ASIA 
 
JItttara, S^etn ^ork 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 
 COLLECTION 
 
 CHINA AND THE CHINESE 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 CLASS OF 1876 
 1918 
 
Cornell University Library 
 BV 3420.S3T24 
 
 Days of blessing in inland China :bein 
 
 3 1924 023 068 913 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023068913 
 
-/SkaMedBien 
 
 China Inland Mission Stations ■ - 
 Out-Stations 
 
Days of Blessing 
 
 IN 
 
 Inland China, 
 
 BEING AN ACCOUNT OF MEETINGS HELD IN THE 
 PROVINCE OF SHAN-SI, 6cc. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY 
 
 J. HUDSON TAYLOR, 
 
 M.R.C.S., F.R.G.S., 
 AUTHOR OF "CHINA'S SPIRITUAL NEED AND CLAlMSr 
 
 XoiiDon : 
 
 MORGAN & SCOTT, 
 
 12, Paternoster Buildings, E.C. 
 
 MDCCCLXXXVII. 
 
S^TaM- 
 
 \ilo\^ 
 
NTRODUCTION. 
 
 By f. HUDSON TAYLOR. 
 
 THE province of Shan-SI, immediately to 
 the west of Chih-li, is about as large 
 as England and "Wales, and is the original 
 seat of the Chinese people. It is perhaps 
 best known in England through the fearful 
 famine of 1877-8, which had its principal 
 centre in that province, and to alleviate 
 which large sums of money were contributed 
 by British Christians. A valuable and in- 
 teresting description of the province, quoted 
 from Dr. Wills Williams' " Middle Kingdom," 
 is given as an appendix. 
 
 The work of the China Inland Mission in 
 the province commenced in the autumn of 
 1876, when an exploratory journey was taken 
 into the three southern prefectures, Tseh- 
 chau Fu, P'ing-yang Fu, and P'u-chau Fu. 
 Early in the following year our brethren re- 
 turned to Shan-si designated for permanent 
 work, to be located if possible in the capital, 
 
DA rS OF BLESSING. 
 
 Tai-yiien Fu. They crossed the Yellow River 
 in March, and reached the capital in April, 
 1877, in or near which one of them remained 
 till November, the other having taken a 
 journey in the meantime. Both suffered from 
 famine fever, and deemed it needful to make 
 one more journey to the south. On their 
 way they witnessed the fearful horrors of the 
 famine then at its height. The reports they 
 brought of the sufferings of the people from 
 the famine did much to arouse Christian 
 liberality in China and in England, and to 
 bring help to the relief of the sufferers. 
 
 It was on November 28th, 1877, that they 
 left T'ai-yiien Fu, proposing (D.V.) to return 
 the following spring. But immediate help 
 was at hand : during their absence the Rev. 
 T. Richard of the Baptist Missionary Society 
 came to aid the sufferers, and he was soon 
 followed by the Rev. David Hill of the 
 Wesleyan Missionary Society, the Rev. Mr. 
 Whiting of the American Presbyterian Mis- 
 sion (who died of famine fever, and was 
 buried at T'ai-yiien Fu), the Rev. Mr. Scott 
 (now Bishop Scott of North China), and a few 
 others. 
 
 In the autumn of 1878, my dear wife, taking 
 with her Miss Home and Miss Crickmay to 
 gather girls left orphans by the famine, and 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to work among the starving women, went to 
 T'ai-yiien Fu. They were quickly followed 
 by Mrs. Richard and Mrs. James (and their 
 husbands who had been to the coast). After 
 the famine had passed away our missionaries 
 continued their work, but my dear wife with 
 all those who had gone to give temporary 
 help retired, with the exception of Mr. and 
 Mrs. Richard. 
 
 In the year 1879, our work in P'ing-yang Fu 
 was commenced; and in 1881, the American 
 Board sent missionaries to T'ai-yiien Fu, who 
 subsequently removed to T'ai-kuh, a city 30 
 or 40 miles south of T'ai-yiien Fu, which has 
 ever since been their head-quarters. 
 
 In the autumn of 1885, we despatched 
 Messrs. T. H. King, Stewart McKee, Terry 
 and Beynon to Kwei-hwa-ch'eng to com- 
 mence work there. We had determined in 
 1880 to work that city, and the prefectures 
 of Soh-p'ing Fu and Ta-t'ung Fu, after the 
 visits of Messrs. Cameron and Pigott, but 
 were unable to commence till 1885. Mr. and 
 Mrs. G. W. Clarke followed them in the 
 spring of 1886, and took up the super- 
 intendency of the northern work. 
 
DAYS OF BLESSING. 
 
 Sbe Secret of Ibis iprcsence. 
 
 IN the secret of His presence, how my soul delights to hide ! 
 Oh ! how precious are the lessons which I learn at Jesus' side ! 
 Earthly cares can never vex me, neither trials lay me low, 
 For when Satan comes to tempt me, to the secret place I go. 
 
 When my soul is faint and thirsty, 'neath the shadow of His wing 
 There is cool and pleasant shelter, and a fresh and crystal spring ; 
 And my SAVIOUR rests beside me, as we hold communion sweet : 
 If I tried I could not utter what He says when thus we meet ! 
 
 Only this I Ijnow : I tell Him all my doubts, and griefs, and fears. 
 Oh, how patiently He listens, and my drooping soul He cheers ! 
 Do you think He ne'er reproves me ? What a strange Friend He 
 
 would be. 
 If He never, never told me of the sins which He must see ! 
 
 Do you think that I could love Him half so well, or as I ought, 
 If He did not tell me plainly of each sinful deed and thought ? 
 No, He is very faithful, and that makes me trust Him more, 
 For I know that He does love me, though He wounds me very sore. 
 
 Would you like to know the sweetness of the secret of the Lord ? 
 Go and hide beneath His shadow ; this shall then be your reward. 
 And whene'er you leave the silence of that happy meeting-place, 
 You must mind and bear the image of your Master in your face. 
 
 You will surely lose the blessing and the fulness of your joy. 
 
 If you let dark clouds distress you, and your inward peace destroy : 
 
 You may always be abiding, if you will, at Jesus' side ; 
 
 In the secret of His presence you may every moment hide.* 
 
 * A beautiful and appropriate tune to the above words, by George C. 
 Stebihn.s, can be had of our publishers. The writer, Ellen Laksh:\ii 
 GoREH, is a Mahratta Brahmin lady, now working as a missionary among 
 her own countrywomen at Amrjtsar, in the Punjaub. 
 
A VISIT TO SHAN-SI. 
 
 By J. HUDSON TAYLOR. 
 
 HAVING long wished and made many attempts 
 to reach Shan-si, my way was at last opened 
 to do so in the summer of 1886. Mr. Archibald 
 Orr Ewing, who had reached Shang-hai in the 
 month of June, was going to labour in that province, 
 and I had the pleasure of his company, as also of 
 that of my dear son and Mr. Lewis. 
 
 Leaving Shang-hai on June i6th, two days 
 brought us into the beautiful bay of Chefoo, and a 
 short stay of three hours or so enabled us to visit 
 our mission station, a mile-and-a-half from the 
 harbour. Another day brought us to the bar out- 
 side Ta-ku, the entrance of the Pei-ho River, 
 upon which Tien-tsin is situated. After a delay of 
 about twelve hours in this most dreary spot, we 
 succeeded in crossing the bar, literally ploughing 
 
DAYS OF BLESSING. 
 
 our way through the muddy bottom, and entering 
 the river, reached Tien-tsin about 1 1 o'clock on 
 Sunday morning. 
 
 We were warmly welcomed by missionary friends 
 there, and a special meeting was kindly arranged 
 by the Rev. Thomas Bryson of the London Mis- 
 sionary Society, at his house on Sunday evening ; 
 at which, after a short address from myself, Mr. 
 Orr Ewing gave an account of the way in which 
 the Lord had led him to leave his business, and 
 his happy evangelistic work in the vale of Leven, 
 in obedience to the Master's call. Though well 
 known as a truly happy Christian worker, his coun- 
 tenance bore witness to the reality of his testimony, 
 as he told of joy such as he had never had before. 
 It was pleasing to meet several on the following 
 day who spoke of the help and refreshment they 
 had received at the little meeting. 
 
 The afternoon of Monday, June 2ist, was well 
 advanced when we commenced our journey across 
 the plains of Chih-li ; but to have made a start 
 was something, and not a little thing in China. 
 After hard travelling from earliest dawn, or before 
 it, to dusk for three consecutive days we found 
 ourselves in the suburbs of the city of Pao-ting 
 Fu. We had travelled 120 miles, several cities and 
 many towns had been passed, but no missionary 
 or mission station had we seen by the way ! At 
 Pao-ting Fu however the American Board have 
 had a mission for many years. We missed the 
 warm welcome and hearty hospitality our mission- 
 
A VISIT TO SHAN.SI. 
 
 7 
 
 aries have so often enjoyed from the kindly workers 
 of this station, as they were all from home : but 
 we met several of their converts, who vied with 
 each other in rendering valuable assistance. 
 
 Proceeding with little delay on our journey till 
 Saturday night, and renewing it long before day- 
 light on Monday morning, we reached the last city 
 on the Chih-li plain on Monday the 28th. There 
 we exchanged our jolting carts for swinging mule 
 litters, and soon entered the hills, pressing on to 
 reach T'ai-yiien Fu by Saturday. This we succeeded 
 in doing. But in all this long journey of eight 
 days we met no missionary, we passed no mission 
 station or out-station. The one mission station, 
 Pao-ting Fu, was the only one in the fortnight's 
 journey. 
 
 We were warmly received, and kindly entertained 
 by Dr. and Mrs. Edwards, and soon met the 
 remainder of our T'ai-yiien Fu missionaries, my 
 dear niece and nephew Gertrude and Hudson 
 Broomhall, Mr. Sturman, Mrs. Rendall, Miss Kings- 
 bury (now Mrs. Bagnall), and Miss Symon (now 
 Mrs. William Key). We had also the pleasure of 
 meeting there Miss Kemp, of Rochdale, who was 
 on a visit to her sister Mrs. Edwards. On that 
 evening we united in the usual Saturday afternoon 
 prayer meeting for the widely scattered members 
 of our mission. The gathering was a deeply in- 
 teresting one : our beloved brethren in the far 
 north beyond the two lines of the Great Wall 
 were too far away to join us, but the workers from 
 
8 Da ys OF bLESsisG. 
 
 the P'ing-yang Fu plain had come up, and it was 
 a great joy to meet them, viz.: — Mr. Wilham Key ; 
 and five of the Cambridge band, the Rev. W. W. 
 Cassels, Mr. Stanley P. Smith, Mr. D. E. Hoste 
 Mr. Montagu Beauchamp, and Mr. C. T. Studd. 
 
 The two latter were not able to unite with us 
 in this meeting, as they were nursing a brother 
 missionary ill with small-pox. 
 
 A series of special meetings were commenced on 
 the Monday, and from notes taken by Mr. Stanley 
 P. Smith and Mr. Lewis, the following account has 
 been compiled by Mr. Montagu Beauchamp, the 
 friends present desiring to have a permanent record 
 of the meetings. Mr. Orr Ewing kindly offered 
 to bear the expense of its publication, and to present 
 a copy to any missionary desiring it. Others 
 having expressed the desire to have copies of the 
 fuller report also, this edition is prepared to meet 
 their wishes, and for more general circulation. 
 
PRELIMINARY MEETINGS. 
 
 Compiled by Mr. MONTAGU BEAUCHAMP. 
 
 THE first Preliminary Prayer Meeting was held 
 on July 5th. 
 In opening it, Mr. Hudson Taylor said, — In 
 meeting for prayer to-night, let us keep in view 
 two objects — 
 
 1. That we seek to be drawn by fellowship nearer 
 
 to God and to each other. 
 
 2. That we seek by prayer to see more clearly the 
 
 needs of our work, and to obtain more fully 
 God's guidance in it. 
 Then reading two verses — 
 
 " My soul, wait thou only upon GoD : 
 " For my expectation is from Him." 
 " Trust in Him at all times, ye people ; 
 " Pour out your hearts before Him ; 
 " God is a refuge for us." — 
 
 Mr. Taylor continued, — Let us all expect a full 
 blessing from our Father. I trust we have learned 
 not to look on prayer meetings as vague uncertain- 
 ties. We have been singing of showers of blessing : 
 
 Preliminary 
 Prayer Meeting. 
 
 ObjectsofPrayer 
 
 Psalm l.xii. s, 
 
10 
 
 DA YS OF BZ£SS/NG. 
 
 Romans viii. 
 
 I Peter iii. 13. 
 
 John xviii. 11. 
 
 let US expect them. If God gives -us a mighty 
 outpouring of His Spirit, will not friction be 
 wonderfully reduced ? Will not all the wheels of 
 the machinery receive a most effectual lubrication ? 
 Then let us wait on God, remembering Who it is 
 that is at the helm, and that "all things are working 
 together for good to them that love God." If we 
 are right, nothing and no one can harm us. 
 
 It was all wrong as regards Judas betraying his 
 Master. 
 
 It was all right as regards Jesus being betrayed. 
 "The cup ^«o/ which Judas has given me, or the 
 Priests, but) which the Father hath given me, 
 shall I not drink it?" 
 
 " Only upon God." Let us get into the right 
 attitude. We must not look to this brother, and 
 that (we are so glad to hear them), bitt only upon 
 God must we wait. Again we must wait not in 
 uncertainty : " God is a refuge for us." 
 
 We must also look Shan-si in the face : suppose 
 the number of missionaries multiplied tenfold ; how 
 few we should be. But, praise God, it is not a 
 question of the supply at all, but of the Supplier. 
 What shall we do with those SiOOO, with only five 
 barley loaves and two small fishes ? Make them 
 recline ! — rest : not in the presence of the apostles, 
 but of Jesus. 
 
 Now if we are to come together for blessing, we 
 must come in blessing. Let us come together with 
 our hearts full to begin with, and then we can look 
 for an overflow. As regards the ordering of the 
 
LET THY WORK APPEAR. 
 
 11 
 
 work, let Him do what He chooses : whatever He 
 chooses will be well chosen ; whatever He decides 
 will be well decided. Let us do away with our 
 plans, as the apostles had to do, who said " Send 
 them away into the cities that they may huy^^ &g. 
 Lastly, let us read this word — 
 
 " Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants, 
 
 " And Thy glory unto their children. 
 
 " And let the beauty of the LOKD our God be upon us : 
 
 " And establish Thou the work of our hands upon us ; 
 
 " Yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it." 
 
 " Let Thy work appear." God's work is not man 
 working for God ; it is God's own work, though 
 often wrought through man's hands. 
 
 Mr. Stanley P. Smith 
 said a few words with reference to Ps. xc. i6, "Let 
 Thy work appear unto Thy servants, and Thy 
 glory upon their children," and to Ps. xcL and xcii. 
 On looking at my Bible before me Ps. xc, xci. 
 and xcii. are marked. They happen to be the three 
 Psalms chosen by the Church of England for the 
 morning lessons of the 1 8th day of the month. 
 On arriving in China on March i8th, last year, T 
 got alone with the Lord and my Bible as soon as 
 I could ; and as was my custom, read the three 
 Psalms for the morning portion. Amongst one 
 or two other verses marked are the following : 
 Ps.xci. I "Abide under the shadow of the Almighty." 
 Ps. xcii. 4 " I will triumph in the works of Thy 
 hands.'' These promises were brought with great 
 
 Psalm xc. l6, 17. 
 
 Connection 
 Ps. xc, xci. 
 
 of 
 p .xcii. 
 
12 
 
 Da ys OF BLESSING. 
 
 power to my mind, so much so that I wrote in ink 
 at the bottom of the page, '' Promises on entering 
 China, March 1 8th, 1885." 
 
 In March, last year, I had a letter from a friend, 
 asking, — " Have you ever noticed the connection 
 between Ps. xc, xci. and xcii.: 
 
 1st. The prayer, 'Let Thy work appear.' Ps. xc. 
 
 2nd. 'Abide' as the secret of fruitfulness. Ps. xci. 
 
 3rd. A note of praise, ' I will triumph in the 
 works of Thy hands.' Ps. xcii.?" 
 
 Was not that a striking coincidence ? 
 
 The meeting was closed with prayer, that, in 
 T'ai-yiien, P'ing-yang, and all parts of China — and 
 not only in China, but throughout the woi-ld — - 
 "His work" might this year "appear" unto His 
 servants. 
 
 Malachi iii. 16, 17. 
 
 "Then they that feared the Lord spake one with another: 
 and the LoRD hearkened, and heard ; and a book of remembrance 
 was written before Him, for them that feared the Lord, and 
 that thought upon His Name. 
 
 "And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in the day 
 that 1 do make, even a peculiar treasure ; and 1 will spare them 
 as a man spareth his own son that serveth him." 
 
REPROACH AN ENCOURAGEMENT. 
 
 13 
 
 TUESDAY MORNING, JULY 6th. 
 
 [This was to have been the first day of meeting, but, as Mr. 
 Beauchamp and Mr. Studd were still nursing a patient with 
 small-pox, it was felt to be a thousand pities that they should 
 suffer by their love and self-devotion, so the Special Meetings 
 were deferred till the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday 
 following, i.e., July 1 2th, 13th, and 14th. 
 
 However, as we and the Baptist brethren had come together, 
 expecting a meeting, a meeting was held, and a very precious 
 one it was. — S. P. S.] 
 
 Mr. Hudson Taylor read that most wonderful 
 chapter Ez. xxxvi. In doing so, he made passing 
 comments — 
 
 " And thou, son of man, prophesy unto the 
 mountains of Israel, and say. Ye mountains of 
 Israel, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the 
 Lord God : Because the enemy hath said against 
 you. Aha ! and, The ancient high places are ours 
 in possession : therefore prophesy, and say. Thus 
 saith the Lord God." One must not lose sight of 
 the literal meaning of prophesy, but let us for the 
 present take the spiritual meaning : it is most 
 encouraging to us. It is a good thing when the 
 enemy takes up a reproach against the children of 
 God. A few years ago, after the Yang-chau riot, 
 the Duke of Somerset said in the House of 
 Lords, "Every missionary must be either a knave 
 or a fool. If he does not believe in his creed 
 and his mission he is the former ; and if he does. 
 
 Man's reproach 
 a ground of 
 encouragement. 
 
H 
 
 DAYS OF BLESSING. 
 
 Ez. xxxvi. 3-22. 
 
 he is the latter." We all prefer to be among 
 the fools. 
 
 The Lord values His honour ; and His honour 
 and His peoples' honour are bound together. There 
 are many persons who speak of Christianity as 
 eifete, and missions as a failure. The idea of failure 
 has been due to the fact that they were expecting 
 things which ought not to have been expected, and 
 farther, have looked on things from the wrong 
 point of view : moreover, they have been occupied 
 with superficial facts which are indeed to be 
 deplored, but are very, very small by the side of 
 what God is doing among the heathen. 
 
 But the fact that they do look on missions as a 
 failure is one of great encouragement. If the 
 enemy take up the wrong side, and speak against 
 the Lord's servants, the Lord has got something 
 to say. The enemy may say, " Aha ! " and " The 
 ancient high places are ours in possession." Don't 
 be so sure about your possession ! *' Therefore 
 prophesy and say : Thus saith the Lord God." 
 Never mind what the enemy says, but hear the 
 word of God. Then comes that wonderful series 
 — " I will," and " ye shall." 
 
 What a contrast between the doings of Israel, 
 and the doings of God. Now hear what the Lord 
 is going to do, and take note that it is the Lord 
 who is going to do it. "I will sanctify My great 
 name, which hath been profaned among the nations, 
 which ye have profaned in the midst of them ; and 
 the nations shall know that I am the Lord, saith 
 
UNFLUCTUATING PEACE. 
 
 15 
 
 the Lord God." What is our work here, but to 
 make the heathen know that Jehovah is the 
 Lord ? How is this to be carried out ? " When I 
 shall be sanctified in you before their eyes." Who 
 is going to do this work of sanctification ? "I will 
 take you from among the nations, and gather you 
 out of all the countries, and will bring you into 
 your own land. And I will sprinkle clean water 
 upon you, and ye shall be clean." Is it not very 
 blessed, too, that all this is in the Indicative Mood 
 and not the Subjunctive — "I will," "I will," 
 " I will." [Read verses 23 — 38 and note the em- 
 phatic I wills.] 
 
 At one time when the Viceroy, Tseng Kwoh-fan, 
 then living in Nankin, was reporting to the Emperor 
 on Protestant missions, he said, " There is no need 
 for our troubling ourselves about them ; let the 
 missionaries preach, they cannot do us any harm." 
 He thought the Chinese too well instructed and too 
 respectable to join any such sect. " The best way is 
 to let the Protestants in, let them fight the Roman 
 Catholics, and we will look on." This was most 
 encouraging ; for when men thus speak, the Lord 
 will look after His Holy Name. 
 
 Mr. Taylor then dwelt much on the 14th and 
 15th verses, " Therefore thou shalt devour men no 
 more, neither bereave thy nation any more, saith 
 the Lord God ; neither will I let thee hear any 
 more the shame of the heathen, neither shalt thou 
 bear the reproach of the peoples any more, neither 
 shalt thou cause thy nation to stumble any more, 
 
 Ez. xxxvi. 24, 25. 
 
