him."

After their student days had ended, these friends met
on only three occasions. Their last meeting was fol-
lowed by twenty years of unbroken separation, bridged
only by occasional letters, and by twenty-five years more
of utter silence, the slender bridge having fallen at the
touch of death. When one reflects on these things the
simple words with which our quotation closes become

46 STUDENT DAYS

luminous — the most eloquent tribute friend could pay
to friend.

The students were not left entirely to their own re-
sources while the Hall was not in session. Tasks were
assigned them that involved periodic appearance before
Presbytery, and they were under the superintendence of
some minister in their district. This arrangement led to
a close friendship between our future missionary and the
man through whom his steps were led towards Egypt.
Dr. Logan Aikman, who superintended the United Pres-
byterian students residing in Edinburgh, was secretary
of the Scottish Society for the Conversion of the Jews.
Letters came to him from Rev. Dr. Philip, missionary to
the Jews in Alexandria, proposing the establishment of
a large Protestant College in that city, and urging that
with an experienced teacher in charge, such an in-
stitution must achieve rapid success. Dr. Aikman
and other members of his Society favoured the scheme,
and at once thought of John Hogg as the man for the
place.

The proposal proved attractive to him, offering as it
did an apprenticeship in foreign mission work. To be
the better equipped for the sphere, he at once threw him-
self impetuously into the study of Italian and Arabic,
and devoured every book on Egypt on which he could
lay hands. He relinquished a good position as teacher
of Classics and French in July, 1855, as the new project
was to be launched before the year closed.

Meanwhile, men interested and friendly had formed
themselves into committees in Alexandria, Edinburgh,
and Glasgow to aid in raising funds, and Dr. Philip came
to Scotland to engage in the same work. But a radical
difference of policy soon became apparent.

To Dr. Philip's mind all effort was useless unless

APPOINTED TO EGYPT 47

equipment was secured of a type to attract the eyes of
Alexandria. Thousands of pounds must therefore be
immediately gathered that the college might from its
start outrival the schools of the Jesuits. " Do this," he
urged, " and in a year the college will be self-support-
ing." The canny Scots looked askance at so daring a
plan. The Church had not yet learned to think in thou-
sands; why alienate its sympathy by talking of so large
a sum? Why launch an enterprise on a scale beyond
all guarantee of future support? They decided to run
no risk of debt: to start a small school and improve its
equipments when its success had become assured. Dr.
Philip, however, continued to advocate his own plan,
and people were confused and alienated by conflicting
statements. Indifference took the place of enthusiasm, and
it was late in the following year before funds had been
collected sufficient to send the missionary-apprentice
forth to start even the smallest venture.

He, meanwhile, chafing at delay, had agreed to occupy
temporarily the somewhat tempting position of classical
master in George Watson's Hospital, an old and famous
Edinburgh school, and was able when that engagement
closed to take a fourth session at the Divinity Hall. By
that time the way had opened for him. After a few
simple preparations had been made, he met for the last
time with the various committees connected with the
enterprise, and returned to Halbeath to say good-bye to
his home friends. Those whose parting blessing he would
most have coveted had not lived to see their ambitions for
him fulfilled, but they would be as near to him in Egypt
as at home. For the rest, he expected a happy reunion
with them when three short years would pass, and pro-
tected by the merciful veil that hides the future from
our eyes, was able to wave to them cheerfully his last

48 STUDENT DAYS

farewell. On the i/th of November, 1856, with his heart
full of grateful memories, high hopes, and eager pur-
poses, he set out from Edinburgh on his eastward jour-
ney, to begin a new life and attempt new tasks in the
old Land of the Pharaohs.

Ill

SERVING HIS APPRENTICESHIP

Yes, here, in this poor, miserable, hampered, despica-
ble Actual, wherein thou even now standest, here or no-
where is thy Ideal: work it out therefrom; and working,
believe, live, be free.

— CARLYLE: Sartor Resartus.

THE journey to Egypt was full of novelty and
pleasure to the young Scotsman. He spent days
of solitary roaming in London and Paris, and
during the thirty hours of confinement in the train that
carried him to Marseilles, was too interested in seeing
France to think of wearying. A sea voyage was also a
new experience. As always, he threw himself heartily
into the life of the company on board, making many
acquaintances and leading in the music and games.

But the eventful moment of the journey was its close.
All but himself were bound for the Farther East, and
when he parted with them in the harbour at Alexandria,
they were still chatting around the breakfast table in
the dining-saloon — his own countrymen, talking his own
language, and looking as natural as if on British soil.
Five minutes in a small boat brought him into the midst
of a world as remote as though in the interval he had
wandered back across centuries in a dream. He had
read every page on Egypt, past or present, that had
come within his reach, but here was the reality — " those
clamouring groups of donkey-boys, custom house agents,
turbaned heads, veiled faces, humpbacked camels," seem-

49

50 SERVING HIS APPRENTICESHIP

ing as different from his former vague conceptions as a
page out of the Arabian Nights from a daily newspaper.
The bewildering strangeness of the new environment
stamped that moment indelibly upon his memory and
imagination, and in after years he could call it back at
will, the sights he saw and the emotions they awakened
returning to him vivid and real as the present.

A Maronite priest had been sent to the steamer to
conduct him ashore and to bring him to Dr. Philip's
home. Here he remained for six months, and had his
first experiences of the mission-life of which he had been
dreaming. The contrast between the real and the antici-
pated must have been to him at times as bewildering as
that first moment upon the wharf of Alexandria.

From the world's point of view his new tasks proved
unworthy of the sacrifices they involved, and even to the
young man himself, whose standards were not worldly,
the new life must have been in many ways a disappoint-
ment. " A Protestant College for Egypt " was the lure
that had first turned his face towards Alexandria, and
though the scheme had changed and dwindled, such high-
sounding words becoming rare on the lips of its pro-
moters, he came to the field still hoping for a success
that would revive the dream, and prove the original
project not Utopian. His eager zeal was ready for great
sacrifices in a great cause. The actual demand of life
was for great sacrifices in a small one. In a week's time
he had settled down to the teaching of six boys in a
dark, damp room, in the basement of Dr. Philip's dwell-
ing. Sixteen was the largest number reached in the first
six months, three of them the missionary's children,
towards whom he had to act as private tutor in English
and Latin, often having charge of them even out of
school hours. Later, during two whole months the

A DISCOURAGING START 51

schoolboys numbered two ! For a young man with abili-
ties not untested, accustomed to conduct large classes and
to do it admirably, to continue month after month de-
voting his time and energies to a mere handful of pupils,
heterogeneous and fluctuating, must have required all
the Scotch grit and dogged perseverance that he could
command.

There was another element in the situation even more
trying to his mettle — the keen disappointment of Dr.
Philip at the form the enterprise had taken. His hope
of raising funds for a college had miscarried, and in
face of his earnest remonstrances, the committees, like
Israel at Kadesh-barnea, had decided to " go forward,"
without what he considered essential for success. The
young man, in agreeing to lead the forlorn hope, had
joined the ranks of those who rejected his counsel, and
so viewed, his action seemed to savour of offence.

There was a lack of warmth in the welcome accorded
to the newcomer even on the day of his arrival, and his
daily presence in Dr. Philip's house kept the subject
open and the sore raw. As time went on the atmosphere
grew heavy with a disapproval too insistent to be easily
ignored. There was doubtless no intentional unkindness,
but almost every evening, and often during the day,
either to himself or in his presence to some passing trav-
eller, the prophecy was repeated that the school would
never succeed. Probably the older man, in thus relieving
his feelings, failed to consider the inevitable effect on
his companion of such dreary iteration, after hours of
drudgery and close confinement in a dingy schoolroom;
but to an ardent and nervous temperament, keenly sensi-
tive to the attitude of those around him, the ordeal must
often have proved peculiarly severe. How he bore him-
self it is impossible now to discover, but there was cer-

52 SERVING HIS APPRENTICESHIP

tainly no weakening of the fibre of his resolution, for
he continued to work from sixteen to eighteen hours a
day, giving what time was not consumed in teaching to
equipping himself more thoroughly for his post, by the
study of Italian and Arabic.

Friendly sympathy came to him suddenly from an unex-
pected quarter. Rev. Thomas McCague and Rev. Gulian
Lansing, missionaries of the United Presbyterian Church
of America, the former in Cairo and the latter in Da-
mascus, were the guests of Dr. Philip for a few days.
One evening when as usual the young teacher was buried
in his books in his own room, he was surprised by a
knock at his door, and found the two visitors anxious to
have a talk with him, more free and confidential than
had been possible at the family table. They had seen
his little school, had learned authoritatively of its certain
doom, but were interested to hear more at first hand,
both of it and of him. The three were entirely con-
genial, and a memorable evening followed, interesting as
a link in a chain of circumstances that finally bound the
Scotsman to a country not his own. Before the visit
ended he had cordially invited Mr. Lansing to share
quarters with him in Alexandria, should the future deal
kindly with castles they had been building in the air.

In the month of June, to the relief of all concerned,
the school was transferred to a large palace, much the
worse for wear, which the local committee, after long
search, had succeeded in renting. It was a dilapidated,
rambling building, through which whistled strong winds
from the sea that rolled but twenty paces off. No fear
of crowding here! One room alone measured eighty
feet in length ! But it was in the midst of the Moham-
medan quarter, the nearest English residence a mile and
a half distant, and the homes of his former pupils too

NEWS FROM HOME 53

far away for them to follow him to his new abode. It
was here that for two months he had but two pupils
to cheer him, by which his " faith and patience were
sorely tried ; " here, too, that he kept working day and
night till he " had fairly mastered the most difficult part
of the two languages most needed/' after which he de-
voted himself chiefly to Italian, in which he soon made
opportunities of preaching and public prayer.

" I like it very much/' he writes to a friend, " only
it is rather lonely, especially when a fellow is a little
out of tune, and I have had either indigestion or cold
or something to bother me almost all the time."

Through the long months he had waited vainly for
letters from home. He belonged to a family who, though
warmly attached to each other, had an unconquerable
habit of silence, with which his life-long wrestle, in the
case of all but one, proved almost futile. Till the last,
writing remained to the rest a weary cross, and their
first letter, which seems to have reached him about this
time, was written only when events had occurred that
seemed to demand a chronicler. Thus into five minutes
were crowded for him the tidings that his brothers had
decided to emigrate, William had already started, Robert
had married, the home was broken up, its furniture sold
by auction, and his " wee darling sister '' alone in Edin-
burgh preparing to support herself by learning the dress-
makers' trade. It was an overwhelming experience. He
seemed robbed of all his brothers at one blow. He re-
called his light-hearted good-bye and his last glimpse
of them " till the resurrection morning." Yet his heart
was with them in their ambition for larger opportuni-
ties, and it was the change in his sister's life only that
he could not brook. She was but sixteen years old and

54 SERVING HIS APPRENTICESHIP

alone in a city. He invited her to join him in his big
empty house, and she joyfully acceded to the proposal.
He wrote to a friend to engage her passage, and to her-
self in great spirits, making suggestions for her comfort
on the journey, and giving hints as to her outfit.

A lengthy silence followed, and at last a vessel from
Southampton bore into port, with the name of Miss
Hogg on its list of passengers.

" Immediately on receiving this news," he writes, " I
rushed down to the harbour, took a boat, and rowed
out through a very heavy swell, with quaking heart, to
the steamer lying at anchor. With trembling steps I
mounted the gangway. What a galling disappointment
when the stewardess informed me that ' Miss Hogg '
had gone ashore, and was by this time off by rail to
Suez, as she was on her way to — India! "

Meanwhile the " Miss Hogg " he had hoped to wel-
come was still in Scotland, and letters at length reached
him explaining her mysterious delay. The Society for
the Conversion of the Jews had handed over its four
scattered mission posts to the United Presbyterian
Church of Scotland. That Church had decided on a
policy of concentration : Algiers was to be strengthened ;
the other stations, including Alexandria, abandoned.
His Scottish friends expected hTs little school, though
under separate management, to share in the general fate,
as many of its supporters would transfer their interest
to Algiers. Should its funds fail, its teacher would
doubtless be withdrawn. Plainly this was no time to
bring a little mistress to bachelor hall.

The disappointment was twofold: uppermost the re-
linquished dream of sheltering his sister in his empty
home; underneath, another hope grown fainter, — the

THE AMERICAN MISSION HOME 55

hope of settling in Alexandria as an ordained missionary,
sent out by his own Church. The events he pondered
so regretfully had forged a second link in the chain that
was to bind the Scotsman to America.

And soon other links formed, strong and visible.
Bachelor hall became an American Mission home, and
he a member of the household ! For while one castle
of dreams had dissolved at a breath, another built in
the spring as airily, took shape before his eyes in solid
fact. Rev. Mr. Lansing, appointed by the American
(United Presbyterian) Mission to extend its work to
Alexandria, came as invited to share his lonely quarters.
Mrs. Lansing soon followed him, took over the reins
of housekeeping from clumsy hands, and began to breathe
an air of home into the barren ruin. Thus 1857, a year
that had opened upon test and strain and disappointment,
let its curtain fall upon days of cheerful labour in an
atmosphere of utmost good-fellowship.

Now, for the first time, the missionary-apprentice
tasted that rare kinship so characteristic of the mission
circle in a foreign land, where so often friendships strong
as brotherhood seem to grow up like mushrooms in a
night, and yet like hardy saplings withstand all the ele-
ments (of no mean force) that would make for dissolu-
tion. It is a peculiar bond, less eclectic than ordinary
friendships, more spiritual than oneness of blood, an
inspiration in work, and an unfailing support in sorrow,
yet withal so usual (thank God!) on the foreign field
that its occasional absence strikes on Christian sensibili-
ties with the shock of a deformity, as though mission-
aries had a monopoly of the golden rule, or official im-
munity from failure and sin.

In the present case the tie was strengthened by con-
geniality of tastes and temperament. Mr. Lansing was

56 SERVING HIS APPRENTICESHIP

an eager missionary, genial and buoyant, — a scholarly
man, racy in narrative, keen and quick-witted in argu-
ment, of rapid decision and steady will, with a personal
charm that added a fovable quality even to his faults.
The two were strongly attracted to each other from the
first, and though in later years they laboured in different
parts of the field and often took the most opposite views
of mission policy, the tie between them continued till
death, unimpaired.

It is interesting to watch the give-and-take of the
months that followed. We find Mr. Lansing installed
as school teacher when overwork has brought his com-
panion to the verge of breakdown. Later the tables
are turned, and Mr. Lansing's Sabbath service is handed
over to the younger man, that it may be conducted in
Italian instead of Arabic. Some other simple task they
undertake by turns. When a girls' school of two years'
standing becomes American Mission property, it is the
Scotsman who organises and superintends its Sabbath
School; and before long there is a united Sabbath
School for the two missions., all remaining to the morn-
ing service together. Indeed, it would be impossible to
exaggerate the harmony of the relations that existed, and
when in the spring of 1859, the Scotch committees, bur-
dened with debt; relinquished their school to the Amer-
icans, it is probable that few on the spot realised that
any change of ownership had occurred.

The condition of Egypt had been critical during this
period. Echoes of the Indian Mutiny and Jedda mas-
sacres had excited the Moslems to emulation, and a gen-
eral slaughter of Christians was confidently expected.
Though the date of the event was fixed, and the rumour
received daily corroboration in the hostile attitude of the
populace, the mission party declined to take refuge with

A THREATENED MASSACRE 57

their English friends. " We did not like to shew the
people our fear," the diary explains, " and we thought
it more Christlike to remain at our labour."

The time came, and the missionaries had just sep-
arated for the night, when there was a violent and pro-
longed knocking at their outer door. From an upper
window they saw a large crowd collected, with torches,
guns, and swords. Assuredly the hour had come. They
had decided to await silently the tragedy that must follow
as soon as the door should give way, when to their sur-
prise the rabble suddenly desisted. The flare of a torch
revealed the centre of interest, their servant in the
grip of the police, who had found him lantern-less in
the streets after canonical hours. The offender had ex-
pected his merciful masters to protect him from the law,
and the noisy and excited mob were but aiding his cause,
in neighbourly fashion, with the aimless volubility at-
tendant on action and inaction in the East.

The means by which quiet was at length restored in
Egypt show that the despot has an occasional advantage
over his law-abiding brothers of the West. Moved by
the appeals of the consuls, the Khedive, who understood
his country, faced the Sheikhs of Islam. " I am not gov-
ernor of Jedda," he said, " I am Said Pasha, Viceroy of
Egypt. Should there be any uprising against the Chris-
tians, your heads will be cut off." The men valuing
their heads perhaps over highly, peace settled on the
troubled land.

And what of a Protestant College for Egypt? Did
three years' labour bring the project nearer fulfilment?
Did it cast fresh light upon the enterprise? A school
had been firmly established. Even in the old palace
some success was gained ; and when the reign of fear was
over, more central premises soon doubled its enrolment,

58 SERVING HIS APPRENTICESHIP

which in spite of a new charge for instruction, never fell
again below a monthly average of thirty. But there was
one significant feature in the situation. The school re-
flected the cosmopolitan character of the city in which
it was planted. It gathered pupils from every nation,
and out of forty-six enrolled in five months, only five
were Egyptians. We find this fact commented on twenty-
five years later: "This alone ought to have suggested
that if this was the projected Protestant College, its
mission might be a wide one, but — like the Suez Canal
of a later date — it would be of little value to Egypt
itself."

The toiler, however, had not yet read the true sig-
nificance of a fact he deplored. It was only when, as
a missionary, opportunity to travel gave him a vision of
the Egypt of the Egyptians, that his early dream dis-
solved to make room for wiser plans.

Till then it buoyed him up through strenuous plodding
toil. As a teacher he saw little beyond Egypt's gateway,
the capital and Suez being the only other points visited.
His doings at both places illustrate the character of the

He went to Cairo in January, 1858, on the verge of
a collapse. He had continued to work sixteen to eighteen
hours a day all through the enervating heat of summer
and autumn, seeing no English face except on Sabbath
or when the arrival of a mail-boat led him to the post-
office. At last his brain had rebelled. Sleep deserted
him, and violent headaches and toothache ensued. It
was in this condition that Mr. Lansing despatched him
to Cairo to secure the rest he needed. But though the
sufferer was not conscious of having secured a moment's
sleep for a fortnight, he immediately plunged into the
most violent course of sight-seeing. He remarks, with

SUEZ EXCURSION 59

apparent surprise, that for a few days he grew worse
under this severe regime. But his eager nature, strong
will, and sound constitution carried him through. He
most undeservedly recovered, and soon returned, re-
freshed and invigorated, to resume the duties of the
school.

His holiday trip to Suez was equally arduous. In
1859, during the short Easter vacation, a friend's kind
loan of a Xile-boat had occasioned a river journey to
Cairo, where he separated from the rest of the mission
party and set off alone. His goal was not Suez itself,
but a point on the coast where a flank of the Atakah
hills juts out towards the sea. Atakah means deliver-
ance, and tradition held the name to commemorate the
crossing of the Red Sea by the Israelites. He wished
to visit the spot and form his own judgment as to proba-
bilities. As a mere feat of endurance the expedition was
noteworthy. He left the boat at Cairo at 6 A.M. on
Friday morning, travelled by rail third-class across un-
broken desert to Suez, with no back to his wooden
bench, and the heat and dust blowing in through glassless
windows ; left Suez itself at noon, the sun pouring down
with such strength that it made the sandy environs
" glow and glisten and dance," and caused mirage on
every hand ; walked in all about thirty miles, twenty of
them along the beach on yielding sand, and broke the
even stretch by climbing a rocky summit of hills infested
by robbers, and there straining his ankle ! He was back
in Suez again at 3 A.M. (twenty-one hours after leaving
the boat), chatted at an Arab's fire till dawn, and was
only prevented then from starting off by donkey for the
Wells of Moses, by finding no one willing to undertake
the journey in the eight hours left at his disposal. These
hours he therefore spent, not in resting, but in exploring

60 SERVING HIS APPRENTICESHIP

the environs of Suez, bathing in the ford, and gathering
shells and corals. At last he seated himself again on
the backless bench of a third-class carriage, retraced the
desert route, and reached his friends about 7 P.M. on
Saturday night, having had not a wink of sleep, but the
most interesting and delightful excursion he had ever
known.

Such in brief outline was the feat of the explorer.
The details of the expedition abound in interest and are
graphically related to his sister in twelve closely written
quarto pages. There seems to be nothing he had not
enjoyed : the charm of the desert " level as the placid
sea ; " the beautiful " tapering curves of the wind-blown
mounds of sand ; " the beauty of " the bright blue sea like
a sleeping nymph motionless on the bosom of the brown,
burnt plain ; " the utter silence, " broken only by the
ripple of sparkling wavelets, and the measured grating
of my footsteps on the yielding sand ; " the exquisite
shells and corals ; the solitude — " only the track of one
man and a camel on ten miles of beach ; " the " myriads
of crabs hardly larger than ants that hid at my ap-
proach ; " and " the finny tribes," whose haunts he in-
vaded in waters so clear that sight seemed as easy in its
depths as if he were himself a fish.

This was his last letter to his sister. Word soon
reached him that her long illness was nearing its close.
He had already reluctantly intimated his resignation, and
the committees, his salary long unpaid, had as reluctantly
acquiesced. The local committee, who were all sympa-
thetic friends, now willingly allowed him to hasten his
departure. He consequently arrived at his aunt's house
in Scotland unannounced. " Yet," he writes, " when I
entered her room I found Eliza expecting me." Her sole
remaining wish was gratified in seeing her brother John.

61

She was so calm, so gently submissive and absolutely
ready, that at her bedside he " learned much " and the
fortnight spent there was in a sense a joy. " On the
26th of June the Lord took her to Himself. He had more
need of her in heaven than in Egypt."

IV
MARRIAGE AND SHIPWRECK

Beloved, let us love so well
Our work shall still be better for our love,
And still our love be sweeter for our work,
And both commended for the sake of each
By all true Workers and true Lovers born.

— ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.

WE have now reached a point where the reminis-
cences penned in the sick-room become less de-
tailed. The writer is suddenly reticent. He
mentions that he completed his course at the Divinity
Hall in September, 1859, and was licensed by the Edin-
burgh Presbytery two months later, and then compresses
into one weighty sentence the crowning event of the
year : " Shortly afterwards the Lord, whom I had been
long entreating on the subject, guided me to her who
is now my wife."

When in reminiscent mood, he would recall with
amusement some incidents of the guidance to which he
here alludes, especially one momentous occasion when
the petition he had so often offered in secret was
cavalierly forced from his reluctant lips. His future
career was no longer uncertain. At the request of their
missionaries in Egypt, the Board of Foreign Missions of
the United Presbyterian Church of North America had
sent him a cordial invitation to work in his old field as
their agent. He had gladly accepted the call, as Egypt
had won his heart, and to work under his own Church

62

REV. HOPE M. WADDELL 63

would have involved a change of sphere. He was ex-
pecting shortly to return, but was still heart-whole and
alone.

One evening when calling on the Rev. James Robert-
son of Newington, " the apostle of love," the two men
were discussing his prospects at the study fire, and the
subject of marriage not unnaturally came to the fore.
Mr. Robertson suggested that they should immediately
" lay the matter before the Lord." They knelt, and the
young man awaited on his knees such fervent petitions,
intimate and personal, as were characteristic of the saintly
minister. What was his dismay when Mr. Robertson
suddenly called upon " his young brother " to " lead " !
His embarrassment was complete, and refusal or obedi-
ence seemed alike for the moment impossible. When at
last an Amen was safely reached, he could not have told
one word he had uttered.

The remainder of the interview left no such blank in
his memory. The minister showed more wisdom. He
dropped good seed into good soil, and before thorns had
time to spring up and choke resolve, the young knight
had set out to seek his lady. Diffident yet daring, he
presented himself, a stranger, at the house of Rev. Hope
M. Waddell, urged on by the thought that within there
might await him the wife of his dreams.

Mr. Waddell's name had become a household word in
the Church. For twenty-nine years he had laboured as
a missionary and a pioneer, first in Jamaica and then in
Africa, in Old Calabar, having entered the latter almost
alone and holding his life at cheap purchase. He was
a man of tremendous force of character and unlimited
devotion, and his self-denying service amongst savage
tribes had given him a rich stock of such thrilling experi-
ences as captivate the public fancy. He was, moreover,

64 MARRIAGE AND SHIPWRECK

Irish by birth, and possessed to the full the qualities of
humour and pathos and the warm and generous emotions
that give to natural eloquence a power not only to sway
the mind of an audience, but to win its heart. He was
justly one of the Church's heroes.

The ostensible reason for the young man's call on
such a celebrity was a laudable desire on the part of
a missionary-elect to get the benefit of a veteran's ex-
perience on some grave matters of mission policy; but
she who became his wife recalls certain lively passages
in an adjoining room which show how litle the vet-
eran's family were deceived by the specious ruse. The
result, however, justified the venture. He found
what he sought, an introduction was effected, and in
a few short weeks he was engaged to the missionary's
niece.

Bessie Kay was a child of the mission-field. Her
father had been a grocer and spirit-merchant at the time
of his marriage, but, won to the infant cause of total
abstinence, felt compelled by its principles to give up
the lucrative part of his business. The family ties to
the mission-field were already strong. Not only was his
wife's sister married to Mr. Waddell, then labouring in
Jamaica, but his own sister had married Rev. John
Simpson, a missionary in the same island and the brother
of his wife. He decided to join in the work. He took
his family to Jamaica, already consecrated to him by
his sister's grave, and was serving as a catechist while
preparing himself for ordination, when yellow fever cut
him off on the threshold of his new career. Mrs. Kay
was thus left with four small children (the eldest only
ten and the youngest, Bessie, still blinking vaguely at
a new-found world), and was herself lying so near the
gate of death that for long she remained unconscious

THE BRIDE 65

of her loss and entirely unable to play the mother's part
to her orphaned family.

Meanwhile Mr. and Mrs. Waddell took the newcomer
under their care, and as they had recently lost an infant
son, she seemed in a special sense heaven-sent. They
never relinquished their charge. For more than half a
century they occupied a father's and mother's place in
her life, and in the days of her widowhood and their
long and beautiful old age — a season of life that their
memory must ever glorify in the minds of all who knew
them — extended to her children the loving thought and
care that is the gracious dower of grandparents.

When John Hogg entered Edinburgh University in
1849, ms future wife, then a child of eight, was attending
school in the same city in company with Mr. Waddell 's
own daughters. She had entered Park Place Academy
in 1847, and through twelve unbroken years continued
to be a pupil in the same institution, receiving a first-class
education in all branches then studied by girls, including
music, Latin, Italian, French, and German, and winning
various honours throughout her long course. The two
lives, destined at last to mingle, offered at this time the
most striking contrast as each pursued its solitary way.
While the one, by the momentum of its own strong
current, was cutting out a course for itself through rocks
of difficulty, the other flowed placidly forward along a
gently widening groove of opportunity prepared for its
advance.

The engagement lasted but seven weeks, and the wed-
ding took place on January 10, 1860, Mr. Robertson of
Newington having rightly a leading part in the cere-
mony. Two weeks later bride and bridegroom sailed
from Liverpool aboard the " Scamander," and the " un-
dulatory motion " they had jocularly anticipated imme-

66 MARRIAGE AND SHIPWRECK

diately prostrated them in their berths. Only a few days
had passed when Mrs. Kay was surprised by the follow-
ing letter :

ON BOARD THE " CORNELIA,"

OFF PLYMOUTH : 2nd February, 1860.
DEAR MOTHER :

I pray you not to be alarmed at the receipt of this
note. I thought of sending you a telegraphic despatch,
but this will probably reach you in time to prepare you
for our sudden and unexpected return.

I don't know what kind of weather you have had
about Edinburgh, but we have certainly had our share
of gales, squalls, and hurricanes since we left; still that
is not the reason why we are now in sight of Plymouth
harbour instead of Gibraltar. The " Scamander," after
braving it lustily for several days, gave in at last. She
sprang a leak on Monday night at six o'clock, and after
labouring all night to discover the leak, reduce the water,
and so save the ship, it was evident to all by daybreak on
Tuesday that we must escape for our lives. Accord-
ingly the four boats were lowered — one was smashed in
the process, the others got down safely almost by miracle.
Bessie behaved nobly — she was calm and collected all
the time ; neither of us expected aught but the worst ; —
(we shall give you lengthened details when we arrive
in Edinburgh, which (D. V.) we hope to do, perhaps
by Saturday evening.)

We had not been above five hours in our boats when
we discovered a steamer bearing down somewhat in our
direction ; so it was a pull for life. In about an hour she
seemed to have descried us, for she tacked about and
bore down upon us ; and thanks be to God for His
miraculous intervention — for I cannot call it anything
less — the whole forty of us got safe aboard without even
a broken limb, though the sea was rolling tremendously
all the time. We had not been well aboard the new
steamer when the " Scamander " went down, stern fore-
most, into the depths of the Bay of Biscay.

We have lost everything, but cannot help feeling con-

A LETTER FROM THE SEA 67

fident that He who plucked us out of the jaws of death
will Himself become the breaker up of our way. Oh,
let us trust Him! There was doubtless a "need be,"
and what that " need be " was will probably soon be
made plain to us. Meanwhile, let us lift up a song of
gratitude and praise to Him .for having wrought out
our deliverance in so remarkable a manner. Oh, for
grace to dedicate our rescued lives to Him !

This is the only letter that I shall be able to write to
Edinburgh, but this will suffice to prepare you all for
our return, so in the hope of seeing you soon,
I remain,

Your most affectionate son,

JOHN HOGG.

P. S. — We are both in good health and spirits, and
unite in sending to all our dear friends our warmest
love.

The young couple now found themselves a centre of
universal interest. Their wedding had already attracted
considerable attention. Not only had the youthfulness of
the bride (she was only eighteen), the rapid movement of
events from introduction to marriage, and the unfamiliar
destination awaiting her, combined to tinge the event with
romance, but her position as Mr. Waddell's niece had
brought it under the notice of a very wide circle of
friends. These now flocked around the shipwrecked
mariners, and the tale of the wreck had to be told and
retold till the narrators must almost have been tempted
at times to regret their escape from the deep.

It was a tale to touch public sympathy. They had
returned with no possessions in the world beyond the
clothes they wore, and those in what condition can be
imagined, after six hours' tossing in an open boat in so
wild a sea. Their chance of rescue had been slight
indeed. They were 120 miles from the nearest shore,
with a strong wind blowing seaward, and for three days

68 MARRIAGE AND SHIPWRECK

past no vessel had come within view. Even the steamer
that at last effected their rescue was, when sighted, fol-
lowing such a course that at no point would it come
within six miles of the sinking wreck. At the best, their
tiny flag would be visible through its telescope only
when steamer and boat were simultaneously on the crest
of a wave. It seemed one chance among a thousand.

Not till they were actually on board could they feel
secure. The anxiety was tense wThen the lady passenger
had to make the final leap for safety. The deck of the
" Cornelia " was lined by sailors, in order that to what-
ever point the will of the wind should bring her, she
might find there hands stretched out to help. Only at
one moment could the leap be safely accomplished. She
must seize her opportunity as soon as the waves brought
the tossing boat close to the vessel's rim. A moment's
hesitation and a watery chasm would yawn between, into
which to fall meant death. She accepted the situation,
however, with the simplicity and outward calm that never
failed her, leapt when directed, and discovered herself
the heroine of the hour.

The rescuing vessel had itself suffered severely —
deck-houses, kitchen, and bulwarks having been swept
away by the storm — but the captain showed the greatest
kindness to his unexpected guests and even went out of
his route in order to land them at Plymouth. On every
hand the same treatment awaited them. All their wed-
ding gifts were repeated, in money if not in kind. Per-
sonal friends interested others in their behalf, and dona-
tions came in from the most unexpected quarters, in
America as well as in Britain, with so much liberality
that at length they shared in the experience of Job,
whose latter end the Lord blessed more than his begin-
ning.

COMPENSATIONS 69

Egypt, too, profited by the catastrophe. The mission
work was brought to the notice of many who would not
otherwise have known of its existence, but henceforward
followed with interest the career of the young couple
whose enterprise had had so dramatic a beginning. When
in time of stress these new friends proved themselves as
ready to aid in the work as they had been to help the
workers, the missionary considered that the " need be "
for his shipwreck had been made plain, and at seasons
when prospects looked dark he would rally his spirits
and encourage his faith with the refrain : " Remember the
Bay of Biscay."

V

AT THE PORT OF EGYPT

With aching hands and bleeding feet
We dig and heap, lay stone on stone;
We bear the burden and the heat
Of the long day, and wish 'twere done.
Not till the hours of light return,
All we have built do we discern.

— MATTHEW ARNOLD.

THE days in Edinburgh must have held little rest,
for in less than four weeks a new outfit of some
sort was in readiness and the missionaries were
again on their travels. This time they had a prosperous
journey, shortened their voyage by going overland to
Marseilles, and reached Alexandria on Sabbath, March
18, 1860, a day sooner than expected. They arrived in
excellent spirits, Mr. Hogg delighted to be able to sur-
prise Mr. Lansing with a well-earned respite from his
Sabbath labours, and his wife determined to " like every-
thing," imagining hot winds zephyrs, and devoting
lizards, beetles, and cockroaches, with a passing shudder,
to oblivion.

With a new reason for caring about his surroundings,
Alexandria looked to the returning missionary dirtier
than ever before, its streets narrower and more dingy, its
houses more dilapidated. Doubtless his quarters at the
Mission House created the same impression, for he could
feel little pride in welcoming his bride to his two bachelor
rooms in the Lansings' dwelling-house, and he had no
immediate prospect of having a home of his own.

70

ARRIVAL 71

The rooms were situated in opposite corners of a
flat that was devoted to school purposes and swarmed
all day with schoolboys. They were manifestly for use
and not for comfort, with stone floors partially covered
with matting, woodwork that tried to remind you that
it had once been green, walls that had " never been
spoiled by paint or paper," and old furniture that had
not boasted greatly even in its youth.

The study contained shelves of books, a schoolbench,
a broken rocker, some cheap straight-backed chairs, and,
inevitably, trunks. The bedroom also contained trunks,
while its furniture The young wife declared to be de-
serving of all respect, inasmuch as it was still willing to
be engaged in active service, notwithstanding that it bore
traces of having had a lengthened and honourable career.

In addition to its venerable furnishing, the room, how-
ever, contained more than at first met the eye, an invisi-
ble tenantry which are a life-long trial to the missionary
in Egypt.

" These animals are commonly known by the honoura-
ble appellation of Fleas," wrote the young wife, " but they
are sometimes accompanied by less honoured members
of a similar class whose unworthy name I shall forbear
to mention. They seem to be the great scourge of Egypt,
and must be, I think, a remnant which has escaped from
the general destruction in the days of Hebrew bondage."

The discomforts of the new lot, however, were proba-
bly less unexpected than the warmth of the compensat-
ing welcome that awaited them, not from the mission-
aries alone, from whom as closest of kin it was but
natural, but from all and sundry alike, teachers, pupils,
servants, and friends. The story of their wreck had
preceded them, and in every greeting there was present

72 AT THE PORT OF EGYPT

the memory of their great deliverance. English resi-
dents came also with their congratulations. Perhaps the
schoolgirls were the most demonstrative. There was a
general " Oh ! " and a rush for their hands when they
entered the girls' school for the first time, as well as
songs of welcome, bouquets of flowers, and a special
wreath of artificial orange blossoms made for the bride.
Altogether their experiences on the threshold of their
missionary career revealed the number and the strength
of the ties that had been slowly forming through the
years, and contrasted strikingly with those of the lonely
teacher who in 1857 had faced work in the same city
disapproved of and alone.

Mr. Lansing, with all his talent, had no special aptitude
for educational work. Mr. Hogg, on the other hand, was
a born teacher and organiser. Naturally the boys' school
fell to his charge as before. During the years of his ap-
prenticeship he had always interpreted his commission
broadly. Like most teachers on the mission-field, he
had not stuck to the letter of his contract. He had added
Sabbath work, which was not in the bond, had taught
a girls' Bible class, and preached weekly sermons. He
had even devoted as laborious hours to language study
as any permanent worker in the field.

This being so, the reader may imagine that his lot
had been but slightly altered by becoming a missionary.
Even to himself it may at first have appeared that the
only change was one to greater liberty of action and
more variety of occupation. He felt free, for example,
to defer entrance on his own duties till he had given
Miss Dales a short rest by taking her place in the girls'
school for a few days, and as her health was precarious,
he continued for months to devote to it two hours daily,
although the boys' school was his own definite charge.

CONDITIONS OF MISSIONARY LIFE 73

There, too, his work, while as responsible as ever, was
less confining. The teaching was chiefly in the hands of
a Syrian head-master and an Egyptian assistant, the
religious teaching being his special department, to which
he added a singing class that became a strong attraction
through his infectious enthusiasm, and drew more pupils
to the school. Beyond this, such time as he could con-
trol was devoted as formerly to language study, Italian
being now relegated to the background and his entire
energy concentrated on Arabic. On the whole, the
change at a casual glance breathes of emancipation.

A look beneath the surface, however, may alter our
opinion and reveal the fact that inwardly he was more
bound than before. He had voluntarily dedicated himself
soul and body to an enterprise before which the most
capable stands dwarfed^ and in face of which his utmost
achievement must ever prove less than the situation de-
manded. Henceforth, even when over-straining his pow-
ers, a haunting sense of shortcoming would be apt to
replace the old emancipating sense of going beyond his
contract.

Moreover, a missionary is one of those whose day's
work has no definite limit. There is no hour at which
the claim of his calling automatically ceases, no daily
allotment of labour, to do more than which is to pass
out of the realm of duty, and whose accomplishment
leaves him free to doff the missionary and develop the
man. There is no room available for the stimulating
interests and hobbies that men are wont to cultivate along
the margin of their lives, and should the missionary by
sheer force of will create a margin and seek to keep it
sacred to family life and to his personal weal, the en-
closure will presently be invaded by duties unexpectedly
thrust upon him. Claims of the corporate body of which

74 AT THE PORT OF EGYPT

he is a loyal member, claims of the work as a whole, of
which his own is so small a portion — such claims must
take precedence of all that is private and personal. How
to respond adequately without neglecting his previous re-
sponsibilities will be a continual problem, in the solution
of which all considerations of what is due to the normal
development of his own life and character are liable to
be swept away. The man who so often in the past had
driven his life at breakneck speed was soon to find it
beyond his control, and the overwork which had always
been to him a temptation and a snare was henceforth to
become his inevitable lot.

Of the full force of the change, however, he was not
at once conscious. Mr. Lansing, though suffering often
from ophthalmia, persevered with his share of the work,
and for some months Mr. Hogg was able to follow in a
measure the routine he had marked out for himself. His
ordination took place on May 22, and was the first official
act of the mission's newly formed Presbytery, of which
he was chosen clerk. On June 24 he preached his first
sermon in Arabic, following it from time to time with
others whenever he had them ready for delivery.

In July, the whole household, seeking health, encamped
in tents at Ramleh, a desert region that has since blos-
somed like the rose, stretching along the seacoast east-
ward from the city. The camp was fixed at twenty
minutes' distance from the sea, and the school was con-
sidered by the Scotsman still within walking distance, till
a few experiments taught him wisdom and led to the
purchase of Lucifero, his first donkey. Here teaching
was for a while confined to three days weekly, and
Arabic was the engrossing interest of the hour. The
wind, the glare, and the flies at last drove Mr. and Mrs.
Lansing, with their sick baby, back to town, and the

TENT-LIFE AT RAMLEH 75

young couple were for the first time alone on Egyptian
soil. Some glimpses of their life may be gleaned from
a letter from Mrs. Hogg to her sister :

" There is a new home-feeling that creeps over us,
as John and I sit down to our breakfast and tea alone,
that has an irresistible fascination about it. ... The
mornings and evenings are beautiful, and if you could
sit down with us you would be charmed. We have the
tent thrown quite open so as to have the full benefit of
the sea breeze, and thus we have a wide landscape thor-
oughly oriental in its character lying stretched out before
us, upon which we can feast our eyes. . . . First of all
there is as much sand as your heart could wish, if not
more ; then there are majestic palm trees, and in the
evening the rich glow of sunset which sets off the palm
trees to great advantage ; while in the morning there is
the deep blue sky and everything looking fresh and beau-
tiful from the heavy dew which falls almost every night.
For some mornings past we have been having breakfast
in the open air under the shade of some palm trees,
where we sit on the sand in Arab fashion round an Arab
table which is not a foot high."

Mercifully they little dreamed how seldom through
the many years of married life that lay before them they
would be able to " sit down to breakfast and tea
alone." In Egypt the married missionaries have al-
ways held their homes at the mission's disposal, and
with a generosity for which they deserve and win un-
measured gratitude and love, have ever been ready to
share their homes with the unmarried workers on the
field, the loneliness of whose lot they thus greatly re-
lieve. The willingness of this service and the tenderness
of the ties that often spring from it do not nullify the
sacrifice involved. The unhampered freedom and privacy
so essential to that " home-feeling " that rendered the

76 AT THE PORT OF EGYPT

tent-life fascinating are not mere luxuries, the surrender
of which serves only to diminish the pleasure of exist-
ence. To some natures they are almost essential to real
self-expression and to the development of some of the
finest possibilities latent in their souls.

Of such a nature was the man whose life we are now
endeavouring to follow and understand. To the end the
impression he generally created was of a warm, genial
frankness, and perhaps only those nearest and dearest to
him realised how limited was the area of that frankness,
and what barriers of reserve imprisoned the soul within.
With babies and little children he retained all his days
the power of lavishing his affection with perfect nat-
uralness, and their response was invariable and imme-
diate; but a kind of shyliess that contradicted his outer
manner encased his heart. His deeper feelings he could
rarely reveal, and in regard to them his pen moved more
readily than his lips. That he was conscious of his dis-
ability and realised its cause is evident from a sentence
penned near the close of his life. " It is our misfor-
tune," he says, " and not our fault, that living as we
have always done in the sight of others, our affections
have been restrained from showing themselves so much
that it has become unnatural for us to show them." Yet
even in those closing years there was something in him
that constrained a feeling that his reserve and undemon-
strativeness were an accident of his lot rather than an
inherent element of his character, and that to the mission
cause he had sacrificed what was more precious than
talents, time, and strength ; he had sacrificed some of
the most sacred possibilities and joys of manhood.

The tent-life was soon over, and the young couple
began housekeeping in the dwelling hitherto occupied by
the Lansings — Miss Dales and later Miss McKown, who

THE WORK IN ALEXANDRIA 77

arrived in November, living with them. It had been
decided that Mr. Lansing, as not needing to be in touch
with the schools, should rent a house in the Moham-
medan quarter. Sickness, however, intervened, and
changes subsequently occurred that prevented his reset-
tlement in Alexandria, and finally determined his loca-
tion in the metropolis.

The whole responsibility of the Alexandria work was
thus suddenly thrown upon the younger man in less than
two months after the preaching of his first sermon in
the language of the country. Only his successors on the
field, who with travail of soul have attained a use of
that strange and difficult tongue, can duly appreciate the
magnitude of the task confronting him. Even had Eng-
lish been his vehicle of expression, the preparation of two
new sermons weekly would have been no slight burden to
carry, considering the many other responsibilities, new
and old, that complicated his life. These waged a con-
stant and successful warfare against " proper evangelistic
labour," in which the latter, the " anxious desire " of
his heart, was forced to take refuge in spare half hours.
His wife, watching jjpe effect of defeated longing on
the soul that harboured it, significantly remarks, " I am
sure John's health would be much better if his work were
less secular."

He tries to make clear the situation in a letter to his
former pastor at Tranent :

" Two days' stay with us here would go far to explain
the whole matter. Let me try to give you some idea of
the amount of secular work that falls to be done.

"First: All Scriptures and other books sent to Egypt
for mission work have to pass through our hands, and
... it requires nearly a day to bring a box of books
from the steamer out in the harbour, through the custom

78 AT THE PORT OF EGYPT

house, to the bookshop, and thence to the railway station.
This falls to be done at least once a fortnight.

" Second: The schools have to be attended to. I refer
... to the unwieldy machinery — two local committees
and three in Scotland who have to be kept informed of
the progress of the work.

" Third: Accurate reports of our sales at the Scripture
Depository have to be forwarded from time to time to
the Bible Society in London.

" Fourth: The keeping of the accounts of our schools,
depot, committees, Mission Board, etc., consumes a large
amount of precious time, owing to the numerous and
ever-changing values of the coins current in the country.

" Add to this our frequent interruptions from passing
travellers, some of whom almost expect us to throw our-
selves at their service and take them round to see the
lions of the place, and you will have some slight idea of
the secular portion of a missionary's work at a central
station and seaport town like Alexandria."

His heavy clerical work was increased in January,
1861, by his becoming general treasurer for the entire
mission, and he mentions spending eight hours a day
for three weeks over semi-annual reports to the Mission
Board and British and Foreign Bible Society. America
was in the throes of civil war, and the difficulty of secur-
ing funds to carry on mission work was naturally ex-
treme. For years bankruptcy seemed imminent, and the
Egyptian treasurer, facing simultaneously constant calls
for money and an empty exchequer, strained every nerve
to raise funds from other sources. These efforts added
greatly to a correspondence already large. He still nour-
ished a hope that the United Presbyterian Church of
Scotland might eventually unite with the American
Church in the mission in Egypt; and though his many
letters on this subject failed of their first intent, he suc-
ceeded in raising much interest in the work, and the

RELIGIOUS TEACHING 79

students of Edinburgh United Presbyterian Divinity
Hall chose Alexandria as their scheme of effort on two
succeeding years, raising $4,000 for the cause at a time
of direst need.

One cannot wonder at the feeling that came over him
as he faced the question : " What is the nature of mission
labour in Egypt ? " in writing to the Missionary Society
of the United Presbyterian students at Allegheny, Pa.
" Were I to attempt to answer . . . " he says, " by giving
you a detailed account of my own labours . . . parti-
cularly since I became connected with your Church's
mission, I am very much afraid you would petition
the Board for my speedy recall, or at least you would
vote me a layman and write Esq. after my name in
your reply."

Yet when one turns to his " proper evangelistic la-
bours " one is amazed at the amount accomplished. As
already mentioned, the religious teaching in the boys'
school was in his hands, and the senior Scripture class
in the girls' school also. Such teaching he keenly en-
joyed and considered the most important work he had
to do. The chapel hour with the boys was indeed the
happiest hour of the day. The majority of the pupils
were not children but grown lads. About a third of
them were Moslems from twelve to sixteen years of age,
and they formed an inspiring audience, listening to his
expository remarks on the Scripture lesson " as atten-
tively as if they were sitting as a jury in a case of life
and death."

Anxious that the pupils after leaving school should not
drift away from Christian influences, he very soon
opened a reading-room for young men, stocking it with
books and periodicals, religious and secular, in various
languages. Here he was in attendance every evening

80 AT THE PORT OF EGYPT

from six to nine o'clock. The conversation was some-
times religions, sometimes scientific, and the little gather-
ing, varying in numbers from six to sixteen, always
closed with singing, reading, and prayer. Prayer meet-
ings, lectures in astronomy, and studies in the Epistle
to the Romans occasionally took the place of reading and
conversation, and as time went on the interest of the
gathering centred more and more on religion.

