While he was thus engaged, the Cape Government, whose
difficulties
had been increasing, changed its mind, and early in 1882, begged
for
Gordon's help. Once more he was involved in great affairs: a new
field
of action opened before him; and then, in a moment, there was
another
shift of the kaleidoscope, and again he was thrown upon the
world. Within
a few weeks, after a violent quarrel with the Cape authorities,
his mission
had come to an end. What should he do next? To what remote corner
or what
enormous stage, to what self-sacrificing drudgeries or what
resounding
exploits, would the hand of God lead him now? He waited, in an
odd hesitation.
He opened the Bible, but neither the prophecies of Hosea nor the
epistles
to Timothy gave him any advice. The King of the Belgians asked if
he would
be willing to go to the Congo. He was perfectly willing; he would
go whenever
the King of the Belgians sent for him; his services, however,
were not required
yet. It was at this juncture that he betook himself to Palestine.
His studies
there were embodied in a correspondence with the Rev. Mr. Barnes,
filling over
2,000 pages of manuscript-- a correspondence which was only put
an end to
when, at last, the summons from the King of the Belgians came. He
hurried back to England; but it was not to the Congo that he was
being led by the hand of God.
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