It would be easy to fill pages with particulars of the heartrending sufferings and distressing scenes witnessed and heard of during this journey, but these matters come not within the scope of your Chronicle, so I refrain. Suffice it to say, that the Lord has mercifully sent fruitful and refreshing rains upon the thirsty land, and the Government is supplying the starving people with rice from the Southern Provinces, which we hope may be adequate to the wants of all.

YANG SHIN-THE NEW MISSION.

The first place I visited, in which we have any missionary interest, was Yang-Shin, the new station, opened last year under such encouraging circumstances. You are aware that at the suggestion of the members, we had undertaken the important step of renting suitable premises in the City for our missionary operations. The church had been formed where the work started in a small village about three miles from the city, and the meetings had been conducted in a small room, lent to us by one of our members. It was in every way inconvenient and inadequate, but no other place could be obtained that was suitable. The members all expressed their willingness to attend the services in the city, while it offered the great advantages of being central for those who lived in other villages, with facilities for daily preaching, and thus affording wider scope for our labours. One of our members secured for us a very suitable house in the very centre of the city with a good frontage on the main street for a preaching room, a good vestry behind for meetings, and a house or rooms, for the native preacher, together with a large shed and good yard; all for a very low rent. This place had been taken and used before either of your missionaries had been at the place, and when I went there I was quite satisfied and pleased with the house and felt that it was in every way just the thing. It was here that our people met with the persecution of which we complained and where our preachers were insulted and beaten. I am glad to say that I found this case had been settled before I arrived through the prompt action taken by our Consul, Mr. Mongan. My first duty, however, on reaching the city, was to go and pay my respects to the city magistrate who had been con

strained by the higher powers to quell the riot and issue a proclamation to enlighten his people on the question of our right to propagate Christianity, and that those who received our teachings were in no case to be interfered with. This official received me very courteously, entered into a long explanation of his conduct about not receiving the complaints presented by our native helper when the disturbances were going on, and pretended that had he known that the sect was the Christian sect he should at once have protected them from all annoyance. I thanked him for his proclamation, and what he had done, though late, by putting one of the leaders in the disturbance under restraint and told him that now we should have no fear for the future as his proclamation pledged him to protect our people and that he would be held responsible if any further trouble occurred. I am afraid the poor man seemed more agreeable than he felt, for he told me that his successor to the post he held was appointed, and would relieve him in fifteen days from the time I saw him. It is very probable that his removal from this post is owing to the negligence of duty of which we complained to our Consul.

The gathering of members and inquirers on Sunday morning was cheering. More than thirty persons were present and the service was delightful. Before the service proper, I spent two hours in examining the candidates for baptism, and ten of these were most satisfactory cases. Others were left on trial while these were admitted to our fellowship. What pleased me greatly was the earnestness, order, and prayerfulness of these people. Our native preacher has shown great diligence in privately instructing them in Christian doctrine, in church order, and leading them to exercise in prayer and singing. Though the youngest society we have, I do not hesitate to say that in the elements of Christian character, the observance of the proprieties of Divine Worship, the spirit and compass of their prayers, they are equal to our oldest societies; while in voluntary efforts for spreading the gospel, and contributions to the church, they certainly take the lead. One old man spends most of his time in going with the preacher to all out-door services, and is quite an evangelist in his way. Others do

occasional duty in their own neighbourhoods, and all are in hearty sympathy with the work. united in soul and co-operating for the estab lishment of the cause of God in the district.

I found also that all the furniture of the chapel and preachers rooms had been supplied out of the contributions of the members. while some of the poorest had given their labour to clear and repair and alter the place, thus relieving the mission of a considerable item of expense. As for instance, we bought the paper and they put it on, the lime, and they did the plastering and whitewashing. They feel the place is their own, and take an interest in it accordingly. Men with such a spirit are sure to prosper and I am sanguine that in this place we shall soon have a most flourishing church. I had proposed to them the desirability of special meetings to pray for rain, as the country was suffering so deeply from the drought. One man in his simplicity, betrayed the heathen idea and practice in connection with such an occasion, and suggested that we should wait until we saw the clouds gather a little, then announce that we were going to pray for rain to the true God, and invite the people to come and join us: then said he when the rain comes all the people will be impressed that our God has heard our prayers and they will thus be led to discard the idols and worship the Christian's God." I give the man's opinion even at the risk of its exciting the disgust of some Christians at home, who may not consider the weakness of a man who has all his life been brought up under the delusive influence of idolatry, and only been under Christian teaching for a few months. I was pleased with the man's candour, and with a recommendation which, while it pained me, gave me such a good text to preach from. I am sure the sermon I preached from his words changed his views considerably and enlightened many others too. He and all came early on Monday morning to pray for the rain, though not a cloud, was to be seen, and on Tuesday morning too, though I left the place at six o'clock to visit another station, they were nearly all present to pray again, some of them having walked four or five miles; on the Wednesday they gathered

again, and thus carried out my suggestion of three days special prayer for rain. Nor do I think they ceased to pray until the Lord sent showers upon the thirsty land, which I am thankful to say He has done.