Work gives birth to work. The young men began to
plead for a Sabbath Bible c/ass and their plea was granted.
It was held at the same hour as the Sabbath school,
shortly before the morning service, twelve to fourteen
being the usual attendance.

His Sabbaths, though arduous, were the joy of the
week, as being days entirely devoted to the work his
heart delighted in. The audience room was packed to
discomfort, in spite of the younger scholars having been
sent home previous to the service to make room for their
seniors. The place of meeting, an upper room in a
narrow side-street, was shabby and dingy, badly seated
and badly ventilated, too uncomfortable as well as unat-
tractive to draw casual and curious hearers. This was
a keen sorrow and narrowed his influence. It had but
one element of compensation, that with the occasional
exception of some man who had an axe to grind, the
service was attended entirely by such interested listeners
as a speaker delights in. " You ask me," he writes,
" how I like preaching in Arabic ? I like it so much
that it is with the greatest self-constraint that I can
get to the end of a sermon in less than an hour ! I feel
as if I could preach all day long ! "

But though " never so happy " as when preaching, he
would spend the interval at noon tossing uneasily on a
divan or pacing the floor, too tired to rest; and when a

ARABIC PREACHING 81

second service had followed, the climax of the whole
week's effort was reached and an exhaustion settled on
him, so complete that often the new week was half over
before its effects had worn away. What increased the
strain of the day was the constant inadequacy of his
preparation, for believing that his future usefulness would
depend largely on his mastery of Arabic, he felt forced to
devote what half-hours of leisure he could secure to im-
proving his knowledge of the language rather than the
quality of his preaching. Usually Saturday evening
closed upon him with only his texts in readiness, and
as the thought and study devoted to them in such hours
as he stole from the night rarely bore their full fruitage
till he stood a-face with his audience the tension during
each weekly effort was extreme.

One cannot but recognise the fact that so early and
lavish a use of unprepared and uncorrected speech in
a new language was a dangerous experiment, likely to
result in habits of inaccurate construction and slovenly
pronunciation that might have shackled him for life.
But the man proved equal to the test. He had entered
on his mission life singularly equipped for the service.
His delicate ear had lessened for him the difficulty not
only of consonants unknown in English, but of the more
subtle and baffling distinctions of sound that lurk in
such consonants and vowels as are supposed to be
common to both languages, and deceive the unwary
westerner by their apparent similarity. Moreover, his
native linguistic talent bequeathed on him that sensitive-
ness to the genius of a language that aids its happy
possessor at every turn and shields him from the grosser
forms of idiomatic blunder.

During his months of loneliness in 1856 he had, as he
himself acknowledged, " mastered the most difficult

82 AT THE PORT OF EGYPT

part " of Arabic, — its pronunciation and its general struc-
ture. He held that with good health and working with
all their might, most men could do this in a year, and
that this correct framework once secured, all future study
became joy.

Upon this joy he had entered when he joined the mis-
sion in 1860, and instead of floundering in darkness like
many an anxious beginner at the mercy of an inexperi-
enced teacher, was able from the start to act the part of
pilot towards the port he sought. When therefore, seven
months later, he was forced into extemporary preaching,
he had doubtless already reached a stage of advance-
ment that few attain till much later in their missionary
career.

The dangers of the experience were thus greatly di-
minished, and he was still further safeguarded by his own
high standards in the matter. No average knowledge of
the language would content him. The grammatical care-
lessness of even educated Egyptians annoyed his ear,
even as careless pronunciation of English had done at
an earlier stage in his life. He heartily indorsed the
opinion of learned Arabians that the Arabic language is
an unfathomable deep, but he purposed to continue his
soundings in it till death, and believed that every mis-
sionary who valued his influence aright would do the
same. With such views, carelessness was an unlikely sin,
and his weekly gain was great in the fluency and ease
with which he could use an instrument at first unwieldy.
When 1862 dawned he felt himself able to preach a better
extemporaneous sermon in Arabic than in English.

Meanwhile for months he had been undergoing a daily
drill in the rules and technique of the language that
stood him in good stead, however regrettable the neces-
sity at the time as stealing hours from more direct mis-

LACK OF SPACE 83

sionary labour. In the boys' school the head-master de-
serted, tempted by more lucrative openings in the business
world. No successor was available, and the missionary
for half a year taught six hours daily to fill the vacant
post. As his assistants, a Syrian and a Copt, were not
sufficiently advanced in Arabic grammar to teach the
higher classes, these all fell to his lot, and the work of
preparation proved no sinecure.

The keenest trial of his life at this time was not its
strenousness, its complexity, or its sacrifices. It was the
simple physical lack of space. The school could contain
no more pupils, the audience-room on Sabbath no more
worshippers. When numbers increased, new pupils and
hearers being attracted by the quality of the teaching
and preaching provided, the discomforts of overcrowding
were sure to drive others away. Even a slow, natural
growth became impossible, while his visions were of
developments far beyond the region of the natural, unless
viewed in the light of the infinite power of the Lord of
the Kingdom.

Looking back to Alexandria at a later period of his
life, he asserts " from bitter experience " that this " sense
of waste " is after all " the heaviest cross that a mission-
ary has to bear — to have to preach to a dozen in an upper
room of a private dwelling when with a mission hall in
the central part of the city he might be preaching to a
thousand; " and remarks : " A few thousand pounds,
given at the right time, would have multiplied the area
. . . and increased the value of our missionary labours
tenfold in ... every department."

Of trials more private and personal the years in Alex-
andria were singularly free, and in spite of all draw-
backs the new happiness that marriage had brought into
his life seemed at times " almost too great to last long/'

84 AT THE PORT OF EGYPT

It was still further increased by the birth of a daughter
on June 22, 1861 — Mary Lizzie, a joyous little spirit
whose short life has left sunny tracks across the sea of
time. Her father's home letters give occasional glimpses
of her seated on his knee or propped up among the cush-
ions on the divan amusing herself while he wrote, and
he describes her as " fair, fat, and funny," and again
as " pretty, plump, and playful as a kitten, healthy and
good-tempered like her mother."

Care there was, for the Board repeatedly warned them
that on account of financial conditions in America their
salary might soon be reduced, while the constant calls
on their hospitality, inevitable at a seaport, already ren-
dered the task of living within their income almost be-
yond their power. " Lucifero " was readily sacrificed
for the family weal, but further retrenchment proved
difficult. Yet the burden seems to have pressed but
lightly on the young couple. The husband declared that
if it came to the worst he would live on " parritch and
sour milk," or " take to making tents like the Apostle
Paul," rather than give up his new work and go home,
and both seem to have preserved a cheerful confidence
that the God of the Bay of Biscay would not let them
want.

VI
AT THE HEART OF THE PROBLEM

God has conceded two sights to a man.
One of man's whole work, time's completed plan;
The other of the minute's work, man's first
Step to the plan's completeness.

— ROBERT BROWNING.

TO many the term " mission policy " has doubtless
a forbidding sound, but as studied in the con-
crete by the Alexandrian missionary its interest
was intense. He realised acutely that a vacillating or
mistaken policy must mean to a mission what it would
mean to an army — loss of money, loss of time, loss of
human life, loss of force, and perhaps a lost campaign.
The inhabitants of Egypt numbered at this time about
4,700,000; the men of the mission 4. By what disposal
of their talents might these mere units influence vitally
and permanently the life of the nation? It was a ques-
tion for a Gideon and men of Gideon's faith.

Two points seemed clear to him, — that a business agent
should be on the field to free the ordained men for the
work for which they had been qualified; and that each
man, thus set free, should focus his efforts on multiply-
ing himself by raising up native workers. The first
policy he urged upon the Board, but years passed before
it was adopted. The second policy moulded his whole
life.

As early as January, 1861, he writes of his school
that its aim is not merely the intellectual, moral, and

85

86 AT THE HEART OF THE PROBLEM

religious education of a large number of Alexandria's
youth, but " also and more especially " the training of
a native agency to duplicate in the interior his own mis-
sionary labours. Before the year ended his view was
even stronger.

" I am getting more and more of opinion," he says,
" that the missionary's work in school should be re-
stricted to the training of teachers and native agents,
and that the school should be regarded chiefly as of use
in affording these young men scope for the practice of
their maiden gifts, under the eye of the missionary."

The interior had laid a spell upon him that saved
him from an exaggerated estimate of the relative im-
portance of his own sphere of labour. On September 6,
1860, he had united with Rev. Mr. McCague and Rev.
Mr. Lansing in the purchase of the " Ibis," a Nile-boat
that was to bring within easy access every corner of the
land, and the interest with which he followed the jour-
neys of his two brethren is mirrored in his letters to
the home-land, in which news from the south is apt to
take the precedence of news of his own work. The ex-
traordinary sales of Scripture, the schools started by
Mr. McCague at Luxor and Assiut, the native colpor-
teurs at work, Mr. Lansing's sermons to eager crowds
in Luxor Coptic Church, his tour with the Earl and
Countess of Aberdeen, and their wonderful success in
selling books and Bibles — every detail was dwelt on with
delight. Perhaps the most significant proof of the keen-
ness with which he was following events in which he
had no personal share is one that only those can fully
appreciate who are familiar with the painful task of de-
ciphering Arabic handwriting. Fourteen folio pages are
preserved of his translation at this time of an account

THE MAP OF EGYPT 87

of the persecution of a Christian worker in Assiut, and
a copy of a letter from Abraham Lincoln to the Khedive,
congratulating him on his just action in the case, to-
gether with the Khedive's reply, all of which he trans-
mitted to Scotland to keep the interest of his home
Church warm. Even when pleading for buildings for
Alexandria, one of the arguments urged is that the money
being spent annually on the rent of unsuitable premises
would suffice, if released, to support twelve native work-
ers— not in Alexandria, but " in the interior."

Two brief interludes of river life, one in the Delta
and the other in the Upper Country, played so important
a part in fixing his views of the general plan of cam-
paign to be adopted that they acquire a peculiar interest.

Strip Egypt of its desert regions, that bulk largely
on a map but hardly touch the consciousness of its
people, and it resembles in general outline a long-tailed
kite. The Nile is the bond of the whole, — the string to
which the towns and villages of Upper Egypt are attached,
and the framework on which Lower Egypt, the kite-
shaped Delta, is spread. Where in a kite string ceases and
wooden framework begins, the Nile, that has stood for
both, itself undergoes a change. Hitherto it has run
in a broad single channel, its banks fringed by a narrow
strip of cultivated land, ending at the base of low ranges
of hills. When the Delta is reached the hills fall back
and vanish from view, and the river breaks up into two
main streams which, veering eastward and westward,
flow slowly through flat landscape to the sea. Reaching
it a hundred miles apart, they enclose a large triangle
of the richest soil on earth, perennially green and closely
populated.

It was on the eastern branch of the Nile and in this
densely peopled territory that Mr. Hogg, in the Easter

88 AT THE HEART OF THE PROBLEM

vacation of 1861* made his first river trip, along with
his wife and Mr. and Mrs. Lansing, " four very dear
friends," who could " live in the closest intercourse with-
out jarring." He looked forward to it with the keenest
pleasure, declaring that they would have " a merry time "
and " gather rosebuds " in their pale faces, to be ready
for a long stretch of work through the enervating heat
of summer. Duck shooting was to be the recreation of
the two men, but the counter attraction of the villages
seems to have kept their guns somewhat idle, and the
party cannot have fared sumptuously on the game pro-
cured.

At Damietta they visited an old Coptic church, where
their reception proved memorable. The athletic insects
that in Egypt garrison these old structures leapt on them
in such numbers that they fled routed, peppered from
head to foot by their foes. Their condition was desperate.
They took refuge in the river, and did not venture to
return to the boat till they had rid themselves of some
hundreds of their tormentors and partially recovered
their self-respect.

But they were not tourists, and it was interest in the
people themselves and not in their buildings that drew
them to the towns; conversation with the villagers,
preaching where possible, and the sale of Scriptures to
all who would buy, usually filling their days.

It was, of course, but a limited district that they could
visit in four weeks, but it was a fair sample of the Delta
as a whole. The Mohammedans, besides being illiterate,
bigoted, and contemptuous of the Christian religion as
they expected to find them, assumed such a haughty atti-
tude towards the missionaries that they feared few
would be found willing to listen to any message that
came through the lips of a Christian foreigner, until

IN THE DELTA 89

some political upheaval should force upon them the un-
welcome truth that the Mohammedan races are no longer
the world's conquerors. The Copts were few and unin-
fluential, leavened by the evils of Moslem life, wedded
to the superstitions and ceremonies that were all that
remained to them of their ancient Christianity, and sus-
picious of Protestants, whom they had been taught to
regard as worse than infidels. There were, of course,
exceptions to the rule, exceptions that make any gen-
eralisation seem a travesty of the truth, and encouraged
the missionaries in sowing their seed ; yet not the most
sanguine soul could see in the field any promise of a
speedy and fruitful harvest.

Almost a year later Mr. Hogg was again on the Nile
to undertake a more extended tour, with his family and
two native colporteurs, in a region of the country he
had not yet visited. The move was rendered possible
by an addition to the mission force, and by the partial
success that his own efforts to train workers had already
attained. A prolonged and feverish onslaught on his
clerical tasks cleared his desk of all arrears and his con-
science of all claims, while Rev. Andrew Watson, his
new brother-missionary, could, along with the Egyptian
workers, fill the breach caused by his temporary absence
from Alexandria.

This time he did not even pretend that he was planning
a holiday, and yet there was within him something of the
holiday spirit. The six hundred miles of watery highway
between Cairo and Assuan stretched alluringly before
him with two unbroken months of congenial work. Be-
hind lay a year in which bookshop, custom house, trav-
ellers, reports, accounts, school supervision, and secular
classes had jostled and fought for pre-eminence. He
turned with relish to a long-lost privilege — a single

90 AT THE HEART OF THE PROBLEM

clearly defined duty on which to concentrate all his
strength and mind.

r Life on a Nile-boat has a charm all its own. There
is a subtle witchery in the river that awakens in the
traveller a love for it beyond the bounds of cold reason.
A stretch of muddy water flowing day after day between
flat banks of deep stoneless earth and, at a varying dis-
tance averaging seven miles from range to range, ever
the same low limestone hills, rocky and bare, — what ele-
ments of beauty can lurk in such monotonous scenery?
But the tones of the picture are as variable as an opal.
River, hills, and sky pass through mystic transformations
of colour from the first glimmer of dawn till evening
falls and the tender after-glow vanishes, conquered by
the silver sheen of the moon. The passing glimpses of
the life upon the banks remain unendingly picturesque,
however poor and ugly a sober judgment may declare
that life to be, while the river silence and the river
sounds, the lapping waves and the moving oars, the boat-
men's songs and calls from the passing craft please the
ear with unfamiliar music, harmonising strangely with
the scene.

But perhaps the chief magic in the river is in the
past, with which it is inextricably mingled :

" It flows through old hushed Egypt and its sands,
Like some grave mighty thought threading a dream,
And times and things, as in that vision, seem
Keeping along it their eternal stands."

For without the Nile there would have been no Egypt,
no records of " vanished civilisations mirrored for an
instant in this ever-flowing stream," records that history
has been writing on her banks for six thousand years.
All would be desert and the silence of the grave.

EGYPTIAN RIVER BOATS

THE IBIS" THE MISSION BOAT

THE VILLAGES 91

When we look out on a river that for sixty centuries
has wended its historic way through the mazes of the
past to reach us to-day, a river that for three thousand
miles has been travelling northward from its great lake-
home in the heart of the continent to give Egypt life,
is it any wonder if the stretch of waters weaves a spell
over our imagination, and colour, sound, and thought lull
the traveller into a dream?

" And then we wake

And hear the fruitful stream lapsing along
'Twixt villages, and think how we shall take
Our own calm journey on for human sake."

It is the villages and towns that call us back to life,
and the missionary had to pass a thousand of these before
he reached the limit of his journey. Raised above the
level of the plain to be safe from the annual inundation,
half-hidden among clustering palms, their outline often
broken by dome and minaret, they looked attractive in
the distance, and made a lovely picture when mirrored
in the water and glorified by a sunset sky. But at close
quarters their beauty vanished like a mirage, and the
sordid reality was revealed in the dirt and disorder of
poor and ruinous dwellings, their reeking odours, and
squalid, stagnating life. Their human interest was
too keen for the traveller to preserve always a
" calm '' heart as he faced the problem of their
need. Sixty-three of them he visited during his
tour, the distance traversed, inclusive of the return
journey, being about 1,160 miles by boat and 200
on foot or by donkey. He " sold Scriptures in forty
places ; read and expounded them in fifty, held a formal
service in seven, had conversations on religious subjects

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94 AT THE HEART OF THE PROBLEM

the wonder of their continued existence feel surprise at
such a view? Who were these Copts?

Racially they were heirs to all the greatness and the
fame of the ancient Egyptians from whom, like most
of their Moslem fellow-countrymen, they had descended
by direct line of birth, but, unlike them, with blood pure
of all admixture through intermarriage, whether with
conquering Arab, Circassian, or Turk. Ecclesiastically
they were heirs to the glory of Egypt's early Christianity,
when she wore the halo of martyrdom, gave birth to
Christian heroes, and played a ruling part in the life
and thought of the Church of Christ. Historically they
were a faithful remnant who, in the dark days that fol-
lowed the Mohammedan conquest of the Seventh Century,
refused to buy peace and prosperity by accepting their
conquerors' creed, and through twelve hundred years of
obloquy and cruel oppression clung tenaciously to the
Church of their fathers.

And what had they become ? By their picture-worship
they had become the stumbling-block of the Moslems.
Their religious leaders were " epistles of Christ " in
whose corrupted text might be wrongly read Christ's
license to drunkenness and vice; while the errors that
had crept into their creed set the seal of Christ's name
upon a religion in which salvation was divorced from
sanctification, and purchased by pious ejaculations, the
use of the sacraments, fastings, alms, and the interces-
sion of Mary and the saints. The Moslem could not
pierce through such incrusting ceremonies to discover
the true spirit of the Gospel. Considering salvation
already an easy purchase, he could see nought to gain
by the adoption of Christianity save freedom to
drink arrack * and to eat the accursed flesh of the

* An intoxicating drink made from the juice of dates.

THE COPTS 95

pigs that wallowed amongst the mire and refuse of
the streets.

And if we ask how the Coptic Church, with so fair
a history, had sunk so low, the answer is not far to seek,
and carries its own warning to us all. Her people had
lost their Bible. It had been entombed for them in a
language once their own, long since forgotten. Only
now through the efforts of strangers in the nineteenth
century was it being given back to them in Arabic, their
adopted tongue. Meanwhile they had been sorely tried,
and the soul that does not simply " trust in God and do
the right " is submerged by sorrow, instead of being
borne by its waves to higher levels. We have not always
stood life's test so well that we can marvel or condemn
when we find that instead of being perfected by suffering
they had sunk under it, injured morally as well as
physically by their ordeal.

It was little wonder, indeed, that the race had deteri-
orated. For centuries freedom and safety were matters
of purchase, while to appear wealthy was to court ruin.
They strove to adjust themselves to their circumstances
by worldly prudence. The gaining and hoarding of
money had become in all classes the prime aim in life,
its concealment the path of wisdom, lying and deceit
their weapons of defence. Not so are nobility and honour
nourished. Still more fatal was another adjustment. To
protect their women from the dangers that threatened
them in the enjoyment of their ancient freedom, they
adopted for them the Mohammedan custom of seclusion.
Close upon the heels of the new custom followed the
taint of the attitude of mind which it embodied. Their
women, degraded by both custom and attitude, soon sank
in the main to the level of man's contempt, and the life
of the people was poisoned at its source.

96 AT THE HEART OF THE PROBLEM

As for the religion that should have kept their stand-
ards high, its hold upon the majority was the grip of a
dead hand. While even in the darkest age there lived
and loved a chosen few " whom God whispered in the
ear," the Coptic Church had, for the most part, preserved
her primitive Christianity as ancient Egypt preserved her
Pharaohs, embalming the body when the living soul es-
caped. She clung to a body of ancient ritual which was
no longer animated by the spirit of Christ and in which
the heart of love beat no more. Even the outward forms
of her worship and ceremony had grown tawdry and
uninspiring, and were, like the mummied human frame,
bereft of force and beauty and wrapped in rags of ig-
norance and superstition.

Yet when all has been said that truth may demand
as to the difference between a mummied body and a
living man, an Egyptian mummy must always remain
a marvel to the thinking mind. For in a very real sense
it has conquered the forces of dissolution. Through
this very flesh the blood once throbbed, from behind
those closed eyelids thought flashed forth, and while
men in their millions have crumbled into dust, this body,
changed indeed but defying decay, has slept calmly
through the rise and fall of empires. The fact strikes
upon the senses with a suggestion of the miraculous.

It was with feelings akin to these that the missionary
looked back on the history of the Copts, and in the
miracle of their mummied Church he read the promise
of a second and greater miracle that would mean the
regeneration of Islam. The Coptic Church would hear
the voice that had called to Lazarus : " Come forth ! "
and, rising from the sleep of ages, would cast aside her
grave-clothes and gird herself for the work of the Lord.
In the joy of a new life she would obey her Master's

THE MISSION OF THE COPTS 97

command, " Love your enemies, do good to them that
hate you, bless them that curse you, pray for them that
despitefully use you," and rising to the full height of
her calling, would spend herself as a missionary-church
in the loving service of her persecutors. Then, and not
till then, would the heart of Islam be touched. Let them
see a living Christianity ! Let them see a miracle of
resurrection followed by a miracle of Christian forgive-
ness, and the Mohammedans of Egypt would accept the
salvation offered them by God in Christ, enter the king-
dom, and unite with the Copts in crowning the despised
'Isa King and Lord.

Was it a fatuous dream, or a prophet's vision, a mirage
in the desert, or an attainable peak in that " land of far
distances " that the Christian beholds as he follows his
Lord on the highway of duty ?

The missionary put the vision to the test. No dream
can stand the calm judgment of common sense, but this
dream, instead of revealing itself as fantastic, gave
defmiteness and coherence to his schemes, and the most
mathematical mind could not but approve the sanity of
the campaign to which it guided. What were four men
to four million ? But the Copts numbered one to fourteen
of the army of Islam, and four men by God's help might
rouse a slumbering Church of three hundred thousand
souls already stirring in its sleep.

From a dream a man must awaken in the clear light of
day, but the faith that a mummied Church would answer
the call of God and solve the problem of Egypt's redemp-
tion, if born of a dream on the whispering river, yet
glowed steadily on through the disappointments, delays,
and labours of a lifetime, and was still strong within
him when within a year of its close he faced a Scotch
audience for the last time, to give it an account of his

98 AT THE HEART OF THE PROBLEM

work. That the fulfilment of his vision tarried did not
prove the distant view a mirage or the peak unattainable,
but that God had found His people unwilling in the day
of His power and that few had yet been ready to share
the missionary's vision and faith.

VII
IN THE CITY OF THE PATRIARCH

The best men always find it hard to withhold sympathy
from any hoary fabric of belief, and any venerated sys-
tem of government, that have cherished a certain order
and shed even a ray of the faintest dawn, among the
violences and the darkness of the race.

— LORD MORLEY.

Necessity is laid upon me; for woe is unto me, if I
preach not the gospel.

—ST. PAUL.

THE life that faced Mr. Hogg on his return to
Alexandria held a promise of relief for the fu-
ture. His burdens were henceforth to be shared
and lightened by a colleague who, in his absence, had
proved himself " able to do all but preach Arabic ser-
mons," and of whose worth he wrote to America in
terms redolent of missionary greed, " Oh, that you would
send us out six Watsons ! " But as so often happens on
the mission-field, the needs of another station soon broke
up the happy partnership.

Cairo was, in 1862, in the throes of a great emergency.
In the spring a large building had been secured from
the Viceroy by the help of Mr. Thayer, the American
Consul General, after indefatigable labours on the part
of Mr. Lansing and others,* and all through the summer
months Rev. Mr. Lansing and Rev. Mr. Ewing filled the
unaccustomed role of contractors, standing in the dust

* Notable among these was the firm of Tod, Miillcr & Co.,

lifelong friends of the mission.

99

100 IN THE CITY OF THE PATRIARCH

and heat, among masons, carpenters, and labourers of
every sort, overseeing the repairs and alterations neces-
sary to fit the place for its new and varied uses. Mean-
while the building, in its prominent position at the head
of the Muski, accomplished with startling rapidity what
the missionaries had for seven years been labouring
towards ; it awakened the interest and curiosity of the
city and drew crowds within sound of the Gospel. In the
new quarters, the Sabbath audience immediately doubled ;
within a month the school roll increased from 50 to 200;
and visitors flocked to see the missionaries at all hours
of the day.

Success brought joy, but a joy so mingled with wor-
ries and overwork that Mr. Lansing's health threatened
to give way under the strain, and it was decided to borrow
help from Alexandria. In August Mr. Hogg was sent
for and he arrived none too soon. Mr. Lansing was
soon lying at death's door, his life almost despaired of,
and though he recovered sufficiently to winter on the
Nile and engage in evangelistic work, it was not till he
had been absent for nine months in America that he was
able to endure without injury the more confining work
of the city.

When Mr. Hogg arrived in Cairo with his wife and
child, a bed, a chair, a bath, and a harmonium, it was
with no idea of remaining permanently. The presence
of a harmonium among the essentials for his sojourn
in Cairo merely indicates the place music held in his
heart and work. He had come at his brethren's bidding
to relieve them of the burden of the school's abnormal
growth, reorganise the institution in its new dimensions,
and watch over it for a season, until, with machinery
in running order, it might be re-committed without dis-
aster to the partial oversight of an overtaxed man. As

ARRIVAL IN CAIRO 101

late as December he was still dreaming of new plans
for work in Alexandria to be rendered possible on his
return by Mr. Watson's co-operation; but in February,
1863, his location was formally changed to Cairo, and
the family were once more installed in a home of their
own.

He had, however, almost from his first arrival, taken
his place as a regular Cairo missionary. The babel of
labourers was over and the alterations complete. Mr.
Lansing's other responsibilities, however, naturally fell
to the lot of the stop-gap, even while he tackled the
special problem of the school, as Mr. Ewing, besides
being in charge of the English services and the book-
shop, had still the new missionary's task of Arabic study
to hamper and engage him.

His new sphere filled him with enthusiasm. To have
200 pupils with room for 150 more was a novel experi-
ence, while the shortage in teachers was too familiar a
condition to breed dismay. The pupils were gradually
classified, and an evening class opened for the teachers,
to fit them for the charge of such classes as had mean-
while to be conducted by the missionary himself. Per-
haps his greatest joy was " the privilege of spending an
hour a day in studying the Bible with a hundred boys
and six or eight teachers, with strangers constantly drop-
ping in." For in all his school work he carried out to
the letter his own advice :

" Train your teachers well. Be much in the school.
Teach the Scripture lessons yourself in the presence, if
possible, of both teachers and scholars. Go from your
closet to the school desk and throw your whole soul into
your exhortations and prayers, without sparing your
strength for other work that may be before you in the
course of the day."

102 IN THE CITY OF THE PATRIARCH

And the result that he foretold was according to his
faith. Out of thirteen who sat down at the Lord's table
for the first time at the last Communion service of the
year, seven were the direct product of the school. It
was in truth " no failure," but " a nursery of young
plants for the King's garden."

He preached three times a week, his Sabbath morning
audience numbering 130 to 150, and his Wednesday
evening service, meant specially for the young, attract-
ing usually about 200, most of whom were young men,
boys, and girls.

In Cairo, his help was not needed in the girls' school,
which was under the charge of Miss Dales and Miss
Hart. He escaped also from the toil of the custom
house and from personal superintendence of the book
depot, but, as he was still general treasurer for the mis-
sion, the labour of accounts, reports, and correspondence
was in no way lessened. Hundreds of payments and
receipts had to be recorded by him weekly, in which all
varieties of coinage had been used, those of Syria, India,
America, Britain, and almost every country in Europe.
The fluctuating values of such currencies had to be
noted, and to reduce each entry at the last to the one
fixed standard of money in which a final account had to
be rendered was no child's play. " When Presbytery
met towards the end of December," he writes, " I im-
agined that one week would suffice for me to square up
the accounts and draw up the Financial Report; I had
to spend 300 hours of close application before I was
ready to put a pen to the Report " — and this within the
space of 35 days, while teaching and preaching as usual.
It is probable that in such matters he did more than was
required of him, paying the full cost of the fastidious
exactness that characterised him in the keeping of public

IN QUARANTINE 103

accounts ; and as he sensibly remarks, " As to this secular
work, somebody has to attend to it. Unless we are sup-
planted by a staff of angels, it cannot be dispensed with."

It was in March, 1863, with household furniture just
arrived from Alexandria, and but two rooms of the new
home ready for use, that he was suddenly withdrawn
from his labours and found time to write the reminis-
cences of his boyhood days that have preserved them
from oblivion. Mrs. Hogg was laid low with an attack
of smallpox, and her husband quarantined with her to
act the part of nurse.

In many letters written during their seclusion, there
are glimpses of the compensations that the experience
held for the two whom work had so often stinted of
each other's companionship, and while alone together
from morning till night, the love and sympathy of their
mission friends still reached them in unnumbered ways,
so that, as a mere unveiling of the beauties of human
loving-kindness, they felt the stroke to have been amply
justified. The nurse felt also that he had been in per-
sonal need of such an experience, and that God, before
re-committing to his hands his many responsibilities, was
seeking to teach him that he was not indispensable, but
" a mere instrument in the hand of a Master-worker
whose resources it hath not entered into the heart of
man to conceive."

The disease spread no further in the mission circle,
and on the invalid herself it left hardly a trace. On
April 21 the prisoners were released from confinement,
and their gratitude needing some expression, they added
a thank-offering of $50 to their usual mission contribu-
tions, though the threatened reduction of salary was
growing ever more imminent and bankruptcy hanging
like a cloud on the mission horizon.

104 IN THE CITY OF THE PATRIARCH

Other clouds hung nearer, however, soon to burst over
the cause they had at heart. There had been mutterings
of a coming storm. Efforts had already been made to
bribe the teachers at the mission school to desert their
posts and to draft their scholars to other institutions.
But it was not till the beginning of June that the new
Coptic Patriarch frankly opened hostilities. This turn
of events was a disappointment to the missionary. Not
to make the Coptic Church United Presbyterian but to
make her Christian was the great essential in the mis-
sion scheme that had taken such clear outline in his mind
during his river journey, and he had treasured a hope
that this might be accomplished without forcing the mis-
sion into the position of an apparently opposing camp.
By a wide sale of Arabic Scriptures and by plain preach-
ing in the vernacular the truth had been clearly pro-
claimed north and south to laity and clergy alike, and
the widespread hunger and ready response that had
awaited the message suggested the possibility of a mass
movement among the Copts in which such a demand
would be made for a purer creed, purer morals, and
purer practices that those in power would be forced to
make the needful changes. It was a hope that had been
cherished by the Anglican Church through disappointing
years. But though the Anglican missionary, limiting his
appeal to the Coptic clergy, had failed to reach the goal,
why should not the American missionaries succeed, with
their more effective policy of preaching to the people ?

Mr. Hogg had never ceased to follow with mingled
anxiety and gratitude the indications of spreading inter-
est all over the country, but the possibility it had sug-
gested was not one to be published on the housetops.
This need for cautious silence makes it impossible at
this date to discover to what extent his colleagues shared

THE COMING STORM 105

his hope or how soon it was abandoned. " We do not
speak of it," he wrote to a friend, " except in whispers
in our closets, and I pray you to do the same."

A mass movement towards reform could not be the
work of a day, and while it was still but a glimmering
light on the horizon, the missionaries had of necessity
received into their communion the converts who sought
to join them, the ancient Church providing no oppor-
tunity for such to follow the dictates of awakened con-
science in worship and custom. That they might be the
better trained, a small congregation had been organised
in the month of January, and it was hoped that this
little evangelical community would present to the Coptic
Church what that Church when regenerated would pre-
sent to Moslem Egypt, a human pattern of true Chris-
tianity, pure, spiritual, and attractive.

Meanwhile, however, news of the spread of evangelical
sentiments in distant districts began to reach the ears
of the Patriarch, and the very success that had seemed to
promise a peaceful reform made peace no longer possi-
ble. Such reforms as the people desired would have
meant to an inefficient and ignorant clergy a loss of posi-
tion and power to which they would not yield without
a struggle. Distrust, jealousy, fear, hatred, violence —
these were the steps that marked the progress of feeling
in high quarters.

It was hardly to be expected that the Coptic hierarchy
would appreciate the aims and motives of the mission-
aries, and we cannot wonder that a work which the most
loyal native supporters of the National Church now ac-
knowledge to have been to it an inestimable blessing,
proved as unwelcome on its first appearance as do most
blessings that reach us in disguise. As early as March 7,
Mr. Hogg wrote to Mr. Watson: "It seems now as if

106 IN THE CITY OF THE PATRIARCH

there is no course left us with the Coptic hierarchy but
war." and the final stage in the growing antagonism was
reached three months later when the men of the mission
staff were scattered — Mr. Lansing on his homeward jour-
ney. Mr. Ewing in Alexandria, Mr. Watson a suffering
prisoner with acute ophthalmia, and but one of them left
to face the storm at the metropolis.

It burst with sudden fury. All were publicly pro-
scribed who should send their children to the mission
school, visit the bookshop, read its books, have friendly
relations with the missionaries and their " perverts.'* or
attend their meetings. Disobedience would be visited
with excommunication, no vague threat, since its evil
consequences were not confined to an unseen world. The
missionaries were described as " the enemies of all reli-
gion, without priests or sacraments or ceremonies or any-
thing but a Bible they did not understand, wolves in
sheep's clothing who had scattered the seeds of heresy
all over the country, and whose proselytes were twofold
more the children of hell than themselves."

The Patriarch in his vigorous action had the support
of the leading laymen of the Church, whom he had called
together in council. He had not himself, indeed, suf-
ficient education either to compose or to read the edict
described, but it worded for him accurately the spirit of
his resolves. By the advice and aid of his helpers, with
the additional assistance of a grant from Ismail Pasha,
the new Viceroy, the Coptic school was transformed and
enlarged. Here to invite was to command attendance.
Such parents as at first, encouraged by the missionaries,
ventured to risk the wrath of the Church, were visited
in their homes by the priests and browbeaten by their
anathemas into submission. The mission school lan-
guished. Soon the roll had fallen to a third of its original

A VISIT TO THE PATRIARCH 107

length. Efforts were redoubled to capture the teachers.
In some cases triple salary was offered, or government
posts substituted as a bait where employment in the
Coptic school failed to entice. To their honour be it said,
most of the teachers remained faithful to the friends
whose worth they had tested, and were not to be bought
by offers of position or money.

With the schoolboys themselves the attack was more
direct, and school talk was enlivened by tales of skir-
mifhes by the way. One boy after another arrived at
the mission bereft of books or cap, or without the loose
shoes that made running difficult, these articles having
been left in the hands of their would-be captors, who
had sallied forth from the patriarchate to seize the pu-
pils as they passed and convey them by force to the rival
institution.

This was borne patiently for a time, but when the
Patriarch's servants, growing bolder, waylaid the boys at
the very entrance of the mission school, the missionary
concluded that silence would soon savour of cowardice,
and went with the consul to pay to his Holiness a visit
of polite remonstrance.

At the outset all went well, the Patriarch being some-
what uneasy in presence of a guest whose lineage he
had so recently traced to the devil. He had been ig-
norant, he said, of the officious zeal of his servants;
further kidnapping would be forbidden. The boys, how-
ever, were his, and he had a right to use every other
means to secure them. The subject was changed and
the three men sipped coffee and talked with courteous
care.

Xot so, however, was the visit to finish. " These
American missionaries," remarked the Consul pleasantly,
" teach nothing but the pure Gospel, and your Holiness

108 IN THE CITY OF THE PATRIARCH

ought rather to feel grateful to them than otherwise for
the good they are doing to the children of the Copts
and other sects." It was as if a bomb had been sud-
denly thrown in their midst. " Pure Gospel ! " roared
the infuriated Patriarch, in a voice that penetrated far
and wide above the din of the surrounding school-rooms,
which had hitherto made conversation difficult. " Have
the Americans alone got the Gospel? Why don't they
teach it to their slaves if they have it? Why does
brother go to war against brother ? Why have they come
to Egypt with their fine talk? . . . We had the Gospel
before America was born. We don't need them here
to teach us. We know the Gospel better than they do."

The Patriarch's loud indignation gathered scores of
eavesdroppers, who now crowded the windows surround-
ing the court. More than half of the faces were familiar
to one of the visitors. They were faces that had often
lighted up in response as from the school desk he had
talked of the things concerning the Kingdom, and of
the way of life, simple but strait, that has been revealed
and made possible by Jesus Christ.

The sight of the listening boys., with their smiles of
welcome and covert salaams, acted upon him like a cor-
dial. It was their future that hung in the balance, and
before him sat the man whose authority would rivet upon
them the fetters of religious slavery. He felt like one
inspired, his mouth filled with arguments made ready
for his use. His picture of Egypt as it was and Egypt
as it might become wrung from the Patriarch a reluctant
admission that things were not as they should be, and
though he still urged feebly that the Copts could mend
matters unaided, he had no answer ready to the ques-
tion, " Then when will you begin ? " The listener
winced still further when a third picture was drawn, a

A VISIT TO THE PATRIARCH 109

picture of the Coptic Church of the day, and of the
ignorance, Sabbath-breaking, drunkenness, and immoral-
ity of its spiritual guides throughout the country, and
with no answer ready and no denial possible, he sought to
cover his retreat by firing a volley of questions. " Why
do you not worship the Holy Mother of God ? Why do
you not reverence the Mass ? Why do you call us wor-
shippers of images? Why do you not fast? ..."

If the questioner expected the charge to be unwel-
come, he was disappointed. His guest launched out
gladly into careful explanations, thanking God in his
heart for the unexpected opportunity, and presently ob-
jections and interruptions ceased, and Patriarch, at-
tendants, and eavesdroppers listened as quietly as any
church audience while the missionary delivered the mes-
sage that was burning in his soul. " No man cometh
unto the Father but by me." " Neither is there salva-
tion in any other." " Who ever liveth to make interces-
sion for us." " Stand fast therefore in the liberty where-
with Christ hath made you free.'' Thus was preached
the first Protestant sermon within the sacred precincts
of the Patriarchate.

VIII
IX THE WAKE OF PERSECUTION

Who the thunder swayeth.
Who with lightning playeth,
Whom the storm obeyeth,
He ruleth and schooleth both thee and me.

— J. S. STALL YBRASS.

And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him.

— GENESIS xxni, SI.

THE interview with the Patriarch seems to have
marked the turn of the tide. In their extremity7
the mission band had been led " to pray as never
before, — to wrestle at the throne, entreating the Lord
for the honour of His great name to come to the rescue ; "
and now their petitions became more and more mingled
with thanksgiving for answered prayer. That one of
the arrows shot by the Patriarch's visitor had won home
was evinced by the fact that, having heard of a priest's
persistent assertions that the missionaries circulated a
corrupted version of the Bible, His Holiness so cursed
and berated the offender for exposing his ignorance be-
fore Protestants that the poor man took a week in bed
to recover from the effects of his fright. Friendly rela-
tions were gradually re-established between Protestants
and Copts, and the former were treated with respect.
Pupils were no longer molested in the streets, and one
by one deserters drifted back to the school of their
choice. Before returning, they made the reasons for

110

NEW VITALITY 111

their preference abundantly clear to the priest who super-
intended the school of the Patriarch.

New signs of vitality appeared within the infant
Church. " When the path of duty is made clear to them,
they try at once to enter into it," was the preacher's
testimony to the earnestness of his little flock. Anxious
that instead of contenting themselves with family wor-
ship they should strive in their different districts to
gather in friends and neighbours to worship with them,
he prepared a sermon on united prayer for the Holy
Spirit, his first written discourse, which took an hour to
read because he had " no time to cut it shorter." In
response, four district prayer meetings were immediately
started, and the teachers decided to meet together on
Saturday mornings to pray for themselves and their
pupils. Another sermon on systematic giving gave birth
to a missionary society, the church

ing at the close of the service to take action at once,
and pledging themselves to contribute $18.75 monthly
towards the evangelisation of their country.

Soon after, a delegation gathered in the study at the
mission house. The district meetings were being held
nightly, but the leaders, while reading the Bible, found
themselves incompetent to give the explanations desired.
Moreover, some of the Copts, amazed to hear Protestants
praying for them, had decided to open a meeting at the
Patriarchate to pray for themselves, and while accepting
a priest as their nominal leader, had requested the pres-
ence and help of the mission's head-teacher and one of
the recently appointed elders, a post of responsibility for
which they felt themselves inadequately prepared. Who
could resist their plea for help? Certainly not the man
with whom they pleaded, who considered it a migyjpn-
ary's " chief end " to train native workers. For many

IN THE WAKE OF PERSECUTION

weeks a class was held four evenings weekly, attended
by about sixteen school teachers and district leaders,
when after spending an hour and a half in Bible study
and earnest prayer, they scattered to their various meet-
ings to share with others the benefits they had them-
selves received.

The meeting at the Patriarchate continued for over a
month, with 35 or 40 in attendance, among them some of
the leading laymen of the Coptic Church. The head
teacher and elder strove diligently to follow the advice
given them, to avoid argument and lead discussion into
helpful channels. But it was soon evident to all that
the conducting priest, with growing infatuation, sought
to stir up strife, while, worsted in the arguments he
himself provoked, his virulence grew with each defeat.
At length the meeting broke up in confusion, the Copts
declaring they would go where they chose for profit,
and be no longer beholden to the Patriarch for his hard
benches and his blustering priest — whose only titles to
distinction were the poverty of his logic and knowledge
of Scripture, and the wealth of his vituperative vocab-
ulary.

This occurrence brought the Protestants more than
ever before the public. They formed a common topic of
conversation in the shops and by the way, and their
doctrines were eagerly discussed by many who would
never have heard their name but for the Patriarch's
efforts to crush them as dangerous foes.

The storm as it passed had had a similar effect within
the school. A spirit of inquiry pervaded the air. The
boys were aroused to more active thought, and the
Scripture lessons acquired an enhanced value. Eight
young men and one girl applied for admission to the
Church, and while five were advised to delay, the public

STRAIN AND WEARINESS US

dedication of the remaining four produced a deep im-
pression. Six months before this Bamba, the girl com-
municant, after a long season of doubts and fears, had
found the Christian's joy in life, and from that moment
her development had been rapid and her influence felt.
When she rose now from the midst of the schoolgirls
to take her stand beside the young men and answer the
questions addressed to her, the effect on her companions
was marked ; and before a week had passed three of the
teachers, who had been weeping quietly at the time, had
found for themselves the secret of her happiness, while
several of the girls had decided to join the quest and
were meeting with her and the teachers daily for prayer.

While the Patriarchal storm thus shared the sequel
of many a thunderclap, the clouds dispersing to leave
the sky sunnier than before, it had. nevertheless, while it
lingered, given many an anxious thought to a mind
already burdened with abundant care, and there are
hints of strain and weariness in his private correspond-
ence throughout the year.

When Mr. Lansing sailed, Mr. Hogg had written, " I
feel inclined to cry out with the Apostle Paul, ' Who is
sufficient for these things ? ' ' Who is weak and I am
not weak ? ' ' A few months later, writing to an aunt,
he contrasts the present with the past :

" I have wrought three times as hard these last three
years as ever I did as a collier. Then the day's work
was done when we had washed and had our clothes
changed and picks mended, but here there is no rest at
all — let me work ever so hard, I always go to bed with
something undone. Still the work is the Lord's. . . .
Wrhen all our brethren are back, the pressure of work
upon me will not be so constant and at least my cares
will be lighter. It is a pretty responsible position for
one so young to fill. I have had about 46 agents —

teachers, colporteurs, and others — under my charge for
the last year, as well as some very troublesome cases of
church discipline to manage. ... I was brought up to
hard work from the first, and now I understand why it
was so. Had I been pampered in my youth, I should
have been useless in my present sphere."

Quite apart from the pressing sense of responsibility,
the actual toil was no slight load. On the last night of
the dying year he summed up the work accomplished :
208 sermons, addresses, and lectures delivered, four of
them in English; 540 hours of teaching, forty of them
spent in drilling his teachers in Arabic grammar; 500
hours of work on mission accounts ; over 1,100 pages
of correspondence; 180 pages translated into Arabic from
books of varying size and 23 chapters from Dr. Edward's
Commentary on the Bible.

But there was a large element in his life, as in the
life of most, beyond his control and outside of the sphere
of his statistical hobby, without some account of which
the picture would be incomplete. To his brother William
he describes the interruptions of a day which he had
planned to devote to correspondence, translation, and
study :

" After family worship I came along to my library
. . . but had no sooner sat down than in came first one,
then another, and then a third, and so on till six o'clock
at night, and they might have remained much longer had
I not put on my hat and told them that I could stand
it no longer. Had my visitors been wishing to learn
the way of salvation from me I would have borne with
them gladly, but nothing was further from their minds.
One wanted to rent a house for six months, but the
owner would not let it for less than a year, and he
wished me to become responsible for the year's rent,

INTERRUPTIONS 115

promising if he left it at the end of six months to find
another person to take it. Another had been disap-
pointed in getting the sister of one of our teachers to
wife, and wished me to call them to account and arrange
matters. He had come from Alexandria for the express
purpose of seeing me on the subject. A third was a
Protestant stranger from Asia Minor, who wished me
to procure a ticket of leave from the authorities in Cairo,
as he wished to return to Diarbekr, and this could not
be done without my finding some one who would be
responsible to the Government for all his debts, etc., and
give bail for him. And so on to the end of the chapter.
I am getting accustomed by degrees to such interrup-
tions, but it goes hard against the grain, and for the
life of me I cannot appear to be happy to see a^visitor
when I wish him to be at the back of beyond."

Yet the reception of visitors was often a pleasure and
privilege, with results more far-reaching than the work
which it interrupted, and " thereby some have entertained
angels unawares."

This fact was brought forcibly to the mind of the mis-
sionary in the spring of 1864 by a curious web of cir-
cumstances, the weaving of which he watched with the
keenest interest — a web woven round the life and for-
tunes of Bamba, the pupil-teacher whose stand for Christ
at the previous Communion service had so moved her
fellows.

