For instance: here is a teacher who has done well—been faithful, skilful and successful; has won the intense affection—almost the reverence of her pupils. But her heart is young, and somebody else’s heart is young also, and these two have grown together, till, in an hour of general congratulation, their hands are joined, and they start off upon life’s journey no longer twain. Then the same zeal, the same concentration of interest and effort which made her so successful a teacher, is developed touching home cares and a husband’s comfort; and weeks grow to months and months to years, and her face is not seen, even for an hour, in the school-room where she served so well. She did not mean it so to be; but so it was, and the shrewd heathen Chinese, that was almost persuaded in view of her zeal and self-denial to become a Christian, thinks now that he sees through it all: “Good pay, good teach; no pay, no teach.” Here is another teacher who took up the work with zeal and loved it—so she said and so she thought; better and better the longer she wrought. But she is cumbered with much serving all day long, and brings a weak flesh, and, consequently, a not very willing spirit to her evening’s service at the mission. The pupils note it. It is indeed unmistakable, for the head nods and the eyes close, time and again, before the last school hour is half expired. They don’t like to burden her, and one by one they drop out of the school. The Superintendent intervenes as gently as he can; but he finds that it is very difficult to dismiss a teacher and not lose a friend. Here is a field where the opportunity is evidently large, and the gate to it seems wide open. You enter it hopefully. Plans seem to form themselves almost without your thinking. Arrangements are made and the work begins. Then it appears the arrangements were _not_ made; that you “reckoned without your host;” his plans and yours do not exactly dovetail, and in this case a miss is as good, and as ill, as a mile. Delays ensue; disappointment and failure seem inevitable. The very elements seem to have conspired against you. And yet that opportunity must not be lost, for there are golden harvests possible in that wide-open field, and, somehow, you must reap them.