Rarely was there
such a student. He turned neither to left nor right, worked eight hours
a day when he did not work ten, and took the highest possible degrees on
every subject. Then he was ordained. About this time he chanced to hear
a series of sermons by a Colonial bishop that directed his mind towards
the mission-field. This was after he had served as a deacon in an East
End parish and become acquainted with savagery in its western form.
He consulted with his friends and his superiors as to whether his true
call were not to the far parts of the earth. Unanimously they answered
that they thought so; so unanimously that a mild fellow-labourer whom
he bullied was stung to the uncharitable remark that almost it looked as
though they wanted to be rid of him. Perhaps they did; perhaps they held
that for energy so gigantic there was no fitting outlet in this narrow
land.
But as it chanced there was another to be consulted, for by this time
the Rev. Thomas Bull had become engaged to the only daughter of a
deceased London trader--in fact, he had been a shop-keeper upon a large
scale. This worthy citizen had re-married late in life, choosing, or
being chosen by a handsome and rather fashionable lady of a somewhat
higher class than his own, who was herself a widow.
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