I

I left Yang-Shin on Tuesday morning with a heart gladdened at what I had seen of the grace of God and with a cheerful anticipation of seeing greater things in that city. I spent three happy days there. I ought to say that Monday was market-day, and the streets crowded with people. About noon the chapel was thrown open, that is, the front was taken down, and our congrega tion not only filled the inside but the outside too. Messrs. Hu and Tso were there as well as the native helper in charge, and knowing the crowd was so great I remained in the vestry out of sight until two of them had preached, as I knew the crushing and restlessness of the crowd at seeing a foreigner would interfere with their attention. heard the sermons, and real good convincing sermons they were; full of gospel truth, well put and well delivered. When the third man got up I came out into the chapel, and the preacher had a hard time of it. I asked him to stop and I tried, but the confusion in that surging mass was uncontrollable. I stood on the table that the people far out into the street might see me; I tried in vain to get order, and saw that no attention could be secured to what I had to say. For a minute or two they were quiet, then there was a crush in some part of the crowd and a dispute; a hawker's stall was upset, and he began to rail at those who were nearest to him as the offenders: nearer at hand were audible and attractive conversations started about my personal appearance, age, and clothing, and au old fogie would appeal to me while I was talking as to whether my honourable age was not 75 or some such irrelevant topic; so that I considered it best to stop the service and close the doors. I then went on the street with a few books, and drew the crowd after me to the Temple of the City God. There was a wide open court, and I stood on the steps of the temple, got the people into order and talked to them a considerable time on the great subjects of the gospel. This arrangement seemed to please them very much, as so

CHU CHIA TSAI was the next place on my programme, which is a good day's journey from Yang-Shin. We left early in the morning, and reached our destination just before dark, and in time for the usual prayer meeting on Tuesday evening. Owing to the drought, many of the people were absent from home, and our meetings during my stay were not so well attended as on former occasions. There is another and deeper cause, however, for this decline, which is religious indifference. Although the place is our centre in this region, and has on that account more advantages than any other. yet it is patent that for some time there has been a great falling off in the attendance of the members at the means of grace, less self-reliance, and less effort for promoting the cause of God in the village and neighbourhood. The people have a morbid feeling that everything should be done by the missionaries. We have tried and are still trying to correct this failing, and induce a more healthy state, but the effort is sure to cost us a diminution of numbers.

The chief incident of interest in this place has been already set before you in the account of the death of one of our students, and the admission of his mother and brother to our church fellowship. I was pleased to notice the great improvement in the preparatory school. It is this year

under the able management of Mr. Chu, who has been for some years employed by us as a native assistant, and was the schoolmaster of the village when our cause was first introduced there. He is a man of considerable scholarly ability, a thorough Christian, and well qualified in every way as a teacher. He has

the young men thoroughly under discipline, and they respect him. They are very diligent in their studies, and have made most marked and rapid improvement during the year.

IN San-Lieu-Chia, which has been stationary for several years, there seems to be a little move at last, as two candidates were present who have been the usual time on probation. One of them was received by baptism and the other left on trial. Three children of members were also brought by their parents for baptism. This interesting service seemed greatly to cheer the hearts of our people, and I trust it is but an earnest of a great harvest of souls. One of our

old members has a small school here for the children of native Christians, and we have another in Wu-KwanTun. Both teachers are good men, and render great help to our native assistants and the churches with which they are connected.

The chief interest in our most northerly stations is now at the villages of Tsang-Shang and Sz-ChiaKao, which have offshoots from HanChia and Yang-Pan. At Tsang-Shang through our indefatigable friend Su Chi, a number of inquirers have been meeting regularly for several months in a little old shed connected with his house. We have several old members in this village, and three or four of the junior students from this little society are in our school at Chu-Chia. They have long felt the inadequacy and discomfort of their meeting-place, but were too poor to provide a better. This spring they represented to us that if we would buy the wood and straw needful for a little chapel, they would give the labour and build it. Feeling the growing interest of the place, we decided to afford them the help they sought, and I had the pleasure of conducting service in a neat mud structure, which serves for a chapel

WITH regard to Sz-Chia-Kao, I have the following entry in my journal under date June 17th, written at Yang-Pan:

"I have had a very pleasant employment to-day, though it is Saturday. I had engaged to visit, yesterday, a village seven li (two-and-a-half miles) from this, where we have a small society connected with the Yang-Pan church, but was detained by a sharp storm of wind and dust, so that it was dark when I arrived, and most of the people who had gathered and waited for me some time had returned to their homes. I told the leading man that I would go over this morning if he would get them together again, and so fulfil my promise. When I got there they were all waiting for me, and many of the villagers who never attend our services gathered about the house and filled the little courtyard. I preached to them, and made some general remarks about the irreverent way in which I had noticed the Chinese pray for rain, as well as their praying to the wrong object. These remarks seemed to impress a number of women in the yard, who nodded their heads to signify their acquiescence with my opinions. When preaching was over, I was rather amused at one of our members speaking to a strange youth as he was leaving the chapel, and telling him that "when he prayed for rain again he must do as the Mu-Sz had been recommending them, and pray_to Shang Ti" (the supreme God). "But where can I see him?" said the youth; and for the moment the zealous brother was rather confused and nonplussed, as a reply to that question involved more theology than he was prepared to deal out at such short notice.