 Ez. xxxvi. 23-38. 
 
 Permanent, 
 
 unfluctuating 
 
 blessing. 
 
i6 
 
 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 Ezek. xxxvi. 37. 
 
 Unbroken 
 communion. 
 
 saith the Lord God :" — pointing out the precious- 
 ness of the oft repeated ''any more." 
 
 Mr. Orr Ewing 
 gave a testimony as to how the Lord had blessed 
 him over this chapter. He said the key to the 
 blessing was verse 37, " Thus saith the Lord 
 God ; I will yet for this be enquired of by the 
 house of Israel, to do it for them." Mr. Orr 
 Ewing said he had claimed that the Lord would 
 cause him to walk in His statutes and to keep His 
 judgments and do them — verse 27. He urged us 
 " to claim," and " to take possession," citing Caleb's 
 case. Caleb was promised an inheritance by God : 
 his claim was admitted. He not only claimed, but, 
 though 80 years old, he went up and " took 
 possession." 
 
 The one who next led in prayer, dwelt much in 
 his petitions on verse 23. "I will sanctify My great 
 Name, which hath been profaned among the 
 nations ; . . . . and the nations shall know that I 
 am the Lord, .... when I shall be sanctified in 
 you before their eyes." 
 
 Mr. Hudson Taylor 
 then said, — Most people would rather hear testimony 
 about a person than hear' the person testifying of 
 himself. Now I want to say a few words about my 
 first wife. 
 
 The year 1870 was a time of great trial, a time 
 of the greatest difficulty I have ever known in 
 
ABIDING PEACE. 
 
 17 
 
 China. From Pekin to Canton the people were 
 agitated. At Tien-tsin the French Priests, Sisters 
 of Charity, and even the French Consul were mas- 
 sacred. We did not know from day to day what 
 would take place at our inland stations. But I had 
 unspeakable rest in my soul, for the Lord had 
 taught me some months before what it was truly to 
 rest in Him. 
 
 I was watching at the bed-side of my sick 
 wife. At four o'clock in the morning the day 
 dawned, and clearly did I see the stamp of 
 death upon her countenance. She awoke rejoicing 
 in the Lord, and gave me a sweet smile. I 
 said, "My darling, do you know that you are 
 dying ? " She said, with a look of surprise, 
 " Can it be so ? I feel no pain, only very weary." 
 " Yes," I replied, " You are dying ; you will 
 soon be with Jesus." My precious wife thought 
 of my being left alone at this time of trial, having 
 no companion like herself, with whom I had 
 been wont to bring every difficulty to the Throne 
 of Grace. She said, "I am so sorry, dear," 
 and paused, as if half correcting herself for ven- 
 turing to feel sorry. I said "You are not sorry to 
 go to be with Jesus, dear ? " I shall never forget the 
 look that she gave me, and as looking right into my 
 eyes, she said, " Oh no, it is not that ; you know, 
 darling, there has not been a cloud between my 
 soul and my Saviour for ten years past : I cannot 
 be sorry to go to Him. But I am sorry to leave 
 you alone at this time ; perhaps I ought not to be 
 
DA rS OF BLESSING. 
 
 Genesis v. 22, 24: 
 Hebrews xi. 5 ; 
 Genesis vi. 9: 
 Acts XX. 18, 31. 
 
 John ii. 38. 
 
 John vi, 35. 
 
 sorry, for He will > be with you, and supply all 
 your need." 
 
 Now, added Mr. Taylor, if anyone does know 
 the husband it is the wife, and if anyone does know 
 the wife it is the husband. I knew that what she 
 said was perfectly true. In the Yang-chau riot, 
 when she and the little children were in danger 
 of being massacred at any moment, she was as 
 calm as when in the parlour in London ; and I am 
 quite certain if she could have altered any of the 
 circumstances in Yang-chau, she would not have 
 done it, for she was satisfied that God's ordering 
 was the wisest. Perhaps this testimony of the 
 power of the Lord to create perfect peace in the 
 heart, and to sustain it unbroken for years, is the 
 more reliable, because given of one who is no 
 longer with us. 
 
 Enoch and Noah walked with God, and as 
 regards St. Paul, guided by the Holy Ghost, he 
 bears testimony, that for three years in one place 
 he had "all the time" walked blamelessly, not only 
 " at some times." Why did he testify this ? Out of 
 conceit ? No. " Not I, but Chi^ist." 
 
 In 1869, the Lord brought home to me the 
 passage : " He that believeth on Me, .... out of 
 his belly shall flow rivers of Hving water." (God 
 has prospered my work ever since that time as 
 never before.) Praise God, said I, as my eyes were 
 opened, " He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, 
 and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst :" 
 then T need never thirst again. What is the 
 
BE CAREFUL FOR NOTHING. 
 
 19 
 
 "never" here? Never, at any time, under any 
 circumstances (as in the verse " No man hath seen 
 God at any time"). Do we believe this ? 
 
 So " Be careful (anxious) for nothing." Not 
 even about your holiness. Cast the care of your 
 purity of heart and life upon the Lord Jesus. 
 
 Mr. Taylor then read Zeph. iii. 12 — 19, again 
 touching upon the "any more" of verse 15. 
 " Thou shalt not fear evil any more!" Referring 
 to himself, he said. Speaking of the testimony of 
 St. Paul quoted above, I should be glad that the 
 native Christians should follow my path as it has 
 been "at some times," but not "at all times." 
 Why ? Just because in many cases I have failed 
 to trust, I have failed to abide in Christ, in the 
 fulness that is always for me. May it not be so 
 with us any more. Amen. 
 
 We then concluded with several prayers. 
 
 Zeph. iii. 12-19. 
 
20 DAYS OF BLESSING. 
 
 ©aj ttecum. 
 
 "Thou wilt keep him in- perfect peace, whose 
 
 MIND IS STAYED ON ThEE, BECAUSE HE TRUSTETH IN 
 
 Thee." — Isaiah xxvi. 3. 
 
 " Peace ! perfect peace ! in this dark world of sin ? 
 " The blood of jESUS whispers peace within. 
 
 " Peace ! perfect peace ! by thronging duties press'd ? 
 " To do the will of Jesus, this is rest. 
 
 " Peace ! perfect peace ! with sorrows surging round ? 
 " On Jesus' bosom nought but calm is found. 
 
 " Peace ! perfect peace ! with loved ones far away ? 
 " In Jesus' keeping we are safe, and they. 
 
 " Peace ! perfect peace ! our future all unknown ? 
 " Jesus we know, and He is on the throne. 
 
 " Peace ! perfect peace ! death shadowing us and ours ? 
 " Jesus has vanquished death and all its powers. 
 
 " It is enough : earth's struggles soon shall cease, 
 " And Jesus call to heaven's perfect peace ! " 
 
 E. H. BiCKERSTETH. 
 
THE VALUE OF DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 21 
 
 TUESDAY EVENING. 
 
 [Although the Special Meetings were put off to July 12th, 
 13th, and 14th, the Preliminary Evening Meetings were still 
 continued.] 
 
 St. John^s Gospel, Chapter vi. 
 
 Mr. Hudson Taylor said, — " Whence are we to 
 buy bread that these may eat ? " The Lord very 
 frequently asks us a question. It is not that He 
 needs any instruction. The Lord puts us into 
 positions of great difficulty, but it is for the purpose 
 of instructing and preparing us for His solution of 
 the problems. [Read to verse 21.] 
 
 These two miracles were so arranged as to 
 precede the teaching which occupies the remainder 
 of the chapter. They were appropriate miracles, 
 and are very comforting ones. Before our Lord 
 taught His disciples how He was the true Bread, 
 the Bread that endures. He brought them face to 
 face with this problem of the multitudes who were 
 needing rest and bread, and with the trial of the 
 great storm in the darkness ; and all this was in 
 harmony with the teaching that was to follow. 
 
 So with regard to ourselves, it may be that 
 before He pours out on us, and on Shan-si, an 
 immense blessing. He is bringing us face to face 
 with similar problems. The Master is saying to 
 us, " Whence are we to buy bread ?" You are saying, 
 " What is to be done for T'ai-yuen, and all the 
 
 The value of 
 difficulties. 
 
22 
 
 DA rs OF BLESSING. 
 
 Not the supply, 
 but the Supplier 
 
 towns around ? We are so few and so weak. Here 
 is the doctor, who has more to do than he has 
 strength for ; and what about the children in the 
 schools, and the work outside ? Whence shall we 
 buy bread?" And our brethren from P'ing-yang 
 can tell us that if they could multiply themselves 
 a hundred-fold, there would still remain need for 
 more. It is a good thing to be bi'ought to this 
 point : We have no money and there is no bread ; 
 but we have JESUS. 
 
 You know what follows. These disciples had 
 not a very heavy bag for Judas to carry, I suspect ; 
 and while Philip says, " Two hundred pennyworth 
 of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one 
 may take a little;" Andrew comes forward and 
 says, "There is a lad here who has five barley- 
 loaves and two small fishes, but what are these 
 among so many 1 " It was not a heavy meal for 
 them and their Master. What was this trifle ? 
 Nothing at all ; but He is all and in all ; it is not 
 a question of it, but it is of Him. 
 
 Now our Lord does not explain His plans 
 to His disciples ; but He says, " make the people 
 sit down." I believe that before He gives us a 
 full blessing, and takes us up and uses us, He says, 
 " Be at rest in My presence ; do not be asking for 
 My plans." Jesus is the great plan ; and in the 
 presence of Jesus Christ, no matter how large the 
 need is, lie down and rest. " He maketh me to lie 
 down." He does this before, "He leadeth me." 
 Everything in its own order. And He is the Lord 
 
THE UNSEEN SA VI OUR. 
 
 23 
 
 Jesus in Shan-si ; He is enough for Shan-si, from 
 the Great Wall to Ho-nan. But where is He to be 
 found ? In each one of His own, whether we 
 reahse it or not. But, oh, to realise it, and rest in 
 His presence. 
 
 Then He took the little loaves and broke them ; 
 He filled their hands, and said, " Now go ; you 
 have not a large supply, hut give wJiat you have.'''' 
 When we have gone out with not very much, and 
 have began to feed others, have not we ourselves 
 found a grand meal.? and been led to say, ''If 
 those I have spoken to have profited as much as 
 I have, they have done well ! " 
 
 It was so with the disciples. They received a 
 piece of a loaf, and as they gave it out, they found 
 it growing; and the Lord Jesus Christ was being 
 magnified and growing too ! If they did not every 
 one of them feel, " we have a grander Saviour than 
 we had any idea of," then they were very dull 
 scholars indeed ! 
 
 But this was not sufficient. He had to send 
 them out in the dark night, to toil in the rowing. 
 The wind was contrary, and they could make no 
 headway, and Jesus was not there ! " If He had 
 only come with us," perhaps they thought, "we 
 could have awakened Him." But He was there, 
 though they saw him not ; He was with them in 
 spirit ; and He was praying for them. When the 
 time comes He draws near in person, and they are 
 seized with fear. But He says unto them, " It is I, 
 be not afraid." Our greatest need and difficulties, 
 
 Give what you 
 have. 
 
 An unseen 
 
 Saviour. 
 
24 
 
 DA rs OF BLESSING. 
 
 The LORD first. 
 
 are the very inlets for the Saviour, and when the 
 Master drew near what was the result ? He spoke 
 to them, He was recognised, and Peter says, 
 " Lord, if it be Thou, command me to walk on 
 the water too." 
 
 There is something instructive about Peter's 
 appeal. If the Master can walk on the waters, 
 why cannot those who are His, those who are one 
 with Him, do so to ? The Lord says, " Come, you 
 will find sure footing;" and he did, while he looked 
 on Jesus. But when he turned his eyes away, he 
 began to sink at once ; and then he uttered that 
 beautiful prayer, 
 
 "LORD Save Me." 
 
 This is a favourite text with me in preaching to 
 the Chinese. The " LORD " first, and in large 
 characters. " Me " last, and least in size. And the 
 two joined together by the word "save;" as the 
 Lord's salvation unites me to Himself. If I am 
 not strong or wise ; if I am perplexed, or discouraged 
 (and it is sin to be discouraged — it is not merely a 
 mistake : He will not fail nor be discouraged, and 
 why should I ?), whatever it is that T want saving 
 about, for myself, my work, or the native Christians, 
 I can cry, " LORD, save me." 
 
 To revert to our narrative. As soon as the 
 Lord was put first and "me" last, Peter was all 
 right : immediately the S.a.viour took him by the 
 hand. Then we don't hear anything more about 
 the waves being rough : they are soon at their 
 destination, 
 
MEA T INDEED. 
 
 25 
 
 And now our Lord gives us the beautiful teach- 
 ing that follows, about Himself as the true Bread : 
 He brings also for the first time since the creation a 
 neiv, perfect gift to His people. He is the Spiritual 
 Drink of His people. The blood, that up to this 
 time it had been sin to taste, He gives us. If we 
 put ourselves into the position of that multitude, 
 who had been so strongly taught that the fat and 
 the blood were the two things that they were never 
 to touch, we shall realise how wonderful the words 
 of Christ must have been to them. " My flesh is 
 meat indeed'' — true meat, "and My blood is drink 
 indeed " — true drink. 
 
 " I am the Bread of life : he that cometh to Me 
 shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me 
 shall never thirst " — not at any time. Has faith 
 grasped this ? Are we fully satisfied that, though 
 we have hungered a hundred times in the past, we 
 shall never hunger agairi at any time f Do we 
 know this in our hearts, accepting it by faith, 
 because He has said it ? Is this a thing as real and 
 true to our apprehension as the fact that God has 
 saved us with a full salvation ? But if not, if we 
 ourselves are hungering, how can we feed others ? 
 This expression, " He that believeth on Me," fol- 
 lowing the "He that cometh to Me," means, he that 
 by faith becomes united to Me, is one with Me. 
 What is the use of being apprenticed to a 
 builder if one does not learn to build ? What 
 is the meaning of being joined to a Saviour if 
 we do not learn to save ? Though we might 
 
 A new gift. 
 
 John vi. 55. 
 
 John vi. 35- 
 
 Never to hunger 
 again 
 
26 
 
 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 How to abide in 
 Christ. 
 
 Romans ' 
 
 ourselves be saved, should we be His disciples 
 indeed ? 
 
 He also gives us a precious word about abiding 
 in Him. How is it to be brought about ? " He that 
 eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth {is 
 abiding) in Me and I in him." What an illustration 
 food gives of abiding. What is food ? It is some- 
 thing that is calculated to build up our bodies. We 
 see a baby, it has become heavy — -where did the 
 additional weight come from ? It is caused by the 
 food that abides in it ; and our food not only abides 
 in us, but we abide in it. So also with Christ; we 
 feed on Christ, and think about Christ, and 
 Christ builds us up. Thus abiding in Him, how 
 truly we become one with Him, and grow up into 
 Him. We cannot pick a man to pieces and take 
 the food out of him. We cannot reduce him to a 
 baby again. And what shall separate us from the 
 love of Christ? "Shall tribulation, or anguish, or 
 persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or 
 sword?" There shall be no picking us to 
 pieces again, and reducing us to our baby state 
 as Christians. 
 
 But you say, "I have been feeding for years : yet 
 the abiding is broken ; how is this?" It may be 
 that the eyes of your understanding need en- 
 hghtening : you are not apprehending, and con- 
 sequently not appropriating by faith, the fruits of 
 abiding. For myself, I can say that for sixteen or 
 seventeen years after my conversion I had no idea 
 of what abiding in Christ was, I thought of it as 
 
FEEDING AND ABIDING. 
 
 27 
 
 attaining^! as a hand over hand climbing^ only pos- 
 sible to a spiritual athlete. That abiding is resting, 
 as I am abiding in this chair, I had no idea. I 
 thought it was a tremendous climb, needing the 
 strength of a spiritual giant, but a hopeless task for 
 a weak man like me. Then came home to me, "He 
 that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood is 
 abidiiig in Me and I in him." I considered my body 
 in relation to food : my hair, my nails, my skin as 
 but transformed food, in which I was abiding, while 
 it was abiding in me. And so I learned what 
 abiding in Christ is, and the importance of feeding 
 on Him. 
 
 Now feeding is voluntary and active : abiding 
 is passive ; and it is not a thing of consciousness. 
 I am as much abiding when asleep, as when 
 preaching. Feeding is not a constant act: what 
 should we say of anyone who was always at 
 the table ? So we need not always be reading 
 our Bibles, or be in the attitude of prayer all 
 day long in order to abide in Christ. Let 
 us feed on Him, and then go about our duty, 
 knowing that so doing we are abiding in Him 
 and He in us. 
 
 We cannot bear fruit if we are not abiding: 
 fruit is the evidence of abiding. Now the fruits 
 of abiding must be claimed by faith. What are 
 they? Answers to prayer, abundant fruitfulness, 
 and a Christ-like walk. "He that abideth in Me 
 and I in him, the same beareth much fruit;" and 
 fruit that shall remain or abide, 
 
 John vi. 56. 
 
 Abiding not 
 
 necessarily 
 
 conscious. 
 
 John XV. 5. 
 
28 
 
 DAYS OF BLESSING. 
 
 Entire 
 consecration. 
 
 Close contact 
 with the Lord. 
 
 Let me refer, in conclusion, to two points which 
 are essential to our success — 
 
 1. All the loaves and fishes must be given to 
 the Lord Jesus. Unless there is absolute consecra- 
 tion of all we have, and all we are, the multitude 
 will not be fed. If the Lord is to create and 
 multiply, it might seem to make no difference 
 whether there is one loaf or a dozen ; nevertheless, 
 if the disciples had said, "we must keep half of them 
 for ourselves," what a blessing they would have lost ! 
 In my own early life, as many of you know, I 
 nearly lost a great blessing by wanting to keep back 
 a paltry half-a-crown. The last penny we have 
 must be put into the Lord's hands. If we keep 
 back one penny what does it show ? An indepen- 
 dent proprietorship. Unless the Lord Jesus is 
 Lord of all He is not Lord at all. If I can 
 keep back a single thing from Him, I make myself 
 an independent proprietor. If there is anything 
 I hold back, I dethrone Him. ; and hence I lose 
 the blessing. 
 
 2. Then we need to come into close contact 
 with the Lord. A very little thing coming between 
 objects or surfaces will prevent union. If you cut 
 yourself, the thinnest film placed between the raw 
 surfaces will preclude union. We must come to 
 Him and into Him, if we are to obtain blessing. I 
 believe, too, that there must be heart contact with 
 these Chinese, we have to come in to them if we are 
 to become a blessing to them. There is wonderful 
 instruction in the way in which the Lord Jesus 
 
THE POWER OF CONTACT. 
 
 29 
 
 wrought His works of mercy. He healed the 
 centurion's servant, indeed, without even seeing 
 him ; but that was not the ordinary way. He 
 touched the leper and the blind. 
 
 There is a mighty power in contact. The 
 woman felt that if she only touched the hem of His 
 garment she would be healed; and the SAViouR/e/if 
 that virtue went out of Him. If we keep so far 
 away from the people that they cannot touch even 
 the hem of our garment, how will virtue go out ? 
 They are not clean, and sometimes we are tempted 
 to draw our skirts together ; but I believe there is 
 no blessing when that is the case. The Lord 
 Jesus became a curse for us, and in that way 
 delivered us from it. There is much power in 
 drawing near to this people, and there is a wonderful 
 power in touching people. A poor woman in 
 Ch'en-tu, when she heard of Mrs. Riley's death, said, 
 "What a loss to us! she used to take hold of my 
 hand, and comfort me so." If you put your hand 
 on the shoulder of a man there is power in it. I 
 believe that any Christian, full of the Holy Ghost, 
 -may often, by the imposition of hands in a very in- 
 formal way, impart a real blessing. And when I come 
 round to see you, what hearty shakes of the hand I 
 get ! I am sure there is something in contact, and 
 that it is a real power that we may use for God. 
 
30 
 
 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 Zbe tltue Wine. 
 
 '• The living Vine, Christ chose it for Himself: — 
 
 " God gave to man for use and sustenance 
 
 " Corn, wine, and oil, and each of these is good : 
 
 "And Christ is Bread of Life and Light of Life. 
 
 " But yet He did not choose the summer corn, 
 
 " That shoots up straight and free in one quick growth, 
 
 " And has its day, and is done, and springs no more. 
 
 " Nor yet the olive, all whose boughs are spread 
 
 "In the soft air, and never lose a leaf, 
 
 " Flowering and fruitful in perpetual peace : 
 
 " But only this for Him and His in one, — 
 
 " The everlasting, everquickening Vine, 
 
 " That gives the heat and passion of the world, 
 
 " Thro' its own life-blood, still renewed and shed. 
 
 *■*:* + * 
 
 " The Vine from every living limb bleeds wine ; 
 
 " Is it the poorer for that spirit shed ? 
 
 " The drunkard and the wanton drink thereof; 
 
 "Are they the richer for that gift's excess ? 
 
 " Measure thy life by loss instead of gain ; 
 
 " Not by the wine drunk, but the wine poured forth ; 
 
 ■• For love's strength standeth in love's sacrifice ; 
 
 "And whoso supers most hath most to give." 
 
 H. E. H. King. 
 
CONSISTENr LIVES. 
 
 31 
 
 THURSDAY EVENING, JULY 8th. 
 
 Consistent Lr-es. 
 
