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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 77

S.S. India, On The Indian Ocean, Sunday, 1st May, 1904. My Dear Friends

S.S. India, On The Indian Ocean, My Dear Friends,

It is past six o'clock here, and you will be meeting at Mill Hill for morning worship. I see the Chapel decorated with English flowers for the May Day Service, and I feel that the ten thousand miles of sea which lie between us do not divide us in spirit. If I were in Leeds, and—which God forbid—there had arisen some cause of difference, if some "root of bitterness"* had sprung up to mar the confidence which should exist between people and pastor, how much further off we should be in reality than now we are. I am strong in the confidence of your sympathy and goodwill, and you know that all my best is for your service.

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We have had a very successful voyage. It has been smooth till the last two days, and though the heat since we left Aden has seemed to us excessive, and taken all the life out of us, we are assured that we have been fortunate in having it no worse. Through the kind intervention of a friend we have enjoyed the luxury of a deck cabin, and have had the port hole open all the way, except for two or three hours of rain. We are now getting down to the regions of southern winter, and it is beginning to be cool again, which is a great relief, even though it is a little rough as well.

We have Service on board on Sunday morning. The Captain reads the prayers, I take the lessons, and join in as far as I am able. Singing with the rest "Glory be to the Father" and then, sotto voce on my own account, substituting our "God only wise holy and just and true," for the orthodox "and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost". Never did I appreciate so well our own grand doxology, so much older than the old Trinitarian one. On Wednesday morning we shall arrive at Fremantle for Perth, and from thence I shall write again. Meanwhile, I thank God for you and for ourselves, and pray that my mission to this great country may be of use, for the advancement of His Kingdom, which we all of us pray for.

C. H.

* Hebrews xii. 15.