THE FINAL RESTING-PLACE

405

It remains but to give some notice of his final earthly resting-place, the little cemetery at Muscat.

The Rev. H. W. Griffith, one of the Punjab Staff of Chaplains, visited the spot early in 1894, and described it thus in a letter to Mrs. French :—

'On Sunday, Feb. 4, I went with Mr. Harrison, the electrician, and my little boy (who accompanied me on the trip) to visit the grave. We went off about 8 o'clock in the ship's gig . . . and came to a deep bay with high, almost perpendicular, cliffs all round, and at the entrance a towering rock rising sheer out of the deep water, like a sentinel towards the sea-front.

The bay is divided into two coves by a projecting cliff, and each has a shingly beach running back some fifty or sixty yards to the base of the cliffs. In the north (the right hand) cove is the cemetery. . . . It is a wild barren spot, but not altogether arid; two nullahs run down into the cove, and three trees, out of the very few which I imagine Muscat can boast, were in full leaf, finding some sustenance in the detritus from the scarp-cliffs which an occasional shower would bring down. I also found a shrub, of a kind of broom, with smooth green leaves and pink flowers, growing near the grave. I picked a handful and placed it on his grave, and send a few sprigs to you. He sleeps surrounded by others of our race, chiefly sailors and officers of the Indian Marine and gunboats of the Royal Navy, which often put in at Muscat, and a few civilians. There are thirty-six graves in all.'

The words that follow will be cheering to all Christians, as showing that the bishop's pioneering work was not in vain. Mr. Griffith continues :-

'It is a quiet peaceful resting-place, and we may say the soldier sleeps upon the battle-field, where he himself was first to bear the standard of the cross.

'It has not fallen to the ground but passed to the hand of another, the Rev. Peter Zwemer, who has made Muscat his home, and carries on the work of preaching and discussion all the more readily, because of his life (or shall I say death?) and example.

'Mr. Zwemer finds little or no opposition, partly through the sound and real English influence established through our Residents, and partly, no doubt, because he is not first in the field, and the people (so Mr. Mackirdy told me) have a very vivid

1 The Patrick Stewart, a Government Telegraph Ship, in which, under the present bishop's instructions, Mr. Griffith was making a tour of the Gulf Stations and holding services.

remembrance of the bishop, and were much impressed by his age and venerable appearance (the Easterns always respect grey hairs), and also by his refinement and courtesy, quickly appreciated by Orientals.

'Mr. Zwemer had breakfast with me on board at 9 o'clock that day, and then remained to service. We had an offertory for the Bishop French Memorial at St. John's College, Lahore, and where so fitting a spot? He left us at 11.30, and by 12 we had started for India.

'Much of Mr. Zwemer's work consists in the sale and distribution of the Scriptures and passages of Scripture in Ara ic, which are readily taken. At present he holds the post alone, but one does indeed feel thankful that—though it is not from England the succour comes-no long interval of silence has elapsed since his voice was hushed.

'It all makes one feel so strongly what Bishop Phillips Brooks said "Most of the romance and heroism of Christianity is now to be found in the Mission Field."'

But the annexed illustration, far more perhaps than any description, will point the final lesson of the bishop's life. The exact spot of his grave is marked by the cross discernible at the extreme right of the line of sepulchres. This wooden cross was erected, and the grave protected by a cement covering, through the thoughtful kindness of Colonel Mockler, by whom also the photograph was taken-of which this picture is a reproduction. Commander Dyke, commander of H. M. S. Sphinx, himself superintended the painting of this temporary monument.

The inscription on the cross ran as follows:

Sacred to the memory of the

Right Reverend Thomas Valpy French, D.D.,
formerly Bishop of Lahore.

Died May 14, 1891.

When Mr. Maitland came to the spot in September, being grieved that the bishop's grave should have no verse of Scripture on it, he arranged that two verses should be painted on the cement covering: on one side, 'He endured as seeing Him, who is invisible'; and on the other, 'Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith.'

At a later date this structure was replaced by a more

THE TEACHING OF THE BISHOP'S GRAVE 407

permanent tomb of the beautiful white Jaipur marble, prepared at that place under the kind supervision of Col. Jacob, R.E., and shipped from Karachi.

Although the wooden cross was described by Mr. Maitland as 'dignified and impressive,' the recumbent cross of marble which has succeeded it, besides not shutting out the graves behind, will symbolize more fitly the end of suffering, the lifelong cross laid down. There is a Residency Fund for the maintenance of the cemetery, and the grave is under the protection of the British gunboat, so there is little likelihood that it will ever meet with desecration or neglect. The inscription now runs as follows. On either side is placed a verse of Scripture in English, and the same verses are repeated in Arabic characters at the two ends of the sepulchre. Around the lower cornice on three sides are the words:

To the memory of Thomas Valpy French, D.D.
Entered into rest May 14, 1891.

First Bishop of Lahore, and first Missionary to Muscat.

The verses are, on the one side:

'Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit';

and on the other side:

'Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.'

Certainly Bishop French, so far as it was possible for one himself in need of the redemption, strove to the uttermost to share the great work of his Master. His life was one long sacrifice like the apostle Paul, he was a man of one aim only, that aim was Jesus Christ, and even here on earth he had attained in good degree the apostolic ideal, always bearing about in his body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in his body; always rejoicing in suffering, and ready to fill up that which was behind of the afflictions of Christ in his

flesh for His body's sake, which is the Church; and always pressing on to gain Him, and be found in Him, and to know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming conformed unto His death, if by any means he might attain unto the resurrection from the dead.

And now-the wilderness all passed-his soul is with the Lord in Paradise, and there finds full refreshment, unbroken peace, and unimpeded access of enlightenment. His body lies fronting the dawn upon that Eastern shore, not merely resting, as one who loved him has suggested, but watching still. In death, as in his life, he is a sentinel and witness, claiming those barren regions for their one true King; waiting until the day break and the shadows flee away; waiting until the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings.

Stirred, or it may be even shamed, by his example, may every reader of these volumes share in his holy vigil, and help on, as he may, in life or death the object of his hope, breathing the prayer of the sweet Psalmist, and the beloved Evangelist, and the expectant Church of every age:

'My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.'

̓Αμήν, ἔρχου Κύριε Ἰησοῦ,

INDEX.