 Mr. Hudson Taylor [read Acts xvi.J : — When 
 Paul alleged that Christ must needs have suffered 
 and risen, and that this Jesus is the Christ, we 
 find that his message was received and believed. 
 His stay in some places was short ; in other places 
 long. Three years were spent in Ephesus, and he 
 had a long stay in Corinth. But, whether his time 
 was short or long, we do not find him frukless. He 
 never left a place till his work was done ; and 
 blessing always followed. There was so very much 
 in the character of the Apostle in harmony with 
 his message, that it was not hard to receive that 
 message from //z«^rnan. When the Apostle preached 
 Jesus Christ, and told of One Who though He 
 was rich yet for our sakes became poor, there was in 
 his own poverty, and in the horny hand he held forth, 
 the evidence of one who did not think it a hard 
 path to become poor in order to seek man's salvation. 
 When he preached of One who was despised and 
 rejected, his own position, despised alike by Jews and 
 Gentiles, emphasized the message. When he told 
 of One who had shed His blood on behalf of His 
 people — of One who gave Himself ior His people — 
 there was in the life of the Apostle that which 
 authenticated his word. He writes: — "Therefore, 
 seeing we have this ministry, as we have received 
 
 Pauls uniform 
 success. 
 
 Phil, i 
 
 2 Cor. i 
 
32 
 
 DAYS OF BLESSING. 
 
 mercy, we faint not." Yet surely there was enough 
 to make a man faint. If we sometimes get dis- 
 couraged, what about Paul's experience ? But 
 Paul, conscious he had received a ministry of life 
 and salvation, says, "We faint not, but have 
 renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not 
 walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of 
 God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth 
 commending ourselves to every man's conscience in 
 the sight of God." 
 
 Faith needful. 
 
 Now we are here among the heathen. There 
 is great power in majorities, and the character of 
 those that we are continually associated with will 
 not be without its effect on us. We are among a 
 crafty people. Not to be tempted to meet craft 
 with craft is not human — it requires Divine grace. 
 To be guileless among the guileful requires faith in 
 God. If God is the great Worker, and the work of 
 God is the great thing in our hearts, we shall never 
 seek to please Him by guileful and crafty ways. 
 We can afford to renounce all the hidden things 
 of dishonesty, and all the craftiness of the crafty. 
 In preaching God's truth we can afford not to 
 handle the word of God deceitfully. We do 
 not want to take the Cross, and so envelop it 
 in flourishes and ornamentation that no one 
 can see there is a cross there, as did the Jesuits. 
 We do not need to hide any of the truths of 
 the Gospel, or to keep anything back of the 
 
■.VAX/rESTAiyOX OF ri-IE TRUTH r 
 
 w 
 
 whole counsel of God, for fear it should stumble 
 this people. 
 
 Of course we need Divine wisdom to rightly 
 divide the word of truth. It would be as prejudicial 
 to feed a baby with beefsteaks as it would be to 
 give it poison. But let us see to it that it is milk 
 we are giving to babes, and not some decoction of 
 our own. Let us see that we can say, " I have not 
 shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of 
 God." I am sure that I have been driven sometimes 
 into seeking to further the work of God by plans 
 that God's blessing did not rest on — not seeking to 
 meet falsehood by falsehood, but certainly craftiness 
 by craftiness. We may drift without being aware 
 of it. If we are not filled with the Spirit of God, 
 we may be certain that spiritual declension will be 
 attended with drifting ; and when once we begin to 
 drift we do not know where we may drift to. 
 
 Telling Lives. 
 
 But there is another side — we are not only to 
 take the negative, but the positive — " by mani- 
 festation of the truth." Bring the Truth to the 
 front ; speak the Truth ; live the Truth ; manifest 
 the Truth. We tell this people the world is vain ; 
 let our lives manifest that it is vain. We tell them 
 that we have got our Home above — does our 
 dwelling look like it ? We tell them that all these 
 things are transitory — O to live consistent lives ! 
 The life of the Apostle was thoroughly consistent. 
 Nobody felt he was other than a stranger or a 
 
 Acts ii. 37. 
 
 See Htbre^\ 
 
 (K.V.). 
 
 2C<. 
 
34 
 
 DA ys OF BLESSING. 
 
 2 Cor. iv. 2. 
 
 sojourner ; nobody felt that his home was here : 
 all saw that it was up there. 
 
 Again, "By manifestation of the truth com- 
 mending ourselves to every man's conscience in the 
 sight of God." It was not only that man's conscience 
 might be satisfied — some men's consciences might 
 be satisfied with very little — but, "in the sight of 
 God." The Apostle was walking with God, and 
 commending himself to God as well as to men. 
 
 Lives not out of sight. 
 
 It seems to me that such words, as we read 
 them, mean more from this inspired Apostle than 
 the same words might from others — see for instance 
 Colossians i. Surely it means a great deal when he 
 prays that they might be Jilted with the knowledge 
 of His will, in all spiritual wisdom and under- 
 standing. Now do not you and I also want to live 
 such lives as will emphasize our teaching .? But it 
 is no use living such lives as would emphasize it, if 
 our lives are out of sight, and our teaching only is 
 in sight. Must we not seek to make our lives as 
 public as our teaching? It is a grave difficulty. 
 The man who lives two or three miles away from 
 the chapel, and goes and preaches to the people, is 
 often disappointed. 
 
 I have known of more than one going away 
 disappointed after having preached some thousands 
 of sermons, but who did not live among the people. 
 I believe if such men could have worked in a 
 carpenter's shop all day, and have preached half 
 
THE POWER OF THE LIFE. 
 
 35 
 
 the sermons, their life would have been so much 
 more visible, that the sermons would have gone 
 further. What wisdom we need — not only to live 
 such lives as would emphasize our teaching, but to 
 see that our lives are such, that those who receive 
 the teaching can catch the emphasis too ! 
 
 Paul's life was a very public one. When he 
 was thrust into the common prison, and when he 
 went from place to place, suffering trial, loss, and 
 sorrow, his life was not hidden. He was able to 
 appeal to the Ephesian elders, " You know what 
 sort of man I was among you. I did not spend 
 three-quarters of my time in the study, and come 
 out once or twice on the Sunday to preach to you. 
 I warned you as a father warns his children. My 
 whole life is known to you from the time I came 
 until I left you." 
 
 I wish I could look back on my missionary 
 career, and feel that my whole life was well known 
 for three years to any set of people, and that it all 
 commended the Gospel. It has been my lot to live 
 of necessity a great deal of my life out of sight 
 engaged in secular work (and not all that has been 
 seen has commended my Master, as Paul's life 
 did). But this is a thing to be guarded against ; and 
 if we would have our lives invested to the utmost 
 profit, we miLSt be among the people. It is very self- 
 denying work, but it will pay very well. The 
 Apostle, commending the truth, was sure that his 
 Gospel also was not hidden, save to those who 
 were lost. 
 
?6 
 
 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 I Tliess. 
 
 : Cor. i 
 
 Thes! 
 
 Reproductive Lives. 
 
 Now turn to i Thess. i. : — " We give thanks to 
 God always for you all, making mention of you in 
 our prayers ; remembering without ceasing your 
 work of faith and labour of love, and patience of 
 hope, in our Lord Jesus Christ." The faith that 
 was imparted was a working faith, the love that 
 was imparted was a laborious love, the hope that 
 was imparted was a patient hope. These believers 
 had learned to walk as the Apostle had done. He had 
 walked as in the sight of God, and they had learned 
 so to walk also. He had laboured, he had been 
 patient, his faith had been an active faith ; and the 
 same was reproduced in his spiritual children. The 
 spiritual hkeness between the children and the 
 father was very apparent : "Knowing, brethren 
 beloved, your election of God,/o7' our Gospel came 
 not unto you in word only, but also in power, and 
 in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance ; as 
 ye know what manner of men we are among yon 
 for your sake.'' Paul lived among them for their 
 sakes, not for his own ; they knew very well what 
 manner of man he was among them. There was 
 nothing of his manner of life hidden. The result 
 was :— " Ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, 
 having received the word with much affliction and 
 joy in the Holy Ghost." Affliction did not damp 
 the joy of the spiritual fathers— they could sing in 
 the jail at Philippi— and receiving the Gospel of 
 Christ from such ensamples, the result was that 
 
THE HOPE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 37 
 
 the converts became '■^ ensamples to all that believe 
 in Macedonia and Achaia." 
 
 Waiting for Christ. 
 
 One other thought. It seems to me that one 
 thing which is chargeable with a good deal of the 
 worldliness of the Church in China, is that teachers 
 and preachers often put a full stop at the end 
 of the 9th verse. You will read in twenty 
 missionary reports that the people have turned 
 from idols to serve the living and true God. It is 
 not in one in twenty that you will hear anything 
 about their waiting for His Son from Heaven. I 
 believe that the ignorance of the native Christians 
 generally of the fact that Christ is coming again, 
 and that the present state of things is to be utterly 
 overthrown, is one reason of the selfishness and 
 worldliness that are to be found in some branches 
 at least of the Church of God in China. 
 
 I remember well when God was pleased to 
 open my heart to this great truth that the Lord 
 Jesus was coming again, and that He might come 
 at any time. What was the effect ? I had not a 
 great many books, but it sent me to see if I could 
 give a good account of all I had, and also of the 
 contents of my little wardrobe. The result was 
 that some of my books disappeared before very 
 long, and some of the clothes too. It was an 
 immense spiritual blessing to me. When I go 
 home from China, and can get leisure time to go 
 through my house from attic to basement with my 
 
 1 Tlie-^s. i. 9, 
 not 10 be 
 dissevered. 
 
^8 
 
 DA VS OF BLESSING. 
 
 dear wife, and review our things in the light of His 
 speedy return, I have always found it a profitable 
 spiritual exercise to see what ought to be some- 
 where else. It is profitable to remember that we 
 are stewards who have to give account of every- 
 thing that we retain, as well as of everything that 
 we use ; and unless we can give a good reason for 
 the retention shall we not be ashamed when the 
 Master comes ? And since He may come any 
 day, is it not well to be ready every day ? I do 
 not know of any truth that has been a greater 
 blessing to me through life than this. I made, 
 perhaps, some mistakes at first ; but I believe they 
 were mistakes on the right side ; and the Lord 
 knew my heart in the matter, and gave me 
 blessing. While one is apt sometimes to swing from 
 one extreme to the other, it is a great truth, and a 
 steadying truth, that the Lord Jesus may come at 
 any time. Should we not ask ourselves, " Are my 
 affairs in such order that I shall not regret it ? " 
 
 Sometimes we are apt to give to ourselves 
 accounts of things, and to make excuses, that we 
 shall not dream of offering to Him. Hence if our 
 teaching and living were more in harmony with 
 these truths, that the coming of the Lord draws 
 nigh, and that we have to give an account of all that 
 we have and are, our Churches would not be so 
 worldly as some of them are. Converts, like 
 children, are wonderfully quick sighted. How the 
 little ones see their parents' lives ! How many 
 things they hear that parents forget they'Tiave 
 
SPIRITUAL CAUSE AXD EFFECT. 
 
 39 
 
 heard ! We want Him who has an eye as a flame of 
 fire to search us through and through ; and if there 
 is anything in us, or around us, or connected with 
 us, that is not altogether what it should be, to put 
 it right. 
 
 The certainty of Spiritual results. 
 
 The Gospel of God is as fresh as it was in the 
 Apostle's days, and if circumstances only permitted 
 us to live as the Apostle did, we ought to be as 
 fruitful as he was. There was no partiality in God 
 in His dealings with His servant. Cause and effect 
 are no more uncertain in spiritual things than in 
 temporal things. If I unite certain atomic weights 
 of acetic acid and of carbonate of soda, I produce a 
 definite amount of acetate of soda. Just as certain 
 am I, that a life as fully consecrated as Paul's was, 
 will produce in similar circumstances as much 
 spiritual fruit to-day as in those days. The world, 
 the flesh, and the devil have not altered ; God has 
 not altered, the blood of Christ has not altered 
 at all. 
 
 Again, it is not our losses that are to be 
 deprecated, but it is the absence of them that is our 
 real difficulty. It is the fact that we are so protected 
 that we cannot get shoulder to shoulder with our 
 native converts, who are liable to be imprisoned, 
 and robbed, and to have their tails and ears cut off:* 
 that is our weakness. If we could live lives along- 
 side of them would not the Gospel have power ! 
 
 * Some converts had recently so suffered. 
 
 Spiritual cause 
 and effect. 
 
40 
 
 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 What the spiritual children will be, depends on 
 what the spiritual father is. It is the providence 
 of God that every fruit has its own seed within 
 itself; an apple never contains raisin pips. The 
 stream will never rise higher than its source^ so it 
 will not fall far short of it if the circumstances 
 admit. The hardness of heart ivhicli is a hindrance 
 to the Gospel is not that of the hearers., but it is the 
 hardness of this heart of mine. It may be my 
 misfortune — my circumstances may be against me 
 — but the failure is still on my side. 
 
 A pound weight will alwaj^s balance i6 ozs. in 
 the scale : and if the i6 ozs. go down, the pound is 
 a light weight. We ought never to comfort our- 
 selves with the idea that the sovereignty of God 
 is arbitrary, and that we have only to bear testi- 
 mony against the people, and are not responsible 
 for the results of our work. This is a most 
 unscriptural idea ; it is most untrue, and will 
 surely lead us astray. The fact is that spiritual 
 husbandry is very like natural husbandry, the man 
 who sows most seed will, other things being equal, 
 reap the largest harvest. Paul himself had suffered 
 the loss of all things, he himself _had turned from 
 every idol to serve the living God, and his disciples 
 did the same. Look at the next chapter. [Read 
 I Thess. ii. i — 8.] 
 
 Hard missionaries are not of much use : they 
 are not like the Master, He is never hard. It is 
 better to be trusting, and gentle, and sympathising, 
 even if often taken in, rather than sharp and hard. 
 
NEED OF SELF-SA CRIFICE. 
 
 41 
 
 The converts of Paul saw that the Apostle deemed 
 it a small thing to die for them. To the Philippians Phii. .i. 17. 
 he wrote : — "Yea, and if I be offered — if my blood 
 be poured out as a drink-offering — upon the sacrifice 
 and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with 
 you all." There was no simulation in the life and 
 teachings of Paul, and there was no mistaking them. 
 It is not mere preaching the Gospel that will do 
 what needs to be done. Our life must so tell on 
 the people that they cannot mistake what we are. 
 We must show them that we are not weary of 
 them. It is important that this fatherly spirit 
 should characterise our lives. If they get the idea 
 that we are hard and sharp, and set on silver like 
 themselves, that will be a fatal mistake. If they 
 get the idea that we are set on getting ou-r pound 
 of flesh out of tJtem, rather than giving them a 
 pound of our flesh, it will be fatal. It must be self- 
 sacrifice. There is much sacrifice in our lives of 
 which the Chinese cannot know. God knows all 
 about that, and we can well aiford to wait for His 
 declaration of it and His award. There is a great 
 deal that we have left far behind, but they have 
 never seen it. That will not suffice. They must 
 see self-sacrifice in things which they cannot but 
 understand. If it should ever come — and perhaps 
 it is not so far away — that political protection will 
 be taken away, that will be no hindrance to the 
 spread of the Gospel. If it should lead any of us to 
 return home, China will not lose much in those who 
 go ; while those who remain will have a time of good 
 
42 
 
 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 success. The opposition of pagan Rome, and of 
 religious Jews, were essential elements of success ; 
 we lack these things, and our success can only be 
 partial. We may reckon our life by loss instead 
 of gain — we may safely account that what we lack 
 and lose and suffer are our most prized facilities for 
 bringing home to the hearts of this people the 
 glorious Gospel of the grace of God. 
 
 a;cu6t. 
 
 'The very hairs of your head are all numbfred.' 
 
 —Mall. X. 30. 
 
 " With cheerful faith thy path of duty run : 
 
 " God nothing does, nor suffers to be done, 
 
 " But what thou wouldst thyself, couldst thou but see 
 
 " Through all the events of things as well as He.'' 
 
EQUIPMENT FOR SERVICE. 
 
 43 
 
 FRIDAY, JULY 9TH. 
 
 Preparation for Service (Heb. ii.) 
 
 Mr. Hudson Taylor : — The Lord Jesus Christ 
 is not only the Saviour, but the Pattern of our 
 service. " As the Father sent Me so send I you." 
 Now if we look back to those by whom God spoke 
 to the fathers in olden time, we find they were 
 always sufficiently equipped for service. You will 
 find no record of God using one unequipped man. 
 Sometimes we see a man, like Moses, called indeed 
 to a particular work, pushing himself into it before 
 he had received his equipment, and then there is 
 failure. The disciples to whom the great work of 
 evangelising the world was given, had the warn- 
 ing : — " Do not depart from Jerusalem till you are 
 endued with power." But we for our service have 
 full equipment provided ; and God is willing to 
 give us ALL we need, as we need it. He does not 
 equip for life service all at once. He does not 
 expect us to toil along, burdened with next year's 
 provisions on our back. There are fresh supplies 
 on the way, fresh light, fresh power, fresh revela- 
 tions, as circumstances require. 
 
 I. Emptying. 
 When the Lord Jesus was to be brought into the 
 world, what was the great thing He needed ? The 
 first thing was not a filling but an emptying. In 
 
 Jolin : 
 
 Acts i. .t, 5- 
 
 Phil.ii. 6, 7 (.R.v.) 
 
44 
 
 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 Cor. ]' 
 
 Phil. i. 14. 
 
 order to deal with empty creatures like we are, 
 what a laying aside, what a leaving behind He had ! 
 And what He gave up was all good. So for our 
 work it is not sufficient that we are prepared to put 
 away that which is evil, things which no Christian 
 can hold to. We have to learn that the very 
 first step in fitting us for our work is that of 
 emptying. The Holy Spirit has given us some 
 glimpses of the glory of those things that God 
 has prepared for all those that love Him ; 
 but of all these glories, and of more, the Lokd 
 Jesus stripped Himself. He, the Lord of angels, 
 became lower than the angels ; and He who was 
 eternal and necessarily deathless took on Him a 
 mortal frame in order to die. Yet we are told of 
 Him that He who was made a little lower than the 
 angels has been '' crowned." This crowning was 
 peculiar — it was that of tasting death for every 
 man ; it was the glory and honour of suffering, of 
 conquering him who had the power of death hy 
 becoming subject to him. He conquered the Devil 
 by submission not by resistance. 
 
 There is something parallel to this in the life of 
 Paul. Paul was in bonds in Rome, and we might 
 have imagined that his position was one that would 
 have deterred the Brethren. But what does he tell 
 us ? That they waxed confident through his bonds. 
 So far from his sufferings taking courage out of the 
 believers, when they found what a little thing a 
 chain was to an Apostle, they felt — " We can 
 preach with good courage — what is it, after all, if 
 
THE EMPTYING. 
 
 45 
 
 Christ is only in us?" Christ living, Christ 
 reigning, made the Apostle so superior to all these 
 things, that it encouraged others to go forward, 
 though at the risk of the same trial that the 
 Apostle endured. 
 
 Must it not have been the same thing in the 
 jail at Philippi ; when Paul and Silas thrust into 
 the inner prison, their backs raw from the cruel 
 scourging they had suffered, were singing praises to 
 God ? The very prisoners must have felt how 
 impossible it is to punish such men as these! Their 
 persecutors could only fill them fuller and fuller 
 with joy, till they overflowed more and more. They 
 kept the prisoners awake, I have no doubt, with 
 their abounding joy. There is no better way of 
 proving to the world that the Devil's power is not 
 so very great, than by letting him have his fling, 
 and showing in the midst of it what a triumph the 
 believer has over him. in Christ. Just as Christ 
 by dying, conquered him who has the power of 
 death, so frail^ feeble martyrs, many of them tender 
 women, in the time of Roman persecutions, were 
 able to show that all the power of paganism 
 could do nothing against those who were filled with 
 Christ. Hence there were many conversions in 
 the very arena in which the martyrs were suffering, 
 and the blood of the martyrs proved itself to be 
 indeed the seed of the Church. 
 
 So it is now. It is not in holding on to our 
 rights as British subjects, and claiming them all, 
 that we do the most service for the Lord. Is it n ot 
 
 Triumph by 
 means of 
 reverses. 
 
46 
 
 BAYS OF BLESSING. 
 
 Matt. 
 
 Jiimes i. -', 3. 
 
 God uses what we 
 already have and 
 are — He needs no 
 more. 
 
 rather in letting them go, and thus showing that 
 these things are positively nothing to us ? If we 
 are so filled with the Spirit that we can count it all 
 joy when we fall into divers temptations, depend on 
 it we are giving the Devil back the hardest blow we 
 can give. Only let the wicked men see that we are 
 frightened, and shrink out of the way of loss and 
 cross, and they have their triumph. Let them on 
 the contrary see that we are rejoicing in Christ in 
 the midst of these things, and we shall be truly 
 followers of the Lord Jesus, of the Apostle Paul, 
 and of the martyrs who through God subdued 
 kingdoms, and overturned religions, and brought 
 about a thorough revolution, just when it seemed 
 impossible to withstand the combined attempts of 
 Jew and pagan. Their foes thought they had 
 succeeded, they even announced in their edicts that 
 Christianity was defunct ; but it was paganism 
 that tottered. 
 
