{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_27243/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_27243","id":"gutenberg_27243","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27243","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Missions -- China -- Huo-hsien (Shansi Province)"],"text":"Produced by Free Elf, University of Hong Kong Library,\naudreyii, Emmy and the Online Distributed Proofreading\nTeam at http://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE FULFILMENT OF A DREAM OF PASTOR HSI'S\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: MRS. HSI.\n\n_Frontispiece._]\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE FULFILMENT OF A DREAM OF PASTOR HSI'S\n\nTHE STORY OF THE WORK IN HWOCHOW\n\nBY A. MILDRED CABLE\n\n          _Of the China Inland Mission_\n\n          \"Is it a dream?\n           Nay, but the lack of it, a dream.\n             And failing it, life's love and wealth a dream,\n             And all the world a dream.\"\n                                             WALT WHITMAN\n\n\n          LONDON:\n          MORGAN & SCOTT LTD.\n          12, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, E.C.\n          CHINA INLAND MISSION\n          NEWINGTON GREEN, N. MCMXVII\n\n\n\n\n          TO\n\n          DR. G. CAMPBELL MORGAN\n\n          THE \"APOLLOS\" WHO\n\n          BY PRAYER AND SYMPATHY HAS \"WATERED\"\n\n          THIS WORK\n\n          THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nTWENTY-ONE years ago, on 19th February 1896, Pastor Hsi, to quote the\nwords of his biographer, \"was translated to higher service.\" Those who\nread the fascinating and wonderful story of his life by Mrs. Howard\nTaylor will at once be interested in _The Fulfilment of a Dream_, which\nis the story of the work in Hwochow, and gives the account of the\ncarrying on of the spiritual labour of that remarkable man, and of the\nfulfilment of his dream. I think it is equally true that those who have\nnot read Pastor Hsi's life will desire to do so after reading this book.\n\nIt is a commonplace observation, but none the less true, that the story\ncommenced in the Acts of the Apostles could not be finished by Luke,\nbecause the great activity, the commencement of which he recorded, is\nstill going forward. Every tale of missionary endeavour moving forward\n\"toward the uttermost part of the earth\" is an added chapter. It has\nbeen given to Mildred Cable and her fellow workers, to labour in the\napostolic succession; and then to Mildred Cable, to write this wonderful\nchapter.\n\nFrom my own standpoint the book is full of charm. While by no means its\nsupreme value, the first impression made upon the mind is that of the\nnaturalness of the story. The reader is made the friend of the writer,\nand listens to an artless and charming account of places and of peoples.\nMy first reading of the book at one sitting (as all such books should be\nread), left me with a sense of the atmosphere of the missionary's life\nand surroundings. I was admitted into the actuality of everyday things,\nand was made familiar with the pathos and tragedy and humour of life in\na land and among a people largely unknown to me.\n\nAs I have said, this is by no means the supreme value of the book. That\nrather consists in something that grows upon you as you read. The writer\ndoes not state it in so many words, or very seldom, and certainly is not\ntrying to persuade you to believe it, but there it is. I refer to the\ntender and yet strong revelation of the power of the Divine Grace, both\nin its sustenance of those who are called to missionary work, and its\ntransforming power in the case of those who, often at cost, yield\nthemselves to its call.\n\nIn Chapters I., V., VI., VII., and VIII., the reader will trace the\nstory of the development of the work, and a wonderful story it is.\nChapters XI. and XII., containing first the story of Ai Do, and then a\nrecord of demoniacal manifestations, show the reader how these quiet and\nearnest workers are brought up against the big, naked, awful things of\nlife; and also how being so confronted, they are unafraid and\nunconquered in the name of Jesus Christ the Lord. The fact that I draw\nspecial attention to these chapters is not intended to suggest for a\nmoment that the others are either uninteresting or unimportant. They are\nneither the one nor the other. For all that it is intended to be, the\nbook is a whole, and is supremely precious, because it is manifestly a\npart of the larger whole of Christ's great emprise.\n\nWith confidence and joy I commend the story to all those in whose heart\nburns the passion for the coming of the hour when our adorable Redeemer\nshall \"see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.\"\n                                             G. CAMPBELL MORGAN.\n\n\n\n\nAUTHOR'S PREFACE\n\n\nI WISH to acknowledge that apart from my co-workers, Evangeline and\nFrancesca French, this book would have been impossible. To Mr. Albert\nLutley, Superintendent of the China Inland Mission Work in the Province\nof Shansi, I am indebted for help and kindnesses which I can\nacknowledge, but never repay. I am also indebted to my Chinese\nsecretary, Miss Wang, for her able reporting of the many interviews\nwhich the compiling of this book has necessitated.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe Chinese themselves say: \"One mile alters the speech, and ten miles\nchange the customs.\"\n\nIn view of the fact that the Province of Shansi alone is larger than\nEngland and Wales, I wish it to be clearly understood that the usages\nand customs to which I refer throughout this book are local.\n\n\n\n\nEDITOR'S NOTE\n\n\nALL personal names are spelt according to the system employed by the\nauthoress, except where it has been necessary to modify this to retain\nthe identity of someone mentioned in Mrs. Howard Taylor's _Pastor Hsi_.\nAll place names are spelt according to the orthography of the Chinese\nPostal Guide, which system is now used in the standard maps of China and\nhas been adopted by the larger missionary societies. Thus, Hoh-chau of\n_Pastor Hsi_ becomes Hwochow, T'ai-yuean becomes Taiyueanfu, P'ing-yang\nbecomes Pingyangfu, etc.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                                     PAGE\n\n  PROLOGUE                                            xix\n\n\n  CHAPTER I\n\n  MRS. HSI'S GIFT, BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE\n    OPENING OF THE STATION OF HWOCHOW                   3\n\n\n  CHAPTER II\n\n  THE BIG ROAD, INDICATING THE SITUATION OF\n    HWOCHOW IN THE PROVINCE OF SHANSI                  11\n\n\n  CHAPTER III\n\n  A NEW VENTURE, IN WHICH IS RECORDED THE\n    APPOINTMENT OF THE FIRST MISSIONARIES\n    TO HWOCHOW                                         19\n\n\n  CHAPTER IV\n\n  THE CONTINUATION OF THE STORY, BEING A RECORD\n    OF SOME WHO WERE COUNTED WORTHY TO SUFFER\n    FOR CHRIST'S SAKE, AND OF MRS. HSI'S\n    EXPERIENCE IN THE BOXER OUTBREAK                   27\n\n\n  CHAPTER V\n\n  LIFE IN THE VILLAGES, AN INTRODUCTION TO\n    CHINESE HOME LIFE                                  37\n\n\n  CHAPTER VI\n\n  OUR RECEPTION AT HWOCHOW, SHOWING THINGS AS\n    THEY SOMETIMES ARE                                 47\n\n\n  CHAPTER VII\n\n  A PORTRAIT GALLERY, WHEREIN THE READER IS\n    INTRODUCED TO SOME OF OUR FELLOW WORKERS           57\n\n\n  CHAPTER VIII\n\n  WORK DEVELOPMENT, RELATING HOW WE SOUGHT TO\n    ENCOMPASS THE WORK, AND THE WORK\n    ENCOMPASSED US                                     69\n\n\n  CHAPTER IX\n\n  MRS. HSI'S SECOND GIFT, BEING AN ACCOUNT OF\n    HER LIFE FROM WIDOWHOOD                            77\n\n\n  CHAPTER X\n\n  THE STORY OF AN OPIUM SMOKER                         85\n\n\n  CHAPTER XI\n\n  THE GREAT FURNACE FOR A GREAT SOUL, BEING THE\n    STORY OF AI DO                                     95\n\n\n  CHAPTER XII\n\n  THE POWERS OF DARKNESS, BEING A RECORD OF SOME\n    OBSERVATIONS IN DEMONOLOGY                        109\n\n\n  CHAPTER XIII\n\n  THE LIFE STORY OF PASTOR WANG                       127\n\n\n  CHAPTER XIV\n\n  A VISIT TO THE BASE, FROM WHENCE WE ARE AGAIN\n    SENT FORTH WITH FRESH SUPPLIES                    141\n\n\n  CHAPTER XV\n\n  THE BUILDERS, RELATING HOW THE SUPPLIES WERE\n    USED                                              151\n\n\n  CHAPTER XVI\n\n  WOMEN'S BIBLE TRAINING SCHOOL, WHICH TELLS HOW\n    A LINK WAS ESTABLISHED BETWEEN WESTMINSTER\n    AND HWOCHOW BIBLE SCHOOLS                         159\n\n\n  CHAPTER XVII\n\n  THE DRAW NET LET DOWN INTO THE SEA, AN ACCOUNT\n    OF FRESH EFFORTS TO REACH THE MULTITUDE, AND\n    BRING THEM TO DECISION                            169\n\n\n  CHAPTER XVIII\n\n  LIFE AMONGST THE UPPER TEN THOUSAND, RECORDING\n    HOSPITALITY SHOWN TO US BY THE OFFICIAL\n    CLASSES                                           177\n\n\n  CHAPTER XIX\n\n  THE REVOLUTION OF 1911, AND HOW WE WERE\n    AFFECTED BY IT                                    189\n\n\n  CHAPTER XX\n\n  CHANGED CONDITIONS, WHEREIN SOME, THOUGH\n    FOLLOWING A PATH OF ACTION, FAILED TO\n    UNDERSTAND IT                                     199\n\n\n  CHAPTER XXI\n\n  ANOTHER PORTRAIT GALLERY, WHEREIN THE READER\n    IS INTRODUCED TO SOME WHO HAVE FAILED             211\n\n\n  CHAPTER XXII\n\n  PREACHING THE GOSPEL, HEALING THE SICK,\n    TELLING OF THE DAILY ROUTINE                      223\n\n\n  CHAPTER XXIII\n\n  A CASKET OF JEWELS, BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE\n    GIRLS' SCHOOL                                     233\n\n\n  CHAPTER XXIV\n\n  THE TREASURE HOUSE, WHERE THE READER IS SHOWN\n    THE LAPIDARY AT WORK                              247\n\n\n  CHAPTER XXV\n\n  CONCLUSION, BEING A REVIEW OF THE PRESENT\n    SITUATION                                         257\n\n\n  APPENDIX                                            263\n\n\n\n\nLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n  MRS. HSI                                     _Frontispiece_\n\n                                                 FACING PAGE\n\n  A WOMAN OPIUM SMOKER                                 82\n\n  PASTOR WANG                                         136\n\n  WOMEN'S BIBLE SCHOOL                                160\n\n  \"PUPPY\" AND HER MOTHER                              218\n\n  THE TEACHING STAFF                                  228\n\n  SOME KINDERGARTEN SCHOLARS                          236\n\n  LING AI, HER CHILDREN, AND HER MOTHER, MRS. LIANG   252\n\n\n\n\nPROLOGUE\n\n\nTHE spirit of the Confucian scholar Hsi met with its Master Christ, and\noverwhelmed by the vision yielded all to His control. Constrained by His\nlove the souls of men were sought and won; led by His Spirit, churches\nwere established in the faith; sharing His sufferings, their failures\nbecame his burden.\n\nIn the darkest days the Hwochow Church has known, when many forsook\ntheir faith, he was strengthened by a dream, in which he saw a tree cut\ndown to the ground, only to sprout again, and throw out branches\nstronger than before.\n\nIn his dream, Pastor Hsi knew this tree to be the Hwochow Church. He\nknew that though it were brought low, it would revive, and by faith\nobtained the promise, the fulfilment of which is recorded in these\npages.\n\n\n\n\n          When Thou wouldst pour the Living Stream\n          Then I would be the earthen cup,\n          Filled to the brim and sparkling clear.\n          The Fountain Thou and Living Spring\n          Flow Thou through me, the vessel weak,\n          That thirsty souls may taste Thy grace.\n\n          When Thou wouldst warn the people, Lord,\n          Then I would be the golden bell\n          Swung high athwart the lofty tower\n          Morning and evening sounding loud;\n          That young and old may wake from sleep,\n          Yea, e'en the deaf hear that strong sound.\n\n          When Thou wouldst light the darkness, Lord,\n          Then I would be the silver lamp\n          Whose oil supply can never fail.\n          Placed high, to shed the beams afar,\n          That darkness may be turned to light,\n          And men and women see Thy face.\n\n          When Thou wouldst slay the wolves, O Lord!\n          Then I would be the keen-edged sword;\n          Clean, free from rust, sharpened and sure,\n          The handle grasped, my God, by Thee.\n          To kill the cruel, ravening foe,\n          And save the sheep for whom Christ died.\n\n                                        Translated from Pastor Hsi\n                                              by F. L. F.\n\n\n\n\nMRS. HSI'S GIFT\n\n          \"First love is the abandonment of all for the love\n          which has abandoned all.\"--Dr. G. CAMPBELL MORGAN.\n\n                                      \". . . such men\n          Carry the fire, all things grow warm to them.\n          Their drugget's worth my purple, they beat me.\"\n                                        R. BROWNING.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nMRS. HSI'S GIFT\n\nBEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE OPENING OF THE STATION OF HWOCHOW\n\n\nMRS. HSI was in great mental distress. The blow she feared had fallen,\nand her husband was a prey to the bewitching power of the \"foreign\ndevils.\" How cleverly the trap had been laid. Firstly, the offer of a\nmonetary prize for a classical essay--which he had won; secondly, the\ninsistence of the foreigner on a personal interview with the writer, on\nthe occasion of which, certain as her husband had been that he had\ntasted neither food nor drink under his roof, some means had certainly\nbeen found to introduce into his system some of that subtle foreign drug\nwhich, as every one knew, must eventually compel the victim to embrace\nChristianity and follow the \"foreign devil\" to the world's end. Thirdly,\nhe had been invited to become the teacher of this dreaded man (Rev.\nDavid Hill), and she had foolishly yielded her consent. She had taken\nevery precaution and had, on three occasions, sent for him on plea of\nher own illness during the time he was an inmate in the foreigner's\nhousehold. His clothing had been carefully searched for traces of the\nmagical compound, but in vain; nothing had come to light, and now here\nwas her husband, one of the leading Confucianists of the district,\ndeclaring that, of his own free will and action, he had determined to\nfollow--not the foreign devils--but this Jesus, around Whom all their\npreaching centred. He attributed this change of mind, evidently quite\nirrationally, to the reading of a book printed under the strange title\nof _Happy Sound_,--but perhaps even the sacred Chinese character might\nbecome a snare in their hands! Nothing but the influence of some\npowerful magic could have worked so complete a transformation. Even his\nintense craving for opium was gone, the Confucian writings which had\nbeen his constant companion were now neglected, and in spite of her\nentreaties and fears, the family gods were destroyed.\n\nDuring his stay at home he spoke constantly, both to her and in her\nhearing to many visitors, of the teachings of this Jesus Who, he\nexplained to all comers, was the Son of the only True God.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTime passed, and gradually her fears were somewhat allayed, so that she\neven consented to repeat certain sentences which, he told her, were to\nbe used night and morning, kneeling, and with closed eyes. Her\ninclination to favourably regard what he told her grew, especially\nduring his absences from home; for, strange to relate, she soon began to\nfind herself under the influence of an unaccountable external power,\nwhich compelled her on each occasion of a visit from her husband to fly\ninto an uncontrollable rage at the sight of him, and this despite her\nmost determined resolution to the contrary. To her husband it was most\ndistressing to see so gentle a woman thus transformed. As his own\nspiritual experience increased, he recognised in this an onslaught of\nthe devil, and betook himself to prayer and fasting in order to discover\nhow they had laid themselves open to the attack. It was then that there\nwas brought to his remembrance the fact that, in a room at the top of\nthe house, there stood a small idol responsible for the health of the\nfamily, whose existence Mrs. Hsi had been careful not to bring to his\nremembrance, and which had been overlooked in the general destruction.\nThe shrine was instantly destroyed, and Mrs. Hsi was free of the\ntormenting spirit, and shortly afterwards openly confessed Christ.\n\nFrom that time their home in the Western Chang village was a centre of\nChristian activity. Through intense suffering Mr. Hsi had freed himself\nfrom the craving for opium, and he felt that, for the evangelisation of\nhis native province, some means might be devised whereby the treatment\nof opium patients might be combined with widespread preaching of the\nGospel.\n\nThe more he thought of this the stronger the conviction grew that it was\nof God, and when, through the agency of a dream, a system of treatment\nwas revealed to him, he accepted it as a revelation and at once prepared\nthe medicine which proved successful beyond his highest expectations.\nAfter a time, men who had been delivered from the opium vice and led to\nChrist through the Refuges, were gathered into his home (which he\ncalled the Middle Eden) and trained for the work.\n\nThis community life for so large a number was only made possible by Mrs.\nHsi's enthusiastic devotion. The extension of the opium refuge work was\nrapid and widespread, and necessitated frequent absences from home on\nthe part of Mr. Hsi, during which time a heavy burden fell upon his\nwife.\n\nHouses were rented in many towns and villages, and patients entering the\n\"heavenly called refuges\"[1] were numerous.\n\nThe burden of one city, however, lay heavily upon the heart of Mr. Hsi,\nand he and his household constantly prayed together that Hwochow might\nbe opened to the sound of the Gospel; but funds which seemed essential\nfor the initial expenses of the venture were not forthcoming. His\nitinerant journeys frequently took him through this important centre,\nwhich was situated sixty miles north of his home.\n\nDay after day prayer was made, and Mrs. Hsi often heard her husband in\nthe night watches, as he knelt alone in the court, plead with God that\nnothing might hinder what he strongly believed to be the Divine Purpose.\n\nOne Sunday night she was wakened by the familiar sound. She knew that\nher husband, like herself, had gone to bed tired out by a long day of\npreaching, during which large numbers had joined their household from\nmore or less distant villages. According to their custom, they had spent\nthe day fasting; it was Pastor Hsi's habit to refer to the Scriptures\ndirect for guidance on matters of daily conduct, and in the early days\nof his faith he feared to sin against the law of God by allowing fires\nto be lighted and meals to be prepared on Sunday. In accordance with his\nhabit, he had arisen soon after midnight to give himself to prayer, and\nher ear caught the murmured sentences, \"I beseech Thee, O Lord, open a\nway for Hwochow to hear the Gospel.\" As she listened, the sound of his\nvoice brought conviction to her own mind that she was to be the human\nagency by which the Divine Will should now fulfil itself. In a flash,\nthe path of duty was clear.\n\nAt the back of her cave were large painted cupboards which contained the\nwhole of her worldly possessions: bundles of handsome silk, satin, and\nembroidered garments, and a box holding the heavy jade and silver\nornaments, which had been her husband's marriage gift. Leaving her\n_kang_[2] Mrs. Hsi unlocked the cupboards and spent the rest of that\nnight in sorting their contents. All except a few cotton gowns were put\nto one side, and as the voice in the courtyard still pleaded for\nHwochow, even the earrings were taken from her ears, the rings from her\nfingers, and the ornaments from her hair.\n\nHe Who is worthy to receive accepted the offering, and her heart sang a\nsong of thanksgiving as she murmured to herself, \"Hwochow shall have the\nGospel.\"\n\nMorning prayers at Middle Eden was an hour of joyful worship, and on\nthis day Mrs. Hsi's heart was so full of happiness that she could\nscarcely wait until the full congregation had assembled before she,\nladen with her bundles, entered the room and placed them on the table,\nsaying, \"I think God has answered our prayers; I can do without these,\nlet Hwochow have the Gospel.\"\n\nEvery heart present must have been moved, for all could judge accurately\nwhat the sacrifice must be. She had offered her only worldly treasures,\narticles which her husband could not ask her to sacrifice, ready as he\nwas to use in God's service all that pertained to their home.\n\nSurely the angels joined their song to that of the little Christian\ncommunity that morning, as the words of their own pastor's hymn ascended\nwith the sacrifice of praise:\n\n  \"I hung for thee on Calvary, what dost thou still withhold from Me?\n   Thy strength, thy time, thy goods?\n   Oh say, what dost thou yet deny, My heart of love to satisfy?\"\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] Heavenly Invitation Office (\"Pastor Hsi's\" translation).\n\n[2] The raised brick or mud platform, heated by a fire, used as a bed in\nNorth China.\n\n\n\n\nTHE BIG ROAD\n\n          \"Allons! whoever you are, come travel with me!\n           Travelling with me you find what never tires.\n           Whoever you are, come forth! a man or a woman, come forth!\n           You must not stay sleeping or dallying there in the house,\n           though you built it, or though it has been built for you.\"\n                                        WALT WHITMAN.\n\n          \"The Master said: With coarse rice to eat, with\n          water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow;--I\n          have still joy in the midst of these\n          things.\"--_Confucian Analects._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTHE BIG ROAD\n\nINDICATING THE SITUATION OF HWOCHOW IN THE PROVINCE OF SHANSI\n\n\nTHE city of Hwochow is situated on the main road which connects\nTaiyueanfu with Sianfu, the direct route from Peking to the northwestern\nprovinces. Along this road pass strings of camels, laden with the\nmerchandise of Mongolia; thousands of donkeys, carrying bags of flour\nfrom the more luxuriant southern plains; cartloads of tobacco and paper\nfrom the large cities in the south of the province, and caravans of\ntravellers; whole families packed into large carts moving to some new\nhome; mat-covered litters swung between two mules and heavily curtained,\nin which the wives of an official are transported to their new abode;\npedestrians, clad in sky-blue cotton, \"yamen runners\" yelling as they\nride at furious speed to clear the way before them, and bearers of\nburdens combine to form a moving picture of interest and beauty upon the\n_Big Road_, as it is called.\n\nNot least interesting among the wayfarers are the Lhamas from distant\nThibet nearing the end of their long pilgrimage to the famous holy\nmountain Wutai, where each one hopes to be granted the vision of the\nfamous opening lotus. For many months, stretching into years, this hope\nhas sustained them through the weary pilgrimage. From the threshold of\ntheir Lhama home they have walked every step of the thousand and more\nmiles, some at every tenth, some at every fifth step, touching the\nground with their forehead, and some measuring the whole length of the\nway with their outstretched body on the road.\n\nAs the traveller enters Hwochow from the north, he crosses a bridge,\npassing on his right a large metal cow. Beyond, flows the Fen River, and\nbefore him is the city gate. To this brazen image is committed the\nimportant function of guarding Hwochow from flood, and so successfully\ndoes it accomplish its task that dryness and drought are the normal\ncondition of the countryside!\n\nTurning to the east he faces the magnificent range of the Ho Mountains,\nin winter covered with snow, and in warmer seasons touched with the\nbeauty of ever-changing colour. These mountains are part of the range\nwhich, farther north, is traversed by the famous Lingshih Pass.\n\nExcepting in the early summer months when patches of vivid green\nindicate the fields of growing wheat, the landscape is of a uniform\nshade which is best described as _khaki_. Owing to the friable nature of\nthe soil formation known as _loess_, the traveller, whether journeying\nfrom north or south, finds himself in a succession of deep gullies.\n\nThis wheat-growing land was formerly given over to the cultivation of\nthe opium poppy, and for miles over the plain the wonderful iridescent\nbloom gave the appearance of a sea of changing light and shade as the\nwind passed over it.\n\nIn the year 1908 a proclamation was issued forbidding the growth of\nopium under penalty of death, and so vigorously has the law been\nenforced that the poppy has completely disappeared from view, and no man\nis bold enough to openly grow that which has been forbidden by the\nauthorities.\n\nFor ten months in the year brilliant sunshine can be counted upon, and\nduring that time, except for dust combined with heat or cold, the\nphysical condition of a journey may be comparatively easy. Ease of mind,\nhowever, can only be attained by the philosopher who, putting away all\nthought of unseemly haste, shares the Easterner's pleasures of\nobservation, contemplation, and wayside intercourse.\n\nThe journey from Taiyueanfu to Hwochow is accomplished in five stages,\nand nothing will induce the carter to shorten or change them, though\nhours may have been wasted in some narrow gully where, spite his warning\nyells, his cart met another at a point where advance or retreat on\neither side were alike impossible. After fierce recriminations the two\nmen each produce a pipe, and it is good practice for the impatient\nWesterner to see them sit on their heels and talk the matter over. Time\npasses, but the carter is untrammelled by any artificial measure\nthereof, and after endless discussion, amid comforting whiffs of\ntobacco, he proceeds to think of a plan whereby the deadlock may be\novercome. How they manage to extricate themselves, one never knows! Some\nof the bank comes down, yells and shouts do their part, and at last the\ntraffic, which may now amount to fifty waiting carts, slowly passes by.\nIt is an everyday occurrence, and you ask, \"Why do they not widen the\nroad?\" \"Nobody's business,\" is the reply. \"Who would spend the money?\"\n\nIt is, however, the rainy season that reveals to the full the horrors of\nChinese travelling. The _loess_ is slippery beyond description, and the\nlitter or cart in which you travel may be stuck for hours in a pit of\ngreasy mud, black by reason of the coal dust so plentiful throughout the\ndistrict, so deep that nothing but the mule's head is visible, the\nplunging body being hidden in the black mass. Your only hope at such a\nmoment is to throw yourself with the grace of an expert gymnast on to\nthe bank, thankful if you escape unhurt and only bespattered by mud.\nThese pits are carefully kept in condition by a small group of men who\nappear, as by magic, to offer assistance at the suitable moment. No\nplight, however, excites their pity sufficiently to induce them to\nrender help apart from a pecuniary reward of an exorbitant nature. Once\nwithin the city gates there is hope that you will soon find a shelter.\nYou will have accomplished \"the stage\" which has been allotted from time\nimmemorial. Marco Polo himself followed these stages in the year 1280 as\nwe do to-day in the twentieth century.\n\nThe main road runs through the city of Hwochow from north to south, and\nmany inns invite the traveller to rest, the red scrolls at the door\nassuring him that \"From the four seas men all gather to this great\nhotel,\" and that the fame of its food is far-reaching.\n\nCrossing this road from east to west is another important street where\nthe official residence is situated. Here, most of the large shops are to\nbe found and in the centre of the city is a fine tower, but all the\nsmaller streets are alike, running between blank walls, from which\naccess to as many as twelve courtyards may be through one small door.\nNumerous pigs walk unhindered up and down, acting as scavengers, and as\nsuch are not unneeded, for every one throws the refuse of the household\nout of the court door, caring nothing for the convenience of the public.\n\nParallel with the Yamen street is another important thoroughfare known\nas Prospect Hill. Here stands the largest and most important temple in\nthe city, and almost next door to this, with the money given by his\nwife, Mr. Hsi secured small premises and announced that he was opening\nan opium refuge, and was willing to receive patients. Particulars as to\nrules and expenses were widely published, and in this place the first\nresults of the love and self-sacrifice of Mrs. Hsi were seen.\n\n\n\n\nA NEW VENTURE\n\n          \"Love has a hem to its garment\n           That touches the very dust:\n           It can reach the stains of the streets and the lanes,\n           And because it can it must.\n\n           It dares not rest on the mountain;\n           It is bound to come to the vale;\n           For it cannot find its fulness of mind\n           Till it kindles the lives that fail.\"\n                                        GEORGE MATHESON.\n\n          \"The world had begun to stare, she half\n          apprehended the fact, but she was in the presence\n          of the irresistible. In the presence of the\n          irresistible the conventional is a crazy\n          structure, swept away with very little creaking of\n          its timbers on the flood.\"--GEORGE MEREDITH.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nA NEW VENTURE\n\nIN WHICH IS RECORDED THE APPOINTMENT OF THE FIRST MISSIONARIES TO\nHWOCHOW\n\n\nTHE first endeavour to bring the people of Hwochow within sound of the\nGospel proved in every way encouraging. Numbers of men entered the Opium\nRefuge, and before long a nucleus of twenty were calling themselves\nChristians. The effort was, however, sterile so far as women were\nconcerned, and Pastor Hsi knew the impossibility of establishing upon a\nsolid basis a work which left untouched those who so largely controlled\nthe home.\n\nThe power wielded by the woman in China is immense, for while she may be\ndespised and, in her young days, even ill-treated, her day of power\nsurely dawns, and woe betide the man who has to combat the determined\nwill of mother or wife.\n\nThe question of providing women workers for Hwochow became a pressing\none, and a visit from the Rev. Hudson Taylor was the occasion chosen by\nPastor Hsi to bring before him the urgency of this claim[3]. His\nsuggestion was that single women missionaries should be appointed who\ncould give their time unreservedly to the teaching of women, and\npreaching. Mr. Taylor pointed out the difficulties and the\nmisunderstanding which would make their lot far from easy, but these\ndifficulties, Pastor and Mrs. Hsi felt, might be overcome, and willingly\npromised to give all the help which lay within their power. In any case,\nthe claim of the women constituted a call to make a forward movement,\nand Mr. Taylor promised to give the matter serious consideration. By the\nend of that year, 1886, two Norwegian ladies had offered for the post.\n\nMiss Jacobsen, an idealist, strong, capable, and critical, gave herself\nwhole-heartedly to the work for which she had come. Enthusiastic and\nindependent in thought and action, she soon acquired the spoken language\nto a remarkable degree, and with a praiseworthy tenacity she studied the\nclassical works of the Chinese, and at the same time could vie with most\nof the women in all branches of their domestic activities. Her\nextraordinary ability is a byword to this day amongst the people who\nknew her.\n\nShe was accompanied by Miss Reuter, a lady of education and refinement,\nwhose grace of manner and goodness of heart speedily endeared her to all\nwith whom she came in contact. Varied as were the gifts and\ncircumstances of the friends, they were one in desire and purpose. Their\nhome was one small room, and here they dwelt and received all who came\nto them. They wore the Chinese dress, ate the Chinese food, and whether\nin their own home or in the villages where they preached, ever kept\nbefore them the one object of the salvation of souls.\n\nAs pioneer workers, enthusiasm sometimes overstepped discretion, and the\nviolation of Chinese custom in such matters as the public playing of\nstringed instruments and open-air preaching to mixed congregations, led\nto misunderstanding, and even to the gathering around them of some whose\npresence was far from helpful.\n\nDesire on the part of Miss Jacobsen to encourage in every way possible\nthose who were already faced with persecution as they left idolatry, led\nto the preparation, each Sunday, of a simple meal which might be shared\nwith any who walked long distances to attend services in the City\nChurch, and who arrived weary and tired. Others, however, apart from the\nChristian family heard of this, and if matters of business brought them\nto the city, Sunday was considered an appropriate day to transact them,\nas thereby dinner might be obtained free. This naturally led to\ncriticism on the part of the heathen, and many of the more independent\nand self-respecting people refrained from intercourse with a community\nof whom it could be said: \"They believe for their food's sake.\" Acting\nupon the advice of Pastor Hsi, this practice was discontinued, the\nmissionaries themselves willingly taking no food from morning until\nevening, that all might fare alike. It could but be evident to all\nconcerned that the mistakes were those of love and enthusiasm, and such\nqualities do much to counteract any harm that might arise from unwise\nmethods of expression. In every land, the world might well see more of\nthe love that defies criticism, and forgets its own interests in\nwhole-hearted devotion.\n\nMiss Reuter felt the importance of at once reaching the children, and\nopened a small school for the daughters of Christians. Three little\ngirls were committed to her care, and these she faithfully taught, not\ndespising the day of small things.\n\nShe, with Miss Jacobsen, travelled from village to village with the\nevangelist Cheng Hsiu-chi, and preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ.\nCheng was a native of Hwochow, and had, at Pastor Hsi's request, made\nready the house for the missionaries when they came. As a young man he\nhad wandered far in the paths of sin, and his mother, eager for his\nreformation, had spent no mean sum of money upon incense with which to\nseek the favour of the gods on his behalf. Seeing her devotion, his\nheart was touched, and he considered seeking refuge in a Buddhist\nmonastery from the \"fire of passion, hatred, and ignorance always\nburning in his heart.\" With this in view, he took counsel of a friend\nwho had harboured similar ideals. This man had lately been a patient in\nthe Refuge, where he had learnt of a stronger power to break the bonds\nof sin than fasting, penance, and self-discipline. With him Mr. Cheng\nattended a meeting of Christians where, meeting with Christ, he became a\ndisciple. He returned home to face bitter persecution for refusing to\npay the temple taxes; it was understood that no robbery of his crops, or\nill-treatment of his person, would be punished by the village elders. He\nhad finally no option but to leave his home and seek refuge elsewhere,\nrejoicing that he was counted worthy to suffer \"for the Name's sake.\"\n\nHe then helped Pastor Hsi in the Hwochow Refuge, and later took charge\nof the same work in new and hitherto untouched districts, returning from\ntime to time to his own city.\n\nA strong admiration for Miss Jacobsen and her whole-hearted devotion\nawoke a consciousness that this feeling was not entirely on his side,\nand gradually, but surely, the difference of race and outlook was\nobliterated in the love which revealed to each the other's secret.\n\nThose to whom Miss Jacobsen in honour bound confided her purpose, did\nall in their power to prevent what it seemed might prove to be a\ncatastrophe to the work. She was asked to leave Hwochow, and was sent to\nanother province. Some years passed, but nothing could change the\ndetermination which saw in this union a possible wider sphere of\nusefulness and understanding of the people she had come to love;\nmoreover, the mysterious something which caused her to know that \"one\nman loved the pilgrim soul\" in her, could not be ignored. To her trusted\nfriend Pastor Hsi, however, she did turn for advice, and while many\nfellow-workers found it hard to express their indignation and regret,\nhe, with a clearness of outlook only possible where there is absence of\nprejudice, told her that while he could not regard it as a sin for a\nChristian man and woman of different races to marry, he felt convinced\nthat the time had not come for such unions to be desirable.\n\nAs is usual in such cases where inclination runs contrary to the advice\ngiven, the latter was ignored, and in the year 1898 Cheng Hsiu-chi and\nAnna Jacobsen became man and wife. Painful as must have been the\nattitude of Westerners to Mrs. Cheng, a greater trial awaited her when\nshe came to realise that the Chinese, both Christian and heathen,\nregarded her action with disapproval, and adopted so unappreciative an\nattitude both towards her husband and herself, that she found only\ncritical antagonism where she had looked for sympathetic understanding.\nMr. Cheng proved himself worthy in all ways of the confidence she had\nplaced in him, and by self-sacrificing toil he, both before and after\nhis wife's death, faithfully served the Lord to Whom he had yielded his\nlife. In the year 1915 he too passed to his reward.\n\nMiss Reuter had some time previously married Mr. Stanley Smith; young\nworkers who had joined Miss Jacobsen for short periods had been moved to\nother places, and when fresh appointments were made it was a time of\ngreat difficulty. It was not easy to replace those whose absolute\ndevotion had won the love of the people amongst whom they lived; and\nwhile Miss Jacobsen's action necessitated her withdrawal from the staff\nof the China Inland Mission, and made further residence in Hwochow\nimpossible for her, they could not forget that she was the first\nmissionary who had come to them, and that they were losing with her the\nman who had been a help to so many of them in their early Christian\nlife.\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[3] It was on the occasion of this visit that Mr. Hsi was ordained\npastor.\n\n\n\n\nTHE CONTINUATION OF THE STORY\n\n          \"Death is short, and life is long;\n           Satan is strong, and Christ more strong.\n           At His Word, Who hath led us hither,\n           The Red Sea must part hither and thither.\n           At His Word Who goes before us too,\n           Jordan must cleave to let us through.\"\n                                            C. ROSSETTI.\n\n          \"On the other side of the River was also a meadow,\n          curiously beautified with lilies, and it was green\n          all the year round.\"--_Pilgrim's Progress._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE CONTINUATION OF THE STORY\n\nBEING A RECORD OF SOME WHO WERE COUNTED WORTHY TO SUFFER FOR CHRIST'S\nSAKE, AND OF MRS. HSI'S EXPERIENCES IN THE BOXER OUTBREAK\n\n\nCHANGES in the staff at Taiyueanfu released for the oversight of mission\nwork in Hwochow, Jane Stevens and Mildred Clarke.\n\nThey might well shrink from the task facing them. Work in the provincial\ncapital had been of so totally different an order, and life in a large\ncommunity of foreigners had limited their sphere to the oversight of a\nsmall school for girls, and the instruction of women inquirers.\n\nNone had felt more strongly the seriousness of the step taken by Miss\nJacobsen, and they came to Hwochow with the determination that all\nshould early understand the impossibility of intercourse outside the\nmost rigid observance of etiquette, Chinese and Western. Feeling\nstrongly that such an attitude on their part would be the most helpful\nfactor in the gathering around them of better-class women, they\nfaithfully carried it into practice. Men who were connected with the\nChurch were received by them only under the most formal restrictions.