CHAPTER II.

THE BALLOON.

ISA DÁS conversed much with those who came to him for advice, ever keeping in mind their spiritual profit. Sometimes he spoke directly on the subject of religion, sometimes on occurrences of the day, which he read out of a native newspaper lent to him by a friend. What the doctor's drugs were to his patient's bodies, so were his words to their souls.

One day Isa Dás told a bunniah (shopkeeper) and some others who were seated on the grass before him, smoking their hookahs, of a strange event which had occurred in Calcutta. *

* The narrative is but too true; the particulars have been taken from the newspaper account.

"Notice had been given," said he, "that a bold colonel sahib was to mount up in a balloon."

"A balloon, what may that be?" inquired a zemindar (husbandman) who had never been twenty miles from his native village.

"A balloon is a huge ball made of cloth or silk, large as a house, and filled with light gas, which causes it to rise into the clouds. A car hangs from the balloon, and in this car men have room to sit, and thus be borne aloft in the air. Many people of Calcutta gathered to see the tamasha (show), and looked with wonder at the big ball which was to carry the bold colonel into the sky."

"Wah! Wah!" cried the zemindar. "I should like to have been there to see the tamasha!"

"The colonel came with a cheerful face when all was ready," continued the doctor. "But not every one looked equally cheerful when noticing the state of the balloon.

"'There are cracks in the cloth,' observed a friend, gazing upwards at the great ball, which, inflated with gas, was kept down by ropes, till the colonel should get into the car.'

"'No matter!' cried the colonel. 'That is nothing! I have mounted in a balloon with holes in it as big as my head.'

"Bright and bold, he stepped into the car and sat down. At a given signal the men who held the ropes let go their hold. Up shot the balloon like a bird! It rises one—two—three hundred feet above the heads of the people, who gaze with eager upturned eyes. But soon, ah, too soon, the shouts of joy which had burst from the crowd, suddenly change to the silence of horror. The balloon bursts in the air; down, down it comes as fast as it rose, straight into a piece of water below! Like a huge sheet, the torn cloth lies on the tank, the unfortunate colonel beneath it!

"Can no one save him? Can no one help him? Many rush to the sahib's aid, and plunge into the tank; but how are they to find the colonel under those hundreds of yards of wet floating cloth! They try to lift the heavy mass; they tear it here; they drag it there; every minute seems long as an hour, every minute lessens the chance of finding the colonel alive! At last there's a cry, 'He's found!' And shortly afterwards something that—not a half-hour before—was a brave, strong man, is dragged from under the wide spread of cloth! Alas! The bold heart has ceased to beat! The unhappy colonel has perished!"

"And why did he perish?" cried the bunniah, who had taken his hookah out of his mouth. "Was it not because he had trusted himself to a balloon of flimsy cloth that had holes, through which the gas could escape!"

"Now, to my mind that poor colonel's death preaches a lesson to us," observed Isa Dás. "There are some who make as sure of going to happiness when they die as the colonel sahib did of rising into the clouds. Now, I like to ask my conscience,—is my hope a sure one, or is it rather like the cracked balloon?"

"I do not trouble myself with such thoughts," observed the bunniah. "I perform my religious duties, I make offerings, I feast the Brahmins,—I have nothing to fear." And, like an easygoing man of the world as he was, he resumed his hookah.

"But, my friend, do you never tell a lie, not even to make a good bargain?" asked Isa Dás.

Those around laughed, for the character of the bunniah was like that of most of his class; only the doctor was grave.

"Have you never cheated or spoken evil of one whom you hated, or flattered another whose favour you wished to gain?" pursued the Christian.

"Such things are trifles, they matter not!" said the bunniah,—and again the hubble-bubble of the hookah, interrupted for a moment, was heard.

"Ah! Friend, what you call trifles are as the cracks in the balloon!" cried Isa Dás. "Your righteousness is flimsy as the cloth of which the great ball was made. If it was rash in the colonel to trust his body to a balloon which raised him a little from earth, only to dash him down into destruction, are you not worse than rash if you trust your soul to what never can save it?"

The question made as little impression on the bunniah as it did on his hookah; but the zemindar, who was a man of a simple, teachable spirit, asked, "What is it that can save souls?"

"We need something much stronger, better, more perfect than any goodness of our own to carry us up to heaven," said Isa Dás; "and such righteousness is offered to us in the Gospel, even that of the Lord Jesus Christ!"

"Who was He?" inquired the zemindar.

"He is the only Man who over lived on earth and never knew sin," was the reply, "the only perfectly holy. Even his enemies could prove nothing against Him; even His judge declared, 'I find no fault in this man.'"

"But of what use is His righteousness to us?" asked the zemindar.

Then Isa Dás, with fervour and clearness, gave to the poor man, who listened with interest, an outline of the "old, old story." He told of the Lord's Incarnation, His holy life, and His terrible death endured for sinners. And thus the Christian closed his earnest address:—

"You asked me of what use the righteousness of Christ could be to us, and this is my reply. He offers it as a royal gift to all who truly believe in Him who is at once divine and human, the Son of God and the Son of Man. Christ is 'the Lord our Righteousness' (Jer. xxxiii. 16). This is the secret of the peace which I have found in the Christian religion," continued the convert. "I do not trust in my own righteousness, I count it but as filthy rags; but I have accepted the perfect righteousness of Christ, which is strong enough to bear me upwards, even to the gates of heaven, even into the presence of God."

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