’Henri has been for an hour or more this morning asking me questions which you would seldom hear from farmers or tradesmen at home, showing a real acquaintance with the Bible, and such a desire, hunger and thirst, for knowledge.  What was the manna in the wilderness? he began.  He thought it was food that angels actually lived upon, and quoted the verse in the Psalm readily, “So man did eat angel’s food.”  So I took him into the whole question of the spiritual body; the various passages, “meats for the belly,” etc., our Lord’s answer to the Sadducees, and so on to 1 Cor. xv.  Very interesting to watch the earnestness of the man and his real pleasure in assenting to the general conclusion expressed in 1 John iii. 2 concerning our ignorance of what we shall be, not implying want of power on God’s part to explain, but His divine will in not withdrawing the veil wholly from so great a mystery.  “E marama ana,” (I see it clearly now):  “He mea ngaro!” (a mystery).  His mind had wholly passed from the carnal material view of life in heaven, and the idea of food for the support of the spiritual body, and the capacity for receiving the higher truths (as it were) of Christianity showed itself more clearly in the young New Zealander than you would find perhaps in the whole extent of a country parish.  I think that when I know the language well enough to catechize freely, it will be far more interesting, and I shall have a far more intelligent set of catechumens, than in England.  They seem especially fond of it, ask questions constantly, and will get to the bottom of the thing, and when the catechist is up to the mark and quick and wily in both question and illustration, they get so eager and animated, all answering together, quoting texts, etc.  I think that their knowledge of the Bible is in some sense attributable to its being almost the only book printed that they care much about.’

The 11th of September produced another long letter full of home feeling, drawn forth in response to his sister.  Here are some extracts:—­

’Sometimes I cannot help wishing that I could say all this, but not often.  There is One who understands, and in really great trials even, it is well to lean only on Him.  But I must write freely.  You will not think me moody and downhearted, because I show you that I do miss you, and often feel lonely and shut up in myself.  This is exactly what I experience, and I think if I was ill, as you often are, I should break down under it; but God is very merciful to me in keeping me in very good health, so that I am always actively engaged every day, and when night comes I am weary in body, and sleep sound almost always, so that the time passes very rapidly indeed, and I am living in a kind of dream, hardly realizing the fact of my being at half the world’s distance from you, but borne on from day to day, I scarcely know how.  Indeed, when I do look back upon the past six months, I have abundant cause to