\nFinding it impossible to eat Chinese food, a simple, but foreign\n_menage_, took the place of the hitherto free-and-easy conditions.\n\nIt was a severe test for Chinese and foreigners alike; desire for\nrenewal of the former conditions of intimacy met with no encouragement\nfrom those who could not but constantly bear the past in mind, and who\nfelt that, for the highest interests of the work, a new relationship\nmust be established. This attitude was naturally regarded as aloofness,\nand was galling to those whose love had been set on the young\nmissionaries fresh from Norway, with all the enthusiasm of youth, to\nwhom they themselves had taught the language and who belonged to them as\nothers could not.\n\nMiss Clarke gave her time to the Girls' School, the pupils of which now\nnumbered nearly twenty, and those who followed her have reaped where she\nsowed. Often sad and weary she plodded on, but God in His time gave the\nincrease. Miss Stevens, to the limit of her strength, and often beyond\nit, faithfully worked in the city and villages, suffering much which to\nher was intense hardship, and feeling keenly the isolation and lack of\nconfidence amongst the people who misunderstood the course of action\ndeliberately adopted. Thus, while bringing heartache to themselves,\nthese missionaries were enabled to make easy the way to all who followed\nthem.\n\nThe year 1900 dawned. In the month of June the ladies closed school and\ngladly accepted an invitation from friends in their old station to\nvisit them. To Taiyueanfu they went, and after many anxious days spent\nwith the missionaries gathered there they, in obedience to the\nGovernor's command, helpless to disobey, even though they suspected his\ntreacherous promises of protection, moved to a house near his\n_Yamen_.[4]\n\n\"Arrived at the house chosen for them, they made themselves as\ncomfortable as possible for the night; and the next morning (Sunday,\nJuly 8) were able to examine their surroundings. They found that for\ntheir whole number (twenty-six, including children) there were only two\ncomparatively small courts, the two inner courts being already occupied\nby the Roman Catholics. . . . When the fateful day (Monday, July 9)\ndawned, the foreigners evidently had no inkling as to what was to\nhappen. Just before noon the sub-prefect called and took a list of all\nwho were in the house, both foreigners and Chinese, saying it was by\norder of the Governor. . . . As was ascertained just a year later, when\nother Protestant missionaries returned to the province, the Governor had\ndetermined that on that day he would kill all the foreigners in\nTaiyueanfu. He evidently only took a few of the officials into his\nconfidence, and one at least--the _Tao Tai_--strenuously opposed the\ncourse he was about to pursue, but unfortunately without result.\n\n\"It must have been about two o'clock in the afternoon when he ordered a\nnumber of officers, with their soldiers, to accompany him, and mounting\nhis own horse, led the way. He made as though he would go out of the\ncity by the North Gate, but before reaching that point, he suddenly\nwheeled round and went to the house where the missionaries were\nconfined. He there ordered their immediate arrest, and they appear to\nhave made no resistance--as, indeed, it would have been useless. All who\nwere found within the compound (Protestants and Roman Catholics) were\nseized; and it so happened there were several Chinese there on\nbusiness. . . . No excuse was listened to, and all were marched off to\nthe Governor's _Yamen_ between files of soldiers, where they were taken\ninto the courtyard adjoining the street and surrounded by soldiers--not\nBoxers.\n\n\"As to what really occurred, the whole truth will probably never be\nknown, but from inquiries made on the spot, it seems certain that the\nGovernor did not assault any with his own hand; but, having asked the\nmissionaries where they came from, and being answered, 'From England,'\nand 'From France,' just gave the order, 'Sha' (kill) to the soldiers,\nwho answered with a shout and immediately fell upon their defenceless\nvictims, killing them indiscriminately.\"[5]\n\nThe Church in Hwochow, Chaocheng, and Fensi had a marvellous escape. The\nBoxers, practising their mystic rites, overran the district. Whole\nfamilies fled to the mountains, and no one was safe from robbery and\nviolence. The mandarin of Chaocheng, fearful lest massacres should take\nplace in the county under his jurisdiction and desiring at any cost to\nkeep the peace, called together some of the leading gentry and asked for\nadvice as to the problem facing them. \"I know,\" said he, \"that calling\nupon the Christians to recant will be useless, but can we not issue\ntickets to them upon which are the very words they use in entering the\nChurch, 'I promise to repent?' There should be no difficulty in getting\nthem to take these, for it will mean to them what they themselves\npreach, while to the anti-Christian fanatic it will be sufficiently\nsatisfactory.\"\n\nOrders were accordingly issued that all Christians were to receive this\nofficial paper whereby their safety would be ensured. Large numbers in\nthe Church regarded the mandarin's action as the overruling of\nProvidence on their behalf, and accepted tickets which involved no\nverbal recantation of their faith. Others, amongst whom was Mrs. Hsi\n(now a widow), with more sensitive spiritual perceptions, refused to\ntake advantage of even the semblance of a subterfuge.\n\nThe Chaocheng mandarin, surrounded by his bodyguard, went outside the\ncity gates to the place where the Boxers were practising their rites\nwith the intention of burning incense in their presence, by which act he\nwould acknowledge them as invulnerable and holy men. At the critical\nmoment, however, one of them was said to have made a move as if to\nattack the official, who instantly called upon his bodyguard to seize\nthe men, exclaiming: \"These are insurgents, and no holy men; bind them,\nthey are prisoners.\" As such they entered the city, and Boxerism never\nspread in the district. Thus did the Hand of God protect the hundreds of\nmen and women who in these three counties were called by His Name, and\nwhile in many places few escaped the sword, the numerically largest\nChurch in the province of Shansi was spared.\n\nMrs. Hsi was in Chaocheng seeking to help the women in their troubles,\nwhen news reached her that her brother-in-law, Elder Si, was stabbed by\none of the local Boxers. Rumours followed rapidly, and she heard that\nher mother-in-law was in serious danger. She hastened to her home, and\nfound matters worse than she had feared. There was no place in which to\nlive, the house was destroyed, her clothes were stolen, and had it not\nbeen for the thoughtfulness of one missionary who, in the midst of\npersonal danger, found time to buy and send to her some garments and\nbedcovering, she would have been in a sad plight. Her old mother could\nnot walk, so badly had she been beaten by the robbers, and terrified,\nthe two women crept to the fields and hid themselves. When night fell\nthey returned to shelter and to get a little food, crawling out to their\nhiding-place before the cock crew each morning. Terror was upon the\nwhole populace. The official had not been successful here, as in\nChaocheng, in dealing with the movement, and the party of missionaries\nwho had for some time been gathered in Pingyangfu were openly attacked\nand robbed by Boxer bands as they left the city under official escort.\n\nIn loneliness and peril Mrs. Hsi and her aged mother cried to God, as\nthe anxious, weary days passed by. The missionaries were gone, very many\nkilled, others in hiding, and some, after perils and sufferings\nunspeakable, had reached Hankow. After some months came the additional\nsorrow of the death of her brother-in-law, Elder Si, who had managed\nfor her all matters in which she required help.\n\nGradually the storm blew over, but those who passed through that period\ncan never forget it. For Christ's sake they had suffered, and they could\nnot again be as before. The Church in Shansi \"had a new and powerful\nweapon\" in her hands, \"the power of her sufferings.\"\n\nA few months later, as soon as passports were available, the\nmissionaries were back at their posts. There was much to tell and to\nhear, as old friends met and were able to recount all the wonderful\ndeliverances of the past year. But how many vacant places there were!\nHow could they be filled? Ripe experience and Christlike sympathy were\nneeded to deal with the new situation.\n\nSome had, under pressure, in a weak moment, recanted; others had\nresisted this temptation, but fallen over the more subtle question of\nindemnity for property destroyed. The situation, moreover, was changed;\nforeigner and Christian alike were now in the ascendancy. Compensation\nfor life and property was granted, and though the members of the China\nInland Mission declined to accept this, their action was made the\noccasion of a laudatory proclamation which called upon the people to\nnote and imitate such an exemplification of self-forgetting goodness.\n\nIn the providence of God the lives of a few missionaries had been spared\nto return, and with the benefit of their experience, to help new workers\nto an understanding of a situation which, mishandled, would inevitably\nlead to disastrous consequences.\n\nNothing could give Mrs. Hsi greater pleasure than to hear from her\nfriend, Miss French, that Hwochow was to be her future centre. I, as a\nnew worker, was to accompany her, and together we reached the city which\nwas to be henceforth our home.\n\nThe reception given by the very few Christians who gathered to meet us,\nwas both cordial and critical. Miss French was welcome as being one\nwhose reputation had long ago reached them, who had already paid several\nvisits to the station, and whose Chinese, they soon remarked, was \"as\ngood as Miss Jacobsen's!\" Of me they knew nothing, and I had to meet the\ngaze of many eyes and listen to the remark, before I opened my month to\nspeak, that it was impossible to understand my words. I had only one\nasset, and that was the fact that this being my first station I should\nbelong to them, and when the day dawned that would release my stammering\ntongue, the honour of having taught and trained me would be theirs!\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[4] _Yamen_=law courts or Mansion House.\n\n[5] From _Fire and Sword in Shansi_, by Dr. E. H. Edwards.\n\n\n\n\nLIFE IN THE VILLAGES\n\n          \"Great things are done when men and mountains meet;\n           These are not done by jostling in the street.\"\n                                               WILLIAM BLAKE.\n\n          \"Arrived there, the little house they fill,\n           No look for entertainment where none was;\n           Rest is their feast, and all things at their will;\n           The noblest mind the best contentment has.\"\n                                               WILLIAM SPENSER.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nLIFE IN THE VILLAGES\n\nAN INTRODUCTION TO CHINESE HOME LIFE\n\n\nTHE house at Hwochow, which we were to inhabit, was still in the hands\nof workmen. We therefore decided to delay the unpacking of our boxes,\nand to spend several months in visiting the homes of the Christians\nthroughout the four counties for which we were then responsible. Our\ntravelling paraphernalia was simple, luggage being limited to the amount\nthat a small donkey could carry in addition to a rider. Clothes and\nbooks were tied up in large square handkerchiefs and distributed as\nevenly as possible, along with a folded, wadded quilt in a long bed-bag\nwhich, thrown over the donkey's saddle, reached nearly to the ground on\neither side. On the early morning of the day decided on for our\ndeparture, two donkeys thus laden stood at our gate. On to one of them I\nwas hoisted, and took my first lesson in how to sit happily, perched\nhigh on the voluminous luggage with neither reins for my hands nor\nstirrups for my feet, for sometimes as long as twelve hours' travelling\nwith but a short break for food and rest at midday. From village to\nvillage we wandered, received everywhere with cordial hospitality,\npressed to extend our visit, and followed on our departure by the\nreiterated cry: \"Come again, come again, come again soon!\"\n\nAll was fresh and delightful to me and brimful of interest, from the\nhour when I rode through the city gate, passed the great tanks of lotus\nbloom to the edge of the swift, shallow river, where my servant stripped\noff his shoes and socks to lead my donkey knee-deep over the ford.\n\nBy narrow roads we travelled where the tall grain stood like a wall on\neither side, ripening in the fierce sunshine which bathed the landscape\nin a dazzling glare. Through occasional villages we rode, where the\nwomen called to each other to hurry and see the strange sight, and\ngroups of naked and semi-naked children commented freely on the\nappearance of the \"foreign devils.\"\n\nA few miles farther and the first stage was reached--a deep courtyard\nbacking the hillside, from which had been hollowed a row of caves\naccording to the economical method of the country. Scarcely any bricks\nare required for such building, and the deep, lofty, arched room affords\nthe warmest shelter in our bitter Shansi winter cold, as it does the\ncoolest refuge from the burning summer heat.\n\n\"Come again, come again soon,\" and we were off again, refreshed by a\ndelicious, beautifully cooked meal, and our hearts warmed by the evident\npleasure which our visit had given and the cordial hospitality which had\nsought to let us know how welcome we were. And now we left the fertile\nplain and well-watered land which lay all along the river-bed to climb\nsteep, stony roads, and follow narrow footpaths, where the difficulty of\nits broad load made my donkey step gingerly as near to the chasm's edge\nas she could secure a foothold, and I dug my knees into the soft bed-bag\nand longed for something on which I could get a grip. How pleasant and\neasy such journeying became before the end of that autumn's wandering,\nand how familiar the life of the village homes. Almost day by day the\nconfused sounds took form to my unaccustomed ears, and I was soon able\nto differentiate quite clearly between the two inevitable questions,\n\"How old are you?\" and \"How many brothers and sisters have you?\" I\nceased to cover myself with confusion, by answering that my brothers and\nsisters numbered twenty-three, and that my age was six--though now that\nthe days of helpless shame are passed, I would not _not_ have made these\nmistakes, so keen is the enjoyment still felt when some one repeats the\nold joke, and all laugh merrily at the recollection.\n\nHappy, irresponsible days, in which I learned to know and love the\nChinese. I saw them now to best advantage, simple, patriarchal,\nindustrious and thrifty, extraordinarily resourceful, and independent of\nall that their own fields and farm do not supply. I saw the women's\nactivities, and how they picked the cotton in the fields, spun and\ncarded it, then wove it into strong cloth on the loom made for them by\ntheir own husbands; how they dyed the cloth with indigo of their own\ngrowing, and finally converted it into the garments, and even the shoes\nand socks, worn by the whole family. I saw how those same garments were\nwadded with a layer of cotton-wool as the cold season approached, and\nbehold, the whole family was made proof against the severe onslaughts of\nthe keenest frosts and bitterest winds. I saw how a measure of wheaten\nor maize flour, a vessel of water, and a few vegetables dug from the\nfield were daily converted into the three meals on which young and old\nalike thrived, the men showing a muscular development and endurance and\nan agility unequalled by anything I had met in other countries. I\nlearned to recognise their simple, unexpressed joys, and to realise the\ndeep tragedies which lay beneath the surface of their laborious lives.\n\nI was in the midst of the province which--in the very year when I was\nborn--had been swept by the horrors of a famine and pestilence which\nleft whole villages with no other survivor than perhaps two or three\nwailing children, feeding on garbage torn from the grasp of the dead\nhand.\n\nMy servant remembered the time well. His whole family had been wiped\nout, and he had escaped as by a miracle. \"In those days, dogs ate dogs\nand men ate men,\" was the refrain of his tale, only too literally and\nabsolutely true, for no man dared to venture on the lonely path leading\nfrom one village to another, knowing that the likelihood was that\nmurderers lay in wait, and that a few picked bones alone would tell the\ntale even if, satiated with horrors to the point of indifference, any\none cared to inquire of it.\n\nWhen I expressed surprise at the many rows of caves allowed to fall into\nutter ruin, and the traces of whole villages now returned to waste\nland: \"Famine year,\" he would briefly answer, \"dogs ate dogs and men ate\nmen.\"\n\nI learned, too, why it was that no merry groups of children wandered\naway from the village, even now when no evil-doers lay in wait, upon\nsome game or exploring adventure. I first discovered the reason of this\nthrough meeting a woman whose face was scarred and mutilated so as to\nbear small likeness to the human, and on inquiry I was informed that, as\na little girl, she had strayed away from home and been attacked by a\nwolf; men had rushed to her rescue, but her face, which is generally the\npart first attacked, was torn beyond recognition. I then learned what a\ncommon thing it is for wild beasts, wolves or leopards, to come down\nfrom the hills, and steal children even as they play around the\ncourtyard grinding-stone. I could not be surprised at the intense\nanxiety of a woman whose son was half an hour late returning from an\nerrand, when I heard that her eldest child had strayed off one day, and\nnever been seen again. I was told of yet another woman who, nursing her\nbaby in the cave, saw a leopard spring on her eldest child in the\ncourtyard. Frantic, she left the baby to raise the alarm, and when she\nreturned bearing the little mangled body in her arms, she found that the\nwild beast's mate had noted her absence and carried the baby off to its\nlair.\n\nI also heard, and found myself compelled to believe, things which I\nshould have dismissed with an incredulous smile some few months earlier.\n\nIt was now that I found myself brought face to face with the strange\nphenomenon of demon possession. There is so much to be said on this\ninteresting topic, that it will require a chapter under its own heading\nto note even a portion of what has come under my personal notice. For\nthe first time I heard, often in the midnight stillness, the\nhigh-pitched voice, intoning the magic incantations whereby some young\nwoman yielded herself to be the medium of communication between the\nspirit and the material, the wild chant sometimes dying away in the\ndistance, as she led a group of inquirers over wild mountain paths in\nobedience to the directions of her control.\n\nA few weeks were spent in the home of an elder of the Church, Giang by\nname, as from this centre it was easy to make daily itinerations in the\nneighbourhood. What a welcome we received there! The deep cave set apart\nfor our use was decorated with flowers, everything was clean and\ncomfortable, and we were made to feel \"at home.\" Being guests in the\nhouse, our meals were always served separately, but we liked to take our\nbowls into the courtyard and enjoy the family life. We were able to\nconsult with our host concerning many whom we had visited during the\nday, and discuss our plans for the morrow.\n\nAs the daylight faded we joined in prayer and praise, and listened to\nmuch that was of interest to us as the Elder told of early years spent\nin dissipation, opium smoking, and gambling; of his conversion through\nPastor Hsi, and of first efforts to preach the Gospel. Meanwhile, the\nshepherd folded his sheep, carefully counting them lest one should be\nmissing, and the women prepared the millstones for grinding on the\nmorrow. I saw much illustrated that had been familiar to me from\nchildhood in the Gospel stories, even to the midnight cry announcing the\narrival of the bridal party to a neighbour's house. A little oil was\nadded to our long-extinguished lamp, as, being first to hear the\nclanging of the cymbals, we hastened to the bridegroom's home to help\narouse the drowsy guests.\n\nWe returned in due course to Hwochow, urged by our kind hostess to come\nagain at any time. Such homes are resting-places to those who have left\nhome for the Kingdom of God's sake, and are part of the literal\nfulfilment of the promise: \"An hundredfold now in this time.\"\n\nNowhere are we more sure of a welcome than in some of these Chinese\ncourts, and for the Church of Christ in the home of Elder Giang, I for\none shall ever be thankful.\n\n\n\n\nOUR RECEPTION AT HWOCHOW\n\n          \"The Master said: At first, my way with men was to\n          hear their words, and give them credit for their\n          conduct. Now, my way is to hear their words, and\n          look at their conduct.\"--_Confucian Analects._\n\n          \"The Master said: A man should say, I am not\n          concerned that I have no place, I am concerned how\n          I may fit myself for one. I am not concerned that\n          I am not known, I seek to be worthy to be\n          known.\"--_Confucian Analects._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nOUR RECEPTION AT HWOCHOW\n\nSHOWING THINGS AS THEY SOMETIMES ARE\n\n\nIN spite of the valuable help given by study-circles, training-colleges,\nand other means by which the candidate for the mission field is equipped\nfor his work, I question if many are fully prepared, when they arrive at\nthe station to which they have been appointed, to find themselves\nstudied, summed up, and criticised by the people to whom they have come\nin the capacity of teachers, and from whom they unconsciously expected\nsome measure of deference.\n\nThe Westerner, as such, has no prestige in the eyes of the Chinese, and\nthough his wealth, education, and business capacity may command more or\nless respect, the deep-rooted feeling is a sense of the intrinsic\nsuperiority of the Middle Kingdom and its sons to the barbaric subjects\nof a vague territory known as the \"Kingdom without\"--that is, without\nthe pale of the ancient civilisation. By grace, the Christian will\nwelcome you as a fellow-subject of the Kingdom of God, but on this\nground only, and on no preconceived assumption of your superiority, will\nyou be accepted.\n\nThe fact that you have come several thousands of miles in order to\npreach the Gospel, is not sufficient to place you unquestionably on a\npedestal. By temperament you are either impetuous or slow, easy-going or\nexacting, courteous or brusque, and you will prove to be by nature more\nor less reasonable or unreasonable when the Chinaman seeks to make you\nunderstand _li_, an untranslatable word, which embodies the idea of the\ncomplete range of all that it is suitable that you should be and do, on\nevery occasion.\n\nFailure to readjust your mind to such conditions during the first years\nof your missionary life may prove an eventual fatal barrier to mutual\nsympathetic understanding, and the establishment of that barrier has\nbeen one of the difficulties which has not been much spoken of by those\nwith whom you have conversed, though they have doubtless been keenly\nconscious of it themselves.\n\nWe returned to Hwochow. The house was ready for us, and so were the\nChurch members. \"New people,\" said some, \"we are unaccustomed to each\nother; they do not understand our circumstances, and we do not know\nthem.\"\n\n\"Why did they spend months in another district instead of coming at once\nto make themselves acquainted with us, our affairs, and our homes?\"\n\n\"It is a case of clear neglect,\" said another. \"I have been a Church\nmember for fifteen years, and all the notice they have taken of me is to\nspend one paltry day in my home, whereas they were three whole days in\nthe village of Peace and Harmony, where there are only heathen and not a\nChristian to receive them.\" \"I,\" complained another, \"have been unable\nto attend Church service for two weeks, and neither of them has been\nnear, as yet, to inquire the cause of my absence.\"\n\n\"Well,\" chimed in an old gentleman, who by reason of his seniority in\nthe Church carried a good deal of weight, \"had our beloved teacher of\nformer days been here, our homes would have been visited, and I will\ntake the first opportunity of telling them my mind on the subject.\"\n\nThe close of the following Sunday morning service found us sad enough.\nThe congregation numbered thirty, and while some were loyally ready to\nhelp, there was a section of malcontents who since the early days had\nbeen a source of difficulty to Pastor Hsi and his friends, and from\nwhom, in the light of past knowledge, Miss French knew that trouble\nwould come.\n\nThe first indication of the brewing storm was the entrance to our\nguest-room of an aged Church member who, by reason of his rank as\nmilitary mandarin, was one of the glories of the Hwochow Church.\nVigorous and stalwart, his seventy years sat lightly on him, his bearing\nand the play of his facial muscles affording proof of the brilliancy\nwith which he had passed the necessary examinations for the obtaining of\nhis degree. Unlike the civil mandarin, whose examinations require such\narduous study of classical writings, the military honour was conferred\nas a reward for physical prowess. The competitor was required to exhibit\ngreat skill in archery, shooting at the target from the back of a\ngalloping horse, and to lift stones of immense weight; meanwhile\nthrowing the body into such postures as, coupled with a terrifying\nexpression of the countenance and accompanied by blood-curdling yells,\nwould strike such terror into the heart of the opponent that he would\nflee without striking a blow.\n\nAfter such training he had little to fear, and felt, no doubt, that a\nfew moments' interview would be sufficient to reduce two young women to\nreason, and place matters on a more satisfactory basis.\n\nWhen the old gentleman entered, we invited him to the seat of honour,\nourselves taking chairs at the lower side of the table. He asked for an\nexplanation. Had he been informed correctly that we had been appointed\nto carry on the work in Hwochow? \"Yes,\" we replied, \"that is the case,\nand also to help the women in the counties of Chaocheng, Hungtung, and\nFensi, until such time as lady workers shall be in residence there;\nmoreover, our schools are to be for the women and girls of these\ncounties as well as Hwochow.\"\n\nThis item of information fell as a severe blow. Hwochow is a curious\ndistrict, its natives physically and mentally being of a totally\ndifferent type to all around, in all relationships with whom there\nexists mutual distrust and suspicion. It was odious to men and women of\nthis exclusive type to hear that the foreigner, in coming, viewed the\nnurturing of a small band of discontents as of very secondary importance\nto the opportunity of spreading the news of the Gospel far and wide\namongst the heathen. It was at this point of the conversation that the\nfirst traces of that terror-striking expression began to flit across his\nfeatures, and his eyebrows gathered themselves into a most terrifying\nbunch. \"Are you aware that I have been a Christian for twelve years, and\nthat I am known far and wide by Chinese and foreigners alike?\" \"I am\nfully aware of it,\" said Miss French, and might have added, \"known and\ndreaded of all men.\"\n\n\"Should not the missionaries' conduct be regulated in accordance with\nthe command, 'Seek the lost until it be found'?\" \"It should,\" acquiesced\nMiss French. \"Then are you aware that during the past three months we\nhave been as sheep without a shepherd, left as prey to wolves, with no\none to care for us, our homes have been unvisited, and members who have\nabsented themselves from Church service have had no inquiries made as to\nthe cause of their non-appearance?\"\n\n\"Did you say _twelve_ years a Church member?\" inquired Miss French.\n\"Nearly thirteen,\" he replied. \"Then no longer a babe in Christ, but\nyourself able to seek the lost, and to come to our assistance as we take\nup the responsibilities of our new work. We have come here,\" she added,\n\"for the people who need us, whether Chaocheng or Hwochow.\"\n\n\"Then go to Chaocheng and leave us alone; _our_ missionaries must\nshepherd _our_ Church.\" At this point wrath overcame him, and throwing\nhimself into the classical position of the Chinese brave, \"A couple of\nyoungsters,\" he yelled, \"untaught in the wisdom of Confucius.\" With\nthese words he flung himself out of the room. His spirit was too much\nperturbed to call to mind the wisdom of the sage, \"In archery we have\nsomething like the way of the superior man. When the archer misses the\ncentre of the target, he turns round and seeks for the cause of his\nfailure in himself.\"\n\nThe loud clanging of a gong was shortly heard, and the tones of a\nwell-known voice alternately carolling forth a familiar hymn with a\nrecital of the wrongs needing redress.\n\n  \"The Gospel way is the best of all, hark! I loud proclaim the same.\"\n\n(Loud beating of the gong.) \"Call that love! I vow to report them at\nheadquarters!\"\n\n  \"Heaven's joy bestowed on earth, saves poor sinners and sets them\n      free.\"\n\n(Again the gong.) \"Much they care for our souls! Let them go to\nChaocheng!\"\n\nThe sounds gradually ceased, as those who were truly grieved that we\nshould be thus insulted pacified the old gentleman, begging him to have\na care for his aged body, and refresh it with food and rest.\n\nMiss French's mind was made up. \"We shall soon make another tour of\nvillages outside this district,\" she said, \"and it shall be a long one.\nThese old members have stood in the way long enough. New converts will\njoin themselves to the Church; if they be welcomed, all the better, if\nnot, the old ones must go; we can allow them to hinder no longer.\"\n\nMiss French's method was fully justified, for when they saw new\nadherents keen with the flush of first love and enthusiasm they, with\nvery few exceptions, awakened more fully to their responsibilities.\n\nTime heals many wounds, and when we returned from England our old\nfriend, the military mandarin, came in full official dress to welcome\nus.\n\n\"Good to have you back,\" he said; \"we are accustomed to each other, and\nyou know how to manage this place!\"\n\n\n\n\nA PORTRAIT GALLERY\n\n          \"We must be as courteous to a man as we are to a\n          picture, which we are willing to give the\n          advantage of a good light.\"--EMERSON.\n\n          \"He asked them to come with Him, and they came;\n          and Jesus did not begin by raising questions in\n          their minds as to whether they were worthy to\n          come. It was the purpose of Jesus to make them\n          worthy to stay. Now the Church of Christ ought to\n          be as hospitable as Christ was. I do not see for\n          what other purpose she exists. And the Church\n          ought to be as confident and believing as Christ\n          was, that many a one whom it may be was unworthy\n          to enter has at length become worthy to\n          remain.\"--Dr. JOHN HUTTON.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nA PORTRAIT GALLERY\n\nWHEREIN THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO SOME OF OUR FELLOW WORKERS\n\n\nIN meeting the members of an infant and unsophisticated Church, it is\ndelightful to observe the directness of their spiritual characteristics,\nunfettered by the artificiality which grows up with theological\nphraseology and the adoption of sectarian conventionalities.\n\nSo strongly individualistic a band of men met us at Hwochow, that\nChristian himself on his Heavenward journey encountered, I think, no\nmore varied a company, nor more striking, in the various ways in which\nCHRIST had met them and called them to discipleship, and turned their\nstrongly-marked characteristics into the way of His service.\n\nEvangelist, Fu by name, keen and even fierce in his determination to\ncompel men to hear the truth concerning the City of Destruction and the\nburden of sin which rests upon them, would go from place to place with a\nbundle of books, preaching and warning sinners \"to flee from the wrath\nto come.\" He asked no remuneration from the Church _or_ foreigner for\nthe time he gave, but realising that necessity was laid upon him, he\npointed men to the Saviour. His best work was done alone for he was\neasily offended, but, true and straight, he ruled his house in the fear\nof the Lord.\n\nHis conversion was characteristic of the man. Having business to\ntransact in the small city of Great Peace, he found that large crowds\nhad gathered to listen to a man proclaiming strange doctrines. Every one\nknew why Pastor Hsi, for it was he, had come that day to the city. A\nfamily had professed their willingness to destroy idols, and asked him\nto be present on the occasion. When the Pastor arrived, however, the man\nhad changed his mind, and fear of consequences had proved too much for\nhim. Nothing could hinder the Pastor from preaching the Good News, and\nhe made much of this opportunity. When he had finished speaking, Mr. Fu\nwent to him and asked him what was this new doctrine, and Mr. Hsi told\nhim the story of the Garden of Eden, and the Fall of man.\n\n\"In Adam all have sinned, and in Christ all can be forgiven.\" It was a\nstrange story, and yet as Fu listened he felt it was true, and as he\ntook the long, lonely walk over the mountains to his home, he meditated\nmuch upon it. He had not as yet seen the wicket-gate, but he had seen\nthe direction in which it lay, and a subconscious desire was in his\nheart to know more.\n\nHome affairs claimed his attention, and he had no time to give to the\nfurther investigation of new religions; and yet the seed which had been\nsown was gradually germinating, so that when after a few months he\nfound himself again near Great Peace, in a small place where was an\nopium refuge, Mr. Fu went in to see the man who was in charge. Although\nhe had never smoked opium himself, Mr. Fu was on this occasion in\npossession of some of the crude drug, and was on his way to the hills to\nsell it, and hoped by the transaction to profit considerably. The\nRefuge-keeper, seeing he was interested, asked him to share his evening\nmeal, and when he found out the errand on which his guest was bent, he\ntold him to sell the opium he had and avoid any further dealings with so\ndeadly a poison. Mr. Fu was deeply touched by the kindness of this man.\n\"I have no claim upon him, and yet he treated me as a brother,\" was his\nreflection. From that day Mr. Fu never sold opium again.\n\nHe started on his homeward journey, and once more as he walked the\nlonely roads he was conscious of the constraining presence of One who\nhas so often met with men as they travel, walking through the fields,\nand inviting them to leave all and follow Him. Thus untrammelled by the\nwords and requirements of men, Mr. Fu met with his God; but still\nquestioning, he reached home to find that his wife was dangerously ill.\nHe went at once to a neighbouring village to fetch a doctor, and found\nhim unwilling to come until he had taken a dose of opium which was then\ndue. Finding that all persuasion was useless, Mr. Fu suddenly decided to\ngo to Hwochow and see if the foreign missionaries, or the Opium\nRefuge-keeper there, had any medicine. He walked the twelve miles, and\nwas directed to the missionaries' house. The decision to go to Hwochow\nwas made suddenly; not so the resolution to enter the open door of the\nhouse. Perhaps he had been wrong after all! It was serious to so openly\ncome in contact with foreigners! It might be that the stories he had\nheard of their magical powers were correct! And yet his heart had borne\nhim witness, in that lonely walk, that what he heard in Great Peace was\ntrue.\n\nAfter walking up and down for some time, unconscious that Goodwill was\nwatching him from within, he heard some one call and ask him to come in.\nThe call came at the right moment and he entered, knowing as he did so\nthat a definite step was being taken and life would never be for him the\nsame again.\n\n\"My wife is ill, and I have come to ask for medicine,\" he said. After\nsome talk he was taken to see Miss Jacobsen, who told him that God\ncould, and would, heal sickness in answer to prayer. She and the\nevangelist prayed with him, gave him medicine, some books, and made him\npromise to come again. He left them, saying that he would do so. Again\nthe long, lonely walk had to be faced, and Beelzebub gave orders that\narrows should be shot at him, and all manner of doubts took possession\nof his soul. \"I must go again, for I have given my word,\" he reflected.\n\"What folly!\" and then again the words which he could not doubt\nreasserted themselves, and he considered, yielded, and believed.\n\nAs he entered his courtyard, he saw his wife grinding corn! \"I am well,\"\nshe said. \"And I,\" he said, \"have believed in Jesus.\" To his surprise,\nnot one word of anger escaped her lips. \"I am glad,\" was her only\ncomment.\n\nThere was no time to be lost; if he delayed, others might hinder him,\nand before his evening meal he tore down the idols, and together husband\nand wife prayed to God.\n\nFu was the youngest of four brothers, and the three other families were\nnot of the same mind; he was unceasing in his efforts to bring them to\nthe Saviour, but at the Chinese New Year festival they, as custom\nrequired, burnt incense to the idols.\n\nSerious illness seized upon various members of all three families, and\ntheir lives were in danger. Fu, seeing his opportunity, offered to go to\nthe city and ask the evangelist to come and pray for them, and to this\nthey consented. When Mr. Fu returned, he was accompanied by Mr. Cheng,\nand in response to his exhortations their idols were destroyed and the\nthree brothers professed their willingness to become disciples. That\nplace has been signally blessed of God. All have given liberally of\ntheir substance to the work of the Lord, and they have now their own\nchurch, a cave cut from the _loess_ cliffs by their own hands, where\nSunday by Sunday men and women gather from the neighbouring villages to\nhear the word of God, and many have been added to the Church as a\nresult.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMr. Ging, little of stature, so short-sighted as to be almost blind, had\nrecently been a patient in the Opium Refuge. A scholar of note, holding\na high degree, we first knew him when he was about forty years of age,\nand the only Christian in his village. He was more than any Chinaman I\nhave met impregnated with the teachings of Confucius; and filial piety\nwas for him no mere doctrine of words, but a ruling factor in his life.\n\nShortly before the time of which I write, he had, one day, given some\ncause of offence to his aged mother, in consequence of which she\ncommanded that, in recognition of his fault, he should kneel on the\nground before her until such time as she should see fit to excuse him.\n\nFor half a day she kept him in that position, and he knelt quietly,\ngiving to all an example and illustration of the sacred duty of son to\nparent as taught in the Chinese Classics, and as understood by those who\nearnestly follow their teachings.\n\nBy virtue of his learning and position, no matter of importance would be\nsettled in the village without him, and he enjoyed great respect as a\nteacher of the young, notwithstanding the fact that he was handicapped\nin his work as school-master by reason of his defective eyesight, the\nboys taking full advantage of his disability and failing to appreciate\nas they should the virtue of the \"Princely Man\" of whom they read so\nmuch in their classical studies, and of whom they daily witnessed so\nstriking an example.\n\nFor some of these pupils of his, examination-day dawned, and the results\nwere disastrous. The consequences of much undetected mischief were now\nmade clear in the light of day, and the indignant examining missionary\ncalled upon Mr. Ging to aid in devising a punishment adequate to the\ncircumstances. \"Is it by extra imposed work, or by the public disgrace\nof the rod, that their misdeeds will be made most heinous in their own\neyes?