 We need not be afraid of persecution. It is 
 coining — it is sure to come. Only let us have such 
 success as to make the people fear the abolition of 
 their customs, and we shall see severe pei'secution. 
 But are we to fear lest the Gospel should triumph 
 sufficiently to bring this about ; or are we to feel 
 that when it does come it will bring to us the very 
 conditions that will ensure still greater success ? 
 
 Looking back to Old Testament History, 
 notice how God equipped His workmen for their 
 work. Look at Moses. Before God sent him to 
 deliver His people, He not only cultivated his 
 
THE FILLING. 
 
 47 
 
 patience in that 80 years' training, but He revealed 
 Himself to him on the Mount. As Mr. Orr Ewing 
 was saying, He puts this question to him, " Moses, 
 what have you in your hand .' " Why he had 
 nothing but his shepherd's crook. That will do : yoii, 
 do not need to seek anything outside : throw it down. 
 That very crook becomes a symbol to manifest that 
 he was a divinely-sent man. So when the Lord 
 takes up anyone for His service. He is able to make 
 that which He has sufficient for the service. "Here 
 is a lad with five barley loaves and two small fishes — 
 but what is that ? " " Bring that which is nothing," 
 and it was brought and used. 
 
 II. Filling. 
 
 The Lord Jesus having emptied Himself was 
 filled with the Spirit, and we are told the words 
 He spoke were not His own words. He spoke His 
 Father's words. What an example to us ! Oh to 
 he^/ledvf'ith the knowledge of God's will, to be so 
 filled with the presence of the Lord Jesus, and to 
 be so one ivith Him, that His life may flow through 
 our veins, that He may borrow our lips to speak 
 His messages, borrow our faces to look His looks of 
 patience and love, and our hands to do His service, 
 and our feet to tread His weary journeys ! The dear 
 Master can never be weary again by the side of 
 any well, but 10 e may be weary by the side of many 
 for Him. This Blessed One was so fully equipped 
 for His work that all things were put under His 
 feet. Not only were all things put under the feet 
 
 Exodus iv. 
 
 Luke i 
 John X 
 Acts ii 
 
48 
 
 BA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 Ps. Ixxxiv. II. 
 Phil. iv. 19. 
 
 of the Lord Jesus in the Resurrection for purposes 
 of government, but it was so for the purposes 
 of His earthly ministry, so that there was nothing 
 which really crushed Him down. He was so 
 equipped for His service that, in every circumstance 
 of His life, He had a word in season for the weary, 
 had healing for the sick, comfort for the sorrowing, 
 life for the dead. So it is the ivill o/God that you 
 and I should always be perfectly equipped for our 
 service. Some things that we might think desirable 
 we may not have. Before Christ was brought face 
 to face with the Tempter, He was fitted for His 
 service by being kept hungry for 40 days ; and it 
 may be that some things that we desire may in like 
 manner be kept back. Faith should always claim 
 that that which God has given us, and is giving us, 
 IS sufficient for present needs. If faith is only in 
 lively exercise we shall know this, That no single 
 thing we do not possess would be a help to us 
 to-day. What does the Word say? "No good 
 thing will He withhold 1" "My God shall supply 
 all your need, according to His riches " (there is no 
 limit surely to His wealth) " in Christ Jesus." I 
 have often been tempted to feel: "Oh, if I were 
 only in other circumstances, or had some other 
 provision than I have ; if I had more fellow-workers 
 or more capable ones ; if I had had a better train- 
 ing, or if I were more capable in this or that respect, 
 I could better glorify God." Depend upon it, such 
 thoughts come from him who was a liar from the 
 beginning. God is able to give to His children all 
 
EVIL NOT TO BE RESISTED. 
 
 49 
 
 that is for their good ; and He will not withhold 
 from us anything longer than is good for us : at the 
 right time and in the right measure He will send 
 the supply. 
 
 Preaching by Example. 
 
 It would have saved a great deal of dishonour to 
 the Lord if some of us had seen some of these things 
 earlier. We ought not to be cast-down when we 
 have to yield ; the way to conquer is often to 
 submit. We must resist the Devil when he tempts 
 us to evil ; but when it is a matter of his govern- 
 ment in this world, let us remember that he can 
 only go as far as God permits, and we shall find that 
 our real strength is in submitting. We had a time 
 of trial in 1870, the year of the Tien-tsin massacres. 
 The Cathedral at Tien-tsin was burnt down, the 
 French Consul and Sisters of Charity there were 
 murdered, and great excitement passed all over 
 China. There were reports everywhere that 
 foreigners were bewitching the people. Natives 
 were afraid of drinking water at the wells, because 
 it was said that the foreigners poisoned them. The 
 difficulties to our brethren inland may be imagined. 
 I received letters almost daily from one and another, 
 saying : " It seems no use our staying here ; there 
 is not a soul in this vast city that will listen to us, 
 in fact they spring out of the way if they see us 
 coming ; would it not be better to go somewhere 
 else ?" The brother did not know that other cities 
 were just as bad. 
 
 Conquer by 
 yielding. 
 
 The Tien-tsin 
 massacres. 
 
^o 
 
 BA YS OF BLESSIA'G. 
 
 2 Kings 
 
 I felt we had only one resource : I took each 
 letter to my own chamber, spread it before the 
 Lord, and asked His direction. He gave us 
 guidance, I believe, in every case. I do not think 
 there was a single mistake made at that time of 
 trial — the greatest I have ever known. I was led 
 to advise that some of the Sisters should be sent to 
 the ports (so that the brethren might feel relieved of 
 anxiety on their behalf), but that in every case they 
 should hold the fort themselves. I said, " You are 
 now placed in a position to help the Chinese as you 
 have never been before. They see that your being 
 a foreigner is now no protection, but increases your 
 danger. Let them see that you are rejoicing in 
 God, not afraid to live under His shadow ; that 
 you do not need any other protection, and that 
 you are not going to run away. Depend upon it if 
 you cannot preach, your being among them is a 
 sermon. The native Christians, who see that you 
 do not go away, though you might ; that you put 
 your trust in God, and are prepared either to 
 suffer or be delivered, as He sees best, will learn that 
 there is something in the Gospel worth risking 
 life for." 
 
 What was the result ? In almost every place 
 where there were native Christians they grew as 
 never before. The Lord Himself became a living 
 Reality to them ; and instead of trusting in the 
 foreigner, they had such an illustration of trusting 
 in God as I believe ten years' preaching would not 
 have conveyed to them. 
 
VALUE OF PA TIENCE. 
 
 ^\ 
 
 Conquering by Endurance. 
 
 I remember one of our Baptist brethren in 
 Shan-tung telling me a little incident in his own 
 experience. In Ching-chau there was a persecution 
 going on, and the native Christians said to him, " It 
 is very unkind of you to let us suffer in this way. 
 You have only to send your card to the magistrate, 
 and declare we are Church members, and you will 
 free us of trouble." He scarcely knew what to do ; 
 but he saw very clearly that if the work was to 
 be put on a satisfactory footing, the progress of 
 Christianity must be made independent of help 
 from the outside foreigner ; and he told them so. 
 He said, "Don't you think God is able to deliver 
 you ? " " Yes, of course He is," they replied, " but 
 God has sent you here to be His channel of 
 deliverance." 
 
 By-and-by the persecutors said, "It is evident 
 the foreigner has no power," and they began to 
 annoy him; and the native Christians looked at 
 each other as much as to say, "That is right; 
 now he will be obliged to interfere." But he 
 did not. Then, still further emboldened, the 
 persecutors went into his house and broke up 
 the furniture ; and the next day they emptied 
 some buckets of night soil into his bedroom. 
 The Christians said to him, "You must go to 
 the magistrate now." But he only said, " If I 
 cannot sleep inside, I will sleep outside in the 
 court ; " and this he did. 
 
 Advantage of 
 bearing per.st-cn- 
 lion patiently. 
 
52 
 
 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 Relig'on means 
 paLience. 
 
 Persecution sure 
 to follow success. 
 
 At last the persecutors said, "That man has no 
 power, and dare not complain ; or else he is daft 
 and not worth troubling about. Let us leave him 
 alone." The persecution ceased, and neither he 
 nor the native Christians were further troubled. 
 Was not that ten thousand times better than 
 writing to the Consul, and getting him to appeal 
 to the Viceroy .'' One of the native Christians 
 said, "Then you mean to say that the Tao-li 
 (Religion) means Ren-nai (Patient forbearance), 
 do you?" "Yes," he said, "it does." The man 
 received a new idea into his heart— that the 
 teaching of Christ meant patience, endurance, 
 submission. 
 
 Now I would suggest these things to you. The 
 Lord is going to give an immense blessing 
 here, and that will stir up the Devil, and per- 
 secution will perhaps become very trying in 
 many districts. It is already very trying in 
 other districts. I am sure of this, that as the 
 Gospel is successful, and the Chinese see that 
 Christianity is not unlikely to uproot their 
 ancestral customs, we shall have no slight per- 
 secution to endure. What then ? Let us be 
 followers of Him who by dying conquered him 
 who had the power of death ; and let us take 
 our position with the brethren. A persecution 
 took place in Kin-hwa, and the people came to 
 Mr. Langman and entreated him to go to the 
 magistrate and try to get it stopped. It arose from 
 the native Christians refusing to pay their quota 
 
V.-1 LUE OF P. -i TIEXCE. - 3 
 
 to an idolatrous procession.* They said to Mr. 
 Langman, "If you do not go to the magistrate, 
 they will take everything out of our houses." He 
 said, " We must pray that they may not ; but if 
 they do, you shall share with me my bed and 
 clothes." It very much helped the Christians. 
 However, when the .opponents saw how matters 
 were going, they did not do more than beat two 
 or three of them. 
 
 (5o&'0 ©rOering. 
 
 "As FOR God, His way is perfect." 
 
 " Be to-morrow in Thy keeping ; mine to follow, Thine to lead ; 
 
 " Thine the wisdom and the power ; mine the weakness and the need. 
 
 " Glad shall be my full submission whatsoever Thy decree, 
 
 " For my will with Thine is blended, and Thou, Lord, art all to me ! 
 
 * * + f ¥ 
 
 " Courage, one and all, my Brothers ! no occasion for dismay ; 
 " Let not ' may-be ' come between you and the praises of to-day ; 
 " Ne'er anticipate the morrow, for ye cannot know its form ; 
 " Fretting never frightened thunder ; sighing never stayed a storm. 
 " But when clouds come darkling o'er you, as ye face stern duty's height, 
 " Then remember He who sends them can disperse them in a night." 
 
 F. Ellis. 
 
 '* Sometimes converts have screened themselves from a demand of this 
 kind, not so much for conscience sake, as for the sake of saving the money. 
 But in other cases I have known, they have been wise and unselfish, and have 
 gone to the head man, and said, " ^Ve cannot take any part in this pro- 
 cession, but we are willing to give double the amount towards public works, 
 such as lighting, watching, burying the poor ; " and their proposal has been 
 accepted. Even this will not always avail : then the trial must be borne 
 patiently. 
 
DA YS OF SLESS/NG. 
 
 Satisficft witb jfavour. 
 
 " Jesus, I am resting, resting, in the joy of what Thou art ; 
 
 " I am finding out the greatness of Thy loving heart. 
 
 " Thou hast bid me gaze upon Thee, and Thy beauty fills my soul, 
 
 " For, by Thy transforming power. Thou hast made me whole. 
 
 Chorus — " Jesus, I am resting, resting, in the joy of what Thou art ; 
 " I am finding out the greatness of Thy loving heart. 
 
 " Oh, how great Thj^ loving kindness, vaster, broader than the sea ! 
 " Oh, how marvellous Thy goodness lavished all on me ! 
 " Yes, I rest in Thee, Beloved, know what wealth of grace is Thine, 
 " Know Thy certainty of promise, and have made it mine. 
 
 " Simply trusting Thee, Lord Jesus, I behold Thee as Thou art, 
 " And Thy love so pure, so changeless, satisfies my heart ; 
 " Satisfies its deepest longings, meets, supplies its every need, 
 " Compasseth me round with blessings : Thine is love indeed ! 
 
 " Ever lift Thy face upon me, as I work and wait for Thee, 
 " Resting 'neath Thy smile, Lord Jesus, earth's dark shadows flee. 
 "Brightness of my Father's glory, sunshine of my Father's face, 
 " Keep me ever trusting, resting, fill me with Thy grace.'' 
 
 Jean Sophia Pigott. 
 
THE SPECIAL MEETINGS. 
 
 Compiled by Mr. MONTAGU BE A UCHAMP. 
 
 FIRST DAY. 
 
 MONDAY MORNING, JULY i2Th. 
 
 Mr. Hudson Taylor : — We have not come 
 together to learn any new truth, but to seek by 
 faith a deeper spiritual life. To seek it in the way 
 that the Apostles did, so that they did not fear 
 the martyr's death — in the way in which men were 
 made strong to resist Popery, and bring in the 
 reformation — in the way in which all believers in 
 every age have achieved all their triumphs. What 
 a list we have in the nth of Hebrews of men who 
 through faith received strength and power ; and 
 we, who are in the midst of a land that needs 
 wonder-working power, may obtain it in the self- 
 same way. We want to take a fresh look at Christ, 
 and to go forward with refreshment and enlarged 
 expectation. The truths we shall dwell on, I say, 
 are no strange truths, we all hold them; but 
 
56 
 
 DA rS OF BLESSIXG. 
 
 we want them- to get a stronger grip of us ; 
 to hold us. 
 
 Our subject for this day is — 
 
 Cbrfst ouc aII=suffic(encB for personal life 
 an& goMfncss. 
 
 \_Read 2 Peter i. and Rom. viii. I — lO.J 
 
 Unless we are continually "looking to Jesus," 
 our lives will be a failure. What then can we do 
 better than have our hearts and minds occupied 
 with our Master, and His sufficiency ; and how 
 can we better fit ourselves for those emergencies of 
 service which are sure to arise, than by reminding 
 ourselves where our strength lies, and where our 
 Refuge is ? Again, how can we present other than 
 a distorted reflection of Jesus Christ, unless we are 
 looking to Him, and are realising that He is our all 
 in all for godly life in every possible circumstance. 
 
 Some people are so clever with their pencil that 
 with a few strokes they can strike off" a very good 
 representation of any object in their minds. We 
 Christians are very poor copyists. The Lord's 
 intention is not that we should be clever in copying, 
 but that we should be clear, plain mirrors, reflecting 
 Himself To reflect Him constantly we need to 
 keep Him before us continually. He will not 
 photograph Himself upon us once for all.-. It is only 
 in the continual sunshine of His countenance that 
 we shall have that brightness which we ought to 
 have before the world. 
 
SPIRITUAL FATHERHOOD. 
 
 Ill our preliminary meetings some of us have 
 considered the essential connection between the 
 character of the spiritual father and the spiritual 
 children. How can we secure the development of 
 strong, healthy, Christ-like native Churches, unless 
 we are living strong, healthy, Christ-like lives 
 ourselves ? So that our subject is one of the deepest 
 interest and importance to us, whether for the de- 
 velopment of our own life — for the presentation of, 
 not a caricature, but of a true reflection of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ to the heathen — or for the development 
 of the grace of Christ in His Church in China. 
 
 Very few have been long in connection with 
 Missions without hearing a great deal of the faults 
 and failures of the native Christians. Is it not the 
 case that their faults are very much the reflection 
 of our faults and failures ? It is a humiliating 
 thought to fathers and mothers, when they begin 
 to see the flesh developed in their children, that 
 they are seeing themselves in their children, and 
 that much which they have to correct in their 
 offspring is the result of their own personal failure 
 and sin. 
 
 So if Christ's reflection in the native Christians 
 is an unsatisfactory one, do we not need to remem- 
 ber this, and to deal with them in much love and 
 gentleness and patience, sorrowing that we and our 
 fellow-workers have given them such poor patterns, 
 and are the true source of their failure ? If this be 
 really so, then it becomes to us a doubly important 
 question. 
 
 Likeness of 
 father and child. 
 
DAYS OF BZESSI.VG. 
 
 Is a sufficiency really provided for our oivn 
 personal life and godliness ? 
 
 During many years of my own service in China 
 I held that there was nothing better to be expected 
 than to go on stumbling ; that nothing better than 
 many long winter nights, and few long summer days, 
 were to be expected, until we were caught up and 
 saw the Lord and were then conformed to Him. 
 When I was first converted I knew nothing about 
 the theological distinction between " walk " and 
 "standing." I took Christ for everything, and 
 found Him sufficient. But by-and-by one began to 
 distinguish between a good standing and a poor life. 
 The result was that while one's standing remained 
 the same, one's life was different. Old weaknesses 
 came back again, and one ceased to expect to live 
 a holy life down here. So that after years of 
 service, instead of having as much blessing in 
 Christ as formerly, one was too well taught ( !) to 
 look for anything of the kind, and practically far 
 too foolish to enjoy it. On the contrary, I was 
 prepared to argue strenuously with those who said 
 there was anything better on this side of the grave. 
 Thank the Lord we have left such teaching behind, 
 and have taken the simple Word of God. We find 
 there that God's power hath granted to us ''all 
 things that pertain unto life and godliness," as well 
 as unto standing and eternal security. That this is 
 granted to us through the knowledge of Him ; and 
 that we may expect to escape the corruption that 
 is in the world. We have learned from God's 
 
RESURRECTION POWER. 
 
 59 
 
 Word, that the law of the spirit of life in Christ 
 Jesus has set us free, and delivered us from all 
 bondage to the law of sin and of death. 
 
 It is a great thing to know these things. It was 
 one of the things for which Paul prayed for the 
 Ephesians, that the eyes of their hearts might be en- 
 lightened, that they might know what was the hope 
 of His calling, what the riches of the glory of His 
 inheritance in the Saints, and what the exceeding 
 greatness of His power — the power which raised 
 Christ from the dead. If the power that raised 
 Christ from the dead is working in us, should we 
 not expect it will thoroughly raise us from all 
 spiritual death ? If a power is working in us like 
 that, ought we not to expect that same power to 
 put all things under our feet ? This power is not 
 given us apart from Christ, but it is in the know- 
 ledge of Christ, in our union with Christ, in our 
 communion with Him, as the branches in the Vine 
 and the members in the Body, that we have these 
 privileges and blessings secured to us. 
 
 The Written Word, and the Incarnate 
 Word. 
 
 In speaking on this subject, the Lord Jesus as 
 our sufficiency, it is well to remind ourselves of the 
 very close connection there is between the written 
 Word of God ;and the incarnate Word of God. 
 We shall never enjoy the one apart from the other. 
 It is through God's own revelation in the written 
 Word that we really see and know the Word who 
 
 RomEins viii. . 
 
 Epll. i. 18-23 
 
 Importance of the 
 Word of God. 
 
6o 
 
 DA YS OF BLESSnVG. 
 
 was made flesh, and who rose from the dead. It is 
 through the written Word we shall feed on Him, 
 not through our own speculations. It is important 
 that we bear in mind that as the Incarnate 
 Word is a Divine Person, so is the written Word 
 a Divine JMessage ; and as we may rest all our 
 soul's interests on Jesus Christ, so we may rest 
 all our soul's weight on the Word of God. To 
 be shaky on the question of inspiration is to be 
 overcome by temptation, and to be unable to 
 accomplish God's work. The connection between 
 full faith in God's will, as revealed in His written 
 Word, and in the Incarnate Word of God is so 
 close and intimate, that you can no more separate 
 them than you can separate between body and 
 soul, or soul and spirit. Begin to separate them, 
 and to study theology instead of the Word of God, 
 rather than as a mere aid in gaining a fuller grasp 
 of it, and if it does not make you weaker rather 
 than stronger, you will be fortunate indeed ! No ! 
 Take God's Word as it stands, and God's Christ 
 as He reveals Himself to us, and enjoy all in Him. 
 
 A Sufficiency provided. 
 
 Now with respect to this subject we have read 
 sufficient to show how thoroughly God has 
 provided a sufficiency for us. " His divine power 
 hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto 
 life and godliness." How many persons there are 
 whose histories are known to us, who have lived 
 on the sufficiency and found it sufficient. The 
 
CBJf/Sr OUR SUFFICIENCY. 
 
 6l 
 
 testimony of Paul is remarkable, and one that 
 cannot be gainsaid. He went to a place and lived 
 there a few days only ; the sufficiency he had in 
 Christ so told that he went away leaving a living 
 Church. He went to a place and stayed there 
 three years, and he is able to speak of the way in 
 which he lived /rowz beginning to end. Paul found 
 there was keeping, living, working power to which 
 he could refer ; and it was so thoroughly "Not I, but 
 Christ," that there was no self-praise at all, and no 
 self-consciousness, in his referring to the grace of 
 God. Paul knew himself so well that he was sure 
 that the life he was living was Christ's work, and 
 that in speaking of it it was Christ alone he was 
 glorifying. Now one thing the Lord wants of 
 you and me is testimony. The power that wrought 
 in the witnesses of old, should be working in us, 
 and producing similar results. It should produce 
 such a life as we can afford to refer to. Our native 
 Christians very well know what is the power of our 
 life, and the heathen, too, judge pretty accurately 
 the real spirit of the life that is within us. How 
 important therefore that it should not be mis- 
 leading, but should be full and true ! 
 
 Is Christ OUR sufficiency? 
 