There were five candidates for membership to be examined, three of them women, and for their convenience, chiefly, I had agreed to hold this baptismal service at this

place to day. They were wives and daughters of members. There were also two young men, and two chil dren. Being satisfied with their examination, the baptismal service proceeded, and after sprinkling, I was about to engage in prayer, when I heard a young man who was kneeling, with his child over his shoulder, which child I had baptized in due form, say to the native preacher

Why will the Pastor not baptize me? Not hearing what he said, I simply told him to hush, but he turned to me and said quite aloud"Will you not baptize me, Pastor?" It turned out that I had baptized the child only, and not the father, forgetting as I passed from one to the other that he also was a candidate and not a member, I soon corrected the mistake and then concluded the service. It struck me that such a scene in one of our home churches would have produced rather a comical effect on the congregation, but I am thankful to say that here it passed off as just the right and proper thing.

There is a very interesting and instructive incident in connection with this young man and his family, of which his own conversion is a part. It appears that some seven years ago, when our interest was first started in this village, that his father and elder brother became members of the church but soon fell away from their faith, and were excluded from our fellowship. The family has since passed through great affliction and suffered much worldly loss-and latterly in his forced leisure, and as if impelled by some good spirit, the old man has spent a good deal of his time in reading his New Testament and Hymn Book, often doing this aloud to his family. This exercise especially interested the daughter of the old man, whose heart seems to have been converted through the truths which thus came to her knowledge. She received with great ardour the doctrines of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, and the providence of God the Father. As these doctrines took hold of her heart she began to expostulate with her father and brother about having left the Christians. and urged upon them that God had visited the family with all the troubles they had lately passed through to rebuke them for their backsliding. She moreover insisted

that unless they repented and speedily turned to the Lord still heavier afflictions would fall upon them. She got them to pray and again to attend preaching, and the whole family has thus been attending the services for several months. To-day, father and elder son are re-admitted to the church, while the mother, the younger son, and the grandson are baptized. The daughter is an unbaptized Christian, having had to marry into a heathen family, but whenever she comes over to see her parents (she generally manages to come on preaching day) she joins with the people of God, and has declared she will not give her husband and his family any rest until they also become Christians, but will despite their opposition, talk to them and pray for them. I am sorry I had not the pleasure of seeing this young woman whose heart the love of God has so strongly moved. These particulars were given to me by the native preacher on the station, and while devoutly thanking God for his great grace in her experience, I am sure all who know the facts will pray for her that her faith and zeal may be sustained and her labours increasingly crowned with blessing.

A SOLEMN AND TOUCHING INCIDENT AT CHU-CHIA-TSAI

I have just had a very good and comforting service in the Chapel with the native brethren, and it is now the hottest part of a summer's day, when everybody keeps inside for a few hours to shelter them from the

burning sun. I wish to give you a few particulars of interest connected with the work of God in this place. The work generally is not in a very prosperous nor even encouraging condition, but one incident which occurred to day has given me some comfort. I have admitted to our fellowship a mother and her son who have come of their own free accord from the Roman Catholics. When we first came to Chu-Chia, the Roman Catholics had a tolerably large society, but it has from various causes dwindled away. The head of the family to which I have referred, was for some years the leading laymen of this congregation, but five years ago he obtained a situation under a Mandarin, now exercising his office on the borders of Manchuria. Before leaving this place he had become dissatisfied with the Roman Catholics, and urged his wife and children to

attend the services in our Chapel. He has subsequently in his letters to his family, urged them to identify themselves with our Church, as being a purer form of the Christian faith. His instructions have been attended to by his wife and two sous so far as attendance on our services is concerned, but it was only during the past week that the mother and eldest son fully decided on seeking union with the Church. This step was in the providence of God, determined upon by a very painful yet interesting circumstance. There were two sons in the family when the father went away, the eldest now about twentyone years of age, had been baptized by the priest, along with his father and mother. The younger had, either from association or boyish preference always got to our Chapel, and attended our day-school. He was a modest boy, and only began to attract our attention about two years ago. The teacher and native preacher, spoke of him as a good boy, and as being wishful for baptism. On learning that the family was connected with the Roman Catholics, I deemed it adviseable to wait until he was older and the opinion of his parents especially his father, could be ascertained. The boy took it upon himself to write a letter to his father, in which he set before him his state of mind, and his desire to become united with the Protestant Church. His father's reply was in every way encouraging, containing his full consent to his acting according his own convictions. On my next visit I found him modestly waiting to be received as a follower of Christ, and I remembered how strikingly his answers to the questions I put to him, were indicative of a clear head and warm heart, and a sincere love of Christ; his mother was there to shew not only her approval, but to solicit baptism for her son. He was still a scholar in the School, and both for character and diligence in his studies, was commended by the teacher, and so he was baptized by me, April 25th 1875.

In January of this year he was elected as one of the junior students both on account of his Christian character and general ability, as well as his own wish to give special attention to the study of christian doctrine. Little did we think that his career was to be so short, and that the devotion he showed to his studies, and