\" he was asked, the remarks being accompanied by a look which could\nnot fail to assure the trembling band of offenders that the method of\nSolomon met with unqualified approval. \"I think,\" replied Mr. Ging,\n\"that the case does not call so much for punishment as for exercise of\ngreater patience on our side!!!\" This answer was to the unbounded\ndelight of the scholars, and discomfiture of the missionary.\n\nIt was in his own village and home that he shone. Before many years had\npassed, the people who were formerly unwilling to receive us had many of\nthem become Christians. One of their number had lent his room, rent free\nfor ten years, as a meeting-place for worship, and a good work had\nbegun. If you spoke to them of the cause of this change, they would tell\nyou of Mr. Ging and the force of his example, and how even his old\nmother had, before her death, renounced idolatry and asked for a\nChristian funeral.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWhat can I say of Mr. Lan? One is tempted to question, \"How shall the\nsuperficial enter into the Kingdom of God?\"\n\nOne of the aristocratic families, no longer enjoying the prosperity of\nformer days, yet endeavouring to impress upon all its grandeur whilst\ninevitably sinking, gave us Mr. Lan.\n\nContact with Pastor Hsi had been the turning-point in his life, and from\nthe early days he gave himself assiduously to the study of the Bible.\nFew have more accurate knowledge of the Scripture than he, his\naddresses are well and carefully prepared, and he has been the means\nunder God of leading many men to a knowledge of the Saviour. His kind\ndisposition and good-nature have given him many friends, but love of\nmoney and appearances have crippled his usefulness. Any Christian work\nhe now does is independent of the missionaries, and he will sometimes be\ninvited to the official's residence to help some one to leave the opium\nhabit, he and his father before him having been doctors of no small\nrepute. He is constantly in debt, and will often remain away from his\nhome during the Chinese New Year when debts are settled, but when he\ndoes return, he enters the house with such perfect manners, and is\nattired in such gorgeous silk, that few would venture to mention\nanything so unpleasant as the settlement of a debt.\n\nEasily led, he loves the glories of this present world and is fearful\nlest, by too great zeal, the rulers of Vanity Fair may regard him as a\nstranger and outcast. And yet, in his high moments, he finds himself\nlonging for the things that abide, and his affections and desires are\nfor the time being upon these, but as a morning cloud they pass. In\nother lands, where the line of demarcation is less clear, he might be\nconsidered a good Churchman, but neutral tints are rare here, and a man\nmust clearly show on which side he stands or he will get the benefit of\nneither.\n\nHe is ever faithfully served by his dependant and sycophant, Mr. Diao,\nwho is a weak, physically decadent man who can neither offend by word\nnor deed the man from whom he has had so much. His manner is too\nservile to allow one to place much confidence in him, but he is a\nbeliever, and proves by many actions that he is truly following Christ.\nIf only he could get free from the net of the rich man, and yet--what\nChurch has not such members!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMr. Tu, weak, good, always trusting the Heavenly Father to supply his\nneeds, temporal and spiritual, and ever ready to bear witness that He\nhas done so, in spite of the fact that life's outlook is always grey!\nVery poor, he was the leader in his village by virtue of his sincerity.\nIs some aggressive movement proposed? \"The time has not yet come,\" is\nhis ever-ready answer. Do the crops seem to fail for lack of rain, and\nthe farmers, anxious and worried, speak of the famine confronting them,\nand him? \"Fear not, the Lord will provide,\" he will say, and though he\nmay have to eat the coarsest flour, and little of that sometimes, he\nnever doubts, and never rejoices!!\n\nOn the occasion of the marriage of his son, even a short time before the\nbride arrived, nothing was ready--he had so little--and all he said was:\n\"We must wait and see how the Heavenly Father will provide.\" When the\nmoment came every one was ready to help him, and he would be a\ndiscontent indeed who was dissatisfied with the result. Mr. Tu was full\nof praise to GOD for His goodness, and will quote the incident to those\nwho may have doubts.\n\nI have reflected much upon Mr. Tu and his ways, and I am reminded of the\nravens, \"who sow not nor gather into barns,\" and our Heavenly Father\ncares for them; and I come to the conclusion that to us is granted on\nrare occasions the privilege of being the medium by which our Father\nwill prove His care to the weak, yet trustful souls. Good, faithful old\nTu, he could teach many of us of the active, energetic temperament a\nlesson; for he will tell you, and truly, that he has no strength, yet he\nhas never asked from man, and he has perfect confidence that the Good\nShepherd will lead him safe to the journey's end.\n\n\n\n\nWORK DEVELOPMENT\n\n          \"No Church is fulfilling its responsibilities to\n          God, or preparing itself for its best and most\n          effective work, which does not regard itself in\n          some respects as a great Training School for\n          Christian workers.\"--Rev. A. SWIFT.\n\n          \"And He gave--\n           Some indeed to be apostles,\n           And some prophets,\n           And some evangelists,\n           And some shepherds and teachers,--\n           With a view to the fitting of the saints\n           For the work of ministering,\n           For an upbuilding of the body of the Christ.\"\n                              The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nWORK DEVELOPMENT\n\nRELATING HOW WE SOUGHT TO ENCOMPASS THE WORK, AND THE WORK ENCOMPASSED\nUS\n\n\nTHE events of 1900 resulted in an extraordinary quickening of interest\namongst those who had a contact of some kind with Christianity. We very\nsoon found ourselves quite overwhelmed by the many openings and\nopportunities which presented themselves on all sides. Hitherto\nuntouched villages begged for a visit, idols were destroyed by those\ninto whose homes we had never penetrated, leaders in the Church were\nbegging us to devise some means by which the women might be taught,\nfathers were prepared for any sacrifice so that their daughters might be\nreceived as scholars.\n\nFor some time, at vast expenditure of strength, we attempted by\ntravelling in different directions to spend, at any rate, one or two\ndays in the various centres we were begged to visit. Each month we\nbecame more strongly impressed with the fact that the work of\nevangelisation was being carried on with tremendous aggressive force,\nnot by us, but by the native Church, we being unable to even follow up\nthe openings made by them.\n\nSuch a mass movement afforded an unparalleled opportunity, provided\nsufficient teaching were given to establish and build up in the faith\nthose who believed; but if left to itself, this large numerical increase\nmight prove a serious menace to the spiritual life of the Church. We had\nto seriously consider our ways. Should we contribute our small part to\nthe widespread preaching of the Gospel and visiting of those who had\nalready heard through the Chinese evangelising agencies, or should we\nleave to the Chinese Church the responsibility of propagating itself,\nreserving ourselves to \"preparing saints for the work of ministering\"?\n\nChinese Christians going from place to place spread the Good Tidings\nmore effectually than we could hope to do, and where such conditions\nexist, it is surely an indication that the people of the land should\nhear the Gospel first from the lips of their own countrymen. Moreover,\nthe Government was seriously considering the establishment of girls'\nschools, and we had to decide as to whether the work amongst the young\nshould be an unimportant branch of our scheme of missionary activities,\nor whether our schools should be established with the object of becoming\ntraining-centres for Christian helpers.\n\nWe were faced with this fact: unless we trained some Christian teachers,\nthe education of the young would be in the hands of heathen; no small\nmatter when the exalted position of the teacher in China is borne in\nmind; and the, if possible, more urgent fact, that unless we seriously\nprepared some Chinese missionaries we should go from year to year,\ndecade to decade, with no trained Chinese staff. The material was there,\nand the Chinese Church was supplying young men and women, earnest\ndevoted servants of Jesus Christ, who, given the training and granted\nthe blessing of God, could do a work which it would be impossible for\nthe most earnest Westerner to accomplish. Chinese of the Chinese, with\nneither linguistic nor climatic difficulties, understanding the minds of\nthe most subtle of people, they enter their work with a flying leap\nwhich we may envy, but cannot attain. The Holy Spirit will deal with\nthem as He does with us, and recognising them as fellow-workers together\nwith God, we shall cease to hinder them by perpetual criticism and\ndoubt. Faults they will have, as we, and while of a different order, who\nshall say that these failings make them in God's sight more unfit for\nthe work of preaching the Gospel than ours have made us?\n\nWe therefore accepted the form of ministry which pressed with strongest\nnecessity on us, and from the free and irresponsible life of the\nitinerant missionary, accepted the calling of teachers, and allowed\nourselves to be tied to the numberless claims and responsibilities of\ninstitutional life. In addition to the girls' school, a plan was formed\nwhereby we agreed to accept married women for terms of varying\nlength--twenty to thirty days--as far as possible classifying them\naccording to ability and previous knowledge. The teaching was graded\nfrom the first elements of Christian doctrine to fairly advanced New\nTestament classes. From amongst the first groups of women who came to\nus, it was evident that some were capable of receiving a far more\nadvanced training, and the zeal they exhibited in teaching the little\nthey knew on their return home, promised future usefulness. Two small\nrooms in our own living-court supplied the only accommodation for these\nstation classes, and as each group scattered it was almost immediately\nreplaced by other eager inquirers.\n\nA small inner court containing two good rooms was set apart for the use\nof the girls' school. Every term brought an increase in the numbers, and\nit was soon evident that more suitable accommodation was essential if we\nwere to meet the growing need. Though we knew it not, the necessary\nprovision was already made. We sat together one evening in a shady spot\nadjoining our premises, sharing our home letters; we opened one to find\nit contained a cheque from a friend who could know nothing of our need,\nmarked: \"For use in any necessary buildings.\" The very spot on which we\nsat, later on proved to be the site of the John Holt Skinner Memorial\nCourt in the new school buildings. By the next term Chinese rooms,\nproviding for the accommodation of sixty, were erected; the old\nschool-court was given over to women's station classes, and we saw scope\nfor the realisation of our wildest dreams. The work amongst the men was\nincreasing in a similar proportion. Mr. Wang, who was in charge when we\narrived at Hwochow, was now appointed Deacon of the Church, and\nafterwards Elder. We soon recognised in him a man of no ordinary\ninfluence. Like Barnabas, he was \"a good man filled with the Holy\nSpirit,\" and like him might well be called the \"Son of Consolation.\"\n\nThe large numbers who were baptized upon profession of faith each year\nentailed many responsibilities--new families to be visited, more\nvisitors to be received, marriages and funerals to be attended. Cases of\npersecution, real or supposed, called for many hours of patient\nlistening, and, withal, the constant stream of city women who desired to\ninspect all that was going on, parents to see children in the school,\nfriends and relatives of opium patients, who lost no chance of visiting\nthe member of the family under treatment, changed the once quiet house\ninto a beehive of activity.\n\nIn many Shansi houses there is a large, well-built room, open to north\nand south, which is set apart for the observance of the prescribed\nfamily rites connected with ancestral worship. Here are the wooden\nancestral tablets, image of the soul and tangible symbol, erected to the\nmemory of the deceased, affording thereby a fixed object for filial\npiety. This room on our compound was dedicated as a church for public\nworship; enlarged once, and again the second time, it still proved too\nsmall for our growing congregation.\n\nThe strain attendant on such a rapid development was severe, but each\nyear found us supplied with increasingly able help from our Chinese\nco-workers. We found ourselves driven to the practical testing of the\nprinciple: \"When the pressure of the work is too heavy, then extend the\nwork,\" and we found it to be sound and workable. Each term some extra\nresponsibility was thrown off on to the shoulders of willing helpers,\nthat we ourselves might be free to undertake fresh enterprises.\n\n\n\n\nMRS. HSI'S SECOND GIFT\n\n          \"It is Jesus who has introduced into virtue a\n          passion before which vice is not condemned but\n          consumed as by fire.\"--Rev. CARNEGIE SIMPSON.\n\n          \"Round the cape of a sudden came the sea,\n           And the sun looked over the mountain's rim:\n           And straight was a path of gold for him,\n           And the need of a world of men for me.\"\n                                        ROBERT BROWNING.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nMRS. HSI'S SECOND GIFT\n\nBEING AN ACCOUNT OF HER LIFE FROM WIDOWHOOD\n\n\nONE direct result of the lack of foreign workers was the appointment of\nMrs. Hsi to the oversight of the women's work in Chaocheng. During her\nhusband's lifetime she had been eager to learn all she could, and had\nwith difficulty mastered some of the Chinese characters. She often\nexpressed to him her desire to learn more, but he told her to remember\nthat the need for her to attend to the domestic side of the large\nestablishment at the Middle Eden was essential, and her life until his\ndeath was largely a busy domestic one.\n\nNot entirely, however, was this the case. When it became necessary to\nopen a Refuge for Women in the city of Hungtung, it was to his wife that\nthe Pastor looked for help, and she, there and in other places, did a\ntruly Christlike work. It was in the city of Hsugo that she accomplished\nher most difficult task. It seemed as if the devil had a special power\nthere, and Pastor Hsi was almost in despair. Man after man, amongst them\nsome of his most trusted helpers, fell into sin, or were overcome by\ndifficulties in that place.\n\nHow to hold it at all was a problem. He solved it by sending his wife,\nand alone she went to live six days' journey from the place where he\nwas, and for the first time the work in Hsugo was successful.\n\nAlmost immediately after her return home, Pastor Hsi developed the\nillness from which he never recovered. He was at work on some Refuge\naccounts when he felt unwell, and his spirit became conscious that the\nmessenger had come with a command \"that he must prepare for a change of\nlife, for his Master was not willing that he should be so far from Him\nany longer.\"\n\nFor nearly six months he lingered still, making preparations for the\njourney ahead; he gave directions for the temporary closing of the\nRefuges, recognising, doubtless, that the time while he was still on\nearth, but unable to exercise control, might be an even more perilous\nperiod than that which would follow his death. Mrs. Hsi herself fell\nill, and so seriously that her life was at one time despaired of. She\nwas barely able to stand the fatigue of the public funeral to which\nhundreds gathered, yielding to their grief and sobbing as children who\nhad lost a parent. She herself was bowed with sorrow, for they had been\ntruly one in God's service, but strength was sent to her through a dream\nin which she saw her husband, in glory beyond her imagining, and with\nhim the boy who had been their only son and had died in childhood. When\nshe desired to join them he rebuked her, saying: \"Nay, but you must\nreturn\"; and obedient, she turned her back on the heavenly glory and\nfaced \"the need of a world\" of sin.\n\nMrs. Hsi was now to realise to the full the unfortunate position of a\nchildless widow. According to the custom of the country, the nearest\nmale relative on her husband's side should have been her protector, but\nthis duty devolved on a nephew who was an opium smoker, gambler, and\nunregenerate heathen, and what should have been protection took the form\nof persecution.\n\nElder Si, her brother-in-law, took over the control of the opium refuges\nand the preparation of the medicine used. Days of prayer and fasting\nalways preceded the compounding of the drugs which were prepared in\nPastor Hsi's own home, and sent out in the form of pills. It was in\nconnection with the medicine that Mrs. Hsi's first difficulties\noccurred. Large quantities of the various ingredients were stored at\nMiddle Eden, and the said nephew claimed possession of this stock,\ndeclaring his intention of defending his rights by stabbing any one who\ndared to touch it.\n\nThe time came when the drugs were required, and arrangements were\nquietly made for the removal of the material to the home of Elder Si.\nBefore touching the goods, Mrs. Hsi called the young man to her, and\naddressing him by name told him to fetch his knife, as she intended to\ncarry out her husband's wishes and supply the Refuges with the necessary\nmedicine without delay. Abashed, and half-ashamed by her self-confidence\nand dignity, he muttered excuses and left her presence with an apology.\n\nNevertheless, it required all her wits and most of her time to prevent\nthis ne'er-do-weel from robbing her of all she possessed. Opium he would\neat, his gambling habits were strong, and how could she prevent him from\nstealing that which, as one of the family, he could partially claim as\nhis own? The problem weighed upon her mind and she decided that division\nof the land, each taking half the produce of the farm, was the only\nsolution. Even so she was not safe; there is a Chinese proverb which\nsays: \"It is hard to deal with a thief who is one of the family,\" and\nshe proved it to be true. If she left home for a few days she would\nreturn to find her door broken open, her clothes stolen, and her grain\nvisibly less. Although the Chinese law would offer her redress, she, by\nreason of Christian principle and the example of her husband, never\nappealed for help to an earthly tribunal, but daily prayed: \"Lord, have\nmercy on him, and change his heart.\"\n\nIn the early days of her faith, Mrs. Hsi had earnestly desired to unbind\nher feet as witness that she was a Christian, but her husband, fearful\nlest any should be misled to regard Christianity as conformity to\nforeign customs rather than to a change of heart, was strongly opposed\nto her doing so. He strictly forbade the binding of children's feet, but\nsaw no need for outward change of shoe in the foot already disfigured.\nDuring his lifetime she yielded to his wish, but after his death refused\nto let her mature judgment be held in abeyance by the dead hand of the\npast, and did that which she felt was a testimony to many of her weaker\nsisters. She unbound her feet and adopted a normal shoe and sock, and\nmany who had made her supposed attitude on the question an excuse, now\nfollowed her example.\n\nIn order to give the Gospel to Hwochow Mrs. Hsi had parted with the most\nvaluable of her worldly goods, and when the call came for the second\ngreat renunciation in response to the need for a woman worker in\nChaocheng, she was ready to move into that city, knowing as she did so,\nthat by leaving the family home she would finally close the way of\nreturn. She well knew that no seal on the door would prevent her nephew\nfrom stealing her goods, and her worst fears were realised when, a few\nyears later, on the occasion of the erection of a memorial stone to\nPastor Hsi, she revisited what had once been Middle Eden. All was gone,\nand she was thankful to hurry away and leave the scene that could only\ncause her pain.\n\nOn entering her new sphere of work, the missionaries at Hwochow assured\nher that all the love and sympathy which she had promised Mr. Taylor\nyears before should be given to the first ladies who came to that city,\nwas now to be bestowed on her. The loyal affection of the Chinese Church\nwas hers, for she is regarded by them with an admiration and reverence\nwhich they consider the right of so worthy a woman. She knew that she\ncould count upon a welcome, but it was a costly step.\n\nCity and village visiting, weekly classes for inquirers, and a Women's\nOpium Refuge occupy Mrs. Hsi's time in Chaocheng. A sentence easy to\nwrite, but only He to Whom the offering is made can know the cost at\nwhich ladies, with the refinements of their class, give themselves to\nthe Christlike work of rescuing the opium sots who find their way to\nthe Refuge. Women of the lowest moral type at times appear, dirty,\ncoarse, and repulsive, and yet gladly and graciously they are received.\nThe lady in charge will sleep with them in order to comfort and pray\nwith them during the night watches, and no service is too menial for\nthese saintly women to render. The impression made is never forgotten by\nthose to whom they minister; and even if they return again to the ways\nof sin, the vision of that gentle lady with her kind heart will remain,\na reflection, faint it may be, yet a reflection of the love of God, ever\nready to welcome the wanderer from the far country.\n\n[Illustration: A WOMAN OPIUM SMOKER.\n\n_To face page 82._]\n\n\n\n\nTHE STORY OF AN OPIUM SMOKER\n\n          \"I know that, because of this money-grasping,\n          trade-compelling feature of England's dealings\n          with my country, millions of wretched people of\n          China have been made more miserable; stalwart men\n          and women have been made paupers, vagrants, and\n          the lowest of criminals; and hundreds of thousands\n          of the weaker ones of my race--mainly among the\n          women--have been sent to suicide graves. All this\n          because gold and territory are greater in the eyes\n          of the British Government, than the rights and\n          bodies of a weak people.\"--H. E. LI HUNG-CHANG.\n\n          \"O my brothers and all my friends,\n           If you would hearken to good advice,\n           Avoid the poppy juice for ever and aye,\n           As it is a plague most noxious and vile!\n           It will eat out your minds,\n           It will rot away your vitals,\n           It will shrivel up your bowels,\n           It will make you walk as a leper,\n           It will cast you into prison,\n           It will send you to your death!\"\n                                        H. E. LI HUNG-CHANG.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nTHE STORY OF AN OPIUM SMOKER\n\n\nTHE first man to enter the Opium Refuge in Hwochow, as patient, was\nnamed Fan of the village of Southern Springs. He came from a once\nwealthy clan, now reduced through opium smoking to comparative poverty.\nHe had not yet reached the stage of positive want, but that condition is\nnever far from the habitual heavy smoker, and should he continue a few\nyears longer, beggary will be the ultimate fate of his wife and family.\n\nThe temptation was at his very door, for all the best-watered land\nsurrounding Southern Springs was given up to poppy cultivation. During\nthe time when the plant was in flower, the village nestled amidst some\nhundreds of acres of exquisite iridescent bloom. The beauty was\nshortlived, even as the seeming prosperity of the grower, and but a few\ndays later Southern Springs stood amidst bare brown fields of dry poppy\nheads, scarred by the cutter's knife, exuding in thick drops the\npoisonous juices--a striking picture in the eyes of all men of the fate\nawaiting the smoker, who, lulled by the insidious charm of the\nfascinating drug, would finally be the only one unable to see himself a\nhopeless, helpless, degraded wreck.\n\nAt the close of three weeks' treatment in the Refuge, Fan returned home\na new creature, restored in body and mind, and with a heart renewed in\nhope. In his own immediate family were several members, victims as\nhimself of the deadly drug, and amongst these was his nephew, adopted\ninto the family on the footing of a son since death had robbed him of\nthe last boy who might pay the filial sacrifice of tears and\nlamentations at his tomb. Moreover, his wife's keen intelligence and\nstrong will were gradually being subjugated by a growing apathy, result\nof her secret habit. On these two Fan urged a plea to give the Refuge a\ntrial, and his nephew, impressed by the evident good result in his\nuncle's case and the assurance that the treatment had induced very\nslight suffering, pronounced himself willing to try the experiment; his\nwife, on the other hand, repudiated with scorn any such suggestion.\nAnother few weeks saw the young man return to Southern Springs loud in\npraise of all he had seen and heard in Hwochow. He recounted all his\nexperiences, every detail of the treatment, the number of pills\nswallowed, and the care with which the strength of the pills was graded\nfrom the powerful \"Pill of life\" to the lesser \"Pill of strength\" and\nthe final \"Pill of restoration.\"\n\nHe also knew by heart a number of verses from the New Testament, and\ncould sing hymns written by Pastor Hsi on the subjects of salvation and\nthe sin of opium smoking, several of which numbered twelve verses in\nlength.\n\nAll this caused much stir in the village, and became the general subject\nof conversation when the men were home from the fields, during the\ntwilight hour devoted to social intercourse. He was referred to as a\ncompetent authority on all matters relating to the ways and habits of\nthose \"foreign devils\" who went to and fro between the various stations\nwhich they had opened, and even penetrated into the villages amongst the\nhomes of any who were rash enough to risk having them under their roof.\n\nBoth uncle and nephew had secretly entirely changed their opinion\nconcerning the foreigner and the Christian doctrine which he inculcated.\nFear had given place to confidence, and one or other would frequently\nwalk the four miles to Hwochow on a week day, or better still on Sunday,\nto sit an hour with the Refuge-keeper, whom it was hard indeed not to\ntrust, and who always had some good matter to unfold and kind, earnest\nwords with which to help a man in the hour when his old vice threatened\nto ensnare his soul afresh. Little sympathy was to be gained at home.\nMrs. Fan still took opium, endangering her husband's and nephew's\nprinciples as they returned, weary from work, to a room reeking with the\nodour so attractive to them.\n\nShe was a woman of no ordinary character, exceptionally intelligent,\nstrong-minded and wilful, capable in every duty which falls to the\nwoman's share in the home; by nature hard working and ambitious, in\nphysique of a pronounced Jewish type. Not easily led, and impossible to\ndrive, she flew into such a passion when her husband ventured to tell\nher that two lady missionaries had arrived, and were prepared to\nreceive women as patients in the Hwochow Refuge, and gave such rein to\nher tongue that he, poor man, was thankful to escape beyond earshot of\nher loud recriminations and curses.\n\nIf his words were silenced we may believe that his actions were speaking\nlouder and more effectually, for influences stronger than the woman\nrealised were even now at work, preparing to overturn all her\npreconceived prejudices and hatred of Christianity and its followers.\n\nThe climax came more suddenly than could have been anticipated,\nrevealing to herself and others the extraordinary change of viewpoint\nwhich had been silently working during weeks of apparently unchanged\nopposition.\n\nOn returning from the fields one evening, Fan found his wife in an\nunusual state of activity, whilst the three little girls who constituted\nhis family formed a tearful group on the _kang_. With characteristic\nabruptness Mrs. Fan delivered the information: \"I am preparing to go to\nthe city Opium Refuge.\" Scarcely able to credit her statement the\nhusband stood aghast, and she explained: \"It is no good, the children\nare taking it too.\"\n\nA terrible statement, yet true, for whereas she knew that she had often\npacified the tiny baby's fretfulness by puffing a few whiffs of the\nsmoke into its mouth, she had that day made the discovery that, as soon\nas she herself lay down to sleep off the effect of her dose, the two\nelder girls would seize on the opium pipe and share all they could get\nfrom it, so that already, unknown to herself, the craving was well\ndeveloped in them.\n\nTo the Refuge they must all go, and the next evening saw a cart at the\ndoor into which were being stowed various bundles of clothing wrapped in\nblue-and-yellow cloths, each bundle having attached to it a small piece\nof scarlet cotton to ensure luck on the journey. Flour and millet for\nfood, and other necessaries were piled up behind the cart, and the\nchildren were packed inside and told to keep quiet, for they were\nleaving at night to avoid the jeers of the villagers. The father sat\nupon the shafts, the mother cross-legged inside, and after an hour's\ndrive the city gates were sighted, and soon the party was welcomed at\nthe Mission House.\n\nA very few days in the Refuge served to largely alter the tenor of Mrs.\nFan's mind. The woman who took charge of her was a kind,\nconfidence-inspiring body, with nothing of the \"foreign devil\" about\nher. She would hear no harm of the missionaries, and flatly denied that\nchildren were enticed on to the premises to be done to death by foul\nmeans, or that the foreigner's blue eye could see corpses in their\ncoffins, or that magic incantations were used by means of which all who\ndrank their tea must become their followers.\n\nAll these questions and many others relating to the personal character\nof the strange beings were asked during the long night watches when\nsleep evades the opium patient, and the nurse helps to while away the\ndreary hours by satisfying her curiosity. Then at dawn the longed-for\ndose of medicine is administered, after a prayer that the \"medicine may\nheal her body, and the blood of Jesus cleanse her soul,\" and she may\nsettle to a doze which daily becomes more natural and peaceful as the\nbody returns to a normal condition of being.\n\nMrs. Fan saw that much was introduced by the foreigner in the wake of\nChristianity which her alert mind recognised as being all to the\nadvantage of women. Even the old Refuge-keeper could read a little, but\nshe was quite dull and slow, whereas without much trouble Mrs. Fan\nherself could master quite a number of new characters every day, and a\nfew hours had been enough for the initial lesson of reading the large\nprint rhyme:\n\n    \"There is but one true God, the Heavenly Father He,\n     Who feeds and clothes and pities me.\n     The only Saviour, too, who can my sins forgive,\n     I trust and hearken to His word, Jesus my Lord and Saviour.\n     Jesus loves the sinner, Jesus pities me,\n     He gave His life, He washed me clean, He verily hath loved me.\"\n\nIt was quite evident that a certain amount of education lay within her\nown grasp, and quite unlimited possibilities were open to her three\ndaughters. The sinfulness of binding up the feet of girls was touched\nupon, and a strong determination took form in her mind that her girls\nshould be among the first who would have natural feet in the\nneighbourhood, in spite of the lurking fear that all three might be left\nas old maids upon her hands if no man might be found bold enough to risk\nthe disgrace of a wife with normal feet. A short length of white cotton\nmaterial was procured, and the three little ones were soon free of\ncompressing bandages, each wearing a pair of calico socks and little\nred-and-yellow shoes, ornamented on the toe with a grinning, whiskered,\ntiger's face.\n\nThese girls were all destined to lives of signal usefulness in the\nChurch. Two of them labour still as teachers and evangelists among their\nown people; the third was early prepared by intense suffering and deep\nwrongs to be removed by death to the realm where the \"wicked cease from\ntroubling and the weary are at rest.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE GREAT FURNACE FOR A GREAT SOUL\n\n          \"Happy the pure in heart, for they shall see God.\"\n\n          \"A white bird, she told him once, looking at him\n          gravely. A bird which he must carry in his bosom\n          across a crowded public place--his own soul was\n          like that!\n\n          \"Would it reach the hands of his good genius on\n          the opposite side, unruffled and\n          unsoiled?\"--WALTER PATER.\n\n          \"To radiate the heat of the affections into a\n          clod, which absorbs all that is poured into it,\n          but never warms beneath the sunshine of smiles or\n          the pressure of hand or lip--this is the great\n          martyrdom of sensitive beings--most of all in that\n          perpetual _auto-da-fe_ where young womanhood is\n          the sacrifice.\"--O. W. HOLMES.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nTHE GREAT FURNACE FOR A GREAT SOUL\n\nBEING THE STORY OF AI DO\n\n\nMRS. FAN'S second daughter came into the world under the shadow of\nsorrow, for apart from the fact that she was a girl, whereas a boy had\nbeen ardently desired, her first lusty yells revealed the fact that she\nwas born with a tooth visible. This was well known by every woman in the\nvillage to indicate antagonism to her mother's life, and disaster would\nsurely ensue were she not promptly drowned or thrown out to perish by\nthe riverside.\n\nHer fate seemed sealed, but that a woman seeing what a dear little baby\nshe was, was moved with pity, and declared herself willing to take the\nresponsibility of asserting that the child was hers in order that the\ndemons which were ordering these events might be deceived, and thus her\nreal mother would escape the fate which threatened her life, if the baby\nwere not killed.\n\nAn incredible amount of ingenuity is expended in China on deceptions\npractised to mislead the _gwei_ or demon, whose influence you have cause\nto fear. Being a malignant spirit, his object is to hurt that which you\nspecially value, therefore it is well to deceive him into thinking that\nyour precious son is only a useless girl, or even a little animal. This\nis not difficult to manage, for the _gwei_, though powerful to work\nevil, is a simple creature, and it is sufficient for him to see earrings\ndangling from your boy's ears to make him think he sees a girl, or if\nyou call the child by some such name as \"puppy,\" \"little pig,\" \"kitten,\"\nor \"goat,\" he will quite fail to perceive that the object of your\naffection is two legs short of what one might be led to expect.\n\nWhen a _gwei_ has really determined to injure your child, it is\nsometimes necessary to kill a dog and wrap your boy in its skin, that it\nmay be perfectly evident to the whole spirit world that if you are\nbestowing any affection, it is only on a valueless beast. In the case of\nMrs. Fan's little girl, no _gwei_ could reasonably be supposed to attach\nmuch value to her, and it was therefore sufficient for this neighbour to\npronounce herself willing to stand in the place of a mother. She was\nallowed to live, and with painful frankness given the name of \"One too\nmany.\"\n\nAfter the month spent in the Opium Refuge, Mrs. Fan often saw the lady\nmissionaries either at Hwochow or in her own house, and when they were\njoined by a lady who had no previous knowledge of the Chinese language,\nMrs. Fan was asked if little \"One too many\" might come and live with the\nmissionary so that her childish prattle should help the newcomer in\nrecognising the difficult sounds and tones. She was now eight years old\nand permission was readily granted, so to Hwochow she went and became an\ninmate of the Christian household there, her name being altered to the\nnow appropriate one of \"greatly loved\"--in Chinese, Ai Do.\n\nThe years passed by, and little Ai Do won the love and approval of all.\nShe received her education in the girls' school, and there grew up in\nher the ambition to be a teacher, as her elder sister was. At fourteen\nyears of age she sat one Sunday evening reading her Bible, and came to\nthe words: \"The Lord seeth not as man seeth; man looketh on the outward\nappearance, the Lord looketh on the heart.\" She stopped and pondered,\nrealising with the force that can only come with conviction of the\nSpirit of God, that while in \"the outward\" no one had fault to find with\nher, yet the Lord looking on the heart saw her full of sin and\nunreconciled to Him. In that hour her peace was made, and henceforth she\nserved and trusted God through all the vicissitudes of her short life.\nShe remained a pupil in the school until the year 1900, when Miss\nStevens and Miss Clarke went to Taiyueanfu, never to return. It was a\nreign of terror during which rapine and murder stalked unhindered\nthrough the land, and young women fled to the remotest districts where\nthey might claim a shelter.\n\nThe matter of Ai Do's marriage had been under consideration for some\ntime, she having now reached the age when custom exacts that this\nimportant matter should be settled. Various suitors presented\nthemselves, but in most cases there was some hitch which prevented the\nengagement from being finally settled. In one case the man lived on the\nother side of the river, and this would cause difficulty in the girl's\nfrequent journeys from one home to the other; in another, the matter of\nthe sum required as dowry could not be finally fixed; in a third, she\nwould have been required to worship idols.\n\nAmongst the number was a young man, favoured by Mrs. Fan but known as a\nwild and dissolute youth, and the missionaries who had cared for Ai Do\nso many years refused their consent to the engagement. Now they were\ndead, and Mrs. Fan had scope for the exercise of the domineering will\nwhich made her ruler of the home, for while she was an enthusiastic\nfollower of the Church she had never given evidence of personal\nconversion.\n\nIt was certainly advisable that a young woman of Ai Do's age should not\nbe unmarried at that difficult time. Christians went in daily peril of\ntheir lives, and the soldier was scarcely less to be dreaded than the\nBoxer.\n\n\"No one uses good iron to make nails, and no one will use a good man to\nmake a soldier,\" says a Chinese proverb, which has been proved to be\nonly too true in many cases.\n\nHastily, and almost secretly, the formalities of the engagement were\nperformed, cards were exchanged which fixed the contract, and the\nearrings, rings, and silk and satin garments were brought from the\nbridegroom's home. Ai Do had heard much of this man, and his reputation\nwas such as to cause her the gravest misgivings. The household which\nshe was to enter as a bride would not require her to join in the\noffering of nuptial sacrifices to idols because her future mother-in-law\nhad come under the sound of the Gospel, but more than this can scarcely\nbe said. The son to whom she was engaged had been brought up on a regime\nof such extreme indulgence as can only be met with amongst an Oriental\npeople. His mother had never once restrained him in a childish\nselfishness nor a manly vice. From a spoilt, inconsiderate, wilful\nchildhood he passed to a cruel, passionate, licentious manhood; finally,\nhe took to opium smoking and ruin threatened the home. His mother reaped\na bitter harvest of sorrow from the planting of those wasted years, and\nnow her urgent plea was: \"My son is good at heart, and a virtuous bride\nwill soon work a reform in him.