 Seeing therefore that God has given a sufficiency 
 in Christ, the next question is — Have we appro- 
 priated it, and made it our own, or are we living 
 in our own poverty and rags, instead of being 
 clothed with the glorious robe, and living on His 
 
 The preaching of 
 the life. 
 
 Acts XX. i8, 31, 35. 
 I Thess. i. 5 ; 
 ii. 4, 5, 10. 
 
 Acls 1.8. 
 
62 
 
 DA rs OF BLESSING. 
 
 The value of 
 trials. 
 
 fulness ? I think we shall all come to this con- 
 clusion, that we have much room for humiliation, 
 that we have been a long way from appropriating 
 the fulness of Christ and His salvation ; and that 
 however much we have enjoyed, there is much that 
 remains to be possessed in this great treasure of 
 God's grant in Christ. Let us so appropriate the 
 fulness there is in Christ that it will suffice us in 
 all those trials into which it is to be hoped we'shall 
 be brought. I say, '' it is to be hoped," because it is 
 only in the trial of God's grace that its beauty and 
 power can be seen. Then all our trials of temper, 
 circumstances, provocation, sickness, disappoint- 
 ment, bereavement, will but give a higher burnish to 
 the mirror, and enable us to reflect more fully and 
 more perfectly the glory and blessedness of our 
 Master. It is well if we can go forward with good 
 courage, feeling that come what may it will be for 
 the glory of Christ, for personal blessing to us, 
 and for blessing to the Church of God. So shall 
 we reap the benefit of trial now, and, if the Lord 
 tarry, in days to come. 
 
 We find the early Church coming together on 
 important occasions, and deliberating on important 
 matters, and they were able to say, "It seemed good 
 to the Holy Ghost and to us." They asked to be 
 filled, and they were filled with the Spirit. They 
 had from time to time a fresh filling. They were 
 filled before, but needed replenishing. May the 
 Lord bring us all to one mind, and give us all an 
 overflowing fulness, making us as vessels so filled 
 
FEELINGS UNRELIABLE. 
 
 63 
 
 that the least shock will cause an overflow, and 
 not leaving us as half-empty cups trying to run 
 over. Just one word further : — Whatever the 
 sufficiency of Christ is for z«, there is the same 
 sufficiency in Him for our native converts. 
 
 Rev. W. W. Cassels. 
 
 Where one has failed, it has been through losing 
 sight of this truth. 
 
 Mr. T. HuTTON. 
 
 I should like, before leaving you this morning 
 for the coast, to say a few words, and to tell you of 
 an experience I had a few years ago. I do not 
 introduce it to discourage those who are seeking to 
 know the Lord more fully, but I believe it may 
 help all to guard against the error I fell into. 
 
 At. the time to which I refer I was conducting a 
 special mission for soldiers. I was very earnest in 
 my work, but my mind was specially directed to 
 the question of holiness. Comparing my experience 
 with what I heard from the lips of other believers, 
 I concluded that they had a definite blessing from 
 the Lord which I had not. This led me to search 
 the Scriptures very closely, and also to wait upon 
 the Lord in prayer, with only this one subject 
 possessing me. I was so engrossed in this inquiry 
 that I did not take necessary food and sleep. 
 
 A few evenings before my mission to the soldiers 
 came to an end, I received what I then thought 
 to be " the blessing." I cannot describe the sensations 
 
 Feelings ofte.i 
 deceptive. 
 
64 
 
 DA I'S OF BLESSING. 
 
 I passed through. The next day I told my friends, 
 to the joy of some but to the grief of others, that I 
 was sanctified, and that sin was taken from me ; 
 and I thought I was telling this to the glory 
 of God. 
 
 I soon left the place where I had been working, for 
 my home, still enjoying pleasant emotions and great 
 happiness. But the very day I reached my mother's 
 house 1 was taken ill with congestion of the brain. 
 The doctor had not long left me that evening, when 
 all my happiness fled. I felt as though God had with- 
 drawn all His love from me, and had given me over 
 to Satan. I heard a voice saying very distinctly : — ■ 
 " You have blasphemed against the Holy Ghost." 
 My anguish at that moment I can never forget : 
 but I do not wish to describe it. The blessing, 
 which I thought I had obtained but a few days 
 before, was gone, and I was ashamed to . turn 
 my face to heaven. Three days passed away 
 before I was delivered from this horrible state ; 
 but during the time I enjoyed moments of quiet 
 from temptation. At this time I saw myself a 
 sinner, as I had never seen myself before, and 
 I saw God dwelling in pure and unapproachable 
 light. 
 
 When our gracious God delivered me from the 
 trial, I rejoiced in the Lord Jesus more than ever. 
 About the time of my deliverance, the question 
 arose in my consciousness, "Who is to wear the 
 crown, you or the Lord Jesus ? " I answered, " Let 
 Him wear the crown, for He has dor.c all the work ;" 
 
BLESSIKG ONLY IN CHRIST. 
 
 and thus the sin of thinking about my own attain- 
 ments in holiness was brought home to me. 
 
 I learned some very solemn lessons from this 
 experience. I learned that it is possible to go wrong 
 even when we are fasting and praying for holiness ; 
 that it is possible to say and sincerely believe we 
 have no sin even when we are full of it ; that 
 beautiful religious feelings are often deceptive ; and 
 that Satan specially tries to mislead those who 
 specially seek the face of God. 
 
 Since that deliverance I have been very much 
 blessed of God. He blessed me very richly when 
 I gave myself up to Him for China, and He has 
 graciously kept me while I have been in this 
 country. But now I believe that every blessing 
 must be in Christ afid only in Him ; and I aim at 
 always being occupied, not with my sacrifice for 
 Him, but with His sacrifice for me. 
 
 Mr. Stanley P. Smith. 
 
 About the end of 1883 I wrote to Mr. Hudson 
 Taylor telling him I wanted to come out here. As 
 1884 went on, I became more and more impressed 
 with the need of equipment for service ; my soul 
 moreover was much burdened with the ignorance 
 of God in the world. It culminated in my deter- 
 mining to give up my spare time definitely to 
 seeking an anointing from on high. Some weeks 
 thus passed away, weeks of intense blessedness in 
 soul, but apparently no definite answer came. One 
 afternoon, kneeling by my bed-side with an open 
 
 All ill Christ. 
 
^6 
 
 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 E])liesians i. 3. 
 
 See Ex. xxix. 29. 
 
 Psalm cxxxiii. 2. 
 
 Bible before me, my eye lighted on the verse, 
 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ who HATH blessed us with ALL 
 spiritual blessings in Christ." 
 
 I read it again and again and again. Why, 
 thought I, is not this baptism of the Holy Ghost 
 '' a spiritual blessing ? " And here God's Word tells 
 me He hath blessed me with this IN CHRIST. 
 Instinctively this "hath" was connected in my 
 mind with the "hath" of Is. liii., "The Lord 
 ' hath' laid on HIM the iniquity of us all." Here 
 I saw the answer to my protracted prayer. 
 
 A week after I went to a meeting at Eccleston 
 Hall in London. The speaker was dilating on the 
 holy anointing oil in Exodus xxx. 32, where it 
 says, " upon man^s flesh it shall not be poured." 
 There was only one place where it could be poured, 
 and that was the garments of the High Priest. 
 Then he showed that when the sons of Aaron 
 wanted to be anointed they had to actually dress 
 themselves in Aaron's robes. This was connected 
 in my mind with the Psalm where "unity" is 
 compared to the "precious ointment" that "ran 
 down to the skirts " of Aaron's garments. 
 
 Now Aaron is a type of Christ ; the word 
 Christ, as we know, meaning the Anointed One. 
 And we read of Jesus, that when He was baptised 
 with the Spirit (John i. 32), the Spirit ^^ abode 
 upon HIM." These lessons caused ray soul to 
 rejoice unspeakably. I there saw that power was 
 not delegated to man, "upon man's flesh it shall 
 
BLESSING ONLY IN CHRIST. 
 
 67 
 
 NOT be poured," but " ALL power in heaven and 
 earth " has been given to HIM — and 
 
 " Men shall be blessed IN HIM." 
 I there saw that as by simple faith believers 
 believe their union with Christ (being yielded up 
 fully to HIM, so as to stop up no avenue of the 
 soul and hinder blessing), the very youngest, weakest, 
 lowest members — the ''skirts" of the garments — 
 ARE anointed and endued for service. Let us 
 praise our gracious God and say with full heart 
 " BLESSED, BLESSED be the God and Father 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us 
 with every (r.v.) spiritual blessing IN CHRIST." 
 
 Mr. Hudson Taylor. 
 
 The blessing which God has granted to us is 
 IN Christ. A man may divide the contents of his 
 purse among a number of people ; but God does not 
 so bless us in Christ. He gives each one to enjoy 
 it all. He does not disperse His blessings, and give 
 a little faith to one, and a little zeal to another, and 
 so on ; but He brings us all into the purse as it were, 
 and gives us all in Christ. 
 
 Not it but HIM. 
 In connection with the sufficiency of Christ, 
 another word is very important to keep in view : 
 it is Him, not It, we want. I went to Brighton 
 with a missionary sister when Mr. Pearsall Smith 
 had his meetings there. My friend got such a 
 blessing ; her mouth was filled with praise, and her 
 
 Malt, xxviii. iS. 
 
 Ps:ilm Ixxii. 17. 
 
 Epiiesians i. 3. 
 
 NotlTbutHIM. 
 
DA rs OF BLESSING. 
 
 God's perfect 
 peace. 
 
 God's promise 
 better than 
 feeling. 
 
 features were transfigured. She spoke of the bless- 
 ing^ and she said that she had got it. After a few 
 months I met her, and I saw that the transfiguration 
 was gone — she had lost it ; and for a long time 
 there was a great deal of darkness in her soul. 
 After a long absence I happened to meet her again, 
 and I saw her face was so bright and happy. Now 
 she spoke of the Blesser, and she said, "HE has got 
 ?72e," and there has been no losing the blessing since. 
 
 Mr. Orr Ewing. 
 I believe in God being able to keep us in perfect 
 peace, so that though our outward circumstances 
 are all against us, in the soul we have a continual 
 peace "which passeth all understanding." I can 
 look back on two or three heavy trials which were 
 made very light because of this. Our peace is in 
 Him. I believe there is a definite time in a man's 
 life when Christ presents Himself to us, as He did 
 to the Disciples ; and I believe in the Lord Jesus 
 keeping us in unbroken rest of soul. 
 
 Mr. Hudson Taylor. 
 
 Fact is more important than feeling, and the 
 best evidence as to fact is the testimony of God's 
 word. Over a hundred times I suppose I have put 
 my finger on the passage, "My cup runneth over," 
 and have said, " Praise God it is true ! I do not feel 
 it : if I were going by my feelings, I should say my 
 cup is very empty indeed ; but GOD says my cup 
 runneth over, and praise God He knows best.-i 
 
BRANCHES I.V THE VLVE. 
 
 69 
 
 Take God's truth in spite of feelings, and it is 
 wonderful how soon the consciousness of filling 
 comes : one finds the cup is not so empty as one 
 fancied. I believe we have to build on the great 
 facts of what we have and are in Christ. 
 Christ the whole Vine. 
 Another thought is this : Christ is the Vine. 
 During the first twenty years of my Christian life I 
 used to say : " There is fatness in the Root^ but how 
 am I to get the fatness out q/'the Root into my poor 
 puny branch?" Then I learned that nothing had 
 to be got out, that it was all to be enjoyed in — that 
 Christ is the whole Vine, including the spongioles 
 and root, the trunk and branches, the stem, the 
 leaves and the fruit ; and that consequently the 
 whole life of the whole vine was to be enjoyed in 
 the Vine itself. That ^7as such a help to me — the 
 blessed realisation that He brings us into the 
 treasury, and that all the treasures — undivided — 
 are there for us to enjoy. 
 
 Christ Ihewhule 
 Vine. 
 
 " From Thee I draw my life, Lord, 
 "A vine-branch in the Vine: 
 
 " Thy grace flows freely through me ; 
 " The fruit I bear is Thine." 
 
70 
 
 DA rs OF BLESSING. 
 
 ttbc (B00& SbepbcrO. 
 
 " The snow was drifting o'er the hills, 
 
 " The wind was fierce and loud, 
 "While the GooD SHEPHERD forward pressed, 
 
 '' His head in sorrow bowed. 
 " ' O Shepherd rest ; nor further go — 
 
 " ' The tempest hath begun ! ' 
 " ' I cannot stay, I must awa}^, 
 
 " ' To find My wandering one.' 
 
 "A thorn-wreath bound the gentle brow 
 
 "That beamed with pity sweet; 
 " And marks of wounds were on His hands, 
 
 " And scars were on His feet. 
 "Again I said, 'O SHEPHERD rest, 
 
 " ' The tempest hath begun ! ' 
 " He murmured * Nay, I must away 
 
 " ' To find My wandering one.' 
 
 " ' But since Thy flock are all secure, 
 
 " ' Why to the height repair ? 
 " ' Since Thou hast ninety-and-nine at home, 
 
 " ' Why for a truant care ? ' 
 " ' More needy far than all the rest 
 
 " ' Is that poor struggling one ; 
 " ' I cannot stay, I must away, 
 
 "'To find My wandering one.' " 
 
COMMUNIOH. 
 
 MONDAY EVENING, JULY j 2Th. 
 
 71 
 
 IKlo BuSlciencB but In present fellowsbip witb 
 Cbri6t. 
 
 \_Read Song of Solomon, chap, v.] 
 
 Mr. Hudson Taylor : — This is an important 
 chapter, of a most instructive book. In the first 
 Section of the book (chap. i. i to ii. 7) we 
 find the Bride brought into restful, abiding 
 communion with the King of Kings. We might 
 imagine that when she had once tasted the 
 joy of abiding in His love, she would be more 
 than satisfied, and would never again depart from 
 her Bridegroom's side. In the second Section 
 (ii. 8 to iii. 5) however, we find her back again 
 in the father's house. There her Beloved comes, 
 and calls to her, but makes no attempt to enter. 
 He says to her, " Rise up, My love ;" but He does 
 not ask her to open to Him. No entreaty on her 
 part, no love on His, would ever induce Him to 
 enter there. His word is this : " Rise up. My love. 
 My fair one, and come away^ With most loving 
 entreaty, even when she has drifted back into 
 worldliness. He allures her out ; and by-and-by we 
 find this second Section ends with her as restored 
 to the arms of the loving Bridegroom, who a 
 second time adjures the daughters of Jerusalem 
 
 Paulm xlv. 10. 
 
A4 rS OF BLESSING. 
 
 Abide in l\Ie." 
 
 " to Stir not up nor awake His love, till she 
 please." (In ii. 7, iii. 5, and viii. 4, " Till he please " 
 (A.V.), "Till // please" (r.v.) should read, "Till 
 she please.") 
 
 Next we have a section of happy unbroken 
 communion between the Bride and the Bridegroom 
 extending from chap. iii. 6 to v. i. But again, 
 after all this, in the portion we have read to-night, 
 we find the Bride and the Bridegroom separated : 
 once more He is outside. She is not indeed 
 back in the world again ; she has learned to 
 avoid that ; but she is possessed by a spirit of 
 sloth and self-indulgence that are far removed 
 from His spirit ; and if there are no battlements 
 and parapets between them, we find her alone in 
 the bedroom taking her ease. She has washed 
 her feet, and is careless of the poor souls that 
 are wandering in the mire. She is leaving them 
 to their fate ; and is dwelling not on their need, 
 but on her own cleansing and happiness. She 
 is looking for a time of rest through the dark 
 night ; and intends to sleep on in luxurious comfort, 
 thankful that she is safe, washed and cleansed. The 
 poor victims of sin and Satan are left to the foe who 
 does not slumber ! 
 
 But ah, where is the Bridegroom all this time ? 
 She has lost Him : He is outside ! 
 
 Again He comes to her with touching words : 
 " Ah, My Bride, is there to be a closed door between 
 us again ? Open to Me, My sister, My love, my 
 dove, My undefiled !" More tender His words, if 
 
The communiom broken. 
 
 73 
 
 possible, than even those He addressed to her when 
 she had turned back to her father's house. Then 
 He said ; — " Rise up, My Love ;" then He called her 
 His dove ; then He said : " Let Me see thy coun- 
 tenance, let it be for Me. Don't let your beauty 
 be for the world — have I not bought you and 
 redeemed you out of the world, and will you 
 yet go back and give these graces to those 
 who hate Me .? " But here He speaks in words 
 even more endearing : " Open to Me, My sister " 
 (He is the firstborn among many brethren), " My 
 love" — "the object of My heart's devotion, 
 My Dove" (and the dove especially reminds 
 us of the gifts and graces of the Spirit), "J/r 
 Undefiled" (washed, renewed and cleansed for 
 ME) ! And now he puts before her the great 
 Pattern— 
 
 " For My head is filled with dew, 
 
 " My locks with the drops of the night." 
 
 "Ah ! My bride, do you want to rest before the 
 Bridegroom rests ? Are you going to be content to 
 put off your coat, to wash your feet, to live in the 
 spiritual enjoyment of your own safety and purity, 
 before the Bridegroom's heart can find rest ? There 
 are sheep on the dark mountains ; and there are 
 those once in the fold who have wandered back 
 again into the pitfalls of sin. ' My head is filled 
 with dew : My locks with the drops of the night,' 
 and are you going to leave Me to go alone ? Shall 
 I be seeking for the lost and the perishing through 
 the darkness, and have no fellowship from My 
 
 Song V. 3. 
 
74 
 
 DA rS OF BLESSING. 
 
 Song V. 2. 
 
 Song V. s-7- 
 
 Bride — no companionship in tlie sorrow and toil ? 
 Will you not go with Me ? 
 
 "Open to Me, My sister, My love. My dove, My undefiled, 
 
 " For My head is filled with dew, 
 
 " My locks with the drops of the night !" 
 
 She hears these words, she knows what they 
 mean, yet she says — 
 
 " I have put off my coat ; how shall I put it on ? 
 " I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them ?" 
 
 Ah, how possible it is to go to Holiness Conven- 
 tions, and attend Workers' Conferences, to rejoice in 
 all the good things brought before us, and yet be 
 unprepared to go out from them to rescue the 
 perishing ! If we can put our coat off, while He 
 keeps His on ; if we can wash our feet, while He is 
 wandering alone on the mountains, there is surely 
 strange want of fellowship ! 
 
 She arises tardily, and He puts His hand by the 
 hole of the door, and would fain open the door, and 
 allure her into the wilderness ; but alas ! there is a 
 bar, and His effort is in vain. And when He finds 
 Himself barred out, in grief He withdraws ! Then 
 the Bride slowly opens to her Beloved — perhaps 
 more careful to see that her hands are dropping with 
 myrrh, than to be quick to open the lock for Him 
 to enter : more particular about cultivating her 
 graces, than about welcoming the Bridegroom. 
 
 " I opened to my Beloved, 
 
 " But my Beloved had withdrawn Himself and was gone !" 
 
 Then, you notice, though she sought Him, she 
 could not find Him ; though she called, He gave her 
 
WHERE SHALL I FIXD HIM? 
 
 75 
 
 no a.nswer. The watchmen that went about the 
 
 city found her and smote her. It was not so the 
 
 first time she sought Him. Then she arose and | Seeciiap 
 
 went about the streets, and when the watchmen 
 
 found her, she had only to ask the question — " Saw 
 
 ye Him whom my soul loveth ?" She did not pass 
 
 on so easily the second time. 
 
 " The watchmen that go about the city found me, 
 
 " They smote me, they wounded me, 
 
 " The keepers of the walls took away my mantle from me." 
 
 She seems to have been almost in despair, and 
 she turns to the daughters of Jerusalem — 
 
 " I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my Beloved, 
 " That ye tell Him that I am sick of love." 
 
 The daughters ask her — 
 
 " What is thy Beloved more than another beloved 
 " thou fairest among w^omen ? 
 " What is thy Beloved more than another beloved, 
 " That thou dost so adjure us ?" 
 
 Then begins a confession, testifying to the real 
 beauty and glory of the Object of her affections, but 
 we have not time to enter into this description. 
 (It is interesting to compare this with the descrip- 
 tion of the glorious One in the commencement of 
 Revelation, and notice the differences as well as the 
 similarity.) But while she is speaking of Him who 
 is altogether lovely, what is the result ? The 
 daughters of Jerusalem are stirred up, and they 
 say — 
 
 " Whither is thy Beloved gone, 
 " O thou fairest among women ? 
 "Whither hath thy Beloved turned Him, 
 " That we may seek Him with thee ? '' 
 
 Song V. g. 
 
 Song VI. 1. 
 
76 
 
 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 Song vi.4. 
 
 Song iv. 7. 
 
 Now she is engaged in the right work : she has 
 
 attracted other hearts to the Good Shepherd ; 
 
 and it is not long before He Himself finds His 
 
 seeking Bride. Then what gracious words He 
 
 speaks to her. There is no look even of reproach 
 
 or upbraiding ! 
 
 " Thou art beautiful, O My love, as Tirzah (the beautiful 
 
 capital of Samaria), 
 " Comely as Jerusalem (the chosen city of the Great King), 
 " Terrible (or, rather, brilliant) as an army with banners." 
 
