Page:Women of distinction.djvu/264

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WOMEN OF DISTINCTION.

weather on a part of the voyage nothing occurred on the journey to mar her prospects, being providentially preserved from sickness all the way from the land of her nativity to her destined mission field in the Congo Valley. The unbounded sight of heathenism everywhere now to meet her gaze, turn whichever way she might, without the face of a familiar human being or friend to cheer her as she entered into her mission work, her faith in God was thus to be tested, and thus it was tested to the fullest extent.

But on this ground there is no tale of disappointments or wavering, or of homesickness to relate, for this young missionary had sat down and thoroughly counted the cost before starting on this dreadful mission. In such an attitude as this to commence service for Christ and humanity it is about as hard to comprehend how this delicate young disciple could brave the peril before her as it is to comprehend how by having "faith as a grain of mustard seed" a mountain could, be removed. Truly her life seemed to be hid with Christ in God, and she was simply happy in the faith that she was doing her duty, and that she had nothing to fear with the firm promises of her Heavenly Father to rest upon. All her letters from the mission field that came under the writer's notice were carefully examined and re-examined, not only to see the progress she was making from time to time, but to see if there were not spells when she would find herself overwhelmed in a state of dreadful horror. But, strange as it may appear, there was no evidence that she was ever given to such moods. Her letters were