\"\n\nEvery relation and friend and neighbour had a say in the transaction,\nonly Ai Do must not be consulted, and though she weep and plead to be\nleft unmarried for a time yet, her tears and supplications can cause no\neffect. In vain were the silver ornaments and fine clothes displayed\nbefore her; she refused to take food and wept bitterly, not with the\nconventional tears of the Chinese girl bewailing her virginity and\nbegging that she may not be torn from the shelter of her maiden home,\nbut with a real horror of the fate which awaited her.\n\nThe day dawned when she was dressed in the scarlet bridal clothes, a\nvoluminous embroidered satin gown over all; this came with the sedan\nchair which was to carry her to her future home, being hired for the\noccasion. Scarlet shoes were on her feet, a high tinsel crown on her\nhead, and covering her tear-stained face was a scarlet veil. In\naccordance with the custom which demanded that the forehead of the bride\nmust be perfectly smooth, her front hair had been dragged out by the\nroots and left her with an aching head.\n\nAt last all was ready, and she was in the embroidered sedan chair and\ncaught the last glimpse of the familiar faces. They disappear, and alone\nshe meets a cruel, loveless, unknown world.\n\nA Chinese village wedding is a terrible ordeal for the bride. Her life\nuntil that day has been guarded from every contact with the outer world,\nand she has never spoken with a man outside the family circle. Her\narrival at her mother-in-law's home is the signal for a wild rush of\nrough men to surround her chair. The curtain is lifted, insolent faces\nstare, her personal appearance is commented upon in vile terms, her feet\nbeing specially noticed because the artificial compression of this\nmember has resulted in giving it sexual importance in a woman's\nappearance. Ai Do had a normal, unbound foot, and had to listen to lewd\ninsinuations levelled at her on this subject. All the while she must\npatiently sit and wait until the appointed women of the bridegroom's\nfamily are ready to conduct her indoors. The waiting is often for a\nconsiderable time, for these new relations are going to make her feel\nthat she is a most unimportant and undesirable person, and her\nmother-in-law is not even going to see her until the next day;\nmoreover, the longer she waits, the greater her chances of longevity.\n\nWhen at last she is told to leave her chair she is followed by a crowd,\nand holding the end of a scarlet sash which is thrust into her hand, she\nfinds herself in a courtyard where the ceremony is to take place.\n\nIn accordance with the contract made by the middleman, she is not asked\nto worship heaven and earth nor the tablets of her husband's ancestors,\nbut two cups of wine are placed on the table, and she and her bridegroom\nmust each take one and sip the wine, the cups being joined together by a\nscarlet thread. When this ceremony is over, she follows her bridegroom\nto a room, still led by the sash, and when he enters he stands upon the\n_kang_ and by walking around it demonstrates his position as head of the\nnew home.\n\nMeanwhile the chair-bearers are clamouring for her dress, as another\nyoung woman is waiting for the same gown and chair, and delay may cause\ntrouble. The bride is assisted on to the _kang_ by the women, her\nhusband having departed to make merry with his friends, and the ragged\nopium smokers who carried her there leave, one wearing the crown of\ntinsel on his head, laughing and joking at much which they have seen and\nheard. From the moment that she is seated upon the _kang_, the bride\nbecomes the centre of attraction to an insulting crowd. Her shoes are\nstolen, but knowing that this is likely she has provided herself with\nadditional pairs. For hours she sits there and hears the remarks made.\nOne will whisper that she is married to an irresponsible idiot, others\nwill tell her that he is blind or dumb, and knowing how often the\nmiddlemen deceive, she waits with dread the moment when she will see for\nherself more than she was able to do on arrival. At last the room is\ncleared, and she has to face the final ordeal when she is left alone\nwith a totally unknown man. Even the hours of darkness are not\nrespected, and every youngster in the village has the right to enter the\ncourtyard at any hour of the night, tear down the paper windows, and\nheap shame upon her head.\n\nChristianity and the influence of the foreigner has done much to\nrevolutionise the wedding customs, but all this and more was endured by\nAi Do, and she found herself withal the wife of a depraved and vicious\nman.\n\nIt was indeed a deliverance when the Hwochow girls' school reopened and\nAi Do was invited to teach in place of her elder sister, whose family\nclaims had increased so as to prevent her holding the post as formerly.\nSchool was opened in a small courtyard which adjoined our own, and\ntwenty girls entered as pupils. Ai Do had all the characteristics of a\nnatural leader, and she easily controlled the girls and was much beloved\nby them, for she had a kind disposition and the hidden sorrows of her\nlife had made her both strong and tender.\n\nI think that her life in school was a time of unmixed happiness to her,\nbut the holidays had to be faced and contact with the man whom she could\nonly strive not to hate. His opium smoking habits increased, and the\npinch of poverty was felt in the home from which he was able to steal\nso cunningly every article of value which might be exchanged for money\nand spent on the drug.\n\nA great joy came into Ai Do's life with the birth of a little son, and\nshe realised for the first time that matrimony was not solely a horror,\nsince it brought so much compensation in its train. The child was\npublicly dedicated to God, and was its mother's joy for six brief\nmonths.\n\nAt the end of that time, in the hot weather, it sickened with dysentery,\nand in spite of her prayers and entreaties that she might be allowed to\ndeal with the disease as she had seen me deal with similar ailments, she\nhad to endure the torture of seeing it operated upon by a heathen\nChinese doctor, whose method of treatment was to use long needles which\nhe ran into its tender flesh. The needles were of course unclean, and\nthe child's death was doubtless hastened by the shock thus sustained.\n\nShe was spared the last sorrow of seeing its body thrown out to be\ndevoured by dogs and wolves through the fortunate advent of her father,\nwho insisted at her request that decent burial be given. This was a\ncause of thankfulness for her to her life's end.\n\nA year later, when her second son was born, the home was in a pitiful\ncondition. All the land which provided daily bread for the family was\ngambled away, furniture and clothes had been sold or pawned for opium,\nthe wages she earned were all turned to the same use, and the poorest,\ncoarsest food was all that was procurable at a time when her strength\nwas quite insufficient to the strain imposed upon it.\n\nAs soon as the required month of purification was over, she returned to\nus and then received all the care that love could suggest, but we soon\nsaw that she was going to escape from our poor, inadequate efforts to\nprotect and comfort her, into the care of the only One who could save\nher from further sorrow. Phthisis took a rapid hold of her constitution,\nand her strength daily declined. During this time she for the first time\nopened her heart, and spoke out her sorrows and sufferings and those\ndeepest wrongs she had suffered which women have from time immemorial\nhidden as a shameful secret. She spoke it all out now, and left me with\na determination that henceforth any one placed as she was should find an\nadvocate and protector in me to the extent of my ability.\n\nThree months later she was carried back to her home, a dying woman, to\nend her days. We were able to ride out and see her almost daily, and\nonce we found her very happy because in a dream she had seen a messenger\nwho called to her to cross the river, and when she shrank back I had\nbeen there to assure her that angels would receive her to her Heavenly\nHome.\n\nThat day her husband came into the room, and in my presence she for the\nlast time pleaded with him to leave the ways of sin and seek forgiveness\nthrough repentance. To our care she committed her child, asking that we\nwould see that it was brought up as a Christian, and she also begged us\nto insist on a Christian burial for herself. To the schoolgirls she sent\nthe message that they must meet her in her Master's presence, and a few\nhours later \"the bells of the city rang out for joy, and it was said to\nher: 'Enter into the joy of thy Lord.'\" The wail that went up from the\nschoolgirls when I told them, I shall not forget; she was the first of\nour company to pass over. Two days later the pupils of her class and\nourselves gathered with the family for a simple service in the courtyard\nof her home. On the coffin the words were written at her own request,\n\"Until He come\"--symbolic of the hope which sustained her through those\nyears of suffering, and kept her eyes ever upward turned to the promise\nof the great day of deliverance. A congregation of some hundreds\nassembled to see the unique sight of so many girls mourning for a\nteacher and following the bier to the border of the village. The girls\nand their parents showed their appreciation of Ai Do and her work by\npresenting a large banner to the school in her memory. It was unveiled\non their behalf by the elders of the Church, and above the names of one\nhundred girls who had been her pupils were inscribed the words: \"She\nrests from her labours, and her works do follow her.\"\n\nWe returned to take up the work which she had left, but with heavy\nhearts, and the school and my study seemed empty without her presence. I\nmissed her help in consultation over difficulties and dealings with the\nraw material which came into our hands at the beginning of each term.\n\nWho could replace her? Her friend and companion who had helped her\nduring the past months was the only one to whom I could look, and she\nwas seemingly of too retiring a disposition to bear such\nresponsibility; but the \"trees of the Lord are full of sap,\" and if a\nleaf has fallen there is always a fresh one developing to replace it,\nand Ling Ai was preparing for a development which was going to make her\nthat which she still is, my faithful and beloved fellow-missionary in\nthis place. With her quiet, gentle spirit she has won the confidence of\nher pupils, and made possible for me that which apart from her\ncomradeship would have been impossible, the establishment of a large\nschool and training-college where in happy fellowship Chinese young\nwomen are working together for the women and girls of their country.\n\n\n\n\nTHE POWERS OF DARKNESS\n\n          \"What name hast thou? And he said, Legion!\"\n\n          \"Whensoever the impure spirit goeth out from the\n          man it passeth through waterless places seeking\n          rest; and not finding it there, it saith--\n\n          \"I will return unto my house whence I came out;\n\n          \"And coming, findeth it empty, swept and adorned.\n          Then goeth it and taketh along with itself other\n          spirits more wicked than itself--seven, and\n          entering it, findeth its dwelling there; and the\n          last state of that man becometh worse than the\n          first.\"--The Gospel according to Luke.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nTHE POWERS OF DARKNESS\n\nBEING A RECORD OF SOME OBSERVATIONS IN DEMONOLOGY\n\n\nTHE Chinaman, though perhaps the most materialistic of Easterners, is no\nexception to his neighbours in the large place which the occult takes in\nhis outlook. For him, the physical world is peopled with spirits good\nand evil, capable of exercising the most far-reaching influences on the\nfortunes of men. These spiritual beings are bound up in the forces of\nnature, and combine to constitute that geomantic system known by the\nChinese as _Feng-shui_ (wind and water), by reference to which, matters\nof human life, inasmuch as they are designed to court the good\ninfluences and avoid those which are inauspicious to the man, the time,\nand the place, are decided.\n\nThe Chinaman can never experience the feeling of complete solitude which\nthe Westerner knows in wild and lonely places; for him the hillside, the\nravine, and the mountain gorge are peopled with presences best described\nas fairies, though in nothing resembling the light-hearted beings which\nthis description generally conveys to the Western mind. To him they\npresent the appearance of aged, venerable beings, short of stature,\nwith white beards. Country, town, and human habitations are alike\nhaunted by psychic beings whose condition cannot be exactly expressed by\nthe word _spirit_, neither form of Chinese belief admitting of the\nconception of a pure spirit without matter.\n\nThese beings may be grouped into three classes. _Gwei_ is the term most\nconstantly used by the common people to indicate the being whose\ninfluence is feared by all, and who receives from every family some\nmeasure of propitiatory sacrifice. We read in the _li chao chuan_,[6] or\n_Divine Panorama_, that \"every living being, no matter whether it be a\nman or an animal, a bird or a quadruped, a gnat or a midge, a worm or an\ninsect, having legs or not, few or many, all are called _gwei_ after\ndeath.\"\n\nApart from these are the _shen_, which have been defined as _emanations\nde la nature personnifiees_, not, as the _gwei_, spirits of the dead,\nbut an emanation of nature clothed with a personality. They possess\nvarying degrees of intelligence and power. Their interest is not only in\nthe affairs of men, to the knowledge of which they have access, but also\nin the secret springs of human action. They reside in man as well as\namongst men, and witness to his good or evil works before the tribunal\nof heaven. The classics of Chinese literature, recognising this, urge\nupon readers the duty of decorum, purity, and care even when unseen by\nhuman eyes and according to the teachings of Confucius; one of the\ncharacteristics of the Princely Man is the discipline he will exercise\nupon himself when alone.\n\nOther spiritual beings are those who, by their ascetic practices, have\nattained to a life higher than that of humanity; it will endure through\nmany centuries, and they are free to live in the pleasant places of the\nearth with considerable licence to enjoy good things, yet free from the\nmaterial claims which govern human life. These are known by the term\n_hsien_, and are referred to above as fairies. Each and all of these\nbeings touch the destinies of man at various points.\n\nIt is, however, in the important events of life--birth, marriage, and\ndeath--that the interference of the spirits is strongest, and such\noccasions are used by the sorcerer as a means of extorting money from\nhis unfortunate victim. In the _Divine Panorama_, we read that: \"It is\nnot uncommon at the time of reincarnation to see women asking to be\nallowed to avenge themselves in the form of _gwei_ before being changed\ninto men. On their case being examined, it is found as young women they\nhave been seduced or have been betrayed in other ways, such as the\nhusband refusing after marriage to fulfil his promise to support the\ngirl's parents, and in consequence of her disgrace the woman has\ncommitted suicide.\" From that moment terror has dogged the steps of her\nhusband, and he has gone in hourly fear of sickness, accident, or sudden\ndeath. If he be a student, the day of examination presents terrors\ncalculated to ensure failure, for he knows that the _gwei_ has power to\nhold his mind in subjection so that he cannot write his competitive\nessay. The only hope he has of release is the taking of a vow, whereby\nhe undertakes to study and make known _The Divine Panorama_ or _precious\nrecord_ transmitted to men to move them, being a record of examples\npublished by the mercy of Yu Di, that men and women living in this world\nmay repent them of their faults, and make atonement for their sins. The\npunishments described include all the most painful tortures of which\nChinese ingenuity can conceive. Truly, idols are the work of man's\nhands, and they that make them are like unto them!\n\nSculptural art also has left nothing undone to represent the god as\nanimated by the worst passions of man, but skill and ingenuity must\ninevitably stop short of the final act necessary to convince man that\ncommunication is possible between him and the spirit world. In order to\nbridge this chasm a class of men and women called sorcerers (_mo-han_\nand _sheng-po_) has come into being, whose work it is to be the\nspokesmen of the gods. With deliberate intent and elaborate ritual they\ndevelop the mediumistic gift, and learn how to attain conditions of\nfrenzy and of trance during which period the body is controlled by a\nspiritualistic force. Not only as the medium of the gods, but also as a\nresting-place for longer or shorter periods to the homeless, unclean\nspirit, do these sorcerers serve. At tremendous physical cost--for the\nmedium is never long-lived--they accumulate great wealth, exorbitant\nsums being demanded in recognition of services rendered when freeing a\nfamily or village from the visitations of a tormenting _gwei_. When\nsickness enters his home, the Chinaman's instinct is to attribute it to\nany cause rather than a natural one; his appeal on such occasions is to\nthe sorcerer whose time is largely occupied in giving what is called\nmedical advice, but is in reality the practising of the rites of\nexorcism. Sometimes he will declare that the spirit of a sick person has\nstrayed from the body, and means will be set on foot to secure its\nreturn. A woman I know, whose boy had apparently died from typhoid\nfever, was told that his spirit had been enticed away by a god whose\nshrine was built on the mountain side near the city where she lived. She\ntook the child's coat and walked to the temple; here, standing before\nthe idol, she burned incense and begged that the boy's spirit might be\nrestored to her. Holding the child's coat open to receive it, she swayed\nto and fro, and with heart-rending cries besought it to return. She\nwaited until she felt her request had been granted, and with a movement\nas though to enfold the little wandering ghost, she clasped the coat in\nher arms and swiftly returning home, laid it upon the lifeless body. The\nchild revived, and is alive to this day.\n\nFrequently, after supplication to the gods, the clothes of the patient\nare carefully weighed; a procession is then formed in which one of the\nsorcerers holds a mirror directed backwards, others, wearing scarlet\naprons, carry brooms and with slow and mystic movements sweep widely on\neither side with the intent of gathering up the wandering soul.\nMeanwhile crackers are fired to the weird sound of a minor, falsetto\nlilting. After a considerable journey over the countryside they return\nto prove the success of their venture. For this the clothes of the sick\nman must be reweighed to see whether the weight of the spirit has been\nadded to that of the patient's garments. Should the smallest discrepancy\nbe detected all is well, and after feasting and opium the _mo-han_\npockets his fee and departs, frequently leaving a prescription behind\nhim, the results of which may be more or less harmful. Whatever the\nresult, nothing will shake the faith of the people in these degraded\nvillains, for they can, by threatening to call in the intervention of\nthe gods on their behalf strike terror to the heart of any man, and once\nhaving sought aid of the sorcerer, the family is pitiable indeed.\n\nIn a case which came under my personal observation, the spirit of a\nyoung woman from a village at some distance from the one in which I was\nstaying, who had recently died in childbirth, was said to have returned,\nhaving found herself in difficulties in the spirit world for lack of\nmeans to defray the necessary expenses. Illness became so prevalent that\nnecromancers were called in and agreed that a medium must be employed.\nThe spirit made its requirements known, and by promising the sacrifices\nordained, the family passed under a bondage from which none dared to\nemancipate himself by omitting the prescribed rites. Night after night,\nat the medium's command a table was spread at the cross-roads, on which\nwere laid the fantastic foods suitable to the requirements of the\ndeparted spirit. Gold and silver paper money was plentifully burned,\ncrackers were fired, and following the medium, a party of men left to\nplace earthen bowls containing grains at various corners of the roads.\n\nNothing but the deliverance of Christianity, or a daring known to few,\ncan set free those who have been entangled in such practices.\n\nI saw this medium whilst under spirit control. Before a table\nelaborately decorated on which incense burned, she threw herself into\nextraordinary contortions, quivering and shaking, her finger and thumb\nforming a circle, whilst the little finger vibrated continuously. She\nsustained a perpetual chant in the peculiar spirit voice, the minor\nstrains of which I find it impossible to describe. A relative of the\ndeceased acted as questioner, and she dictated the terms by the\nfulfilment of which the spirit consented to a reconciliation.\n\nAnother manifestation of mediumship may be found in the more or less\nconscious yielding of the personality to a controlling spiritualistic\ninfluence, known as _demon possession_. Remarkable cases have come under\nmy own personal observation, and all incidents which I quote have been\nwitnessed by foreign missionaries who are prepared to vouch for their\naccuracy. Those brought to my notice by reliable Chinese are too\nnumerous to include in this book, but the fact that men and women who\nlay themselves open to demoniacal influences become possessed, is\nbeyond dispute. In many cases the possession follows upon a fit of\nuncontrolled temper, such as is not uncommon amongst the Chinese; in\nothers it is connected with the taking of a vow on the occasion of\nillness in the home, when service was promised to some particular god;\nor again, it has been undoubtedly connected with the neglect to\ncompletely remove idols from the home of a Christian.\n\nIn yet other cases, a spirit may take temporary possession of a human\nbody in order to find a means of expression for some important\ncommunication, and after delivering its message leave the person\nunconscious of that which has taken place. An instance of this occurred\nin a family with which I am intimate. The eldest daughter was married\ninto a home where she received ill-treatment from her mother-in-law. For\nseveral years she was systematically underfed and overworked, and when\nat last she gave birth to a son we all expected she would receive more\nconsideration. The hatred of her mother-in-law was, however, in no\ndegree abated, and when the child was a month old she brought her\ndaughter a meal of hot bread in which the girl detected an unusual\nflavour which made her suspicious. She threw the remainder to the dog,\nand before many hours had passed both the unfortunate girl and the dog\nwere dead.\n\nHer father was away from home at the time, the young men of the family\nmeanwhile carrying on the work of the farm. A few days later her\nbrothers and first cousins, strong, vigorous young farmers, being\ntogether in the fields, her cousin, aged twenty-two, suddenly exhibited\nsymptoms of distress. He trembled and wept violently. Those with him\nbecoming alarmed at so unusual a sight went to his assistance, intending\nto take him home. He wept, however, the more violently, saying: \"I am\nLotus-bud; I was cruelly done to death. Why is there no redress?\" Others\nof the family were by this time at hand, and recognising the effort made\nby the girl's spirit to communicate with her own people whom she had had\nno opportunity of seeing in the hour of her death, spoke directly to\nher, as though present. Telling her the facts of the case, they\nexplained that all demands must remain in abeyance until her father's\nreturn, when the guilty party would be dealt with by her family whose\nfeeling was in no sense one of indifference. In about an hour's time the\nattack passed, leaving the young man exhausted and unconscious of what\nhad taken place.\n\nThe criminal law of China can only be put in action under such\ncircumstances by the girl's own family undertaking a long and expensive\nlawsuit, the result of which may end in the punishment of the criminal,\nor may terminate in quite a different way. In this case the demands took\nthe form of a requirement, the granting of which constituted a tacit\nacknowledgment of guilt. The demand in fact was that a funereal monument\nshould be erected in memory of the dead girl. This constituted so\nuncalled-for an honour paid to one in her position, as to be a public\nrecognition that redress was due to her, and a law case was avoided.\n\nIt may be remembered that in the first chapter of this book an incident\nis recorded of Mrs. Hsi herself being tormented by a demon which had\ngained its power over her, by reason of neglect to completely destroy\nall idols at the time when they were removed from the home. Such a case\nis not singular.\n\nOur first woman patient in the Hwochow Opium Refuge became interested in\nthe Gospel, and on her return home destroyed her idols, reserving\nhowever the beautifully carved idol shrines which she placed in her\nson's room. Her daughter-in-law who occupied this room, a comely young\nwoman, desired to become a Christian and gave us a warm welcome whenever\nwe could go to the house. About six months later we were fetched by\nspecial messenger from a village where we were staying, to see this girl\nwho was said to be demon possessed. We found crowds of men and women\ngathered to see and to hear. The girl was chanting the weird minor chant\nof the possessed, the voice, as in every case I have seen, clearly\ndistinguishing it from madness. This can perhaps best be described as a\nvoice distinct from the personality of the one under possession. It\nseems as though the demon used the organs of speech of the victim for\nthe conveyance of its own voice. She refused to wear clothes or to take\nfood, and by her violence terrorised the community. Immediately upon our\nentering the room with the Chinese woman evangelist she ceased her\nchanting, and slowly pointed the finger at us, remaining in this posture\nfor some time. As we knelt upon the _kang_ to pray, she trembled and\nsaid: \"The room is full of _gwei_; as soon as one goes another comes.\"\nWe endeavoured to calm her, and to make her join us in repeating the\nsentence, \"Lord Jesus, save me.\"\n\nAfter considerable effort she succeeded in pronouncing these words, and\nwhen she had done so we commanded the demon to leave her, whereupon her\nbody trembled and she sneezed some fifty or sixty times, then suddenly\ncame to herself, asked for her clothes and some food, and seemingly\nperfectly well resumed her work. So persistently did she reiterate the\nstatement that the demons were using the idol shrines for a refuge, that\nduring the proceedings just mentioned her parents willingly handed over\nto the Christians present these valuable carvings, and joined with them\nin their destruction. From this time onwards she was perfectly well, a\nnormal, healthy young woman.\n\nUpon recovery from illness a woman I knew yielded herself to the lord of\nhell for a certain period, during which time she was under a vow to wear\nblack garments, to perform certain rites as required by the devil, and\nto chant instead of speaking. She told me once that she knew all I could\ntell her of the Lord of Heaven and of the death upon the cross of His\nSon, but that she served the lord of hell, and his servant she remained,\nonly giving up her peculiar dress and manner when the time of her vow\nhad expired.\n\nThe yielding of personality to the possession of a spirit no doubt\nseriously weakens the will power. Many cases are on record of those who\nonce delivered, like the man in the Gospel from whom the evil spirit had\nbeen cast out, unconsciously again prepare the empty house to receive\nthe evil guest, and whose latter state is worse than the former.\n\nIt was to a woman, terror of the district in which she lived, that a\nChinese evangelist was called. After prayer in which he and some\ninquirers took part, the evil spirit in obedience to their command\ndeparted. A few weeks later on yielding to violent temper, she fell into\na worse state than before. The missionary of the district was this time\nbegged to go himself. As soon as he entered the room the woman threw\nherself upon the _kang_, rolling about in seemingly great agony. The\nChinese helper, Mr. Li, rebuked the spirit, saying: \"We ordered you to\nleave. Why have you returned?\" \"I could find no dwelling-place,\" was the\nanswer, given with extraordinary rapidity, in the curious spirit voice.\n\"Find me a place to rest, and I will leave at once.\" \"We have come,\"\nsaid Li, \"to command you to leave, not to find you a place.\" Upon this\nthe woman laughed and clapped her hands, and in the struggle it seemed\nas if the powers of evil were in the ascendancy. As she still chuckled\nwith amusement, Li said: \"Let us sing a hymn,\" and immediately the voice\nreplied: \"I too can sing,\" and forthwith shouted some theatrical songs.\nMr. Li then prayed, but there was seemingly no power and the voice also\nmockingly prayed. The missionary then interposed, saying: \"I have not\ncome here to hold intercourse with demons,\" and forthwith\nauthoritatively commanded the demon to leave her. There was a struggle,\nand she fell down unconscious on the _kang_.\n\nShe came to herself in a normal condition and apologised to the\nmissionary for her state of deshabille. Faithfully and sternly he\nrebuked her for sin and for giving place to the devil. She recognised\nher fault, and was from that time a changed woman.\n\nAn evil spirit has been known to claim a young girl as its possession,\nforbidding her marriage under severe threats. It was in such a case that\na demon, driven from a man who had become a Christian, went to a village\neight miles distant and possessed a young woman. Speaking through her,\nit forbade her marriage and manifested itself in the same manner as it\nhad done in the man from whom it came, compelling him to perpetually rub\none side of his face and head until there was no hair left there. When\nquestioned as to whence it came the demon replied by giving the name of\nthis man, and to the question: \"Why have you left him?\" replied: \"I have\nbeen turned out, for that man has become a Christian.\"\n\nTwo methods of exorcism are used by the sorcerers--defiance and bribery.\nThe Christian method is that of commanding the evil spirit in the Name\nof the Lord Jesus Christ to release the victim.\n\nSome have been set free from the power of a tormenting spirit who have\nnot been subsequently kept free, through refusing to yield to the\ncontrol of the great Spirit of Liberty. Pastor Hsi, than whom none\nbetter understood the conflict in the Heavenly Places, in earlier days\nwould cast out demons from all the possessed who were brought to him,\nbut in later years as experience grew, he refused to do so unless idols\nwere destroyed, and he had reason to believe there was a sincere desire\nto obey the commands of God. He doubtless saw, as others have done, the\nfutility of temporary relief during which, in that mysterious way so\ngraphically described in the Scriptures, the demon wanders in waterless\nplaces, joining himself to others more evil than he.\n\nPastor Hsi learned to distinguish between the greater and the lesser\ndemons. With the latter he would deal summarily, but not so with the\nformer. \"This kind,\" he would say, \"goeth not out but by prayer and\nfasting;\" and thus he would prepare himself for an encounter with the\npowers of evil.\n\nYoung believers, doubtless impressed by the Pastor's command over\nunclean spirits and perhaps sometimes eager for a similar power, were,\nas in the instances recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, in serious\ndanger. Pastor Hsi urged them not lightly to undertake the casting out\nof demons. He had been faced by the awful realities of the spirit world,\nand on one occasion at least, by reason of a thoughtless word, had been\ntroubled by the very demon he had cast out and which attached itself to\nhis person.\n\nThe experiences recorded here may be unfamiliar to many readers, and\nsome will doubtless think that madness, hysteria, or epilepsy may\naccount for them. To such I would suggest the following points for\nconsideration: Firstly, the striking, detailed resemblance between the\ncases seen now in heathen lands and those recorded in the Scriptures;\nsecondly, the complete and lasting restoration resulting from prayer\nand from the command in the Name of the Lord Jesus that the demon should\ndepart; thirdly, the appalling sense of the reality of the conflict with\nthe evil one at the moment of supreme test, as the missionary is called\nupon to prove his personal faith, and to give the command which shall\ndecide whether God or demon remains conqueror on the field.\n\nWhen the promise was given by Christ that His witnesses should cast out\ndemons, it was with the foreknowledge that such equipment was essential\nto those who obeyed His command to disciple the nations. Let the signs\nfollowing be a reminder to weary warriors that the Captain of our\nsalvation is actively leading His hosts; and to the indifferent and\nhalf-hearted who profess and call themselves Christians, let it be a\nmatter for serious reflection that there exist churches in many heathen\nlands, the members of which have not lost their first love and faith,\nand against whom the enemy has come with his whole strength.\n\nA feeble conflict may provoke a feeble resistance, but it behoves the\naggressive warrior to prepare for the fight of his life when he invades\nthe enemy's territory, where the conflict is not with \"mere flesh and\nblood, but with the despotisms, the empires, the forces, that control\nand govern this dark world.\"\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[6] _The Precious Regulations_, a book written under the Sung Dynasty.\nIts main tenets are derived from Buddhism, though some writers inscribe\nthe book among the Taoist documents. Its sub-title explains its\ncontents: \"A precious record of examples published by the mercy of Yu Di\n(the Jade Emperor to whom is entrusted the superintendence of the world,\nthe Jupiter of the Taoists), that men and women may repent them of their\nfaults and make atonement for their sins.\" It includes a description of\nthe Ten Courts of Hell and the judgments pronounced therein.\n\n\n\n\nTHE LIFE STORY OF PASTOR WANG\n\n          \"Happy the meek;\n           For they shall inherit the earth.\"\n\n\n          \"The labourer whom Christ in His own garden\n           Chose to be His helpmate.\"\n                                        DANTE.\n\n\n          \"He went out to seek wisdom, as many a one has\n          done, looking for the laws of God with clear eyes\n          to see, with a pure heart to understand, and after\n          many troubles, after many mistakes, after much\n          suffering, he came at last to the truth.\"--H.\n          FIELDING HALL.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nTHE LIFE STORY OF PASTOR WANG\n\n\nIF Pastor Hsi may be spoken of as the Paul of the Shansi Church,\nBarnabas finds his counterpart in Pastor Wang of Hwochow.\n\nThough possessing none of the peculiar gifts which made Hsi a leader\namongst foreigners and Chinese, he has exercised a remarkable personal\ninfluence upon hundreds of lives, winning by consistency and sincerity\nthose with whom he has come in contact. On our first arrival we found\nhim already in charge, conducting the Sunday services and generally\ncaring for the Church members.\n\nHis unfailing courtesy, consideration, and tact simplified many\ndifficult situations, and the exercise of his natural gift for gathering\npeople around him and drawing out the best in them soon resulted in a\nrapidly growing work. He was almost immediately chosen as Deacon, and\nbefore long the office of Elder was given to him. All turned to Mr. Wang\nin difficulty, sought his advice in perplexity, and by the unanimous\ndesire of the Church he was in 1909 ordained Pastor at Hwochow.\n\nHe has developed his gifts in the school of adversity, for trouble\novertook him in his childhood when his father died only a few years\nbefore the great famine which was to sweep over the province of Shansi.\nPoor they always were, and his love for his mother was intensified as he\nsaw the self-sacrificing devotion with which she earned enough by her\nspinning to enable him to continue his schooling. At the age of fifteen\nhe was married, and on the bride's arrival the falsity of the middleman\nthrough whom the engagement had been long ago contracted was revealed,\nfor the bride was a helpless cripple and a serious burden on the already\noverpressed household.\n\nFood soon began to be scarce, for the rains failed and the prospect of\nthe wheat harvest was poor. They endured and hoped, being mercifully\nsaved from the knowledge that they must now enter upon a period when the\ninhabitants of Shansi should touch the depths of human suffering and\ncall on death to end their woes. No pen can fully describe the horrors\nof that time. When summer and autumn crops had failed the rains were\nstill withheld, and despair seized on all as they saw the impossibility\nof sowing the wheat for next year's harvest.\n\nThe delicate bride, unable to withstand the privations of that time,\nsoon died, and Wang's sister was married, so that he and his mother\nremained alone to care for each other. The poor young sister lived but a\nvery short while in her new home, and the circumstances of her death\nwere so tragic that Wang felt unable to forgive the man who had been her\nhusband. After many years, when circumstances brought this man to his\nhome, he realised that Christ's command to forgive those who have\noffended against you required of him a complete change of feeling\ntowards this once hated brother-in-law, and he invited him to share his\nfood as a sign of forgiveness and reconciliation.\n\nEvery month the distress became more acute; weeds, leaves, bark of\ntrees, and even some softer kinds of wood were used as food, but numbers\nwere dying and of the one hundred and twenty families which inhabited\nthe village, at last thirty only remained. The dead outnumbered the\nliving, and compelled by hunger the latter were driven to sustain life\nby feeding on the former.\n\nWang saw his mother's vain endeavour to supply some kind of food on\nwhich they might subsist, and his heart was torn to see her deprive\nherself even now that there might be more for him.\n\nWhen the famine was at its worst, the most tragic blow fell. His mother\none day told him it was her wish that he should accompany several\nneighbours to a near village where lived a relation. In those days none\ndared to travel alone, lest in their weak, half-starved condition they\nshould fall a prey to man or beast. The pretext given was the\npossibility of obtaining the loan of a little grain from the aunt who\nlived there. Beggars were many and givers few, and he wondered at his\nmother entertaining any hope of such good fortune.\n\nHe went, however, only to return a few hours later, empty-handed. As he\nentered the courtyard, heart-sick with disappointment, he called for\nhis mother and received no answer. Doors and windows were locked on the\ninside, and sick with apprehension he called the neighbours to his help.\nOn bursting open the door, they saw her body swinging from a beam in the\ndim recesses of the cave. The errand had been an excuse to get him out\nof the way, while she performed this act which was the last expression\nof her love to him. She had chosen this solution of their impossible\nposition, hoping that, relieved of her presence, he might be able to\nendure till coming harvest.\n\nThe body, wrapped in matting, was laid in an empty cave. There was no\nmoney for a coffin, and many were waiting like hungry wolves to eat the\nuncoffined dead; moreover, the boy and his uncle were too weak to drag\nthe body to the burying-ground.