 He does not say much about her beauty when 
 she is in the bedroom, so tidy and clean ! But now, 
 when she is no longer fearing to wander in the 
 night : when she is winning these daughters of 
 Jerusalem to seek Him, He gives a heart-ravishing 
 description of her beauty, and thus we find com- 
 munion fully restored. 
 
 Now all this is very instructive. Do we want 
 to keep with the Bridegroom ? Do we want, as in 
 the 4th chapter, to live in the constant enjoy- 
 ment of His presence, and to win His commenda- 
 tion : — 
 
 " Thou art all fair, My love, 
 " And there is no spot in thee." 
 
 I have wondered sometimes how such language 
 as this cotcld be truthfully used of believers. It used 
 to perplex me to read how God could testify of 
 Israel, that He had not seen perversity in ihem. I 
 used to wonder how He could see anything else ! 
 The real secret is this : that our position is that of 
 the mirror. When Jksus sees us with our face 
 
THE COMMUNION RESTORED. 
 
 77 
 
 turned full towards Himself, He sees nothing but 
 His own reflection. Do we not need to keep our. 
 selves so looking to Him that He will get nothing 
 back but the reflection of Himself. We not only 
 want the world to see the reflection of Jesus in us, 
 but that the Bridegroom may see only His own re- 
 flection, so that He may be able to speak to us thus. 
 But note what is His next word when He sees Him- 
 self so reflected in us. 
 
 '' Come with Me." 
 "Now you are fit for service: you will not 
 misrepresent Me — you have tarried in Jerusalem, 
 you have been endued with power, now come 
 with Me." 
 
 " Come with Me from Lebanon, My Bride, 
 
 "With Me from Lebanon ; 
 
 " Look from the top of Amana, 
 
 " From the top of Senir and Flermon, 
 
 " From the lions' dens, 
 
 " From the mountains of the leopards." 
 
 What are lions' dens when we are leaning on 
 the Bridegroom's arm ; or mountains of leopards 
 when He says, " Come with Me ?" On the other 
 hand, it is while thus toiling in service, that He 
 says — 
 
 " Thou hast ravished My heart, My sister. My Bride, 
 " Thou hast ravished My heart with one of thine eyes, 
 " With one chain of thy neck." 
 
 Is it not wonderful how the heart of our Beloved 
 can be thus ravished with the eyes of a faithful one 
 who is prepared to accept His invitation and go 
 forth with Him seeking to rescue the perishing .' 
 
 2 Cor. ill. iS. 
 (R.v) 
 
 "I will fenr no 
 evil, for Thou 
 art with me " — 
 Psalm xxiii. 4. 
 
 Songi 
 
78- 
 
 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 Malt, xxvi 
 H(;jre\vs x 
 
 May God grant that the remainder of our 
 service may be spent in one continuous going forth 
 with Him — not alone, for, " Lo, I am with you 
 alway." He will never fail us, never forsake us, 
 never leave us in any emergency. And going forth 
 with Him, leaning on our Beloved, what may we 
 not accomplish for Him ? What may He not 
 accomplish through us ? "I can do all things 
 through Christ who strengtheneth me," was the 
 word of one who knew much of his Master's 
 presence ; may it be true of every one of us. 
 
 "Jesus, my life is Thine ! 
 " And evermore shall be 
 "Hidden in Thee. 
 " For nothing can untwine 
 " Thy life from mine." 
 
 F. R. H. 
 
DIVINE COMFORT. 
 
 79 
 
 SECOND DAY. 
 
 TUESDAY MORNING, JULY 13TH. 
 
 Mr. Hudson Taylor read Isaiah xl. and con- 
 tinued, — None of us have been long in this land 
 without finding the need of comfort. There is quite 
 enough in our surroundings to require this, and so 
 we love to hear the Master say, '■^Comfort ye My 
 people." There is no comfort like His. 
 
 Comfort of Preparing for the Lord's coming. 
 
 "The voice of one that crieth. Prepare ye in the 
 wilderness the way of the Lord, make straight in 
 the desert a highway for our God." We cannot 
 read these words without thinking of the work to 
 which John the Baptist was called. Is not much of 
 our special work in China John the Baptist work ?■ 
 The number we gather into the fold is not perhaps 
 our principal work : certainly it is not our only 
 work. Thank God there are many gathered into 
 the fold, and this cheers us ; but I believe that this 
 is the least part of our service, and that we are here 
 to prepare the way of the Lord. Supposing the 
 signs of the coming of the Son of Man had ap- 
 peared in the heavens twenty years ago, how many 
 in China could have interpreted them ? How many 
 portions of Scripture were there then scattered 
 throughout these inland provinces to give the 
 
 Isaiah xl. 
 
 Isaiah xl. 3. 
 
Z>A YS OF BZESSING. 
 
 Isai:ih xl, 4, 5. 
 
 masses any light on the coming of our Lord ? 
 Whereas now there are hundreds of thousands of 
 such portions, and every year the number of those 
 instructed that there is a coming King, who is 
 going to reign in China and all the world over, is 
 increasing. So I believe that our work is largely a 
 preparatory one. 
 
 Comfort of Divine Sufficiency. 
 
 If the sufficiency for our work were human, we 
 might, perhaps, be able to do spiritually what our 
 engineers can do naturally. They can sometimes 
 build viaducts across valleys, but they do not 
 attempt to fill them up. They can bore a little 
 hole through the Alps and make a tunnel, but one 
 never heard of their undertaking to level the Alps. 
 They can raise a highway through a low, level 
 country, and make a road or railway wind in and 
 out among the hills; but as for making the crooked 
 straight and rough places plain, engineers never 
 attempt anything of that kind. We might perhaps 
 intelligently expect with some measure of success to 
 accomplish something like this in a spiritual sense 
 — make a crooked way among the hills. But what 
 a glorious promise is here! "Every valley shall be 
 exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be inade 
 low!" Ah! it is the mighty Lord who will work 
 thus : it is far beyond all human power ! The 
 entire resources of the Church, if they were all 
 concentrated on it, would be utterly insufficient. 
 The work that is to be done by God will manifest 
 
WEAKNESS AN IXLET FOR POWER. 
 
 8l 
 
 His power, 
 be revealed.' 
 
 and the glory of the Lord shall 
 
 Fruitlessness of Fleshly Inducements. 
 
 What a warning these verses are to be very care- 
 ful that we are not building with untempered 
 mortar, and heaping together mere wood, hay and 
 stubble ! How frequently we have been tempted to 
 put some temporal inducement before people in the 
 shape of helping them, or to use some worldly argu- 
 ment, or to say something that would be soothing 
 to the flesh, in the vain endeavour to serve the 
 Lord ! What loss of time has been the result I 
 Many are finding out that their ten, twenty, forty 
 years of service have been comparatively wasted, 
 and are coming back to Apostolic lines! "The 
 grass withereth, the flower fadeth : but the Word 
 of our God shall stand for ever." It is the Word 
 of God and the message about God that we want 
 to present ; it is imperishable seed that we want to 
 sow, and such alone. 
 
 How THE comfort IS BROUGHT IN. 
 
 "He giveth power to the faint." Are those cir- 
 cumstances which are very exhaustive to us and 
 which naturally cause us to faint greatly to be 
 deplored, if they bring us to the end of our strength 
 and bring in His strength ? If our power to com- 
 fort those who are in affliction is measured by the 
 •comfort which we ourselves have received from God 
 -in affliction, shall we be greatly distressed if we find 
 
 Ihaiah xl. 6-)^. 
 
 Isaiah xl. 29. 
 
 2 Cor. i. 4. 
 
DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 2 Cor. i. 6,7. 
 
 many afflictions in our lot? If God thus put in our 
 way the only facilities and qualifications for doing 
 this work aright, shall we be surprised or upset by 
 them ? Shall we not rather, like the Apostle of old, 
 rejoice in the difficulties, trials, perplexities and 
 overwhelming circumstances in which we often find 
 ourselves — so far beyond mere human resources — 
 if they are the necessary inlets for Divine fulness ? 
 There is nothing which should encourage us more 
 than to be brought to the end of all hope from our- 
 selves, from the flesh, from every human source 
 whatever, because we are thus cast upon our Suffi- 
 ciency and it comes into operation. Paul was 
 greatly distressed ; his afflictions weighed him 
 down, but what has he to say: "Blessed be the 
 God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the 
 Father of mercies, and God of all comfort." 
 Blessed ! — his very heart went out, and thanked 
 God for these things. Such proofs of His grace 
 were they, that his whole soul went out in praise. 
 He found not only the affliction, but also the com- 
 fort in it. "Who comforteth us in all our affliction, 
 that we may be able to comfort them that are in 
 any affliction, through the comfort wherewith we 
 ourselves are comforted of God." It was not the 
 suffering only that abounded, the comfort also 
 abounded. And it was all preparation for service, 
 as well as precious personal experience : — " But 
 whether we be afflicted, it is for your comfort and 
 salvation," &c. There was such similarity in the 
 experiences of the Apostle to the circumstances of 
 
COME— GO. 
 
 83 
 
 I 
 
 those to whom he ministered, as made the help he 
 found from God the very best help he could render 
 to them. 
 
 [After Prayer.] 
 
 iVIr. Hudson Taylor resumed, — Our subject to- 
 day is — 
 
 Cbrfat our allasufficfencg for all tbe ejlgencleB of 
 our service, aiiO for full equipment for it. 
 
 As we were saying, yesterday, this truth also is 
 not new. We come together to meditate upon it, 
 so that the truth may get a stronger hold on us, and 
 that we may live in the strength of it. We want to 
 realise that Christ Himself is indeed our sufficiency 
 for all our service. His own Word assures us of it. 
 If we had no more than the one word, " GO," it 
 would settle the whole question, because He always 
 says '■^Come" to those who are not sufficiently satis- 
 fied and qualified. He never says " Co " to a hungry, 
 weary, empty one : He has only one word for such, 
 "Come." "Come unto Me all ye that are heavy 
 laden." " Ho ! every one that thirsteth, come ye 
 to the waters." To the hungry he says, "Come, 
 buy wine and milk without money and without 
 price." The sick ones were invited to come. But 
 when the demons were cast out, and the man was 
 clothed in. his right mind, Jesus said. Go: " Go and 
 tell what great things the Lord hath done for you." 
 When, empty-handed, the Disciples were saying, 
 "Send the people away, to buy for themselves,'' He 
 
 Matt. xi. 28 
 Isaiah Iv. 1. 
 
84 
 
 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 Mali, xxviii. iS 
 
 Matt, xxviii. 19, 
 
 did not use them to feed the muhitude till He had 
 first filled their hands with the loaves. If we had 
 only the one word, " Go," it would be sufficient to 
 show us, as intelligent believers, that we have in 
 Christ all qualifications and resources. But the 
 Lord Jesus does not leave us to infer. He says, 
 "All authority is given unto Me, in heaven and in 
 earth." There is no authority in China, civil or 
 military ; there is no power, intellectual, physical, 
 natural, that has not been committed to Him. "Go 
 ye, therefore." There is., then, a sufficiency in 
 which we may go to our service, and that suf- 
 ficiency is in Him, and not in ourselves. 
 
 " Go and try ; do the best you can" — that is not 
 what He says. Men often say, "We must try our 
 best " — God never says anything of the kind. He 
 says, " Go and make disciples of all the nations " — 
 not "go and try to make them." Not "go and 
 hope that peradventure one out of a thousand will 
 pay some little attention to you:" but, "Go and 
 disciple all the nations, baptising them in the name 
 of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost; teaching them" — not simply '■'■telling 
 them, and hoping they will receive something or 
 other"— "teaching them to observe all things 
 whatsoever I commanded you : and lo, I am with 
 you alway, even unto the end of the world." This 
 passage not only proves the great fact that there 
 is sufficiency, but that this sufficient One is with 
 us. Again, read 2 Cor. xii. i— 10. What was 
 the word of the Lord Jesus to His tried servant ? 
 
WRONG WAITING. 
 
 85 
 
 " My grace is sufficient for thee ; for My power is 
 made perfect in weakness." What is the response? 
 " Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my 
 weaknesses, that the strength of Christ may rest 
 upon me." Alas ! there has been too much losing 
 sight of this practically. 
 
 Wait for God's Providence. 
 
 Many of us have oftentimes waited for human 
 facilities for preaching the Gospel, calling them 
 God's providencies. Long did the Church wait till 
 human authorities made it safe to bring the Gospel 
 to China. But if we had come a century ago, when 
 there were no authorities to protect us, what wit- 
 nesses might we not have been ! What necessities, 
 what persecutions, might not have been the result? 
 When I began twenty years ago to urge inland 
 work, I was met by this, "We must not go before 
 God's providence" — in other words, "We must not 
 go till we have gunboats and passports and trea- 
 ties." It was so difficult to get people to realise 
 that it was our duty to go forward, notwithstanding 
 there were no treaties — nay, rejoicing in the fact 
 that the power of Christ would have to be the 
 more manifested. It was this sort of teaching 
 that led the papers to put in articles saying that 
 the members of the Inland Mission and their 
 leader would have been safer in the Asylum for 
 Incurable Idiots than in China. They do not say 
 so now ! Why ? Because those words have been 
 fulfilled, "Lo, I am with you alway." 
 
 I Cor. 
 
 Matt. 
 
86 
 
 DA VS OF BLESSING, 
 
 You and I are in this inland city to-day with our 
 passports, and in great safety, under the Chefoo 
 Convention. But there was no Chefoo Convention 
 when the Lord was pleased to take me home twelve 
 years ago. When we appealed to the Church for 
 prayer for eighteen men to go as witnesses into the 
 inland provinces of this Empire, there was no 
 Chefoo Convention. When Cameron, Nicoll and 
 George Clarke, when Turner and others came 
 out, there was no Chefoo Convention. Yet God 
 answered prayer, and gave eighteen men prepared 
 to go into the nine provinces that had no mis- 
 sionaries. They spent a few months in the study 
 of the language, and in their own estimate, and in 
 the estimate of others they were very imperfectly 
 equipped for their work. But it was felt better 
 that they should go forward ; so we set to work to 
 pray that God would now set before each of the 
 eighteen brethren an open door. Affairs did not 
 seem auspicious : it seemed as if we were on the 
 very eve of war. I came out about that time. 
 The last intelligence before we sailed was that Sir 
 T. Wade had hauled down his flag, and had gone 
 to the coast to put matters into the hands of the 
 Admiral. When we reached Hong-kong, we asked, 
 "What about the danger of war?" "It is all 
 passed ; there has been a Convention at Chefoo, 
 and foreigners have the right to travel in every 
 inland city ! " So our eighteen brethren set out to 
 the various provinces, the first foreign travellers to 
 avail themselves of that Convention and visit these 
 
NO BARS TO FAITH. 
 
 87 
 
 provinces. God opened the door in the very nick 
 of time. Was it not the same when He let Peter 
 out of prison ? Peter left his chamber in the prison 
 with the angel, and when he came to the great iron 
 gates they opened of themselves. There are no closed 
 gates before faith, for the Lord Jesus is He who 
 holds the Key of David, who opens and no man 
 shuts. That Key will open hearts as well as doors ; 
 we have in our Master fall sufficiency for all our 
 work. We need no more ! And very frequently 
 the absence of those things that men are apt to 
 look on as needful, is essential to let all the glory 
 be manifestly His to whom it belongs. 
 
 Preach grace and live it. 
 
 Notice two things in these words : "My grace is 
 sufficient for thee, for My power is made perfect in 
 weakness." What are the two things we need, to 
 go in and out among this people ? We have a 
 Gospel of Grace to teach them, but sometimes in 
 the South, when I have preached a mighty Gon 
 and yet a Saviour, people have said, " Wild talk." 
 The idea that anybody has power to revenge him- 
 self, and yet will treat offenders with grace, is not 
 a natural thing to the mind of man. But if there 
 is sufficiency of grace in us, if we can live lives of 
 grace before them — if when we are ill-treated we 
 can show what grace is, if the less we are loved the 
 more we love, the more we are tried the more grace 
 we can manifest, we have an opportunity of giving 
 an object-lesson to these people. 
 
 Acts xii. iQ. 
 
 Rev. iii. 7, 
 
 3 Cor. xii. 9 
 
DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 I Peter ii. 20, 21. 
 
 Grace sufficient. 
 
 Is not this the reason that our calling is what it 
 is ? What is our calling ? It is a three-fold one, 
 
 1. To DO GOOD. 
 
 2. To SUFFER FOR IT. 
 
 3. To TAKE IT PATIENTLY. 
 
 "For hereunto were ye called." Now we do not 
 give this people the ohject-lesson unless we are 
 living out our calling ; and to be put in circum- 
 stances in which we are compelled to do so, should 
 not be cause for regret, but for intelligent satisfaction. 
 God is never driven into a corner, and obliged 
 to leave His people in unfavourable circumstances. 
 Poor parents are sometimes driven into great 
 straits — they would fain feed and clothe their 
 children, and instruct them, but they have neither 
 food nor clothing. But God never puts one of His 
 children into an emergency without having the 
 means to get him out of it. He puts us into these 
 circumstances, because they are the best adapted for 
 growth in grace, and for success in labour. The 
 needed grace to be patient, and to deal wisely 
 with these people is ensured to us : " My grace is 
 sufficient." 
 
 You may know Spurgeon's remark on this pas- 
 sage. He was going home after some exhausting 
 service, and leaning back in his carriage depressed, 
 and feeling as if an overwhelming burden were op- 
 pressing him, when suddenly this passage occurred 
 to his mind. He says that as he thought of it he 
 burst into a laugh, and the niore he thought of it 
 
GRACE AND POWER AMPLE AND ABUNDANT. 
 
 the more he laughed ! The words came to him 
 accented on the first and last words. "My grace is 
 sufficient for thee ; " and he said, " I thought of 
 myself as a little fish in the Thames. Old Father 
 Thames raised his hoary head above the waters, 
 and I said to him, ' O Father Thames, I am so 
 thirsty ; but I am afraid to drink, lest I should 
 drink all the water up.' Then Father Thames 
 replied, ' Drink away, drink away, little fish ; there 
 is plenty of water for thee ! ' " Who are we, that 
 we are going to swallow up the resources of Divine 
 grace ? 
 
 Not only do we want grace to endure ourselves 
 and to manifest Christ, but we want power to 
 transform these hearts so hard, so materialised and 
 earth-sunken. How is that power to be obtained ? 
 " My power is made perfect in weakness." Does 
 not that really take away all excuse for being 
 dissatisfied with our own weaknesses ? Shall we not 
 share the Apostle's words, "'' Most gladly, therefore, 
 will I rather glory in my weaknesses that the 
 strength of Christ may rest upon me ?" Shall we 
 not feel with him that in weakness, in persecution, 
 we can take pleasure ; that we can glory in our 
 very infirmities ? " For when I am weak then am 
 I strong." May the first " V be always weak, in 
 order that the second "/" may be always strong ! 
 
 Rely on Christ alone. 
 
 What conclusion should we draw if Christ is 
 really our sufficiency for all the exigencies of our 
 
qo 
 
 DA rs OF BLESSING. 
 
 Auxiliaries. 
 
 missionary work ? Let us learn to rely on Him 
 alone. Every false system of Christianity, as every 
 false religion, builds in part on some superhuman 
 aid, but it counts in some measure on the Divine as 
 supplementing the human. It is important that we 
 do not try, as the Chinese proverb says, to stand 
 with " a leg in two boats." Let us learn where all 
 our sufficiency lies, and lean on him alone. If our 
 sufficiency is really Christ, shall we not learn to 
 put all those things that we consider as auxiliaries 
 in their proper place ? We can do with them, or 
 without them. We can better do without them, 
 than put them in a false position. Let us feel that 
 everything that is human, outside the efficiency of 
 Christ, is merely helpful in the measure in which 
 it enables us to bring Christ forward. 
 
 For instance. Medical Missions. I am sure Dr. 
 Edwards will agree with me that if we are going to 
 put medical skill in the place of Divine power for 
 changing the heart, we shall be disappointed. If 
 our medical missions bring people nearer to us, and 
 we can present to them the Christ of God, medical 
 missions are a blessing ; but to substitute medicine 
 for the preaching of the Gospel would be a profound 
 mistake. If we put schools or education in the 
 place of spiritual power to change the heart, it will 
 be a profound mistake. If we get the idea that 
 people are going to be converted by some educational 
 process, instead of by a regenerative re-creation.^ it 
 will be a profound mistake. If we put our trust in 
 money, or learning, or eloquence — or anything but 
 
A UX III ARIES IN SERVICE. 
 
 91 
 
 the living GoD — it will be a profound mistake. If 
 we let all our auxiliaries be auxiliaries — means of 
 bringing Christ and the soul into contact — then 
 we may be truly thankful for them all. But we 
 can do without any of them, if the Lord does not 
 see fit to give them. He gave few of these to the 
 first propagators of the Gospel. The College of 
 Apostles had among them no men who had grad- 
 uated in the Universities — they graduated in the 
 fishing boats. And those who carried the Gospel 
 to Greece and Corinth — who were they ? Hated 
 and despised Jews. Let us exalt this glorious 
 Gospel in our hearts, and believe it is the power of 
 God to salvation. Let everything else sit ai its 
 feet, and then all our auxiliaries will indeed be 
 auxiliaries. We shall never be discouraged if we 
 realise that our sufficiency is in Christ. 
 