She was only fifteen years of age, and Mr. Hogg de-
scribes her as " beautiful and unsophisticated, extremely
winning in all her ways, and graceful, even queenly, in
her movements." Her missionary friends felt her to
have " such a character as heroines are made of," and
looked forward anxiously to the future, fearing lest an
unsuitable marriage might occur to mar her fine develop-
ment. Her mother was an Abyssinian slave, who had

116 IN THE WAKE OF PERSECUTION

brought up her child in the simple Eastern style to
which she was herself accustomed. Her father was a
wealthy German merchant, justly loved and respected
by all who knew him, on whose heart hung heavily the
responsibility for his innocent daughter's destiny, the
lingering shadow from a far-off past. Her innate
superiority rendered marriage with any of her
mother's kin an injustice, while the circumstances of
her birth seemed to bar the entrance into such a
rank in life as she was fitted to adorn. The prob-
lem was suddenly solved in the incredible fashion of
fairy tales.

Two months had passed since Bamba was received
into the Church, when Mr. Hogg, seated one Sabbath
in his study at the close of his afternoon's work, re-
ceived a note whose contents so startled him that he
read and reread it as though unable to trust his eye-
sight. It bore the signature of the Maharajah Dhuleep
Singh, whose father, the conquered King of the Punjab,
had been a man of wide fame and fabulous wealth. The
exiled Prince, besides possessing jewels of untold value
and large estates in Britain, received from the British
Government annually an income of nearly $2,000,000,
and was entitled in Britain to a rank next to that of
the royal family. He was returning to India, with a
special permit from Parliament, to commit his mother's
remains, in accordance with her dying request, to the
care of her relatives for the performance of the funeral
rites of her religion and country. While in Cairo the
young man had visited the mission schools frequently
and mingled with the missionaries in the friendliest
manner, winning their confidence by his unaffected ear-
nestness and kindly bearing.

The note was simple and direct. It ran as follows :

THE STORY OF BAMBA 117

MY DEAR MR. HOGG,

I was desirous of having a talk with you this morning
in private, but did not have the opportunity of meeting
with you alone.

What I wished to have spoken to you about was
whether there was in either of your schools a truly
Christian girl who has joined the Church, and whom
you and Miss Dales could recommend me for a wife.
Being an Easterner myself, it is very desirable that I
should find a wife from the same quarter of the globe.

Will you keep this matter quite secret and will you
let me have an answer before I leave for Suez this
evening, so that should there be no one in your schools
here I may look out for one in India?

Rank and position in life are of no consequence to
me. What I want is a truly Christian girl who loves
the Lord Jesus in sincerity and truth.
I am,

Yours faithfully,

DHULEEP SINGH.

After rapid consultation with Mr. Ewing, Mr. Hogg
hurried to the hotel of the Prince to answer his question
in person. The Prince remembered Bamba well and lis-
tened with interest to every detail concerning her. The
picture presented to him proved attractive. He brushed
aside external obstacles, as of trivial importance should
the girl herself be worthy of love and honour. His
unavoidable absence, he said, would give ample time for
further thought and prayer, and on his return, all being
favourable, he would advise with the missionaries as to
what course to pursue in his suit.

A night's delay in starting, however, with the wakeful
hours of meditation it afforded, made two months' un-
certainty seem insupportable, and Monday forenoon
found him closeted with his mission friends discussing
the situation further and prepared to make his proposal

118 IN THE WAKE OF PERSECUTION

at once. Bamba, all unconscious, came to the study to
give to the distinguished guest a handkerchief she had
embroidered for him as a memento of the school in which
he had taken so kindly an interest, and presenting her
gift, she kissed his hand and withdrew, little dreaming
with what feelings her graceful eastern salutation was
received. The Maharajah begged the missionaries to
pray with him, and when they rose from their knees
Miss Dales sallied forth as his ambassador, bearing the
fateful message. The girl received the Prince's offer
with perfect composure, but her impulse was to reject it
without consideration. Her thoughts of God's service
had not yet crossed the boundary of the school she so
dearly loved, and to God's service she would devote her
life. When it was suggested, however, that the offer
might be God's call to a wider service, she was willing
that its claims should be weighed, and requested that the
matter be submitted to her father for decision. Her
attitude pleased the Prince, but necessitated his leaving
Cairo without the answer that would seal his fate.

Scarcely had he gone, when Mr. Hogg discovered that
Bamba's father was in town and leaving by a train that
was timed to start immediately. Trusting to some provi-
dential delay, he hurried to the station in time to make
to the astonished father, through the carriage window,
an offer on the Maharajah's behalf for his daughter's
hand; but the door was already locked, and little more
than the bare fact had been communicated when they
discovered the train already in motion, carrying off the
bewildered man.

The faded yellow documents in which the romance
has been preserved are so instinct with human interest
that they tempt one to linger over the tale. A long
letter of explanation, penned after returning from the

BAMBA,
The bride of the Maharajah Dhuleep Singh

THE STORY OF BAMBA 119

station and brought to an abrupt conclusion at u P.M.
by the entrance of the father himself, who had alighted
at the first stopping-place on his route and travelled
back by a goods train to discuss the event more fully.
A wise, full, and understanding letter, written in Arabic,
for Bamba to ponder in the privacy of her own room,
to help the girl, to whom her father had remitted the
delicate task of decision, to weigh carefully all the issues
at stake and reach a personal and unbiased conviction
as to God's will. The translation from Arabic of a little
letter full of a sweet simplicity, in which the daughter
tells her father that, after days of darkness, light has
dawned, revealing the new sphere as of God's planning.
The welcome message to the Prince that crowned his
hope with certainty, and a copy of his answering message
to his promised bride, with plans for her preparation
for the exalted rank awaiting her. Lastly the mission-
ary's letters to his home-circle, through which are scat-
tered glimpses of the progress of the courtship, the
growing happiness of the two concerned and their efforts
to learn each other's language, items regarding dress and
jewels and wedding arrangements, news of the princely
thank-offering of $5,000, given in Bamba's name for the
work to which both owed so much, and details of the
honeymoon and the happy days spent by the sweet and
unspoiled bride with her old companions in the school
she loved.

But what concerns us more than the tale the docu-
ments tell is the unconscious revelation they contain of
the character of their writer and collector, of the strong
human sympathies that opened to him the hearts of the
three chief actors in the drama, and of his power of
looking at life through the eyes of another while keeping
in view all sides of the matter at issue, a power which

120 IN THE WAKE OF PERSECUTION

made him a wise and helpful counsellor. Moreover,
there is interesting evidence throughout of two currents
of happiness whose sources present a quaint contrast;
the one springing from the simple world-wide love of
romance and a very human but not unworldly gratifica-
tion, amused but genuine, at the leading part allotted
him in the marriage negotiations and wedding ceremony
of a man so high in rank as to be on terms of intimacy
with Queen Victoria herself ; the other deep and spiritual,
springing from a vivid and glad recognition of that
" good and acceptable and perfect will of God " which
he seemed to see controlling the minutest details of
experience to the establishment of the Kingdom.

Of that wise and loving control the immediate financial
relief caused by the Prince's generosity gave grateful
evidence. The thank-offering had come when the mission
treasury was burdened with debt and every remittance
from America lost over sixty-four per cent in transit
owing to the exorbitant rate of exchange the Civil War
had brought in its train. Added to the $5,000 received
was the promise of an annual gift of half that sum to
make possible an increase in the mission staff, and Mr.
Hogg wrote an earnest plea to the Church in America
to rise to the new opportunity, begging indeed not for
two but for six new missionaries.

To this he received a discouraging reply, and the need
of the country pressed upon him heavily. His oversight
of scattered workers had kept him in touch with all
parts of the field, serving to deepen the impressions that
had been produced upon him by his work on the Nile.
The interior thus uttered insistently in his heart the
Macedonian cry. He had been left alone in Cairo only
six months. Mr. Ewing returned in November and
Mr. Lansing the following April, and he now urged on

A PLEA FOR REDISTRIBUTION 121

his colleagues that instead of subdividing the work they
should redistribute their forces and without awaiting
further reinforcements enter in to possess the land. He
even undertook to prove that by rearrangement three
might be made to equal five, that the two left in Cairo
would do almost as much as the three were now accom-
plishing, while one at Assiut or any new centre in the
far interior would be so free from secular business as
to do as much direct evangelistic work as two could
compass in Cairo.

This arithmetical argument failed to convince his col-
leagues, and he was forced to yield to their judgment,
though " against a strong conviction of duty." Their
judgment wavered, however, when Mr. Hogg returned
soon after from a visit to the Faiyum district, with a
report of conditions so hopeful yet critical that the imme-
diate presence of a settled missionary seemed indispensa-
ble. It was agreed that he should spend four or five
months in the new sphere, and the preparations for de-
parture were begun with a secret sense of finality, as
he cherished the hope that his temporary absence would
convince his colleagues that his arithmetic had been
correct. But he was forced to abandon the project.
News of the interest that was stirring the Faiyum people
reached the Patriarch, who used such strong measures
to crush the movement that the inquirers in alarm feigned
full submission, and so changed their bearing that the
time became unpropitious for a missionary's advent.

Thus thwarted in his plans for extending the work by
a redistribution of forces, Mr. Hogg now threw himself
with ardour into a scheme already mooted, but hitherto
impracticable, for increasing the number of competent
workers. He had urged upon Presbytery, in 1863, the
necessity of beginning at once to raise up a well-trained

122 IN THE WAKE OF PERSECUTION

native ministry to man the field. This project was ap-
proved, but in the absence of Mr. Lansing and Mr.
Ewing, who were appointed to share with him in the
enterprise, nothing formal or permanent had yet been
attempted. Now, however, all was favourable, and in
September, 1864, a theological class was inaugurated
with ten students on its roll.

He soon added an hour to the two hours of teaching
allotted him, in addition to which he translated each day
into Arabic the required portion of the text-book,
Hodge's Outlines of Theology. Of this he wrote: "It
is extremely difficult to translate, but if I succeed in
putting such a book into intelligible Arabic I shall then
be prepared for almost any kind of work on theological
subjects." With simpler books he seems already to have
attained ease in translation, for he refers to the trans-
lating of a tract in an afternoon and morning, which,
swollen in the process by the addition of ten pages of
original matter, took an hour to read aloud. Revising
it with the help of an Arabic teacher, he had it in con-
dition for printing two days later, and remarks that he
could not have done it in English so soon.

The two colleagues started a magazine, which they
intended to be a monthly issue, and seem to have con-
tinued the effort undaunted, though the first number,
prepared by Mr. Hogg with feverish concentration in
three days, was delayed three and a half months in the
press.

Another form of Arabic composition he undertook
as mere pastime, as appears from the following:

" On Sabbath evening I felt a little tired, so I thought
I would try and write an Arabic hymn. I set to work and
composed one of nine verses ... to the measure of
' What's the News/ and Monday I had the teachers teach

THE DOOR OPENED 123

it to the children in both the schools, and to-day it has
become quite popular. What gave me courage to try
my hand at Arabic poetry was that on the Sabbath even-
ing previous, Mr. Lansing proposed that we should try
and translate a favourite hymn of his, ' Jesus Paid It j f
All,' and I furnished him with the words nearly as fast as .
he could write them." He explains that the only book
of Arabic hymns extant was in language above the chil-
dren's comprehension, and remarks : " It will be nice if
we can put the Gospel into simple songs and have them
sung in the streets of Cairo, perhaps even by the donkey-
boys.''

But the meeting of Presbytery * on January 3, 1865,
temporarily arrested all other labours, and the decisions
then reached opened for him the door of his desire. The
Presbytery granted his appeal to be allowed to attempt
the opening of a station at Assiut, where the efforts of
the mission to obtain a permanent foothold by a native
agency had proved ineffective. He was released from
the general treasurership, and after a final onslaught
at accounts, during which he worked from fifteen to
seventeen hours a day for five days, he wrote joyfully,
though with " a brain full of nothing but figures," to
transfer his responsibilities to Mr. Watson, his suc-
cessor. By the beginning of February, all his affairs
were wound up, his household goods committed to a
grain-boat, and accompanied by his wife and children,
Miss McKown, and some Egyptian workers, he set out
gladly to greet the new opportunities awaiting him in
the beckoning south.

* Until the formation of the Missionary Association in 1871
the Egyptian Presbytery was formed of missionaries only, and
its decisions controlled their location and work.

IX
PIONEER DAYS IN ASSIUT

I am sure that you or I could be strengthened to meet
some great experience of pain if we really believed that
by our suffering we were to be made luminous with help
to other men. They are to get from us painlessly what
we have got most painfully from God. There is the power
of the bravest martyrdom and the hardest work that the
world has ever seen.

— PHILLIPS BROOKS.

NEARLY three years had passed since Mr. Hogg's
last journey on the river. On the former occa-
sion each village as it slowly dwindled in the dis-
tance had deepened his regret at the necessary haste of
his visit. " Egypt is the last place to do good in if
you're in a hurry," he had written ; " some one ought
to settle." But now the villages vanished all too slowly
from view, for his desire lay before him. He was going
to settle, and to settle in the place of all others that
seemed to him the most hopeful and important.

The majority of the Coptic people are to be found
in Upper Egypt. In the province and town of Assiut
they form a fourth of the population, and if the newly
born Evangelical Church was indeed to exercise a reform-
ing influence on the parent Church and act as a vanguard
in the fight of faith, no better centre could have been
selected to become its stronghold than the capital of the
Upper Country.

But the villages showed no disposition to gratify any
desire for their speedy disappearance, and seventeen

124

ARRIVAL 125

days were consumed by a journey that has long since
dwindled to the compass of eight hours. The " Ibis " had
been sold to the Maharajah and to hire a suitable sub-
stitute would have cost the mission $200, while a boat
of rougher fashion returning empty to Assiut was ob-
tainable at small expense. A choice was quickly made
and its consequences endured at leisure. Rats drove the
little party out of the first boat chosen. In the second
the divans that served as beds measured five feet in
length, the cabin five and a half feet in height, and
Mr. Hogg, measuring six feet, found his extra inches no
slight encumbrance. Insect life abounded, and from the
slow rate of progress provisions ran short. Chickens,
eggs, and vegetables were seldom procurable, butcher
meat and milk never, and towards the close of the trip
the menu twice daily consisted of sun-dried bread boiled
in sugar and water. The baby suffered most, having
been but a few weaks weaned, and he was so mal-
treated at night by eager bedfellows that his appear-
ance suggested the first stages of smallpox.

On February 21 they reached their destination. A
friend awaited them on the bank with donkeys, horse,
and camels to convey the party and their belongings to
his house. Here they had experience of the patriarchal
system at its best, and came into closer touch with the
inner life of Egypt than had yet been possible to them.
One needs to receive as well as to give before intimacy
is complete, and the lack was supplied by ten days of
Egyptian hospitality. Mr. Wasif Khayatt, having been
much in Cairo, was already a friend, and unknown to
his own community had become a member of the infant
Protestant Church. He was the head of one of the
oldest and wealthiest families of the town and moved
about among his dependants with an unvarying dignity,

126 PIONEER DAYS IN ASSIUT

humility, and kindliness that won him the respect and
love of all. The friendship already formed took firmer
root and stood the test of many trials. Meanwhile the
Westerners caused no little surprise to the rest of the
household by their peculiar ways. The zeal of the two
ladies in sweeping and dusting, and their inclination to
be always busy, their peculiarities of dress and custom,
and their mysterious processes of starching and ironing
were the first eddies of the tide of innovations that is
sweeping away the old landmarks and makes the life of
1865 ancient history to the Assiutian of to-day.

A house had been selected for them before their arrival.
Despite all urging, however, the needed repairs made
but halting progress, and growing weary of delay, the
party decided not to await their completion. March 2
found them in their new home ; on March 4 an audience
was gathered for the Sabbath service, and next morning
two schools were founded.

Meanwhile, death had lurked as near to them as on
the Bay of Biscay, though knowledge of their danger
came only with the story of their deliverance.

A Mohammedan fanatic at Keneh, Ahmed by name,
had proclaimed himself the promised Mahdi sent by
God to make Islam supreme. With 2,000 armed fol-
lowers he had vanquished the 800 soldiers sent by the
Mudirs of Assiut and Girgeh to restore quiet in the
south. FlusHed by success, they set their faces towards
Assiut, where 400 prisoners were to escape from their
jail and prepare for their arrival, cutting the telegraph
wires, killing the government employees, and joining
with the insurgents in a general massacre of all Chris-
tians. They would then fortify Assiut and defy the
government. Saturday night was fixed for the massacre,
and the prisoners having been previously provided by

AN ABORTIVE REBELLION 127

their friends with files and other implements, had almost
achieved their escape, when they grew careless in their
success and alarm spread. The Mudir being absent and
only four soldiers in the town, the town council were help-
less and paralysed with fear, while the mission party,
all unconscious, retired peacefully to rest behind lockless
doors. Suddenly news came of the unexpected arrival
of 100 soldiers from Minieh. They were immediately
marched to the jail, where they found the prisoners
free of chains, two doors already forced, and only a
step remaining to the accomplishment of their bloody
purpose. The riot was quickly quelled and the bodies
of the ringleaders exposed on the wall of the town as
a warning to the disaffected. Ahmed and his 2,000 had
met a similar fate. A strong force from the Khedive
arrived just as they were preparing for their northward
march. Bombs and grape-shot fired from the govern-
ment steamers brought panic into their midst, and be-
fore they could rally an armed force was upon them.
Ahmed was amongst the slain, and many were taken
captive, while the remainder fled to the mountains.

It thus happened that the foundations of the work in
Assitit were laid amidst songs of deliverance, the wonder
of the workers growing as details reached them of the
slender links of circumstance on which life and death
had hung. Indeed good cheer is the dominant note in all
the early letters from Assiut, and, were the house not
still standing to dispel the illusion, the reader would be
tempted to envy its dwellers settled in a residence that
was soon to seem to its inmates " the nicest mission
house in Egypt."

It was like having a daily picnic, Mr. Hogg declared,
to eat in their dining-room gazing out through a row
of windows at the emerald plain. The intervening

128 PIONEER DAYS IN ASSIUT

houses and dusty road were out of sight, while beyond
stretched a sea of clover and wheat, broken by islands
of clustering palms, with distant sails like white wings
of waterfowl on the hidden river, and the whole view
framed by the Libyan and Arabian hills glorified nightly
by the magic of Egyptian sunset. True, life had its
drawbacks. The landlord was stingy and liked to sub-
stitute promises for deeds. Mr. Hogg had to whitewash
the five rooms himself, as all work that he relegated
remained undone. The kitchen was shared by the land-
lord's family and not to be entered by any one who
respected his appetite. Scorpions, lizards, wasps, and
beetles roamed at will or lurked in hidden corners, and
the damp floors laid the children low with croup and
ophthalmia. A theologue who had come to help in the
work became ill and irritable, monopolised the servant,
and took upon him to dismiss their doorkeeper.

But the interest of the work was great. The nuclei
were gathered of what were to become Assiut College
and the Pressley Memorial Institute. Two rooms open-
ing off the court were set apart for the twin institutions,
rooms that at first had seemed fit for nothing but stables,
but which, with old mats spread on their earthen floors,
and maps and pictures adorning their walls, were soon
declared to lack nothing but benches, and a good school-
ful of pupils to make them look " very nice." Carpenters
being an elusive quantity, the benches took weeks to
secure, but four boys and two girls were present on the
opening day, and within three weeks the enrolment in
both schools had tripled.

It was the missionary's custom every Sabbath to attend
the portion of the Coptic service in which he could
conscientiously join, and to withdraw just before the
celebration of the mass, expounding later at services

EXCOMMUNICATION 129

held in the school-room the passages of Scripture that
had been read in church, and basing his sermons on their
leading lessons. When in three weeks' time his audience
at these services had grown from twelve to fifty, the
priests and Bishop took alarm, and excited by the visit
of the Metropolitan Bishop from Cairo, decided to imi-
tate the measures that had been previously adopted by
the Patriarch.

In Cairo the missionaries had learned of the patri-
archal edict only at second-hand. At Assiut a dramatic
touch was added by the presence amongst the Coptic
audience during the reading of the Bishop's bull of
the man at whose head its worst anathemas were lev-
elled. When he discovered the nature of the document
that the Bishop had handed to a subordinate to read on
his behalf, Mr. Hogg, instead of withdrawing as usual
before the mass, walked forward and took his stand close
to the reader that not a word of the proclamation might
escape his ear.

A boy * in the audience, who became a life-long friend,
has preserved a picture of the scene and of the feelings
it awakened. The missionary stood alone, bareheaded,
the eyes of the multitude fixed upon him, listening in
silence to the curses hurled from the reader's desk at
himself, his creed, his mission, his companions, and all
who dared to have dealings with them or salute them
by the way. The boy who had allied himself with the
school from the day of its opening, cowered under the
opprobrious epithets poured upon his new teacher, hav-
ing already formed the highest estimate of the " false
prophets " and " ravening wolves." When hatred, de-
scending to a viler level, embodied itself in the grossest
insinuations as to the personal character and objects of

* Rev. Shenoodeh Hanna.

130 PIONEER DAYS IN ASSIUT

the strangers, and he heard a " God forgive you " ut-
tered twice in reply, the boy cringed and shivered as
though himself sharing in the guilt of the lying slanders
his soul loathed, and glancing furtively at the audience,
read in their faces a shame akin to his own.

Mr. Hogg silently withdrew when the anathemas
ended, and a stir of reaction followed his exit. Mr.
Wasif and Mr. Wissa, men whom the Coptic authorities
feared to offend, constrained the Bishop to extend an
invitation to all who willed to meet with him after the
service for further consideration of the matters men-
tioned in the edict, and soon a dozen of the most impor-
tant men of the church gathered in the Bishop's chamber,
while fifty or sixty crowded around the doors to see
and hear what might occur.

Picture the feelings of the Bishop when into the midst
of this assembly so reluctantly called there walked the
very man whom he had publicly banned, and all present
instinctively rising in his honour, he found him-
self in courtesy forced to join in their polite
greetings, in spite of the anathemas he had himself
declared as the punishment to follow upon such an
act! Nor was this all, for Mr. Wissa presently
announced that he had desired Mr. Hogg's presence
that they might hear from his own lips in what points
his teaching differed from that of the Coptic Church, and
thus give the cleverest of the clergy a chance of refuting
his false doctrines by Bible proofs in the presence of
them all. The man who was " never so happy as when
preaching " rejoiced in his opportunity, and strengthened
every statement by liberal quotations from the Book they
held to be divine. But when his opponents' chance fol-
lowed, consternation was written on their faces, and
there was a general call for " Tanassa, Tanassa," the

THE PASSING OF THE STORM 131

only man in Assiut known to be learned in the Scrip-
tures. The Scriptures already quoted, however, had over-
powered Tanassa, and, forced unwillingly to his feet,
he could do nothing but beg the missionary not to be
angry, declaring that the edict had not been directed
against him, and explaining that its sole purpose had
been to rally the people to zeal in the matter of opening
a Coptic school !

The conversation was then dexterously shifted, and
discussion on the new topic becoming general, it was
soon agreed to send to the Patriarch for a suitable
teacher. In view, however, of the delay involved, the
poor Bishop found himself forced by the pressure
brought to bear on him to annul his solemn threats of
excommunication by allowing pupils to continue their
attendance at the mission school till a Coptic teacher
could be secured. Thus before the priestly thunder had
ceased to reverberate, the clouds passed and the sun
shone out as before. Yet the threatened thunder-storm
had a strong effect upon the timorous and checked the
rapid progress of the work.

Each month, however, told its tale of quiet labour.
While the heat grew apace, strength and appetite flagged,
and the emerald plain became a barren stretch of sun-
baked earth. Towards the end of May we find the
housekeeper, late of an evening, the thermometer still
at 90°, writing to Alexandria for what she thinks may
add a relish to the daily fare, and as the writer penned
her message sharp crackling sounds came from all direc-
tions as though every article in the room were possessed.
At last a loud report made her start from her chair,
to find a wide crack sheer across the dining-room table,
and a washstand that had been " cracking merrily " all
evening, looking almost ready to fall to pieces.

PIONEER DAYS IN ASSIUT

Shortly after, the temperature in the coolest room,
closed and darkened, is recorded during eleven successive
days: 98°, 104°, 104°, 104°, 105°, 100°, 104°, 95°, 93°,
96°, 98°; at an open window after sunset 104°, and
before sunrise next morning, still far up in the nineties.

" I never dreamed to find such heat in Egypt," Mr.
Hogg wrote on June 26. " The pillow in the bed feels
like the limb of a person in a high fever. Every room
in the house is hotter than another, and there is no
escape from it but in work and perspiration." [No
wonder he felt feeble and " used up." But the escape
referred to was very real.] " Though I could hardly
creep downstairs yesterday morning," he confesses, " the
sermon and an audience of 50 to 55 old and young
acted as usual like a charm; ditto ditto at the evening
service with 10 to 12 adults and 6 to 8 boys. I felt
weak enough again this morning, but am now in a
glowing perspiration and all right.

" I am quite aware of the importance of your broth-
erly counsels, and while doing what I can and all I can,
I shall do my utmost to prevent my overdoing myself.
Will this promise satisfy you, Brother Lansing? It has
enough of the ego in it, God forgive me! I can do
nothing — am but a weak pen in His hands, needing -to
be nibbed every day, and unless He gives me the ink of
His Holy Spirit, all my scratching will make no im-
pression."

But the ink on the page was hardly dry when his
health and labour were forgotten in a thirty-six hours'
battle for the life of his first-born. She was one of
those rare souls whose short careers seem like borrowed
sunshine from a better world. While frank and natural,
fond of play and laughter and song, there was to her
loving, trustful child-heart an absorbing interest in the
things of heaven, and whenever her mother found leisure
to ply her needle, a little pleader was sure to climb upon

THE ANGEL OF DEATH 133

her knee with the petition, " Now tell me more about
Jesus." The previous summer her parents had sent her
to Scotland to escape the heat. When the trying separa-
tion was over and the father had clasped her again in
his arms and thrilled at the sound of his name from her
lips, some one remarked how happy he must feel to
have her back so strong and well. His answer was
that she struck him as too angelic in appearance and
too good in all her thoughts and ways to be long im-
prisoned in her little tenement of clay.

Now the little tenement seemed trembling towards dis-
solution, and to add to the trials of the night, the mother
tripping on the stair with a kettle of boiling water in
her hand, was badly scalded on face, breast, and hands,
and for a while needed as much care as the child. Mr.
Hogg acted the parts of doctor and nurse, with Miss
McKown as his valued assistant. Cold water treatment
persevered in for hours lessened the Buffering of the
mother, and by midnight rest was possible to her; but
for the little one all the known remedies for croup,
which on previous occasions they had used with un-
varying success, failed to bring more than temporary
relief.

Morning brought reviving hope, but as the hot hours
dragged their weary length, the shadow deepened. Long-
ing for medical advice, they sent for the one man in the
district of whom they had the right to expect it, but the
only suggestion he could make was to substitute an infu-
sion of sweet almonds for water as a beverage. Towards
evening the little sufferer, rousing from the stupor into
which she had sunk, voiced suddenly the thought that
was holding the parents' hearts in its silent grip.
" Mamma," she said, " I am going to die." To the child
the thought brought neither fear nor regret. Jesus was

134 PIONEER DAYS IN ASSIUT

coming for her, she assured them, and when asked if
she would not like to stay a little longer with those to
whom she was so precious, she shook her head; she
wanted Jesus to come for her now, and Hope (her little
brother) would come to her afterwards. For her sake
the watchers struggled for composure as, the end seem-
ing imminent, she bade each a loving good-bye. They
talked to her of heaven, and joined in singing her fa-
vourite hymns which painted that land of the soul in
colours dear to the heart of a child.

But the Messenger lingered and twelve terrible hours
ensued, every remedy barren and her struggle for breath
more acute, while with never a murmur on her lips the
child took refuge one minute on her pillow, the next
in the haven of her father's arms. " Sing " was the
last word she uttered, and with her head nestled on his
shoulder, the sunshine of a new morning flooding the
room, her eager spirit at last took its flight to the land
that hath no need of the sun, for the Lamb of God is
the light thereof.

A smile soon settled on the little face that had always
been so appealing in its winsome love and purity, and
the appeal of that smile found a response in the hearts
that loved her. Not that God had taken her to Himself,
but that for four years He had lent her to them, an
" angel visitant," the " sunbeam " of their home — this
thought filled them with wonder, and there mingled with
their sorrow a great and humble gratitude.

The attitude seemed inexplicable to the watching
Egyptians. The devotion of the parents to their child
had been too visible and striking for callousness to be a
credible explanation of a quiet submission that savoured
of mystery to women and men accustomed to the wild,
unrestrained grief of an Eastern death-scene. The new

NURSING THE SICK 135

doctrines had seemed to some but a matter of words,
but here they were face to face with a baffling reality.
God had made His own choice of pen and ink to write
His message on their hearts, and the depth of the im-
pression made is evidenced by old men and women to-day,
who after the lapse of nearly half a century repeat the
smallest details of what they saw and heard in the mis-
sion home that sad day, when its first treasure was com-
mitted to the desert sands. Thank God such scenes are
no longer unique in Assiut, and the presence of the Com-
forter now repeats the same miracle of grace in many an
Egyptian home.

Their bereavement proved only the beginning of
troubles, and July to December seemed one continuous
struggle with weakness or disease. For some days the
parents thought their home was to be left childless, and
for a month and a half they spent night after night
from ten till four in efforts to soothe their little son,
who, when no longer dangerously ill, remained weak and
nervous, with prickly heat as a nightly martyrdom. At
such times the father always appropriated the heaviest
share of the burden, his response to the call of illness
ever prompt and whole-hearted. He had been born
with the nurse's instincts, to which he had added some
medical lore, casually acquired. When into the balance
were thrown the still deeper instincts of father and
husband, the man was worthy of study. No wonder
fretful children coveted a place in his strong arms ! He
would carry them cheerfully up and down the room,
now in one position, now in another, spending liberally
in their service all his wealth of mimicry, his powers of
ready rhyme, and his store of song, now with tireless
ingenuity distracting their attention from their woes, now
lulling them to sleep with some soft lullaby. Such pa-

136 PIONEER DAYS IN ASSIUT

tience in so nervous a temperament filled one with won-
der, and if ever it gave way under the strain, as hap-
pened on the rarest occasions with sudden abruptness,
it was not till the onlooker had long since decided that
a time had come when only severer methods would prove
efficacious.

Meanwhile, mission duties were laboriously accom-
plished and the worker felt " lifeless." Cholera appeared
on the northern horizon and crept steadily southwards.
From Cairo there came news of the death of Mrs.
Lansing and the illness of several native friends. The
daily mortality grew heavy and then dwindled. Finally
the scourge reached Assiut. The wailing and shrieking
that at first announced each new death were suppressed
by the authorities to allay the cold terror that had fallen
on the people. Statistics were falsified, and rumours dif-
ficult to verify. The mission party had previously decided
on a trip to Ramleh and a boat was in readiness awaiting
their departure, but they were loth to leave so long as
their presence might prove a comfort to their native
friends. When, however, the plague seemed spent, and
a few days passed with no word of its recurrence, they
gratefully set sail in search of cooling breezes.

There now appeared what a fellow-missionary has
termed Mr. Hogg's greatest defect as a worker — his in-
ability to rest. He was " out of his element when not
at his regular work," and the family accordingly spent
only sixteen days in their refuge by the sea. But even
to one capable of rest Ramleh had already ceased to be
an ideal retreat, and it was little wonder that the tired
missionary felt ill at ease, his days consumed by chit-chat
with kindly visitors, interrupted only by the encroach-
ment of unwelcome business. The ladies of the house-
hold were in good health, the little son had forgotten

FIGHTING WITH ILL-HEALTH 137

his woes, and the father declared himself entirely recov-
ered from his prolonged loss of sleep. What need then
to lengthen their stay?

Early in September they were back at their post. The
cholera, which had broken out with redoubled force
soon after their departure, was now a thing of the past,
and the schoolboys gradually returned from the surround-
ing villages. But no reserve of physical strength had
been laid in store, and the missionary preached his first
sermon blindfold. Ophthalmia, insomnia, prostration!
A dismal succession of fetters to handicap an ardent
worker ! A sense of utter weakness became his intimate
companion, and one cannot but admire the dogged fight
he maintained. From his first entry on his duties, with
the exception of a day and a half when his sleeplessness
was at its worst, he never abandoned his pastoral work
or his daily teaching, usually enduring four hours in the
badly ventilated schoolroom, and always accomplishing
a tale of work amply sufficient for an average man in full
health. " While doing what I can and all I can," had
been the proviso of his promise not to overwork, and
all that he could do, he did. Foolish it may have been,
even wrong, but it was the folly of a good man whose
brave spirit was stronger than his body and who never
proved a hard master to any but himself.

One smiles at the optimism that leaped to the surface
whenever the combat with sickness for a moment re-
laxed. When he emerged from fifteen days of darkness
with eyes at last capable of school-work, he was at once
" quite right nqw," and while not equal to the tackling
of a letter to the Board, tackled joyously the writing
of a free Arabic version of Peter Parley's Universal
History, which he jocularly declared he would make
" one of the most readable and popular works of the

138 PIONEER DAYS IN ASSIUT

age ! " When, after some more dreary weeks, in which
he was almost contipuously weak and miserable, he be-
came reluctantly convinced of his need of a furlough,
self-knowledge led him to bind his own hands by an
immediate letter to the missionaries and the Board, so
conscious was he that, unless committed to the project,
the first sign of improvement would tempt him to its
abandonment. In spite of this precaution, when Assiut
was "deserted in December and he had remained in Cairo
long enough to welcome a little daughter into the world,
we find him planning to return south alone immedi-
ately after Presbytery, and prevented from carrying out
the purpose only by a timely return of prostrating weak-
ness.

He remained in Cairo till March filling the place of
absent missionaries, and preaching several times in Turk-
ish for the Armenian congregation, after six or eight
weeks' study of the language — which he had taken up
as a pastime when too enfeebled to succeed in the more
responsible task of Arabic composition. When his pres-
ence was no longer needed, the family sailed for Scot-
land, and a year of " furlough-rest " ensued.

This compound word is necessary for exactness, and
the initiated will understand its full significance. The
family lived now in Edinburgh, now in Dublin, now at
a hydropathic in Aberdeen. They were the guests of
Lady Aberdeen at Haddo House, of the Maharajah and
Maharani on their estate in Suffolk, of humble friends
on the coast of Fife. But everywhere they were way-
farers and visitors, even when with the dearest of rela-
tives, and amid all the joys of meeting old friends and
acquaintances there was still in such hurried migrations
too much of the spice of life and too little of its staple
fare for restful satisfaction.

FURLOUGH 139

There was, too, the usual quota of furlough work.
Mr. Hogg attended church assemblies and addressed
meetings. He collected $2,500 towards the establish-
ment of a seminary at Assiut. He wrote letters on
harassing business to the Board and to the mission-
aries. He went to London to look after an Alexandrian
worker invalided home to undergo an operation. He
visited Mr. Moon in Liverpool to confer with him as to
the adaptation to the Arabic language of his embossed
type for the blind, and put the results of their confer-
ence into practical form by transliterating the Arabic
version of Luke's Gospel for immediate publication,
making his final correction on the proof within three
days of sailing.

Then came the end, the edge of the partings keener
because experience had deepened the sense of life's un-
certainties, and amid other partings one wrench sorer
than all, when the parents relinquished their baby to
the care of friends, not daring to take her from the
healthy north to the risks of a summer in Assiut.

Yet the bracing climate had done its work, and the
missionary, his strength renewed, neither merited nor
courted pity. He longed to be back at the work whose
foundations had cost him so dear, and comparing his
life-work with the choices of others, he marvelled at the
strange ways of men. In 1856, when he took his first
journey to Egypt, it held for him the glamour of the
unknown. In 1860, when he repeated the journey, he
was drinking deeper of life's joys, and facing new phases
of responsibility and opportunity. Now, in 1867, the
attraction of the future was as real and more tangible.
He had begun his task, he was putting his theories to
the test, he had faith in both. He had found a sphere
worthy of a man's best mettle, demanding the develop-

140 PIONEER DAYS IN ASSIUT

ment of his every latent power, a work to whose possible
results there seemed no limit but the limiting promise:
" According to your faith be it unto you." Like a war-
horse that has scented battle, he was eager to be in the
heart of the fray.

HIS DAILY TASK

Thine was the prophet's vision,
The exultation, the divine
Insanity of noble minds,
That never falters nor abates
But labours and endures and waits
Till all that it foresees it finds,
Or what it cannot find, creates.

— LONGFELLOW.

Music that gentlier on the spirit lies
Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes.

— TENNYSON.

HITHERTO the life we have been tracing has
fallen into distinct divisions, each marked by
some essential difference either in its texture or
in its surroundings. The years of mission life have been
spent at three different centres, and at none has the
missionary remained long enough to build on the founda-
tions he so laboriously laid. Everywhere he has left his
mark, but in Cairo and Alexandria the permanent struc-
tures subsequently reared became monuments to the la-
bours of other men. In 1867, however, Mr. Hogg was
allowed to return to Assiut, not now by way of experi-
ment, as in 1865, but as a permanent venture. By the
work done from that base he has since been " named
and known," and here for the next nineteen years he
spent on an average eight months annually.

This period, which ended only with his death, falls

lit

142 HIS DAILY TASK

like its predecessors into natural divisions. The centre
of interest changes, lying sometimes within the town
itself, sometimes in regions beyond, and sometimes in
subtle conditions affecting the life of the infant Church
and endangering the fulfilment of his dreams. Through
all these changes, however, certain elements remain un-
altered, and the occupations that awaited him in 1867
do not differ in general outline from those of subsequent
years.

The station had not been abandoned in his absence.
He found the school in good condition, and four members
had been received into the church who, along with a
wider circle of friendly adherents, now welcomed his
arrival. But it was not on these but on the training
of a native ministry that his main strength was hence-
forth to be concentrated. In this work his colleagues
from time to time took part, but half of the entire
teaching was assigned to him, and no appointment could
have given him greater joy.

In the early years strange subjects were included in
the theological curriculum, to supplement the meagre
secular education of the first candidates. Church history
was widened to take much of the world into its sweep ;
study of the grammar of their own tongue accompanied
study of Hebrew or of Greek, and Physics or Arithmetic
and Algebra were wedged in between Systematic The-
ology, Apologetics, and Exegesis. But as years passed
and Assiut boys' school became first an academy and
then a college for the express purpose of training teach-
ers and pastors, such irregularities were eliminated, the
ranks of the theological seminary being filled entirely
from students well grounded in secular education.

How slow at first was the progress of the theologues
and how arduous the work of their professor will be

TEACHER AND TRANSLATOR 143

understood when one realises that, English being an
impossible medium, the only available text-books and
books of reference were the Bible and the Shorter Cate-
chism. All else had to be translated for them, and to
this work Mr. Hogg never ceased to devote every hour
he could secure. As his teaching was not always con-
fined to the theologues and occupied from three hours
a day to six or seven, such efforts were occasionally
interrupted for months at a time. But they were always
resumed at the first opportunity, the translator ever
cherishing the hope that a day would come when time
and money would be available to revise and publish his
work. Even in crude manuscript form, his translations
were highly valued and were eagerly copied and read
by the small circle whose immediate daily need occa-
sioned their production.

Meanwhile the teacher had need of all the enthusiasm
of an idealist to sustain him in his task. The quality of
the class at the first left much to be desired. Some of
its members had left the priesthood of the Coptic Church
and had already served an apprenticeship as evangelists
and colporteurs. As they possessed nothing beyond the
salary thus secured, it had not unnaturally been continued
to them when they relinquished their posts to equip
themselves more fully for the work the mission had at
heart. But the arrangement proved more generous than
wise, and from time to time the missionary's letters drop
hints of anxiety and discouragement, as he began to
detect amongst his few disciples the spirit of the hireling
and to doubt the suitability and even the sincerity of
some. The stress that he laid throughout their whole
course on the practical training of each worker "in the
work for the work " gave abundant opportunity to test
the character and acceptability of those trained. Every

144. HIS DAILY TASK

Sabbath they were sent into the surrounding district,
and for several months every year they were scattered
over the land. Under such circumstances the drones
could not long escape detection and a crisis was bound
to come. When it came, consultation was impossible.
Letters were slow of travel and the position demanded
immediate action.

Once in later years, when thwarted and delayed by
the duty of consulting his fellow- workers, Mr. Hogg con-
fessed to an occasional hunger for some of the advan-
tages of an Episcopal form of government, adding- with
a laugh and a shrug of the shoulder, " provided of course
that I were Bishop." On the present occasion he assumed
the Bishop's prerogative, and while writing lengthy epis-
tles to explain the situation to his colleagues, stepped
out on his own responsibility into a new line of policy.

Within a fortnight all trouble was ended. The prin-
ciple was laid down and accepted that money aid to
theological students was a charity, not a right, its amount
therefore to be decided by need alone; and that for
such a service none were worth training or worthy of
aid but such as would gladly give proof of their fitness
by self-denial and sacrifice. A special arrangement was
made with the monks which was accepted as a final
settlement of all claims, and which left their future
dependent entirely upon their own energy and accepta-
bility with the people. The needs of the other students
were to be met by the gifts of their own countrymen,
together with such donations as missionaries or trav-
ellers might be ready to bestow ; and a native committee
was appointed to disburse the funds, as they could dis-
cover more easily than foreigners the real financial con-
ditions of the applicants.

Decision, generosity, and strong confidence in his

A QUESTION OF FINANCE 145

fellow-men mark the missionary's attitude throughout.
Not a friend was lost by the upheaval. The students
entered cheerfully into the new arrangement and it re-
ceived the hearty approval of the native Church, while
the monks with one exception soon acquiesced in its
justice. The trouble-maker had been dealt with so fairly
and given such freedom of choice that he seems to have
treasured no animosity against the missionary, but he soon
left the ranks and returned to the Coptic Church. The
fact that the crisis had been accelerated by a call to
fresh consecration and a day of prayer and fasting may
go far to explain the happy ending of a difficult situation.
Apparently there is a soil in which even a financial
tangle — prolific root of bitterness ! — may be robbed of its
evil fruitage.

From this date the work went on more hopefully, and
no branch of his labours yielded him keener enjoyment,
but to the end it grieved him that it should receive such
scant justice. He felt strongly that a matter of so vital
importance claimed a man's whole powers, not a mere
fraction of his scattered energies. He longed to see two
of the strongest men America could yield consecrating
their every talent to the task and attempting no other;
spending half the year in teaching by word of mouth,
and the remaining months in leading their students into
the forefront of the battle, and inspiring, guiding, and
training them in the practical application of the lessons
taught. The missionary-professor would thus, during
his tours with his class, occupy the place of father,
brother, and general combined, and the influence on
teacher and taught would be far-reaching and whole-
some. Action would keep pace with thought, theories
would be promptly tested, and zeal continually quickened
by a constant view of the need and a taste of battle,

146 HIS DAILY TASK

while much could be learned by example which the most
careful teaching must fail to convey.

While the scheme for which he pleaded was never
inaugurated, he worked towards his ideal till the last.
He always led and shared the evangelistic labours of his
students in the needy villages of Assiut province, and on
four occasions he carried them with him in the " Ibis "
to regions beyond. There for months at a time the days
were devoted to class work and the evenings to evan-
gelistic labours in the villages, discussions with inquirers,
and the care of all the churches, with the students as his
companions and helpers. " Oh, it is worth living for,"
he wrote in 1871, and the feeling only strengthened with
the years. " It is worth living for to train up a dozen
young preachers such as this. Shenoodeh's lecture
would have done honour to any young man in Queen
Street Hall * or anywhere else. I felt when he had
done that I must take up Simeon's words, ' Now, Lord,
lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace.' "

But his training of theologues was not the only un-
changing element in the nineteen years we are now
considering, and it may render our picture of them more
realistic if we sketch the missionary's daily programme
during the year of his return, as such a sketch, with
minor alterations specially as to the time and type of
teaching, would apply with equal truth to most of his
Assiut life and must be borne in mind as the common
background of the events that marked its course.

He was up with the sun, and breakfast and family
prayers left still an interval for personal use before 8 130
called him to the public duties of the day. His the-
ological classes lasted four hours, from which ten min-
utes were stolen midway to allow teacher and taught a

*The Divinity Hall in which Dr. Hogg received his training.

•:,

VIEW OF ASSIUT DURING NILE OVERFLOW

PROTESTANT CHURCH AT ASSIUT

PROGRAMME 147

breathing spell. After dinner at midday came a short
rest, with a divan as his bed and a newspaper first as
a soporific and then as a shelter from flies, while a cov-
eted " forty winks " worked their usual charm. From
this he rose refreshed to an afternoon of study, often
interrupted by visitors. Towards sunset his mule was
in readiness to carry him through the fields to the moun-
tain or along the bank of the Nile, where he could forget
his work for a spell in the chatter of his little son, who
usually sat before him on the saddle. Supper awaited
his return, and the moment it ended the evening's duties
began. It was the missionary's customary choice to
devote to the boys' school (the college of the future)
the opening hour of the day. This being at present
impossible, he joined the pupils in their study hour,
which began at dusk, and at its close put their drowsiness
to flight by half an hour of drill in bookkeeping with
blackboard illustrations, making the work as practical
and entertaining as possible and trying to keep every
schoolboy active and alert. A second bell swelled the
audience, and the evening meeting that followed was
considered by its leader in many respects the most inter-
esting part of his day's work. It lasted an hour and
a half, and its attendance, which increased in after years,
ranged this first winter from twenty-five to forty, not
including boys under sixteen.

The custom of holding a meeting every night of the
week has since played an important part in the evan-
gelisation of Egypt. It was introduced by Mr. Hogg in
Alexandria and Cairo as well as in Assiut, and has
naturally become almost universal in the Church, every
worker at his out-station and every teacher in his little
village school continuing the practice to which they have
grown accustomed during their years of preparation, and

US HIS DAILY TASK

gathering parents and pupils nightly for the study of
the Word. These meetings now take the place in Egypt
that the mid-week prayer meeting occupies in the home
land, and as planned by their originator, they supplied
the part of a Bible school for adults, through which
he hoped to give to the people a more thorough religious
training than is possible through the slower medium
of die weekly sermon.

In his addresses the speaker followed a regular
scheme, and monotony was carefully avoided. On Sab-
bath nights, his audience having already had a sermon
m the monung^and Sabbath School with a closing ad-
dress in the afternbon^he took as his subject, for the
sake of variety, a portion of BunyanTs Pilgrim's Prog-
ress; on Tuesday it was a chapter from Bonar's Way
of^Peace; Thursday was devoted to missionary7 news, a
biographical sketch, or a simple story; while on the
intervening evenings some passage of Scripture was ex-
pounded. Great ingenuity was exercised in altering the
character of the meetings from year to year, but it was
always strong meat that he furnished, however finely
minced and carefully seasoned it might be. He loved
to take up an epistle or other book and go through it
systematically day after day, or some large theme like
the work of the Spirit or the plan of Redemption which
might occupy several weeks of study; but he had so
much the instincts of the teacher that such schemes of
lecture proved anything but wearisome, and the audi-
ence were thus encouraged to avoid irregularity that
the chain of connection might be preserved.