\n\nThe months passed, and still the arid, sun-baked earth refused to bear\nany green thing, and the despairing people longed for rain which never\ncame. The second year of drought had come and gone, and there was now\nnothing sown in the fields, but on the seventh day of the fourth moon of\nthe fourth year of the Emperor Kwang Hsue, the longed-for rain fell and\nhope revived.\n\nAt this time also a stranger came to the village registering the names\nof survivors, and announcing that foreigners had arrived and were\ndistributing grain that the fields might be sown for an autumn crop.\n\nThe worst of the famine was over, but the terrors of famine fever had\nyet to be faced, and when the longed-for grain had ripened there were\nin many houses none left to eat it, for whole families had been wiped\nout.\n\nWang now naturally became an inmate of his uncle's home, and gradually\nthe conditions of greatest horror were relieved. As soon as strength had\nsufficiently returned, they made coffins and prepared to bury their\ndead, that the required rites should not be lacking which should bring\nconsolation to those who had entered the land of shades without the\nnecessary honours having been paid to their memory. Not only for the\ncoffins was money required, but also to pay the fees of the geomancers\nwho must decide the site of the graves and an auspicious day for the\nfuneral. In this one family, thirteen coffins were made and graves dug\nin accordance with the following plan: The four quarterings of the\ncelestial sphere were borne in mind, respectively governed by the Azure\nDragon, Red Bird, White Tiger, and Black Tortoise, these being\nidentified with East, West, South, and North. The graves should face the\nsouth, with White Tiger on the right and Azure Dragon on the left, as\nthese respectively control wind and water.\n\nOn the day of the funeral the son, dressed in coarse white cloth, with\nunhemmed garments, white twists plaited with the hair of his queue which\nhe wore over his chest, and his head unshaven, walked as chief mourner,\nthe wailing relatives following the bier. In due course, paper money and\nother articles were burned for the use of the deceased, and fire\ncrackers were exploded to ensure the soul and the mortal remains\nagainst the attacks of demons. The next year in early spring on the day\nknown as _Pure Brightness_, in accordance with national custom, Wang,\ndressed in white, again visited and repaired the grave. For three years\nhe wore signs of mourning in his dress, and abstained from all\nfestivities. Thus he strove to leave undone nothing which filial piety\ncould contrive, to make easier to his mother her sojourn in those\nmysterious realms whither she had passed.\n\nFor the next few years he worked as a silversmith in his uncle's shop,\nthis latter being a generous, kindly man, on whom the responsibilities\nof business life sat only too lightly, for an illness revealed the fact\nthat the profits were not sufficient to meet the interest due on the\nrapidly accumulating debts.\n\nMoreover, the sick man, with failing health, had gradually acquired the\nuse of the fatal drug known as \"foreign smoke,\" which some years\npreviously had been first introduced from distant lands, and was gaining\nground every year as a profitable crop in the best soil. One ounce a day\nhad become the necessary allowance for the sick man, and to Hwochow the\nnephew constantly went in order to buy the needful supply. He tells how\nhe walked between the poppy fields and heard the chant which always\naccompanied the sowing of the plant:\n\n          \"Of ten acres, fateful plant, thou claimest eight,\n           Thus only two are left for ripening grain;\n           From distant lands thou wert brought here,\n           And hast devoured the best of China's sons.\"\n\nOf famine, of typhus, and of the raids of wild beasts, the inhabitants\nof Shansi had tasted the full terrors, but now this more insidious foe\nwas working havoc in their midst. Amongst the villagers it already\ncounted its victims: one young man had recently died as a direct result\nof its use, for after taking his accustomed dose he had so lain down\nthat a portion of his wadded clothes was touching the lighted stove.\nShortly after, his mother entered the cave to find this, her only son,\nburned to death, the charred corpse being all that remained to tell the\ntale. Another neighbour had gradually parted with all his possessions,\nand when nothing else remained on which to raise money, he took his\nyoung wife and sold her to an innkeeper in whose house she was not\nmistress of her actions and had no choice but to obey her purchaser.\nNothing could save her, and the tragedy of that broken heart still\nawaits His judgment Who judgeth righteously.\n\nThe duty of preparing the pipe for his uncle devolved on the young man,\nand before long he himself was a victim of opium.\n\nMeanwhile the uncle was weaker than formerly, and a neighbour strongly\nrecommended Wang to visit the China Inland Mission station at Hwochow to\nask for some medicine, and this was how he first heard the Gospel story.\nHe was cordially received by the evangelist, and given a dose to be\nadministered according to regulation, and told to pray earnestly for his\nuncle; this he conscientiously did, kneeling in the courtyard, and\nsaying: \"Heavenly Father, have mercy on my uncle.\" The next day, the\nsick man was better, and continued so for many months.\n\nTroubles soon thickened around Mr. Wang. When his uncle died he found\nhimself responsible for business and home, and overwhelmed by debts.\n\nThe great spiritual crisis of his life was at hand. He had from\nchildhood pursued, by what broken light he had, an ideal which was\nintensely real to him. In the five relationships wherein his teachers\nhad instructed him as to conduct, he had endeavoured to be blameless: as\nsubject to ruler, son to father, younger brother to elder, husband to\nwife, and friend to friend. He had worked beyond his strength to clear\nhimself of debt, and when his best endeavours proved futile he had sold\nhis goods and distributed their price amongst the creditors. Having\ntaken the vow of an ascetic, for years he was a vegetarian.\nNevertheless, all had failed, and he bitterly reproached himself with\nhaving fallen into the sin of opium smoking.\n\nNow it happened that a certain man, jealous of Pastor Hsi's success,\nopened a rival opium refuge in which he treated patients according to\nthe Pastor's methods, but with medicine of his own making. The scheme\nwas a contentious one, and the man a cause of friction and difficulty to\nthe Christian community. It was to this Refuge that Mr. Wang, now thirty\nyears old, poor, sad, and dispirited, came as a patient. He found here a\nman who, according to the established tradition of the opium refuge,\nreceived even a degraded class of men into his house in order to care\nfor them, and performed many menial tasks in the discharge of his duty\ntowards them. Also the good news of the Evangel was proclaimed in the\nhouse. If the preaching were not sincere but proclaimed a Christ of\ncontention, it behoves us to rejoice that even so Christ was preached,\nfor Mr. Wang heard something of the life of Jesus, His love, and His\nhumility, and thought that he saw the very spirit of the doctrine\nexemplified in the man who ministered to these unfortunate patients. His\nheart was overwhelmed by the love of God; and the beauty of Christ,\nafter which he for so many years had blindly felt, lest haply he might\nfind, was now revealed to him. On the ninth day, for lack of money, he\nwas obliged to cut his treatment short and return home; but henceforth\nnothing could separate him from the love of God.\n\nThe rumour of his conversion soon spread, and many visited the workshop\nwhere the silversmith sat at his daily occupation, questioning him,\nhearing his story, and taking note of the great change in him. From the\nfirst he exercised a great influence on men, and soon a few were joining\nwith him morning and evening for prayer and reading of the Bible.\n\nThe last month of the year--a period dreaded by the Chinaman whose\nliabilities exceed his assets--found him in great straits. A fever had\nlaid him low, but as soon as strength returned sufficiently to sit up in\nbed and work he was plying his trade once more, and it was thus his\ncreditors found him when they came to press their claims.\n\nThe Chinese universal system of debt does not allow for the exercise of\nmercy, as each creditor is himself a debtor, and his object in securing\npayments is to relieve the pressure brought to bear on himself by his\nown creditors. Nevertheless, the sight of the sick man forcing himself\nto work, and the reputation he had for integrity so affected them that\nthey left the house again, begging him to reserve his strength and free\nhis mind from immediate anxiety on their account. Health and strength\nfinally returned, and intercourse was established with the Hwochow\nmissionaries, which resulted in his baptism. By the year 1900 a group of\nChristian men and women formed the nucleus of a church in the village.\nMr. Wang this year became a widower for the second time, the wife he had\ntaken some years previously dying in childbirth, leaving him the care of\ntwo small children. The newborn babe it was impossible for him to rear,\nand he gave it away to a friend whose wife had lost her own child and\nnow took this one to her breast.\n\nAs the dangers of that fateful year thickened and news came of\npersecutions and massacres, the Church trembled and wondered how she\nwould endure. Finally it became known that Boxers were marching on the\nvillage. Mr. Wang was recognised as leader of the local Christians, and\nto him they would certainly come. He called his little boy and girl to\nkneel with him in the cave, and committed the matter to God. At sunset,\na sound of rushing wind was heard and a violent thunderstorm burst on\nthe district. Hail, wind, and rain were followed by a terrific\ncloud-burst which swept man and beast away in its irresistible violence.\nThe narrow mountain roads were completely carried away by the course\nof the waters, and the Boxers never came.\n\n[Illustration: PASTOR WANG.\n\n_To face page 136._]\n\nIt was a great spiritual experience for Mr. Wang, to whom God spake not\nin the thunder nor in the storm, but in a still small voice which\nasserted His boundless claim on the life preserved from danger. From\nthat time he was conscious of a new strength and power, which resulted\nin his shortly giving up his trade of metal-worker to take charge of the\nHwochow Men's Opium Refuge. That position he still holds, and thanks to\nhim the good name and repute of this institution is widespread. All his\nnoblest gifts find their full development in the work which makes hourly\nclaims on patience, forbearance, devotion, longsuffering, meekness, and\nall those qualities which are bound up in the one characteristic of\nlove. From amongst the men in his charge a steady stream return home to\ndestroy idols and subsequently request baptism. When the question is\nasked: \"How came you to believe?\" the answer will be: \"I owe it to\nPastor Wang, who taught me about Christ and taught me to pray.\" His\nmethods are not those of the evangelist who gathers in the crowds, but\none by one he wins them to the Lord. In one particular only did I hear\nhim censured by a Christian, and that was on the occasion of his\nordination to the pastorate. A Church member protested that a stronger\nman than Wang Bing-guin was needed for the work. \"See my case,\" he said.\n\"When, as you know, I was recently the subject of persecution, I came to\nElder Wang for assistance. He listened to my story and urged me to pray\nand have patience. This I did, but matters only got worse, and I\nreturned to insist on his taking action on my behalf. Would you believe\nthat he spoke of nothing more practical than prayer and patience again?\nOn the third occasion, when I had very nearly made up my mind to go\nstraight to the Mandarin, he only urged: 'I fear that prayer and\npatience are your only lawful weapons, my brother.'\"\n\nThe opinion of the heathen regarding Mr. Wang was forced upon my\nattention in a rather startling way. We were preaching one day to a\ngroup of village women, and as an old lady in the crowd heard us\nexplaining that \"all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,\"\nshe said: \"Those words are untrue, for I knew a man who never spoke a\nfalse word and never did an unkind deed.\" Interested, we asked who he\nwas, and she replied: \"Oh, he afterwards followed your Church; his name\nis Wang Bing-guin.\"\n\n\n\n\nA VISIT TO THE BASE\n\n          \"Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye are needing\n          all these things.\"\n\n\n          \"I would be undone if I had not access to the\n          King's chamber of Presence to show Him all the\n          business.\"--RUTHERFORD.\n\n\n      \"Dear children!\n       Let us not be loving in word nor yet with the tongue,\n       But in deed and truth.\"\n                                        The First Epistle of John.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nA VISIT TO THE BASE\n\nFROM WHENCE WE ARE AGAIN SENT FORTH WITH FRESH SUPPLIES\n\n\nIT was with mixed feelings that we came to realise that the days were\nfew until that experience known as \"taking furlough\" was to be ours.\n\nIt was indeed hard to leave our post. England seemed so far away, and\nthe thought of having to readjust oneself to English ways and English\ndress was not inviting. The desire to see relatives and friends pulled\ntoward the West, but I realised that an even stronger magnet was drawing\nme with tremendous force to remain in the land of the Celestial.\n\nIt was arranged that two experienced missionaries, the Misses Higgs and\nJohnson, should join Miss Mandeville who had been with us for nearly two\nyears, during our absence. A year of strenuous effort on their part in a\npost requiring the exercise of tact and forbearance, enabled us to see\nmarked progress in the work upon our return a year later.\n\nIn order to carry out our plan of advance new buildings were necessary,\nand a consultation was held as to the sum required. On the most\neconomical computation this would certainly be L500, and we left for\nEngland with the hope and prayer that if it were for the glory of God\nthis sum might be forthcoming.\n\nThe months passed by, and sums various were contributed. We were due to\nleave England in March, and we were still far short of the required\namount, when in February, my friend and Pastor, Dr. Campbell Morgan,\narranged that I should have an opportunity of telling the members of\nWestminster Chapel of the work in Hwochow. It was Sunday morning and the\nusual collection for Church expenses had been taken, but at the close of\nthe service Dr. Morgan announced that those who wished to do so might\nsend contributions to him, which would be forwarded to me. Thanks to the\ngenerosity and kindness of those concerned, we left for China with our\nL500 less L50. In March we started on the interesting journey through\nSiberia, bringing with us that which was of more value than much gold,\nMiss French's younger sister, Francesca, to join us in our missionary\nwork.\n\nWe reached Moscow, that fascinating city with its churches, Kremlin, and\nnumerous historic interests. We seemed to be at the parting of the way\nwhere East and West meet and merge. Partly for the sake of economy and\npartly for the interest of being more with the people of the land, we\ndecided to travel, not by the _train de luxe_, but by the Russian daily\npost train. We were thus able with comfort to do the journey from London\nto Peking for L20 each, whereas by the International train L35 is\nrequired for fare alone.\n\nHow keenly we enjoyed it all! The wide, roomy railway compartments, the\nslow, steady movement of the broad gauge train, enabling one to read and\nwrite with comfort; the rush with a tin kettle for hot water from the\nhuge tanks with unlimited supply, provided at each station; the buying\nof the day's provision from the peasants who crowded to the platforms\nwith eggs, butter, and milk; the reading aloud of some Russian book in\nthe Slavonic surroundings, which contributed so much to make its\ndisconcerting unexpectednesses seem the natural expression of the\nRussian temperament.\n\nHow delightful it all was; but when we reached Manchuria Town and found\nourselves in the midst of Chinese, we felt the thrill which comes with\nthe first sight of home. A few more days, and we were in Peking.\n\nWe walked in the acres of parkland which surround the Temple of Heaven,\nand saw its blue-and-yellow-tiled roofs outlined on the azure of the\nEastern sky. We stood in the pavilion where the \"Son of Heaven,\"\nfasting, rested before he proceeded to pray for his people in the double\noffice of priest and king.\n\nWhat gorgeous scenes the midnight skies have witnessed where the altar\nraises its marble carvings and mystic symbols to the open vault of\nheaven. No sign of idolatry is visible; here he worshipped Heaven and\nEarth, and bowed before the Supreme Ruler, praying for the millions of\nhis people to whom he stood as father. A magnificent conception! The\nmind of man could scarcely rise higher in ethics of worship, as in\nsolemn splendour the beasts are slain, and the prostrate Emperor under\nthe starlit sky calls upon the unknown god. Confucius seemed to realise\nthe unbridgeable chasm between the offender and his judge when he said:\n\"If a man have offended against heaven, there is none to whom he can\npray\"; and here the ruler of this great people prayed, but with a\nrecognition of limitation which brought him, later on, back to the\nfamiliar idol shrines with an offering of incense and acceptable gifts.\n\nFrom the quiet dreams of that place, we returned to the hustle and\nbustle of native city life. Our rickshaw men, with marvellous speed and\nagility, were soon rushing us through the crowds of peddlers shouting,\nyelling, and calling on every passer-by to purchase their goods.\nBeggars, scarcely recognisable as human beings, knocked their foreheads\non the ground, beseeching us to give them some cash. The moral support\nof a policeman is inadequate to the task of protecting the newcomer who\nhas yielded to an impulse of pity.\n\nOn we rushed through massive gates, where we ran serious risks of an\noverturn in meeting a string of heavily laden camels, with sonorous bell\nhanging to the neck; brightly and gaily dressed ladies passed and\nrepassed in rickshaws; men on horseback, coalheavers, foreign women on\nbicycles, shining motor-cars, and glass-panelled, silk-upholstered\ncarriages composed a moving picture, with the gates and huge enclosure\nof the forbidden city as background. From the pandemonium of Chinatown\nwe swung into Legation quarter, where macadamised roads take the place\nof cobblestones, and for this you call down blessings on civilisation,\nthe rubber tyres of your rickshaw running rapidly and smoothly over the\nway. Without transition, you pass from East to West. The Wagon-Lits\nHotel's fine buildings face you, large foreign shops abound, at night\nelectric lights will blaze over the streets still filled with\npleasure-seekers, thoughtless and forgetful, though the words written in\ndays of siege can be clearly descried on the broken fragment of Legation\nwall: \"Lest We Forget.\"\n\nAt the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank we entered to transfer money which was\nto enable us to erect those longed-for buildings in Hwochow. Whilst I\nwas transacting my business, a voice behind me addressed Miss French by\nname, and the cashier looked up quickly. Immediately upon the conclusion\nof my business he asked: \"Is that Miss French of Taiyueanfu? Fifty pounds\nhave been lying to her account for three years, and we have been\nunsuccessful in tracing her whereabouts.\" Identity having been fully\nestablished the money with interest was paid to us, and with our L500\ncomplete and some extra, we journeyed homewards. A strange coincidence\nyou say! Yea, verily, unless \"we take our courage in both hands, and\ncall it God.\"\n\nAfter a train journey for the next two days, came slow travelling from\nTaiyueanfu to Hwochow. Long and weary days, in which one takes many hours\nto accomplish thirty miles, turning in at night to a Shansi inn. A\nwonderful place it is, carried on with the minimum of expense and\ntrouble to the owner, whose responsibility ends when he has provided you\nwith a kettle of boiling water in an absolutely empty room, the walls\nand ceiling of which are dirty beyond description. In the courtyard are\na few sheds where your mules are stalled for the night, while horses and\ndonkeys, kicking and braying, vie with _insecta_ in enlivening for you\nthe hours of darkness. Meanwhile your landlord has sent to ask whether\nyou are requiring food. The bill of fare offers _mien_,[7] with\naccompanying condiments of salt, vinegar, and red pepper. Should you be\na _bon vivant_ you will ask for onion and a few bean sprouts, though\nthis entail the reckless expenditure of the further sum of one penny.\nYou lodge a protest at such extortionate charges, for, as your servant\nremarks, \"at such a price we cannot afford to eat.\" Two sticks cut from\na tree serve for table cutlery. \"I hate luxury,\" said Goethe, \"it kills\nthe imagination.\" Here imagination flourishes. Through the dirt and\ngrime of the wall I can decipher a poem which tells me that when I come\nto reckon with my landlord, my account will be as flowing river. Other\nscrawls eulogise him, and assure me: \"Whoever sleeps upon this _kang_,\nsleeps in peace.\" (I must have been an exception!) An idol, half-torn,\nhangs in one corner of the room, and in another I discover a Christian\ntract. Who has passed this way before me? I am aroused from my reverie\nby the sound of a voice, which utters, without seeing the humour and\npathos of the remark: \"The foreign devil is reading characters.\" I turn\nto see an eye filling the space of a torn piece of window paper,\nshamelessly scrutinising me, and as I do so the intruder withdraws to\ndiscuss with the muleteers my failings, virtues, and intimate habits.\nLong before light the men are calling us, and we arise, anxious to lose\nnone of the cool morning air. Delays occur, for last night a portion of\nthe harness was pawned to pay for the men's supper. Either we supply the\nnecessary money to redeem the pledge, or wait there indefinitely. We\nfirst declare that nothing will make us produce that sum which they are\nnot entitled to receive until the journey's end, but both they and we\nknow that a compromise must be effected. Alas, it is already light and\nthe sun rises glorious, but to-day we are to reach home, and nothing\nseems hard. A short stay for dinner, and at sunset the gates of Hwochow\nare visible. I cannot describe these homecomings; the welcomers and\nwelcomed know, and that is enough.\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[7] Vermicelli--cut with a knife.\n\n\n\n\nTHE BUILDERS\n\n          \"The house is not for me, it is for Him.\n           His Royal thoughts require many a stair,\n           Many a tower, many an outlook fair,\n           Of which I have no thought, and need no care.\n           Where I am most perplexed, it may be there\n           Thou makest a secret chamber holy--dim,\n           Where Thou wilt come to help my deepest prayer.\"\n                                        GEORGE MACDONALD.\n\n          \"Toil, workman, toil; thy gracious Lord\n           Will give thee soon a full reward;\n           Then toil, obedient to His word,\n           Until He come.\n\n           Sing, pilgrim, sing; Christ's mighty Hand\n           Will bring thee safe to that bright land;\n           Then sing--it is thy Lord's command--\n           Until He come.\"\n                                        ANON.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nTHE BUILDERS\n\nRELATING HOW THE SUPPLIES WERE USED\n\n\nIN an incredibly short space of time our compound was overrun by a gang\nof one hundred men from the province of Honan. The land in Southern\nShansi has been too fertile and yielded too rich a crop of opium to\nleave us good workmen; when therefore we want work quickly and well\ndone, we inquire for a Honan or Shantung man.\n\nOur helpers searched the countryside for likely trees, which were felled\nand in a few days made their reappearance as pillars and beams. Old\nbuildings were bought, demolished, and sorted into usable and unusable\nmaterial, so that as the walls went up the empty spaces about the city\nincreased in number.\n\nBefore dawn each morning we were aroused by the beating of a loud gong\nwhich called the men to work. This work they might not leave until the\nlast streak of daylight had faded, except for the brief space allowed\nfor breakfast and dinner, when huge cauldrons of a sticky mass of boiled\nmillet was ladled out in generous portions. Millet is the cheapest grain\nfood procurable, and the Shansi man cannot thrive upon it; to the Honan\nman it is the staff of life, and in consequence their rate of wage is\nlower.\n\nA race of giants they were, handsome, magnificently built, and well\nskilled in the use of their simple tools. In the use of the adze they\nwere particularly proficient, and able to plane a section of wood to\nwithin a hairbreadth of thickness by the use of this alone. They liked\nto use it for the most delicate work, so certain are they of their\naccurate manipulation, and on one occasion when I supplied a bandage to\nbind a wound on the finger of a workman who had met with a slight\naccident, as I turned to take up my scissors, the head carpenter,\nwithout a trace of humour on his face, stepped forward with a four-foot\nlong adze, and offered to sever the calico.\n\nHeavy work requiring the combined strength of several men, such as the\nbeating in of foundations, or the lifting of a great beam, was\naccompanied by the sound of the weirdest rhythmic chant, sustained for\nhours if needs be.\n\nA night watchman was employed, who in accordance with the custom of the\ncountry constantly beat a loud gong, by means of which any intending\nthief is made aware that all are not asleep. The English policeman's\nrubber sole, and the Chinese watchman's noisy methods, strange to\nrelate, attain the same ends.\n\nOn one occasion, hearing blood-curdling yells at midday, we inquired and\nwere told that a workman had caught a tramp, red-handed, in the act of\nstealing his tools. Our informant described him as aged, starved, and\ninfirm, \"truly pitiable,\" and strung up by his thumbs to a beam. The\nsound of those yells made us fear that something akin to the famous\ndeath by slow degrees, so constantly referred to in Chinese\njurisprudence, was being carried into effect at our very door. Pastor\nWang, the merciful, was already interceding on the man's behalf, and we\nsent a peremptory message that the thing must stop. Our desire was\nacceded to, and the wretched victim made his escape, more terrified than\nreally hurt.\n\nThe next reminder of the incident was the following item in the\nbuilder's final account: \"To missing tools, unclaimed in accordance with\nmissionaries' loving heart, 2s.\"\n\nOne of the minor expenses connected with our building operations was the\ninviting of guests to a succession of feasts. The occasion of the\nstamping of the contract in the _Yamen_, which marked the conclusion of\nthe middlemen's responsibility in the purchase of property, was\ncelebrated by a handsome meal, to which all in any way connected with\nthe transaction were invited.\n\nThe necessity of conciliating our neighbours to the inevitable trouble\nwhich the dust and litter of building would entail upon them, caused us\nto spread another feast, to which all who could shelter beneath the term\n\"neighbour\" were asked.\n\nBy the building contract we found ourselves obliged to conform to the\ncustomary requirement made by workmen that every tenth day we should\nprovide a \"reward for work,\" which, in fact, amounted to supplying one\npound of white flour and a handful of vegetable to each workman. This\narrangement ensured pleasant relations between the men and ourselves,\nfor each time they were our guests grievances were forgotten and a fresh\nstart made. The swinging of the huge beams of the church roof was the\noccasion for extra festivity.\n\nThis custom of inviting guests does much to smooth over difficulties,\nand is customary, not only in matters of building, but also on numerous\nother occasions. For instance, the autumn rains swelling the river\nnecessitate the use of a ferry boat for about two months of the year.\nThe expense of this is met by public subscriptions from the more\nimportant people of the city, and a small fare for each passenger. Those\nwhose names appear on the subscription list are invited to an annual\nbanquet given by the ferrymen; I have often wondered what would happen\nwere some simple soul to accept the invitation, which in reality is only\nintended to serve as a reminder that subscriptions are now due.\n\nIt is part of the convenient social system of this land that no woman\nwould presume to put in an appearance on such occasions. Throughout the\nbuilding operations the only part of the feast in which we were\nprivileged to share--which privilege was unquestioningly granted--was\nthe payment of all expenses.\n\nHow glad we should have been to find such an easy solution to the\nproblem of the importunate widow. This aged lady entered a claim for two\nstones occupying nine square feet of waste land, to the sale of which\nshe declared her consent had never been given. The matter had been\nreferred to middlemen who decided in our favour; nevertheless, we\nlearned to dread the daily tap, tap, of her stick, and the shrill squawk\nof her strident voice as she came with fresh deeds (some of them dating\nback to former dynasties) of which she demanded the examination. She was\ngenerally accompanied by friends, all of whom were prepared to support\nher claim.\n\nI have seen her stand by the workmen, and with her nagging tongue drive\nthem, and the foreman, almost to despair. It was impossible to recognise\nher rights even to the extent of feasting her, so we endured until the\nwalls were built, and then to compensate her for her trouble handed her\nthe equivalent of 2s., which sum she accepted, but every time we meet\nher she reminds us that we are occupying land which belongs to her.\n\nThe first autumn frosts saw a large expanse of waste land, which had\nformerly lain around our compound, transformed into a neat series of\ncourtyards, and a spacious church occupied seventy feet of the main\nstreet frontage, providing sitting accommodation for a congregation of\nsix hundred. In all, we had erected fifty _gien_[8] of room space, in\naddition to the church.\n\nThanks to an unusually profitable rate of silver exchange which held\nduring these few months, and owing to the faithful oversight and\nscrupulous economy of Pastor Wang and his helpers, our L500 proved\nsufficient to meet all necessary requirements of Church, School, Bible\nSchool, and Dispensary.\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[8] The space between two beams in a Chinese building.\n\n\n\n\nWOMEN'S BIBLE TRAINING SCHOOL\n\n          \"Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel.\"\n                                  Motto of the Hwochow Bible School.\n\n\n          \"Cornelius halted at a doorway in a long, low\n          wall--the outer wall of some villa courtyard, it\n          might be supposed--as if at liberty to enter, and\n          rest there awhile. He held the door open for his\n          companion to enter also, if he would, with an\n          expression, as he lifted the latch, which seemed\n          to ask Marius, \"Would you like to see it?\" Was he\n          willing to look upon that, the seeing of which\n          might define--yes! define the critical\n          turning-point in his days?\"--WALTER PATER.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\nWOMEN'S BIBLE TRAINING SCHOOL\n\nWHICH TELLS HOW A LINK WAS ESTABLISHED BETWEEN WESTMINSTER AND HWOCHOW\nBIBLE SCHOOLS\n\n\nAMONGST the courtyards which constituted our new premises was one into\nthe walls of which was inserted a stone, engraved with the words in\nChinese and English: \"Women's Bible School. Erected by the Congregation\nof Westminster Chapel, London. Jesus said: 'I am the Way, the Truth, and\nthe Life.'\"\n\nThe women's rooms had never been large enough to hold those who were\nanxious to come, and now at last suitable premises were going to make\npossible the fulfilment of a long-cherished plan--that of giving\nadequate training to suitable women.\n\nIt seemed a long step from the days when, freely roaming around the\nvillages, we taught some of these women the very first character they\nknew, spelling out with them the text: \"God so loved the world that He\ngave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not\nperish, but have everlasting life.\" The next step had been attendance at\na station class for twenty days, sometimes repeated yearly but never\nleading to advanced work. In our new premises we divided the students\ninto three groups: Firstly, those attending a ten days' course, who\nserved as training-ground to a second group of more advanced women who\nhad passed the initial stage, and who now entered for the two years'\ncourse of Bible training and practical experience as evangelists.\nThirdly, a picked few who, having received more regular teaching, were\nable to continue their own studies and help to superintend the work of\nthe juniors, especially on the practical side, meanwhile giving a\nconsiderable portion of their time to aggressive evangelistic work.\n\nForemost amongst these was Mrs. Liang, mother of Ling Ai, the\nheadmistress of the girls' school. Strong, true, a woman of no ordinary\nability, little escaped her penetrating glance. It was in middle age\nthat she first heard the Gospel, an indirect influence of the opium\nrefuge work; for Mrs. Liang had never smoked opium, nor had any member\nof her family. A neighbour, however, had, and on her return from the\nRefuge she produced with pardonable pride the copy of St. John's Gospel\nwhich she had bought, and better still, could read. It was hard for Mrs.\nLiang to see the former degraded opium smoker ahead of her in learning,\nand she persuaded her husband to give her the needed help. She borrowed\nthe book and started at the first chapter. She had not been to the\nMission House nor had she seen the missionaries, but before she met them\nshe had met their Lord. It was but one more proof that \"the words I\nspeak unto you they are spirit, and they are life,\" and the Holy Spirit\nilluminating the written pages brought home to her its meaning. \"He\ncame unto His own, and His own received Him not,\" she read, and how can\nI say what took place? She tells me that she was convicted of sin, and\nthat she found her Saviour.\n\n[Illustration: WOMEN'S BIBLE SCHOOL.\n\nMrs. Hsi on the left, sharing a book with Miss French. Mrs. Liang on the\nright, sitting at Miss Cable's left.\n\n_To face page 160._]\n\nIntercourse with Miss Jacobsen was soon established, and under Mr.\nCheng's influence her husband also believed. Mrs. Liang was baptized,\nher own feet and Ling Ai's were unbound, and the latter became a pupil\nin the girls' school.\n\nMrs. Liang herself lived quietly at home until the year 1900. At that\ntime the local Boxer leader was a near neighbour of hers, and he was\nprepared to kill these well-known adherents of a foreign religion. On\nrecovering consciousness, however, from the trance which preceded the\nissuing of inspired orders, he uttered the surprising words: \"Return\neach to your own place; let each busy himself with his own affairs.\" Not\ndaring to disobey his followers scattered, and the small group of\nChristians was safe. Ling Ai has described the experiences of those days\nin the following words: \"For months we were as those whose hair is bound\naround the neck, not knowing at what moment we should be called upon to\ndie, but after our deliverance we united in saying: 'We have been under\nthe shadow of the Almighty.'\"\n\nWhen we came to Hwochow Mrs. Liang, realising our difficulties, was one\nof the first to come to our assistance, and quickly endeared herself to\nus by her thoughtful, kind, practical ways.\n\nTo the work of preaching she gave herself with unusual energy and\ndevotion, so that to-day there are few women in Hwochow who do not know\nher, and scarcely a courtyard that has not been visited by her.\n\nAssisting Mrs. Liang is Mrs. Bah, who the first time I saw her refused\nto have any intercourse with us. She was the senior wife of a wealthy\nman who had died early, leaving the two widows to arrange matters as\nbest they could. The younger one smoked opium, but was the proud\npossessor of a son who by law was the property of the elder wife, but it\nwas obvious that to the younger was due the honour of introducing a son\nand heir to the house.\n\nThe fact that Mrs. Bah the younger at last became a Christian and left\nher evil habits, did not make the elder woman more friendly, though she\nhad in time to confess that life was easier for both under the new\nconditions. After some time the Christians of the village received her\npermission to use a cave in her spacious court for worship, in return\nfor their offer to put it in repair. \"It can do no harm,\" she argued,\n\"and repairs are badly needed.\" Every evening they met to read the Bible\nand pray, and Mrs. Bah, prompted by curiosity, took her spinning to\nwithin earshot. She understood little, but the reiteration of the words\n\"Heavenly Father\" puzzled and interested her. \"If it really be the\nHeavenly Father whom they worship,\" she reasoned, \"they should be in the\nbest room.\" The thought grew upon her until a change was effected, and\nto this day Mrs. Bah's guest-room is the village church. She soon left\nher spinning-wheel to join the worshippers and gradually came to the\ntriumphant belief, weak at first, but taking slow shape, that \"the\nattitude of the soul to its Maker can be something more than a distant\nreverence and overpowering awe, that we can indeed hold converse with\nGod, speak with Him, call upon Him, put--to use a human phrase--our hand\nin His, desiring only to be led according to His will.\" This was the\nspiritual story of Mrs. Bah.\n\nI could tell of many others and the theme is tempting, for by so many\nand such varied paths have these comrades travelled. To mention only our\nyoungest student who at the age of sixteen, member of a heathen family,\nheard the Gospel of Jesus Christ from an elder sister, a patient of the\nWomen's Opium Refuge. She determined that as far as in her lay she would\nbe a Christian. Yielding to her wishes, her parents engaged her to the\nson of a believer. After her marriage, when her entrance to the Bible\nSchool was suggested we demurred, but agreed to her attending a station\nclass, only to discover that once more the Spirit of God had\naccomplished that of which we knew nothing. This young woman, who had\nonly heard the Gospel from a sister who herself did not believe, had\nbeen truly converted. Reference to the curriculum in Appendix A will\nmake it clear that the subject which has the pre-eminence is Bible\nstudy. The students prepare the books there mentioned, and during the\nyears they are with us cover also the course indicated by Dr. Campbell\nMorgan's Graded Bible, which Miss French has translated for their use.\n\nThe instruction of inquirers in the village centres is undertaken by\nthose women evangelists who have completed their course. In places to\nwhich they are invited by the local church they hold classes of ten\ndays' duration, following the course of study as in the central station.\nBy this means a large number of women are under instruction, and\nheathens are brought in contact with the messengers of the Cross.\n\nCity and village visiting forms an important branch of the training, and\nlast but not least, classes taken under criticism, when it falls to the\nlot of the missionary to ask the questions which might occur to a\nheathen audience, and to impress upon the students the necessity of\nclear presentation of the Gospel. It is desirable that they should\nexpress the things which have gripped them in an individual way, not\nadopting a Western colouring but using to the full their Eastern\nknowledge: \"Originality is like a fountain head; orthodoxy is too often\nonly the unimpeachable fluid of the water company.