January 5

They that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.

THEY declare plainly that they are seeking their Fatherland. They declare it more plainly for every day of the search, for every night of the accomplished homeward march. It may be said of Christ's lovers, as is said in the song in Hamlet:

"How should I your true love know From another one? By his cockle hat and staff, And his sandal shoon."

"Be shod," said He, "with sandals!" Do you suppose He was only talking to the Seventy, or to the Twelve? . . . Not saying over all of us . . . "Are they not all pilgrim souls?" That little verse which I quote, describing the marks of the lover that is on pilgrimage, describes those marks progressively: they are not all gained at once. Those sandal shoes were, indeed, put on at the very beginning; but this shell in the hat, that was picked up on the shore of a certain Red Sea which lay by the pilgrim's path; and this staff that he carries was cut on the banks of the Jordan when he descended to it. He steadied himself with it as he passed through. . . . And so, brave soul that hast consented to be a Pilgrim of the Kingdom, know this, that thy definition becomes clearer as the years go by, and thou art more perfectly known as belonging to that heaven-born, heaven-bound company, of whom the most earnest speak like one who once willed to make an earthly pilgrimage, and, being asked what he wanted, said, "I am nought, I have nought, I desire nought, except to be at Jerusalem."

J. RENDEL HARRIS

CHRIST'S LOVERS