This was the last public duty of the day. At its
dose, if unhindered by visitors, he would join the ladies
in the sitting-room, and compare notes with his wife,
who had been meeting meanwhile with a few women

MUSIC 149

and girls in an adjoining room. But when his brief
respite ended, die study door once more dosed upon
him, and he studied or wrote tin at a late hour his wife
roused him to the sense of time and the duty of rest,
and they retired together for the night, after asking
the Lord to water the seed sown and give grace to
labour on without seeing immediate fruit.

In this sketch of daily life one element is omitted
without reference to which any picture of the central
figure must remain imperfect — the element of music.
The reason for the omission is obvious, for in 1867 Mr.
Hogg was for a time without an instrument, his old
harmonium having been sold and its successor still mi-
bought, while mice sported gaily amongst die otherwise
silent strings of a piano split and wrecked beyond re-
demption by the heat of an Egyptian sun. It would be
difficult to overestimate the influence musk exercised
on his life, his unsatisfied hunger during die long inter-
vals when it was denied him, or his intense enjoyment
when his hunger was temporarily appeased. Unfortu-
nately his music-loving nature was condemned to fife
in a land of fatmn* m which every year of plenty was
followed by many years of drought.

One outcome of his irm«af?1 «mthn<a^^m was more
costly than any can guess who have not laboured in the
same cause — a life-long effort to teach young Egypt
harmony.

Egyptians love musk, but between the musical ideas
indigenous in the East and those that die evolution of
centuries has attained in the West, there is a great gulf
fixed, so that to a Western ear the singing of the East
is weird rather than pleasing, while to an Easterner
much that we most admire is at first more meaningless
than sounding brass or HnHtng cymbal- In Egyptian

150 HIS DAILY TASK

airs the intervals employed are unlike anything known
in the West, and while Mr. Hogg could sing them to
perfection and transcribed and preserved many, he felt
that there was in the peculiar scale employed a radical
defect. It was a scale in which few chords were possible,
and Egyptian music being thus confined to melody and
octaves, it seemed debarred in its very nature from
future development and the attainment of a high type
of beauty. His effort was iherefore to train the Eastern
ear to appreciate the Western harmonies, that it might
share the treasure-house we have inherited.

Having discovered that the sol-fa system was better
adapted for the teaching of singing at sight than the
more elaborate old notation to which he had been accus-
tomed, he introduced it into every school with which
he had to do, and the enthusiasm and delight of his
pupils as they learned to follow his pointer up and down
the sol-fa chart compensated for much imperfection in
their performance. As they improved, he introduced
part-singing, in the hope that they would thus learn
the beauty of blended notes, using simultaneously two
pointers, one for treble and one for alto, while he carried
his class through many of the familiar airs with which
his memory was stored but which the singers themselves
had never heard. He recorded with some triumph, in
1877, the incredulity of a visitor when told that the air
and harmony of Auld Lang Syne that he had traced
on the modulator was quite an extempore effort on the
part of the boys and girls who sang it easily and almost
in perfect rhythm from the first. Though often dis-
couraged by the apparent evanescence of his successes in
improving the singing of the people, he never abandoned
hope of final victory, and recent years give ampler
promise of this in the proficiency now achieved by some

MUSIC 151

of Egypt's daughters. The herculean nature of his task
and its cost to a sensitive ear can be appreciated to the
full only by such as have followed in his steps, and it
needed at times all the delight of the singers in their
own imperfect attainments to make the game seem worth
the candle to their eager but wearied teacher.

There being so little in the country of his adoption to
gratify Mr. Hogg's hunger for music and song, he was
the more dependent on the music of his home. There
was no time-limit to his powers of enjoyment : he never
had enough. To hear the airs of his native land played
by a military band left him " all of a tremble," and family
concerts were his mountain-peaks of memory.

In his letters many suggestive pictures are preserved.
Of nights alone with his violin on the deck of the " Ibis,"
when preaching at a distant village had left his brain
afire, playing old airs that carried his thoughts now
to his wife and baby three hundred miles away, now
to his absent children on the ocean. Or of evenings
when to play was almost too great an effort for jaded
nerves, but a harmonium was at hand and the wife to
use it, as she sang for him some hymn that had been
haunting his brain for days. Or again it is his eldest
son, just five years old, who is at the instrument, playing
to the accompaniment of the fiddle all the tunes he has
heard, with enough of his father in him to be able to
create already his own simple chords and harmonies,
the happy pair making together such music as the proud
parent declared to have been well worth listening to.

The dry hot climate fought against him, and his efforts
to remedy its ravages were indefatigable. Finding a
new harmonium dumb on his return to an empty house
after three month's absence, he laboured two nights and
a day to restore its voice. As failure would involve a

152 HIS DAILY TASK

silent future, there was a touch of desperation in the
struggle as the second night lengthened without result.
" I have seldom felt more inclined to take a good hearty
cry," he wrote at last in the small hours, and tried to
fix his mind on the harps of heaven. Sleep, however,
reawakened a more earthly hope, and by some ingenious
expedient he at last reached a measure of success, the
instrument doctored annually remaining a solace for
years.

Long after, a second-hand piano was secured that
had weathered safely the heat of Middle Egypt, but for
this, too, the temperature within the thin walls of the
Assiut home proved fatal. One of his home letters
describes the condition to which it was reduced :

" I worked at our piano two afternoons this week to
put it in order and in tune for Mrs. Elmir Lansing. I
had a bad attack of the blues in consequence. The first
day I found that my attempts to keep away the moths
by stuffing it with tobacco had been a failure. The
strikers were not much injured, but all the cloth and
padding around, above and beneath the finger-board, was
converted into living dust. I cleaned it all out and tuned
the piano — though the lower end of each striker came
down upon a screw nail instead of a piece of chamois
leather, and produced a sound as if you were playing
on clappers. Next day I found most of the strings had
fallen a third of an octave, and so I went to tuning it a
second time. I had tuned about an octave and a half,
and was getting somewhat encouraged by the result,
when all of a sudden the wood in which the pegs are
placed began to crack and split under the strain, and ulti-
mately burst out half an inch or more. ' There goes
£35,' was all I could say. After a minute or so I added,
' Well, it is one consolation that the girls are not coming
out next winter.' So saying, I picked up my tools and
left the thing in disgust; and, as I said, I had a bad
attack of the blues the rest of the evening."

MUSIC 153

Even on this occasion, however, he refused to accept
his defeat as final, and returned from Scotland a year
later with such materials as might render a second
onslaught more effective. The results were gratifying,
but as the injury was in part irreparable the piano was
kept musical only by his retuning certain octaves every
few nights.

When one recalls his absorption in his mission work
and the value he set upon time, these voluntary labours,
perseveringly repeated without a suggestion from the
players, become peculiarly revealing. Possessed by a
passion so strong, it was natural that in years of dearth
he should take refuge from the " wild longings " that
at times assailed him in picturing an environment answer-
ing to his need in that home of the soul where the
cravings of West and East will alike attain perfect satis-
faction in diviner harmonies than ear has yet heard or
it has entered into the heart of man to conceive.

XI
LAYING FOUNDATIONS

They shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the
former desolations — the desolations of many generations.

— ISAIAH LXI.

Consider first what you mean when you say a building
is well constructed or well built; you do not merely mean
that it answers its purpose, — this is much, and many
modern buildings fail of this much; but if it be verily
well built, it must answer this purpose in the simplest
way, and with no over-expenditure of means.

— RUSKIN: Stones of Venice.

THE years 1867 to 1871 saw the establishment of
an Evangelical Church in the centre of Upper
Egypt, not as a foreign body but as native to the
land, the blood in its veins by the warmth of its flow
promising growth and development, and carrying in it
the germs of future independence.

Persecution, which at the close of the period might
have proved but a bracing breeze, broke out, as it seemed
to the workers, prematurely. The missionary and his
family, on their return from Scotland in 1867, had
hardly yet re-established themselves in their Assiut home
when the Coptic Patriarch sailed for the south.

It was the sacred season of Lent, and the move awak-
ened questionings even in the minds of the loyal. When
in all the ages of the past had an Earthly Christ, High
Priest, Head, and King of the Coptic Church, profaned
the strictest fast of the year by a round of visits that

154

THE PATRIARCH COMES TO ASSIUT 155

entailed feasting and carousing in his honour at every
point of his journey? It was said to be but one of his
periodic tours to encourage the children of his flock,
but the children of the flock were not deceived by such
public announcements. So great an innovation, they
deemed, could bode no good. The Patriarch himself
soon made no secret of the truth, that his one purpose
was to root out Protestantism, and as a government
steamer had been placed at his disposal and a guard
of soldiers in every town awaited his pleasure, it seemed
evident that the Khedive favoured the end he had in
view.

Ismail Pasha felt his tyranny endangered by the pres-
ence of missionaries in Egypt. They would diffuse
knowledge — amongst an oppressed race the knowledge
that is power, amongst their own people the knowledge
of wrongs that might arouse the indignant interference
of the West. To ruin their work would, he judged, be
the safest and surest way to rid himself of the workers,
and the Coptic Patriarch might prove a convenient cat's-
paw by which to reach his prey without burning his
fingers. But Ismail had other tools at his command
which a veiled hint from high quarters would suffice to
set in motion, and long before the Patriarch had reached
Assiut on his mission of destruction, the hint had been
given, and the enrolment of boys in the mission school
had dropped in consequence, through the action of the
local officials, from 75 to 19.

To understand fully the force at work one must recall
the slavery of the period. In Egypt, army conscription
is still a dread event to be evaded at any sacrifice, but
before the days of the British occupation it meant not
only the breaking of family ties but banishment for life
and a hopeless career darkened by hardship, poverty,

156 LAYING FOUNDATIONS

and contempt. At that time there reigned also a twin
terror which, while in one sense of more temporary
character, brought hunger, debt, and ruin to many a
family. A sudden levy of forced labourers would leave
whole districts in want, their fields unsown or their
harvests unreaped, while roads, railways, or canals were
being created at the Viceroy's bidding. Egypt was im-
proved, while the Egyptians were plundered and com-
pelled to work under a taskmaster's lash, with the gall
of bitterness in their hearts and neither food, pay, nor
implements provided them.

It was easy for the wealthy to escape from such ills,
for in Egypt all locks turn to a golden key; but in the
days of Mohammed AH a key of different metal had been
provided for a certain class of the community, and this
was still available even to the poor. To make education
popular, schoolboys, though of working age, were given
a certificate of exemption from the army and public
works on passing the most simple of examinations in
religious subjects. Every school, however inefficient and
unattractive, was filled at the rumour of an approaching
conscription with evanescent pupils of doubtful age,
who were drilled in reciting the Koran or the Coptic
ritual till the scourge swept past. Such a rumour was
now afloat, and with it a whisper that the local officials
would henceforth disregard the certificates of Protestant
schools. They were the only schools that trained thought
as well as memory, and that had never abused their
privileges. Yet when test cases arose, the whisper proved
correct. Certificates signed by the missionary were re-
jected, and when Mr. Hogg complained at headquarters,
the Mudir, though politely feigning redress, left the
changed conditions unremedied. The effect was imme-
diate, and a few boys from neighbouring villages were

ARRIVAL OF THE PATRIARCH 157

all who still dared to attend the school of their choice
on the day when the Patriarch arrived. Riding upon an
ass gorgeously accoutred, he made his triumphal entry
into Assiut, accompanied by an excited mob shouting,
" Hosanna to the Son of David, Blessed is He that
cometh in the name of the Lord."

Stories of the Patriarch's doings had preceded his
arrival. His power was declared to be unlimited. His
victims were banned as foes of the government and
beyond the pale of justice. Everywhere it was said he
summoned to his presence those tainted with reform and
poured out on them the vials of his wrath, administer-
ing a few days in prison, a rough beating, or even the
more cruel bastinado, and sending them back to life
with a threat of the galleys or the White Nile eating
at their vitals.

At Assiut the Patriarch felt forced by the .presence of
the watchful missionary to avoid violence and use no
civil measures to enforce his will. Bills of excommunica-
tion and a bonfire of Bibles and religious books were
his heaviest artillery. The only avowed Protestant,
native to the place, was the wealthy American Consular
Agent, whose position rendered him scatheless. But the
villages around called for attention, and having berated
and frightened the progressives at Motiah, and put out
of office an evangelical priest at Beni Alage, he turned
his attention to the decimated school. He could secure
for the army levy the remaining nineteen, could he but
learn the names of their parents and of the villages from
which they hailed.

His efforts to procure a Judas brought upon him the
rebuke of the boy he sought to suborn, head pupil of
the Coptic school but a firm friend of the Protestants.
" I can't do that," was his sturdy answer to the demand

158 LAYING FOUNDATIONS

made of him. " It would be very wrong." One likes
to picture the astonished face of the pontiff, used to
the obsequious flattery of men, when faced by a child's
frank judgment on his plan. Was there some faint
sense of shame as the interview ended, to match the
revulsion in the heart of his reprover, who as one of
the youthful deacons of his church had led in the ho-
sannas that had greeted the Patriarch's arrival?

But such revulsion was not confined to the heart of
a boy. Many had been alienated by the words and
deeds of their spiritual head. " Caiaphas and Pilate
crucified Jesus and the Patriarch burned His Gospel "
was the subject of an ex-priest's sermon that echoed
and re-echoed with startling effect after the ashes of
the patriarchal bonfires had been scattered by the winds.
Though schools languished and four full-fledged Prot-
estants recanted, while half-enlightened friends disap-
peared into safer haunts like timid birds that have seen
the shadow of a passing hawk, the evangelical cause
had received no vital injury, and the Patriarch's cause
no lasting help.

Mr. Hogg wrote long Arabic letters full of counsel
and encouragement to frightened converts in the south,
and long English letters full of the latest news to
anxious colleagues in the north, but the whole mission
might have awaited with calmness the reaction that was
sure to follow had not the Khedive's connection with the
course pursued proclaimed silently but effectively
throughout the land that henceforth he who injured a
Protestant might do so with impunity. Three cases
occurred involving precedents that endangered the future.

In the beginning of May, Gergis Bashetly, a Prot-
estant school teacher in Ekhmim, at whom Catholics and
Copts had hurled seven bulls of excommunication with-

DEFENDING THE PERSECUTED 159

out effect, was slapped on the face by the Patriarch,
his house broken into and his person mauled at the
Patriarch's instigation by the soldiery and mob, and he
with his son ordered out of town under threat of death.

In June some certificates of exemption presented by
Protestant schoolboys were disregarded by the officials
in their villages, though signed not only by Mr. Hogg,
but at his request by the Mudir of Assiut ; and when
the matter was appealed to Assiut headquarters, the
deputy-governor arraigned the boys instead of the de-
linquents, and their leader, Iskaros, was bastinadoed
and thrown bleeding into prison because he refused to
declare his statement a lie and buy forgiveness by joining
the Copts.

In September, three leaders of the Protestants at Kus,
long engaged in government service, amongst them Fam,
a man universally admired for his commanding char-
acter and unassailable honour, were in fulfilment of the
parting threat of the Patriarch, " ordered to the Sudan,"
a euphemistic expression that covered a plot to consign
them to a grave in the river on reaching the limits of
Egypt.

These cases differed from others in that the facts were
clear, evidence available, and the sufferers of a type to
withstand threats and bribes. The missionaries handled
them with vigour.

Egypt has long since recognised as common justice
the right of the Copt to make unmolested choice of a
school or church, and has almost forgotten the hard
campaign by which the privilege was wearily won
through long slow battles of the pen. It would take the
art of a Dickens to describe adequately the ability dis-
played by those in authority in paving delays with fair
promises, evading incriminating evidence, and escaping

160 LAYING FOUNDATIONS

the trammels of truth. Mr. Lansing and Mr. Hogg
fought side by side in the struggle and between them
burned much midnight oil. Mr. Hogg's two months'
rest in Ramleh has left its record in 245 quarto pages
written by his hand on the one subject, and many a
page was added to the sum after he returned to the
south. The British and American Consul Generals both
entered the field, and the former fought with persistence
and ability in the forefront of the battle.

It was in the third case that the first decisive victory
was won. The presence at the time on the scene of
action of Mr. Hogg and Mr. Currie, a missionary of most
attractive qualities, who had recently settled at Kus,
had the effect of delaying the local agents of the enemy,
while speeding each move for the rescue. The Khedive
was nettled and harassed by the growing publicity given to
a course which he had pursued with the utmost caution,
avoiding written orders and ensuring the silence of his
subordinates. He saw that the cat's-paw had fallen short
of his purpose, and to avoid trouble he dropped his weak
ally and turned to pacify his tormentors. In the undoing
as in the weaving of his plot he continued to hide his
hand, but the journey of Fam and his companions ended
abruptly at Esneh, and when after twenty-four days in
the court of the prison they returned unscathed to their
friends, the whole country was quick to recognise the
full significance of the fact. Timid adherents could steal
forth from their retreats, and the ousted school-master
return safely to Ekhmim. The reign of terror had
ended.

A year and a half passed before the infant church at
Assiut was called to weather its next storm, and in the
interval it had grown and strengthened. It was in Mr.
Hogg's absence during the summer of 1868 that the

TANASSA JOINS THE PROTESTANTS 161

turning tide began to rise with a rapidity and certainty
that startled the public. " This is to prove that it is
God's work, not mine," was the missionary's comment as
he heard from afar the echoes of a movement for which
he had worked and prayed.

The Patriarch had realised at length that the Book
he had burned was indestructible, and that if his Church
was to rally her forces she must hold it out to the people,
not snatch it from their grasp. The Assiut clergy
were surprised by a written order from their Head to
arrange an hour for the daily public study of the Bible,
with a notice that in future none would be eligible for
the priestly office who were not familiar with its con-
tents. As behoved them, they answered with ready com-
pliance, but the order was irksome and nothing was
done.

Mr. Hogg, before leaving, had urged his friends to
consider his absence their great opportunity and give
to others what they themselves had received. Five men
and a boy, poring over the Word in secret, heard the call
repeated by a Voice they could not disobey. Being still
members of the ancient Church, they set themselves to
secure its reform, but their repeated appeals to the leader
of the Copts to give effect to the Patriarch's instructions
were met by friendly promises and continued inaction.

Suddenly the town was shaken by the astounding news
that Tanassa, one of their number, and the champion of
the Copts, had joined the Protestants. It was as though
Goliath had deserted to the camp of Israel. People
flocked unconvinced to the house where the six were
gathered, to test the truth of the rumour. A tract was
being read aloud, " The winnowing fan of Kus," pur-
porting to be a discussion between a Coptic priest and
a Protestant. Tanassa, urged on by the boy, declared

162 LAYING FOUNDATIONS

frankly that the Protestant contentions were Scriptural,
and should be accepted by the Coptic Church, though con-
trary to the teaching of the Fathers. Dismay reigned
supreme. Tanassa and Shenoodeh had been bribed by the
foe ! Better had they become Mohammedans or Jews !
The wrath of God would descend upon them!

It was not till public disgrace had increased the zeal
and courage of those vilified, and led to their opening
a nightly public meeting in Tanassa's house, that the
patriarchal order was at last executed. Henceforth the
gatherings were removed from the house of the tainted
to the room where once an excommunicating Bishop had
cringed before an excommunicated missionary, and
where Tanassa the champion had for the first time re-
fused a challenge and taken refuge in fair phrases. The
room now witnessed nightly the same unequal contest
between ignorance and knowledge, between upholders of
tradition and seekers after truth. Even when at last the
priests angrily forbade all comment from the audience,
the words of Scripture which they stumblingly read and
could not explain carried the conviction to the heart of
the hearers that the Bible was on the side of the Prot-
estants. When Romans was reached, the priests in de-
spair announced that henceforth the commentaries of
the Fathers would be read along with the text. The
audience ceased to gather. The meeting, but one month
old, had received its death-blow.

Such were the conditions when Mr. Hogg returned
to Assiut. An ovation awaited him. Visitors flocked
to the house from sunrise to sunset, and eighty-two were
at the first evening meeting, besides such as crowded
around windows and doors. The Coptic Bishop launched
haram * after haram at the offenders, but while the

*A bill of excommunication.

LETTER TO THE MAHARAJAH 163

women of their households wept and bewailed them,
the excommunicated themselves paid little heed and the
public began to laugh at the futility of clerical rage.

In January, 1869, Mr. Hogg wrote cheerfully to the
Maharajah of the prospects of the work :

" Eight times a week the place in which we meet is
packed to the door with an attentive and interested audi-
ence. Every available inch is utilised. The younger
boys sit around my feet on every side and up on the
window-sills, while all the benches are occupied by men
and large boys, and an adjoining room is filled with
women and their babies. We sometimes have eight
babies, and — well, bless them! they don't behave any
worse than a Maharajah's young hopefuls would do if
cooped up in like fashion for a couple of hours in a little
dark room!

" At our first Communion after our return from Cairo
we received 17 men, women, and boys, and n men were
received six weeks afterwards. That makes 48 who
have been admitted into membership since our return
from Scotland. On the second occasion there were from
130 to 150 present, and we had a most delightful service
in the open court despite the cold weather. After service
we held a congregational meeting, and it was agreed to
go forward forthwith to build a church edifice. A site
was secured that night and the money paid down next
morning. The members are to build a church and a
dwelling house for their future pastor, and they do not
ask a single cent from anybody. What think you of
that? It is indeed the Lord's doing and it is very mar-
vellous in our eyes. It will cost probably five or six
hundred pounds. Most of it is to be met by two men,
our friend Wasif and a new friend whom I should like
you to meet — Hanna Wissa."

Shortly after, a passing event shed on the cause a
fleeting gleam of public honour. King Edward VII, then
Prince of Wales, was wintering on the Nile, and the

164 LAYING FOUNDATIONS

royal party spent a few hours at Assiut. As it was
rumoured that they would visit some interesting caves
in the mountain, the mission household, old and young,
had sallied forth in the hope of gaining a brief glimpse
of them there. But the royal visitors selected the mission
house instead as their rendezvous, wishing to see the
school of which they had heard. When the Deputy-
Governor entered the court to announce their arrival, the
boys fled in terror, pursued by visions of the slavery of
forced labour in the public works. But a few courageous
souls stood their ground and a crowd gathered, while
the Prince, finding that some knew English, examined
them in reading and geography in which they shone
with conscious pride. A large map hung in the court,
and the boys reported that after they had answered cor-
rectly a dozen questions, one of the Prince's companions
asked to be shown the source of the White Nile. In
this they all failed. In fact the map itself failed, for
the great lake-home of the mysterious river was but a
recent discovery. The questioner then came to their
aid, told them that he himself had discovered the source
of the Nile, and showed them where the vast lakes lay.
It was Sir Samuel Baker.

The boys reported further that the Prince and Prin-
cess were accompanied by a lady who was as tall as a
pole and had a dress like a ladder, with flounces for
rungs ! But even such interesting details hardly com-
pensated Mr. Hogg for his absence. He hastened to the
steamer, and though delayed by a perverse and weak-
legged donkey, reached it in time to receive a kindly
welcome and answer further questions regarding the
work. The Prince expressed great pleasure at what he
had seen, and the tone of the Princess's voice when she
remarked that the missionary was Scotch won his heart

ICONOCLASTS 165

at once, as betokening a warm affection for Auld Scotia's
children. Only one face looked black during the inter-
view— the face of the Deputy-Governor who had bas-
tinadoed the schoolboy that would not desert the Prot-
estants.

But adversity was now at hand and discredit was soon
to fall on the cause thus publicly honoured. In the
house of Mr. Hanna Wissa, the missionary's " new
friend,'' a few kindred spirits sat late one evening read-
ing their favourite Book. " And the Lord said unto
Gideon, Throw down the altar of Baal that thy father
hath, and cut down the Asherah that is by it. And it
came to pass, because he feared his father's household
and the men of the city so that he could not do it by
day, that he did it by night." Near at hand, on the
walls of an ancient church, hung the " Asherah " of their
race, the pictures of the intercessors before which the
people bowed in prayer. Was Gideon's call not their
call? Why not go at once, while their hearts were hot,
and purify their church's worship from its idolatry?
They prayed earnestly for God's blessing, and stole out
into the silent street. Tanassa's house adjoined the
church and from its roof entrance to the building was
easy. In his absence his brothers helped the conspirators.
The task was triumphantly accomplished, and again join-
ing in prayer, the devoted band returned exultant to
their homes.

But Old Testament stories may prove dangerous prece-
dents and actions that seem parallel lead to divergent is-
sues, as the sequel proved.

The Coptic Church was filled next morning by a wail-
ing and excited people. Dismay, fear, and rage were
inextricably mingled. Under threat of excommunication,
the whole sect was summoned to appear, and marched

166 LAYING FOUNDATIONS

in a body to the Governor to demand redress. Investi-
gation soon led to discovery, the names of the culprits
being revealed by Tanassa's brother while under the lash.
When brought to book the men surprised their accusers
by making no denial, telling frankly their story and
claiming God's warrant in the Bible. The Copts were
exasperated at being exposed before the Moslems as
worshippers of pictures, and the Moslems were amazed
by a glimpse of a new Christianity and the discovery
that the Protestant's Bible forbade idolatry. "Truly,"
they exclaimed, " this is the Book of God." The eight
men were sent to prison to await judgment on the case.

Perhaps only to a resident in Egypt can the full force
of the cataclysm be immediately apparent. There the
names involved and the interests at stake explain at once
the tumultuous excitement it awakened. The Coptic
clergy saw in the event the finger of God. The name
of Hanna Wissa had become hateful to them and God
had delivered their enemy into their hands.

The Governor granted Mr. Hanna Wissa's brother
twenty-four hours in which to conciliate his foes, but
they were as deaf to appeals as an angry sea, and, like
the chief priests of old, " stirred up the people," two
thousand of whom invaded the Governor's presence to
demand the full satisfaction of the law. As punishment
was deserved, no effort was made to secure consular
help, and when peace measures failed, Mr. Hogg awaited
w:th his friends in unceasing prayer the execution of
justice, cheering meanwhile the poor men whose exulta-
tion had evaporated, and turning the prison into a school-
house where all who entered learnt without effort and
without charge lessons that they could not soon forget.

A week later the Moslem feast of Fida dawned, and
Assiut was electrified by a telegram from the Khedive

PARDON AND A NEW CHARGE 167

granting the culprits free pardon. Moslems joined with
Protestants in their rejoicing, about 200 of them being
present among the hundreds who gathered in the court
of Mr. Wissa's house to welcome the prisoner home. A
thanksgiving service was held, and the missionary sought
to make the most of a grand opportunity.

The feelings of the Coptic clergy were beyond expres-
sion. It was as though a bull, infuriated by the
proverbial red rag and thinking to gore it to his heart's
content, had found his horns suddenly buried in an
unexpected hedge, while the tormenting object of his
charge fluttered invulnerable on the other side. To be
robbed of the prey in the moment of triumph was beyond
endurance, and a delegation left for Cairo to threaten the
Patriarch with desertion to the Catholics unless the
pardon were rescinded.

A new charge was lodged accusing the enemy not
only of the crime confessed but of a theft of treasure.
Investigations were reopened by Sharif Pasha while the
Khedive was absent in Europe, and the subsequent pro-
ceedings were a complicated tangle of wrongs. So far
as the missionary was concerned, the turn events had
taken involved his remaining in Assiut through the hot
months of summer to encourage his distressed flock and
share their anxieties. His health was not at its best
and the heat intense. He mentions the thermometer at
112° in the coolest room, his closed study, and 121° else-
where, the glass of a shuttered window having been
left open. His family being in Ramleh, he was quite
alone, and his wife's letters were feverishly devoured —
read three times at a sitting, to be studied again later
in the vain hope that he had not yet fully mastered their
contents ! The case entailed on him much writing, and
the slow wavering course of events with the varying

168 LAYING FOUNDATIONS

currents of popular feeling awakened can be gleaned
from a mass of letters, English and Arabic, public and
private, that were the fruit of his solitude. Reviewing
the case long before its completion, he points out eight
important contradictions that had already been perpe-
trated, and remarks " Sharif Pasha's actions have been
consistent in being a tissue of inconsistencies from be-
ginning to end." Nothing new was proved against the
accused, yet they received sentences of one, two, and
three years' imprisonment in the South, and were fined
$1,750 to replace property of whose theft no evidence
was produced and pictures which were valued by inter-
ested parties at ten times their worth. The Governor
absented himself from the town in disgust, that the in-
fliction of the sentence might fall to other hands.

Mr. Hogg, curious to see the expression of the Coptic
representatives as they received their unlawful gains,
accompanied the victims to the Mudiriyah when payment
was to be made, but finding his presence a trial to the
official in charge, he withdrew, and, unable to rest,
wandered to the river where a boat for Esna awaited
the prisoners. The Consuls had long since taken up
the case, whose character had changed to that of definite
religious persecution, and he was haunted by an expecta-
tion of reprieve, a cheering legacy from his prayers of
the previous day in the prison and in secret. Driven
home at last by the intolerable heat, he found a letter
awaiting him with important news. A promise had been
extracted from Sharif Pasha that on the return of the
Khedive the prisoners would be released. He hurried
out with the glad tidings, and though the execution of
the sentence was not deferred, the prisoners left with
a bright hope in their hearts, and their friends no longer
sorrowed as if for the dead.

RELEASE OF THE ICONOCLASTS 169

Some weeks later the Khedive arrived from Europe,
and on August 10, after a month's hard labour at Esna
following on a longer though less rigorous imprisonment
at Assiut, the exiled men were finally set free. Great
rejoicings awaited them in Assiut, over a thousand Copts
and Moslems visiting the chief culprit on the day of his
return. Their long trial had not been wholly in vain.
Protestants had gained from it a firmer grip on the great
realities of their faith. Interest had been quickened
among the Copts, and throughout the length of Egypt
Moslems had learnt that Scriptural Christianity is a purer
faith than they had yet imagined.

When after a short rest Mr. Hogg resumed his work,
it was with a feeling that it was about to enter on a new
stage of its history, and his large expectations were soon
justified. The events that now emerge on the canvas
were peculiarly significant to a man who so stead-
fastly refused to gauge success by the number of con-
verts won, and considered his mission unfulfilled till
the converts should become such a converting force
in the land as must finally render a foreign mission un-
necessary.

It was in November that the little seminary came
forth purified from the smelting pot of financial disputa-
tion, and the first coins of its mintage were issued four
months later, two students who had completed their
course being licensed as preachers after an exhaustive
examination by Presbytery.

On February 12, 1870, a custom that had held sway
for i, 800 years succumbed before the zeal of the church
members, prompted and guided by the missionary.
Copts and Moslems, yielding to their suasion, signed with
them a petition which transferred from Sunday to Sat-
urday the Assiut weekly market, the centre of all trade

170 LAYING FOUNDATIONS

for a wide and populous district, a change which left on
the mind of the peasantry a bewildering impression that
these holders of strange doctrines had juggled with the
calendar and transposed the order of its days !

March 6 saw the dedication of Assiut church building,
the fruit of unaided native effort, a memorable and
joyous occasion to missionaries and people, when six of
the former (Presbytery being in session) shared in the
ceremonies of the day.

Equally significant of the solidity of the success
achieved was the altered life upon which the church
entered in its new home. On April n the congregation
was formally organised and its oversight entrusted to
the elders and deacons of its choice.

In November the church at Assiut, and a nucleus of
worshippers at Motiah and at Nakheilah, adopted the
principles of systematic giving and systematic personal
aggressive work, and though these steps were taken at
Mr. Hogg's suggestion they were taken with a hearty
ardour that boded well for Egypt's future. The imme-
diate result was that in ten weeks 105 visits were paid to
19 towns and villages, at distances of three to twenty
miles from Assiut. The work was thoroughly organised,
the volunteers going two by two every Sabbath after-
noon to the towns appointed them, and reporting their
adventures at a mid-week meeting held at the home-
base. The missionary organised a flourishing Sabbath
school at each of the three centres, and members unable
for work at a distance were enrolled as teachers, or as
workers in the lanes and market-place of their own
town. Missionaries and theologues, already old at such
systematic labour, enrolled themselves along with the
fresh recruits, and the more distant villages were usually
Mr. Hogg's allotment as he was at this time the happy

THE CHURCH AT ASSIUT 171

possessor of a horse that carried him swiftly over the
ground.

On New Year's Day, 1871, a union meeting was held
in the new church at Assiut, at which the year's work was
reviewed. The missionary wrote of the day as the hap-
piest he had yet spent in Egypt. The speeches by elders
and deacons and their cheering reports of native effort
were to him, like Gideon's fleece, a sign of God's pres-
ence, a proof to Egypt of a decree of God that through
the faith and valour of Egyptians He would deliver the
land.

The very letter, however, that describes this happy
occasion breaks off in its account of encouraging audi-
ences and great success to confess that there remained,
notwithstanding a dark side to the picture.

" In Assiut the people outside have got the length of
granting that Protestantism is the truth, and have made
up their minds to trouble their heads no further about
it. They will not come to Christ that they may have
life, and they will not come in the way of getting it.
I firmly believe that it is by preaching that men are
converted. Mere intellectual enlightenment from read-
ing and discussing hardens the heart. Very few new
faces appear at any of our services. There are a few,
but oh, how few in comparison with the great mass
outside !

" Again, some of the villages seem determined to pre-
vent our getting a foothold in them. Abutij is all in
commotion because we (Tadrus, Tanassa, and I) have
begun to visit it. The Bishop tried to get a hold of
Tanassa. The miller at whose door he sat was dragged
off, beaten, and put in durance by the Bishop's orders.
Tadrus was ordered out of Nasr Allah's house and
refused to budge. I was first shunned ; and then, when
a few came and demanded of me to work a miracle to
prove that our faith was better than theirs, we were
interrupted by the Bishop's Wakil, who asked if there

172 LAYING FOUNDATIONS

was an Orthodox King present to decide the controversy,
and then spanked them all off. Still there are a few
timid spirits anxious to learn the truth and we have
not lost hope. Abnub is dead and rotten as Sodom.
Twice I have been there and I was virtually told at my
last visit that I bored them by my visit. I came home
on my hungry donkey (it had got nothing during the
night) and broke my fast after Bessie and the bairns
had risen from dinner. The owner of the house at
which I had put up (the leader of the enlightened set!)
drank arrack and went asleep while I preached the first
night, and went off early next morning without bidding
us good-bye. Other places are more hopeful, but we
sadly need men. not boys. Tanassa is welcome every-
where. So is Abuna Hanna and Shenoodeh. I made
my first visit to Bakur yesterday, and the person most
anxious for me to visit it pretended not to be at home, so
that I had to leave it as I had come, from the fear that
every man has of receiving me into his house.''

How little such treatment daunted him is evident from
the resolve immediately following. " If spared I shall
take a tent at the end of the session and spend a week
at each of the more important places." And the project
was on the eve of accomplishment when events taking
an unexpected turn nipped it in the bud.

Only ten strenuous days remained available, but in
these a hopeful opening was at last achieved at Bakur,
while the Sabbath at Nakheilah proved memorable. In
the morning, Communion was conducted in the presence
of about 250 men and 120 women (with their babies!)
30 new members being received into the Church. In the
afternoon, in the presence of fewer women but more
men, the congregation was organised under the over-
sight of five elders and three deacons of its own choice,
the elders being ordained not by a band of missionaries
but by the native session of Assiut. In the evening a

THE CHURCH AT XAKHEILAH 173

meeting was held at which the brave little church decided
to present a call to Mr. Tadrus Yusuf, who was ordained
to its pastorate a few months later, to subscribe Sio
monthly towards his salary, and to build a church, school,
and parsonage as soon as a site could be secured.

In that Sabbath's doings there was a dramatic fitness
unnoticed at the time, for a long interval was to elapse
before the missionary would again enter an Egyptian
village. They were a suitable finale to the six years that
had passed since Mr. Hogg settled in Assiut. The period
had opened with but one solitary convert in the whole
Upper Country, his membership still carefully concealed.
It closed on a flourishing Evangelical Church, with two
full-fledged congregations and the nuclei of others, and
on an institution that would ensure for it a constant
supply of trained workers, of whom Xakheilah's pastor-
elect was the first fruit. The building in which the insti-
tution was to be housed was the gift of Scotland, and its
rough walls, rising daily higher, would soon need but
a roof to complete its structure. Beside it stood the
house of worship, which had been dedicated the previous
year, and whose donors were natives of the land. The
latter building was complete, but the Egyptian Church, of
whose firm establishment at the centre of the people's
life it was the proof and symbol, still lacked the copestone
that was to perfect its Presbyterial form.

In a few months even this finishing touch was given.
Presbytery had hitherto been a foreign body, its lan-
guage English, its business in large part subject to the
approval or disapproval of an American Board. In the
fall of the year it became a native body, its language
Arabic, its decisions within its own sphere final. At
the request of the governing bodies in America and with
the approval of those concerned, its business was purged

174> LAYING FOUNDATIONS

of all that related to missionaries as the Board's agents,
and to departments of work whose financial responsi-
bilities rested entirely on the American Church.

Freed from this incubus of extraneous matter, the
Presbytery became henceforth a thoroughly Egyptian in-
stitution, in which pastors, elders, and missionaries met
as co-presbyters, with equal privileges, to consider and
legislate in the Church's interest, and unite their varying
talents to aid her in obeying her call from God to the
spiritual conquest of Egypt.

This finishing touch gave greater joy to none than to
Mr. Hogg, but when the Presbytery thus constituted held
its first meeting and ordained its first pastor, the man
was far away who had under God played so prominent a
part in the birth and development of the Church for
which it existed.

XII
FLOTSAM AND JETSAM

Rejoice that man is hurled

From change to change unceasingly,

His soul's wings never furled.

— ROBERT BROWNING.

TO balance fairly the conflicting claims of public
work and private life is as puzzling a problem
to the narrator of this history as it ever remained
to the man with whom it is chiefly concerned. In the effort
to give distinctness to the steps by which Mr. Hogg's work
attained the solidity and the permanence at which he
aimed, some events have been ignored that affected him
deeply.

The happiness of his home had been menaced as often
as the prosperity of the cause. Disease and death were
the birds of prey whose shadows had disturbed its peace.
He had been hurried back from his watch over the move-
ments of the plot at Kus, to watch over his little son
through a severe attack of confluent smallpox, and when
the misery was at its worst had held him on his lap for
nearly a week, snatching a few hours of sleep each after-
noon when he relinquished his charge perforce to the
mother, who had already a new baby to nurse. Not long
after his recovery, the little patient was seized again by
some strange form of croup which lasted through four-
teen anxious days. " You can imagine," the father
wrote to his brother, " the torture of listening to every
breath all through the night, not knowing but the next

175

176 FLOTSAM AND JETSAM

fit of coughing may choke him, yet afraid to rouse him
by trying to give him a little medicine to relieve the heavy
breathing, for that would, you think, but hasten the
crisis." But the parents were spared that final agony
and the dark cloud lifted.

At another time his own health gave way, necessitating
a month's rest in Ramleh. He had been called in 1868
to fill Dr. Lansing's place in Cairo for five months as
editor and preacher, and when no material remained to
edit, had been tempted to create sufficient Arabic copy
to keep his two compositors busy, besides correcting the
corrections of the proof-corrector — which was often a
serious undertaking — and preaching four times a week
by way of " blowing off extra steam." The result was
that in three months 160 quarto pages were printed of
an Arabic Bible Dictionary and Students' Assistant,
part of the material translated, but more than half
original, and that at last he was forced to escape north
a broken-down man, conscious that he had sinned in
attempting too much, but his penitence still imperfect as
his excuses reveal. " It is difficult," he maintains, " to be
sober in such a world as this. They will not be saved
in God's way. How then can one be calm in such cir-
cumstances ? " And there follows a familiar note, the
key-note of his life. " Yet I would rather suffer from
doing too much than be a drone in such a service."

During the winter that followed the release of the
prisoners in August, 1868, Mr. Watson shared Mr.
Hogg's labours at Assiut, and the addition of Dr. John-
stone, a medical missionary, to the staff brought added
relief. But even the best physician could improve neither
the house nor the climate, and the health of the children
proved miserable, dysentery and ophthalmia now alter-
nating, now combining to reduce them to a state of piti-

FAMILY CARES 177

ful weakness. The ensuing spring, when Assiut con-
gregation had been entrusted to its own elders and dea-
ccns, the parents, to save the life of their youngest, left
hastily for Syria. But during the preliminary river
journey, cerebro-spinal symptoms developed, and on
reaching Cairo the little boy, whose short life of eight
months had been chequered by many ills, breathed his
last and was at rest. The parents continued their jour-
ney, though their dearest hope was thus quenched, and
the family remained five months in a cooler climate. Mr.
Hogg himself returned two months earlier, having
preached ten times during his absence — in fact, when-
ever opportunity offered.

The two months of entire solitude throw into strong
light the strength of his family ties and his keen enjoy-
ment of the home life, whose full privileges he yet so
constantly denied himself. His imagination was always
busy with the absent ones; their daily life was pictured,
every birthday remembered, and each date carefully
watched, so that when the time for their return ap-
proached, his brain was occupied with futile planning
for their journey and the packing and roping of imagi-
nary trunks for his wife, before she herself faced the
task. During these lonely months he found a solace
in hard work and a feeble harmonium. The former,
however, proved a treacherous friend and betrayed him
into many indiscretions, so that he was already over-
strained and sleep-deserted when news reached him that
ophthalmia had attacked his children immediately on
their arrival at Ramleh and that the eye of one was in
danger. A record journey of forty-eight hours brought
him at once into their midst, but in a condition of health
that soon added a patient to the family hospital over
which his wife presided.

178 FLOTSAM AND JETSAM

In spite of so bad a beginning, the health report for
the session of 1870 to 1871 records almost as much ad-
vance on the previous year as the mission report for the
same period ; and it was not illness amongst his children
but serious news from his wife's home that at its close
altered the missionary's village plans, and after the mem-
orable Sabbath at Nakheilah hurried him to the coast.
Two weeks later he stood on the deck of a steamer in
Alexandria harbour, watching through the captain's
spy-glass another steamer that was soon a vanishing
speck on the open sea, carrying beyond the reach of his
care the lives he held most dear.

On this occasion separation did not condemn him to
solitude. He lived in the home of a colleague, and as
the theological students had taken up quarters beside
them, his life was at once filled with work that he loved.

Yet the days that followed the wrench were long and
difficult, and the third week next to intolerable. The
vessel in which his family sailed was expected to com-
plete its journey in a fortnight, and from the afternoon
of the Monday on which the fortnight ended, he allowed
himself to expect from his wife the promised telegram.
He began to count time by the arrival at intervals of
a train from Alexandria, and if at liberty would at the
sound of its whistle steal out of the house and hurry
towards the station to meet alone a messenger who
never came. His nerves soon suffered from the strain,
and night brought " dread fancies " that banished sleep,
— of fire, illness, and children falling overboard, — with
always the haunting memory of terrible hours in a frail
boat in the Bay of Biscay to emphasise the possibility
that might explain the silence.

When Thursday, by the arrival of a barren mail,
quenched his last hope of a letter from Gibraltar, he had

ALONE AT ASSIUT 179

to leave the tea-table abruptly to battle with his dis-
appointment alone.

" This suspense is killing me," he wrote ; " I half
wish I had not spoken of sending a telegram; it makes
me count the hours." [And then he grew penitent and
tried to rally his hopes.] " Perhaps I ought not to write
to you when my heart is so sore. I try to cast my cares
on the great Care-bearer, but they will roll back. The
Lord grant that we may still have many years of happy
life all together. How hard it must be to the heart of
the great Father of all when His children are away from
Him and still receding and in danger of being separated
from Him for ever. This is the lesson I have been
trying to learn these past three weeks. Oh, that I may
remember it while I live and draw closer to my God ! "

In that closeness he was still striving to find peace
when Saturday's " heavy hours " drew to an end. As
he undressed a sound in the court and the word
" telegram " reached his ear. In three seconds he was
out of doors deciphering by moonlight the message.
" Arrived safely. Rough passage. Off for Edinburgh."
That night on a wakeful pillow, he registered the vow
that never again while her husband lived would his wife
cross the ocean without his company, — and the vow re-
mained unbroken.

It is difficult to decipher the letters that treasure this
little tale, as well as many of those that follow, partly
because Time has sought by its kindly touch to guard
them from intrusion, and partly because the tears their
writer suppressed seem to have lodged in his fading words
the power to infect the eyes of a reader with their
dimness. They are the letters of a lover, already ten
years a husband, — letters for which there had been no
room in the hurried weeks of his courtship. He was

180 FLOTSAM AND JETSAM

wise enough to grasp the possibilities of his new oppor-
tunity and believe that, rightly used, even a year of
separation might bear a harvest of good.

His messages to his children, his messages to his wife
about money matters, dress, and fashion, and his remarks
on various, incidents of her home life, are often full of
charm, betraying a large and generous nature widely re-
sponsive in its impulses in spite of the concentration of
its powers on a work demanding the sacrifice of many
of the worthy interests of life.

But the problem of the future often clouded his
thoughts. The experiment of rearing children in Assiut
had so far been singularly unsuccessful. Was it his duty
to settle his family permanently in a healthier climate,
while he remained at Assiut to face a life in which the
pleasures of home would come to him only as an occa-
sional oasis in the desert? Should Syria be their home,
Syria where without impossible outlay of money or time
he might join them annually for a little space?

One possible solution might have saved all pain. In
Syria he had been approached on the subject of appoint-
ment as professor in Beirut College. He had answered
with prompt decision, as once before when his own
Church in Scotland had invited him to a different sphere,
" I would not exchange my present station and work for
anything out of Heaven." To decide otherwise would
always have been impossible to him ; yet now, as the hot
damp summer dragged on, with nerves weakened and
sleep grown fitful, the earthly charms of such a change
of sphere would dance before his eyes through the night
hours, like the mirage which the desert traveller watches
with a fascinated brain but unvacillating will.

His strength continued to ebb. He would rally his
powers to meet the moment's call, to teach, to preach, to

FURLOUGH IN AMERICA 181

sing songs for a company's entertainment, or to join the
students or his colleagues in any game demanding skill
of hand ; but the excitement over he was left " panting like
a broken down horse for hours," and when night came lay
open-eyed till morning, unless some drug brought him
relief. Manifestly he was in no condition to resume his
labours at Assiut. The mission readjusted its programme,
and on October 18, 1871, the trials of separation were
ended, and the family in Edinburgh, after but ten days
of excited expectation, welcomed the absent one into their
midst.

Bereavement followed speedily in the wake of joy.
Whooping-cough soon invaded the family, and a little
son, after a long and painful struggle, was laid to rest in
Scottish soil, the parents grateful for the providence that
allowed them to be together in the time of their sorrow.

The missionary's furlough-rest was, like that of 1866,
filled with engagements. Two-thirds of his sermons and
addresses, however, were delivered in America, where he
went with his wife in the spring of 1872, in response to a
warm invitation from the Mission Board. Many ties had
already been forged between the American United Pres-
byterian Church and her Scottish representative in Egypt,
and the degree of D.D. conferred on him in 1869 by
Westminster College, Pa., had proved that he was already
a prominent figure in the minds of her leaders. It was
a keen pleasure therefore to strengthen by actual contact
the friendships that had been formed, and to come into
closer touch than was possible through the public print
with the rank and file of a Church that he was keenly
anxious to arouse to a full sense of her opportunities. At
the meeting of the General Assembly he was offered the
moderatorship, but declined the honour. He prized how-
ever a chance afforded him of addressing the gathering,

182 FLOTSAM AND JETSAM

and carried through life a memento of the occasion in a
handsome gold watch with which he was publicly pre-
sented. The ten weeks of his stay were divided amongst
fifteen different centres extending from New York and
Boston to Omaha, Neb., his sermons and addresses num-
bering thirty-nine in all.