\"\n\nThe prodigal son, for example, naturally smoked opium in the far\ncountry, and the Chinese pictures so represent him. It was not, as we\nhave supposed, in her confidence that oil would be supplied that the\nwidow's faith was exemplified, but rather in her willingness at Elisha's\ncommand to go forth on a borrowing expedition when she was already so\ndeeply in debt.\n\nWe are sometimes treated to illustrations truly Eastern in character, as\nthe following example will indicate. It was accepted by the audience as\na solemn exhortation, as was the preacher's intention, the missionaries\nbeing the only ones present to whom the humorous side was evident. The\nsubject was the importance of a whole-hearted acceptance of the Gospel,\nand the foolishness and uselessness of a half-hearted belief. A man, we\nwere told, was begging by the roadside; he was very ill, and a passing\ndoctor had pity on him, and gave him some medicine which the man\npromised to take. Questionings, however, arose in his mind as to the\nreliability of the said doctor, and yet he could not but take the drug,\nas he felt so ill. A compromise was decided upon, and he took half the\ndose. For a few hours he felt wonderfully well, and rejoiced in his\nrestored condition; towards night the pain was more acute than before,\nand he was at his wits' end. How he regretted his folly, for his illness\nwas certainly more serious. A few months later the same doctor,\ntravelling over the same road, met the same man now reduced to a bag of\nbones.\n\n\"What!\" said he; \"are you not the man to whom I gave medicine last time\nI came this way?\"\n\n\"I am,\" he replied, \"and I have been much worse ever since.\"\n\n\"Worse!\" exclaimed the physician; \"how is that?\"\n\n\"I only took half the dose,\" said the man; \"I did not venture to take\nthe whole.\"\n\n\"Alas! alas!\" he replied, \"how terrible! Your illness is the result of\nparasites attacking your vitals. That medicine would have killed them\nall. Had you taken the full dose you would have been well; had you\ntasted none there would have been hope for you. You took a small dose,\nand the parasites were sent to sleep, and later, when the effect of the\ndrug had gone over, they awoke more lively than ever. Having once tasted\nof the drug and experienced its effect, nothing will induce them to be\ntrapped a second time. Return home, and prepare for a lingering death.\"\n\nIn the moral drawn, the folly of an endeavour to serve two masters was\nmade clear--a truth which all present felt to have been powerfully\ninterpreted.\n\n\n\n\nTHE DRAW NET LET DOWN INTO THE SEA\n\n          \"Take up God's inspired word anywhere you like,\n          and while we are called upon to adore the\n          sovereign counsel of God and to say constantly\n          that it transcends and surpasses all that we can\n          do and all that we can expect, yet He does not\n          bring the season of refreshing without engaging\n          His children to help Him. The splendour of the\n          grace may sometimes conceal man's effort, but it\n          never cancels it.\"--Rev. ELVIT LEWIS.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII\n\nTHE DRAW NET LET DOWN INTO THE SEA\n\nAN ACCOUNT OF FRESH EFFORTS TO REACH THE MULTITUDE AND BRING THEM TO\nDECISION\n\n\nMETHODS in mission work are many, and the diversities of gifts bestowed\nby the one Spirit are manifest in the striking variety of means put\nforth to bring to a knowledge of Christ the people of the lands in which\nthe members of His Church are called to work.\n\nThe teacher rejoices to see the change brought about by discipline and\nregular life in those committed to his care. The doctor, exercising his\ngift, succeeds where others have failed in establishing confidence and\nfriendly relations which prepare a road for those who follow. The\nitinerant missionary sacrifices the comfort of a settled dwelling to\ncarry the Gospel to those who dwell outside the radius touched by the\ncentral station.\n\nBy the exercise of his peculiar gift, each expresses the longing that in\nthe hearts of the people he sees around, without God and without hope,\nmay take place that greatest of miracles called conversion.\nNevertheless, every missionary has ever to guard against a most subtle\nand deadening influence which may be likened to poisonous gas in the\nenemy's country, lulling him to a condition wherein the idolatrous\npractices of the people around, instead of stirring him to greater\nactivity, come to be regarded as customs of the nations amongst whom he\nlives, deplorable but interesting practices.\n\nThe horror experienced on first seeing men bow down to wood and stone\nmay give way to a complacency which ceases to expect an immediate\nresponse to the quickening and convicting power of the Spirit of God,\nand philosophises on the gradual emergence of light from the kingdom of\ndarkness. The deadening of that vitality which drives a man to the\nseeking of the lost is one of the master-strokes of the enemy of souls,\nand one which no man doing spiritual work can afford to ignore.\n\nThe sense of this urgency, and a great desire that our Chinese\nfellow-workers might realise the fullness of their vocation as\nevangelists, emboldened us to move in what was then a somewhat new\ndirection so far as North China was concerned, by the holding of a six\ndays' Mission for women in our new church in the spring after its\ndedication.\n\nMiss Gregg of Hwailu, in the Province of Chihli, when travelling through\nShansi some years previously had conducted meetings for schoolgirls in\nseveral stations, upon which the blessing of God manifestly rested. From\nthat time plans were being matured in the minds of the missionaries at\nHwochow for a Mission to women in that city at the earliest possible\ndate. The erection of a church building which could hold the number\nexpected made that dream a possibility. The city and villages were\nvisited by the women evangelists, placards were posted on the walls, and\nevery effort was made to widely advertise. Prayer was offered throughout\nthe Church that God would so prevent us in all our doings that we might\nsee His salvation.\n\nThe men gladly undertook the arrangements for catering, made necessary\nby the fact that women cannot go to the shops to buy food for\nthemselves, and this department was splendidly managed. We prepared to\nreceive three hundred guests, and about three hundred and fifty took\nadvantage of the invitation, who, with schoolgirls, Bible School\nstudents and helpers, provided a resident congregation of little short\nof five hundred. They came long distances on donkey-back, in carts, or\neven walking many miles.\n\nLarge numbers of heathen, attracted by the unique sight of so large a\nconcourse of women, swelled the numbers at the daily evangelistic\nmeetings, and it was an inspiration to see the new church packed with\nwomen and girls quietly and reverently listening to the Gospel message.\nA room was set apart where silence was observed, that those who wished\nto do so might pray without fear of disturbance. A band of helpers was\nappointed to teach the passage for the day, and outside the church in an\nadjoining court was a book-stall, and here a brisk trade was done in\nhymn-sheets, gospels, and block-printed texts.\n\nThe elder scholars, anxious to do their part, acted as stewards; each\none had charge of some part of the building, so that should a baby cry\nand threaten to divert attention, she could carry the small offender to\nan adjoining room and keep it there until such time as it was prepared\nto enjoy the larger gathering. One of the \"old girls\" took charge of\nsmall children, and managed her creche so successfully that we were\nundisturbed by the younger portion of the community.\n\nEach morning before seven a gong sounded and all assembled for prayer.\nAfter breakfast a short Bible-reading was given, the subject chosen\nbeing the sevenfold \"I Am\" of St. John's Gospel. These meetings were\nsimple and evangelistic, and many testified to blessing received as they\nsaw afresh all the wealth laid up in Him who is the Way, the Truth, and\nthe Life.\n\nIt was to the eleven and four o'clock meetings that the crowds gathered.\nWhile the congregation was assembling a choir of schoolgirls sang hymns,\nand after reading of Scripture and prayer by a Chinese lady, the address\nwas given by Miss Gregg. The women listened intently as she talked, and\nillustrated her remarks by objects so familiar. The fan used for\nwinnowing the grain is, I think, now never used by those who attended\nwithout the thought asserting itself afresh that thus He will separate\nthe wheat from the chaff.\n\nThis Mission accomplished all that we had hoped. Christ the Redeemer was\nrevealed to some who, in obedience to the wishes of the head of their\nhousehold, had passively substituted Christianity for that system of\nidolatrous observances which had constituted their religious life.\n\nChrist the Master laid His claim upon some who had believed, but never\nserved.\n\nEven heathen women, listening to the earnest, convincing words, were\nstartled to a realisation that the offer of salvation with which they\nwere faced compelled a decision on one side or the other, that the\ndetached view with which they had hitherto regarded Christianity could\nno longer be maintained. Amongst the schoolgirls were some, daughters of\nChristians, who were in precisely the same position as girls in a\nhomeland. They neither doubted nor questioned, but they now realised\nthat the whole matter had assumed a personal aspect, and the individual\nspirit was summoned to an audience with its Maker.\n\nThe Evangelists, Bible women, and ripe Christians amongst us suddenly\nsaw the fields white, and every dilatory thought which suggested the\nperennial excuse: \"There are yet four months and then cometh the\nharvest,\" was silenced in a sense of immediate urgency: \"I must be about\nmy Master's business.\" This gathering affected a wide area, for our\nvisitors came from the counties of Hungtung, Chaocheng, and Fensi, now\nall gladly welcomed by the Hwochow church, and missionaries from those\ndistricts came to share with us in the campaign.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSix years have passed, and once more a Mission for women is advertised\nto be held on the occasion of an idol procession which brings thousands\ninto town from the neighbouring villages. This time our own evangelistic\nband was sufficiently strong to undertake the speaking to an audience\nalmost entirely composed of heathen, who now heard, not from a\nforeigner, but from their own people, of the Truth as it is in Jesus.\nOnce more we saw decisions made and the evidence of the working of God's\nSpirit.\n\nThus was a further step taken in aggressive work amongst the women, and\na further impetus given to the self-propagation of the Gospel, and to\nthe fulfilment of the prophecy of Pastor Hsi that even Hwochow should\nsee a Resurrection morning.\n\n\n\n\nLIFE AMONGST THE UPPER TEN THOUSAND\n\n  \"Is it not delightful to have friends coming from distant quarters!\"\n                                        CONFUCIUS.\n\n\n          \"All within the four seas are brethren.\"\n                                        CONFUCIUS.\n\n          \"Society and solitude are deceptive names. It is\n          not the circumstance of seeing more or fewer\n          people, but the readiness of sympathy, that\n          imports.\"--EMERSON.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII\n\nLIFE AMONGST THE UPPER TEN THOUSAND\n\nRECORDING HOSPITALITY SHOWN TO US BY THE OFFICIAL CLASSES\n\n\nIN the centre of every Chinese city stands the _Yamen_, where resides\nthe Mandarin, addressed as \"Father of the people,\" before whom their\nwrongs must be laid, and who, as direct representative of the central\nGovernment, exercises autocratic power. His word is law, a man must\nkneel in his presence when addressing him, and it is a penal offence to\nenter his private dwelling-court unsummoned. His term of office is\nlimited to a few years and a change of official entails the removal of\nhis whole suite. The new Mandarin will bring with him his secretaries,\nunderlings, men and women servants, and the prosperity of a city will\nlargely depend upon the personal attitude of the \"Great Man\" to matters\nof reform.\n\nOur intercourse with the Hwochow _Yamen_ has been frequent, and owing to\nthe strong attitude taken by the leaders of the Church against\ninterference in law cases where Christians are concerned, it has been of\na purely social character.\n\nMy first visit was in answer to a request from the Mandarin that I would\ngo to see his wife who was suffering from acute toothache. I was\nrequested to make preparations for an extraction, and was informed that\nif it suited my convenience I should be fetched that same afternoon.\nAccordingly, I made ready and in due course the _Yamen_ carriage\narrived, a springless, but elegantly upholstered cart, and accompanied\nby a woman servant we started. Ahead of us an outrider, dressed in a\nlong gown, wore a hat of the inverted bowl shape, decorated with a\nspreading scarlet tassel. Behind followed other retainers, and thus\nescorted we passed in triumphal procession through the quiet Hwochow\nstreets. After many bumps and anxious moments as we splashed in and out\nof mud-pits, we turned into the wide space which surrounds the outermost\nentrance of the _Yamen._ Here crowds of men were reading the latest\nproclamation pasted to the walls, whilst others, talking earnestly,\ndiscussed the case tried that very day, of the poor man who in vain\nsought redress from the rapacity of his wealthy neighbour. He had knelt,\nand laying his forehead to the ground at the feet of the Mandarin\npleaded for justice, but only to find that his condemnation was a\nforegone conclusion. All these groups were scattered by the yells of our\noutrider and the cracks of our carter's whip, and the sellers of cooked\nfood gathered their piles of little bowls and swiftly set them out of\nharm's way, for the habits of _Yamen_ retainers are well known to the\npopulace, and there is little satisfaction to be had when complaints are\npresented and compensation for destroyed goods is claimed. With\never-increasing speed and corresponding agony, we were driven up the\nsteep ascent which leads to the outer courtyard, where after a\npreliminary bump down two steps we found ourselves on comparatively\nsmooth ground, and rolled along a broad, high, paved path leading to the\nsecond great archway where our conveyance came to a standstill, and we\nwaited whilst our cards were taken and presented to the ladies we had\ncome to see. Many soldiers were standing about, and various instruments\nused in the punishment of prisoners were fastened to the walls as\nwarning to all who passed that way. A very few minutes and we were\ninvited to leave our cart and follow the man appointed to conduct us to\nthe innermost court where the _Tai-tais_[9] lived; slaves attended us on\neither side, whilst the retainer went ahead carrying our scarlet cards\nbreast high before him.\n\nA vista of courtyards opened one from another, and we saw a number of\nlittle ladies in charming, brilliant, butterfly-like garments coming to\nmeet us with odd, graceful, stilted movements. Everything must from this\npoint be done according to the strictest etiquette, so the _Tai-tai_ of\nleast rank came first to meet us, and led us back to where stood the\nhead wife, in whose presence we respectfully removed our eyeglasses and\nmade a bow.\n\nThere were a large number of women about, for this Mandarin had two\nwives besides several daughters-in-law. We were invited to a\nreception-room where carpets, felts, tables, and chairs were all scarlet\nin colour, and here were served with delicious fragrant tea and small\ncakes, in which were mixed rose leaves, nuts, and sugar. All the\npreliminary questions required by good manners were first asked--our\nrespective \"venerable ages\" and details of our various near\nrelatives--but soon curiosity overflowed into many inquiries concerning\nour \"honourable country,\" and we were helped to more tea and cakes, and\nbegged to make ourselves at home. We, on our part, led the conversation\nback to matters concerned with the object of our residence in this\ncountry, and received from our hostess extravagant compliments upon our\nextraordinary ability and learning, the reputation of which, they said,\nwas well known to the Mandarin.\n\nThe object of my visit was then mentioned, and I was asked to see the\ntooth, of which, being very loose, I recommended the extraction, and was\nable to assure the patient that the pain would not be very great. Many\nof the younger women gathered around her, comforting her, and covered\nher eyes that she might not see the forceps; they begged her to remember\nthat the pain would soon be over, and as soon as I could induce her to\nopen her mouth, I removed the troublesome member. \"How wonderful!\" they\nall exclaimed. \"Why, it did not hurt at all!\"\n\nAfter such a surgical triumph, long-neglected and half-forgotten pains\nwere remembered by the bystanders, and all the ladies on my next visit\ncame to me with some complaint. We sought to awaken in them the sense of\nthose far deeper ills which they so little realised, finding once more\nthat in following the method of Christ a sense of need had been\nawakened: \"Ye seek Me because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled.\nI am the bread of life.\"\n\nAs soon as the operation was over, we suggested that we must be\nreturning home, but this could not be allowed until we had partaken of\nfurther refreshment, and servants appeared with delicacies--meat balls\nin gravy, flavoured as only a Chinese cook can flavour, lotus seeds in\nsyrup, luscious fruits, sweetmeats, and a drink of apricot kernels,\nsweet to excess. The meat balls were daintily wrapped in pastry, and as\nshe helped me to some of these, the _Tai-tai_ said: \"I think you do not\ncare for pork.\" I replied that we did not as a rule eat much pork. \"I am\nso glad,\" she said: \"these are fowl, and therefore you can eat them\nwithout fear.\" A few days later we heard that the head cook was under\nsevere punishment and incarcerated in a dungeon, because he had not\ntaken the trouble to find out what were our special tastes in matters of\nthe table, and had served pork in place of fowl! Some years later he was\na patient in our Refuge, and told Mr. Wang that he would like to make a\nfeast for us. We thought this extremely kind of him, considering what he\nhad suffered on our behalf, and he was asked to our kitchen to prepare\nthe food, while we invited some friends to share it with us. I think he\nwas a man of preconceived ideas rather than a genius at making\ninquiries, whatever his talent in the culinary art, for he said he knew\nforeigners liked sweet things, and he served us twenty or more courses\nof the sweetest food it has been my good fortune to eat!\n\nOur visit proved to be the commencement of a most friendly intercourse.\nA few days later the outrider, cart, and retainers were at our door\nagain, this time escorting the ladies who had come to return the call.\nThey enjoyed the outing considerably, as is easy to see they would, when\none remembers that they had lived three years in Hwochow and had now\ncrossed the threshold of their home for the first time during that\nperiod. They could have no intercourse at all with the bourgeoisie of\nthe town, and apart from visitors staying at the _Yamen_, enjoyed no\nsocial life.\n\nIn due course we were invited to an \"eight times eight\" feast,\nconsisting of elaborate courses, in which the sweet, the fishy, and the\nmeaty alternated in bewildering miscellany, whilst our vision was\ndelighted by the elegant dishes, the lovely coral china, the pure form\nof the many-branched candlesticks, and, above all, the graceful, gay\nlittle ladies who manipulated the difficult, slippery food with such a\nmasterly command of their nimble chop-sticks. Here for the first time I\ntasted the delicious birds'-nest soup, gelatinous in consistency and\nfishy in taste, being, in fact, a mass compounded of seaweed and small\nfish into a nest by a sea-bird.\n\nSo far all was well, but we came home faced by the difficulty that it\nwas now our turn to offer a return feast which must be equally elegant.\nThere was only one cook in the city who was capable of the preparation\nof a suitable repast, and he was in their employ, and though some\nsurprising things are possible in China, we did not see how we could\nsecure his services to cook a meal for his own mistress. We were,\ntherefore, thrown back upon our slender resources, and decided that an\nEnglish dinner-party was the only possible solution of the problem. Here\nat least we were treading upon familiar ground, and were free from the\nsnares of Chinese etiquette. We need have no fear of giving offence to\nour guests by placing the fish upon the table with its head toward that\nquarter which would indicate their position to be of military instead of\ncivil rank, and many other equally subtle and delicate questions would\nnow have no terrors for us. We felt it incumbent upon us to do all in\nour power to please the eye as well as the palate, and while we fully\nrealised our inability to delight our guests with such beauty as that to\nwhich they were accustomed, we did our best. Salmon is a great asset,\nbeing decorative as well as tasty, and only the hard-pressed know the\nmany uses of a tin of sardines. Jelly is a certain success, and the last\nplum-pudding from home, cut into dice and blazing in a blue flame, looks\nmysteriously clever. A bottle of cochineal is worth its weight in gold\non such occasions, and the _piece montee_, which none but an expert\ncould have recognised as spinach, beetroot, carrot, and yam tinted pink,\nwould have done no discredit to Benoist. The novelty of handling spoon\nand fork, and even so dangerous a weapon as a knife, did much to enhance\nthe pleasure of the meal.\n\nThe conversation was now much more intimate than on the earlier\noccasions, and both sides felt free to ask questions on matters which\nhad excited curiosity. \"Does the sun ever shine in your country?\" asked\nthe _Tai-tai_. \"I have heard that England is a land of shades.\" \"When I\nleft my home in Szechwan I was very homesick. Are you?\" inquired another\nlady, but before I could reply, her companion answered for me: \"The\nability of these ladies is so great that they would be incapable of such\nfeelings.\" A guest of their own, who had spent much time in Shanghai,\nwas thoroughly conversant with foreign dress and manners; she described\nthe former with great originality, but admitted that even she was\nbaffled by one thing: \"The spotted webbing with which foreign ladies\ncover their face, is it worn for purposes of concealment or as an aid to\nthe eyesight?\" My answer that it served to keep the hair in place\ncarried no conviction, for she had already remarked that though combs\nare so much in evidence in the foreign woman's coiffure, she seemingly\nmakes little use of them!\n\nThe conversation turned to the subject of a proclamation recently issued\nwhich forbade the binding of children's feet: \"Alas, the people of China\nare not so easily governed as those of your honourable country,\"\nlamented the chief _Tai-tai_. \"The Mandarin finds it impossible to\nenforce this one order, whilst he read in last week's paper that in\nEngland a man is imprisoned for refusing to send his child to school,\nfor omitting to vaccinate it, and the article even stated that a parent\nis punished for refusing to call a doctor to see a sick child, even if\nit be a girl; but the newspapers are full of fabulous tales!\"\n\nThe next few months saw a growing intimacy and a constant exchange of\npresents. We were often able to indulge in the famous delicacy of\nburied eggs, of which the not unpleasant, slightly ammoniated flavour is\nso much appreciated by the Chinese. Once we were faced by a real\ndifficulty on the occasion of receiving a present of meat, when\nconscientious Mr. Fu, fearful lest we should shelter under a liberty of\nconscience whereby we would eat and ask no question, hastily came to\nwarn us that this had been offered to idols before being presented to\nus. Under these circumstances we had no option but to crave leave to\nrefuse a present whereby a brother might have been caused to stumble.\n\nHow little we dreamed of the trouble which would so soon break over the\nofficial classes with the overthrow of the Empire, and the establishment\nof a Republic. I remember the last visit we paid to those friends, and\nour departure from the _Yamen_ in the brilliant moonlight, whilst huge\nlanterns lighted our path through the archways and great gateways. As we\nleft the huge enclosure the guard fired the first night watch. \"Except\nthe Lord keep the city the watchman watcheth but in vain.\" That night\nthe Revolution broke out in Hankow, and the next time we saw our\nhostesses they were in terrible distress, imploring our permission to\nmake our house their shelter, should the hatred of the mob break forth\nand their residence be rioted. They were in a most defenceless position,\nfor the Mandarin had taken a journey to Taiyueanfu, and did not return.\nHe was one of the old school, and faithful to the traditions of the\nManchus whose court he had accompanied to Sianfu in the flight of 1900.\nIt was still far from certain which party would gain the ascendancy,\nand he, as most of his class, wished to refrain from an expression of\nopinion until the situation was clearly defined. This, however, was not\nallowed, and during the massacres of the Manchus in Taiyueanfu he was\narrested, and made to declare himself.\n\nHe held the Hanlin degree, the highest honour to which the Chinese\nscholar is admitted, the Emperor himself conducting the examinations.\nFaced by his enemies and fearing summary execution, he sheltered himself\nbehind the age-long reverence for scholarship which exists in China as\nin no other country: \"Death has no terrors for me,\" he calmly said,\n\"but, alas, that such a scholar should be lost to China!\" No armed\nbodyguard could have afforded him such protection as this transference\nof insult from his own person to the learning he represented. No man\npresent was prepared to strike a blow at the embodiment of the Divine\nRight of Scholarship.\n\nHe lived to return to Hwochow, where he faced death a second time and\nwas dragged through the streets by an angry populace, but finally\nescaped and with his wives reached a place of safety.\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[9] The polite term for the wife of an official.\n\n\n\n\nTHE REVOLUTION OF 1911\n\n          \"For an event to be great, two things must be\n          united--the lofty sentiment of those who\n          accomplish it, and the lofty sentiment of those\n          who witness it. No event is great in itself, even\n          though it be the disappearance of whole\n          constellations, the destruction of several\n          nations, the establishment of vast empires, or the\n          prosecution of wars at the cost of enormous\n          forces: over things of this sort the breath of\n          history blows as if they were flocks of wool. . . .\n          Hence the anxiety which every one must feel who,\n          observing the approach of an event, wonders\n          whether those about to witness it will be worthy\n          of it.\"--F. NIETZSCHE.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX\n\nTHE REVOLUTION OF 1911\n\nAND HOW WE WERE AFFECTED BY IT\n\n\nTHE revolution of 1911 burst on us like a bolt from the blue. One day we\nwere mildly interested at the signs of trouble in far-removed provinces,\nand the next, the thing was in our very midst. The first intimation of\nlocal disturbance met me in the shape of a contingent of men, parents of\nsome of my scholars, who were introduced to my presence with the\nstartling information that they had come to fetch away their daughters,\nnot daring to leave them in a marked place such as the girls' school\nwould inevitably be, and afraid to delay, lest roads should become so\ndangerous that their removal would be impossible. I had no option but to\nagree, and at earliest dawn the next day a few carts and a string of\ndonkeys conveyed them from a side door as quietly and unobtrusively as\npossible.\n\nTwo days later the news of a massacre of the Manchu population of\nTaiyueanfu reached us; and in accordance with the request of the parents,\nwe hastily scattered all the remaining pupils whose homes were nearer at\nhand, and the whole city yielded itself to a condition of panic when\nevery wild report was spread and believed.\n\nThe little group of foreigners in this town is popularly supposed to\nhave access to the most far-reaching sources of information on matters\nnational and international; therefore when we saw fit to scatter our\nresident pupils to their homes, the city concluded that secret\ninformation had been conveyed to us of trouble ahead. That same night,\nwhilst we slept peacefully in our beds, terror so seized the populace\nthat every young woman who had a village home to which she could\nwithdraw, fled to it. Where horse or donkey was not available they\nescaped on foot, carrying the bundle which held their clothes, and the\ngates being shut at dark, numbers climbed down the steep incline of the\ncity wall rather than risk the dangers which they feared might threaten\nthem in the town.\n\nCertainly an anxious time was ahead for all of us. Postal service was\ninterrupted, and we were completely cut off from intercourse by post or\ntelegraph with the outer world. It was uncertain whether the movement\nwould declare itself anti-foreign or anti-Christian, anti-dynastic or\nanti-Republican. Such uncertainty was felt on this latter political\npoint, that it was a difficult time indeed for the large number whose\nplain object was to be on the winning side, whichever it might be. Even\nthe commander of the military forces, sent to restore peace in a\nneighbouring city, provided himself with the badge of either party, that\nhe might, at the city gate, affix that which was representative of the\npredominant feeling. The Chinaman has for so long held the view that\npolitics are no individual concern of his, seeing that statesmen are\npaid to give their time and brains to the consideration of such\nquestions, that it would seem unnatural to be expected to have an\nopinion on such a technical matter as to whether the Government of the\nland should remain Imperial or become Republican.\n\nOn our compound were collected seven foreign women and about a dozen\nChinese girls whose homes were in distant towns, varying from the\nborders of Mongolia in the north to places twelve days' journey by road\nin the south.\n\nMuch anxious thought was devoted to the question of how the various\nmembers of our community could be placed in safe keeping, should it\nbecome imperative for us to leave the place.\n\nFinally, Sir John Jordan's recall of all British women and children\nreached us, and feeling it our duty to obey orders, we hastily boarded a\nfew girls in suitable Christian homes, and left with the others by the\nNorth road. A long line of nine litters swung through the great archways\nof the city gates, soon after dawn on 4th December 1911, to convey us to\nour nearest point on the railway line, five days' journey away, passing\n_en route_ through a city where we knew that a trustworthy Christian\nfamily would take charge, _pro tem_, of some of our Chinese girls.\n\nIt was with relief that we saw the distant railway embankment, which\nindicated to us that we had reached the end of our litter journey, and\nmight now expect to be shortly whirled back to the midst of Western\ncivilisation.\n\nThe time-table indicated 9 a.m. as the hour of departure for the morning\ntrain, and long ere this our shivering group assembled on the bleak\nplatform. We were evidently not to be kept waiting, for the train stood\nready on a siding, and our slight baggage was soon placed in the racks\nof the only third-class carriage attached to a goods train. Those who\nhave spent years away from the sight of a train will understand the\nsense of luxury with which we seated ourselves, and waited to hear the\nwhistle which would be the sign of our departure, and feel the swift,\neasy movement which would carry us over so many miles of road almost\nwithout a trace of weariness. Our number had increased to about twenty\nforeigners, assembled in response to Sir John Jordan's command from\nvarious stations, and pleasant conversation so engaged the time that\nimpatience was under control, even though the sun was high in the\nheavens and still the train was stationary. Our servants, who had heard\nmuch of the marvels of steam-engines, still sat on patient heels at the\nedge of the platform; but doubt of the superiority of this Western\nnotion gained on their minds as the sun passed the meridian and they,\nwith twelve miles to walk for their night's lodging, left us still\nstanding motionless. \"A train is a handsome thing to look at, and the\namount of iron used in its manufacture must be immense, but for\npractical purposes give me a cart,\" was the report they brought home to\ninquiring friends at Hwochow. In the afternoon we steamed away, under\nescort of a young man who had just been appointed Secretary of the\nForeign Office in the provincial capital by the new revolutionary\nparty. His qualifications for the post consisted chiefly in the fact\nthat, having been employed by a foreign firm as piano-tuner, he could\nmake himself understood in the English tongue on simple subjects.\n\nAs far as the station of Yangchuen all went well, but here fresh delay\nand the unwelcome announcement from our escort that a battle was in\nprogress farther down the line, the metals were required for the\nconveyance of soldiers, and he must beg of us to make ourselves as\ncomfortable as possible for the night in our compartment. Protest was\nuseless, and we had to submit to see the engine detached and ourselves\nabandoned, a useless derelict, on a rusty siding. The Secretary of the\nForeign Office supplied us with hard-boiled eggs and biscuits, and made\nhis exit, leaving in charge of the gentlemen of the party a packet of\nsilver which he begged might be handed to his mother. By morning\nstationmaster, guards, porters, and clerks had all vanished from the\nscene, for the news had come of a reverse to the Revolutionary forces.\n\nFour days and nights we stuck to our third-class carriage and our\nsiding; for part of the time, trains thundered past carrying men to the\nfront, and we were informed that the famous regiment called\n\"Dare-to-die\" had gone to crush the Imperial troops. With a thrill we\nsaw these brave warriors pass, but a brief period sufficed to dispel\n\"the great illusion,\" and twelve hours later the same men were dashing\nback to Taiyueanfu, carrying a terrible tale. \"Had we stayed longer we\nshould have been dead men; the bullets were falling in our midst.\" The\nofficer, however, gave a different explanation of their return. \"Poor\nchaps, they are worn out, and I must take them back to get a night's\nrest,\" he said. No one cared for our plight, as cold, hungry, and\ndeserted we watched the weary day pass to night, and the yet more weary\nnight give place to a dreary dawn. Such experiences are not to be\ndesired, for they who know China best, and the anti-foreign feeling\nwhich may at any time manifest itself, are aware how quickly such a\nposition may become critical.\n\nOne thing only besides our miserable carriage had been left on the line,\nand that was three trolleys. The hour dawned on the fourth day when our\nexhausted patience refused further service, and we determined those\ntrolleys should be made to carry us and our goods to some inhabited\nregion, be it friendly or inimical. That day and the next we spent\nracing down and crawling up the gradients of the line to Niangtzekwan.\nThe \"Dare-to-dies\" boasted of having mined the line, and this did not\nconduce to ease of mind in being the first to travel over it, especially\nwhen we rushed through long tunnels. The line is one which taxed the\ningenuity of engineers to the utmost in its construction, and is one\nsuccession of light bridges spanning deep chasms, tunnels, and long\ngradients. Luckily for us, we were travelling in the downhill direction,\nelse our journey had been impossible. If the brave \"Dare-to-dies\" were\ntoo hurried to leave the line mined, they had taken time to destroy it\nin some places, and once a broken-down engine blocked our path. The\nfleeing soldiers had found the engine-driver preparing to take in water,\nbut they would have none of his lagging ways, and compelling him to\ndrive ahead, were soon forced to abandon the useless locomotive. Each\nsuch obstacle was a lengthy hindrance, and the kind gentlemen of our\nparty were obliged to organise a breakdown gang to overcome the\ndifficulty. Our trolleys, with all the baggage, had to be transferred to\nanother line. Effort and energy were not spared, and the following\nmidday brought us face to face with the first engine carrying Imperial\nsoldiery towards Taiyueanfu. At Niangtzekwan Pass we were under the\nDragon flag once more. The houses of the foreigners there were\ncompletely wrecked, and my recollection of that place is a land of\nfeathers, contents of the beds of the Frenchmen who had left their\nhomes, and would return to find nothing but a heap of ruins and a litter\nof broken glass, china, and furniture, smothered in feathers and\npresenting a sad wreckage of what had once been a home. That evening we\nreached an inn where food--warm, satisfying food--was to be had, and\ntwenty-four hours later we steamed into Tientsin station, greeted by a\nhearty cheer from a friendly group, for we had been missing and untraced\nsince we left Yutze.\n\n\n\n\nCHANGED CONDITIONS\n\n          \"The Master said: The people may be made to follow\n          a path of action, but they may not be made to\n          understand it.\"--CONFUCIUS.\n\n\n          \"I have seen a Chinese graduate of a Western\n          university, dressed in proper Western clothes, in\n          his dress-suit, with an opera hat crushed under\n          his arm, beseeching the goddess of mercy in her\n          temple, with many rich gifts, to give him a male\n          child.\"--Rev. C. SCOTT.\n\n\n          \"From time to time Jesus was offered a place in\n          the Pantheon, but Christianity perceived that the\n          Pantheon was the place for dead gods.\"--Dr. JOHN\n          HUTTON.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX\n\nCHANGED CONDITIONS\n\nWHEREIN SOME, THOUGH FOLLOWING A PATH OF ACTION, FAILED TO UNDERSTAND IT\n\n\nTHE very week that the British Minister issued passports for women to\nre-enter Shansi saw us in Tientsin on our way inland. Those precious\ndocuments which enabled us to return to our work were eagerly received,\nand we lost no time travelling over the familiar ground. How easily and\nsmoothly we now sped over the iron rails as compared with our former\njourney; we need now take no interest in gradients, nor fear that the\ntrain would not start at the appointed hour, nor convey us to our\ndestination.\n\nWe found ourselves in a strange country. In place of the dragon, the\nfive-colour Republican flag was everywhere in evidence, which by the\nChinese is thus explained: China's eighteen provinces are represented by\nthe red line, Manchuria by the yellow, Mongolia by the blue, Ili,\nChinghai, and Sinkiang by the white, and Thibet by the black; the ideal\nof the Chinese republic, a united territory, being indicated.\n\nSoldiers in semi-foreign uniform lined up on each station platform to\nsalute the train, remaining at their posts until the puffing monster\nwas out of sight. At Taiyueanfu were further surprises. No man wearing a\nqueue could enter the city. Should he make an effort to do so, the\nsoldiers guarding the gates speedily removed the appendage with a pair\nof large scissors.\n\nThe shops vied with one another in having the very latest \"Republican\"\ngoods; the buttons one bought were \"Republican\"; all school-books were\nchanged to the latest \"Republican\" editions; the cloth trade mark was\n\"Patriotic.