This may possibly seem specially and curiously unfair in the United States and Denmark, yet it will only make[1] the principle of this omission from The General’s own records and ours the more clear.

It will doubtless be expected that I make some comment upon the painful separation from him of three of his own children which were amongst the saddest events of The General’s life, and, yet, I feel it best to say nothing.

It is not within the scope of this book to tell “all about it,” and telling part could only cause misunderstanding.  So I leave it, and hope everyone else will do the same.

Chapter XII

In Australasia

The entire programme of every tour The General made emphasises so strongly his advocacy of hard work that one really hesitates to pick out any one Campaign as more remarkable than another.  What is, however, extraordinary in connexion with one of his far-away Australian journeys is our having letters which so much more than any others give particulars of his doings.

“I am resting to-night, and well I think my poor body has earned some kind of respite.  Such a ten days’ work I never did before of sheer hard work.  How I have come through it, and come through so well, I cannot understand, except that God has indeed been my Helper.”

Here is another side-light on The General’s own inner life which we get by the way.  We conceal, of course, the identity of the lady in question, except to say that it was a very distinguished hostess with whom he had occasion to spend some hours when travelling.

“It was perhaps the loveliest journey I ever had.  I talked nearly all the time, and, in fact, had no alternative.  But I think I ought to have made a more desperate and definite attack on her soul than I did.  She is a very intelligent and amiable lady, and I have no doubt I made an impression.

“Good-bye.  Go on praying and believing for me.  I want to be a flame of fire wherever I go.  I thank God for the measure of love and power I have. But I must have more. I am pushing everybody around me up to this—­the inward burning love and zeal and purity.  I wish our best men were more spiritual.  Give my tenderest love to all.”

In each of The General’s visits to Australia there was much of the same character; but from the letters to his children which he wrote on one of them, we can extract enough to give some idea of what he saw and felt in passing through those vast regions:—­

“What the reception (at Melbourne) would have been had it not been for the torrents of rain I cannot imagine.  Although it was known that I could not get in before six or seven o’clock, there was a great mass of several thousand people waiting at three o’clock.  As it was we did not get into the Exhibition Building till ten, and a vast crowd had been sitting inside from five, and stayed to hear me talk till 10:45.

     “I had an immense Meeting—­they say 5,000 were present on the
     Sunday morning, 7,000 in the afternoon, with as many more turned
     away.