The keynote of the Lucknow Conference was to win the Moslem world by love, the love of Christ incarnate in his messenger. It is one of the most hopeful signs in the advancement of the kingdom that the attractive power of love is more prominent than the overwhelming power of argument. It is a great help to the right placing of this emphasis that workers in many lands, of many nations, of many denominations, are drawing nearer together and working more in harmony. I returned from India, rejoicing in all I had seen of God's power and blessing in that land, but with a deeper conviction that the work in India, in China, in Africa, in Syria is all one work, under one Master. CHAPTER XII OUR SUPPORTERS One of the brightest things in the missionary's happy lot is the beautiful relation existing between those on the field and those whom they represent in the homeland. Many years ago we were calling, one evening, upon our landlord in Tripoli. The eldest son had recently returned from America, and in the course of conversation the father asked from what part of the United States we came, in order to see whether his son had been in the same vicinity. The son at once replied: "I know the name of the place, but I do not know in what state it is. They come from Private Funds." We could not think at first what he meant, but then discovered that he had found a missionary report among some old magazines thrown out from the house. In this he had seen our names in a list of missionaries, giving the name of the society by which each was supported. Seeing "Private Funds" opposite our names, he thought it must be the name of the town from which we came, though, as he said, he did not know in what state it was located. A little knowledge is truly a dangerous thing. The relation indicated by those words, which has subsisted for twenty-five years, has been most happy. When I was a senior in the seminary and had already made my application to the Foreign Board, I received a letter from Mr. George D. Dayton of Minnesota. He was the son of an elder in my father's old church in Geneva, only a few years older than I, but already a prosperous business man whose generosity in the Lord's work was becoming well known. He urged upon me the need and opportunity in the home mission field of the growing northwest. I answered him, explaining as fully as I could, the reasons that had led me to decide that my life should be devoted to another field, realizing that my answer would be a disappointment to him and might cause some weakening of the ties of friendship already strong between us.