 Before throwing the meeting open, I put this 
 question to myself, and let each put it to himself : 
 Is the Lord Jesus really all this to me personally f 
 Is the Lord Jesus all the sufficiency that I need for 
 my service ? Am I so apprehending Christ ? Is 
 my heart overwhelmed, and overflowing with the 
 fulness I have in Him, so that like the Bride 
 in the Song we cannot but say, " This is my 
 Beloved, this is my Lord, the Chiefest among 
 ten thousand ?" 
 
 Mr. Stanley P. Smith 
 
 told a story of the work of the Moravian mission- 
 aries among the Esquimaux. They worked for some 
 
92 
 
 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 Preach Christ 
 crucified. 
 
 years among them, trying to educate their con- 
 sciences, lay down rules, &c., and thus prepare 
 them for the Gospel. There was absolutely no 
 success. 
 
 One day, one of the missionaries, translating 
 the Gospel of Matthew, was writing out the 
 account of the Lord's crucifixion. Just at that 
 time a man, who till then had been a ringleader 
 in opposition, came in, and asked him what he 
 was writing, requesting him to read it. On 
 doing so the Esquimaux man burst into tears, 
 adding, "Why did you not tell us this before?" 
 A powerful revival followed, being the first- 
 fruits of the mission. It is exceedingly im- 
 portant to believe that the Gospel is the power 
 of God unto salvation, and to preach fully and 
 constantly " Christ crucified." You have doubt- 
 less all of you seen a simple tract by Mr. Bailer 
 of the C.I.M., entitled, " A plan for the forgive- 
 ness of sins." When some of us were going up 
 to Sih-chau last January, we stopped one night 
 at a little place on the way, and going out, 
 we distributed these tracts, saying a few simple 
 words in explanation. About two months ago 
 there was a literary examination in P'ing-yang Fu 
 for B.A.'s and M.A.'s. One B.A., who had heard 
 that preaching, came up from this place on the 
 road to Sih-chau, and stayed with us during the 
 time of examination. He went back to establish 
 Christian worship in his town. Let us believe in 
 the power of the blood. 
 
ABUNDANT LIFE. 
 
 93 
 
 Mr. Archibald Orr Ewing. 
 
 The prophet Isaiah, in chapter xl., uses a won- 
 derful illustration in connection with being "weary 
 in well doing." Sometimes if we cannot see 
 fruit, we are apt to be weary. He says : " Even 
 the youths shall faint and be weary, and the 
 young men shall utterly fall ; but they that 
 wait on the Lord shall renew their strength." 
 Youth is a time of energy and strength — there 
 is nothing grander in the world than a young 
 man — Jesus Christ was a young man, and He 
 has given us the picture of one that is complete 
 • — yet " the young men shall utterly fall." But 
 there is One that will not fail, and " they that 
 wait on the Lord shall renew their strength ; 
 they shall mount up with wings as eagles." 
 Yes, we will get up into the heavenly places 
 with Christ Jesus. May God give us grace 
 more and more to wait on the Lord. " My soul 
 wait thou only upon God." May we be in the 
 attitude of " waiters " in our service, and we shall 
 go from strength to strength, from life to life 
 more abundant. 
 
 Mr. Montagu Beauchamp. 
 
 I had a helpful thought given me a day or two 
 ago in connection with the verse, "My grace is 
 sufficient for thee." God grants us sufficient 
 o-race for every trial we meet with, but He 
 does not promise us sufficient grace to meet the 
 
94 
 
 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 anticipation. It is the anticipation of trial that 
 causes us anxiety. Since seeing that, I have 
 thought, what are you uneasy about .just now — 
 is it something you are looking forward to ? and 
 it is so almost invariably. We must rest in the 
 grace of God as sufficient for the present, and leave 
 the future with Him. 
 
 Ipraise is Comelg. 
 
 " EVERV DAY WILL I BLESS ThEE ; 
 
 "AND I WILL PRAISE ThY NAME FOK EVER AND EVER." — Ps. cxlv. 2. 
 
 " My Saviour's praises I will sing, 
 
 "And all His love express; 
 "Whose mercies each returning day, 
 
 " Proclaim His faithfulness. 
 
 " Redeemed by His Almighty power, 
 
 '■ iVIy Saviour and my King ; 
 " My confide[ice in Him I place, 
 
 " To Him my soul would cling. 
 
 " On Thee alone, my Saviour, God, 
 
 " My steadfast hopes depend ; 
 "And to Thy holy will my soul 
 
 " Submissively would bend. 
 
 " Oh, grant Thy HoLY Spirit's grace, 
 
 " And aid my feeble powers ; 
 " That gladly I may follow Thee 
 
 "Through all my future hours." 
 
CA USBS OF FAIL URE. 
 
 95 
 
 THIRD DAY. 
 
 WEDNESDAY MORNING, JULY 14TH. 
 
 1bin&raitces anO Causes of jFallure. 
 
 Mr. Hudson Taylor:— This morning we have 
 to consider some of the hindrances, and causes of 
 failure which we have experienced in the past, that 
 we may see clearly how they are to be avoided. 
 Now read Zephaniah iii. As God has made an 
 adequate provision for us, so had He done for 
 Israel, but what do we find was the actual experience 
 of Israel ? 
 
 Failure. 
 "Woe to her that is rebellious and polluted ! " 
 This city, so wondrously blessed — this city in which 
 He was prepared to manifest His delivering power — 
 is spoken of as one that is rebellious and polluted. 
 The explanation is this : God spoke, but " she 
 obeyed not the voice : " God gave correction ; she 
 would not receive it. " She trusted not in the 
 Lord ; she drew not near to her God." And those 
 princes who should have been the watchmen of 
 Israel, became as "roaring lions ; " the judges, who 
 should have delivered the poor and needy, were 
 "evening wolves ;" the prophets, instead of declaring 
 the will of God, became themselves " light and 
 
 Wanl of fditli and 
 obedience. 
 Zepli. iii. 1-4. 
 
96 
 
 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 Zeph. iii. 5-7. 
 
 treacherous persons;" and the very priests " pro- 
 faned the sanctuary." What was the reason of all 
 this? They "trusted not in the Lord!" they 
 " drew not near to their God." 
 
 Chastening. 
 
 O how gracious were His ways — how slow to 
 chastise, to cast off Israel. With the tenderness of 
 a father, trying every plan to bring blessing to Israel, 
 He dealt with her. The judgments of the Lord 
 were revealed : He showed His people what He 
 must do to the idolater, to the wilful and wayward, 
 in order that Israel might learn, and it might not 
 be needful to cast them out from His sight. "But 
 they knew no shame ; they would not receive 
 instruction ; they rose early and corrupted all their 
 doings." 
 
 Thus — just as in that beautiful chapter, Ezekiel 
 xxxvi. — God is obliged to take the matter into His 
 own hands — see verses 8 — 12. In these verses we 
 read what came to Israel when she did not trust in 
 the Lord ; now we are going to hear what will 
 be the result when she does trust in the name of 
 the Lord. 
 
 The Remedy — Trust in the Lord. 
 
 Zeph. iii. 13. "77?^ remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nof 
 
 speak lies." There is no reason for doing iniquity or 
 lying when we trust in the Lord. What should we 
 gain by it ? If we trust in the Lord we have every- 
 thing guaranteed, Do we want to gain happiness ? 
 
for UNSPEAKABLE. 
 
 97 
 
 When we are trusting in the Lord we are as full 
 of happiness as we can be — we are rejoicing 
 with joy unspeakable. Trust in the Lord delivers 
 from the snares and temptations of the Devil — 
 leaves him nothing to bait his hook with. When 
 you are full to overflowing you cannot be fuller. 
 It is unbelief, want of faith, practical atheism, that 
 gives the Devil all his power. "They shall feed and 
 lie 'down " — they shall eat till they are satisfied, 
 and then they will lie down. "And none shall 
 make them afraid''^ — who can make us afraid if we 
 are trusting in the Lord? Who can scale the 
 heavens and tear Him down from His throne ? 
 " Sing, O daughter of Zion " — well may she sing 
 and shout ; well may she be glad and rejoice ! 
 
 But will it last 1 
 The thought may now arise, "This is not the 
 first time Zion has been blessed ; was she not 
 blessed in the fathers' days when He brought them 
 out of Egypt and fed them in the wilderness ? 
 Was she not blessed in the time of David and of 
 Solomon ? and yet none of these blessings lasted. 
 Is there no fear that her blessing may be lost as 
 before ? " No ! There is a fundamental difference 
 now. God has now not only put the power to 
 trust into their hearts, but He has undertaken to 
 keep it there Himself; He is going to keep them 
 trusting. Now they are trusting, not in Moses, not 
 in Samuel, not in David, nor in Solomon ; but in 
 the Name of the Lord ; and so they may safely sing 
 
 Zeph. iii. 14, 15. 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 DA rs OF BLESSING. 
 
 Zeph. lii. 17. 
 
 1 Samuel xiv. 6. 
 
 as never before, shout as never before, and rejoice as 
 never before. " The King of Israel, even the Lord, 
 is in the midst of thee, thou shalt 
 
 Not fear evil any more." 
 
 The anticipation of evil is evil ; the fear of evil is 
 evil ; the unbelief that does not trust to be kept is 
 evil ; but here the encouragement is — "Thou shalt 
 not fear evil any more." ^^The Lord thy God is in 
 the midst of thee, a Mighty One who will save." 
 This is the ground for praise. When Christ 
 dwells in the heart Joy faith, what danger, what 
 fear? He WILL save. O these precious wills oi 
 the Lord. It is nothing to the Lord to save ; 
 or as Jonathan said to his armour-bearer, 
 "there is no restraint to the Lord to save;" let 
 Him have His own way, for He cannot be 
 hindered. 
 
 He wills to save. 
 
 Thank God for that in China ! Here is the 
 difficult language, the anti-foreign feeling of the 
 people, our own unfitness and unworthiness ; — but 
 there is no restraint to the Lord to save, by many 
 or by few. He can save, and He will save ; we will 
 expect Him to save, and He will do more than we 
 expect! If we have faith to trust Him fearlessly, to 
 pour our barrels of water over the sacrifice, He will 
 not only cause the sacrifice to be burnt, but He will 
 lick up the water also, and burn the stones to 
 powder ! Let us open our hearts wide— let us 
 
SILENT IN LOVE. 
 
 99 
 
 bring vessels not a few, and He will fill them all 
 with oil. And thank God He will not only save, 
 " He will 
 
 Rejoice over thee with joy, 
 
 He will rest [margin, be silent] in His love, He 
 will joy over thee with singing." Just think of 
 God singing ! When a heart is fully yielded up 
 to Him, when the creature trusts implicitly in the 
 Creator, the very heart of God sings ! Shall we 
 not make His heart glad this morning ? 
 
 Silent in Love. 
 
 This passage was made a great blessing to me 
 before I left China last time, and during my voyage 
 home ; but until after I reached Paris the clause, 
 " He will rest (or be silent) in His love," did not 
 come home to me with so much power as it has 
 done since. As our train came into the station at 
 Paris, I saw my dear wife awaiting me on the 
 platform. It was not long before I had secured 
 my luggage, and was seated by her side in a 
 cab. I had much to talk to her about, but 
 we could not speak, we could only sit in silence 
 side by side — the joy was too great for ex- 
 pression — and this passage came to my mind. 
 I thought "Is it possible that this is only a type 
 of the heavenly love ? Is it possible for the love 
 of God to be so drawn out towards His people 
 that He is obliged to be silent in His love, 
 because there is no expression for it?" But 
 
 Zeph. iii, 17. 
 
100 
 
 DAYS OF BLSSSING. 
 
 Zeph. iii. 18-20. 
 
 when words fail then the love will take another 
 turn, and break out into singing — "He will joy 
 over thee with singing ! " 
 
 Weak points made strong. 
 
 In conclusion. Their very besetments shall be the 
 grounds of praise and fame. The weak points of 
 the fortifications shall become the strongest. These 
 are to be the very points where special praise and 
 fame is to be won by the Lord. Won in His 
 people, won for His people, and won for His very 
 Name's sake. We can link with this Joel ii. 19, 
 " Behold I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, 
 and ye shall be satisfied therewith : and I will no 
 more make you a reproach among the nations;" 
 and Joel ii. 25 — 27, "I will restore to you the 
 years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, 
 and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, My great 
 army which I sent among you. And ye shall eat in 
 plenty, and be satisfied, and shall praise the Name 
 of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously 
 with you : and My people shall never be ashamed^'' 
 &c. O my brethren, what a God we have to do 
 with ! Let us let Him have His own way with 
 every one of us. Can anything be better, or any- 
 thing grander ? 
 
 Mr. SOWERBY, 
 
 Baptist Missionary Society. 
 
 Four or five years is a very short time to gain much 
 experience in China — it is only enough to give one 
 
MISSIONA R Y DIFFIC UL TIES. 
 
 lOI 
 
 an insight into one's own ignorance — but it 
 seems to me that if we look our difBculties in 
 the face, we can sum most of them up under 
 two heads : first those which are subjective — 
 hindrances to the work which arise simply from 
 what we are ; and secondly those which are 
 objective — difficulties that we meet with for which 
 we are not responsible, which we could not have 
 made different to what they are, such as the 
 habit of opium smoking among the people, their 
 deadness, their avariciousness, slowness to under- 
 stand, the difficulties of the language, and even 
 our want of strength. 
 
 But there are also difficulties which we meet 
 with, the cause of which is from without, but 
 the effect of which is within ; for instance 
 the habit of opium smoking. We have not 
 only to overcome that, but it creates in us a 
 sense of disgust and despair. It may be that 
 we are associated with brethren with whom 
 there is incompatibility of temper. We ought 
 not to try and part from them, but we ought 
 to try and overcome any painful feelings within 
 us. I cannot think of aity difficulties which do 
 not fall under these heads. 
 
 Help in God. 
 
 When we look at it thus, we see how God, and 
 God alone, is able to help us. How can we overcome 
 those difficulties which arise from our own weak- 
 ness, but by having a fuller measure of the Divine 
 
 Our difficulties. 
 
102 
 
 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 Love within us ? It is as we grow in grace, and 
 become more perfect in our Christian character, 
 that we shall find them overcome. It is the same 
 with regard to those other difficulties the cause of 
 which is without, and the effect within. We can 
 only overcome them by God graciously placing His 
 Spirit within us. Then with regard to those 
 difficulties that are without : there is no use fretting 
 about them, we are sent here to overcome them. 
 God knew all about them when He sent us here, 
 and they are the things we are sent to combat, — 
 the sinfulness of the people, their deadness, &c. It 
 seems to me that when brethren come here, they 
 feel they did not know what they would meet 
 with, and then the battle seems too hard. I am not 
 sure that one brother is not about to give up 
 missionary work, and one of his chief stumbling 
 blocks is this : the want of success that has been 
 given to Protestant Missions, owing to the weakness 
 of the methods they use. I do not mean he distrusts 
 the Gospel, or the power of God's Spirit, or the 
 methods by which it is to be made known ; but he 
 feels that Protestant Missions have been carried on 
 on such lines that there is very little chance of 
 success. He is not responsible for that, nor are we ; 
 but if these difficulties exist we have to overcome 
 them, and we may do so. We have to feel this, — 
 that God has sent us here to face all these things, — 
 that in the Name of the Lord we will set up our 
 banner. Surely God is with us. Surely God knows 
 everything that is wrong, and He has given us the 
 
VICTORY BY FAITH. 
 
 103 
 
 Gospel to preach, that we may overcome them — 
 why then should we doubt ? 
 
 " Right is right, since GoD is GoD, 
 " And right the day must win : 
 " To doubt would be disloyalty ; 
 " To falter would be sin." 
 
 There are innumerable difficulties, many of them 
 very trying ; but all we have to do is to trust in the 
 LORD, and we shall find them fall flat as did the 
 walls of Jericho. It may be that we shall not see it 
 all in our own time ; but we must bear in mind 
 that we are only part of an army. God has been 
 carrying on His work for 6,000 years, and He has 
 granted us a little space to be His agents. We shall 
 in His Name carry the work on further, and when 
 God calls us to leave it. He will have others to 
 carry it on till success is accomplished. All we 
 have to do is to trust in the Lord, and go straight 
 forward. 
 
 Need of Endurance. 
 
 Many fail because they have not the power of 
 endurance. The great test of all strength is the 
 power of being able to endure, and it is so in this 
 spiritual warfare. Mr. Taylor must have had his 
 heart saddened by seeing men who began well but 
 did not continue well. Yet in many promises how 
 much we have to encourage us in that respect ! I 
 have had the feeling again and again that I must 
 give it up, and go home. It is then that we must go 
 on our knees and pray to God to make us strong to 
 endure. It is just when we feel that we cannot do 
 
104 
 
 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 any good — that the people are too bad, and we are 
 too weak— that we have to pray to God to give us 
 grace to continue, and to determine that, be the 
 difficulty what it may, we will stand firm to our 
 post, and we will rather die than leave it. 
 
 I might quote the word of warning given to me 
 by a senior missionary once. He told me the time 
 when most missionaries fail is just when they have 
 obtained the language, but have not got fully 
 into the work. T think perhaps in the C.I.M. 
 that is obviated by the brethren beginning to 
 work as soon as they have got a little of the 
 language. In other Missions people are not per- 
 mitted to do so. Their hearts get cold for want of 
 active work, and then the difficulties burst in on 
 them in full force. My friend said that more fail 
 in their third year ; they get the language and are 
 ready to work, and when they come face to face 
 with the difficulties they fail. Some fail in ortho- 
 doxy, some go back to the world, some relinquish 
 the work. 
 
 I mention this because to be forewarned is to be 
 forearmed. I know it was so with me. The hardest 
 time I have had in China was two summers ago : I 
 felt it intensely difficult to keep on. One brother 
 said to me " I would do anything if I only knew 
 what to do." However, I am sure our God is 
 sufRcfent to meet all our difficulties, if we only trust 
 in Him, and make up our minds that we will over- 
 come difficulties in the name of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
GOD THE GREAT WORKER. 
 
 loq 
 
 Mr. Hudson Taylor. 
 
 In times of discouragement it is a great help to 
 remember the Lord's work is not our work for the 
 Lord, but the Lord's own work through us and 
 others. HE will not fail nor be discouraged. I 
 have felt those times our brother spoke of more than 
 once, when I have been brought face to face with 
 some new phase of work, some new call of God, 
 some new realisation of deep need. Then the 
 thought I have mentioned has been helpful to me. 
 
 Mr. J. H. Sturman. 
 
 I feel as to one's growth in grace one of the 
 greatest drawbacks has been want of more watching 
 for God's leading and of meditativeness. I often 
 lose opportunities for praise by failing to see God's 
 guiding hand in small matters. 
 
 Miss Broomhall. 
 
 I have heard it said that some people work for 
 Christ with one hand, and cling to Him with the 
 other ; instead of clinging to Him with both hands, 
 and letting Him work. 
 
 Mr. C. T. Studd. 
 
 I remember at K'uh-wu one of these attacks came 
 over me. I was in a thick fog, and I could not get 
 up to praising pitch, though that always disperses the 
 mists. Sunset came, and I could not praise — then, 
 being out of doors, I tried to run, and the praise 
 
 The work the 
 Lord's, not ours 
 
id6 
 
 DAVS OF BLESSING. 
 
 The lesson of the 
 Incarnation. 
 
 would not come. Presently, I happened to turn 
 round, and, looking along the horizon, I saw the 
 hills all capped with mist and cloud, and the Lord 
 seemed to say — " You see the mountains are there 
 just the same though capped with mist, they have 
 not been removed ; " and the Lord opened my 
 mouth, and I was able to praise. 
 
 Dr. Edw^ards. 
 
 A great many difficulties arise in our work from 
 the deadness of our own hearts, but may not they 
 arise frequently from our want of knowledge of the 
 people among whom we work ? We seem to know 
 so little of them and their modes of thought. There 
 must necessarily be want of sympathy unless we 
 can understand their condition and their difficulties ; 
 and without this we very frequently, if not always, 
 fail to get at their hearts. Should it not be our aim 
 to get to know more of the difficulties of the people, 
 so as to understand them better } and in order to 
 understand them, should we not get among them 
 more ? 
 
 Mr. Hudson Taylor. 
 
 There can be very little doubt that one of our 
 greatest difficulties here, is our want of a fuller under- 
 standing of and a fuller sympathy with the people. 
 Our privilege and duty in this respect are, it seems 
 to me, clearly indicated by the Incarnation. " The 
 Word became flesh and dwelt among us." It is a 
 very small matter indeed, our being conformed to 
 
WHAT THE LOVE OF GOD IS. 
 
 107 
 
 the Chinese in dress, if that be all. It is one of the 
 encouragements when we feel tried by the time 
 required for the study of the language, to remember 
 that it is far more difficult to get to know the 
 people, than to acquire their language. AH the 
 time we need for acquiring fluency in the language, 
 may be prayerfully improved in the spirit of God- 
 like sympathy, for gaining knowledge of the people ; 
 so that when we do speak to them, what we say 
 will not fly over their heads. 
 
 I do like to look at eveiy practical question in 
 connection with Christ. The Incarnation shows 
 that, provided we keep from sin, we cannot go too 
 far in meeting this people, and getting to know 
 them, getting to be one with them, getting into 
 sympathy with them. How is this to be brought 
 about ? Is it not a great promise that "Tke love of 
 God shall be shed abroad in our hearts., by the Holy 
 Ghost given to us f " What is 
 
 The Love of God? 
 
