My thoughts had journeyed far away from the little chapel and its earnest worshippers. I was recalled by the preacher’s voice reciting his closing sentence—
“And I saw, and I heard a voice of many angels round the throne ... and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying, with a great voice, Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and honour, and glory, and blessing.”
We stood up to sing the concluding hymn—one that has for long been a great favourite of mine—
Coming, coming, yes, they are, Coming, coming, from afar; From the wild and scorching desert, Afric’s sons of colour deep; Jesu’s love has drawn and won them, At the cross they bow and weep.
Coming, coming, yes, they are, Coming, coming, from afar; From the Indies and the Ganges Steady flows the living stream To love’s ocean, to His bosom, Calvary their wond’ring theme.
Coming, coming, yes, they are, Coming, coming, from afar; From the Steppes of Russia dreary, From Slavonia’s scatter’d lands, They are yielding soul and spirit Into Jesu’s loving hands.
Coming, coming, yes, they are, Coming, coming, from afar; From the frozen realms of midnight, Over many a weary mile, To exchange their soul’s long winter For the summer of His smile.
Coming, coming, yes, they are, Coming, coming, from afar: All to meet in plains of glory, All to sing His praises sweet: What a chorus, what a meeting, With the family complete!
And how that hymn was sung! It all seemed part of the music of the Great Army. No longer we thought primarily of the troops rallying to the call of the Mother Country and coming from the far ends of the world to fight in earthly warfare; our souls saw farther than this—a multitude out of every nation of all tribes and peoples and tongues, ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, all marching under the banner of the Lord Jehovah.
I had received the answer to the questions I had been asking earlier in the day: “What had Christianity accomplished?” It had accomplished _this_: It had enlisted this mighty stream of humanity. We in that humble little chapel were merely a small handful, but we belonged to that Great Army; we had only to march on, trusting and worshipping God.