\" Everything was Republican, and we began to realise that\nChina, far from being the conservative country we had thought, was one\nof the most progressive.\n\nAs we came to districts where the regulations had been less severely\nenforced, we found the queue replaced by the most extraordinary\nhead-dress; the hair, varying in length, was sometimes braided and\nsometimes held in place by a strip cut from a petroleum tin, and bent to\na semi-circle. The more wealthy members of society affected a style\nsimilar to that of an English schoolgirl, the flowing locks reaching to\nthe shoulders and held from the face by a circular comb. Others allowed\nthe tresses to fall as nature dictated, keeping them of such a length\nthat with very little trouble the plait might again appear, for as some\nremarked: \"Who knows, maybe we lose tails to-day, and heads to-morrow!\"\n\nThe hats were even more wonderful. In place of the neat, circular cap,\nevery shape and size was to be seen. Round hats like a pudding-bowl,\nstraw hats, hard oblong hats, soft hats, home-made hats, erections of\ncardboard, giving proof that some devoted wife or mother had done her\nbest to copy with the means available, probably only cardboard and\npaste, a tall hat, which her lord described as having seen on some\njourney towards Western communities. Women's dress was likewise being\nrevolutionised, and skirts were extraordinary. One young lady whom I\nmet, desiring to be more up-to-date than the rest, wore the so-called\nforeign dress back to front, and was far more satisfied with her\nappearance than the charming little lady who accompanied her, dressed in\nthe dignified, elegant attire of her own people.\n\nNot only had the style changed, but travelling south we missed the\nbright-coloured clothes which had always added a touch of beauty to the\nlandscape. We discovered that with the introduction of the Republic,\nsumptuary laws were being enforced which commanded the exclusive use of\nearth-coloured garments for the men, and forbade the wearing of silver\nornaments to women. Proclamations followed one another in rapid\nsuccession, several of which were framed with a view to altering the\nstanding of the army. From ancient days China has regarded the soldier\nas belonging to the lowest grade of society; the highest place is given\nto the scholar, and next to him the farmer, who on account of his labour\nfor mankind ranks high. The artisan is placed third, but the trader,\nseeing that he only distributes and does not produce, comes just before\nthe soldier, who neither producing nor distributing, but only\ndestroying, ranks lowest in the social scale. One proclamation stated\nthat no one was to say that it was _infra dig._ to enter the military\nprofession. It certainly needed some such move on the part of the\nauthorities to add to the prestige of the army. A few days before the\nrecruiting agents had been through the district. \"Only those wearing the\nqueue will be enlisted\" was the, to us, amazing dictum. Upon inquiry we\nfound that former aspirants had given considerable trouble by running\nhome when the labour became too arduous. As the donning of military\nuniform necessitated the removal of long hair, it was obvious that the\nnew brigade would be freshers, and, as our informant said: \"Never having\nleft home before they will not know the way back!\"\n\nThe next order forbade us to speak of any day as \"unlucky.\" Now from\ntime immemorial, some days have been regarded as good and others as bad\nfor such important events as weddings and funerals; in fact, almost\nevery day of the year is controlled by some fortunate or untoward\ninfluence, governed by the conjunction of the \"Celestial Branches\" and\n\"Earthly Stems,\" complicated with innumerable elemental antipathies and\naffinities.\n\nAs an example may be mentioned _wood_, which is antagonistic to _metal_,\nbut has an affinity for _fluid_ from which it draws its sustenance,\nwhereas the metal forged into an axe serves for its destruction.\n\nThe \"Earthly Stems\" are represented by symbolic animals, and have\nzodiacal signs and control of certain hours. Of the twenty-eight\nzodiacal constellations, seven are infelicitous and no one will risk\nentering upon a new venture on these days. To repair the kitchen stove\non a day when fire was in the ascendancy might cause a conflagration,\nand to go to law on the day when water is the controlling element is\nequally foolish, for the tendency of water is to fall, and this may be\nthe fate of the overdaring litigant. On a day controlled by the snake it\nwould obviously be foolhardy to start on a journey, for with such a slow\ntraveller as your controlling genius the journey might be impeded.\n\nThe calculations necessary for the correct adjustment of these various\ninfluences provide a livelihood for astrologers and fortune-tellers, but\nthis proclamation, at one fell swoop, attempted to abolish their\nprofession. The order was issued, and I suppose in time the yellow paper\nfaded in the sun; some read it, many talked of it, but they still chose\nthe day which according to their calendar was the auspicious one, and no\nman hindered them.\n\nOther proclamations followed in due order: there was to be no music at\nweddings or funerals, only good cash was to be used, women were to\nunbind their feet, and brides were not to wear embroidered gowns. We\nlistened respectfully, as in duty bound, and waited for the pendulum to\nswing.\n\nUpon one point, however, the powers were insistent. The Western calendar\nmust take the place of the lunar. The actual change of date was a small\nmatter, but this alteration upset the whole organisation of Chinese\nlife. The New Year season is one which ensures to the Chinese family its\nannual gathering, and all the subsequent festivals date from that, the\ngreatest. The orders were too insistent to be trifled with, and we, in\ncommon with all the government schools, closed to enable our pupils to\nbe at home for the 1st of January. New Year scrolls were exhibited\noutside every front door, but apart from this, the day passed unnoticed.\nInstead of paying and receiving calls, inviting guests and enjoying the\nfamily gathering, business was carried on as usual. The first day of the\nfirst moon, however, found the populace given up to revelry, shops were\nclosed, it was impossible to buy food, and the children in school\nrebelled at the decree which separated them from their parents at such a\ntime, and longed for the golden days of the past. Before another New\nYear it was quite evident that proclamations were useless, and we\njoyfully returned to the old order, and now all keep the first day of\nthe first moon as our festival.\n\nCompulsory education was talked of, even conscription was whispered, and\nyet we had no criminal code, and no one could touch a neighbour of ours\nwho, angry that her daughter-in-law presented her with a girl instead of\nthe longed-for boy, took the child and dashed out its brains. The child\nis her property, and she has power of life and death in her hand.\n\nThe new Mandarin was a native of Shansi, the old rule that a man might\nnot act as magistrate in his own province having been repealed. He was\nnot as his predecessor, carried in a sedan chair, but walked, or rode in\na cart as a commoner. He wore cotton clothes in place of the gorgeous\nsilk and satin embroidered gowns, and when he sent to invite us to dine\nwith his wives, his card was foreign except for the characters written\nupon it.\n\nOur first visit to the _Yamen_ under the new regime revealed some of the\nmany changes which had taken place during the last year. No longer were\nwe escorted by outriders, but hired for ourselves one of the few carts\nthat Hwochow boasts. The _Tai-tais_ were dressed in black, relieved by\nfancy crochet work shoulder capes, of varied hues. The teacups were of\nwhite china, decorated with a bunch of forget-me-nots, and the\nwell-known words: \"A present for a good boy.\" The feast menu was as\nbefore, but instead of the beautiful china and Eastern decorations, we\nsat round a glass petroleum lamp and ate delicacies worthy of a better\nsetting from plates of that familiar pattern, white with a border of\nblue. The exquisitely polished table was covered with a piece of white\ncalico, a knife and fork lay beside the chop-sticks, and last but not\nleast, the Mandarin, to add to our pleasure, ordered his servants to\nbring out the gramophone, which during dinner poured forth a selection\nof London street songs and Chinese theatrical music. Conversation was\ndrowned, and we were able the more to observe. In place of\nscroll-decorated walls, brilliant paper met our gaze at every turn,\nwhite enamel basins and bowls replaced all the flowered china on which\nwe had lavished so much admiration. After dinner we were not offered the\nwater pipe, but cigarettes, all expressing surprise that we could refuse\nso foreign an indulgence. The Chinese proverb to the effect that \"A\nwayfarer does not repair the inn nor the Mandarin his official\nresidence,\" was for once in fault--the workmen had been busy! We spent\na very pleasant hour with the family after dinner, receiving as on\nformer occasions the utmost kindness and courtesy.\n\nThe classical writings of Mencius were for a time excluded from the\nschools as teaching reverence for kings and rulers, a doctrine not to be\ntolerated in the most republican of republics.\n\nThe friendly attitude of some of the leaders of the revolutionary\nmovement towards Christianity lent colour to a widely spread impression\nthat republican government necessitated a change of religion. Some\nfavoured the Protestant, some the Roman Catholic Church, others\npreferred the \"No-god society,\" which gained many adherents as being\nmore modern.\n\nEven the Church was affected by the prevailing craze, and the wearing of\nthe queue and non-observance of innovations was regarded as sin by the\nignorant and superstitious. I heard a new convert warned by a Church\nmember that sickness in his home might well be due to his rooted\nobjection to calendar changes.\n\nThis attitude of mind, happily for us, lasted only a few months, but it\nwas followed by another serious danger when the question of introducing\nthe Confucian Ethical Code as a state religion was brought forward. This\nwould have imposed limitations on Christians, Mohammedans, and others,\nthe alternative suggestion being that Christianity should be given this\nstatus, in which some saw far greater perils. Meetings of the Chinese\nProtestant Church forwarded petitions to the Central Government,\nprotesting against both proposals and craving only religious liberty,\nand the danger was averted.\n\nThe habit of revolution is a pernicious disease of the human mind, and\nonce acquired hard to throw off. Our political horizon has been draped\nin storm-clouds ever since 1911, and our local social plans liable to\ndisintegration on account of rumours calculated to disturb the mind of\nthe people. White Wolf, Wolf King, and other robber chiefs have\nannounced their intention of visiting us. Our walls have been inscribed\nwith the terrifying announcement that \"White Wolf is a devourer of\nsheep,\" which in Chinese, by a play on the last word, can be understood\nto mean: \"White Wolf is a devourer of foreigners.\" A bold sketch of a\ndrawn sword was added that no doubt might be in our minds as to the\nbloodthirsty intention of the threat! Mohammedan rebellions to the west,\nMongolian raids to the north, have alternated with the political\ndifficulties brought about by international negotiations, to add to the\nsense of insecurity inevitably resulting from the removal of the very\ncentral foundation of governmental stability--the \"Son of Heaven\"--to\nwhom four hundred million subjects bowed in reverential obedience.\n\nTransition periods are difficult, and China has been troubled by those\nwho in their enthusiasm for change have lost the sense of proportion,\nand sought to revolutionise much that is dearer than life itself to many\nof their countrymen; nevertheless, this great nation, permeated with\nideals so free from sordidity, will surely carve for herself a future\nworthy of her past.\n\n\n\n\nANOTHER PORTRAIT GALLERY\n\n          \"In tragic life, God wot,\n           No villain need be! Passions spin the plot:\n           We are betrayed by what is false within.\"\n                                        GEORGE MEREDITH.\n\n  \"Oh Christians, at your Cross of Hope a hopeless hand was clinging.\"\n                                        E. B. BROWNING.\n\n          \"After all what would he have had to sacrifice had\n          he followed Jesus? He would have had to give up\n          his house in Jerusalem. He would have had to\n          renounce society; but society would soon have\n          forgotten him, for society has a short memory for\n          people who for any reason have fallen out of it.\n          That is what he would have lost, and what would he\n          have gained? He would have had those walks with\n          Jesus across the fields, and he would have heard\n          Him say: 'Consider the lilies.'\"--MARK RUTHERFORD.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI\n\nANOTHER PORTRAIT GALLERY\n\nWHEREIN THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO SOME WHO HAVE FAILED\n\n\nTO the student of human nature the fact that man so often fails to\nrespond to the highest ideals set before him comes with no shock. In the\nearly Church men who had run well were easily hindered, and in the\ngreatest series of biographies we possess, we see portrayed faithfully\nthe faults and failings of those who now form the great cloud of\nwitnesses, and are shown at the same time the possibilities of such\nlives when brought into vital touch with the Divine.\n\nThe generous, impulsive David, the man God's own heart, was capable of a\ntragic fall; Peter and John, privileged to personal intercourse with the\nLord, in the hour of crisis were amongst those who forsook Him and fled,\nand Demas, \"who loves this present world,\" is ever a disappointment to\nEvangelist, who hoped that for him such dangers were over.\n\nFor the fact remains that the natural characteristics of the man are\nstrong forces, and that while Grace can, and does, make possible the\n\"new man in Christ Jesus,\" we remain each in our own order, and perhaps\nno point is so vulnerable as that wherein has taken place greatest\nchange.\n\nThe emergence from heathendom is a difficult process, during which time\nhabits, vices, and superstitions cling to a man's soul with a tenacity\nthat would cause us to abandon all hope, were it not that monuments of\ngrace abound to prove that the power and dominion of sin has been\nshattered.\n\nSometimes the enemy will entrap a young Christian when there is illness\nin the home, and under pressure he will fly to magic incantations and\nheathen practices, in order to get deliverance from the malignant spirit\nwhich he still believes has power to torment him. Many a convert has\nfallen on the occasion of a funeral. It takes more faith than a\nWesterner can realise, to defy the legions of _gwei_ which at that time\nthreaten your home and its inhabitants with numberless ills; and\nstrength of mind is required to resist heathen relatives who accuse you\nof slighting the deceased.\n\nThe test is a severe one and may well make a strong spirit quail,\nespecially when, as so often happens, several members of one family will\ndie in rapid succession, quite evidently to us by reason of the agency\nof natural laws which govern physical life, but to the Chinaman, a clear\nmanifestation of the power enjoyed by demons whose pleasure it is to\ntorment men. Even the very dead may rise from the grave to confront you\nwith horrid vengeance, should the body not have been buried with full\nrites as required for the laying of the spirit. Most subtly has the\nenemy caused many a man's downfall when his unmarried daughter has died,\nand he has found himself confronted with angry relatives and irate\nvillagers, when he proposed to bury the body with the deceased of his\nown family. By the rule of ancient custom a spirit bridegroom should be\nfound for this girl, or, as an unattached spirit, she will inevitably\nreturn to her neglectful relatives and trouble them in numberless ways\nin order to bring her pitiful condition to their remembrance. In one\nway, and one way only, can the ghost be pacified. A bridegroom of\nsuitable age, likewise deceased, must be found, and all marriage\nceremonies be conducted with due pomp, a memorial tablet being placed in\nthe scarlet chair in which the bride should have sat. Clothes,\nfurniture, and presents, all made of paper, go with the chair to the\nhome of the deceased bridegroom, and are there received by living bridal\nattendants. A feast is spread, and all make merry until a few hours\nlater when mourning apparel is donned, and to the sound of wailing two\ncoffins are placed side by side in the family tomb. The paper clothes,\npresents, and marriage-contract are burned, and thus ascend in smoke to\nthe spirit world. The bodies may have been kept for years before a\nsuitable match could be made, but from the day of the funereal nuptials\nthe two families regard themselves as, or even more, intimately related\nthan they would have been had an actual marriage taken place.[10]\n\nIt is easy to say that nothing so frankly heathen need ever raise a\nquestion in the mind of a convert, but severe persecution and the\nresponsibility of every misfortune that may occur in his village will be\nhis, if he defy public opinion and introduce an orphan spirit to the\nValhalla where his ancestors, for countless generations, have never\nfailed to receive the rites of filial service.\n\nThe missionary knows the importance of keeping ideals high by precept\nand practice, and that his best way to help the young believer is by\nemphasising the big claim that Christ makes on a man. That claim once\napprehended will create in the man's heart an everlasting\ndissatisfaction with anything lower.\n\nSad as is the case of a young believer falling into sin, how much more\ntragic that of a man who abandons Christ after many years of service,\nallowing sins, which he had overcome, once more to have dominion over\nhim. It is an awful reality of life that the point on which a man has\nmost conspicuously conquered is likely to be his weakest, for the enemy\nplays a waiting game,\n\n          \"And where we looked for palms to fall,\n           We find the tug's to come,--that's all.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMr. Nieh came early under the influence of Pastor Hsi. He was a man of\nconspicuous ability, business capacity, and influence. In early days he,\ntoo, had smoked opium, but when he left that habit, he became a\nChristian and an earnest student of the Word of God. Few could speak\nwith such power as he, and at any conference where he was present,\neager, interested crowds would gather to hear him. Many have been led to\nChrist by his influence, and he seemed a man raised up of God to carry\non the work of the late Pastor Hsi. He administered the opium refuges\nwith great ability, and the work of the Church for many years prospered\nin his hands. Every one turned to him for advice and help, and when the\nBoxer troubles broke out, it was to Mr. Nieh that both Christians and\nofficials looked in their hour of need. \"He was marvellously helped\nuntil he was strong,\" and then, as to Uzziah of old, came the decline.\nPower he loved, and in the position in which he found himself, holding\noffice in the Church, was able to exercise it in many directions.\n\nOnly God knows at which period the spiritual decay set in, which\nsilently, and at first quite invisibly, began a work which has ended in\nthe complete downfall of this man on whom the hopes of so many were set.\nA desire to increase the prestige of his name, and love of popularity\nled Mr. Nieh, as opportunity occurred, to lend his influence in\nlaw-cases and village disputes on behalf of unworthy men, with the\nmotive of self-aggrandisement. Slowly but surely the material overcame\nthe spiritual in his life.\n\nAt this hour he is no longer even a member of the Christian community,\nhaving publicly repudiated his former profession of faith. He even\nsmokes opium again, and finds his power and influence to be a thing\nwholly of the past. Extraordinary trials have come to him in family and\npersonal life, but he remains hardened and untouched. The light has\ngone from his face, for he has ceased to walk in the Light, but as we\nlook on his dissatisfied appearance, hope revives that he, having tasted\nso deep of earthly bitterness, may yet be found amongst the suppliants\nfor mercy at the throne of God. May it be in the midst of life, and not\nonly in the hour of death that he will witness the great confession:\n\"Thou hast conquered, O Galilean.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThere is a failure which is partial success, and under this, I think,\nmay be placed Yen Keh-dao, who, when once he was clear of opium himself,\nbought up eagerly every opportunity that presented itself for\nevangelistic work. He had fallen so often, and been obliged to return to\nthe Opium Refuge time after time, until new birth had made him a new\ncreature. Now at last he seemed firm where formerly he had been\npowerless to resist temptation. When he at his own expense entered his\nname for a two years' course of theological training, we all hoped that\na future of considerable usefulness lay before him, but before that\nperiod was over, the craving was on him again and he had fallen into\nopen sin. Another effort, and he was free once more, and then again he\nfell and soon was lying very ill with typhus fever. Christian men\nvisited him and prayed with him, and he, for so long as consciousness\nlasted, prayed earnestly; then delirium, and in a few hours death\nreleased his spirit from the body of its humiliation. According to man's\nstatistics, he is tabulated a failure--\"one more devil's triumph and\nsorrow for angels\"--but there are many who loved him, and who look up\nin expectation to see him \"pardoned in heaven, the first by the throne.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"Puppy's mother\" has lived at the door of our mission premises since\nthey were first opened. She, according to the custom of the country, is\nonly known as the mother of her child, so having elected to call her\ndaughter \"Puppy,\" she must needs be \"Puppy's mother\" throughout the\ntown. She has known the three generations of missionaries who have lived\nhere, and has been dressmaker to them all. No one has been more\ndeliberate in her choice of heathendom over Christianity than she, and\nno one has lent a more willing ear to the scandalous lies circulated\nconcerning the foreign women, even although she has seen enough of their\nintimate life to know such stories to be fabrications.\n\nShe nourishes a secret regard for Mrs. Liang, in whom she recognises a\nwoman as intelligent as herself, and a match for her in every respect.\nIt was to Mrs. Liang she confided one day that there seemed little\ninducement to repent and be saved, if going to heaven would entail\nassociating with foreigners for all eternity. Until two years ago she\nwas a healthy, sturdy woman, scarcely feeling the weight of her seventy\nyears. A slight dimness of eyesight caused her to raise her charges for\ndressmaking on the plea, peculiar to Chinese logic, that old age made\nher movements slower and more uncertain, and whereas three days were\nonce sufficient to make a garment, and make it well, now after six days'\nwork it was still far less well finished off than formerly. So we have\nsubmitted to extra charges for inferior work, for old acquaintance'\nsake.\n\nThen a long and painful illness laid \"Puppy's mother\" low, and for\nmonths we did not think that she could recover. Nevertheless, her\nexcellent constitution did finally assert itself, and now she is walking\nabout again, leaning on a stick and on the shoulder of a small\ngrandchild, one of Puppy's offspring. She is curiously softened, and\ntold us once that she had endeavoured to pray, but could not remember\nthe sentences we had taught her.\n\nTime, age, and weakness work many transformations, and we feel as though\nthe veil of flesh were wearing thinner, and the spirit within feeling\nits way out of gross darkness towards the light.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMrs. Deh had fallen so low through opium, that it was to save her from\npositive starvation that we admitted her to our household once more. She\nhad been one of the failures of our Women's Refuge, and had sunk deep\ninto the degradation which accompanies opium smoking in a woman's life,\npressed as she finds herself to raise the money necessary for the price\nof her drug.\n\n[Illustration: \"PUPPY\" AND HER MOTHER.\n\n_To face page 218._]\n\nFor three years she kept herself respectable under our roof, living\namongst Christian women and joining in their prayers and hymn, night and\nmorning, but not a trace of the softened, repentant spirit could one\nsee, and finally a distinct retrograde movement accompanied with\nphysical disability forced us to send her home. I despair of Mrs. Deh\nexcept when I look into the face of her daughter, the good, pure girl\nwhose life's prayer it is that her mother should be saved. She cannot\nadmit that this one thing she hopes for on earth should not be granted\nto her. Her eyes are always full of tears when she speaks of her mother,\nand when I see them I know they must, with strong entreaty, be pleading\nthe cause of the poor sinful woman before the Presence of the Divine\nMajesty at whose right Hand stands the Friend of Sinners and the Man who\nwas \"acquainted with grief.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"Flower of Love\" became one of my pupils at the age of twelve, and\nattended school for six years with unfailing regularity. Bright, happy,\nand full of girlish enthusiasm she yielded her heart to Christ, and with\nher girl companions rejoiced in her new-found joy. A horror of great\ndarkness fell upon her soul when the news was broken to her that her\nparents had contracted for her a marriage with a heathen man, and\nyielding to uncontrollable grief, she became seriously ill. Remembrance\nof the promises of God, and the resilience of youth, caused her to\narouse herself; she returned to school, and begged that all would pray\nthat the impossible might happen, and this engagement be broken.\n\nPrayer was answered, and to me was granted the joy of telling Flower of\nLove the good news. \"My life shall henceforth be wholly for God,\" was\nher reply. Months passed, and when the Revolution of 1911 broke out, her\nparents once more sought for her a heathen husband, a man whose wealth\nwas accumulated by wrong-doing, and before any step could be taken\nFlower of Love was his bride. For months she struggled alone in the\ncity to which she had been taken, and then his orders were given that\nintercourse with foreigners must cease. The fight was too hard, and\nweary she yielded and allowed herself to drift with the tide. To-day, in\nher husband's house, where men are too frequent visitors, she seeks to\nget from the life she has to lead what pleasure she can. She is beyond\nmy reach, but her broken heart will yet, I believe, find a resting-place\nupon her Saviour's breast.\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[10] This remarkable custom is declared by Marco Polo to be peculiar to\nNorth China.\n\n\n\n\nPREACHING THE GOSPEL, HEALING THE SICK\n\n          \"You make a very great mistake in thinking\n          Christianity is a religion. It is not a religion,\n          it is a person.\"--Words of a converted Mohammedan.\n\n  \"Lord! how wouldest Thou deal with this sick man--in body, or spirit?\"\n                                        S. VINCENT DE PAUL.\n\n          \"A sick person does so enjoy hearing good news.\"\n                                        FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXII\n\nPREACHING THE GOSPEL, HEALING THE SICK\n\nTELLING OF THE DAILY ROUTINE\n\n\nLIKE the apostle of old, the missionary must be ready, however heavy the\nclaim upon his time, to receive all who come.\n\nAt any hour of the day, we may hear the clatter of sticks upon the\nground indicating that some of our neighbours, whose minute feet prevent\nthem from walking unaided, have found their way through the open front\ndoor and brought some friends to see the house of the foreigner.\n\nThe Chinese woman is an inveterate sightseer, but unfortunately the\nattractions of Hwochow are not many; there is no end, however, to the\nmarvels found within the walls of the Mission compound.\n\nThe leader of the party is frequently our old friend, Goat's Mother, the\nmembers of her clan being numerous and of an inquisitive nature.\n\nThe well-favoured Goat, aged five years, wears a brilliant yellow cotton\njacket, on which are sketched in bold brush work every species of\nvenomous insect. On his left shoulder is a scorpion, while centipedes,\nbeetles, and other forms of poisonous insect life cover his back and\nchest. To his right shoulder is stitched a diminutive pair of\nred-and-green trousers. The yellow coat is his protection from stings\nand bites, the tiny trousers from measles, and longevity is secured by a\nheavy silver padlock, which hangs from his neck by a silver chain.\n\nWith much assistance from the Bible-women the whole party climb the few\nsteps leading to the verandah, and exhausted by the effort, gratefully\naccept our invitation to be seated in the guest-room.\n\nTea is offered, but we know better than to press them to partake of any\nrefreshment, for these women have been warned on no account to let food\nor drink pass their lips while under our roof, lest by a magic spell\nthey find themselves compelled to become Christians.\n\nThe room is furnished in conventional Chinese style--a square table with\nscarlet embroidered table-skirt, and backed by an ornate arrangement of\nbanner, scrolls, vases, and teacups, with stiff chairs on either side.\nOur guests' first observation is to remark upon the surprising\ncleanliness of the apartment, the next is to ask where we sleep, and the\nthird is to comment freely upon our personal appearance.\n\n\"Have you turned sixty yet?\" I am asked, and much surprise is expressed\nat the information supplied by Goat's Mother that I have not yet seen my\nfortieth birthday. \"It is the white hair that makes her look so old,\" is\nthe comment offered in explanation of my fair complexion.\n\nGoat's Mother has brought her relations on a promise that they shall\nsee the foreigner's bedroom and \"little iron tailor,\"[11] hear the\nmusical box, and be allowed to inspect the enormous saucepan in which\nthe school food is made, ending up with a visit to the rooms where the\nwomen read the Bible.\n\nBefore, however, these favours can be granted, as she well knows, the\nparty must be prepared to give its attention to the one topic upon which\nthe missionaries never fail to speak. This proves to be more interesting\nthan they had anticipated, for one wall of our guest-room is decorated\nwith pictures which illustrate interesting stories, the application of\nwhich throws light upon that problem which confronts every human heart:\n\"How can the burden of sin be removed?\"\n\nThe time passes quickly and most of the wonders have been seen, when a\npiercing yell from the young Goat indicates that the limit of his\npatience has been reached. The orders of this small autocrat allow of no\nquestion, and further intercourse is impossible, for his shrieks will\nnot cease until his wishes have been complied with. The whole party\nrises, and we follow them, urging them to \"walk slowly\" and to come\nagain on Sunday. \"We will come, we will come,\" several answer, but\nothers are deep in a discussion as to what provision is possible for our\nold age, seeing that we have neither husband nor son.\n\nAs they disappear through, the street door, they meet a fresh group\nentering who are in turn received by the Bible-women. Thus, from day to\nday, the Word is preached and cast as bread upon the waters. Sometimes\na woman will return in a few days to hear more, and sometimes, years\nlater, in a remote mountain hamlet a woman will greet us with a smile,\nsurprised that we do not remember her visit to our house, when, as she\nreminds us, we told her about Jesus, the Son of God.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWith those women who come as patients to the dispensary, we enter upon a\nmore intimate relationship. The payment of their fee entitles them to\nthree visits, of which they take full advantage and often come under our\ncare for a much longer course of treatment.\n\nThey are an interesting crowd with their varied complaints. A child\nwhose arm has been badly scalded months before, and who has received no\ntreatment during that period but an application of rat oil and charred\nmatting, is in a revolting condition, a pitiful sight indeed. A young\nwoman who has lost her eyesight attributes her affliction to a fit of\nviolent temper, when for a whole day she worked herself into a frenzy,\nand cried until the power of sight was gone. The victims of tubercular\ndisease, the scourge of North China, never fail to appear, some\nevidently having fallen a prey to that form known as the \"hundred days'\nillness\" which will carry off an apparently healthy subject in three\nmonths.\n\nAt stated periods, children may be brought for vaccination. The method\nof inoculation for the prevention of smallpox is said to have been\nintroduced into China by a philosopher of Szechwan, and has been\npractised since the year 1014. Vaccination is now freely practised by\nthe Chinese doctors whose fees are generally 50 per cent. higher for\nboys than for girls, the lives of the former being of so much greater\nvalue.\n\nThe extraction of teeth is a popular diversion, and the tooth is\ncarefully preserved by the patient, in order that with the other earthly\nremains it may be laid in the coffin on the day of her death.\n\nAmongst the number are some whose diseases are hard to find, as in the\ncase of one family whose several members persistently reappeared with\nsuch infinitesimal ailments that we felt compelled to tell them that no\nfurther treatment was necessary. The answer we received was, that the\nhead of the house having become interested in Christianity had signified\nto his wife his desire that she should be under treatment for a whole\nyear, in order that she might receive continued instruction in the\nScriptures. They thought the dispensary would serve as the best\nface-saving subterfuge, therefore she said: \"If there be nothing more\nserious, will you wash my ears!\"\n\nBroadly speaking, the patients only recognise two categories of\nillness--one described as \"fire,\" and the other as \"chill.\" Their chief\ndesire is for a diagnosis which shall clearly state under which heading\ntheir particular ailment should be classified, and we often receive a\nmessage to the effect that \"inward fire\" is causing trouble, and the\nsufferer would like medicine such as was given to her on the tenth day\nof the third moon, three years previously, which had wonderful\nfire-extinguishing properties.\n\nHaving been accustomed to the Chinese doctor and his methods, our\npatients, begging that the best may be done for them, assure the\nhelpers that merit will be accumulated by those who work towards this\nend. All are surprised to find that a uniform fee is charged and that\nthere is no opportunity for bargaining, as the regular physician writes\nprescriptions for first, second, or third-rate medicine, according to\nthe purse.\n\n[Illustration: THE TEACHING STAFF.\n\n(_See page 233._)\n\n_To face page 228._]\n\nThe male and female principle in nature, by which all things are\nproduced and which has been called the \"warp and woof of Chinese\nthought,\" forms the basis of Chinese medical science, and every line of\ntreatment must be in accordance with the laws laid down by this\ndualistic principle.\n\nUnfortunately, many of the more nutritive articles of diet, such as the\nfowl and the egg, are frequently denied to the sick woman as falling\nunder that principle which makes them unsuited to many of her illnesses,\nand while it is admitted that sleep is essential to a sick man, the\nfemale patient must not be allowed to indulge in it except at night.\nMilk is renowned for its heating properties, and is most unwillingly\nconsumed by the tubercular patient, who believes her disease to fall\nunder the heading of \"fire\" and knows that anything so heating will only\nfeed the flame. Had pears, cooked or uncooked, been ordered she would\nfully have appreciated the wisdom which prescribed them.\n\nAll these startling innovations are carefully and intelligently\nexplained by the dispensary helpers and normal students who take the\npractical side of their course in First Aid, Home Nursing, and Invalid\nCookery, in the dispensary. Their labours have not been in vain, and the\npresence of the Great Physician has often been manifest in the midst,\nas weary, heart-sick women whose ills were beyond our help have found\nhealing and, touching the hem of His garment, been made perfectly whole.\n\nAs the patients scatter, the students impress afresh upon their memory\nhow, and in what quantity, the medicine should be taken. Only too often\nthe printed directions are entirely disobeyed, and the week's supply\nswallowed in one dose, on the strength of that unanswerable argument\nwith which we wrestled in the days of childhood:\n\n          If one dose = improvement,\n          Twenty doses = x, _i.e._ complete cure.\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[11] Sewing-machine.\n\n\n\n\nA CASKET OF JEWELS\n\n          \"Happy is she who hath believed that there shall\n          be a perfecting of the things which have been\n          spoken to her from the Lord!\"--The Gospel\n          according to Luke.\n\n\n          \"There is nothing more divine than the education\n          of children.\"--PLATO.\n\n\n          \"The fate of empires depends upon the education of\n          children.\"--ARISTOTLE.\n\n\n          \"Take heed that ye despise not--offend not--forbid\n          not--one of these little ones.\"--The Commandment\n          of Christ.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIII\n\nA CASKET OF JEWELS\n\nBEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE GIRLS' SCHOOL\n\n\nMRS. HSI has never replaced the ornaments she sold thirty years ago. Had\nshe heard the story told of Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, I fancy her\nthoughts would have found expression, when she lately visited us and saw\nthe many courtyards occupied by women and girls, in the famous words of\nthe Roman matron: \"These are my jewels.\" The interest on that first\nsmall gift is incalculable, and can never be tabulated in human\nstatistics. An attempt to record the many activities of the Hwochow\nMission station as it now stands, would be incomplete without some\ndetailed account of the Girls' School and Normal Training College.\n\nThe schools occupy four courts, and the ages of the pupils assembled\nrange from the smallest, who is only five, to young women of over\ntwenty. The Teaching Staff consists entirely of women, all of whom have\nbeen trained here, and we shall perhaps get our best view of them at the\nTeachers' Meeting held weekly in the Principal's room. A glance will\nreveal the strong individualities here represented, and these twelve\nyoung women cover as many varieties of temperament. Here all matters\nconnected with the school are mentioned, and it is striking to see the\nvarious view-points taken. The loving nature which would lead, but never\ndrive, a rebellious child; the puritan, who will smile at no\ninfringement of the law, and whose stern eye has been even known to call\nthe Principal to order; the quick glance of the woman whose type reveals\nan inevitable leader, the stern disciplinarian, and the easy-going,\ngood-natured woman--all are here, their diversity of gifts revealing the\nunity of the One Spirit. Ling Ai and I alone know how much we have to\nthank God for the friendliness of their mutual relationships. As to\nmyself, the loyalty, love, and unity of my band of fellow-workers is my\njoy and crown.