Of tangible benefit to Egypt he was at first uncon-
scious, but seed was sown that in time bore liberal fruit.
Some of his new friends became in after years, by their
gifts and efforts, co-labourers in the cause he loved;
among them Dr. Joseph Clokey of Springfield, O., who
when special need arose rendered such valuable service
by eliciting the aid of wealthy friends, that his name
is linked with Assiut College and inscribed as one of the
founders of the institution. The immediate harvest was
more personal, and the missionaries left America re-
freshed and enriched by memories of open-hearted hos-
pitality, comradeship, and kindness, and by novel ex-
periences in the unfamiliar environment and exhilarating
atmosphere of the New World.

Dr. Hogg had lost ten pounds in weight, but having
gained greatly in spirits was impatient to be once more a
doer of the work and not a speaker only, and imagining
himself thoroughly recuperated he left Scotland with his
family in August and set his face once more towards
Assiut. Their journey was interrupted for a few days in
Palermo, Sicily, where Mrs. Hogg's brother laboured as a
missionary, and here Dr. Hogg enjoyed a short preach-
ing bout in Italian, which resulted in the formation of
a society for evangelistic work in the town and district
on the lines he had followed so successfully in Egypt.

At Assiut disappointment awaited him, for he was
immediately laid low by an attack of intermittent fever,
which was followed in weary succession by boils, heavy

SEPARATION 183

catarrh, and a cough, so that 1873 was reached before he
was able to enjoy his work to the full.

The health of the children, however, had been thor-
oughly established by their prolonged stay in Scotland,
and circumstances seemed to have provided a happy solu-
tion to the problem that had been the father's nightmare
on the eve of his furlough. Their old home, though ris-
ing above its fellows, had been hemmed in by them on
every side. They were now in a new house built over the
church outside the western gate of the town, and over-
looking a grove of palms, shittim, olive, and pomegranate
trees. Here the air came unpolluted across the fields from
the desert, and to rear children might thus prove a more
hopeful task. Moreover, Mrs. Hogg's sister had become
a member of the household, and could take charge of
them in Ramleh or Syria, if wisdom should dictate a
change.

But wisdom's dictum soon proved other than was ex-
pected. A violent attack of ophthalmia early in April
left the eyes of the oldest son in such a condition that
the doctor ordered six or seven years in Scotland as the
only safeguard against blindness, and a long separation
ensued. The home in Egypt was left with a baby three
months old to act as comforter, while a new home was
established in a country town in Scotland, where the three
older children could secure a good education at a large
Academy, amid the most healthful surroundings and
with an aunt to act the mother's part to her charge.
Henceforth re-union became the family day-dream, real-
ised at long intervals and treasured always in memory
and in hope.

XIII
WANTED: A COLLEGE

Let a man contend to the uttermost
For his life's set prize, be it what it will.

The thing wanted, soon or late, will be supplied.

— ROBERT BROWNING.

F one thing I am certain, the College shall be
built if the Lord prolong my life another ten
years, though the straw for the bricks may
have to be gathered one by one from the furrows of the
field." December, 1873.

In this sentence penned by Dr. Hogg with deep feel-
ing eighteen months after his return from furlough we
find the key-note of a new period, during which the in-
adequacy of the Academy's new building, the inadequacy
of its teaching staff, and the inadequacy of the mission
force in the Upper Country, pressed on his heart with
unceasing and painful force as he sought to cope with
the bewildering claims to which growing success gave
birth.

To this period the work of 1872-73 is but as the tuning
up of an orchestra. In Dr. Hogg's absence the instru-
ments had lost tone. By no deft rearrangement of forces
can a body of missionaries too small for its tasks supply a
temporary vacancy in such a way that no loss shall accrue
to the work. In Dr. Hogg's absence the church at
Assiut had changed hands four times, and being left fin-
ally to its own resources, dissensions had sprung up

184

REVISING THE CHURCH 185

among its members, who, accustomed to high-class fare,
grew critical of leaders of their own race no more ad-
vanced than themselves. The nightly meeting had dwin-
dled almost to nothing, and the volunteers for work in the
villages contented themselves with mild efforts nearer
home, meeting to enjoy their own spiritual possessions
rather than to share them with those who lacked.

Mutual reconciliations, a nourishing but limited diet,
and abundance of exercise were the remedies used to re-
vive the languishing church. Six meetings were started
in different districts of the city and held four nights
weekly, with three members in charge of each. Sabbath
school was put entirely under native superintendence and
well stocked with teachers willing to learn their business.
One night all met at the church to pray for success, and
one night only for their own improvement. Dr. John-
stone, the medical missionary, undertook to visit the vari-
ous meetings to encourage those in charge, while Dr.
Hogg's part was to drill the speakers and Sabbath school
teachers, planning their subjects and supplying them with
helps and hints which, copied by schoolboys and dis-
tributed week by week, guided also the nightly meetings
at five of the outstations. At these the work had suffered
less than at the centre, and by January, 1873, when the
annual meetings were held at Assiut, Motiah, and Nak-
heilah, church life had everywhere recovered tone and
gave abundant cause for thankfulness.

All session the Academy building continued to satisfy
every demand, and as his physical ills diminished the
missionary enjoyed increasingly his post as teacher,
while translation work went on apace. The strain, how-
ever, began when in the summer of '73 a tour in the
" Ibis " revealed to him the startling rapidity with which
gospel truth was spreading in the land.

186 WANTED: A COLLEGE

The details of his trip are rich in interest, but our
present concern is chiefly to notice the motive that
prompted the journey and the effect it produced upon
the worker. Rev. Mr. Currie, the missionary at Kus, had
long since been called to his reward. Assiut remained the
one centre in Upper Egypt at which an ordained mis-
sionary was permanently at work. To that missionary
during the regular working months all regions were
unreachable that were beyond the range of his horse's
power, and even at the nearest no lengthened stay was
possible.

For the unreachable field he and his colleagues were
preparing a native ministry, but unless the field were
meanwhile prepared to receive the men, their usefulness
would be crippled by entrance on their life work as paid
agents of a foreign body, instead of as pastors called to
their posts by the people among whom they were to
minister. Such a false beginning must at all costs be
avoided. Evangelistic work must keep pace with educa-
tional, the preparing of the field with the preparing of
the workers. It was this necessity that forced Dr. Hogg
to betake himself to the river where the heat was most
acute at a time when common prudence turns the faces of
even the most earnest workers seaward.

To his surprise and joy he found everywhere a marvel-
lous state of readiness.

At Mellawi, a town where drunkenness and Christianity
had been synonymous until Protestantism appeared, a
series of six sermons all converging on the theme of
" The glorious salvation available through the sinner's
Saviour " made a deep impression. Two lay leaders of
the Copts joined the Evangelicals. On leaving, the mis-
sionary was accompanied to the ferry by weeping friends,
and the first news to follow him was that the school whose

THE WHITENING FIELD 187

formation he had urged was fairly launched, twelve boys
in attendance, and all expenses met by the founders.

At Luxor every hour of his stay was eagerly utilised
by a hungry people, and no time wasted in empty talk.
The very Bishop was friendly, and priests drank in his
words like children. Men of influence were the most
earnest inquirers. Never had he seen a wider door.

At Kus the cause was languishing because since Mr.
Currie's death the only preachers available had been in-
ferior in mental power and Scriptural knowledge to the
leading church member, who, growing callous, hindered
rather than helped his brethren. Yet even here there was
a response which seemed to prove that with the right
gardener fruit would be abundant, and experience at every
town deepened the assurance.

The presence with Dr. Hogg of Mr. Shenoodeh Hanna,
one of the ablest of his students, had an extraordinary
effect on the younger generation. To hear him sing, pray,
and preach, and to watch his ready adaptation to the call
of the moment, was to them a revelation. Here was a
new type of Egyptian manhood. If possible to him, why
not to them ? The distant Academy acquired suddenly a
concrete value and " the ministry " a meaning remote
from that of priesthood. The " Ibis " in consequence
bore to Assiut a cargo of eager boys of Protestant par-
entage, and the missionary a cargo of convictions which,
seething in his mind, were to rob him of power to rest for
several years.

These convictions were three in number, — that the de-
mand for native workers would soon be far in excess of
what the Academy and seminary, unless immediately en-
larged, could produce ; that the sons of Protestants would
answer to the call for workers in the number needed if aid
wisely regulated were procurable ; and that for their devel-

188 WANTED: A COLLEGE

opment into the type of worker required a more thorough
course of training must be provided than was at present
possible. In a word there was wanted a Training Col-
lege for the Protestant Church into which even the poor-
est, if of the stamp desired, might find entrance ; and to
procure that college speedily the only thing necessary was
to give to Assiut Academy room for natural development
by providing adequate permanent buildings and a more
competent teaching staff.

But how could this, the only thing necessary, be at-
tained ? It must remain unattainable unless by written ap-
peals he could infect with his convictions and enthusiasm
other men in whom the power to act and to give would ac-
company desire. Was it to raise his appeals to white heat
that he was immediately plunged into a furnace of trial
which seemed to mock his efforts and his dreams ? What
lay before him on his return from the south, and under
what circumstances he made his first attempt to tell the
Church in America what had so affected his own soul, the
following letter, which accompanied his appeal, relates :

ASSIUT, 26th September, 1873.
DEAR BROTHER DALES,

I shall add a short note. It will have to be written
under difficulties, as the enclosed has been, for like
poor Job I am coated over with an irritating eruption
which has deprived me of sleep for a number of weeks,
and it is now finishing up (I hope) with a crop of boils
which have fairly brought me to my back for the nonce.
The carpet is my couch and the floor my writing desk.

Our family trials have been numerous since I wrote
you last. After seeing our children aboard the steamer
I left for Upper Egypt, leaving Mrs. Hogg and baby
at Ramleh. On my way north, after two months' ab-
sence, news reached me that baby was sick. I hurried
to Ramleh, fearing the worst (for our last two children

LETTER TO DR. DALES 189

died about his age). Mrs. Lansing will have told you
how anxious we were all kept on his account and how
often we hoped against hope. I was anxious to get back
to Assiut, for the Academy was in a regular mess. The
Syrian teacher on whom I had depended to carry it on
in my absence had refused to go back at the end of the
vacation on account of the heat, and left our service
without warning. The other teachers had got to quar-
relling and even to blows in the school.

The second Syrian had been summarily dismissed (for
the worst conduct). The coming of the ten boys from
Kus had stirred up the boys in other places, and the
Academy was being crowded with pupils without any
teachers for them.

Such was the news that was reaching me every few
days during the two months to which my stay in Ramleh
was prolonged. So you may guess what my thoughts
were during those dreary nights while I paced the room
backwards and forwards from midnight till day-dawn
carrying the sick one in my arms. He had now cut
some teeth and the danger from brain-fever had passed,
but his little emaciated body was coated over with
myriads of itchy pimples and dozens of boils and ulcers,
making it impossible for him to sleep except when car-
ried about in the arms. All the young ladies took turns
with us in nursing the little sufferer. But for their help
we should both have broken down altogether. At last
the doctor gave us permission to leave, expressing the
hope that the change from the seashore to Assiut might
do him good. Baby is thinner than when we left, but
his face is more natural-looking and he is a little more
lively. The eruption seems almost to disappear and then
it breaks out afresh, and every few days I have to open
two or three large boils on his head and shoulders, etc.
To finish up this doleful chapter, I got so accustomed
to wakeful nights at Ramleh that I seem now to have
lost the power of sleeping altogether, and when this
state will end I cannot tell. Meanwhile, and until the
teacher whom we have written for comes from Syria,
I have to teach four hours daily in the Academy, as
well as do all the managing, etc., etc.

190 WANTED: A COLLEGE

You will now understand how it was that being forced
to take to my back and yet still able to use the pen,
when I began to write to you an account of my recent
Nile tour a few days ago, I got back to the same old,
old song, of which you and I are so sick. Alas, we pipe
and they will not dance! But shall we cease piping
on that account?

Yours ever,

J. HOGG.

The session on which he was now entering proved per-
haps the most trying in his whole history. The pressure
of things neglected was incessant, and he was ever con-
scious of opportunities lost, of whitening grain for which
no reapers were in readiness, and of work done in me-
diocre fashion which properly circumstanced he had the
power to do well. This pressure combined with his weak-
ened physical condition to drive him at times to the verge
of desperation. Boils followed persistently in each other's
train, each seeming to choose the worst spot possible, and
when he noted the cheering sign that they no longer
caused him to fever, his optimism was at once laid low
by a week's prostration and torture. At last a fall of
temperature to normal allowed him to force himself
" into the old rut again," but it was with a large boil
on the very centre of his spine, so painfully situated that
he regretted his lack of gratitude to its predecessors for
locating themselves elsewhere !

Yet in his work there is no " rut " visible. As soon as
he touched the evening meeting he rejuvenated it, the
whole programme altered. He arranged substitutes at all
the stations where theologues had been engaged, that their
work might proceed after some fashion while they re-
turned to Assiut for further study. He answered Arabic
letters that poured in from every quarter. He wrote
petitions to Government for permission to build churches

APPEAL TO THE AMERICAN CHURCH 191

on sites purchased by the people of different villages; a
petition for a change in the market-day at Mellawi where
the native pleaders had failed to word their plea with
sufficient persuasiveness ; repeated letters long and patient
to a back-sliding member who would not forgive him be-
cause he had spoken the truth in love; and hardest of all
regretful explanations in answer to urgent requests for
an Egyptian preacher or a visit from himself, which came
in with weekly monotony from Luxor, Kosair, Kurnah,
Kena, Girga, Ekhmim, Tahta, Minya, and elsewhere.

Can we wonder that into an appeal to the American
Church from one so burdened and so afflicted there crept
a tone that has in it more of the ring of human nature
than of angelic patience, and is more suggestive of a
man of battle than of a saint and martyr?

The Christian Instructor suppressed the appeal after
printing the five descriptive articles by which the pleader
had striven to prepare his reader for a climax of action.
A portion of this plea we print below, unpurged of the
odour of gunpowder that seems to have rendered it
obnoxious.

" It is the vaunting boast of our Church that she
is raising a native ministry in Egypt, and it is full time
that the Church were informed that all she is doing in
the premises is to kill her own missionaries, or at least
to put them in such circumstances that they cannot help
killing themselves. She boasts of her Assiut Training
Academy. Her Academy, forsooth ! and what, pray, has
she ever done for it? We answer that as a Church she
has done nothing for it whatever. She has supported
the missionary who has charge of it, it is true, but she
has not relieved him of one single solitary item of his
other work. He has even the bookshop and colportage
accounts — a work which every one who has had charge
of it knows to be no sinecure.

192 WANTED: A COLLEGE

" The Assiut Training Academy has cost the Church
no more than it would have done had it been an ordinary
mission school. Even the building never cost it a cent.
The venerated pastor of St. Clairsville, Ohio, gathered
nearly $1,200 from a few individual congregations and
Sabbath schools to furnish the Academy with suitable
teaching apparatus, and a devoted friend of missions
in Monmouth gave a noble donation to establish a fund
for supporting a few poor but deserving students during
their curriculum of study ; but, we repeat it, the United
Presbyterian Church, as a Church, has done no more
for Upper Egypt with its Training Academy than it
would have done for it had the Academy never been
established.

" Assiut Academy will expand into a college in a very
few years. Colleges grow; they are not made. We also
maintain that a missionary college (i.e., a college for
training pastors, teachers, and evangelists) ought to
draw its students chiefly from the families of native con-
verts. Four congregations have sent eighty pupils, and
other congregations are springing up as fast as we can
plant them. If four congregations give eighty pupils,
how many will eight, twelve, twenty, etc., give? Instead
of imposing the care of such an institution as an addi-
tional burden to all the other work of a missionary, let
not fewer than three of our number be set apart for this
special work; and let new buildings be erected as the
number of students increases, and by the blessing of
God on our effort we shall not only have a flourishing
Training College in efficient operation large enough to
supply pastors, evangelists, and teachers for our whole
mission-field, but by leading the students out into the
field during the College vacation, and thus giving them
practical training in evangelistic work, these three mis-
sionary professors will annually perform more bona fide
missionary work than they could have performed by
their unaided individual efforts, though constantly en-
gaged in evangelistic work throughout the whole of the
year.

" Whether this arrangement or something like it be
made before next session, or whether it be postponed un-

til its proposer has been crushed down into a premature
grave, one thing must be done without any such delay —
unless it be the desire of the Church that the child be
buried also in its father's grave. Not only must the present
building be enlarged in order that the Academy may
expand into a College, but it must be enlarged or it will
cease to exist; for it must have room to grow, even as an
Academy, or else it will dwarf and dwindle into a local
common school. The question to be decided is not
' Shall we build or shall we not ? ' but ' Shall we put
up a shabby structure similar to that which we have dig-
nified by the name of an Academy, or shall we erect
something that will some day form a portion at least of
a College building ? ' Any man who is competent to
work a simple problem in the Rule of Three need not
puzzle his brains long as to which of these alternatives
we ought to choose.

" Why do you refuse a more generous support and
thus oblige us to lose the legitimate results of our la-
bours? The weary work of preparation is well-nigh
finished. The day of small things has nearly passed
away. The harvest is at hand. The fields are whitening
to the sickle. Why check our joy at the very dawn of
the long-looked-for day of jubilee? Must the fruits of
our labours be lost for want of ingatherers? Wonder
not that our hands are drooping and our hearts are sad.
Nay, marvel not if. after long weary months of broken
health from overtasking our strength in the vain attempt
to save the crops, we feel almost tempted to close our
appeal with a word of warning, and say ' Send us the
help we need or we will leave the field! If there is no
hope of our raising the kind of preachers that are wanted,
we must get out of reach of this doleful wail of Mu-
bashshir, Mubashshir,* for otherwise it will break our
heart.' "

This protest in altered form found its way later into
the Mission's report for the year. It stood out as an
exception in a life little given to complaint, and its writer
* A preacher, a preacher.

194 WANTED: A COLLEGE

was wont to speak of it as his " wail " or his " appeal
for life." He had once for all cried his loudest, he de-
clared, and if Egypt gained nothing by his cry he would
be forever still.

His trials were now at their worst and his nights tor-
ture. "If this goes on much longer I shall have to quit,"
he had remarked at the breakfast-table, when an incident
occurred that proved his threats to have been a mere
ripple on the surface, false to the current that controlled
his will. A letter reached him that threw open a door
of honourable escape, and he deliberately chose to stick
to his post and endure its ills.

A Young Ladies' College was to be founded in Mel-
bourne, Australia, by the Presbyterian Church, and the
leaders of the movement desired as principal a clergy-
man from beyond the bounds of the Colony. No suitable
candidate offered and a friend on the spot, intimate with
the heads of the scheme, urged Dr. Hogg to apply for the
position. Several of the trustees already favoured his
appointment, his friend assured him, and the salary would
not likely fall short of $25,000 a year. It was a startling
letter to the two most intimately concerned, but the wife
read duty's claim by some simple and direct method that
left no need for weighing evidence. To the husband
the glamour of the world made more appeal and the in-
credible salary of $25,000 was a real temptation — the more
so that the expense of providing for a divided family and
new regulations passed by the Board were threatening
him with debt. Australia was the home of his brothers.
Its climate would secure physical relief. Its gold would
end his cares and enable him to support in Upper Egypt
the two additional missionaries for whom he pleaded
vainly. He seemed to see stretching alluringly before him
a congenial sphere with money, position, and friends, sep-

AN OFFER FROM AUSTRALIA 195

aration at an end, and his absent children growing up
around him in health and happiness.

Drawn by a prospect so attractive he examined anew
what he already possessed in order to re-estimate its
value. He had spent nine years in Upper Egypt. What
gains had the years amassed?

A Training Academy with 100 pupils ; six schools sup-
ported by the people; 338 converts; three congregations
already organised and four awaiting their opportunity;
while the income of the past year alone had been 58
new members added to the Church, 748 Sabbath services
and 2.518 night-meetings at which the Gospel had been
preached, and 3,100 volumes of Scripture and religious
books bought by Egyptian readers.

Such were the results of nine years' effort in Upper
Egypt. During these years other missionaries had at
one time or another laboured in the Upper Country, and
all had contributed to the success of the work. Yet could
it be doubted that the leading factor under God had been
Assiut's first missionary and the workers that his nine
years' labours had produced and in whose training he
had had so large a share?

What then could weigh in the balance against such
gains ? Must he not adopt the words of Nehemiah, " I
am doing a great work so that I cannot come down."
His decision was prompt and whole-hearted. " It is worth
a little self-sacrifice," he wrote to his friend, " to be able
under God to set and keep a-going such moral machinery.
Australian gold may be precious, but it is not so precious
as living churches of living souls."

There is stimulus to the soul in a temptation resisted,
and the missionary needed all the strength and cheer
available, for his appeal to America was crossed in its
journey by letters that announced a fall in the contribu-

196 WANTED: A COLLEGE

tions of the Church, demanding a reduction of 20 per cent
in the ordinary mission expenditure. Such news sounded
a knell to the immediate fulfilment of his plans for con-
solidating and extending the work, while every week
brought fresh confirmation to his belief that by no other
means yet devised could the mission hope for the speedy
evangelisation of Egypt.

The work to be done in the land had always appealed
to him as a unit. It was as an Alexandrian missionary
that he first formed the conviction that the key to the
situation then existing in Moslem Egypt lay, not in iso-
lated cases of conversion among Moslems in Alexandria
or elsewhere, but in the regeneration of the Copts, and
that the South as the Coptic centre must accept the
Christ as Master and King, before the Delta would yield
to His claims. Life in Cairo had not shaken his belief,
and in working now for a Training College at Assiut,
under three missionary professors whose whole powers
would be concentrated on training workers and leading
them into the whitening fields, he considered himself to
be working as much for Moslems as for Copts, as much
for the future of Alexandria and Cairo as for his own
station. In desperation therefore at the turn events had
taken, he dared to draft for his colleagues a scheme for
immediate action which was calculated to lay him open to
a charge of egotism, as exaggerating the importance of
his special corner of the field.

The two papers which embody this scheme were writ-
ten with the haste that of necessity characterised all his
correspondence, but the opinions expressed were the out-
come of mature thought and were the chart by which
from first to last he regulated the direction of his life's
energies.

They are as follows :

ASSIUT COLLEGE
New Site and Buildings during Nile overflow

ASSIUT COLLEGE
Johnston Hall (dormitory). Main Administration Hall

PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTIONS 197

ASSIUT, Qth January, 1874.
To the Revd. Messrs. Ewing, Watson, Harvey, and

Strong.

DEAR BRETHREN : In view of the opening fields in
Upper Egypt, the signs of the times, the twenty per cent
reduction to be made in our estimates, and the unan-
swered calls for reinforcement, I have concluded to ask
the Association to give its vote on the following pre-
amble and resolutions at the approaching meeting. If
some of you feel tempted to think me crazy you must
at least acknowledge that it is a disease of long standing,
for I have merely put on paper the substance of what
I have been drumming in the ears of the Association
for the last five or six years,

Yours truly,

JOHN HOGG.

COPY OF PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTIONS TO BE PRESENTED
TO THE ASSOCIATION AT ITS NEXT MEETING

Whereas, we believe that the great ultimate aim of
the missionary enterprise is not merely the conversion
of individual souls, nor the culture and enlightenment
of the body of the people, but the planting in their midst
of an independent, self-sustaining, self-propagating,
Christian Church (Matt, xiii, 33; / Thess. i, 8; Acts of
the Apostles) ;

And whereas, all missionary effort that falls short
of attaining this object must be regarded as little better
than a failure from a missionary point of view, even
though it be attended with a large measure of success
in the conversion of individuals and the diffusing of
civilising influences among the people at large ;

And whereas, in order to the attainment of this
object converts must be gathered into churches, pastors
trained for and ordained over them, and each congrega-
tion taught to support its own Christian institutions, and
also to engage vigorously in the wrork of home evan-
gelisation ;

And whereas, our missionary staff is too small to
carry out this aim and method at all our present mission

198 WANTED: A COLLEGE

centres, and too much scattered to admit of their being
carried out effectively at any of them, and therefore,
unless our force is increased or concentrated we are
in danger of failing to secure the one object which can
alone give our labours any lasting value in a missionary
point of view ;

And whereas, our repeated calls for reinforcement
have met with no response, but, on the contrary, the
gaps made by death and desertion have not yet been
filled ;

And whereas, the attempt which has been made to
carry out this aim and method in the Upper Egypt
mission circuit has been crowned with success, and all
that is now needed in order to cover that wide field
with self-sustained, self -propagating evangelical churches
is that there be stationed in Assiut a force sufficient to
train native teachers and preachers and lead them forth
into the opening fields;

And whereas, from the geographical position of
Alexandria and the foreign character of its population
the mission there can hardly be said to have a close
organic connection with the mission to Egypt proper,
and its abandonment would not affect the vital interests
of the mission at large, while the failure to strengthen
the mission force in Upper Egypt (where the great bulk
of the Copts reside through whose instrumentality the
country is to be evangelised) will lead to the defeat
of the very object for which the Egyptian mission has
been established ;

Therefore resolved : —

(1) That we declare it to be our conviction that the
time has come for us to concentrate all our available
strength and means in the carrying out of what we
believe to be the final aim and true method of the mis-
sionary enterprise:

(2) That we either hand over to the native con-
gregations or discontinue altogether those boys' schools
which have not for their special aim the training of
native evangelists, pastors, and teachers ;

(3) That in the event of no reinforcements being
sent us during the current year we shall feel it to be our

PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTIONS 199

duty to strengthen the mission in Upper Egypt even
though it may be necessary to give up the mission station
in Alexandria.

ASSIUT, 2 1st January, 1874.
DEAR BRETHREN,

As you are to be all together for so many days and
will thus be able to mature your minds on many
matters and thus facilitate our action upon them, I
have concluded to send you another bone to pick (I
hope you will not conclude to break my head with them)
in the shape of a corollary to my last (you may make
it a substitute if you like). Here it is: —

Whereas, the attendance of the Assiut Academy has
increased fourfold (25 to 100) during the past year,
and the present building is not only overcrowded but
also 30 of the boarding pupils have been obliged to
lodge in outhouses, at great inconvenience to themselves
and no small injury to the institution;

And whereas, nearly all the pupils in the Academy are
sons of Protestant converts, and it is the earnest desire
and prayer of their parents that they may be trained
for future service in the mission-field;

And whereas, the congregations of Assiut, Motiah,
Nakheilah, and Kus have sent an aggregate of eighty
pupils to the Academy, and the teachers in the congre-
gational schools in these towns and also in Bakur and
Mellawi have resolved to make an effort to have a new
class ready to enter the Academy at the beginning of
every session;

And whereas, there is every probability that the new
congregations which are being formed in Upper Egypt
as fast as we can plant them will imitate the example
of their elder sisters in this matter as in everything else,
and thus there is every reason to expect that the Prot-
estant pupils alone will amount to several hundreds
within a very few years ;

And whereas, the success of our missionary enterprise
must be measured by the success of our efforts in plant-
ing churches and supplying them with well-trained native
pastors, evangelists, and teachers, and in order to attain

200 WANTED: A COLLEGE

the full legitimate results of these efforts it is indis-
pensable that the Training Academy be permitted and
enabled to grow with the Church's growth, and this not
merely in the number of its pupils but also in respect
of the character and quality of the education imparted
to them within its walls;

And whereas, the Assiut Training Academy has al-
ready reached the limit of its pupils, and a sum of not
less than $25,000 is required to build a set of dormi-
tories sufficient to accommodate the present boarders and
thus enable us to utilise the present dormitories as class-
rooms, for which they are greatly needed ;

And whereas, such an addition to the Academy build-
ing, though it may be sufficient to meet the present want,
will not relieve us of the necessity of building again a
few years hence, and it seems to us a waste of money
to invest it in a building of an inferior character that
will not be of permanent use or value for the purpose
for which it was intended :

Therefore resolved : —

(1) That we are of opinion that a building ought to
be erected in or near the city of Assiut large enough to
accommodate 400 pupils, with house accommodation for
200 boarders and two mission families — said building
to be called the Assiut or Upper Egypt Training Col-
lege and Mission Seminary;

(2) That a Committee consisting of be ap-
pointed to secure a suitable site, draw up plans, and
make a careful estimate of the probable cost of the
building, said plans and estimate to be submitted to the
Association and transmitted to the Board for their final
sanction and approval ;

(3) That the sum of $2,500 be put into the Estimates
for the current year for the purchase of a site and the
renting of boarding houses for the scholars until the
building is erected ;

(4) That Dr. Hogg be requested and authorised to
lay the claims of the proposed Training College and
Mission Seminary before the Christian public of Great
Britain and America and report to the Association from
time to time;

PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTIONS 201

(5) That a Committee consisting of be ap-
pointed to urge upon the Church the absolute necessity
of sending out at once not fewer than two ordained
missionaries to take the places of those who shall be
transferred to the Assiut Academy and future Training
College ;

(6) That the Rev. D. Strang or the Rev. A. Watson
be transferred to Assiut and placed in charge of the
Academical and Collegiate department of the Institution;

(7) That the Rev. A. Watson or the Rev. D. Strang
be transferred to Assiut to co-operate with Dr. Hogg
in conducting the Theological department and in training
the students in practical evangelistic work during vaca-
tion, the one in the Northern and the other in the
Southern section of the Upper Egypt mission circuit.

Hoping that you will have favourable breezes and
trusting that we will be guided by the Spirit of God in
all our counsels, I remain,

Your brother in Christ,

JOHN HOGG.

We print these documents in full because such we be-
lieve would have been their writer's wish, and, considered
in their true setting, they acquire a peculiar and personal
interest. The ideas they express have done much to mould
the course of mission history in Egypt, and their main
contention has become perhaps a common-place in an era
which professes to treat missions as a science. But in
1874 the snatching of brands from the burning, rather
than Paul's labour of planting churches, was still the
popular and almost universal view of a missionary's call-
ing, and those wtio held the theory that the establishment
of a self-propagating native Church is the matter of
primal importance in evangelising a land were as yet but
a small minority. To this minority Dr. Hogg belonged,
and if others in Egypt admitted the theory as a general
principle, he stood often entirely alone in his apprehen-

202 WANTED: A COLLEGE

sion of its practical bearing on problems of mission work
and in his uncompromising readiness to adopt at all haz-
ards the path of conduct to which it pointed.

Such solitude is ever costly, and the following letter
writen three years later to Dr. Lansing, his life-long
friend, shows how keenly he felt on the matter and how
earnestly he longed to have his views shared by his
fellows :

" I have thought it to be my duty to myself as well
as to you to copy for you (a second time, if I mistake
not) the Whereases and Resolutions referred to last
night in the shape in which they were presented to the
brethren before they left Cairo and which were amal-
gamated into one action after their arrival. If I was
sorry at the dropping out of a number of the Whereases,
and intimated as much (which I probably did), I must
say that I am sorry to this hour for their omission,
for in rewriting them these last two hours I have felt,
and the feeling has increased as I went along from point
to point, that I am willing to have these same Whereases,
and the Resolutions attached (without the change of a
single iota), copied in large characters in the Minute
Book of Association as my Epitaph after my mission
life has ended, though all else concerning me and my
work were blotted out. If anything could add to the
value of the testimony thus given to my personal views
of the true aim and method of the missionary enterprise,
it would be to add in a footnote a short abstract of last
night's remarks as tending to show how little sympathy
the views herein avowed and defended met with then
or meet with now from my fellow-labourers in the mis-
sion field."

•

As is evident from this letter, the scheme its writer
had sketched met with but half-hearted approval from
the Missionary Association, and when remodelled little
of the original documents remained. A compromise was

THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 203

agreed upon. An earnest plea was sent to the Board to
furnish the needed recruits, even suggesting that the aid
of some sister denomination should be secured, and hint-
ing that without reinforcements it might become necessary
to retire temporarily from the Coptic field. The Associa-
tion also gave its sanction to the development of Assiut
Academy into a Training College, appointing a committee
to solicit the necessary funds and draw out plans and
estimates for a building half the size suggested.

Of this action Assiut College stands to-day a noble
monument. But what the writer had wanted was not only
sanction for future expansion, but enablement for im-
mediate expansion through the men and money that
would be at the mission's disposal if the policy of con-
centration were adopted; and long before the Associa-
tion's actions had borne any fruit, the time had passed
when his scheme would have proved adequate to the sit-
uation. The opportunity in the form in which it then
existed has never returned. Had it been seized what
would have been the consequence ? Would a higher type
of Church have been evolved had there been present at its
very centre during its earliest years three such men as
Dr. Hogg, Dr. Watson, and Dr. Strang, working after the
plan proposed for the one purpose of preparing and lead-
ing into service a native missionary force, and with full
freedom to admit into the central training institution every
suitable applicant? Might there not have arisen the type
of Church that lived ever in the missionary's dreams — a
Church in which membership would mean active service,
and the bearing of office would mean the consecration of
life to the training and leading of workers? Was the
temporary evacuation of Alexandria too high a price to
pay for such a possibility, and might not that very deed
with the proof that it offered of the reality of the need

204 WANTED: A COLLEGE

that lay behind the mission's constant appeals, have proved
the means necessary to stir the slumbering fires in the
hearts of the home Church and awaken in them the reso-
lution to change retreat into advance? To such questions
there can be no certain answer. Life is hemmed in by
/veils on every side, and not less impenetrable than the
veil of death or the veil that hides to-morrow from to-day
is the veil that hangs forever between man's past and
God's vision of what might have been.

To one who realises, however, the situation that faced
the mission band as they considered Dr. Hogg's proposals,
the measure of approval bestowed is a greater surprise
than the opposition evoked. For his scheme dared, as
we have seen, to contemplate the choice of Assiut as the
centre for a large Training College for Egypt, at the cost
if necessary of the temporary abandonment of work in
Alexandria. Such a step could only be justified by one
who accepted and applied to the need of the times the
two general principles which Dr. Hogg's preambles em-
phasised, and which he seems to have considered of per-
manent and universal application.

What were these principles?

First, that when a mission finds it impossible to secure
sufficient equipment to develop effectively all it has under-
taken, it is its duty to sacrifice the good on the altar of
the best.

Second, that in deciding what to sacrifice and on what
to concentrate it should confine itself to the question :
" What will prove the most speedy and effective means of
creating in this country a. native evangelistic force ade-
quate to the task of bringing the Gospel within the reach
of every inhabitant ? "

But to Dr. Hogg's application of these principles the
most plausible objections existed. Alexandria was the

THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 205

second city in the country and had been a centre of mis-
sion work long before Assiut was entered. If then some
part of the work must be sacrificed, why should the lot
fall there? Again, Cairo was the political and (from the
point of view of Egypt's population) the geographical
centre of the land. In creating a Training College for the
country why should the claims of the metropolis give
place to those of Assiut, which was considered by the
aristocratic natives of the north little better than an un-
civilised village?

To the first question Dr. Hogg's answer was that while
souls were everywhere of equal value, yet so far as win-
ning Egypt was concerned Alexandria had as yet proved
the least effective of the mission stations, as it was
also indisputably the farthest removed from the Coptic
area.

To the second he replied " Colleges grow, they are not
made, and mission colleges grow with the growth of the
mission Church," an answer which implied that the loca-
tion of a college must be decided by the progress of
events rather than by the arbitrary choice of men. In the
soil of Upper Egypt the mission Church had flourished
and in its midst had developed naturally the rudiments
of a mission college. The past must decide the future.
In the soil where a college in embryo had sprung into
being, there must it be allowed to complete its develop-
ment, though the past had found that soil not in Cairo,
the political metropolis and geographical centre of the
land, but in primitive Assiut, the metropolis of the new
Evangelical Church and the centre of the Coptic popula-
tion. That personally his judgment approved the course
events had taken is evident from the concluding sen-
tences of a letter penned a few days after the one already
quoted and addressed to the same friend.

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Calmly thinking on the general subject of Cairo versus
Assiut, my opinion is now as it has been for many years,
that if you wish to ciznlise Egypt, then have a College in
Cairo, and if you wish to evangelise Egypt, have not
a College, but as I have called it, a " Training College
and Missionary Seminary '' in Assiut. If you can have
both, then by all means have them. If only one, then
the bona fide Missionary Institution ought to have the
preference. It is here, if I mistake not, that you and
I differ, yet none the less I remain as ever,

Your loving brother,

J. HOGG.

When these last words were penned three years had
elapsed since sanction had been gained from the mis-
sion and the Board for the future expansion of Assiut
Academy into a college. Some practical steps had in
the meantime been taken towards that end. Dr. John-
stone, the medical missionary, having consented to be-
come first joint-manager and then principal of the in-
stitution, had on his return to America shortly after raised
the sum of $10,000 towards the project, a labour which
proved to be the closing service of his missionary career.
Dr. Hogg a year later, while in Scotland engaged on the
preparation of an Arabic commentary, had persuaded
the students of his old Divinity Hall to take up the col-
lege scheme, and cheering letters were now reaching him
with news of their success. Moreover he had about the
same time secured as colleague in the Academy Rev.
J. R. Alexander, a man whose life was to be devoted to
its interests, and this advance had now been followed by
the appointment of Rev. John Giffen to join the staff.

Even in the interval between the appeal for recruits in
1874 and the arrival after eighteen months of the men re-
ferred to, Dr. Hogg had not been left alone. The life
of desperate effort out of which had come his equally

PROGRESS OF THE COLLEGE 207

desperate appeal ended in December, when he rejoiced in
the loan during successive sessions of the two men for
whose permanent appointment he had begged, Mr. Wat-
son remaining till April, 1875, to share in the theological
department, and Mr. Strang following from July till
April, 1876, to take charge of the academical department,
the work of both men naturally overflowing in unnum-
bered directions beyond the bounds of their special ap-
pointments. But though Dr. Hogg's own life was thus
eased and simplified, the Academy was less mercifully
treated, for while efforts were in progress for its future
expansion, its natural growth was in the meantime for
financial reasons repressed — reluctantly, but with telling
effect. While the call for native workers grew more
clamorous and Protestant boys more eager for training,
Dr. Johnstone during his short inter-regnum felt forced
to turn fifty applicants from its doors, and during the
succeeding year the same policy was regretfully but
conscientiously practised.

When the period of borrowed help ended, the burden
of responsibility rolled back once more on the shoulders
that so long had borne it. As Mr. Alexander and Mr.
Giffen were new to the language and the field, their pres-
ence, while promising ultimate relief, could not for some
time decrease greatly the responsibilities of their senior,
and the effect of their labours was rather to give in-
creased efficiency to the Academy than to relieve the
strain. In the session of 1877-78 we find Dr. Hogg with
as multifarious a programme as ever, and conscious that
the pace he was attempting was in part demoralising.
In the daily routine conscientious performance was easy,
but the extras made him " ache " and he found himself
shirking the small duties, unwilling for such trifling exer-
tions as the lighting of a lamp, the hunting for a letter,

208 WANTED: A COLLEGE

the writing of a friendly note, the doing of anything that
might be deferred till to-morrow. And yet there was
not wanting a certain exhilaration in a pace so rapid to a
man no longer fettered by the trials of Job.

A birthday note to Dr. Lansing breathes this spirit of
good cheer.

ASSIUT, 1st February, 1878.
DEAR DR. LANSING,

I wish you many years of solid work yet. Yesterday
was the anniversary of our shipwreck and deliverance —
eighteen years ago ! I wonder if Methuselah felt old
ever. Do you? I feel more like what I used to feel
when in my 'teens than I ever did since I got out of
them. I do believe now that I am really to survive this
session after all. I hardly expected it when I left
Ramleh.

I know you think it very foolish of me — giving the
boys so many hours recitation. Yet how slowly do they
get along, after all ! Every spare minute has been spent
by me in preparation, but I have not been able to put
pen to paper this year in the way of writing notes for
future use. The Moral Philosophy class I have greatly
enjoyed. . . .

His horizon was becoming more roseate. By impercept-
ible degrees the situation had altered, and a corresponding
change had crept unnoticed into the life and thought of
the man. The Academy was growing in size and effi-
ciency. The men were on the ground who would make
possible the development he could not achieve alone and
whose hands would be well qualified to hold the reins if
their leader should fall at his post. How entirely the insti-
tution had won the confidence of the people was increas-
ingly evident in the representative character of the crowds
that thronged the building when the annual examination
was held. The audience on such occasions now num-

VISIT OF THE KHEDIVE 209

bered not less than a thousand, and Mohammedans and
Copts, wealthy and poor, vied with each other in their
enthusiastic praise of what they saw and heard.

When in January, 1880, the new Khedive, Tewfik
Pasha, was making his first tour in the south, he paid but
one visit on the great day of his arrival in the town of
Assiut, which, bedecked and illuminated, was all astir to
welcome its ruler, and that visit was to the large tent in
which the Academy students, well-drilled and orderly,
were gathered to do him honour. He listened with evident
pleasure while to the accompaniment of the faithful har-
monium they sang an ode composed and set to music for
the occasion, and he complimented them warmly on their
performance. As he repassed the spot in his carriage he
bowed repeated acknowledgments to their renewed burst
of song, and next day when Dr. Hogg in company with
the consuls was received in the vice-regal boat, the Khe-
dive spent the short time of their call in questioning the
missionary with keen interest as to the educational work
of the Upper Country whose fame had reached his ears.

The public were not slow to mark these little incidents
and realise their full significance, and there were many
onlookers who could point a striking contrast by memories
drawn from the days of opposition and reproach.

It was fifteen years before that the school thus honoured
had been born, four pupils gathering in a renovated
stable to receive their first lesson. There now flourished
as feeders, supported entirely by the people, twenty-three
branch schools scattered up and down the country, the
majority of whose teachers had received their training
within its walls. The building it now occupied was tot-
tering to its fall, but 199 pupils had been enrolled in the
past year, and it now needed but a suitable home to
achieve a broader and more rapid development. For this

210 WANTED: A COLLEGE

the first two acres of ground had at length been secured
after years of repeated efforts and endless disappoint-
ments, and there no longer lingered any possible doubt
that the College for whose growth Dr. Hogg had planned
and laboured, and for which he had pleaded with God and
man, would indeed be built as he had dared to assert
within the ten years' limit he had assigned in looking
forward.

What wonder then that there begins henceforth to
creep into his letters evidence of a change in the main cur-
rent of his thoughts. To the end the College exacted toll
of his time as teacher of its theological department and
as its official head, but it gradually ceased to make the
demands that drain a man's life-blood. Its assured suc-
cess released him from anxiety for its future. Efficient
and congenial colleagues relieved him from many of the
minor worries of daily administration. His life became
increasingly engrossed in the native Church beyond its
bounds, for whose sake the institution had been enlarged
and developed, and whose usefulness if not her very life
were in jeopardy, unless she were trained more ade-
quately for the great work of the Kingdom.

XIV
THE CARE OF ALL THE CHURCHES

Oft when the Word is on me to deliver,
Lifts the illusion and the truth lies bare;

Desert or throng, the city or the river,
Melts in a lucid Paradise of air.

Only like souls I see the folk thereunder,

Bound who should conquer, slaves who should be kings,
Hearing their one hope with an empty wonder,

Sadly contented with a show of things.

Then with a rush the intolerable craving

Shivers throughout me like a trumpet-call, —

O to save these ! to perish for their saving,
Die for their life, be offered for them all !

— F. W. H. MYERS: St. Paul.

WE turn now to that phase of Dr. Hogg's life
which has gripped most strongly the heart and
imagination of the people amongst whom he
laboured. The " Hoj " of the villagers is a man who
had " no continuing city," who was " in journeyings
often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in labour and
travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst."

" In recalling," says Ruskin, " the impressions we have
received from the works of man, after a lapse of time
long enough to involve in obscurity all but the most vivid,
it often happens that we find a strange pre-eminence and
durability in many upon whose strength we had little
calculated, and that points of character which had

211

212 THE CARE OF ALL THE CHURCHES

escaped the detection of the judgment, become developed
under the waste of memory."

At first glance such a picture of the man as the vil-
lagers have preserved seems extravagantly incorrect.
Four-fifths of his life in the Upper Country was such a
life as we have described, that of a man bound to a
central station, his recreation, preachings, and study, and
his daily work teaching, translating, writing, and grap-
pling with the indefinite sundries that are the thorn in
the flesh of every man whose moments are valued with
reference to some consuming central purpose.

Yet a minute examination of the facts may go far to
modify one's opinion. In writing of Dr. Hogg's work-
ing capacity one of his colleagues remarks, " He fre-
quently accomplished at one sitting, — protracted per-
haps for hours, — what many other men required days
to do.'' And another, also a worker of no mean power,
testifies that " The only drawback to association with
him was that no man of ordinary energy and endur-
ance could bear comparison with him in the amount
of labour accomplished within a given period." One
cannot measure work as one measures time, cutting
it into lengths of equal value, and when we take
into consideration the intensity that characterised him,
the estimate that the people have placed on the fifth
of his life that he devoted to village work may seem
nearer the mark of truth, crowded as it was with experi-
ences that would fill any ordinary canvas.

Moreover a character should be portrayed, whether in
picture or story, in the environment most fitted to throw
into relief its distinctive qualities and convey vividly to
others its power or its charm, and Dr. Hogg's character
found in village work such an environment. " After
teaching the young " he confessed, " there is nothing I

VILLAGE WORK 213

would rather do than preach to fellahin," and amongst
the villages both ruling passions had free play. Whether
he conducted the examination of a village school, or in
a private house drew out the powers of some youthful
scion of the family, he did it with an effortless art to
which the breathless attention and keen enjoyment of his
audience paid unconscious tribute. "When he preached
" he translated himself into Arabic," not merely his words.
For it was not only in accent, idiom, tone, and gesture that
he displayed the power of unconscious " sympathetic imi-
tation." That power seemed to take a wider range, and
when mingling with the people he became so thoroughly
Egyptian that whether preaching, conversing, or living in
their homes, his message flowed out spontaneously in
terms of the people's life. His ready adjustment to the
exigencies of village work, his lavish and uncalculating
expenditure of force in turning to advantage its oppor-
tunities, and his joyous ardour and freedom in the serv-
ice, force on one the conviction that here we have the
most unrestrained revelation of what was most distinctive
of the man, and that since the memory of the public can-
not preserve in perfect balance the varying features of
any human life, its choice of emphasis in the present case
has been just.

The cost that he willingly paid for opportunities of
itinerating is also suggestive. It was by no happy acci-
dent that he managed to save a fifth of his time from the
rasping claims of the work at the centre. He saved it at
a cost that savoured to some of madness.

