True Nobles and Heroes. 33

to a miner’s life. To test it, after having
some deadly firedamp shut up in the pit for
some time, he descended lamp in hand. His
comrades who had come to witness the
experiment, shrunk back and dared not go
one step farther; but he (noble man that he
was!) went forward, exposing his lamp in the
most dangerous places, in order that he
might thereby gain the knowledge to be
afterwards used in saving the lives of others.

You say “Bravo!” and rightly; but
while we shout to the honour of George
Stephenson,—

“Shall we whose souls are lighted with wisdom
from on high,

Shall we, to men benighted, the lamp of life deny?”
No. I trust that some one who reads these
pages may resolve that he will go forth, as
many a noble missionary has done, for Christ,
with his life in his hand, telling the story
of the Cross (that old, old story, ever new),
and be the means of saving some soul from
eternal death. The missionary’s success,
after years of weary waiting and working,
as in the case of our Chinese and other
missionaries, may be small indeed, measured