yoddel we brought her farther from the sea. We all of us gave a helping
hand; fishermen, wives, visitors, friends, all laid hold, and all
pulled, and the work, hard as it seemed, was soon accomplished. Why?
Because we were all united. It was a long pull, a strong pull, and a
pull all together.

'And now let me bring back to your memory another event during this past
week. The place is the same, our village green, the same rope is used,
and those who pull are the very same men, strong, brawny, powerful
fishermen. Yes, you pulled your very hardest; if possible you put forth
more strength than when the crab boat was drawn up, and yet, strange to
say, there was no result, the rope did not move an inch. What were you
pulling? What was the mighty weight that you had to move? What was it
that, for such a long time, baffled the strength of the strongest among
you? The weight you could not move was not a heavy boat, but a light
handkerchief!

'Why was there this difference? Why was the handkerchief harder to move
than the boat? The answer to that question was to be found at the other
end of the green. There were other pullers at the rope that day, pulling
with all their might in an exactly opposite direction. It was not a
united pull, and therefore for a long time there was no result, and we
watched on, until at length one side was proved the strongest, and the
handkerchief was drawn by them triumphantly across the line.

'To-day, dear friends, I speak to you of yet another tug of war. The
place is the same, Runswick Bay and our village green, but the weight to
be drawn is not a boat, not a handkerchief; the weight is _a human
soul._ It is your soul, my friend, your immortal soul; _you_ are
the one who is being drawn.