During the winter of 1873-74 — when sleepless, ill,
and overworked, he battled with a programme of classes
that left no margin for an increasing pile of unaccom-
plished extras, — he gave his one and only week of vaca-
tion to the most arduous labours from aboard the " Ibis " :

214 THE CARE OF ALL THE CHURCHES

and when the session ended and neuralgia loosened its
grip after keeping him for weeks in its toils, it was to
Nile work he devoted the hot months of vacation. Again
and again, summer after summer, the same thing was
attempted, though a temperature of 110° was not un-
common in the cabin, and the woodwork of the deck was
sometimes uncomfortably hot at midnight.

" If I am mad," he wrote to an expostulating com-
rade, " there is at least some method in my madness. Of
course it is a very reckless waste of vis inertiae or rather
of vis vitae to drive a poor mortal in this fashion in such
a climate as Egypt, but where would the Upper Egypt
mission have been to-day had I acted otherwise? As
for my motives in so acting I would humbly refer to
II Cor. v, 13-15-"

Heat was not the only discomfort connected with
itineracy. In many a village insults were heaped upon
him. Not infrequently the filth of the streets was flung
after him by the way, and words as filthy were called
loudly in contempt and derision as he passed, while on
one occasion vile water was poured on his head through
a gap in the ceiling of a room from which his audience
had been forcibly ejected.

A wholesome and adventurous soul could not be
greatly moved by such incidentals, and they receive no
notice in his correspondence except when connected with
some story of unusual interest. But they have made a
profound impression on the people for whom he laboured,
and many tales are told to illustrate the hardships he en-
dured.

Of one of the most popular his own account remains
to show how fact and fancy mingle in such current lore.
The story has many versions and we tell it as related by
a fine old patriarch.

THE STORY OF THE ROBBERS 215

At a village many miles distant from Assiut Dr.
Hogg had been paying one of his periodic visits. The
evening meeting was over and the missionary had sat
late in conversation with his host and his friends, when
to the amazement of all he rose to bid them adieu. In
vain they urged him to spend the night with them, ex-
patiating on the length of the way and the robbers that
infested the district. He would neither await the day-
light nor accept an escort. His work necessitated his
reaching Assiut by morning, and in the Lord's keeping
he was as safe as with armed men. He had not walked
far in the dense darkness when he was accosted by a
robber band who demanded his gold watch and purse.
These he surrendered without demur, surprising his
marauders with the gratuitous information that he had
with him still another treasure that he would gladly
add to their store. To their chagrin all that he drew
from his pocket was a small book, but his audience were
soon so entranced by the magic of his tongue and of
that priceless Word, that their greed speedily vanished,
their consciences awoke, and they began to hunger for
salvation. Before morning dawned the whole band had
been converted and were eager to return to him his
stolen goods. But the purse he refused, and as one and
all, Copts and Moslems alike, had decided to abandon
their life of robbery, he supported them liberally from
that time forward out of his own pocket until they had
learned to earn an honest living and had become re-
spected and God-fearing members of the Church !

It seems heartless to destroy so romantic a tale, but the
original story itself deserves preservation as recounted
by the chief actors Dr. Hogg and Mr. Shenoodeh Hanna,
his companion on the historic occasion. Their story runs
as follows:

After a hasty breakfast on a hot Saturday in June, the
two friends left the " Ibis " at sunrise to walk to the
village of Tahta two and a half miles distance from

216 THE CARE OF ALL THE CHURCHES

the river. They were warmly received by the only
Protestant in the place, and his house was so continu-
ously crowded by eager listeners that for once Egyptian
hospitality seemed swamped by the tide of interest, and
the bodily wants of the preachers were completely over-
looked.

All day long they read and sang and preached and
prayed, the changing audience fresh and eager, the
speakers weaker and fainter with the passing hours,
and all proposals to leave were overborne by the host's
repeated assertion that he would feel forever disgraced
if his guests should quit his house without food. At
last, after fourteen hours of fasting, a sumptuous meal
was spread, and of this the famished men partook with
more speed than wisdom before starting out with a
suitable escort to ride to the river. A jolting donkey
is no happy sequel to a hasty meal, and Dr. Hogg, finding
his companion unable to ride and his escort restive under
enforced delay, decided that they would complete their
journey on foot and unaccompanied. The servants with
some polite demur gladly availed themselves of the re-
prieve, and the two preachers started riverward alone.
When they reached the water's edge the boat was not
in sight, and whether the landing lay north or south
they could not tell. Some men when accosted misled
them, either by mistake or of set purpose, their lack of
a lantern perhaps arousing suspicions, and the night wore
on in fruitless and solitary wanderings.

Suddenly they observed on the river bank a man, inno-
cent of clothes and bearing a gun, who started towards
them till arrested by the sight of their shouldered um-
brellas, which in the starlight passed easily for firearms.
The younger man was distracted with fear, and still more
so when he heard the sound of swimmers in the river
perhaps coming to join their naked friend in some bloody
deed. The two wanderers walked on as if unheeding,
but when a little distance was gained, turned inland,
running rapidly to reach a point invisible from the beach.
Avoiding Scylla, they came as it seemed upon Charybdis
— a group of smokers, three men and a boy, two of them

THE STORY OF THE ROBBERS 217

armed and with the usual vicious guard of watch-dogs.
Dr. Hogg thought it best to throw himself frankly on
their protection, and as the dogs sprang forward with
a threatening welcome, " Call off your dogs/' he cried,
" and I shall tell you a story that will make you laugh."
A discussion followed, and they were soon received
within the smoking circle to spend the remainder of the
night in this strange company. As sleep was distant,
it was proposed to pass the time in songs and tales, and
Mr. Shenoodeh chose a Bible story that gave him the
opportunity of dwelling on the sin of murder and the
fearful punishment awaiting the guilty, a tale which
brought from one of his listeners the confession that
only his brother's intervention had prevented him from
shooting at Mr. Shenoodeh on his first approach. To-
wards morning the air grew cold, and the missionary,
made anxious by his young friend's cough, dug a deep
hole for him in the sand and buried him to the neck, after
which both secured some broken sleep. At dawn one
of their guard accompanied them to the boat, lying miles
from the spot at which they had encamped, and received
for the service a backsheesh that sent him away blessing
their memory.

There are discrepancies in the tale even as narrated
by the two concerned, but these are easily explained by
the fact that the younger man, during the colloquy that
preceded the promise of a night's protection, spent the
time in anxious prayer except when personally addressed,
and would thus naturally miss some explanations. That
one of the men was on the point of firing at them both
narratives agree. But Mr. Shenoodeh says, " This made
us certain that these men were highway robbers (a most
natural inference as they were in a neighbourhood in-
fested by them), while Dr. Hogg states that the men were
about to shoot them in self-defence, having received warn-
ing in their village an hour before that two suspicious
characters were wandering along the bank, and having

218 THE CARE OF ALL THE CHURCHES

come for the express purpose of watching their melon-
crop against the marauders.

The only real sequel to the story was that Mr. She-
noodeh wove it into an ingenious and thrilling sermon,
which greatly moved his audience when it was preached
in Assiut a few days later, and that while the sermon was
being written the morning after the adventure, his com-
panion in labour having bathed and breakfasted returned
to Tahta and preached, to audiences varying from twelve
to forty, five long discourses.

While this is the only tale in which robbers figure,
there are scattered over his correspondence many inci-
dents equally picturesque, illustrative of the phase of mis-
sion life with which we are dealing, revealing sometimes
its hardships but always to an understanding soul its
elusive charm.

Their first Communion service held at Luxor is one of
these. The missionary was alone on the " Ibis," suffering
from an attack of biliousness. The thermometer in the
cabin had reached 1 14° and the hour for the meeting had
arrived. He dragged himself wearily, lifelessly, to the
house, in which some kind helpers had got ready for the
supper an upper room, matted and carpeted,, and a little
table roughly spread. The audience numbered seventy-
two, every spot that a speaker's voice could reach being
utilised — the roof, the stair, the court.

Characteristically, the spell of his surroundings fell
upon the man, and seemed suddenly to touch some secret
spring of strength.

" Opposite to where I stood," he writes, " was an
open window, a cubit square, through which I could see
the empty tombs of the old Thebans in the brown Libyan
hills. Across the plain, and by stepping two feet to the
right, I could descry ' Vocal Memnon ' and his dumb

COMMUNION SERVICE AT LUXOR 219

consort, Kurnah and Medinet Habou, all in one view.
The ghosts of forty centuries or more seemed to be
gazing from those empty tombs across the plain at the
unwonted spectacle of a gospel feast being spread in this
upper room within a stone-cast from the temple of
Amenoph III and Rameses the Great. The spirit of the
vision took possession of me and my biliousness van-
ished."

The examination of the candidates for membership
interested him intensely, and one is constantly struck with
the personal and searching character of the ordeal as he
conducted it. Any who expected that an intellectual
knowledge of the truth would suffice them would be
sorely disappointed. Two who bought and sold grain
made a solemn promise in the presence of the whole com-
pany that they would use false measures no longer.
One said he had abandoned them on the day he became a
Christian, and that while his gains had been much re-
duced his bread had been given him, and he could now
sleep at night with a clear conscience. The third, a
weaver, pledged himself in like manner to steal no more
yarn, and the missionary could see conscience at work
among the onlookers.

A silver communion set had been borrowed for this
occasion, but on his next visit to the same town an old
pewter teapot with a broken lid, two thick tumblers, and a
coarse plate, were all that could be secured to hold the ele-
ments, while the candidates for admission to the Church
were nowhere visible. They were there, however, — three
women squatting humbly in a remote corner, carefully
concealed from view by a thick curtain extending from
floor to ceiling, through which questions and answers had
to find a passage. The preacher at first found his sense of
humour troublesome, but the simple unabashed replies

220 THE CARE OF ALL THE CHURCHES

soon dissipated any sense of strangeness, and the sepa-
rating curtain seemed to help the unseen candidates to
unveil their hearts.

Some of the labours of the road appear in the following
letter, which shows also what a valuable asset he pos-
sessed in a vigorous frame. Writing to Dr. Barr, presi-
dent of the Board of Foreign Missions in America, he
says:

" I have been ' roughing ' it a little this last fort-
night among the out-stations. The whole Nile valley is
flooded over at present, so that one has to travel twenty
miles zigzag along the dykes to reach a village eight
miles distant. In going to Azziyah from Menfalut sta-
tion I had to cross the inundation (three-quarters of a
mile broad) on a raft made of two pieces of the trunk
of a palm tree and a bunch or two of dried corn-stalks.
I had an aquatic escort of four brawny Protestants —
two out-swimmers, and one balancing and pushing on
either side of the ' car,' so that we resembled Neptune
and his Nereids at a distance. A nearer view broke the
' enchantment ' — as it always does, you ki ow. After
conducting two services, one in the afternoon at which
half a dozen young Protestants were baptised, and an-
other long one in the evening, attended by all the town,
at which I bound a couple together for better or for
worse — most probably the latter, — a sleepless night
spent in a passage on the leeward side of forty or fifty
natives who passed the night on the ' church ' floor, and
a Communion service of four and a half hours' dura-
tion, I returned next afternoon as I came, except that
after crossing the flood I had to walk to Menfalut (seven
or eight miles), as my poor donkey of the previous day
had not yet recovered from the fatigues of his passage.

" The last place I visited we spent five hours in going
there and thirteen in returning — all in a small open
boat. With a good wind we could have done it in an
hour and a half. I took a hasty spoonful or two of rice
and milk at sunrise before leaving — found the congre-

" ROUGHING " IT

gation had been waiting on me for hours on our arrival,
and therefore without waiting for refreshments began
the series of services (examination of candidates for
church membership, baptisms, Communion, etc.) which
lasted nearly four hours, had breakfast at sunset, and
then left. Our boat stuck in the middle of the inunda-
tion, and we did not get home till three hours after
sunrise next morning.

" The above will give you an idea of what I mean by
' roughing ' it. I did not mean to give you such a long
' screed,' but it will perhaps amuse you. I have had
three weeks of it and it seems to have done me good."

The reputation he gained for physical strength was not
always to his advantage however. That any effort could
be beyond his power did not often occur to his parishioners.

On one such occasion he had started feeling ill, but
without definite symptoms, to fulfil engagements at Beni
Adi, and Azziyah. It was a roasting afternoon in June.
His road lay over rough ground, baked and rent by the
sun, and for an hour and a half he was forced to walk
dragging his donkey behind him over gaps and clods. A
long heavy service awaited his arrival, followed by a late
supper and sleep in an open court, from which he woke
next morning hot and shivering in the grip of tonsilitis.
It seemed impossible for the people to realise that he
was " dead down sick," and he was dragged to house
after house and asked for a solution of every difficulty
that had accumulated since his last visit, from a question
of school fees to the mysterious prophecies in the eleventh
chapter of Revelation. Its " woes " proved his last straw,
but after he had tossed and turned for hours on a hard
mattress he was again entreated to rise. One more visit
was absolutely necessary. Some " big " man who was
just beginning to regard the cause with favour would be
seriously offended if omitted, and the sick man forced

822 THE CARE OF ALL THE CHURCHES

himself through the ordeal as required. The morning
brought him another ride that was one long pain, and the
preacher reached his new congregation so ill that he had
to lie on a divan till the point was reached in the service
at which his presence became indispensable, the reception
of new members and dispensing of the sacrament.

Jawili was the next point awaiting him, but fortunately
he returned to the " Ibis " on the way, and his wife as
nurse and doctor forbade further effort. After forty-
eight hours he was still so ill that Cairo was talked of, but
through the night a turning point was reached and next
morning, weak and shaky, he declared himself cured.
That very afternoon he undertook a baptismal service
involving a long ride and late hours, and during eight
successive days visited eight different villages holding one
or two services in each, with no sense throughout of
submitting to unavoidable martyrdom, but buoyed up by
the interest and pleasure of his work, and nursing an
obstinate conviction that from the continued effort he
was deriving physical benefit.

We have referred to 1879 as the date at which the
change of emphasis in Dr. Hogg's life began to appear
and his " care of all the churches " to become more absorb-
ing. But from the time of their planting much oversight
had been essential, and each year a tour, however short,
had been attempted. In 1876 he made his first experi-
ment in combining the training of theologues with
itineracy, and at all times when possible he had with him
as his companions Egyptian workers — licentiates and col-
porteurs, or even senior students from the College. The
advanced classes dismissed early to render such vacation
service possible, and the young men dropped off at various
stations on the route, the missionary remaining only long
enough to see them fairly launched in their new sphere,

APPEALS FOR REDRESS 223

and returning in the autumn when necessary to make
local arrangements for carrying on the work begun, while
the worker resumed his studies.

In his oversight he was never for any lengthened
period the sole worker. River trips fell from time to
time to the lot of other missionaries, and in 1876 Rev.
Tadrus Yusuf, the pastor of Nakheilah, also did valiant
service. But while others came and went who laboured
with equal earnestness and whom God blessed abundantly
in the work, there remained to Dr. Hogg from first to last
a mass of responsibility which none could share. Per-
manently settled in the midst of the people, it was to him
they naturally turned in every perplexity, and to him they
voiced every complaint, with " Are you not our father ? "
as all-sufficient excuse.

Such responsibility did not always take the interesting
and personal form that awakens love and gratitude.
Often it consisted mainly of long and dreary correspond-
ence, or a heavy battery of appeals for redress aimed at
official quarters, while those in whose interests he laboured
showered letters upon him as plaintively as though he
were idly forgetting their troubles. Amongst such cares
stand out pre-eminently the Motiah and Kus cases; in
the former liberty to build and in the latter liberty to
worship being withheld by government for four and five
years respectively as the result of local intrigue. To these
was added a case of more flagrant persecution at Nakadah
where two Copts were bastinadoed by a powerful co-
religionist for visiting at the house of a Protestant, one
of them dying shortly after in consequence of the cruelty.
While in Britain in the summer of 1876 Dr. Hogg did
his utmost through the Evangelical Alliance to rouse the
British Foreign Office to action, and after protracted de-
lay the Egyptian Government redressed the grievances,

224 THE CARE OF ALL THE CHURCHES

and thereby extinguished the local opposition as suddenly
and effectively as though it had been but a candle flame,
not even a smoky trace remaining visible in the air. The
redress, however, was only secured after reams of paper
and gallons of midnight oil had been consumed in sacrifice.

In 1877, besieged by requests for a personal visit and
bound to his centre by a programme of work that proved
absolutely prohibitive, Dr. Hogg mapped out a scheme
for oversight by means of statistics, and set himself to
train his workers to keep accurate account of work done,
and of the changing conditions at their various stations.
A list of thirty questions was drafted, printed, and dis-
tributed, and a college student initiated into the art of
tabulating clearly the monthly replies. The questions
were so elaborated as to prevent flagrant guesswork on
the part of the worker from passing unrevealed. While
a few stations failed to respond and blunders were often
made, yet the system succeeded sufficiently to place in his
hands the data for deriving a fairly correct estimate of
the conditions prevailing over the field, and the varying
efficiency of the workers employed.

To his successors such tables of names and figures are
less illuminating, but the work had not yet grown be-
yond the limits of intimate and complete knowledge.
Each worker was a living personality to him, — a man he
had helped to mould and had sent forth in hope and
prayer. Each place held for him some vivid memory of
the past, to which the list of figures often made a striking
foreground. While this system might prove admirable
for discovering flaws, their cure remained no easier to
effect than before, and sometimes the problems thrust
on him made him feel as though on him rested the bur-
den of keeping the whole " monstrous machine " in mo-
tion, and he were about to be crushed in the attempt. He

METHODS OF OVERSIGHT 225

then proposed a scheme for dividing the responsibility
by allocating different districts to different missionaries
and pastors, but though this was adopted conditions re-
mained unaltered, as neither he nor they were able to
visit the districts allotted to them, and while his own
district stood badly in need of a man in its midst, appeals
from other places also continued to revert to him as the
man best known and nearest.

He felt that if the Evangelical Church of Egypt was
to be left to itself at so early a stage of advancement, it
would do no more for the Mohammedans and for Africa
than the Coptic Church had done, for even the best labour-
ers, without the stimulus of frequent visits, relaxed their
efforts. They lacked initiative, but rallied gladly to the
call of a leader. Letters were ineffective. What they
needed was suggestions embodied in the concrete, some
one in their midst with the power to initiate and organise,
leaving them the task of imitating and completing the
copy set. He wrote in distress to his colleagues in the
north, and the situation was relieved by the appointment
of Dr. Harvey during two consecutive years to spend six
months in the Luxor district.

The summer of 1878 Dr. Hogg spent chiefly in the
translation for his theological class of his friend Dr.
Calderwood's Handbook of Moral Philosophy, completing
his first draft of the work with extreme relish in sixty
working days. In the autumn the inundation brought dis-
tress to the whole land, a year of flood following a year
of drought bringing disease of every kind in its train.
Every station suffered. Mr. and Mrs. Alexander were
laid low with typhoid fever and Dr. Hogg's own family
suffered much, the parents often at their wits' end as to
how to treat their children's ills. The heat was terrific,
pillows and mattresses even in the night hours unbearably

226 THE CARE OF ALL THE CHURCHES

hot, and the children in such a miserable state that the
father spent four nights swinging them in a hammock as
the only way of stilling their distressed cries. " Do you
know what it is," he wrote to his brother, " to get so
fagged that you can't be bothered to fix your mind on
anything? For months past I have felt so every night,
and often I have spent hours rolling on the sofa, — too
tired to sit up or lie still " ; and his wife remarks " John
has been nurse and doctor and is much run down with
weary nights and so much anxiety," and again " John is
weary, weary weary." No wonder that in such a year
but one week of boat-work was secured.

With 1879 a change set in, and henceforth twelve weeks
is the yearly average of time devoted to work upon the
Nile, an average almost double that of the previous period.

The plan agreed to at the meeting of Association in the
spring of 1879 na<^ ^een tnat Dr. Hogg should spend the
first three months of the summer in Ramleh with entire
charge of the theologues. But before he had set his face
northward, a document reached him requesting his pres-
ence at Ekhmim, a town in the south that had previously
kept its doors closed against all mission work. As the
document ended with a long list of signatures that in-
cluded the names of all the influential Copts of the place,
the event seemed little short of miraculous. How could
he pass it by? Why not teach his class at Ekhmim in-
stead of Ramleh, and so combine the appointment of
Association with what appealed to him and would surely
appeal eventually to all, as the appointment of God?

On this idea he immediately acted, and the experiences
of the summer made upon the theologues an impression so
ineffaceable that the tale is recounted to-day with a vivid-
ness difficult to reproduce in the printed page. For even
before the " Ibis " had reached her moorings beside the

THE " SIEGE " OF EKHMIM

high bank whose dust the hot winds sifted daily over the
boat and her contents, the great door wide and effectual
that had invited the missionary to enter, was slammed
deftly in his face. The priests, alarmed at the dimensions
to which the disaffection of their flock had grown, and
willing for any compromise that might keep Protestant-
ism at bay, had set themselves with every art and craft
available to win back the leaders. They had succeeded.
On Dr. Hogg's arrival three men ventured timidly to the
boat, — no more ; and whenever he showed his face in the
streets a hooting mob of boys gathered at this heels, who
boasted loudly that they would drive him out of their
town as they had driven some previous visitant on a
similar errand. The students shared his fate, being es-
corted back and forth from the inn in which they lodged
by a band of youngsters, sometimes a hundred strong, who
vied with Gideon's braves in the clatter they produced
with broken pottery, and the noise of their lusty chant —
" Death seize you, and spare your tarbooshes ! Death
seize you and spare your tarbooshes."

Dr. Hogg seems to have been in no way discouraged
by the turn events had taken. He writes of the place as
" A needy field ready to be opened but requiring every
preparation for a lengthened occupation before any re-
sponse will be given to the overtures made by us," and
he felt the essential to be that he stay " long enough to
gather such a nucleus of resolute spirits together into
a compact body, that the gates of Hades shall not prevail
against them."

The young men could not at once understand his atti-
tude. They were indignant that their leader should have
been befooled, cordially invited to come and heaped with
dishonour on his arrival, and they expected him to turn
his back on a people that had mocked him, shaking the

228 THE CARE OF ALL THE CHURCHES

dust off his feet as a testimony against them. Instead they
heard with amazement that he wished to rent a house.
The news spread at once through the town and rents
were raised to prohibitive prices, but a small place was
at last discovered, built of sun-dried brick and worth
half a dollar a month that might be secured at six times
its value. " Rent it," said the missionary. " But it will
take twenty dollars to repair it," the students expostu-
lated. " I will pay it," was the answer, and they deemed
him mad.

The house was chiefly court, and in this court they
met for worship, the preacher seated on a broken water-
pot, while on the ground sat the only audience who cared
or dared to attend, — his students and three men too poor
to lose much in the venture. Overlooking them on the
roof women gathered, women used to seclusion but pre-
pared to outrage custom in a zeal not according to knowl-
edge. They came not to listen but to peer down at the
" wolves " below, and fire curses on their head, hideous
curses coming from women's lips. But the curses seemed
strangely innocuous, and the service proceeded. More
tangible missiles were then substituted, dirt, brick, any-
thing available ; but these too failed of their purpose, the
audience shifting to a position out of range, and worship
continuing uninterrupted.

Would the man now see his folly ? Not he. " Send us
your boys," he said to the men, " and we will start a
school " ; while to his students he explained, " This is
just the ringing of the bell and later the audience will
come," and he had not forgotten that in Egypt some time
elapses after the bell has rung before the people gather.

In the interval benches must be prepared for them.
But the Bishop's ban was on all who should help the
intruders, and carpenters were hard to hire. They de-

Market on Outskirts of Village

Typical Group of Fellahin

Market Day
VILLAGE SCENES

THE " SIEGE " OF EKHMIM 229

manded sixty cents a day instead of twenty, and the
students stared as their teacher accepted the terms
What did the man expect ? Why throw away time, effort,
money in a vain attempt ? " Strange ! strange — his faith ! "

But they were still more deeply impressed when they
began to realise at what cost the money was secured to
bombard Ekhmim's closed gates. The ties between
teacher and taught were such that his family interests
were not unshared, and they had heard with sympathetic
pleasure of a projected visit to Scotland and its purpose.
Dr. Hogg's eldest son in completing his course at Dollar
Academy distinguished himself by winning four medals
and thirteen first prizes, a multiplicity of honours un-
precedented in the history of the institution. The family
had not been united for three years, and while a reunion
was at present too expensive a luxury to contemplate,
they had decided to stretch their purse strings to the
extent of enabling the father to witness his boy's triumph.
The students now learned that the project had been
abandoned. To go to Scotland would not only curtail the
campaign at Ekhmim ; it would cripple its resources,
for it was of necessity a private venture, having found
no place in any mission estimate. The missionary had
remitted the matter to his wife for decision, and her
answer — " Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it " — set-
tled the question.

The few letters written during the siege give no sug-
gestion of anything heroic in this sacrifice. " You do
know," writes the mother to her sister, " how to make it
hard for John to resist the temptation to go home. But
duty first, there's the rub," — and with that the subject is
dismissed. A few facts of daily life filter through in an
accidental way. The cook, inexperienced but willing, has
at last learned to make soup. The plague of flies has

been put to flight by a plague of strong wind. The heat
is "quite bearable," 113° under the awning of the deck
(the missionary's study). He can use his eyes "now"
without pain. When his wife joins him she is somewhat
perplexed as to how to whet the family appetite, as the
market provides nothing but tough buffalo-meat and a
few wild pigeons ; no vegetables, — not even potatoes ; no
fruit, — not even lemons. But " John's health is better, as
he has neither reports nor statistics and few Arabic let-
ters to write," and a change of mooring at last brings
partial respite from the swirling dust. Besides even
opposition has its compensations, and the absence of
visitors at night makes possible some ideals of family
life long remitted to dreamland, quiet evenings when
one reads aloud and the other listens and enjoys, while
the moon showers silver on the waters, and tremulous
wavelets lap around the river-home and ripple to the
shore.

The small meetings were, however, a nightly trial, for
" after weltering through a hot day one wants something
inspiring." Yet Dr. Hogg refused to cater to the
men who had desired his presence by preaching against
the corruptions of the Coptic Church as they had desired,
preferring, he said, " to preach Christ, and to teach people
to hate their own sins rather than to hate their priests,"
however small an audience might be tempted by such
fare. His method and his faith were fully justified, and
before the disbanding of the class at the three months'
close, when the missionary turned his attention to the
needs of other stations, the work at Ekhmim had been es-
tablished on a permanent basis, with a school whose daily
attendance numbered from eighty to ninety pupils, under
the management of two efficient teachers, and an audience
of some sixty souls gathering to listen nightly to the sim-

AT MINYA 231

pie truths of the Gospel, over whom within three years a
native pastor was ordained.

The following year a similar campaign was conducted
at Minya, a prosperous town midway between Assiut and
Cairo. It was a centre at which Dr. Hogg had urged the
location of a missionary as early as 1867, but Monsurah
had been chosen instead. No internal dissension but a
genuine hunger for truth prompted the request that
brought the missionary to the field of action, and on his
arrival the boat was crowded night after night with
earnest, intelligent young men, who listened with rapt at-
tention to teachings on the fundamentals of Christian
faith, and of the life hid with Christ in God. Dr. Hogg
thought he had never had so attractive an audience at a
new station. Precautions had been taken to rent a house
before his arrival, and it was well, for opposition soon
awoke. One of the most bigoted Copts held a high posi-
tion in the government, and his threats were more ef-
fective than the Coptic Bishop's curses. Subordinate
officials who dared frequent the meeting-house faced the
danger of instant dismissal from their posts, artisans ran
the risk of a sudden rise in their taxes, while those be-
neath the range of such arrows might suffer a beating or
imprisonment under false pretexts. But the meetings
continued with unfailing regularity even when the audi-
ence numbered but two, and though soldiers guarded the
lanes, the attendance gradually rallied, few but the poor-
est however venturing to appear.

One night a gale blew and a choking dust fog filled the
air. The captain protested when the missionary stepped
ashore. " Ya, khawaja,* it is a night like pitch. No one
will expect you." " There will be more than usual," was
the reply. And he was right. Under cover of the storm

*Oh, sir.

232 THE CARE OF ALL THE CHURCHES

fifty had gathered. When at 10 P.M. the speaker resumed
his seat, watches were pulled out. " It is still early," the
men pleaded, and after a slight breathing spell the willing
preacher launched on a second discourse.

When the persecutors had committed a few glaring
indiscretions, Dr. Hogg changed his tactics, and used his
influence where such influence had power. By a cir-
cuitous route, the surest road in such cases, it reached
the government official, a Moslem superior, warning him
that it would be to his interest to mind his own business
and let the Coptic hierarchy fight their own battles. The
hint was sufficient and the current of religious inquiry
was allowed henceforth to flow undisturbed.

Lectures on the life of Christ were the nightly food
provided, the meeting usually lasting from 8:30 to n,
though Dr. Hogg had already spent four hours in close
work with his theologues, and visitors had used much of
his time. He was to be in charge of Alexandria station
from July to October and was to take two weeks' rest
before entering on the new task, but his holiday was
freely dispensed with as he could riot bear to leave Minya
one day sooner than was needful. Students and teacher
worked on Saturdays to finish more rapidly the prescribed
course, and thus secure for the missionary a few unin-
terrupted weeks in which to devote his whole strength to
the starting of a school. In educational work he believed
strongly in the power of proper equipment; and an
abundance of benches, tables, and maps, a blackboard and
the indispensable modulator to teach the art of song, were
in the absence of mission funds all provided at his own ex-
pense, without a misgiving as to the success of his venture.
When he launched on his enterprise and but three small
boys appeared, he devoted himself to them as heartily as
if they had been thirty, regarding them as Elijah re-

AT MINYA 233

garded his cloudlet in the west. In twelve days they
numbered eighteen, all small however, and he threw his
energies into teaching the two teachers he had engaged
how to tackle their work, teaching before them, beginning
each lesson to show its method, then delivering to one
of them the book while he remained at hand ready with
hints, help, and encouragement, for on these teachers
would rest the responsibility for the future, — a future of
which he entertained as little doubt as though the boys
of the town were already crowding to the doors.
" Strange — his faith ! " But it was justified. The school
whose foundation was so carefully laid prospered as it
deserved, and before twelve months had passed its in-
come was such as to cover all expenses.

Through the winter that followed Dr. Hogg's desire to
be out amongst the churches grew if possible more acute.
" How I long to be free from all other work," he wrote,
" and permitted to spend my whole time and strength
in watering the seed that has been planted! Yet even
were this possible, what could one man do among thirty
stations (in Upper Egypt alone) scattered over an area
400 miles long ? " He once more turned to the American
Church, the gist of his message being " Double your force.
Without twenty picked men of the first order we cannot
begin the work of the Delta or control the work in the
South. It is not the number but the type of the churches
planted that is of primary importance, but our shortage
in men is endangering the type."

For two years he had noted with growing anxiety a
tendency among the converts everywhere to leave to their
paid agents the privilege of striving to spread the good
news of the Kingdom. How could such a Church evangel-
ise Egypt? Only a Church in the life of whose private
members Christ appeared re-incarnate, could convince the

Moslem world that God was incarnate in Christ Jesus.
The fear haunted him at times that they who assisted at
the birth of the Reformed Church of Egypt were to be
doomed to see it sink in its childhood into a living death
for want of needful nursing.

An effort had been made at the Presbytery meeting
of 1880, after much prayer and conference, to inaugurate
a movement towards organising aggressive work in every
congregation however small, the volunteer workers to be
taught, helped, and led by the agents in charge. Dr. Hogg
meanwhile put much study and thought into the prepara-
tion of weekly Sabbath School lesson-helps, planning them
in such a way that each leaflet would provide suggestive
material for a daily study-hour, and guide the inexperi-
enced in their attempts to interest others. Though the
plan had been warmly approved by all the pastors and
elders present, yet on scattering they lacked the power
to set it in motion, and as no one was free to help them
the year passed without apparent improvement. Again
the Presbytery spent nights in prayer and conference on
the subject, and it was suggested that when pastors and
elders separated to their homes they should arrange to
hold similar conventions in different towns, at which the
church members could be present, to stir each other up
to deeper consecration and earnestness. Once more the
plan proposed was warmly approved, and once more for
lack of power to execute it, failed of its purpose.

At the meeting of Association Dr. Hogg urged the
need (felt surely by all) of a more personal assistance to
the native leaders. Two experienced missionaries, he
claimed, should be permanently freed from every re-
sponsibility except the care of the churches, one to visit
between Assiut and Cairo, one between Assiut and Assuan.
If this were a counsel of perfection, let one at least be

FIVE MONTHS ON THE NILE 235

set apart to the work. He himself would willingly give
up his connection with Assiut and the College — the Semi-
nary too if need be, unless the theologues could accompany
him — and do all that was in one man's power to grapple
with the call of the hour.

Serious practical difficulties stood in the way of the
project, and its only outcome was five months spent on
the Nile, during but three of which he was free for the
special work required.

It was an arduous tour. At Ekhmim he spent six days,
finding much to set in order. Peace was successfully
restored and the first Communion service held. At Suhaj
he remained long enough to aid the reform party in or-
ganising a school, and at Minya he spent four weeks
amid a rising tide of interest, marked Sabbath by Sab-
bath by the increased attendance, 80 — 100 — 180 — 230.

But to secure these longer visits he was forced else-
where to spend only a day, while to ensure permanent
results he would have considered a period of eight days
advisable. Each day was therefore filled to its utmost
capacity. Visitors lingered late into the night, and
usually by sunrise the dahabieh had reached a new village
to find a new group of village friends awaiting her arrival.
At times his brain was so tired that it almost refused to
work, but at the demand of circumstances he drove it on.
" Biliousness can't outlive a hard preaching bout," was
his theory, and time and again he proved the truth of his
adage ; but the biliousness when brought to so violent an
end was apt to rise from its grav^e with unabated vigour
before many days had passed. "How John drives and
drags through it all I do not know," wrote his wife, " but
I suppose he is wearing himself out sooner than he should
by working his brain so hard."

For the last two months he was forced to moor his boat

236 THE CARE OF ALL THE CHURCHES

at Cairo in order to share with the missionaries at that sta-
tion in the teaching of the theologues, and though such
an arrangement involved a concentration of the mission-
ary force that chafed his spirit, it was no doubt a blessing
in disguise to his over-wrought frame.

The Mohammedan problem which was increasingly en-
gaging his attention was one of his studies with the theo-
logical class at this time. Disguised under the title,
" Neither is there salvation in any other," it became the
subject of a book which he brought out the following
winter, — a volume of historic interest, its printing poor,
its paper poorer, its cutting and binding the poorest, but
worthy to be remembered and treasured as the first book
ever printed in Upper Egypt. It was this great problem
of Islam that gave its unique importance to the other
subject which throughout these years had so occupied
his thoughts, the type of Church which Christ desired
for the accomplishment of His great purposes, and how
such a type of Church could best be produced. With
reflections on this subject the correspondence of the period
teems, and a few selections may fittingly close its history.

" I believe the millennium is now (nay, has been al-
ways) within the reach of the evangelistic labours of
one generation of Christians, who have learned, like Paul,
to live ' not to themselves but to Him who died for them
and rose again/ I believe also that this will be accom-
plished only when pastors learn that their duty is not
only to feed the flock, but to see to it that each member
is put to his proper work and kept at it."

Summary of a pastoral letter addressed to Assiut con-
gregation. Subject : " Saved in order to serve."

" The work for which the Church exists is that for
which the Son of God became incarnate. ' As Thou hast

THE TYPE OF CHURCH 237

sent me into the world even so have I also sent them
into the world.' Christ's work was not completed by
His incarnation, but was only then begun. Your work
is not completed when you take to yourselves a bodily
form as an organised congregation, it is only begun.
' The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but
to minister and to give His life a ransom for many.' This
is precisely your calling as an organised body of be-
lievers. Though you support your pastor and wait faith-
fully on his ministrations, you but prepare yourselves
for beginning to fulfil this calling. You are but being
ministered unto. If you rest content with this you have
no right to exist, and are nothing better than cumberers
of the ground which you cover."

To Rev. James Henry, Melbourne, Australia:

" I believe that every congregation of Christian adults
ought to meet three times a week at least — once to learn
what is duty (a preaching service) ; once to ask for grace
to do it (a prayer meeting) ; and once to hear the report
of what has been done and to plan for the future (a
missionary service). All the work of the congregation
ought to be carried on under the direction of the Ses-
sion. The Pastor and his elders would thus be some-
what equivalent to a general and his staff — leading the
hosts of light out against the hosts of darkness."

To the Earl of Aberdeen :

" I have always felt that the ultimate success of our
work in a missionary point of view will depend not so
much on the number as on the nature of the churches
gathered or planted by us. Already, in Upper Egypt,
we have at least the nuclei of as many churches as arc
needed to evangelise the whole of the Thebaid, provided
the ' salt ' retains ' its savour ' and the ' leaven ' is propa-
gative, as by nature it ought to be. If, however, the
members of our native Church cannot be trained to take
a heartier and more serious interest in Christian work,

238 THE CARE OF ALL THE CHURCHES

than is the case with most of them at present, then — as
I solemnly assured them wherever I went, — although
the thirty stations in the Thebaid were increased to
three hundred to-morrow, the ultimate Christianisation
of Upper Egypt would be no nearer than it is to-day.
Not that our converts in Egypt are less fruitful in Chris-
tian effort than the majority of their brethren in Scot-
land. Such is far from being the case: but both here
and at home the growth of ' Christ's ' Kingdom is checked
and thwarted by the failure of His subjects to realise
that the very thing in which the great difference lies
between them and other men is this — that others live
to themselves, while they live ' not to themselves but to
Him who died for them and rose again.' Oh, for an
Evangelistic Baptism all over the Church ! Then in one
short generation would the kingdoms of this world be-
come the Kingdom of the Lord and of His Christ."

XV
ARABI PASHA'S REBELLION

The question is What will it next do [the Revolution] ;
how will it henceforth shape itself? . . . As a thing with-
out order, a thing proceeding from beyond and beneath
the region of order, it must work and welter, not as a
Regularity, but as a Chaos; destructive and self-destruc-
tive; always until something arise strong enough to bind
it into subjection again. Which something, we may further
conjecture, will not be a Formula, with philosophic proposi-
tions and forensic eloquence, but a Reality, probably with
a sword in its hand.

— CARLYLE: French Revolution.

WE now approach the story of a year that has
left a deep impress on the history of Egypt
and on the memory of all who were swept
along in the current of its political events.

The Arabi rebellion of 1882 influenced strongly the
remainder of Dr. Hogg's life, not only because it inci-
dentally condemned him to three years of bachelordom,
but because it affected permanently the interests he had
most at heart.

It affected the Evangelical Church that was so largely
of his planting. He wished for her a baptism of power,
and new power came through a baptism of suffering.

It affected the Coptic Church that he longed to see re-
generated. The fiery trial that assailed without dis-
crimination all who were beyond the bounds of Islam
burned away barriers of suspicion and hatred through

239

240 ARABI PASHA'S REBELLION

which she viewed her Protestant sister, and brought into
full view their common Christianity.

It affected the unreached millions of Islam of whom
twenty years before Dr. Hogg had written, " There is
little hope of a Christian missionary's gaining a hearing
amongst them until some political upheaval shall force
upon them the unwelcome truth that the Mohammedan
races are no longer the world's conquerors." Such an
upheaval now took place and new possibilities emerged.

For years the forces of revolution had been slowly
marshalling for combat. When in June, 1879, Ismail
Pasha, deposed by the Sultan, handed over to his son
the reins of Khedivial government, he burdened him with
a legacy from which a stronger man than he might well
have shrunk. He ceded to him a country loaded by debt,
her foreign creditors greedy of high interest, her people
groaning under oppression, her army awakened to a sense
of its power, and in her capital a band of unscrupulous
men ready under the guise of patriotism to turn the pop-
ular discontent and the army's new-born consciousness to
their owrn advantage.

These were serious elements for such a man as Tewfik
Pasha to handle. He was a sincere and kindly soul of do-
mestic tastes, interested in education and agriculture, de-
voted to religion, anxious for his country's welfare and
loyal to her allies. He lacked the virtues and the vices
that enable a man to keep the upper hand in turbulent
times.

Ismail had before him in every crisis one clear issue,
" What course of action will further my immediate in-
terests ? " Burdened by no scruples as to right and wrong,
decision was easy to him, while his extraordinary shrewd-
ness, his personal charm, his strong will, and his power of
managing men, were tremendous assets in controlling

DEMANDS OF THE ARMY 241

events to his own advantage. He moved forward with-
out hesitation.

To the son the situation was more complicated. He
was no diplomat and prompt decision was not his forte.
Unlike his father he was willing to listen to duty's call,
but he was often unable to distinguish it, his eye dazed by
the magnitude of the issue, his ears deafened by the
clamour of conflicting claims. Where Ismail acted,
Tewfik deliberated and asked advice.

The first overt act of rebellion took place in February,
1881, twenty months after his accession, when during the
trial by court martial of three colonels, the soldiery in
obedience to previous instructions from the culprits broke
into the council chamber of the palace, and knocking over
tables and chairs seized their officers and demanded the
dismissal of the minister of war. The offence passed
unpunished and their demand was granted.

A more spectacular incident occurred seven months
later when Arabi, one of the reinstated colonels, at the
head of his regiment demanded of the Khedive a change
of ministry, a constitution, and the increase of the army to
18,000 men. The soldiers evinced little interest in the
proceedings, but filling the square before Abdin Palace
and awaiting their officer's command, they presented a
formidable appearance to the man who, though Khedive
of Egypt, could not guarantee the loyalty even of his
body guard. Conciliation once more seemed the only
chance of averting bloodshed, and after prolonged ne-
gotiation the first demand (a change of ministry) was
granted, the remainder were remitted to Constantinople
for decision, and the soldiery dispersed more assured
tharfever of their power to rule the land.

From that moment the plot thickened by sure degrees,
and events were watched with acute interest by the

ARABI PASHA'S REBELLION

European creditors of Egypt. Surely in no other country
in the world could so complicated a situation have ex-
isted !

The Khedive though helpless was nominally indepen-
dent. The Sultan as tribute-master was nominal liege-
lord. Britain and France were nominally exercising a
dual control. Four other European powers as co-credi-
tors held secondary rights of consideration, and twelve
had treaty privileges to be safeguarded. How could so
nondescript a regiment keep step and move effectively?
No wonder that threats and explanations took the place
of prompt action, and ultimatum followed ultimatum till
they became the laughing stock of the land. By February,
1882, Mahmud Sami, arch-intriguer in a movement falsely
called national, had succeeded in creating a situation that
forced Sharif to resign, and had installed himself as
prime minister in Sharif's stead, with Arabi the tool and
nominal leader of his choice as minister of war.

Four months later came the final crisis when in June,
1882, Dervish Pasha, the High Commissioner of Turkey,
who had arrived upon the scene to restore order, threw
aside the policy of conciliation and treated the rebel lead-
ers with scant consideration. Carefully concealing their
hand, they retaliated with a blow that brought him to his
knees. At a crucial moment news reached the palace that
in Alexandria a massacre of Europeans was raging and
that the troops stationed in that city refused to interfere
until they should receive definite orders from their chief.
Arabi was notified. " Let Dervish Pasha come himself
and ask me," was the answer. He did, and the massacre
ceased as suddenly as it had begun; but Arabi Pasha
henceforth held Egypt under his sway.

Even at this juncture France clung to a neutral attitude,
but Britain had too many interests at stake in Egypt to

FLIGHT FROM ALEXANDRIA 243

forbear action further, and a war followed, short and
decisive.

Three days after the massacre Dr. Hogg and a few
others were closeted in the mission house in Alexandria,
discussing the situation in its bearing upon their families
then living in Ramleh, when a message came from the
consul urging that all women and children should be
conveyed to an American warship in the harbour, and dis-
claiming all responsibility for their protection should this
precaution be neglected. Almost immediately a strange
confused hum made itself heard, and the men adjourned
hurriedly to the roof to discover its cause. The narrow
streets had filled with sudden activity, and from every
door men hurried out impelled by some common motive.
Was another massacre afoot? Had their warning come
too late? Would they reach Ramleh in safety, and if so
would they be able to place their families in safety when
they reached them?

The short journey was accomplished without mishap,
and when the party entered the little compound at Ramleh
discussion was short and pointed. " Can you leave at
once? " " Impossible." " Then pray God the line be not
cut before we reach town." Hurried preparations fol-
lowed with few words, and an hour later the houses were
left chaotic, and men, women, and children, carrying babies
or holding bundles of necessaries in their hands, stood on
a platform wondering anxiously if the train would come
or what fate awaited them in the city. The train arrived
already crowded with similar companies of every nation-
ality similarly marked by tokens of haste and anxiety.
But when Alexandria was reached all was quiet. The
commotion had died away as mysteriously as it had
awakened. The city was like a city of death, with shut-
tered shops and silent streets, few men and no women

244 ARABI PASHA'S REBELLION

visible. Here and there a soldier might be seen loitering
at a corner, or a few gamblers who played with dice
some game of chance, as Arabi and his compeers were
playing with higher stakes at the capital the game of
personal ambition.

The American warship " Galena " was gained in safety,
almost every yard of deck already occupied with huddled
refugees. Here the mission party were hospitably housed
and from time to time new relays joined them from in-
land stations, while the gentlemen made excursions to the
desolate houses at Ramleh to complete their preparations
for prolonged absence, and wives watched anxiously for
their return, wondering what dangers might be lurking in
that sleeping town and counting the slow hours till
evening.

Orders having been received from the British Admiral
to the effect that refugees lodging in the harbour should
be conveyed to safer ports by whatever form of trans-
port should first offer, a party of forty sailed on June 21
aboard the " Falernian," thirty of whom belonged to the
mission circle, and amongst them Dr. Hogg and his fam-
ily. The vessel, built for cattle transit and used for
freight, possessed no accommodation for passengers, and
the captain, irritated at being compelled to carry a less
profitable cargo than was his wont, made little effort to
secure their comfort. The party arrived as night was fall-
ing, and there still rung in their ears the warm cheers with
which the American marines had wished them Godspeed,
to bring into sharper contrast the cold welcome awaiting
them. Through a yawning hatchway a rough precipitous
ladder led into the dismal hold in which all were to be
housed. In its centre a primitive table and benches had
been rudely fashioned of unplaned wood, and the black
vistas beyond were dimly visible in the light of two dingy

ON BOARD THE " FALERNIAN " 245

lanterns. No further preparations were in evidence. An
ominous silence fell as the arrivals surveyed their new
abode, broken at last by a pitiful wail from one small
damsel whom not even her clutch on a mother's gown
could reassure in so dark a cavern.