\n\nThrice already has the staff been increased by graduates qualifying from\nthe Normal Training Class, and our students have included some from the\nborders of Mongolia--a journey of twenty days--from Shensi, Honan, and\nChihli provinces, in addition to those from all the China Inland Mission\nschools in Central Shansi.\n\nThe education given in the school is arranged to cover the double course\nrequired by Chinese and Western standards. The capacity for memorising\npossessed by the Chinese is well known. A Chinese classical scholar's\nmemory is so trained for retentiveness that one who became a Christian\nwas able, with ease, to commit to memory five chapters of the New\nTestament each day. Were it not for this capacity the mastery of Chinese\nwould be an impossibility, for a small child of ten years old, in\naddition to ordinary general subjects as taught in an English school,\nis required in a term of three months to learn to write and recognise\nfive hundred new Chinese characters, and by the time she has completed\nher course can repeat by heart the greater part of the New Testament,\nPsalms, and the classical works of Confucius and Mencius.\n\nThe Chinese are extraordinarily observant, and it is difficult to\nmention anything which has escaped their notice. Nevertheless, the\nclassification of their observations in a scientific form of nature\nstudy is an entirely new method to them, though this gift, once\ndeveloped, should cause China ultimately to rank high in the world of\nscience. The girls' restricted surroundings have yielded new joys since\nthey learned the delight of an observation beehive, the ramifications of\nan anthill, and the notes and habits of the birds which visit us. A\nthorough knowledge of the Scriptures is considered of primary\nimportance, and only girls who by Christian character give promise when\ntrained of being missionaries to their own people, are accepted as\nNormal Students. During the course outlines of Old and New Testament are\nstudied, with detailed work of selected books. The students are required\nto prepare their own analyses of various books, following the system of\nDr. Campbell Morgan's Analysed Bible.\n\nThe many classes which constitute the Elementary and Secondary schools\nform the training-ground for the necessary practice in teaching, which\naims at being very thorough. The first lesson, given in the presence of\na critical audience, is no small ordeal to the student who after\nelaborate preparation with diagram, blackboard, plasticine, or\nsand-tray, will realise when the moment of free criticism comes, that in\nher nervousness she has omitted to make any use of that on which she had\nbestowed so much labour. Gradually, however, a new class emerges from\nutter helplessness into an encouraging self-confidence and\nresourcefulness.\n\n[Illustration: SOME KINDERGARTEN SCHOLARS.\n\n_To face page 236._]\n\nA visitor to the school could see ten or twelve classes at various\nstages on the high road of learning, each under the control of a capable\nyoung Chinese woman, before the Kindergarten room is reached.\n\nHere, with merry shouts, the sixteen babies are all keen to display the\nglories of the dolls' house, and all anxious to sing their action songs,\nshow their plasticine modelling, paper-plaiting, and fancy drill; still\npossessing the child's heart, and therefore fearless of criticism. Each\none covets the role of spokesman to relate the travelling adventures of\nthe doll, which spends but little time in the house and is constantly\nundertaking long and difficult journeys. From this intrepid traveller\nthey have obtained most of their geographical information.\n\nLong hours of work are the order of the day in a Chinese school, the\nterms being short owing to the exigencies of the extreme climate. The\nwheat harvest falls in June, and it is necessary that wives and\ndaughters should fulfil their obligations to the home during this busy\nseason.\n\nThe month of September brings the eagerly looked-for day when by cart,\ndonkey, litter, or even on foot, from north, south, east, and west,\nthe small travellers wend their way to Hwochow. The babies of the\nKindergarten not infrequently sit in the panniers, slung across a\ndonkey's back, or in baskets which a man will carry balanced on his\nshoulder. Each party on arrival passes through the room where Mr. Gwo, a\ncapable deacon, sits at the receipt of custom, and thence to the\nguest-room where a respectful bow is made to the missionaries and head\nteacher.\n\nThe next visit is to the dispensary where Fragrant Incense, my head\nassistant in this department, conducts a strict inquiry into personal,\nfamily, and village health, and where newcomers are being vaccinated.\n\n\"I hear that your uncle has smallpox,\" may be the alarming accusation.\n\n\"It is not worth speaking of,\" answers Snowflake.\n\n\"Have you been to the house?\"\n\n\"A few times,\" says the puzzled scholar, quite unable to trace the\nconnection between her uncle's attack of \"heavenly blossoms\" and our\nunwillingness to admit her to the school court.\n\nOnce a girl has entered the school premises it is not to leave them\nagain for the period of the term, and all that is necessary to fulfil\nthe conditions of her life is supplied in this little world.\n\nOne of her first visits will be to the bank where an account is opened\nin her name, it being one of the school rules, in order to avoid loss,\nthat no girl may keep her own money; any found on her person or in her\nbox being forfeited. Every Saturday afternoon eager young depositors can\nbe seen drawing sums varying from one to fifty cash for shopping\npurposes, or with a view to the Sunday service collection. At the same\nhour the school shop is open, under the care of a teacher with a senior\npupil as assistant.\n\n\"What do you stock?\" a newcomer will ask the young saleswoman.\n\"Everything,\" is the bold answer, and indeed the few necessities of a\nChinese schoolgirl may all be supplied. Materials needed for shoemaking,\nhemp for making string which is required in attaching soles to uppers,\npretty silks for embroidery, thimbles, needles, hair ornaments,\nsafety-pins, bright-coloured cord with which the Chinese girl holds\nevery hair in place at the top of a long thick plait, which is her mode\nof head-dress; chalk, with which to whiten her calico socks, and the\nacacia pod, the bean of which serves as soap. All the requisites in\nstationery can be purchased, and it is amusing to see the Chinese\nbrush-pen being carefully tested by minute prospective buyers. A\nnewcomer will try in vain to get goods on credit, relying upon her\nfather's generosity at an early date. \"No,\" is the answer; \"come again\nwhen you have the cash.\"\n\nIn another room the lending library is attracting large numbers. Here\nagain a teacher, helped by a pupil, is changing or renewing books. With\nsurprising skill any blot, stain, or torn page is discovered, and for\nyears the books will pass from hand to hand with but little damage done.\n\nThe range of literature is fairly comprehensive, extending from\nworld-wide favourites such as _Little Lord Fauntleroy_, _Christie's Old\nOrgan_, _Just So Stories_, and the _Wide Wide World_, which are eagerly\npassed from hand to hand--for every one reads them several times--to\nsuch works as _The History of the Dutch Republic_, _Biographies of Great\nMen_, Works on Social Economy, and many books of reference. For the\ntranslation of these, and many other works into the Chinese language, we\nare indebted to the Christian Literature Society. At the sound of the\nhead teacher's gong, all business ceases, and the girls proceed to the\nplayground, where all enjoy swings, seesaw, and games.\n\nSunday opens with the delight of an extra hour in bed, and the wearing\nof best clothes. Sunday school and Public Service are enjoyed even by\nthe smallest, and precede the happy hour when parents and near relatives\nmay see the scholars. At its conclusion all are hungry for the dinner,\nwhich, though later than usual, proves well worth waiting for,\nconsisting as it does of the popular white bread and vegetables. The\nafternoon closes with a service of praise.\n\nThree times a day the children assemble in the large dining-hall for\nmeals. Over one thousand pounds of flour are used each week, and about\none hundred pounds of vegetables, in the preparation of the food. The\nbread is steamed and eaten hot, and the midday meal generally consists\nof flour and water, made into a paste, rolled out very thin, and cut\ninto long strips which are boiled for a few minutes, and when cooked\nresemble macaroni. If a man's greatness consists in the small number of\nhis needs, the Chinaman must rank high. A bowl and pair of chop-sticks\nis the sum total of the table requirements of each girl; a cotton wadded\nquilt and a small, bran-stuffed pillow comprise her bedding, and a\ncotton handkerchief will hold her neatly folded wardrobe. A child\nusually owns no toy, and many have never thought of an organised\nyouthful festivity until they spend their first Christmas Day in school.\nWith bated breath they hear from their elders of the joys in store, and\nwatch secret preparations for presents to class teachers and\nmissionaries. Excitement reaches its highest point when, with silent\nfootstep, they creep into our courtyard in the winter dawn to sing\nChristmas carols, and in place of the temple gongs and weird music of\nheathen rites, the air rings with joyful strains as class after class\ntakes up the refrain: \"Oh come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!\" The\nreputation of the evening illumination and Christmas-tree is so\nwidespread, that two small newcomers were heard encouraging each other,\neight months before this event, to endure with patience in hopes of\nseeing the glorious sight, and becoming the possessors of a threepenny\ndoll.\n\nNearly five hundred girls have already passed through the school, and\nevery few years we have made an attempt to gather them together for an\ninformal conference; unfortunately, the distances are so great, and\nfamily claims so many, that only a very small proportion have been able\nto attend, and we have supplemented these by instituting an Old Girls'\nGuild which includes a prayer union whose members receive a quarterly\ncircular letter.\n\nThe postal system does not reach most of the villages, so the letters\nmust be entrusted to reliable messengers who may be going that way, and\nwho are requested by words on the envelope: \"Be so kind as to trouble\nyourself with this letter and deliver it into the hand of the Mother of\nHeavenly Bundle.\" The young woman whose identity is thus hinted at is\nbut one of perhaps twenty, whose offspring bear this name in the one\nvillage. Below are the mystic words: \"The name is presented inside.\" On\nthe left side of the envelope is the urgent command: \"Quick as fire!\nQuick as fire!\" Thus nothing is omitted but the name of the addressee.\n\nFrom early days an effort has been made to impress upon the students\nthat a Christian community is only justified in so far as it partakes of\nthe nature of a centrifugal force, extending its influence in every\ndirection. The interests of students have been much enlarged by the\nresidence in their midst of girls from other provinces, who are followed\nwith prayerful interest when they leave us to enter their varied spheres\nof work. Beyond this, the scholar's widened sympathies find their\nexpression in the zeal with which they follow missionary activity in\nother lands. Most earnest thought is given to the choice of destination\nof the sums reported in hand by the missionary treasurer. The\nEvangelical Union of South America, British and Foreign Bible Society,\nPandita Ramabai, and Dr. Zwemer in Cairo have all received\ncontributions, and latterly money has been sent to supply Testaments for\nthe soldiers on active service. Nevertheless, the consensus of general\nopinion is, that the Moslem situation is at present so critical that all\navailable funds must go to meet that need. Small indeed the sums may\nappear on a subscription list, but few gifts are, I think, more\nthoughtfully given and more prayerfully followed.\n\nThe money is contributed in various ways, the two most important being\nthe school working party and the takings of the Debating Society, where\ndebates and lectures are always sure of a full house.\n\nThe instinct for personal aggressive Christian work finds an outlet in\nthe following ways: The annual fairs and idol processions held in the\ntown bring large crowds of women visitors, and afford a great\nopportunity for the senior scholars to take their part in preaching, as\nalso the evangelistic service held each week for Dispensary patients.\nThe Sunday School classes of small children are taught by elder girls,\nand the annual Summer Campaign has provided scope for all those who have\na will to work. At the close of the spring term, every girl who so\ndesires is entrusted with a printed Course of Study, suitable for the\nelementary instruction of village women. At Sunday and weekday classes\nthese are taught by the elder scholars of the village, even the younger\nchildren being able to take their part in helping the women to memorise\na verse.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn order to secure the highest spiritual and mental efficiency amongst\nthose who, by the nature of their calling, are constantly responding to\nthe claims made upon them, we have instituted a Teachers' Summer School,\nto which are invited all former students now holding posts as teachers\nin Mission Schools. The month of August is devoted to this delightful\ngathering when, on the footing of fellow-workers, free from the\nrestrictions attendant on school discipline, we meet for Bible and\nsecular study. The curriculum of the coming term is discussed,\ndifficulties considered, some new educational subject is studied, and an\ninvaluable atmosphere is created.\n\nIn the silence of the moments of spiritual communion, lives are\ndedicated afresh to the service of God; by contemplation of the Word,\nfresh ideals are apprehended and more of the wisdom that winneth souls\nis learned, by which a band of workers is equipped anew for any manner\nof service, wholly at His command. The various activities recorded above\neach contribute a part to the upbuilding of character and the training\nof those who will be the future missionaries, mothers, and teachers of\ntheir people.\n\nWe desire that, rejoicing in the abundance of life which Christ came to\nbestow, they may by sacrificial service gather around them many who will\nsay: \"Happy the people whose God is the Lord!\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE TREASURE HOUSE\n\n          \"Who ranks higher than others in the Kingdom of\n          the Heavens?\"\n\n          \"In solemn truth I tell you that unless you turn\n          and become like little children you will in no\n          case be admitted into the Kingdom of the Heavens.\"\n\n          \"Whoever shall occasion the fall of one of these\n          little ones who believe in me, it would be better\n          for him to have a millstone hung round his neck\n          and be drowned in the depths of the sea.\"\n\n          \"Their angels in heaven have continual access to\n          my Father in heaven.\"\n                             The words of the Lord Jesus Christ.\n\n          \"The hope of the glory of God includes the\n          responsibility of rejoicing. If we really have the\n          anointed vision which sees through the travail to\n          the triumph, and is perfectly assured of the\n          ultimate triumph of God, it is our duty in the\n          midst of the travail to rejoice evermore, to cheer\n          the battle by song, and shorten the marches by\n          music.\"--Dr. G. CAMPBELL MORGAN.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIV\n\nTHE TREASURE HOUSE\n\nWHERE THE READER IS SHOWN THE LAPIDARY AT WORK\n\n\nMY study is perhaps to me the most sacred spot of the entire compound.\nSituated in the midst of the school court, it is accessible to teachers\nand scholars alike. For more than a decade this room has been sanctified\nby numberless confidences, many too sacred to record.\n\nAt any hour of the day, or after dark when it is easier for the girl to\nknock unseen at my door, I may hear the words, sometimes timidly\nwhispered: \"Has the Teacher time to let me speak to her?\" A welcome\nbeing extended my young guest will usually begin to talk upon general\ntopics, and after a considerable time will gently hint that there is\nalso one small matter in particular of which she wishes to speak. On\nreceiving encouragement she proceeds to unfold the matter, which may\nvary in gravity from a message conveying a request that employment\nshould be found for a neighbour of hers, to a tearful pleading that I\nwill use all my influence to prevent her parents from engaging her to a\nheathen bridegroom; it has even been to tell me of a brother who,\nhaving entered a College in the provincial capital, is now in jail and\nlikely to lose his life for revolutionary tendencies.\n\nIt is during the hour when the schoolgirls are at play, or in the\nevening when they are in bed, that the teacher will come to me who\ndesires to be certain of no interruption. One whose father was formerly\na deacon, but having relapsed into opium smoking has lost his office and\nChurch membership, comes with her sad story. \"How can I hope to\ninfluence my scholars when this sin is in my own home?\" she asks me; and\ngoes on to tell of the downward steps taken, and of the good mother who,\nwith herself, has done all that love could suggest to save the father\nfrom public disgrace. A letter from her distant home will sometimes\nbring her when the work of the day is done, that together we may share\nits contents. How plain it is to me, that this scorching furnace of\nshame which seals her lips and makes her blush before her own pupils, is\nthe very test she requires for her perfecting. I know that this is a\nspiritual crisis when in the thick darkness she will either meet with\nGod, or losing the hope whereby we are saved will grow cold and\nindifferent.\n\nIt is always a personal refreshment when Fragrant Clouds or Pearl Drops\ncomes to see me. A warm friendship exists between these two senior\nNormal Students, strong, robust young women, prospering in body as in\nsoul. Pearl Drops, keenly humorous, is a famous mimic and I once had the\ndelight of, unnoticed, joining an audience which she was fascinating by\nher mimicry of an old man well known to us all. Fragrant Clouds is a\nmore serious type, and entered the High School here in answer to her\nprayers to God for many months, at a time when innumerable obstacles\nbarred her way. She has proved \"barriers\" to be \"for those who cannot\nfly,\" and possesses that quiet dignity and confidence which tells of\ncharacter formed by difficulties overcome. She knows the \"All great\" to\nbe the \"All loving too,\" and is strong.\n\nLittle Goodness is the boldest girl in the school. She is only five\nyears old, but will any moment that she can run away from the\nKindergarten Court unseen push open my door, and show me with great\ndelight and most disconcerting self-assurance some treasure she has\nfound--a grub, or maybe some one else's new handkerchief. The frown I\nsummon to my aid when the offence is repeated more than once a day, is\nrather a failure, but poor Goodness has had to learn by sterner methods\nthat the teacher's word is law. It is not easy to be stern with her for\nshe is a most fascinating little creature, and yet her parents wanted\nher so little that she was found, as a wee babe, buried alive. With\ndifficulty her life was saved by the missionary to whom she was taken,\nwho has cared for her ever since. Her most serious offence in this\nschool, and a cause of scandal to the whole Kindergarten, was the\nhelping of herself to five cash from the collection plate when it was\nhanded to her in the Sunday service.\n\nWhen a new graduate who has been faced for the first time by her class\nappears at my door, I know before she begins to speak that her errand is\nto inform me she has found herself to have accepted a burden and\nresponsibility which she is utterly incapable of bearing. I make no\ngreat effort to hide my amusement, and call to her remembrance the\ncomplete assurance with which she was prepared to enter upon her career\nduring her last term as a Normal Student. I also tell her I have been\nexpecting this interview and, needless to say, from the humorous side we\nnaturally turn to the serious.\n\nTeachers are constantly coming to me for advice as to the best method of\ndealing with those symptoms of original sin which cause small children\nto bewilder their elders by the utter depravity of their moral nature.\nWhat, for example, could I say to Kingfisher who was heard, when praying\naudibly, to petition heaven that Rosebud with whom she had quarrelled\nmight lose all her good marks?\n\nThe weeping Butterfly was peremptorily ushered into my presence, accused\nof using bad language. I could see by the expression on the teacher's\nface that it was no trifling matter. She had said: \"Chrysanthemum, when\nyou walk it is like the hopping of a frog.\" She had thus compared a\nfellow-scholar to an animal, a form of speech which in Chinese, as I\nwell knew, amounts to a curse.\n\nPeach Blossom, ever since the first day she came to me has been a care\nand responsibility. Conscious of her good looks and of her capacity to\nsecure a following of devotees, she has conducted her small court with\nincreasing joy to herself, and annoyance to me and my Staff. It was\nimpossible to ignore her presence, and while she was scrupulously within\nthe rules and regulations of school discipline she somehow managed to\nsail so near, and yet avoid, the point of defiance that we were baffled.\n\nI am sometimes called upon to fulfil the vocation of motherhood in a\nvery real sense, as when I have to announce to some child who has no\nmother that the arrangements for her engagement are about to be\ncompleted, but that her father, who feels he could not expect her to\nspeak of such a matter, has asked me to find out her desires regarding\nthe proposed bridegroom. After an inevitable tear, shed at the\nsuggestion that she must some day leave her father's home, she asks me\nif I am satisfied with the plan; on my answering in the affirmative her\nface brightens, though she conventionally begs me to use my influence to\ndissuade her father from any such intention. I, seeing that no\ndifficulty presents itself, change the subject and bring her a few days\nlater the gifts and silver ornaments which indicate that all is settled.\nShe, having no mother to do the necessary grumbling at the inferior\nquality of the bridegroom's presents, comes to my room later on, and\nsays: \"I have been examining these, and perceive that the silver used is\nnot pure in quality.\" Having shown that she, though motherless, is not\neasily taken in, she accepts my exhortation to be a good child and to be\nthankful for what she has, and without further ado begins her\npreparations for the day when she will \"change her home.\"\n\nThe more modern parent is sometimes desirous that his daughter, who has\nreached years of discretion, should from time to time correspond with\nher fiance. The letters all being sent to the girl's father, he\nforwards them to me, and the fear lest any fellow-student should know of\nso immodest a proceeding always leads the girl to read them in my room,\nand place them in my hand for safe keeping. It was enlightening to\nreceive a request on one occasion that I would, at the close of term,\nreturn \"those letters which are of no possible use.\" I knew to what she\nreferred, and mentally noted that the \"useless\" paper found a very safe\nplace in the recesses of her luggage!\n\n[Illustration: LING AI, HER CHILDREN, AND HER MOTHER, MRS. LIANG.\n\n_To face page 252._]\n\nTragedy is interwoven with the life of almost every woman in this land.\nDisappointment at her birth finds its only consolation in the\nrecognition of her value in the home as family drudge. Only as mother of\nher son does she enter on an inheritance of sufficient consideration to\nmake her well worth the clothes she wears and the food she consumes.\n\nHow pathetic it is to see the efforts put forth by a child whose school\nlife has been interrupted to endeavour to find some means of paying the\nnecessary fees! One girl of thirteen, by making hair-sieves during the\nsummer months renders it possible for her father to send her to school;\nand many weave during the holidays all the cloth necessary for their own\nclothes. One little girl who had no other means of helping herself,\ngleaned so industriously that she gathered sufficient for her first\nmonth's expenses, only to find one day that her little hoard had been\nused by her opium-smoking father for his own indulgence.\n\nEven the high ethics of Confucianism can recognise no higher position\nfor woman than one of obedient dependence throughout life. In youth\nshe must be subject to her father, in middle age to her husband, and in\nold age to her son. The revolutionary power of Christianity has\nestablished a new order, and in the Christian community we see her\nwelcomed in babyhood, cared for in childhood, and receiving the honour\ndue to her womanhood when she becomes a bride. I have been amazed at the\nsacrifices I have seen made by parents for their daughters. I have known\na father, too poor to afford the hire of a donkey, carry his little girl\nnearly thirty miles to school. I have known the only bedcovering in the\nhome to be spared for the use of the little daughter during term, and a\nman to endure the winter cold with the scantiest clothing that his child\nmight be warmly clad.\n\nOne class, a small one, has outstripped me in the race, and graduated to\na higher school to render service more needed there than here. I can\nthink of each one with joy as in the Great Teacher's Hand, learning\nlessons which as yet are beyond me.\n\nThe one it seemed I could least spare was needed by Him, and since most\nof this book was written my beloved Ling Ai went to serve, face to face,\nthe Lord she loves.\n\nThe intimate sympathy required to enter into the joys and sorrows of so\nmany lives is perhaps the heaviest strain laid upon the missionary, and\nthe mental discipline necessary to hold all in right proportion can only\nbe exercised where there is true adjustment of spiritual vision, whereby\nwe see \"through the travail to the triumph, perfectly assured of the\nultimate victory of God,\" and rejoice, \"cheering the battle by song and\nshortening the marches by music.\"\n\n\n\n\nCONCLUSION\n\n          \"That Church controls the future which can demand\n          of her members the greatest sacrifices.\"--Dr. JOHN\n          HUTTON.\n\n  \"When earth's last picture is painted, and the tubes are twisted and\n       dried,\n   When the oldest colours have faded, and the youngest critic has died--\n   We shall rest, and faith, we shall need it--lie down for an aeon or\n       two,\n   Till the Master of all good workmen shall put us to work anew.\n\n   And only the Master shall praise us, and only the Master shall blame;\n   And no one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame;\n   But each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star,\n   Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God of Things as They are.\"\n                                        RUDYARD KIPLING.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXV\n\nCONCLUSION\n\nBEING A REVIEW OF THE PRESENT SITUATION\n\n\nIT is now thirty years since foreigners came to reside in Hwochow,\nduring which time three generations of women missionaries have succeeded\neach other. The period has been divided accurately at the fifteenth year\nby the Boxer riots and massacres. The many who have helped in varied\nways to make this work possible may rightly ask; \"Is not this period\nsufficient to establish a self-propagating Church independent of\nforeigners?\"\n\nIt would be hard to over-emphasise the need of the wisdom required at\nthe stage immediately preceding the final lapse of total responsibility\nupon the shoulders of the native Church, that the move should not be\nmade too hastily or at an inopportune moment; even more emphatically,\nthat the Church should not be driven to establish on a factional basis a\nso-called independent sect in opposition to the foreigner, in order to\nsecure the freedom and control for which it was ripe. Faith, hope, and\ncourage, without which the pioneer missionary's work must inevitably\nfail, find their counterpart in the spirit of wisdom and understanding\nrequired for the proper adjustment of the new relationship, whereby the\nChinese Christian, not in word, but in deed and in truth, may take\nprecedence. It is easy to gain ready acquiescence to this theory of\nequality, but as was immediately evidenced when the strong and\nindependent Pastor Hsi arose, the situation in its practical bearing is\nnot easily handled.\n\nA word to the intending missionary: Be ready to lay aside your\npreconceived ideas as to how the Gospel should be preached, how Church\nmatters should be handled, discipline enforced, and your own position in\nthe Church.\n\nCome as a learner, and men who were Christians before you emerged from\nchildhood will give you the benefit of a ripe experience, and if you\nprove worthy of it, admit you to fellowship in service.\n\nIn view of the preceding chapters, few words will serve to review on\ngeneral lines the situation as it has developed during these thirty\nyears in Hwochow.\n\nThe first fifteen called for unremitting effort in breaking up new\nground, broadcast sowing of the seed, and establishing between Chinese\nand foreigner some measure of confidence. The second period has been one\nof reaping from the very commencement. Extraordinarily rapid development\non every hand brought about new conditions which in turn necessitated\nnew methods, so that the missionary is no longer the main instigator of\nChurch activities, but takes his place in a large and far-reaching\norganisation.\n\nThe work of evangelisation and all elementary teaching require no\nforeign help, but we still seem to be necessary for the organisation\nwhich is giving training and advanced teaching to the men and women whom\nwe hope to see equipped in every respect as well, and better, than we\nourselves have been.\n\nAll non-institutional work amongst men is already in Chinese hands.\nPastor Wang and eight deacons take entire oversight of the Church of\nnearly four hundred members, the examining and accepting of candidates\nfor baptism, as well as arrangements for Sunday services in each of the\neight out-stations, where the local Christians have, at their own\nexpense, supplied a building for public worship where daily service is\nheld. In addition to this, the entire evangelistic organisation,\nElementary Boys' School and Opium Refuge, form part of their\nresponsibility.\n\nThe more aggressive work includes a Chinese Evangelistic Society\nentirely free from foreign money and control, the object of which is to\nopen up new districts, preach at fairs, and widely distribute Gospels\nand tracts.\n\nIn the busiest thoroughfare of the city, a preaching hall is daily\nopened which is freely frequented by merchants and travellers.\n\nThe systematic instruction of men, both Church members and inquirers, is\nsupplied by means of short station classes held at convenient times by\nthe Pastor, or by some foreign missionary whom he may invite.\n\nWith the exception of the Elementary Boys' School just mentioned, the\nmen's institutional work is carried on in the neighbouring city of\nHungtung, where, under the presidency of the Rev. F. Dreyer, a Bible\nTraining Institute for men has been established. The students are drawn\nnot only from our own, but other provinces, and during the two years'\ncourse a careful and thorough training is given in theoretical and\npractical work. A long preaching list is served by these men in\nconjunction with a large band of local preachers. To Mr. Dreyer's\ninfluence amongst these men we, as many other stations, owe some of our\nbest helpers. The Hungtung institutional work is supplemented by a\nHigher Grade School for boys, the pupils of which are largely drawn from\nthe fourteen Elementary Schools scattered throughout the district. Mr.\nE. J. Cooper, assisted by Chinese graduates of Weihsien University, is\nresponsible for this department. Many former pupils are in charge of\nvillage schools, the examining and superintendence of which is conducted\nfrom the centre. It is thus possible for the sons of Church members to\nobtain a thorough and Christian education in their immediate\nneighbourhood. The necessary demands for institutional work for the\nseveral counties mentioned throughout this book, are thus met by the two\nstations of Hungtung and Hwochow. United with these to form a General\nAllied Council to secure unity of action in all far-reaching\nenterprises, and to avoid multiplication of work (though each local\nchurch remains independent and self-governing), are the stations\nsituated in the cities of Chaocheng, and Yoyang, now severally in charge\nof Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Taylor and Mr. and Mrs. F. Briscoe, whose time is\noccupied with pastoral and evangelistic work.\n\nMrs. Hsi still remains in Chaocheng, and carries on her work amongst the\nwomen of that city. She, in company with Mrs. Liang and three others,\nhas been chosen by the Church to be set apart to the office of\ndeaconess. She is now sixty-four years of age, and her physical strength\nis visibly failing.\n\nMrs. Hsi's life and example is one of the treasures of the Shansi\nChurch. She has served faithfully and long in active Christian work, and\nshe recently told me that she is now giving herself to prayer and\nfasting more than was possible during the most active period of her\nlife.\n\nFor this effectual share in the present conflict, for her love and\nfriendship, and for her continued presence amongst us, we give thanks\nunto God.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThus we believe the Church has been rooted and established, no longer\npropagated by any external energy, but whose seed is in itself.\n\nThe dream is so far fulfilled. More than thirty years ago Mr. and Mrs.\nHsi, in faith, brought their small offering as a child once offered his\nbarley loaves and laid them in the Master's Hand, Who gave thanks and\nblessed.\n\nIn these pages the story is recorded of the sower, the waterer, and the\nreaper, who laboured in tears and in joy.\n\nOf the increase which God alone can give, no human record can tell, but\ntold it shall be in the day when those from every nation, kindred, and\ntribe shall unite to ascribe honour and glory unto Him who liveth and\nreigneth for ever and ever!\n\n\n\n\n          \"So have I dreamed! Oh may the dream be true!\n           That praying souls are purged from mortal hue . . .\n           And grow as pure as He to Whom they pray.\"\n                                        HARTLEY COLERIDGE.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX\n\nCONTAINING\n\nBIBLE TRAINING SCHOOL COURSE OF STUDY\n\nAND\n\nSPECIMEN QUESTIONS OF THE NORMAL TRAINING COLLEGE FINAL EXAMINATION\nPAPERS\n\n(_INSERTED BY REQUEST_)\n\n\n\n\nHWOCHOW WOMEN'S BIBLE TRAINING SCHOOL\n\n_COURSE OF STUDY_\n\n\nFIRST TERM\n\nBook of Genesis.\n\nGospel according to St. Luke or St. Mark.\n\nActs of the Apostles, chapters i. to ix.\n\n\"A Synopsis of the Central Themes of the Holy Bible.\"\n\nReading Lessons, with necessary Explanation and Writing of Chinese\nCharacter.\n\nArithmetic.\n\nSinging and Memorisation of Hymns.\n\n\nSECOND TERM\n\nBook of Exodus, Numbers, and 1 Samuel i. to xvi.\n\nThe Gospel according to St. John.\n\nThe Epistle of St James.\n\n\"A Synopsis of the Central Themes of the Holy Bible\"--(_continued_).\n\nReading Lessons, with necessary Explanation and Writing of Chinese\nCharacter.\n\nArithmetic.\n\nSinging and Memorisation of Hymns.\n\nPRACTICAL WORK.--Assist in conducting Elementary Classes for Women.\n\n\nTHIRD TERM\n\nBook of Leviticus, Joshua, and 1 Samuel xvii. to xxxi.; Ezra and\nNehemiah.\n\nThe Gospel according to St. Matthew.\n\nThe Epistle to the Hebrews.\n\n\"A Synopsis of the Central Themes of the Holy Bible\"--(_conclusion_).\n\nStudies in Christian Doctrine.\n\nReading Lessons, with necessary Explanation and Writing of Chinese\nCharacter.\n\nArithmetic.\n\nSinging and Memorisation of Hymns.\n\nMemorisation of Psalms.\n\n_Pilgrim's Progress._\n\nPRACTICAL WORK.--Conduct Elementary Classes for Women, Teach under\nCriticism, City and Village Visiting.\n\n\nFOURTH TERM\n\nBook of Judges, Ruth, Esther, and 2 Samuel.\n\nLife of Elijah and Elisha.\n\nActs of the Apostles, chapters x. to xxviii.\n\nStudies in Christian Doctrine.\n\nArithmetic.\n\nSinging and Memorisation of Hymns.\n\nMemorisation of Psalms.\n\n_Pilgrim's Progress_, Part II.\n\nPRACTICAL WORK..--As Term III.\n\n\n\n\nCHINA INLAND MISSION NORMAL TRAINING COLLEGE, HWOCHOW, SHANSI\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_SPECIMEN QUESTIONS_\n\n(Drawn from Final Examination Papers, 1915)\n\nSCRIPTURE\n\nWhat answer did Christ give to the following questions?--\"What must we\ndo that we may work the works of God?\" \"How can this man give us His\nflesh to eat?\" \"Hast thou seen Abraham?\" \"How can a man be born when he\nis old?\"\n\nName five incidents in the Gospel according to St. John which\nillustrate the statement: \"He knew what was in man.\"\n\nName some of the abuses in the Corinthian Church, and briefly state how\nPaul dealt with each.\n\nWhat period of human history is covered by the Book of Genesis?\n\nBriefly trace the degeneration of the Individual, the Home, and the\nNation, as recorded in the Book of Genesis.\n\nGive an outline of the Book of Ezra.\n\nState briefly the teaching of Christ on the following\nsubjects:--Fasting, Riches, Rewards, and the Forgiveness of Sin.\n\nThe establishment of the Church by Constantine proved to be its\nspiritual loss. Quote five verses from Scripture to show this might have\nbeen anticipated.\n\nMention four reasons which conduced to the spread of the Gospel in the\ndays of the Early Church.\n\n\nHISTORY\n\nState clearly the advantages and disadvantages of Feudalism.\n\nWhat do you know of the Spartan methods of treating children?\n\nWhat do you know of the following:--Chaucer, Rienzi, Savonarola, Simon\nde Montfort, Gladstone, Li Hung-chang, Bruce?\n\nWhat do you understand by the term \"Ostracism\"?\n\nWho were the combatants in the following battles:--Crecy, Hastings,\nMarathon, Bannockburn, Waterloo?\n\nGive an account of the causes which resulted in the Crusades, or in the\nFrench Revolution.\n\n\nPHYSIOLOGY\n\nWhat are the various uses of the Cerebrum, Cerebellum, and Medulla\nOblongata?\n\nExplain the process of \"Hearing.\" Illustrate with diagrams.\n\nWhat do you know of the Crystalline Lens of the Eye?\n\nWhat is meant by \"Long Sight\" and \"Short Sight\"?\n\nWhat is the cause of each, and how may each be remedied?\n\nGive a list of the Cranial Nerves.\n\n\nZOOLOGY\n\nDraw a diagram of the Blood Vessels of a Fish.\n\nState clearly the main divisions of Zoology, and in detail those of the\nBird Family.\n\nGive a detailed account of the Ant and its habits; illustrate with\ndiagrams.\n\nDescribe the Fauna of the Arctic Regions.\n\n\nCHEMISTRY\n\nWhat weight of each of the following compounds is necessary to prepare\n50 litres of Oxygen?--Water, Mercuric Oxide, Potassium Chlorate.\n\nExplain the principle of the Dewar bulb.\n\nDefine the term \"Acid.\" Enumerate the characteristics of a \"Base.\"\n\nTwo compounds were found to have the following compositions: = 43.64 per\ncent. phosphorus = 56.36 per cent. oxygen = 56.35 per cent. phosphorus =\n43.65 per cent. Show that the Law of Multiple proportion holds in this\ncase.\n\nCLASSICAL ESSAY SUBJECTS.--\"The Path may not be left for an instant; if\nit could be left it would not be the Path. On this account the superior\nman does not wait until he see things to be cautious, nor see things to\nbe apprehensive.\"--CONFUCIUS.\n\n\n    MORGAN AND SCOTT LTD., 12 PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, LONDON, E. C.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\nObvious punctuation errors repaired.","title":"The Fulfilment of a Dream of Pastor Hsi's: The Story of the Work in Hwochow","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":54504}