tant official in the district, one whose rule is absolute over three or four millions of people-was smitten with apoplexy, treated in vain and despaired of by fourteen native physicians, but happily restored to health and work by Dr. Watson. An ornate tablet expressing the admiration and the gratitude of the ruler was carried in public through the streets, presented to Dr. Watson, and now surmounts the entrance to his dispensary. One indication of the way in which such work operates is to be found in the fact that while, previously to this, the advent of the candidates for the triennial examinations was anticipated with solicitude, and, by express command of the officials, all the gates of our missionary buildings were kept closed to prevent mischief being wrought by their turbulent enthusiam, last year these candidates, to the number of many thousands, visited the Mission, in batches of forty, saw the foreign marvels which its little museum contained, bought a considerable number of Gospels and tracts, and the large majority stayed while addresses explanatory of the Gospel were given.

All this tends to help our work, for the anti-foreign feeling is much more strong than is usually supposed. The scholars cherish contempt for us as barbarians, and hatred for us as barbarians who have humiliated them. In any part in North China to-day it would be easy to rouse a dangerous spirit of opposition to the presence of the foreigner. It is, therefore, no slight service done to the cause of the Gospel when by their ministry of mercy the missionaries stand forth as good and enlightened men labouring for the good of others.

Every Mission in China seems to have had the same experience. North and south, on the coast and inland, it is Mercy which opens the way for Truth, and the human life of Love that renders credible the message of the infinite love of God.

In the Chowping district Mr. Smythe labours successfully in Medical Mission work, he having taken a complete course of medical training at Leeds; Mr. Wills has succeeded in getting a slight foothold in the great city of Chow Tsun (pronounced Jeu Tswin), containing 80,000 people, situate twelve miles from Chowping, and violently anti-foreign, by medical work there; and most of the other brethren have enough knowledge of the common cures for the common ailments of the people to be able to render them most valuable service. In the visitation of cholera, for instance, that raged with intense virulence in our part of Shantung last autumn, hardly any died who used the Western remedies. There can hardly be any field where a devoted

Christian man with medical training could render better service to the cause of God and of man.

TSI-NAN-FOO.

A third centre of work has been occupied within the last four or five years-viz., the capital of the province, Tsi-nan-foo.

This is a great and populous city, thronged with life and commerce. Cities are not the spots which yield the best returns for labour; but they happen to be the spots which most obstruct labour elsewhere.

While exerting an adverse influence, the force of which can hardly be imagined by foreigners, they at the same time have amongst their residents or visitors various classes particularly desirable to gather into the Christian Church. Thus, in Tsi-nan-foo, one of the best of secret sects has a large following-the sect of "Sages and Worthies." They practise no idolatry—a fact of great significance; for while Theism here is a meagre creed held by those too cold to believe the greater creed, there it is a creed only held by the morally awakened, who by a sublime effort reach the conception of a living God. Here, too, are multitudes of students, numbers receiving in the city a university training, and others coming yearly to the number of many thousands to take part in the competitive examinations which are the entrance to all Government employment and to a literary standing.

It has happened many times that work in districts that were most friendly to the Gospel has been at once stopped by influences from the capital.

In this city was printed, and from the Governor's headquarters distributed, the infamous pamphlet, the "Death-blow to Corrupt Doctrines," which, more than any other publication, has by its awful calumnies kept alive the hatred to the foreigner, and stirred such outbreaks of popular hatred as we have recently seen in the Yang-Tse Valley.

Our brethren have therefore felt that to leave this city without effort would be to commit a mistake similar to that of an army leaving a fortress in the enemy's possession in its rear.

Besides some literary work, some useful work in connection with a book-shop, and a little evangelistic work in the neighbourhood, nothing has yet been accomplished.

It is to be hoped that by the blessing of God on the work of our brethren and of the Presbyterian missionaries (who urge us to come

and help them), this great city, learned, polite, active, but virulently hostile to the Gospel, may furnish some apostles and prophets to the Church of God; and that by the favour given them in the eyes of the people, the open doors in all the province may be left unclosed and the Gospel have free course and be glorified.

It only remains for me to add, in speaking of our work in Shantung, a single word to correct a misapprehension which exists in some minds regarding it.

Our brethren have from the beginning made some use of paid agency. They have the honour of being the foremost to secure in China the recognition of the principle that the church must rely on its own efforts, graces, generosity, for its own maintenance and growth. But avowedly they have from the beginning employed for missionary work, in districts were there were no gatherings of converts, men whom they name evangelists and who are paid by the Society. At present thirteen are so employed, and it is proposed to increase their number to twenty. These men are educated, able men, who by their knowledge of the people can do a work which no European can do. They belong to a class largely used by God in China in the furtherance of the Gospel; for it will be easily understood that the superintendence and training of the church when it reaches such dimensions and is so scattered as our church in Shantung leave to the missionaries time to do little more than superintend the work.

They are a very able, earnest, and highly valued class of men. Their small number reduces the danger of corrupt attractions to a minimum. They are absolutely necessary; for where the struggle for life is so hard and travel so slow, the converts can only reach the immediate neighbourhood of their own homes. And not to use these would leave multitudes of inquirers in the dark without any to guide their steps aright. In these circumstances most will probably agree that our brethren act wisely in employing them.

The work thus imperfectly set forth must impress all thoughtful Christians with its deep significance. Seventeen years there were no converts in this district, and now, in 160 different centres, little groups are worshipping the Saviour. Provision is made for training the higher class of workers, educating children, healing all manner of sickness; and all this substantial and fertile good has been accomplished in the face of difficulties of the most stupendous kind.

And it is not merely the numbers of our converts; their value strikes one. Mr. Morris and myself had very strange impressions