Before long it had been so transformed as to resemble
some subterranean laundry, its empty darkness inter-
rupted by interlacing ropes from which dangled innumer-
able sheets unearthed from the family trunks. Thus sub-
divided it furnished each family with the privacy of one
whole bedroom to itself, beds being prepared by the
spreading of cotton quilts on the iron flooring behind the
shelter of the suspended sheets. The dim lanterns were
the luxury of the nights, and when a violent storm
occurred and the hatchway that opened on the deck was
carefully covered to keep out the lashing waves, only
such feeble daylight mitigated the gloom as could pene-
trate from the other end, where a second ladder led up
to some dark passage near the ship's kitchen. The sway-
ing sheets and the hold's broad expanse revealed to full
advantage the violence of the vessel's roll, and sea-sick
passengers were wooed from absorption in their miseries
by the necessity of clutching to a rope at some critical
juncture to prevent the quilts on which they lay from
sliding with their human freight under the dining table,
or beyond (should the angle attained favour rapid travel)
to some other family's bedroom on the opposite side.

In this cavern seventeen days were spent, and though
its greasy blackness seemed every day to thicken, staining
clothing and children indelibly with grime, and the
steamer-fare became more Spartan, the layer of mould
on the loaves deeper, meat tainted and water scarce, yet
the health of none suffered lasting injury from the hard-
ships they endured. Imprisonment was lightened by

246 ARABI PASHA'S REBELLION

humour and good fellowship, while the strong sea-air
brought colour to some wan cheeks, and Dr. Hogg's
youngest child, who had lingered long under a death
warrant and shrivelled to skin and bone, became sud-
denly renewed in all but his morals and proclaimed with
lusty frequency his unreadiness for an early grave.

Dr. Hogg had intended to land at Malta in order to
return to Egypt at the earliest opportunity and join Dr.
Watson and Dr. Ewing, on whom the lot had fallen to
remain in Alexandria harbour as the mission's representa-
tives in case some opportunity for helpful action should
arise. But the little island of Malta had been already
brought to the verge of famine by crowding refugees,
and permission to land was refused him. He therefore
accompanied his family to Edinburgh, helped to establish
them in a new home, and in early October after welcom-
ing another son into the world, bade all farewell and re-
turned alone to Assiut.

In Egypt events had moved with great rapidity and
war was at an end. With the bombardment of the Alex-
andrian forts by the British on the nth of July, had come
the explosion of Arabi's dreams of victory. To his dis-
may be discovered that the enemy's gunboats failed to
sink even when hit, while their shot and shell did dire
execution on his forts and earthworks. A paralysis of
fear replaced his ignorant confidence, and while his sol-
diers looted and burned the stricken city their general
remained passive and unconcerned, apparently powerless
to plan for aught but his personal safety. Henceforth
action was left to his underlings, and his chief anxiety
seemed to be to avoid battle. In attempting at last to
evade the invaders whom rumour placed at Kafr-id-
Dowar, he unexpectedly confronted them at Tel-el-Kabir,
and his forces were thrown into wild disorder, soon fol-

MOSLEM UNREST 247

lowing their terrified leader in his flight from the field.
The latter only slackened rein when Cairo was reached,
where, too weary to flee farther, he surrendered as pris-
oner, to be banished soon after to Ceylon.

The end came not a day too soon for Copts and Prot-
estants. In every Mohammedan land politics and re-
ligion are indissoluble, but though " Death to the Chris-
tians " had been the cry of the Alexandrian mob on the
Sunday of the massacre, all but foreigners had then been
immune from assault. The subsequent retiral of mission-
aries from the field was held at the time not only by
them but by the native Church to be equally expedient for
all, making less prominent the ties that united them, and
thus decreasing the danger of the converts being swept
into the vortex of Mohammedan hatred that threatened
their foreign friends.

But it was only by extending and intensifying this
passion of hatred that Arabi and his party could win the
support they needed. The measures for which they con-
tended had no power to move the people, who knew noth-
ing of constitutions, cared not who ruled if he but de-
creased their taxes, and dreaded an army levy as they
dreaded the plague. With the wisdom of the serpent,
Abdullah Nadim, creator of official bulletins for the
party, from the opening of the war in the fall of Alex-
andria till its close in the final crash at Tel-el-Kabir,
flooded the country with exciting tales of glorious vic-
tories, and stirring philippics in prose and verse in which
he urged the faithful to purify the land from the taint of
the cursed Christians. In these thrilling pages British
warships went down at the bursting of the first shell, or
were easily captured and tugged ignominiously up the
Nile to spread the triumph of Islam ! On shore success
was equally constant. " Tell the faithful of another glo-

248 ARABI PASHA'S REBELLION

rious victory," would be the day's tidings, or " Seven
thousand infidels slain and only one of our men received
the crown of martyrdom " ; and surely the climax in the
art of fiction was attained in one historic bulletin where
10,000 British soldiers were left dead upon the field while
the only casuality occurring in the Mohammedan ranks
was a wound inflicted on one horse, " in its mane " \ For
two months such items were the people's daily food, ac-
companied by more certain tidings of conscriptions and
requisitions which kept them in hiding for weeks at a
time, and a growing rumour ever gaining in definiteness
of a holocaust with which the campaign was to end, when
every Christian in the land would be slaughtered in one
great sacrifice.

In Cairo the day was actually fixed and the butchers'
knives were whetted in readiness — such at least is the
general belief, though proof is not now available. After
noon prayers on Friday, September 15, the massacre was
to begin, and telegrams sent north and south would en-
sure a simultaneous rising everywhere. But before the
call to prayer sounded its knell of doom from Cairo's
minarets, Islam was forced to sheath its sword and the
Christians' day of fear had ended. Lord Wolseley en-
tered the capital, and British troops marching through its
streets proclaimed the downfall of Arabi and the begin-
ning of the British occupation of Egypt.

As already indicated these stirring events left their mark
both on Dr. Hogg's personal life and on the work with
which he was identified. The trial of separation was for
a time almost obliterated in the pleasure of re-entering
on his labours. The mission made a determined effort to
visit the entire field without delay, Dr. Watson spending
three months in the far south, while Dr. Hogg under-
took the towns and villages within a radius of 120 miles

EGYPTIAN FRIENDS 249

from Assiut. Mondays were freed from college work
to render such an arrangement possible, and in eleven
weeks he preached forty-eight times, the warmth of his
welcome surprising him constantly, sometimes by its
intensity, sometimes by the unexpected quarters in which
it awaited him.

There were also new evidences of the affection of old
friends. He received one morning a call from one of
these who seemed to him singularly nervous and ill at
ease. Efforts at conversation drew forth monosyllabic re-
sponses, and the host was growing perplexed and curious,
when the gentleman thrust an open letter abruptly into
his hand, which requested Dr. Hogg's acceptance of a
gift of $400 as a token of the gratitude of a few of his
Assiut friends. Greatly touched by this unexpected kind-
ness he endeavoured to decline, but his visitor, relieved
of the letter, hastily withdrew, and Dr. Hogg found on
his return to his study that a napkin containing the
money had been unobtrusively left behind. " What would
you advise me to do ? " he wrote to his wife. " What I
did do was to go to my bedroom and thank the Lord
for this tangible proof of the affection and esteem of
such valued friends." Perhaps they had divined the
financial difficulties that had arisen from the unexpected
necessity of establishing a new home in Scotland, and
found in them the occasion for their unprecedented gift.

One of the donors was a leader in the Coptic Church.
Many of the most bigoted had now become cordial well-
wishers and the attitude of the whole body seemed altered.
Coptic schools desired Protestant teachers, and requests
poured in from towns that had never seen a missionary.
When the Coptic school at Assiut held its public exami-
nation Dr. Hogg was asked to preside, treated with every
honour, and requested to close with prayer ! Statistics at

250 ARABI PASHA'S REBELLION

the end of the year revealed the fact that there had been
more accessions to the Protestant Church and better at-
tendance on week nights and Sabbaths than ever before.
Abuna Feltaos, Dean of the Patriarchate, returning to
Cairo from a visit to the south, reported to the Coptic
Council that the Copts were all becoming Protestants,
and suggested as a remedy not suppressive measures as
in the days 0f old but writing of tracts and the education
of the clergy ! Dr. Hogg, seeing in these and other tokens
the dawning of a day when Protestants and Copts
would provoke one another only to " love and good
works," felt that he and his colleagues had " not lived
in vain."

In the Mohammedan field the stirring of a new life was
equally striking. At the beginning of the Arabi rebellion
the number of Mohammedan converts baptised by the
American mission during its whole history had reached
but twenty-six. By the close of 1883, twenty-two more
had professed their faith in Christ, thirteen of whom
had already been baptised, while the remaining nine were
still under instruction. Mohammedan pupils in Protestant
schools numbered 523, an increase of about a third in two
years. At Ekhmim, over a score of Mohammedans were
in attendance at the little village church. Everywhere
Christian books were bought and read as never before
and the Christian faith discussed and examined. Dr.
Hogg's hopes rose high. " If Egypt is given religious
liberty worthy of the name," he wrote, " our success
amongst Mohammedans will soon surpass that amongst
the Copts."

But the conditioning " if " was momentous, and de-
pended on the manner in which Britain would interpret
her new responsibilities. So keenly did he realise this
that his life seems henceforth burdened by a new anxiety,

CORRESPONDENCE 251

and by a form of service not new in essence but branching
out in new directions and receiving a new emphasis.

His work had already in the past involved him in
spasmodic intercourse by voice or pen with a great variety
of men outside of his own sphere in Egypt and in Eng-
land. Such intercourse had been chiefly the outcome of
his efforts to secure the suppression of persecution, equal
rights for all, whether Protestant, Copt, or Mohammedan,
and the removal of obstacles in the way of Sunday observ-
ance. But it was partly the outcome of matters less
closely connected with his work, partly of accidental cir-
cumstances— as in the case of the Maharajah, or of his
casual interview with the future King of England. As
an interesting bi-product of a busy life these extraneous
interests and incidental links with other lives seem to
deserve some special notice, the more so that in the clos-
ing years they come into greater prominence.

It was Dr. Hogg's usual custom to write with copying
ink and keep for future reference a copy of letters des-
patched. Twenty folios of correspondence have thus
been preserved and in turning over their leaves it is amus-
ing to notice the variety of topics dealt with.

Naturally there is a large number of letters all through
the years in regard to the Arabic books that are issuing
from the Beirut press. Once or twice an author sends
him some volume and desires his good offices in intro-
ducing it into Egypt. A gentleman in London makes the
same request in regard to some illuminated texts in
Arabic characters, and receives likewise a cordial re-
sponse. Some one writes of a project for evangelising
Central Africa by bringing natives from various tribes
to Egypt for education, and Dr. Hogg criticises the
scheme in detail, making both its advantages and its
obstacles plain. Another correspondent is keenly in-

252 ARABI PASHA'S REBELLION

terested in industrial work for the Egyptian blind. Sev-
eral letters ensue, but the effort is doomed to failure
owing to the easy profits of the Eastern beggar. Egyp-
tian friends write to him for sewing machines and reap-
ing machines, and he answers their inquiries and cor-
responds on their behalf. A clerical party want to know
the probable expenses of a long desert trip, and some
one else the rent of a dahabiyeh for the winter, while a
firm in Alexandria writes periodically inquiring as to the
agricultural prospects of the year, and careful details are
returned in regard to the various crops.

Correspondents of another type he owed to Egypt's
historic interest, which drew men of all classes to the Nile
and incidentally to the mission house at Assiut. His en-
counters with such were sometimes of mere passing mo-
ment, and sometimes left tracks in his life for years.

He felt a peculiar pleasure in making the acquaintance
of Sir George Elliot, whose career he had followed with
special interest. The author of The Light of Asia,
was also a welcome visitor. Moberly Bell, correspondent
and afterwards manager of The Times, devoted three
pages in his From Pharaoh to Fellah to his interview with
this " Chief whom one would be glad to meet elsewhere
than in Assiut," noting his abundant information, his love
of his work and his zeal tempered with common sense, and
reporting in detail his defence of the Egyptian character
and his views of missionary and governmental policy.
He met Professor Blackie of Edinburgh University under
circumstances characteristic of the erratic humour and
erudition of the man. A meeting with Professor Sayce,
the oriental scholar, and his offer to propose Dr. Hogg's
name for membership in an Assyriological society, were
the occasion of a letter to his son Hope suggesting that
they begin together the study of Assyrian, as being of

FIGHTING THE SLAVE TRADE 253

unique importance in its bearing on Biblical study, a letter
which acquires peculiar interest in the light of the serv-
ices his son was afterwards to render to Biblical scholar-
ship by giving to Assyriological study and research its
just emphasis and appropriate setting.

But perhaps the most interesting visit and certainly the
most prolific of correspondence was that of Lord and
Lady Aberdeen during their tour on the Nile in the
spring of 1878. They had made their trip serve a double
purpose, as the Earl's father and mother had done in 1861,
by carrying with them an Egyptian colporteur to sell re-
ligious literature wherever opportunity offered, and they
returned with four slaves whom they had bought and
freed from slavery. Three were but children, and on their
arrival at Assiut a baptism took place that could never
be forgotten by any who witnessed it.

The contrast in rank and colour, the deeper differences
that these typified, and the strange relationship that sub-
sisted between the little Sudanese blacks whom the
missionary baptised and named anew, and the Earl
and Countess on whom he laid the vows on their be-
half, gave to the ceremony an interest as unique as that
of the wedding that had crowned his first intimacy
with a man of title. Incidentally it led to Dr. Hogg's
first clash with Egyptian officials in regard to the
slave trade, which though contraband was still secretly
indulged.

The boys were left in Assiut College for training, a
convert from Islam of their own race and tongue being
secured as teacher, and two months later teacher and
scholars made a gallant rescue of three slave-girls whom
they brought to Dr. Hogg for protection, and whose
scanty garb of camel grease and leather fringe pro-
claimed them as fresh arrivals from the far interior. The

254 ARABI PASHA'S REBELLION

subsequent proceedings made strikingly evident the desire
of the authorities to avoid investigation.

Still more revealing was the next slave catch which
occurred two years later, when in the dead of night a
large gang was captured on the borders of the desert and
lodged in the mission church for safe-keeping. The
captor was Adolph Roth, a Swiss teacher in the Assiut
College, who began his career in the East by walking
from Alexandria to Assiut and ended it in the far interior
while under the Mahdi's rule. A telegram brought Dr.
Hogg from Minya to the scene of action, and days were
spent in a vain attempt to secure a thorough examination
of the case. An amusing sample of the inventive genius
of the captured slave-drivers is preserved in the tale of
one who, forced to account for the possession of a girl of
thirteen and two boys of seven and nine claimed the girl
as his wife of three years' standing and the boys as the
fruit of their alliance! In spite of Dr. Hogg's utmost
endeavour, the witnesses were so dealt with as to secure
the suppression of all evidence that would incriminate
those in high power. Entering his protest, he refused to
sit through the farce, and along with his son devoted the
next days more profitably to the preparation of a careful
and exhaustive account of the facts, a lengthy document
which was forwarded to those who had more power to
act. Strange clues that came later to his knowledge were
communicated to the same quarter, and from the pages
of Dr. Hogg's correspondence certain corrupt officials of
those days might learn unexpected links in the chain
of circumstances that deprived them at last of the posts
they dishonoured, and rendered useless the petitions for
their re-instatement which they forced from the reluctant
hands of underlings who feared their revenge.

The increase of British influence in 1882 gave an added

VIEWS ON THE SITUATION 255

value to the missionary's power of gathering- accurate
facts, and of seeing Egypt through the eyes of her people.
In their view of the situation he and his colleagues were
at one, and at Lord Dufferin's request he drew up on
their behalf a careful statement of their opinions which
was considered by the recipient of such value as to occa-
sion an important despatch to his government which was
incorporated in the Parliamentary blue-book.

Dr. Hogg had already had an opportunity of express-
ing his opinions privately to Mr. Gladstone, whom Lord
Aberdeen had invited him to meet while the war was
still in progress. At the base of these opinions lay a
recognition of the fact that " the Moslems of Egypt, as
elsewhere, would yield submissively and without a mur-
mur, to any dispensation of Providence that came upon
them with something like the finality and certainty of a
Divine decree" and that " anything like wavering or un-
certainty in policy and action must inevitably convert this
very fatalism into a weapon of rebellion." Unfortunately
Gladstone's ruling policy was to avoid all appearance of
such finality, and accordingly the splendid men to whom
was committed in Egypt the task of reconstruction were
fettered in every attempt at reform.

Meanwhile a Mahdi had arisen in the Sudan, and rap-
idly extending his sway, was rivetting 'the attention and
expectations of Islam. Recruits being required in the
Sudan, repeated conscriptions kept the land in a ferment.
The native press, given a free voice, inflamed the people,
and seditious Arabic papers published in Paris were dis-
tributed free of charge. In such an atmosphere stable
reconstruction was impossible, and Dr. Hogg felt that
Britain was making the mistake of trying to buttress a
ruin when it should have been digging and laying a strong
foundation on which to rear a new building. Her attitude

256 ARABI PASHA'S REBELLION

in regard to religious liberty was equally disappointing
to him. The conversions from Mohammedanism that
followed fast in each other's footsteps awoke each in
turn a storm of persecution, and as much labour as ever
was necessary to secure redress — distracting days and
nights of anxiety and toil, urgent telegrams, translation
of Arabic documents, repeated visits on the part of his
colleagues in Cairo, and a voluminous and wide cor-
respondence, lasting sometimes for months. Dr. Hogg
believed that the prompt and firm handling of the first
case would have made all easy, but Britain, anxious to
interfere with no man's religion, fell short in her inter-
ference with crime, and desirous to deal fairly with
other creeds failed to command fair dealing for her own.

Dr. Hogg had opportunities of studying the whole
situation, religious, social, and political, peculiar to his
life as a missionary. He moved much from place to
place and was on terms of intimacy with Egyptians of
every rank, simple peasants, wealthy landowners, trades-
men, and trusted officials of the government. Of their
views, their wrongs, their hopes, and their fears, they
could talk to him with an unguarded freedom that would
have been impossible with any one connected, however
remotely, with the government.

Such information as he thus gathered, purged of de-
tails that might implicate the speakers, he was able to
hand on to responsible authorities to aid in the righting
of wrongs or the guidance of policy, and the men at the
wheel as they came and went learned to value these com-
munications. Lord Dufferin, Lord Northbrooke, Col.
Johnstone, General Baker, Clifford Lloyd, and Sir Evelyn
Baring (afterwards Lord Cromer), were all in their re-
sponsible tasks glad to make use of the knowledge and
experience of a man whose evidence was always gathered

VIEWS ON BRITISH POLICY 257

with a lavish hand and minute accuracy. Some he knew
by letter only, while with others he became personally
acquainted. Lord Wolseley he met in Luxor, accom-
panying him over the ruins of Karnak ; Lord Northbrooke
he met twice, the second time dining with him and re=>
maining in close conclave for hours discussing the elabo-
rate information which at his request he had gathered.
After this last interview he wrote home despondently :

" The British Government do not seem even yet to
have resolved on a decidedly strong policy in Egypt. I
made a strong point of raising the tax on tithed lands
(these being usually rich and well-watered, owned for
the most part by wealthy Pashas, yet liable to a tax
often less than a third of that exacted from the poor
fellah for poorer land). He was not prepared to recom-
mend this, simply because a change so radical would
virtually imply that Britain had taken the administration
into her own hands. It was the same in regard to the
appointment of British officials in the provinces as a
check on the venality and tyranny of the Turkish officials,
although he admitted it was what everybody was crying
out for. He spoke freely of his own opinions and gave
evidence of having studied the subject with great care."

This tone of despondency deepened as disaster, thick-
ening in the interior, gave birth in Egypt to more open
hostility to British influence on the part of those through
whom she attempted to execute her reforms, and to ex-
citing tales amongst the people of the northward march
of Moslem hordes.

A rumour that Khartum had fallen was followed by the
news that Gordon was passing on his way southward. He
was accompanied by the new Sultan of Darfur, and, with
the General's generous sanction, also by the Sultan's wife,
whom on reaching his steamer at Assiut he discovered

258 ARABI PASHA'S REBELLION

with dismay to be a composite body of forty-two black
women squatting each with her bundle of clothes at her
side and covering his whole upper deck ! Gordon was
in the best of spirits. " Tell all your friends," was his
message " that there is absolutely no cause to be alarmed
about the Mahdi. All will be arranged and very soon
too."

But the sense of cheer the message brought was
fleeting, and the next news was of General Baker's defeat
in the East Sudan. " If this does not bring the British
cabinet to its senses," Dr. Hogg declared, " and lead to a
reversal of policy, I shall be tempted to pull down the
Union Jack and tell Salim to hoist the American flag."

At last came the crushing word that Gordon had fallen.
" I am sick at heart," he wrote. " The newspapers'
ominous silence the last few days makes me fear that it is
true." And a week later when the rumour had been
verified beyond question, " I feel more like praying than
talking. What an outburst there will be on poor Mr.
Gladstone in next week's papers. I wish it had been less
deserved."

It was the dark hour that precedes the dawn, but before
its gloom had been dispelled by the light of a new day and
Britain had begun to approve herself as a bringer of
prosperity to Egypt, Dr. Hogg had left his tasks in other
hands and passed behind the veil.

XV /
WINDS OF DOCTRINE

I will tell you what I have found spoil more good talks
than anything else ; — long arguments on special points be-
tween people who differ on the fundamental principles
upon which these points depend.

I show my thoughts, another his; if they agree, well;
if they differ, we find the largest common factor, if we
can, but at any rate avoid disputing about remainders and
fractions, which is to real talk what tuning an instrument
is to playing on it.

— OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

The dust of controversy, what is it but the falsehood
flying off from all manner of conflicting true forces.

— CARLYLE: Past and Present.

FROM cares political our tale swings back once
more to cares more Pauline, but it is with a new
phase of labour for the Church that we have now
to do, a combat with Plymouthism that threatened
division and blight.

One would expect the history of an 'ism to be of
somewhat scholastic flavour, to show us perhaps clearly
Dr. Hogg, the polemic theologian, but only through a
foggy atmosphere Dr. Hogg, the man. The reverse is
the case, however, and the whole tale, from its opening
scene in the resignation of a missionary to the unfinished
act in which Dr. Hogg steps off the stage, is thoroughly
human in its interest to any one whose attention is not
confined to the surface of events.

259

260 WINDS OF DOCTRINE

Rev. B. F. Pinkerton resigned his connection with the
mission in 1871 at the dictate of his conscience. He
had adopted the Plymouthite views of the Church, the
world, and the Christian's responsibilities, and from that
point of view his duty seemed to him to lie elsewhere
than in Egypt. There is always a tragic element in an
unfinished task resigned. His colleagues felt this deeply,
and regretted his departure the more that he had won
from all both love and esteem. When, however, in 1874,
Mr. Pinkerton's conscience reversed its dictum and sent
him back to Egypt to win to his point of view " elect "
souls in the Egyptian Church, his return could awaken
in his old friends little pleasure. Such a line of action
seemed inexplicable. How could a Christian deliberately
set out on an enterprise whose inevitable outcome would
be the creation of division among Christ's people ? How
could conscience demand his coming to teach to those
who were already Christians in heart as well as in name,
doctrines which, even had they been true, were of sec-
ondary importance, while millions around were living
a starved life for lack of the great essential? How
indeed could he reconcile his course with the most ordi-
nary code of honour? The missionaries found them-
selves in a delicate position. To avoid the appearance
of setting their seal of approval on his strange doctrines,
they felt bound to hold aloof from a man whom for his
own sake they would gladly have welcomed. They could
not hinder him from disseminating his views, but they
could make it evident from the outset that they consid-
ered those views erroneous, and could thus put the un-
wary on their guard.

Dr. Hogg, like his comrades, regarded Mr. Pinker-
ton's return with apprehension and was equally anxious
to prevent the harm likely to result from his visit. He

RELATIONS WITH MR. PINKERTON 261

prayed much for guidance as he awaited developments,
but the developments that followed led him into a course
of action diametrically opposed to that adopted at the
other stations.

Discovering one day at his own door the man about
whom he had been praying, he unhesitatingly urged him
to become his guest, and Mr. Pinkerton, who had pur-
posed another door and to whom therefore the encounter
was equally unexpected, could not resist the welcome
accorded him. A fortnight followed, in which Mr. Pin-
kerton preached nothing but the fundamentals in regard
to which both were agreed, and discussed his peculiar
views only in his host's study.

It is not in the province of this narrative to decide
the right or wrong of the course adopted but rather to
call attention to the singular situation it involved. Here
were two men whose whole systems of thought were not
only at variance, but in important points actively antag-
onistic. The one believed the other to have set out on
a line of action wrong in itself and certain to injure
seriously a cause dearer to him than life. His attempts
to correct the influence of the other 'man's conduct were
in later years to cost him such strain of heart, brain, and
nerve that at his death it would be said by some, " The
Plymouthites killed him." Yet the fortnight the oppo-
nents spent together was one of pleasant fellowship, an
uplift, not a strain, and this end was secured while
indulging the most absolute candour and discussing
freely the subjects of disagreement.

The letters that tell of the visit are revealing. True
to his nature, Dr. Hogg dug through all the corollaries
of his friend's belief to reach the ground thoughts of
his Plymouthism. Doing so, he discovered a platform
that rested on what seemed to him an illogical and fan-

262 WINDS OF DOCTRINE

tastic scheme of Scriptural interpretation, but a platform
from which the man's outlook became intelligible and
his conduct so inevitable as to leave no room for resent-
ment, whatever harm he wrought. It is not great things
that cause friction but the small excrescences on their sur-
face. Dr. Hogg, understanding the man, attacked not
the smaller details of his conduct that were the logical
superstructure of his friend's thought and the irritating
factors in the case, but their illogical foundation only.
Their discussions thus ranged in the region of the great
fundamentals of religion, which make men humble, and
from which spring forces that unite them in love of God
and man, single-hearted devotion to duty, and confidence
in prayer.

At the close of the fortnight Dr. Hogg wrote full
particulars of the visit in a letter to his mission friends,
and explained the circumstances that had led to his
action. He told of the frankness with which he had
expressed to Mr. Pinkerton his disapproval of his mis-
sion, of their subsequent discussions of their views, in
which his guest, though unconvinced, was often unable
to answer his arguments ; of their prayers together that
no harm should result to the work through his visit,
and of the hope he treasured of final success in inducing
him to accept a more reasonable interpretation of the
Bible. At the same time he expressed the utmost sym-
pathy with the man himself, and strove to make clear
the reasoning that compelled the holder of such views
not to preach to " sinners " but to labour only towards
" the edifying of the body of Christ."

" I have no doubt," he remarked, " that it is awfully
hard for him to do as he does, and nothing could nerve
him to do so but the firm belief that there is a woe laid
upon him if he refuses to take up this heavy cross — the

VIEWS ON MR. PINKERTON'S VISIT 263

cross of losing the respect and incurring the ill-will of
so many of Christ's ministry.''

One peculiarity of his letter, however, created misun-
derstanding. So usual is it in explaining the views of
an opponent to prejudice the reader by one's mode of
presentment, that Dr. Hogg's very opposite course stag-
gered his friends. All else in his letter was overlooked,
and a false impression created. He discovered the mis-
understanding that had arisen, and wrote to explain his
position more fully.

f

" Your remarks in regard to my letters about Mr.

Pinkerston's visit, etc., and the extract from Mr. 's

letter in regard to my rumoured sympathy with
Mr. Pinkerton's views, astounded and pained me. Surely
you must have read my letter very hurriedly, or I must
have failed egregiously in making it plain that it was
not of his peculiar notions that I wrote as I did. There
is no man in our mission who can have less sympathy
with Plymouthism than I have ; but surely one can respect
a man who acts consistently with his own peculiar ideas
of truth and duty, without thereby endorsing those ideas.
If the brethren in Alexandria treated him as ' a brother
that walketh disorderly.' their object was to prevent the
spread of his peculiar opinions among their floclc It
was with this very object that we gave him a different
reception. We may have erred in judgment. I think
we did not. Circumstances alter methods and means,
though they do not alter principles. It is possible that
when he returns we may see it necessary to treat him
differently. In this we must be guided by wisdom from
on high, not by the example of others who will not be
responsible for us and our actions when we stand before
the judgment-seat. All things went on while he was
with us just as they had been doing and as they have
been doing since. Had we received him as an enemy it
would have been VERY DIFFERENT."

264« WINDS OF DOCTRINE

Mr. Pinkerton, after a short stay in the south, left
Egypt, and the two men seem to have met only once
more, in 1880, when Mr. Pinkerton, as the guest of an
Egyptian friend, was paying his third visit to Assiut.
They exchanged calls marked by the same candour and
cordiality as before, and Mr. Pinkerton accepted and
promised to study some literature on the subjects of dis-
pute between them.

He had meanwhile, however, been prosecuting assid-
uously the mission to which he believed himself called,
and was slowly but surely leavening the Church, not so
much by his distribution of Plymouthite tracts as by
concentrating upon a few of the ablest and most earnest
young men in its ministry the full force of his personal
friendship and influence. His attractive character and
the joyous fervour of his religious life enabled him to
exercise over them no mean power, the more so that
his difference of creed was not at first apparent to them,
and they were thoroughly permeated by his interpreta-
tion of the Bible before they realised whither such meth-
ods of interpretation would lead.

As early as 1879, Dr. Hogg had begun to write labori-
ous answers to the questions that had arisen in their
minds, but it was not until after the Arabi rebellion
that the movement assumed such proportions as to
threaten the unity of the Church.

In January, 1883, Dr. Hogg, at the pastors' request,
held for them a special class for the study of their dif-
ficulties. Their minds, however, were full of questions
of Church government, order of service, and the exercise
of spiritual gifts, and these matters had assumed for
them such exaggerated importance as to dwarf the more
vital points of controversy. Dr. Hogg wrote pathetically
to his wife of his difficulty.

A CLASS FOR PASTORS 265

" I found the pastors very difficult to please in regard
to my manner of conducting the class, but I hope to
succeed now a little better. They do not wish general
principles ; they wish little odds and ends of details and
side issues, and would like to have them settled witihout
having their minds ' distracted ' by what seems to them
(blind that they are) to have no earthly connection with
them. The material that I had prepared wherewith to
put them right on these general principles, and so pre-
pare them to understand the drift of my future dis-
cussions, they have simply refused to look at, at present.
When the class is over they would like to have copies
of it, but now they do not wish to have their minds dis-
tracted by it from the subject on hand ! I wish the
month were over. Yet they want to be edified ! "

But not even when the class was over would those
most affected by the Plymouthite views concentrate their
minds on fundamentals and give to the work of the
teacher they loved the patient study it deserved; and
two months later they addressed to the Presbytery a
letter raising seven objections to Presbyterianism and
Church organisation and claiming the right to teach
opposite views unless they were controverted by cate-
gorical proofs from Scripture. To this letter Dr. Hogg
was appointed to prepare a reply, and as the controversy
was henceforth transferred from a private to a public
arena, the story might at this point become irredeemably
ecclesiastical, had not a living picture been preserved
for us of the man in the midst of his polemic labours,
which seems to humanise the whole.

His answer was written in Dr. Lansing's little square
house at Hilwan, in the corner of whose court stood
a small building which acted as church on Sabbath, and
theological seminary on week days to five Egyptian
students. Around stretched the pure sand of the

266 WINDS OF DOCTRINE

desert ; behind, a line of rocky hills ; in front, the valley
of the Nile, " a glorious panorama of desert, green
field, river, palm groves, and pyramids, with the white
Mokattam, the wall of the great desert, beyond."

Surely no atmosphere could have been secured less
tainted by the aroma of ecclesiastical disputes ! A morn-
ing hour in the desert while his friends slept, three hours
of teaching of the type his soul delighted in, exhilarating
intercourse with congenial comrades round the family
board, and games with the students in the cool of the
day, made up the routine of the life into which was
sandwiched the writing of the pamphlet for which the
Presbytery had asked.

Dr. Cairns,* who, as a young man in search of health,
was spending the spring months with Dr. and Mrs.
Lansing, speaks of Dr. Hogg as coming into the circle
" like a breath of life." He had met him in Cairo a
month before, and thus describes his first impressions :

" Dr. Hogg was seated cross-legged on the divan,
wearing a long grey dressing-gown and a cap, and
seemed to my eyes curiously like an Eastern sheikh. . . .
His figure at once caught one's eye, his face so mobile
and full of power and his whole frame muscular and
instinct with vitality. His talk that night was to me
of extraordinary interest. He had just come down from
Assiut, and brought with him news of the first begin-
nings of the great Mahdist uprising in the Sudan . . .
the unknown, formidable Moslem Messiah, the wild
tribesmen that were gathering to his standard, and the
dread that they would swoop down on the Nile Valley
from the eastern desert and even divert the water of
the river and turn the Delta into a wilderness."

He thus describes the man :

* D. S. Cairns, D.D., Professor of Systematic Theology,
United Free Church College, Aberdeen, Scotland.

THE RETREAT AT HILWAN 267

" He was then in the very flower of all his power—
a fine man physically as well as mentally and spiritually.
I remember his athletic figure opposite me at table, and
above it his remarkable head, energy and character
written in every line of the features and in the high
arched brow. A more delightful companion and friend
no man could have had than he was to us all. His rela-
tions with Dr. Lansing, as well as with Mrs. Lansing,
were delightful. The two men worked together in con-
genial fellowship. With the students he was equally ad-
mirable, and they adored him."

The visitor recalls foot-races in the desert, " the
students tailing out in the rear, and Dr. Hogg far in
the van, his long arms tucked in and head and chest out,
making splendid time." The following passage preserves
a picture of an occasional hour of recreation snatched
at night " to refresh his spirit with some humanity in
the midst of his polemics."

" I would be lying on the divan," Dr. Cairns writes,
" reading away at McClintock and Strong's Theological
Encyclopaedia, and Dr. Lansing would be deep in his
Hebrew Bible, when a knock would be heard at the ^oor
and Dr. Hogg would enter, smiling in response to our
hails of welcome. He was clad in a long dressing-gown
which came down nearly to his feet, and in his hand he
bore a small volume of the Tonic Solfa Reporter. . . .
Then for about an hour there would be a time of unre-
strained merriment, corresponding to the ' rag ' at a
students' camp and having just the same psychological
meaning and value. Dr. Hogg was of course the centre
of it all, singing gloriously and eddying about on the
floor in the dressing-gown acting the songs, while
Lansing lay back in his chair with his fez on the back of
his head, his eyes twinkling and his body shaking with
laughter, and we both applauded and encouraged the
disgraceful scene. Many Scotch songs were sung, but
not all classical or Scotch. ' Villikins and his Dinah '

268 WINDS OF DOCTRINE

and ' Shivery Shakery ' represent the cosmopolitan ele-
ment. Where he got them I have no idea, but there they
were. But he could sing pathetic songs most beautifully,
too. One in particular I remember, partly for its own
simplicity and beauty, and perhaps partly because it was,
too soon for us, to be fulfilled.

" ' Beyond the sighing and the weeping,

I shall be soon,

Beyond the waking and the sleeping,
Beyond the sowing and the reaping,

I shall be soon.

Love, rest, and home, sweet, sweet home ;
Lord, tarry not, oh tarry not, but come.'

After an hour or so of this touching of the many strings
of the instrument, he would put on his cap and take
farewell, and the door would close ; the old doctor would
turn to his Hebrew Bible and I to my encyclopaedia, and
Dr. Hogg to his Plymouth Brethren."

Was it because every string in the instrument was kept
responsive to the touch, that it remained in tune with
life, and awoke no discords through the weary contro-
versy that followed?

The details of that controversy may be left for the
future historian of the Egyptian Church to relate. The
traces are now visible only in unobtrusive groups of
pious Plymouthites in various towns and villages, who
delight in informal worship and the singing of hymns,
and are accused by others of considering themselves holier
than their neighbours, and of caring more for their
own growth in grace than for the conversion of the
world. While to an outsider such defects might seem
a natural outgrowth of Plymouthite doctrine, they in-
vade too successfully every branch of the Christian
Church to allow any of us to cast at them the first

THE PROTAGONISTS 269

stone, and all that concerns us at present is the effect
of the movement on the life we are tracing.

For long a serious split in the Church seemed im-
minent; and while many laboured with him to avert the
catastrophe, he stood so pre-eminently before the public
as the exponent of the Church's views and the exposer
of the innovating errors, that to his deep regret, not to
say disgust, many confused the issue at stake, and be-
lieved that the contest was not between the Church and
Plymouthism but between Dr. Hogg and the Egyptian
Plymouthite leader, Rev. Girgis Rafael. That such a
position entailed a heavy burden on the man who held
it was patent to all. The public, however, could see but
a small part of what Plymouthism cost him. The heavi-
est price was paid in secret in the weary effect on heart
and soul of disappointment and sorrow.

We have already touched on the hopes that the events
of 1882, the year of the Rebellion, had stirred within
him by their effect upon Protestants, Copts, and Mos-
lems. In the summer of 1883 a scourge of cholera
moved to more active life the new-born forces, and a
revival awakened in the Church that spirit of evangelism
for which Dr. Hogg had so long prayed. It was no
slight pain to him to watch it vanish, its work but half
accomplished, before the spirit of dissension that was
the offspring of the doings of those he had loved and
trained.

The cholera visitation had occurred in his absence,
and he returned to Assiut to find the town moved to
its heart, the Church aflame, and her Coptic sister in
self-defence imitating her tactics. A crowded evening
meeting was held by both, and as he threaded his way
by lantern-light through dark streets, his heart thrilled
to see up narrow lanes dim groups of men, a lantern

270 WINDS OF DOCTRINE

and a Bible in their midst, listening to the message of
the Gospel from the lips of a Protestant schoolboy or
some member of the Church with a little knowledge and
much faith. There had been no need of a foreign mis-
sionary to organise such efforts. They had sprung into
spontaneous being from a new experience of Christ's
power to keep the heart calm while death walked
through the land.

Into the midst of the movement came Dr. Hogg's
Plymouthite friends, while the effects of their influence
at other places compelled his absence, and he came back
to find that its precious fruit had under the blight of
discord fallen ungarnered to the ground. The same sad
drama was enacted at Nakheilah, and the church of
Ekhmim, of which he was the earthly father, was only
saved from dissolution by a timely visit, during which,
after weary conferences, one of them of ten hours' dura-
tion, he was able to restore harmony and hope.

The strain involved by such visitation was great. One
siege of discussion with a disaffected pastor began at
8 P.M., after a full day's work, was interrupted in the
early morning by four hours of restless tossing enliv-
ened by mosquitoes and their allies, was continued after
breakfast through the hot hours of the day, resumed at
night when the evening meeting had dispersed, and
abandoned at last without result a few hours before a
second dawn. But the strain of the actual labour that
the controversy involved was nothing to that caused by
the harsh jangling of its irreconcilable claims. It was
more important than ever that he should be abroad
among the churches, yet more likely than ever to prove
disastrous should he neglect his own station. The Assiut
pastor was ill and the congregation in the missionary's
charge, and his departure would be the signal for the

THE MESSAGE OF THE PEN 271

entrance of discord. Yet appeals for his presence poured
in from every quarter and the substitutes he suggested
were refused. " It almost drives me crazy," he wrote,
longing to respond.

For the most part, the message of the pen had to take
the place of more effective help. And even here he
found himself shackled; for while fifteen Arabic docu-
ments of varying size were his answer to the people's
call for an antidote to Plymouthite teaching, they had
to do their work, like Paul's epistles in the first century,
without the aid of printer's ink. Manuscript copies were
eagerly made, circulated, read, and declared by the people
to be the message for the hour, but when they pleaded
for printed copies to reach a wider public he was helpless.
This was the case even with the lengthy pamphlet, al-
ready referred to, which was written at the request of
Presbytery. The churches were clamorous for the 400
copies promised them, but mysterious delays occurred
in its publication. " Perhaps they will be ready some
time before the end of the British Occupation,"
the author wrote rather grimly to a colleague; and
another year passed by before his work appeared in
print.

His writing was in part a pleasure. " The true calling
of the Christian Church," " The righteousness of God,"
" The relation of the Christian to the moral law," " The
Christian Church the Kingdom of God " — these were
themes vital to the controversy yet big enough to arouse
his enthusiasm. But another class of subjects, inevitably
thrust upon him, caused severe strain of soul. How it
can be lawful to follow parliamentary order in Church
courts, though clerks and minute books are not men-
tioned in the New Testament; why only ordained men
should be allowed to dispense the sacraments; why the

272 WINDS OF DOCTRINE

American United Presbyterian Church and its offshoot
in Egypt use no hymns in their church services, — these
and kindred topics uncongenial and secondary he could
only by sheer force of will treat as exhaustively as the
peculiar circumstances demanded. His task was the
more thankless, as he knew the leaders to have reached
a state of saturation in Plymouthite thought which ren-
dered them almost incapable of feeling the force of
arguments that they could not refute, while they had
abundant leisure to deluge him with long replies which
neither his conscience nor his affection would allow him
to pass by unanswered.

While his efforts to convince the leaders were thus
futile, his writings played no insignificant part in the
final restoration of peace^ by enabling the members of
the Church to choose sides intelligently. The real issues
at stake being clearly understood, few were willing to
leave the parent Church when the day of decision ar-
rived, and Rev. Girgis Rafael found himself at the last
with but a small following.

An all-conquering affection for the men who were
causing the trouble pervades Dr. Hogg's whole cor-
respondence. Not once did he impute to them motives
lower than his own. Not once did he write of them
words it would have wounded them to read. " They are
among our best and most pious men and I am loth to
give them up," he could say in the very letter that tells
that two of his best years had been consumed in checking
the mischief they had wrought. For Rev. Girgis Rafael
his sympathy was acute, and it was with deep anxiety
that he noted in his haggard face the marks of prolonged
struggle and its resultant insomnia. " I can see his dif-
ficulties from his standpoint," he wrote, " but I fear no
one else does ; " and he was deeply troubled lest the

THE LAST IRENICON 273

Presbytery should act in the case " more under the influ-
ence of the subordinate standards than of the Bible."
He did everything in his power to avert such a calamity,
and in the final breach it was the men themselves who
took the initiative.

Dr. Hogg's " last Irenicon " was not even read. It
was a long letter to Rev. Girgis Rafael, the outcome of
laborious thought, accompanied by a new thesis in which
he made a final effort to meet his difficulties. It was
an appeal to study the thesis and talk it over with his
old teacher before taking decisive action. It reached
the pastor on the eve of the Sabbath on which with a
few followers he was to cross the Rubicon, separate
from the Church, and take an initial step in the forma-
tion of a new sect. The letter covered eight large closely
written pages and was handed to him by one of his old
flock. He read the first two pages, returned the letter
to its envelope, and laid the whole aside. " Why don't
you finish it ? " asked the bearer, who was anxiously
awaiting developments. " What is the use ? " was the
hopeless answer ; " it will only keep me from sleeping."
And the writer, hearing of his action, understood, be-
lieved him conscientious and sincere, and though griev-
ing deeply, blamed him not at all.

It is pleasant to preserve from oblivion the memory
of this understanding affection and the bridge that it
built over a strong current of separating creeds ; for the
air of ecclesiastical dispute is often redolent of other
odours than that of the charity that hopeth and believeth
all things. To the end of his life, Dr. Hogg and the
Plymouthite leaders met on the old footing of respect
and affection, and his last letter is bright with the hope
of finding soon some common platform on which reunion
will be possible. Whether he would eventually have sue-

274 WINDS OF DOCTRINE

ceeded it is impossible to tell; for he laid down unfin-
ished a task which none could take from his hand, to enter
the wide gates of the Father's house, where all are
welcome who love Him, and where theological differ-
ences vanish in the clear light of Truth.

XVII
THE END OF THE JOURNEY

Beyond the sighing and the weeping

I shall be soon,

Beyond the waking and the sleeping,
Beyond the sowing and the reaping,

I shall be soon.

Love, rest and home, sweet, sweet home;
Lord, tarry not, oh tarry not, but come.

THE traveller in the borderland of life, before the
veil falls from the unseen, is often affected like
the traveller in the Sahara. He is beguiled by a
prospect enticing but unreal. Years of happy usefulness
seem to stretch alluringly before him, their horizon
vague and distant but their details vivid and clear, like
the lakes and palm-trees that are conjured into being by
the mirage of the desert. The river of death by no sound
of rushing waters betrays its nearness, and his feet have
already reached its brink, before the vision vanishes to
reveal the unexplored stretches of eternity.

Through such a borderland Dr. Hogg now travelled,
drinking to the full the joy of life and eager as ever to
make the most of its opportunities.

Once some one in his presence desired a recipe for
arousing ambition. " I have one," he said impulsively,
but when asked what it was he shyly parried the question.
" I think you know it yourself," was his only answer.
His smile however was expressive, and his life and teach-
ing eloquent. " With the King uncrowned whose right it

275

276 THE END OF THE JOURNEY

is to reign, what man who has tasted the joy of His salva-
tion can play with life's gifts or feel satisfied with low
achievement?" Such was the feeling that ruled him,
and his public addresses and private thought laid increas-
ing emphasis in these closing years on the two ideas thus
indissolubly linked, the " Kingdom of Christ " and
" service."

He was erect and strong as ever, but his hair was
creeping farther from his forehead and grey mingling
greatly with the black. At last there came to him a day
when he realised with a sudden shock that he had already
lived longer than his father. The fact appeared incredible.
It seemed to him but yesterday that he had first entered
Assiut, and he felt in heart no older now than then. The
boyish impulse still lingered, as he walked along the
river-bank, to run down and up again for sheer joy of
motion, and let him have his family once more around
him and in his ears the music and singing that he loved,
and he was young enough still for the idle wish that his
days might remain ever unchanged.

" Yet it cannot be," he wrote, " one generation cometh
and another goeth, and we are of the generation that
goes " ; knowing which, with his ruling passion strong
upon him, his mind and his prayers became greatly
occupied, not with death and the other world, but with
the years that he pictured before him, and how they
were to be laid out to the best advantage for the mis-
sion to which he belonged and the churches and schools
of its planting.

The Protestant community was calling out insistently
for Christian literature, and in spite of that call, the fruit
of his overwork in thirty-nine Arabic manuscripts —
original, translated, or compiled — was lying idle in his
desk for lack of time and means to prepare it for public

UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS 277

use. Only nine of these manuscripts had ever been pub-
lished, and these were out of print. Fourteen were in-
complete and all required revision, some entire re-writing,
to fit them for publication, each one having been called
into being to meet the immediate need of some special
class of men. Only the pressure of these passing claims
had made it possible for him to create such documents
amid the confused demands of mission life. To perfect
them for permanent use he needed leisure and a climate
less inimical to nerves and brain.

Would it not be wise in the future to consecrate his
summers in some healthful and cool retreat to the per-
fecting of this harvest of his past, which ungarnered
must be lost for ever to the King's service?

In such a question the problem of his family future was
involved, and a definite pronouncement was necessary
both from the mission and the Board. He concluded
therefore to write to them fully and frankly of the mat-
ter, and having done so a sense of detachment fell upon
him and he could peacefully await their decision, confident
that God would guide, and willing to follow His finger
though it should point to continued separation " even in
Khartum."

During his last journey on the Nile these thoughts
engaged him. Though a theological class, evangelistic
work, and lengthened correspondence on Plymouthism
with the pastor of Luxor, divided hi energies, he found
many an opportunity for silent musing. His red-letter days
(the twenty-eighth anniversary of his arrival in Egypt,
his silver wedding-day, and the twenty-fifth anniversary
of the rescue from the deep) were all kept with peculiar
sacredness, as under a starry sky he. paced the deck alone,
his thoughts roaming afar over the ocean and across the
years.

278 THE END OF THE JOURNEY

The wedding-day demanded a memento in silver, but
he added a curious gift, knowing it to be one his wife
would value at its personal cost — an Arabic psalter, newly
published with tunes printed in both notations, each psalm
analysed in a rhythmic heading, and arranged in suitable
paragraphs, whose subjects were clearly indicated to aid
in the selection of passages appropriate to the demand
of the hour. In the translation of the psalms he had had
no part. For the rest Dr. Lansing, while knowing nothing
of music, had shared the responsibility; but the bulk of
the labour was necessarily his own, and he had expended
upon it without grudging, an amount of time, care, study,
and strenuous toil, which only a pioneer in such forms
of service can conceive.

On his return to Assiut, another of his red-letter days
was more publicly celebrated — the twentieth anniversary
of the first arrival of the mission party, on February 21,
1865 to establish a permanent outpost in Upper Egypt.
God had blessed the weak venture abundantly, and its re-
sults were now scattered far and wide over the land. In
reminiscent mood he wrote to his wife and children on the
changes the twenty years had wrought. He recalled the
river journeys of the pioneers of Upper Egypt, Dr. Lan-
sing, Rev. Mr. McCague, and Lord and Lady Aberdeen,
the influences they had stirred into being by the Bibles
they sold and the message they preached, his own keen
joy in that early success, and the emotion called forth
by the reception awaiting him when he too was privileged
to sail to Egypt's limits on the same errand. But he re-
called too the strength of the apprehension that weighted
each worker's heart as he faced northward, the longing
for some more permanent form of effort, the knowledge
that unless supported by miraculous power the influence
they had exerted must prove fleeting and the trace of

THE HARVEST OF A LIFE 279

their work be effaced, like the track of the " Ibis " on the
waters its passage had disturbed.

And now at fifty-five points that they had passed on
their pioneer journeys the Gospel was plainly preached
Sabbath after Sabbath and night after night, to thousands
of men and women of whom 1,842 had deliberately taken
upon themselves vows of allegiance to Christ. The rate
of progress had became so rapid that of these fifty-five
evangelistic light-centres twenty-seven were the fruitage
of the last five years. Moreover the sale of Scriptures and
religious books had continued in steady increase, doubling
every five' years, and attaining for the final five a daily
average of over forty-one volumes.

Every large Sabbath Market but one had been trans-
ferred to a week-day, many places of worship had been
built, and over $36,000 contributed by the people for
religious purposes.

In the realm of education the fruit of the crucial move
southward was equally striking. Dr. Hogg in 1865, on the
opening day of the new school in his renovated stable,
had enrolled four boys ; now 338 students were receiving
a Christian education in an attractive and substantial
college, well built and well conducted, under the careful
management of competent American colleagues and a
loyal Egyptian staff.

During that slow evolution 43 smaller Evangelical
schools and 8 Coptic schools had sprung into being in
Upper Egypt, and the parent institution had under the
strongest religious influences trained and sent forth the
teachers that manned them. These were now 90 in num-
ber, and all had been drilled even in advanced studies,
while in 1865, for lack of native helpers, the teaching not
only of Arabic grammar and arithmetic but of the very
alphabet itself had often fallen to the lot of the mis-

280 THE END OF THE JOURNEY

sionary. Nor were pastors and teachers the only fruit
of the College. So thorough had been the education im-
parted that everywhere its pupils were in demand. In-
terpreters in the British Army, station-masters, telegraph
workers and almost every clerk in the Postal and Steam-
boat services of Upper Egypt, hailed it as their Alma
Mater, and claimed its founder as their teacher or as one
by whom their teachers had been taught.

What had been accomplished meanwhile for woman was
evidenced by the Egyptian ladies who presided at the
celebration feast. Here was a type of Eastern woman-
hood which without noise or contest could attain to liberty
and compel respect, and whose education was the fruit of
a sister institution that had arisen side by side with Assiut
College, and owed its being chiefly to the labours of Miss
McKown, another of the little mission party of 1865.

Under Miss McKown's zealous and efficient care a
flourishing boarding and day school had won its way into
popular esteem, and on New Year's Day Dr. Hogg had
been able to brighten for her the opening year, as in
Alexandria she sat with bandaged eyes on the threshold
of night, with telegraphic tidings that he and his col-
leagues had after indescribable manoeuvres succeeded in
securing for her a long-sought site for a new building.
Now on this twentieth anniversary of her first arrival at
Assiut the camels were carrying to the chosen spot the
first loads of building material for the Pressley Memorial
Institute, the promised-land of her dreams which she
would ere long enter but never with the eyes of the flesh
behold complete. The fiat of total blindness had not yet
fallen upon her, however, to darken this day of retrospect
and hope, and its celebration formed a happy close to
Dr. Hogg's life of separation from his family.

Three weeks later he was journeying joyfully homeward

LAST VISIT TO SCOTLAND 281

under instructions to spend six months in Scotland in the
preparation of Arabic tracts on the nature and work of
the Church, his general plan for the future summers hav-
ing received informal sanction, with Ramleh as his prob-
able place of retreat. He reached Edinburgh early in
April and was never again separated from his wife and
children till he left them to join the rest of the family in
their heavenly home.

The years of loneliness had strangely enriched him.
They had given him a more intimate knowledge of his
fellow-workers at Assiut by rendering him more de-
pendent on their sympathy and aid. " I admire them
the more the better I know them," had been his testimony.
" They are a splendid staff of workers, men and women
both." And there is a touch of pride in his reference to
his " noble young colleagues," as he tells of the place they
are taking in the work. More than once in his closing
years he suggested handing over the principalship to his
successor; and though the younger man refused the
honour till the death of his senior thrust it upon him, the
incident remains the strongest proof possible of the trust
and appreciation that intercourse had engendered.

Meanwhile separating seas had but drawn the tighter
his family ties through the medium of a full and free
correspondence. His home-budgets, with their regular
contributions from each of his children, he had regarded
as a weekly feast to be proudly shared whenever he could
find a willing victim, and to be answered with equal ful-
ness and a dexterous manipulation of the details of daily
life to suit the varying ages and tastes of his correspon-
dents. The results were evident on his arrival, and he
marvelled and gave thanks.

His surroundings were now ideal for the success of lit-
erary work, but ill-health soon dogged his efforts and con-

THE END OF THE JOURNEY

centration of mind became often a physical impossibility.
While in Scotland he wrote 340 pages of Arabic on the
subjects assigned him, but he failed to complete his task,
and was so dissatisfied with his accomplishment that he
desired to remould the whole. It had been decided that
at the close of the summer all save his eldest son should
return with him to Egypt, but as his troubles increased a
minor operation became necessary which left him pros-
trate, and his immediate future doubtful. Medical con-
sent for the suggested move was at last secured, the
physicians rightly discerning that with proper precau-
tions the missionary would recover tone and strength
more rapidly in the land that absorbed his interest. The
mere prospect of return acted upon him like a charm, and
before Egypt was reached he seemed remade.

Once more in Assiut, the condition laid upon him that
no hard work should be attempted was naturally for-
gotten, and he soon launched forth on a full tide of mis-
sionary activity. Sabbaths and sometimes Saturdays were
spent in village preaching, three or four hours of teach-
ing were undertaken daily for the college, and amongst
other irons in his fire were the translation of a book on
logic for one of his classes and the revisal for the press
of a theological textbook he had already translated.

During a short vacation in January he became absorbed
in another literary scheme of which he writes in some de-
tail to Dr. Watson in his last letter preserved to us. He
had been studying for some time with growing interest
Bryennius's edition of the Didache or The Teaching
of the Twelve Apostles, an ancient manual of Church
ordinances and moral precepts the manuscript of which
had lately been discovered in Constantinople. He had
shared his spoils with his Plymouthite friends, criticising
their views from the new basis thus supplied, and had

THE "DIDACHE" 283

found them interested, arrested, and hopeful of securing
some new footing on which reunion might become possi-
ble. What had proved valuable to them, he believed,
might prove equally so in relation to the Coptic Church.
His plan was to print in parallel columns translations of
the Didache and of the corresponding portions of the
Book of the Coptic Order and of the Seventh Book of
the Apostolical Constitution, and he believed that such a
work would prove in many respects a thunderbolt to the
Coptic hierarchy. It would be impossible to complete it
while college remained in session, but that did not hinder
him from running races with time in the preliminary
stages of progress.

On a Saturday night, February 13, 1886, he finished
a portion of the work, which had necessitated the use of a
precious document venerated by the Copts, the loan of
which he had secured through an influential Coptic friend.
It had been a strenuous day and he was to preach an
important sermon on the morrow, but he had been un-
willing to close the week till he should complete this
portion of his task. About n P.M. he joined his wife and
daughters, tired but happy, with the Arabic word " Kha-
las " upon his lips. His literary work was indeed " fin-
ished." He had laid down his pen forever.

Sabbath was a day for which he had long waited. The
junior class of theology contained at this time but two
students. Government positions lucrative and honourable
were now available for any college graduate, and the
salaries that some teachers could secure were far beyond
the reach of any pastor. What wonder that the chang-
ing conditions of Egypt should have turned ambition into
fresh channels of usefulness, and created a drift away
from the ministry ? Dr. Hogg viewed the situation with
sympathy mingled with deep concern. He believed that

284. THE END OF THE JOURNEY

the new opportunities were deafening many a young man
to the claim of a service that would be a greater blessing
to his country and develop in him a higher type of man-
hood. A sermon had long been burning in his soul, and
at last the necessary absence of the native pastor of
Assiut gave him his coveted opportunity.

To an audience composed largely of college students
he delivered his last testimony, with a conviction that was
a legacy from the experience of a life-time — " He that
chooseth the office of a bishop chooseth a good thing."
The sermon made a deep impression on the audience, but
drained the speaker's strength. An unexpected funeral,
a Sabbath-school service, and the entrance of visitors,
combined to consume the remainder of the day and to
render rest impossible. By evening he was prostrate and
on Monday, while he dragged himself through his accus-
tomed work, he felt unable to break his fast till sunset.
A violent pain soon seized him, and his wife discovered
him in his bedroom writhing in agony on the floor.

The days that followed were full of growing anxiety
and grief to those who watched and nursed him and to
an ever increasing circle of inquiring friends. For a time
the possibility of a fatal ending seemed past belief. His
sudden seizure was by no means unprecedented, and his
doctor's prophecies encouraged hope. The utter collapse
of power was pathetic in a frame so strong, inhabited by
a spirit so virile, but the patient had marvellous recupera-
tive force, and it seemed reasonable to expect that as
soon as he was able to retain any nourishment strength
would begin to return. The period of nausea passed,
however, and no improvement followed. Sleep became
the next disideratum. Let that be but secured and Nature
aided by the remedies employed would surely do the
great Healer's work. But a second time hope proved

THE LAST DAYS 285

beguiling, for when sleep came it was no refreshing
slumber but a dull coma that evidenced the subtle progress
of disease.

A veil of silence and separation speedily enshrouded
the sufferer in its folds. Even from the first, little inter-
course had been possible. When pain abated, sores had
broken out in the patient's mouth and nostrils, and these
along with his great weakness rendered speech a burden.
Still a cool wet cloth on his brow or the bathing of his
hands and arms would often call forth expressions of
delight, and for the first ten days he showed great enjoy-
ment when his wife or daughters sang for him his fav-
ourite hymns, and always begged to have the doors
opened when his children gathered around the old har-
monium for their daily singing lesson. " The lines have
fallen unto me in pleasant places," he whispered once;
and again, " I did not know it could be so nice to be
ill."

In the shadow of sorrow the mission circle proved
anew the strength and worth of the ties uniting them, and
the wife and daughters were surrounded from first to last
by an inventive sympathy that left no possible channel
of helpfulness unutilised.

On the second Wednesday evening death seemed im-
minent. For a time both husband and wife thought that
the hour of parting had come, and though the shadow
passed and for three days the sick man lingered, the feel-
ing had not been wholly unfounded. He had now reached
a region where his soul must dwell alone, and of which
he could give no account to those who yearned to follow
him even to the river's brink. Once when his wife spoke
to him of the joy that lay before him, he seemed to be
struggling to respond, but he could only articulate faintly,
" I have no power." The brain had finished its work, and

286 THE END OF THE JOURNEY

the life that he had lived must remain his answer to the
questions that loving hearts might seek to ask.

Meanwhile on Friday evening a special physician had
arrived for consultation, but " Dr. Hogg's condition hope-
less " was the word sent back to Cairo. Another night
and day dragged slowly past. Dr. Watson and Dr.
Harvey journeyed south still hoping against hope, cling-
ing to the thought that God who doeth all things well
could not will the death of one whose life seemed so
necessary to the progress of His cause. Two hours after
their arrival, however, as they stood with the family and
friends around the bed of their unconscious comrade,
God opened for him noiselessly the gates of eternal day,
and he passed without sadness of farewell out of weak-
ness and suffering into the joy of his Lord.

To some who spent the next sad hours in the mission
house, and who had never seen the East bewailing her
dead, it seemed almost as though the wheels of time had
rolled back centuries. Was it not thus that grief had
spread that fatal night when Egypt's first-born was
stricken? Out of the stillness came the terrible sounds
of grief, a confused and pitiful wail mingled with the
uncontrollable sobbing of strong men. The people were
mourning now for a father taken from them in his prime.
Their sorrow had broken out with sudden violence at
the very door of the stricken house, in the court, in the
street, and in the girls' school adjoining. When kind
friends strove to restore quiet in the immediate vicinity,
the air seemed still full of weeping, and through the
silent hours of dark the wind bore back the sound, rising
and falling faintly like distant waves of the sea, and
breathing that note of hopelessness that seems to haunt
the dirges of the East.

Only within the house all was quiet. The last hymn

THE FUNERAL SERVICE 287

to which the dying man had listened breathed the spirit
that now ruled.

"If thou shouldst call me to resign,
What most I prize — rit ne'er was mine,
I only yield Thee what was Thine.
Thy will be done."

She who sang it had long since learned the secret of such
resignation, and in the days that followed she was the
people's comforter, the strengthener of their faith and
the restorer of their drooping courage. Of the deep and
widespread need for such comfort and encouragement
the months that followed were to bring ceaseless proof,
and from the first it was abundantly evident.

The night of weeping ushered in such a Sabbath as
Assiut had never witnessed. At both services the church
was full to suffocation, and the Mohammedan Governor
of the province along with his suite occupied a foremost
place in the audience.

In addition to the thousand packed within the church
almost an equal number were gathered without even in
the morning, and during the funeral service in the after-
noon a crowd of men filled not only the large space in
front of the building but even the streets on either side,
Protestants, Copts, Moslems, and Greeks united for once
by a common bond in their respect and admiration for a
man whose life had overcome hatred and scorn and cre-
ated a new ideal of goodness among people of every con-
dition of life.

The service within was conducted by the Egyptian pas-
tor assisted by some of the missionaries, and at the end
the people petitioned to be allowed to look for the last
time on the face of their friend. " How they loved this

288 THE END OF THE JOURNEY

man," the Governor remarked as he watched that moving
throng, and he and his suite joined in the procession that
followed the casket, and walked behind it to the limits
of the town. In that procession were many of the wealth-
iest citizens of Assiut as well as its aristocracy of mental
and moral force. Many poor were there, many villagers
who hearing the news had walked or ridden from sur-
rounding towns. A company of British soldiers sent by
the commander of the Assiut forces prevented a complete
blockage of the road and preserved order.

The way to the Christian burying-ground lies along
the edge of a strip of desert at the foot of limestone hills.
The place itself might look grim and forbidding to a
Western eye, for it is without flowers or shrubs and each
grave, an exact copy of its neighbour, rises bald and
gaunt out of the rough ground with none of those
tokens of loving remembrance that are often so eloquent
in a Western cemetery. But the spot has the inalienable
beauty that belongs to sunshine, solitude, and stillness.
There is no sound but the endless song of the lark, or
the call of a hawk far up in the blue. On the one side
stretches the emerald plain, on the other runs the Libyan
range, every detail of cave and rock standing out with
startling distinctness in the clear air. Under one's feet
is the pure sand of the desert, to which twenty years
before the missionary had committed his firstborn.

That act had then seemed to him significant, consecrat-
ing to him for life and labour the whole district, and for
death and rest the spot it had made dear. From that
time it had been his hope to spend his life for Egypt in
the sphere where his early hardships had been borne, and
to be buried here at last before the shades of evening
should begin to gather upon him. His wish was now
fulfilled, and though at noon the call had come, it had

THE GRAVE 289

found him ready, ready for rest and peace, ready also to
work on, serve ever, there as here.

Mr. Wissa Buktor, a life-long friend of the missionary,
begged to be allowed to assume all the expenses con-
nected with his burial. The tomb was his gift, and the
monument that marks the spot is his loving memorial.
It is a large solid erection of white marble, with elaborate
inscriptions in Arabic and English, and decorations in red
and blue and gold. The irregular English lettering was
typical of the time, while the oriental colouring, now faded
and subdued, acquired a peculiar fitness in the light of the
life the stone commemorated. For such a life no monu-
ment would have been suitable that did not proclaim
itself Egyptian. Four acacia trees now shelter the tomb
and by their grateful shade add a touch of softness that
at the time was lacking.

The funeral Sabbath was the first of many days of
mourning during which in the mission house the people
came and went in an incessant stream, entering often in
tears to leave quieted and subdued, resting in the thought
that God could make no mistake.

A letter written at the time says :

" It is impossible to give you any idea of the sympathy
we have been shown by all and sundry. They look
upon the sorrow as as much theirs as ours. Protestants,
Copts, and Moslems unite in mourning the death. Mos-
lems are seen sometimes weeping in the streets, and they
comfort themselves with the thought that he is in Para-
dise. Two Moslems began righting in the street as to
whether he, being a Christian, could go to Paradise.
They came to blows and were taken up by the police.
The one who had said he would go to heaven pleaded his
case, and the answer was. ' True enough. He was a
better man than our Kadi.' On Sabbath the Mudir,
in answer to one who remarked to him, ' He was a good
man that,' said, ' Yes, the first man in all Egypt.' "

290 THE END OF THE JOURNEY

The death came upon the whole Protestant community
with the shock of a thunderbolt. Even those who had
known the full gravity of the illness had been incredulous
of the blow that was to fall upon them.

" The whole mission was astonished, stunned, dis-
mayed. The native brethren from one end of the country
to the other wept as for a father, while many were so
disheartened that they began to think that the cause of
truth was lost. In some places the people were saved
from utter confusion and despair only by the historic
saying, ' God is not dead.' "

Dr. Lansing writing a month after the event refers to it
as " that staggering blow ... a blow between the eyes,
that kills " ; and for him it had so shattered some secret
spring of youthfulness that henceforth age pressed upon
him subtly.

" It is a dream," he says, " I cannot yet realise it. For
thirty years have we planned and worked together in
this valley of the Nile, and is it over? When I think of
it or attempt to write of it to others, my heart begins to
flutter again and I must desist."

When Presbytery met " a feeling of irrepressible loss
filled the heart of every member and a sense of utter help-
lessness manifested itself in every prayer." But " a sense
of duty to Christ and His Church and Cause, and of
God's special grace gradually aided them." Resisting the
paralysis of sorrow, they set themselves to awaken the
stricken Church from her grief to face the demands of
the hour. A circular letter was sent throughout the land
as a rallying call to the people, urging them to hear in
their strange visitation the voice of Jehovah repeating
for them His command to Joshua and Israel with its ac-

A RALLYING CALL 291

companying message of good cheer. " Moses my serv-
ant is dead. Now therefore go over this Jordan thou
and the people, unto the land which I do give to them.
Be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid neither
be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee
whither-so-ever thou goest."

EPILOGUE

TO write an epitaph as its chooser willed, we have
told the story of his life. Will the epitaph so
written touch springs of action? He willed that
in that epitaph what he did should be lost to sight in what
he strove to do : what he was, in the convictions that
moved him. What were those convictions? That we
must be willing to sacrifice all for the creation of a
Church that will prove adequate to the task of bringing
the Gospel within the reach of every soul. That the
adequacy of the instrument will depend, not upon its
size, but upon its type. That all success will prove but
a stumbling-block that is numerical, not spiritual.

What type of Church was the ideal of his dreams and
of his toil? A Church "whose raison-d'etre is to carry
on the work of Christ in the world," whose pastors and
elders are " a general and his staff leading the hosts of
light out against the hosts of darkness," and between
whose members and other men lies this radical distinc-
tion, " that while other men live unto themselves, they
live not unto themselves but unto Him who died for
them and rose again."

Has his epitaph no message for to-day ? " Methods
change but principles never." So long as the goal he
strove towards is still unreached, should not the ques-
tion be repeated with the changing years ? " What to-day
would prove the most speedy and effective means of at-
taining it ? " Should it not be regarded as the question
of paramount importance — a question to be faced in-
dividually by every church-member and collectively by

292

EPILOGUE 293

every body of Christians, in a spirit expectant of new
answers for new conditions, prepared to receive God's
answers in humble and self-denying obedience?

The answer of God to our searchings might mean to
the Church in Christian lands such gifts of men and
women and money as she has never yet offered on His
altar. It might mean to the missionaries of her sending
the abandonment of some long-cherished plans, or of
some forms of service good but not the best. It might
mean to the churches of their planting searching of
heart, the purifying of communion rolls, a parting with
this world's goods, and a venture of faith along paths of
undreamed-of labour.

Whatever God's answer be, we may follow without
fear the pointing of His finger, assured that He will
guide us to victory and everlasting joy. But let us re-
member that no worthy goal can be attained without con-
centration of endeavour, and that those who would be
the saviours of the world must be willing to tread a
path that leads into valleys of humiliation and up heights
of sacrifice in the footsteps of our Master Christ.

DATES

1833. John Hogg, born April 30, near Edinburgh.

1842. Employed in coal mine.

1848. Joins the church.

1849. Enters University of Edinburgh.

1856. Arrives in Alexandria, 6th December. Opens a school.
1860. Married to Miss Bessie Kay, Edinburgh, January 10.

Shipwreck, January 31. Arrives in Alexandria, March 18.

Ordained by Presbytery of the American (United Pres-
byterian) Mission.
1862. First extended tour on the Nile.

Transferred to Cairo.
1865. Begins work at Assiut, February 21.
1867. Coptic Patriarch visits Assiut.

1870. Dedication of new Church at Assiut.

1871. First College building erected.

1872. Visit to America.

1874. " Preamble and Resolutions." January.

1875. Staff of College increased.

1879. Nile work increases — average twelve weeks a year.

1882. Arabi Rebellion.

1883. Plymouthite controversy; pastor's class.
1885. Death of Dr. Hogg, February 27.

INDEX

INDEX

Abdullah Nadim, 247

Aberdeen, Earl of, Nile towns,
86, 253 ; at Haddo House,
138; letter to, 237; slaves,

253

Abnul, 172
Abuna Feltaos, 250
Abutij, 171

Aggressive work, 170, 234
Ahmed, an early Mahdi, 126
Aikman, Dr. Logan, 46
Alexander, Rev. J. R., D.D.,

206, 207, 225, 281
Alexandria, Protestant College
proposed, 46; modified plan,
47, So; what came of it, 57;
threatened massacre, 56 ;
value as a mission centre, 58;
Mr. Hogg located in, 49-61,
70-100, 232; evacuation sug-
gested, 199; massacre, 242;
bombardment, 246
Algiers, 54

Allegheny, U. P. Students, 79
America : Civil War, effects of,
78, 84, I2O; Dr. Hogg's visit,
181 ; see also U. P. Church
of, consul, &c.
Anglican mission, 104
Anniversaries, 277, 278-280
" Appeal for life," Dr. Hogg's,

194

Arabian Nights. 29
Arabic, study of, 46, 52, 73 ;
preaching, 74, 77, 80-83, 213 ;
blind type. 139: for Transla-
tions see Dr. Hogg, Literary
work.
Arabi Pasha's Rebellion, 239-

247 ; his character, 246
Armenian Congregation, 138
Arnold, Matthew, quoted, 70
Arrack-drinking, 9}, 155

Assiut, school started by Mr.
McCague, 86 ; persecution,
87; Mr. Hogg settled in, 125;
Ahmed's rising, 126 ; cholera,
136, 137, 269 ; market day
changed, 169; church opened,
170; Mudir of, 159, 168, 290;
compared with Cairo, 206;
see Dr. Hogg — in Assiut.

Assiut Training College, school
started, 128; collecting funds,
139; curriculum, 142; finan-
cial questions, 143-145;
scheme of practical train-
ing, 145 ; daily programme,
147 ; Prince of Wales' visit,
164; first college building
erected ; " the College shall
be built, 184 ; appeal to Amer-
ican Church, 191 ; appeal to
Association, 197 ; $10,000
raised, 206 ; staff increased,
206, 207; Khedive's visit,
209 ; ground for new build-
ing, 210; position at Dr.
Hogg's death, 279-280; staff,
281

Association (Missionary)
formed, 123 (note).

Assyriology, 252

Australian appointment de-
clined, 194

Ayloun, Prof. W. E., 34

Azziyah, 220, 221

Bahjoura, Iman at, 93
Baker, General, 256, 258
Baker, Sir Samuel, 164
Bakur, 172
Bamba joins the church, 113;

marriage, 115-120; see Dhu-

leep Singh.
Baring, Sir Evelyn, 256

297

298

INDEX

Barr, Dr., letter to, 220
Bashetly, Gergis, 158
Beirut press, 251
Beirut professorship declined,

180

Bell, Moberly, 252
Beni, Adi, 221
Beni Alage, 157
Bible : Coptic version, 95 ; bon-
fire of, 157; sale of, 86, 91,

104, 279

Bible Dictionary, 176
Bishop, see Coptic Church ; Mr.

Hogg on episcopacy, 144
Blackie, Professor, 252
Blind, industrial work for, 252 ;

blind type, 139
Bonar's Way of Peace, 148
British Occupation, 248; policy,

255, 257 ; Foreign Office, 224 ;

share in dual control, 242
Brooks, Phillips, quoted, 124
Browning, E. B., quoted, 62
Browning, Robert, quoted, 85,

175, 184

Buktor, Mr. Wissa, 289
Bulletins of Abdullah Nadim,

247
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress,

148
Business agent for mission, 85

Cairns, Rev. D. S., D.D., 266-
268

Cairo, Mr. Hogg's first visit,
58; new pramises, 99; Mr.
Hogg located in, 100-123,
176; compared with Assiut,
206 ; massacre expected, 248 ;
see also Dr. Hogg — In Cairo.

Calderwood, Henry, 34 ; Hand-
book, 225

Carlyle, Thomas, quoted, 49,
239, 259 ; his student days, 34

Catholics, 158, 167

Central Africa, evangelisation
of, 251

Cholera, 136, 269

Christian Instructor, 191

Church, type of, 236-238, 292

Clokey, Dr. Joseph, 182

College, see Assiut Training
College.

Congregation, first, 105

Communion at Luxor, 219

Conscription, 155, 248

Consul, American, 107

Coptic Church : described, 94-
97; its regeneration key to
Moslem problem, 93, 97, 196;
Patriarch s measures against
Cairo mission, 104-109; mass
movement possible, 105 ;
prayer meeting at Patriarch-
ate III ; repressive measures
in Faiyum, 121 ; Copts in
Upper Egypt, 124; Patriarch
in Assiut, 154; orders Bible-
study, 161 ; Protestant icono-
clasts, 165-169; friendly
towards College, 209; at
Ekhmim, 227; at Minya, 231 ;
influence of Arabi Rebellion,
239, 249, 250

" Cornelia," s.s., 66

Corvee, 156

Cromer, Lord, 256

Currency, variety of, 102

Currie, Rev. Mr., 160, 186

Daily meeting, 147

Daily programme, 146-149

Dales, Dr., letter to, 188

Dales, Miss, 72, 77

Damietta, 88

Darfur, Sultan of, 257

Degree of D.D. granted, 181

Delta described, 87 ; first river
town, 88

Dervish Pasha, 242

Desert, 265, 288

Dhuleep Singh, marriage of,
116-119, 125; visit to, 138;
letter to, 163

Didache, 282

Disruption of Church of Scot-
land, 34

Doddridge's " Rise and Prog-
ress," 30

Dollar, 183, 229

Dual control, 242

Duck shooting, 88

INDEX

299

Dufferin, Lord, 255, 256
Dunfermline, 41

Eadie, Dr., 44

Edinburgh, 33; University, 34;
Divinity Hall of U. P.
Church, 44, 138, 181, 281

Education statistics, 279 ; see
also Schools, Assiut Training
College.

Edward VII, King, 164

Edward's Commentary, 114

Egypt : population, 85 ; config-
uration, 87 ; Egyptian music,
149, 150; conscription and
forced labour, 155; flood and
drought, 225 ; dual control,
242; British occupation, 248;
see Arabi.

Ekhmim, 158 ; " siege " of, 226-
230, 235, 270

Elliot, Sir George, 252

England, Church of, 104

" Epitaph," Dr. Hogg's, 14, 202,
292

Esna, 169

Evangelical (Presbyterian)
church of Egypt; first con-
gregation, 105 ; presbytery
formed, 74; signs of vitality,
m ; in Upper Egypt, 154, 173 ;
Assiut church, 170; Presby-
tery purely Egyptian, 173 ;
Plymouthite controversy, 264-
274; effects of Arabi Rebel-
lion, 249, 250, 269; statistics,
279. Meetings of Presby-
tery, 123, 174, 234, 265

Evangelical Alliance, 223

Evangelisation of world in our
generation, 236

Ewing, Rev. Mr., 100, 106, 120,
246

Excommunication, 106, 129, 157,
159, 163

Faiyum, 121
"Falernian," 244-246
Fam, 159

Financial policy of College,
I43-I4S

Fleas, see Vermin.
Forced labour, 156
Friendship on the mission field,

55

From Pharaoh to Fellah, 252
Froude, J. A., quoted, 34
Furlough, in Scotland, 138, 181,
281; in Syria, 177; in Amer-
ica, 181

" Galena," 244

George Watson's Hospital, 47

Giffen, Rev. John, D.D., 206,

207

Girgeh, 126
Girls' schools, in Alexandria,

56, 72, 79; in Cairo, 102; in

Assiut, 128, 280

Gladsmuir Grammar School, 24
Gladstone, Mr. 255, 258
Glasgow Committee, 46
Gordon, General, 257, 258

Halbeath, 47
Hamilton, Sir Wm., 34
Hanna, Mr. Abuna, 172
Hanna, Rev. Shenoodeh, 129,
146, 157, 161, 172, 187, 215-
218

Haram, see Excommunication.
Harvey, Rev. Dr., 225, 286
Heat, 132, 167, 214, 218, 226
Henry, Rev. James, 45; letter

to, 237
Hilwan, 265
Hodge's Outlines of Theology,

122

Hogg, Mrs. Bessie, childhood,
64, 65; marriage and ship-
wreck, 65-69; letters quoted,
71, 75, 229; smallpox, 17,
103 ; housekeeping in Assiut,
126 ; scalded, 133 ; women's
meeting, 149; separation, 178-
180; simple rule of duty, 194,
229; at Dr. Hogg's death,
287 ; see also Dr. Hogg —
Family Chronicle.
Hogg, Hope W., illnesses, 135,
175 ; father's companion, 147 ;
music, 151 ; Dollar Academy,

300

INDEX

183, 229; Assyriology, 252;
slave trade, 254

Hogg, John ("the Jake"), 19;
ambition for his son, 32, 39-
40; settles in Fife, 41 ; death,
42; Mrs. John Hogg, 19, 38;
death, 39

Family: James, in the mine,
26, 28; at University, 32;
characteristics, 34; at Divin-
ity Hall, 39 ; death, 43 ; Eliza,
illness, 43 ; invited to Alex-
andria, 54; death, 60; others
26, 31, 43, S3

HOGG, REV. JOHN, D.D., parent-
age, 19 ; childhood, 20 ; school-
ing, 24; in the mine, 24-29.
36 ; accident, 28 ; reading and
study, 29-30; conversion, 31;
at University, 32-43 ; academ-
ic record, 40, 41 ; home at
Macmerry, 37; death of
mother, 39 ; proposes emigra-
tion, 39; decides for minis-
try, 40; teaching experience,
41, 47 ; death of father, 42 ;
death of brother James, 43;
decides for foreign field, 43 ;
Divinity Hall, 44-46; ap-
pointed to Alexandria, 46
In Alexandria,!: as "appren-
tice," 49-61 ; with Dr. Philip,
51 ; school in a palace, 52 ;
news from home, 53 ; sister's
non-arrival, 54 ; relations
with Mr. Lansing, 52, 55, 56;
peril of massacre, 56; visit to
Cairo, 58; Suez trip, 59
Return to Scotland, 60;
death of sister, 61 ; agent of
American U. P. Church, 62;
marriage, 63-65 ; shipwreck,
66-69

In Alexandria, II: as mission-
ary, 70-100; mission house,
71 ; conditions of missionary
life, 73; ordained, 74; tent
life, 74; in full charge, 77;
general treasurership, 78,
102, 103 ; young men's meet-
ings, 79 ; Sabbath, 80 ; Arabic,

81 ; lack of space, 83 ; birth
of a daughter, 84; financial
straits, 84; first tour on the
Nile, 89-98

In Cairo, 100-123 ;financial re-
port, 102; wife ill with small-
pox, 103 ; Patriarch's hostili-
ties, 104-107; interview with
Patriarch, 107-109; Copts
interested, in; marriage of
Bamba, 115-120; redistribu-
tion scheme, 121 ; theological
class, 122

In Assiut, 124-291 ; arrival,
125 ; Ahmed's rising, 126 ; be-
ginnings of College and girls'
school, 128; excommunica-
tion, 129; death of first-born,
134; cholera epidemic, 136;
preaches in Turkish, 138;
furlough in Scotland, 138
College finance, 143 ; training
workers, 145; daily pro-
gramme, 146-149; music, 149-
153; Patriarch's visit to
Assiut, 154; cases of perse-
cution, 159; Prince of Wales's
visit, 164; iconoclasts, 165-
169; market day changed,
170; church building opened,
170; Presbytery becomes
Egyptian, 173; familv events
(see below) 175-183; fur-
lough in America, 181
Reviving the work, 185 ; Nile
tour 186; appeal to American
Church, 191 ; Australian ap-
pointment declined, 194; pre-
amble and resolutions, 197-
201 ; letters to Dr. Lansing,
202, 206, 208; Khedive's visit,
209; future of college as-
sured, 210

Village work, 211-235; story
of the robbers, 215-218;
Luxor communion, 218-220;
" roughing " it, 220 ; battle
with ill-health, 221-222 ;
takes students with him, 222 ;
twelve weeks a year, 226;

INDEX

301

Ekhmim, 226-230 ; Minya,
231-233

Arabi Rebellion, 239-258;
flight from Egypt, 243-246;
return, 248; friendliness of
Copts, 249, 250; Mohamme-
dan converts, 250; corre-
spondence, 251 ; passing trav-
ellers, 252 ; slave trade, 253,
254; relations with British
Government, 224, 255-258 ;
Gordon, 258

Plymouthite controversy, 259-
274; Mr. Pinkerton's visit,
261-263; pastors' class, 265;
at Hilwan, 265-268; Rev.
Girgis Rafael, 269. 272, 273;
visitation, 270; writings, 271;
" Last Irenicon," 273
Silver wedding, 277; Arabic
Psalter, 278; twenty years'
work, 278-280 ; Pressley
Memorial Institute, 280; in
Scotland, 281 ; Didache, 282 ;
last sermon, 284 ; death, 286
Literary work, (Arabic)
monthly magazine, 122; on
Mohammedanism, 236; on
Plymonthite controversy, 271,
281, 282; Arabic Psalter, 278
Translations : Edward's Com-
mentary, 114; Hodge's Out-
lines of Theology, 122;
hymns, 123 ; Peter Parley's
Universal History, 137; Bible
Dictionary (half original),
176; Calderwood's Handbook
of Moral Philosophy, 225 ;
Didache, 283 ; thirty-nine
manuscripts, 276; circulation

of, 143

Characteristics : generosity,
22, 23 ; fastidious ear, 35 ; love
of music, 38, 100, 149-153,
267; inability to rest, 58, 136;
reserve, 76 ; love of children,
76, 135; linguistic gifts, 13,
35, 81, 122, 138; teacher and
organiser, 72; nurse, 42, 135;
as revealed in Bamba inci-
dent, 119; powers1 of work,

137. IQO, 212, 214; office of
bishop, 144; "keynote of his
life," 176, 276; qualities
shown in village work, 213 ;
appearance, 266, 267, 276;
letter writer, 180, 281 ; youth-
ful spirit, 208, 276
Opinions : training of native
workers the main aim, 85,
86; function of Training Col-
lege, 187 ; aim and method of
missionary enterprise, 197-
201, 204 ; type of Church, 236-
238, 292 ; Mohammedans,
255; religious liberty, 250;
British policy, 257
Methods: in preaching, 92 ; in
controversy, 261, 265; in
sch'ool work, 101 ; college
finance, 143-145; daily meet-
ing, 147 ; scheme of lectures,
80, 148; teaching singing,
150 ; church work, 185 ; over-
sight by means of statistics,
224; S. S. lesson helps, 234
Family Chronicle : Mary Liz-
zie, 84, 132-134; Hope, see
Hogg, Hope W. ; births, 84,

138, 175, 183, 246 ; deaths, 134,
177, 181 ; children ill, 134,
J75, fSp, 225, 246; summer in
Syria, 177; separation, 179;
three eldest sent to Dollar,
183 ; reunion sacrificed, 229 ;
flight from Egypt, 243-246;
death of Dr. Hogg, 284-287;
funeral, 287-289

" Hoj," 13, 211
Holmes, O. W., quoted, 259
Hymn writing (Arabic), 122,
123

" Ibis," 86, 125, 146, 185 ; see
also under Dr. Hogg — Vil-
lage Work.

Inundation, 220, 225

Isaiah, quoted, 154

Iskaros, 159

Islam, see Mohammedans.

Ismail, letter from Lincoln, 87;
grant to Coptic school, 106;

302

INDEX

sides with Patriarch, 155;
pardons iconoclasts, 167, 169;
deposed, 240; character, 240

Italian, study of, 46, 52, 73;
preaching in, 53, 56; in Pa-
lermo, 182

Itinerating, see under Dr. Hogg
—Village Work.

" Jake," see Hogg, John (" the

Jake").
Jawili, 222
Jedda massacre, 56
Jew and Gentile compared to

Copt and Moslem, 93
Jews, Society for Conversion

of, 46, 54

Johnstone, Col., 256
Johnstone, Dr., 176, 185, 206,

207

Kay, Bessie, 64; see also Mrs.
Bessie Hogg.

Keneh, 126

Khedive, 57, 87, 106, 155, 167,
169, 209, 240, 241 ; see Mo-
hammed Ali, Said, Ismail,
Tewfik.

" Khalas," 283

Khartum, 257

Khayatt, Mr. Wasif, 125, 130,

157, 163

Kus, 159, 160, 187, 199, 223;
" Winnowing Fan of Kus,"
161

Lansing, Rev. Julian, D.D., first
meets Mr. Hogg, 52; settles
in Alexandria, 55 ; character-
istics, 56; mentioned, 58, 70,
75 ; removes to Cairo, 77 ;
Nile tour with Lord Aber-
deen, 86 ; with Mr. Hogg, 88 ;
illness, 100; furlough, 106,
120, 123; death of first wife,
136; letters to, 202, 206, 208;
at Hilwan, 265-268; Psalter,
278; on Dr. Hogg's death,
290

Letter writing, 53, 87, 180, 281

Light of Asia, 252

Lincoln, Abraham, 87
Literary work, see Dr. Hogg

— Literary Work.
Lloyd, Clifford, 256
" Lucifero," 74, 84
Luxor, 86, 187, 218, 225

McCague, Rev. Thos., 52, 86
McKown, 77, 123, 280
Macmerry, home in, 37
Maharajah, see Dhuleep Singh.
Mahdi, 255, 258, 266; an earlier

Mahdi, 126
Mahmud Sami, 242
Malta, 246
Market day changed, 169, 191,

2/9

" Mary Lizzie," 84, 132, 134

Massacres, Jedda, 56; Alexan-
dria, 56, 242; Assiut, 126;
Cairo, 248

Melbourne appointment de-
clined, 194

Mellawi, 186, 191

Memnon, 219

Menjalut, 220

Minya, 127, 231-233, 235

Missionary Association
formed, 123 (note).

Missionary life, character of,
72, 75

Missionary Society, in

Mohammed Ali, 156

Mohammedans : ferment in
Alexandria, 56; pupils in
school, 79 ; attitude to
Christian nations, 88, 89, 240;
woman's place, 95 ; Imam at
Bahjoura, 93 ; Ahmed's ris-
ing, 126; book on Moslem
problem, 236; Arabi's influ-
ence, 247, 269; converts to
Christianity, 250, 256 ; Mahdi,
255, 258, 266

Mokattam, 266

Monsurah, 231

Moon, Mr., 139

Morley, Lord, quoted, 99

Moslems, see Mohammedans.

Motiah, 170, 185, 199, 223

Mummy, simile of, 96

INDEX

303

Music, Dr. Hogg's love of, 38,
100, 149-153; qualities of
Egyptian music, 149, 150

Myers, F. W. H., quoted, 211

Nakadah, 223

Nakheilah, 170, 172, 185, 199,
223, 270

Native Church, see Evangelical
Church.

Native workers, training of, 85,
86, 121, 143, 145, 146, 222;
see also Preamble and Reso-
lutions, 197-201

Nile, described, 87, 90-91 ;
source of, 164; Mr. Hogg's
first tour, 89-98; later tour,
186; first journey to Assiut,
125; White Nile, 157; see
also under Dr. Hogg — Vil-
lage Work.

North, Christopher, 34

Northbrooke, Lord, 257

Ordination of Mr. Hogg, 74

Palermo, 182

Parley, Peter, Universal His-
tory, 137

Patriarch, see Coptic Church.

Patriarchate, Mr. Hogg's visit
to, 108, 109; prayer meeting
at, in, 112

Paul, St., quoted, 99; Myers's,
211

Penston, 18; colliery, 19; In-
fant School, 24

Philip, Rev. Dr., 46; attitude
to Mr. Hogg, 51

Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan's,
29, 148

Pinkerton, Rev. B. R, 260, 264

Plymouth, 68

Plymouth Brethren, 268; con-
troversy, 259-274

Preamble and Resolutions, 197-
201

Presbytery, see Evangelical
Church.

Pressley Memorial Institute,
128, 280

" Protestant College for
Egypt," see Alexandria.

Protestants, see Evangelical
Church.

Psalter, Arabic, 278

Pyramids, 266

Races, Dr. Hogg runs, 267
Rafael, Rev. Girgis, 269, 272,

273
Ramleh, 74, 75, 136, 160, 167,

176, 177, 188, 243; tent life,

75.

Redistribution scheme, 121

Reformed Church, see Evan-
gelical Church.

Richardson, Mary ( Mrs.
Hogg), see Hogg, John
("the Jake").

Robbers, 215-218

Robertson, Rev. James, 63, 65

Roth, Adolph, 254

" Roughing " it, 220

Ruskin, quoted, 154, 211

Sabbath market changed, 169,
191, 279

Sabbath School, 56. 80, 148,
185 ; lesson helps, 185, 234

Said, prevents massacre, 57

Sayce, Professor, 252

" Scamander," 65

Seminary, see Assiut Train-
ing College.

Schools, Protestant, 50, 52, 86,
101, 128, 209, 228-230, 232,
279; Coptic, 106, 131, 249,
279; certificates of exemp-
tion, 156 ; see Sabbath
schools, Girl's schools.

Scotland, see Furlough, Uni-
ted Presbyterian Church.

Scott, Sir Walter, quoted, 19

Scriptures, see Bible.

Sharif Pasha, 167, 168, 242

Shenoodah, Mr., see Hanna.

Singing, teaching of, 73, 149-

iSi

Slave trade, 253, 254
Smallpox, 17, 103. 175
Sol fa system, 150

304

INDEX

Stallybrass, J. S., quoted, no
Statistics, 114, 195, 279-280;

oversight by means of, 224
Strang, Rev. D., 201, 207
Students, see Native Workers.
Sudan, 159, 255, 258
Suez trip, 59-60
Suhaj, 235
Sultan, 241, 242
Syria, 177, 180
Systematic giving, in, 170

Tadrus, Mr., see Yusuf.

Tahta, 216, 218

Tanassa, 131, 161, 171; his

brother, 166
Taxes, 257
Teaching of the Twelve

Apostles, 282
Tel-el-Kabir, 246
Tent life, 75
Tewfik Pasha visits Assiut,

209 ; character of, 240, 241
Thayer, Mr., 99
Theological class, in Cairo, 122 ;

see also Assiut Training

College.

Times, manager of, 252
Tithed lands, tax on, 257
Todd, Miiller & Co., 99
Training College, see Assiut

Training College ; see also

Native Workers.
Tranent U. P. Church, 21;

letter to pastor of, 77
Translation into Arabic, see

Dr. Hogg — Literary Work.
Turkish, preaching in, 138
Type of Church, 236-238, 292

United Presbyterian Church of
America begins work in
Alexandria, 55, 56; adopts

Mr. Hogg as its agent, 62;
Mr. Hogg's appeals, 120, 191,
233; relation to Egyptian
i'rcsbytery, 174; Dr. Hogg's
visit, 181 ; fall in contribu-
tions, 196; appeal from As-
sociation, 203

United Presbyterian Church of
Scotland, Divinity Hall, 44,
79, 206; surrenders Alexan-
dria station, 54; Mr. Hogg's
letters to, 87 ; addresses
synod, 139; last address, 97

Vermin, 71, 88, 125, 128

Viceroy, see Khedive.

Village life, 91 ; village work,

see Dr. Hogg — V i 1 1 a g e

Work.

Waddell, Rev. Hope M., 63-65
" Wail," Dr. Hogg's, 194
Wales, Prince of, 164
Wasif, Mr., see Khayatt.
Watson, Rev. Andrew, D.D.,
89 ; •' six Watsons ! " 99, 106 ;
general treasurer, 123 ; at
Assiut, 176, 207 ; proposed
transfer, 201 ; in Alexandria,
246 ; after Arabi, 248 ; at Dr.
Hogg's death, 286
Westminster College, Pa., 181
White Nile, 157
Wilson, John (Christopher

North), 34

Wissa Buktor, Mr., 289
Wissa, Mr. Hanna, 130, 163,

165-169

Wolseley, Lord, 248, 257
Women, position of, 95; educa-
tion, 280; see Girls' schools.

Yusuf, Rev. Tadrus, 171, 173,
223

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