 Is it my love to God ? No ! something better 
 than that. Is it God's love to me ? It is something 
 wider than that ! The " love of God," it seems 
 to me, is that love which God has toward every 
 creature that He has made — that love that leads 
 Him to open His mighty hand and satisfy the 
 desire of every living thing. If God sheds that love 
 abroad in my heart, that love will not be discouraged 
 by the trying things which have been referred to. 
 The love of God will never fail ; and the love of 
 
 The love of God 
 shed abroad. 
 
io8 
 
 BAYS OF BLESSING. 
 
 The study of 
 native popular 
 religious works. 
 
 God will lead to reality, to devout genuineness 
 of sympathy, which will bring us in contact with 
 the people. How does a mother find out what her 
 speechless babe wants ? By 
 
 The instinct of love. 
 
 When there is much that it is difficult to under- 
 stand among this people, I believe that God's own 
 love brought into our hearts — something not of 
 ourselves at all, nor like ourselves, but independent 
 of ourselves — will be the Key that will give us the 
 explanation, and will draw us near to them. Other- 
 wise we may come to feel as a missionary once told 
 me he felt, " Every year I am in China I get harder 
 and harder, and get to dislike and to hate this 
 people more." It must be so, unless we are kept 
 from it by this love of God. 
 
 Mr. SOWERBY. 
 
 Is it any help to a missionary in trying to under- 
 stand the religious thought of the people to study 
 their most popular religious works ? I think we 
 shall find a way to put the Gospel to them if we 
 know what they think of the Divine, and of Sin. 
 
 Mr. Hudson Taylor. 
 
 It seems to me that every missionary should 
 endeavour to make himself acquainted to some 
 extent with these things, in order to be able the 
 better to adapt himself to the people in his teaching. 
 At the same time it is possible to go too far, and 
 
PREACH A LIVING SAVIOUR. 
 
 109 
 
 give an undue amount of attention to such 
 studies ; because the whole religious literature 
 of China is so vast, that many lives would be 
 needed to compass it, and it is only a very small 
 portion of our one life we can afford to give 
 to the study of error. So that while one cannot 
 consider he has learned the language even, while 
 altogether ignorant of these things, we have to 
 keep the due balance. 
 
 There were some among the early preachers 
 who were thoroughly well acquainted with the 
 beliefs of the pagans, and a few well up in 
 their literature. A great many, however, knew 
 little about it, but they knew a great deal about 
 the one thing needful. I have been struck 
 with this, in a good deal of intercourse with 
 native preachers,— that those who have least of 
 grace are those that deal most largely in their 
 own literature. I have heard one of the most 
 capable Chinese gentlemen I have known in China 
 preaching frequently, both to scholars and to 
 poor men, and I noticed he scarcely ever made any 
 reference to these things which he was master of. 
 One might have expected him to deal with scholars 
 on their own ground ; I noticed he dealt with them 
 on one ground, the ground of salvation—" All you 
 know, and all you have, and all you are, will not 
 save you ; but the Lord Jesus will." The Lord 
 wonderfully used him. It was never the Tao-H 
 (Religion) he preached, but the Lord Jesus as his 
 living Saviour. 
 
DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 Dependence on 
 self. 
 
 Want of depen- 
 dence on Christ. 
 
 Miss Kemp. 
 
 How is it that some Christian people, really 
 devoted, do so much harm ? A letter I have 
 received mentions that some, who seem thoroughly- 
 devoted to Christ, by their utter want of wisdom 
 and tact, do much harm. The writer thought it 
 was possible to prevent a soul entering the kingdom 
 by that, and I have sometimes thought so myself. 
 
 Mr. Hudson Taylor. 
 
 There can be no question as to the fact of ha^n 
 being done. As to the explanation of it, may it not 
 be that with very great desire to do good, there is 
 a good deal of dependence on self and neglect of the 
 teaching of God's Word in the method of doii?g it? 
 We find from Scripture that Christ is made \o us 
 wisdom. The Jew had every desire to serve Gob, 
 but he did not serve God according to knowlMge. 
 May it not be that there is a Christian zeal thiVt is 
 not according to knowledge ? This thought shbuld 
 lead us to great distrust of self. There is a fleshly 
 energy that makes men workers, perhaps, wlhen 
 they should be spiritually feeding and resting. 
 
 I cannot but think there are abundant cases 
 of failure which might be avoided. For nearly 
 twenty years of my Christian life I was really in the 
 dark as to the extent to which Scripture warrants 
 us to reckon on Christ's keeping power. In that 
 state, Paul's prayer for the Ephesian Christians for 
 illumination is very appropriate. I was not really 
 drawing on the fulness that there is in Christ for 
 
CHRIST'S KEEPING POWER. 
 
 in 
 
 ieeping power, on account of ignorance of it. One 
 lad been trained to expect that as long as one was 
 iown here nothing but ebbing and flowing was to be 
 looked for, and that it is only in heaven that we are 
 to be kept. One needed the illumination of the 
 Spirit to know that this was error — that it was as 
 unscriptural to expect that sin slioiildhdive dominion 
 over us here, as it was to expect that we should have 
 no sin. Then again when one saw that there was in 
 Christ the remedy, one found want of trust pre- 
 vented one from claiming and receiving it. 
 
 Of course if we begin to look for healthy fruits 
 of Christian life, before the Christian life itself 
 is healthy and vigorous, we are sure to be 
 disappointed. The first thing is to be fully saved 
 ourselves, fully kept, and kept in touch with Christ 
 our Wisdom, and then to expect salvation to have 
 full effect on all around us. If I am off _the insu- 
 lating stool myself, I cannot expect to electrify 
 others. 
 
 Another thing that has been a cause of weakness 
 to myself has been want of confession — of speaking 
 out what the Lord was doing in one's own soul. 
 I have known what it was to be kept very full of 
 light and joy for a time ; an opportunity has come 
 when Christ ought to have been glorified by 
 confession, and I have shrunk from it ; but it has 
 been with great loss of power. I do think that as 
 with regard to salvation, with the heart one' believes, 
 and with the mouth confesses to salvation, so with 
 regard to the fulness of blessing, it is as important 
 
 The value of 
 confession. 
 
112 
 
 DAYS OF BLESSING. 
 
 John iv. 13, 14 ; 
 John vi. 35. 
 
 to confess with the mouth, as it is to believe in the 
 heart, that He has fully saved us, cleansed us, and 
 means to keep us. 
 
 Nothing has been a greater blessing to me than 
 to confess, " I do not expect to be thirsty again." 
 I dare not, believing His word, expect to be thirsty ; 
 and some people have thought it was very pre- 
 sumptuous to say so; but God blesses me every 
 time I confess it. I believe if we confess that 
 we believe God is going to do what He says, He 
 will always bless us. 
 
 What "has been my experience with regard to our 
 work ? Before the Mission was formed, I told the 
 people that God was going to open the eighteen 
 provinces to us. Some people thought it was 
 presumption, but He has done it. When we sent 
 Mr. Stevenson to Bham6 we made our boast that 
 God was going to open the way before he sailed. 
 When the brethren came out before the Chefoo 
 Convention, we made our boast that God would 
 set before them an open door. Before the beginning 
 of the three years, we published that we were 
 going to have 70 new workers in answer to prayer • 
 because we knelt down in that room at Wu-chang 
 and received the 70 from the Lord by faith ; and 
 that evening we had a thanksgiving meeting for 
 them. Here are some of the 70 in this room, and 
 we still thank God for them. 
 
 We must not lose sight of the privilege of 
 confession. God is going to send showers of blessing 
 on T'ai-yiien Fu : let us confess it. Let us not 
 
THE VALUE OF CONFESSION 
 
 "3 
 
 wait till they come, and then confess it, letl us tell 
 the people, and the Lord Himsdf, ^-^/oii'.'^Let 
 us hold fast the confession of our hope without 
 wavering. Why ? Because we are so full of tfaith ? 
 No ! Because I 
 
 "He is faithful." \ 
 
 When God's grace is triumphant in my soulAand 
 I can look a Chinaman in the face, and say, "(feoD 
 is able to save you, where and as you are," than is 
 when I have power. How else are you going '.to 
 deal with a man under the craving of opium ? Tfte 
 cause of the want of success is very often that w« 
 are only half saved ourselves. If we are fully saved, \ 
 and confess it, we shall see results. If a river of 
 living water is flowing out from us, depend upon it 
 people will not be in contact with us without effect. 
 May the Lord keep us in His own safe keeping. 
 Since the Lord has given me to know more about 
 Himself, He has used me as never before. He uses 
 me in England, and in China ; and wherever I go, 
 He gives me work to do, and I know it is all His 
 doing and not my own. He will take each one of 
 you, keep you, and gloriously use you, if you will 
 only lie in His hand, free for Him to use. 
 
 [The Meeting closed with singing " Hallelujah 
 for the Cross."] 
 
TI4 
 
 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 SHRINES AND DllFILES AMONG THE MOUNTAISS. 
 
THE JOURNEY TO HUNG-T'UNG, 
 
 AND ARRANGEMENTS THERE. 
 By Mr. STANLEY P. SMITH. 
 
 THE T'ai-yiien Fu Meetings being over, we 
 left that city in detachments for the South ; 
 the first consisting of Mr. Key, Mr. Lewis, and 
 myself ; the second of Mr. Cassels and Mr. Hoste, 
 who went by a western route to Sih-chau and 
 Ta-ning Hien, intending to bring on a few 
 Christians to meet us at Hung-t'ung ; the third 
 of Mr. Hudson Taylor, Mr. Herbert Hudson 
 Taylor, Dr. Edwards, Mr. Studd, and Mr. 
 Beauchamp. 
 
 From the province of Chih-li on the east, right 
 across to Kan-suh on the west of China Proper, 
 there is a very curious, but deep and rich deposit of 
 light soil. Though exceedingly fertile, its nature is 
 such that in dry weather the roads are deep in dust, 
 and in wet weather in mire. The large proportion 
 of the year in Shan-si, there is usually no rain, but 
 when it does come, the roads in many places have 
 all the appearance of canals, and are quite impassable 
 
I J 6 DAYS OF BLESSING. 
 
 for carts ; beasts of burden and pedestrians even 
 sometimes being delayed on their way, unable to 
 proceed. 
 
 The first party, travelling by cart, got to Hung- 
 t'ung without mishap ; the second, alas! never 
 reached there, being detained by rain on the west 
 of the Fen river ; the third — Mr. Taylor's party — 
 arrived there on July 30th, two days before the 
 Conference, their journey having been most difficult, 
 not to say dangerous. Now they had to skirt a 
 narrow ledge, while masses of rock, varying from a 
 few to several pounds in weight, kept falling ; now 
 they had to ford streams, the currents of which 
 were so swift, that many times they were nearly — 
 and in one case one of the number actually — 
 carried off their legs, while now again they would 
 have the greatest difficulty with the four beasts of 
 burden. 
 
 As an instance of their difficulties. The day 
 before they arrived at Hung-t'ung, they were 
 crossing over the two ranges of hills that separate 
 the P'ing-yang and T'ai-yuen plains. In these 
 mountain-passes there are numerous narrow gorges 
 or defiles, whose almost perpendicular walls are 
 sometimes a hundred feet high. In these defiles, 
 when the rainy season is on, there often occur land- 
 slips of greater or less magnitude. If the landslip 
 be small, it forms a quagmire, sometimes covering 
 part of the surface of the road, sometimes the whole 
 of it. It fell out on that day that the two pack 
 mules got so involved in one of these " quags," that 
 
DESCRIPTION OF HUNG-T' UNG. 1 1 7 
 
 the burdens (which have no undergirths, but are 
 just placed on frames) were hterally floated in the 
 mire right off their backs. There was nothing for 
 it but for Mr. Studd and Mr. Beauchamp to wade 
 into the mud, and, raising the packs, get them 
 carried away one by one by the muleteer ; this done, 
 the mules, by great exertion, managed to extricate 
 themselves. 
 
 Shortly to describe Hung-t'ung. It is a busy 
 town lying twenty miles north of P'ing-yang, on 
 the main road to T'ai-yiien, the capital of the 
 Shan-si province. The tract of land surrounding 
 the city is well watered, the consequence being that 
 it is exceedingly fertile : a very great variety of 
 vegetables and roots being grown just outside 
 the four walls. Beyond the South Gate flows a 
 perennial stream ; it has its source in a spring in 
 the hills, distant some eight miles, and it is chiefly 
 the water of this stream that is used to such advan- 
 tage in the market gardens. Five miles to the west 
 is the Fen river, while five miles further to the 
 west is a range of hills. This range, as the back- 
 ground of a fertile and fairly well-wooded tract of 
 country, forms a very pretty landscape view from 
 different points of vantage. On the north side, 
 distant some 30 miles, stands out in bold relief 
 as a sort of guardian sentinel of the P'ing-yang 
 plain, the great Hoh hill, the summit of which is 
 about 5,000 feet above the sea. 
 
 The first day of the Conference was Sunday, 
 August 1st. The programme of meetings was drawn 
 
J J 8 DAYS OF BL£SSING. 
 
 up on the day preceding, but was afterwards slightly 
 modified. Its corrected form is as follows : — 
 Sunday, 7 a.m., Mr. Chang Chih-heng. 
 
 „ II a.m.,Mr.Hudson Taylor and Mr.Hsi, 
 ,, 7 p.m., Mr. J. W. Stevenson (a testi- 
 mony meeting). 
 Monday, 7 a.m., Mr. Fan. 
 
 ,, II a.m.. Ordination of native pastors, 
 
 elders, and deacons. 
 ,, 3 p.m., "The Lord's Supper," Mr. 
 Hsi and Mr. Stanley P. Smith. 
 On Saturday evening we had the usual C.I.M. 
 prayer meeting. Mr. Stevenson gave us tidings of 
 fellow-workers at Han-chung, which station he had 
 visited before he came to P'ing-yang, and it was 
 most encouraging to hear the accounts of God's 
 work there. 
 
 While we had our English meeting, Mr. Hsi led 
 a Chinese one ; and by this time over 100 male and 
 female Church members and inquirers had arrived. 
 The meetings finished, it was of course time for 
 retiring ; not only were there present the 100 and 
 more natives, but we foreigners were no small addi- 
 tion to the number. 
 
 The house at Hung-t'ung is not large, consisting 
 only of two courts — the smaller court being the 
 opium refuge. And yet somehow we managed to 
 pack in. The opium refuge (which in the hot 
 weather has no occupants) received the ladies, while 
 the larger court took in the men. The majority of 
 the men slept on the floors of rooms covered with 
 
THE PREMISES. j i ^ 
 
 plaited rushes ; upon the rushes were spread the 
 bedding, about the thickness of two or three rugs, 
 which is always used by the Chinese in these parts 
 — others slept on plank beds, others on the k'angs 
 or brick beds, others on forms, while some put up 
 with tables. So, as regards the body, it was 
 decidedly picnicing ; but being summer, and the 
 Lord giving the most perfect weather, it was an 
 easy matter. 
 
 Briefly to describe the main court : on the south 
 side of the courtyard is the worship-hall, a large 
 room 42 feet by 21, and about 25 feet high ; on the 
 east and west sides are two blocks, 40 feet by 10 ; on 
 the north side is a wall with a door in the centre, 
 leading into the lesser half of the court. The court- 
 yard is surrounded by a stone corridor, raised about 
 a foot above the basement, except on the worship- 
 hall side, where it is 2 feet above. 
 
 In the big meetings the courtyard was filled with 
 male Church members, the worship-hall contained 
 the lady Church members ; the raised space between 
 did for a platform, and was reserved for the foreigners 
 and those who took part in the meetings ; while the 
 surrounding corridor, as well as every available 
 space, was crowded with outsiders. Doubtless, 
 these outsiders came with all sorts of motives ; some 
 from curiosity, some to see the place, some to see 
 the foreigners ; while some, thank God, as after 
 events proved, came with the earnest desire to hear 
 and get to understand the doctrines of the Lord 
 Jesus. 
 
120 
 
 i>A rs OF BlESSTMd. 
 
 ©FenhsiJHien 
 
 Pci hou 
 
 -p 
 
 ^.Ta-cnang 
 
 —-•-"" Niu wa chuangf 
 
 9Wa ling^ping: 
 
 iNth.ShihMing- 
 hMing 
 
 foPau-ta 
 
 Ts'ao-shengf 
 
 ^Hung-tiing-Hien 
 
 Ma inRoadbetu-eenHungiung If ten &^ Ho-ch au thus 
 
 S.P. Smiik's circuit during t7te ttneven moniii!; thus 
 
 do. do. do. even do. thus 
 
 Stanford's Ccoj^! £stat>^ 
 
 MAP OF THE HUNG-T'UNG CIRCUITS. 
 
THE HUNG-T'UNG CONFERENCE, 
 
 August 1st and 2nd. 
 
 Deeply Interesting Native Testimony. 
 
 The 7 a.m. Sunday service was led by Mr. Chang 
 Chih-heng. He took for his subject, the men 
 bringing the sick man to Jesus ; and as they could 
 not get to Him, breaking up the roof to let him 
 down into His presence. 
 
 The II a.m. service^ led by Mr. Hudson Taylor 
 and Mr. Hsi, was a sight not soon to be forgotten. 
 There cannot have been less than 300 listeners in 
 the court ; it made our hearts glad to think of Mr. 
 Taylor's joy as he saw those earnest worshippers, 
 and in that sight some outcome of years of prayer 
 that has known no ceasing, of labour that has known 
 no respite ; above all did it raise our hearts to Him 
 who in that gathering saw further " of the travail of 
 His soul," and was being " satisfied." 
 
 Mr. Taylor spoke to the Christians present on 
 the three-fold gift of Jesus to His believing ones in 
 John xiv., XV., xvii. " My peace," " My joy," " My 
 glory." Mr. Hsi addressed the unconverted. 
 
 The Sunday evening testimony meeting, led by Mr. 
 Stevenson, was quite one of the best meetings. 
 Mr. Stevenson opened with a few remarks on the 
 words, " The kingdom of God is not in word, but in 
 
122 DAYS OF BLESSING. 
 
 power." In throwing the meeting open, he called 
 upon any who wanted to witness for the Lord 
 Jesus to rise in turn. The first to speak was the 
 well-known Mr. Hsi. 
 
 Before we proceed further, it would be well to 
 make a clear statement as regards the remarks of 
 those who spoke. Three days after the Hung-t'ung 
 Conference, there was another held at P'ing-yang 
 Fu. There Mr. Hsi again testified, his address being 
 in substance much the same as that at Hung-t'ung ; 
 but as in the latter address he gave a few additional 
 particulars, it was thought it would give more 
 succinctness to his testimony if what was left out in 
 the one place were supplied from what was added in 
 the other. With regard to the other testimonies, as 
 the time given to each was exceedingly short (there 
 being so many who were willing to speak), it was 
 deemed wise to submit the notes of their remarks to 
 their own revision, at which time they were allowed 
 to make what additions they thought would give a 
 clearer statement of the facts of their several cases. 
 
 The Testimony of Mr. Hsi. 
 
 In looking back on my past life I can indeed see 
 the guiding hand of God. Even when only eight 
 years old I was different from other boys. I re- 
 member thinking then, " What is the use of being 
 in this world ? men find no good ;" and I remember 
 crying as I thought of it. When nine years old my 
 brother urged me to begin reading books, telling me 
 I could get all sorts of good from so doing, and 
 
TESTIMONY OF MR. HSI. 
 
 123 
 
 finally become a mandarin. "Well," thought I to 
 myself, " what good is there in becoming a man- 
 darin ? Sooner or later I must die ;" and I feared 
 to die. For years I had the dread of death before 
 me, and used to wonder how it could be avoided. I 
 had heard of Taoism, and heard the Taoists speak 
 of " ch'ang sheng pu lao " (i.e., " living continually 
 without ageing"), so I determined to try their 
 system. This consists, firstly, of refining and eating 
 " the pill ;" and, secondly, by quiet meditation and 
 reflection to attain to immortality. To my surprise, 
 I was taken some time after with an illness. 
 " Why," thought I, "before I went in for Taoism I 
 had great strength, now I am sickly; is this becoming 
 an immortal ?" My eyes were then opened to see 
 that Taoism was a delusion. My profession was at 
 this time a barrister, and my illness began to inter- 
 fere greatly with my legal duties ; as it got worse 
 and worse there was nothing for it, as I thought, 
 but to smoke opium. The more I smoked the 
 worse I got, till I had to take to my couch, and re- 
 mained there a year-and-a-half. Once I was so ill 
 that my friends put on the death clothes, thinking 
 that the end was just coming. However, God 
 helped me through, and I recovered partially of the 
 illness, but still kept on with the opium. 
 
 Some time after this, in the time of the great 
 famine, an Englishman of the name of Li (Mr. Hill, 
 of the Wesleyan Mission, Wu-ch'ang), came to help 
 us in our extremity. When he had been here some 
 time distributing food and money, he offered a prize 
 
124 
 
 DA YS OF BLESSTNG. 
 
 of 30 taels (X7 los.) for the best essay on given 
 Christian subjects. The competitors had books 
 supplied from which to read the subject up, and 
 my essay gained the prize. The next thing was to 
 get the money. I had heard many reports that 
 foreigners could bewitch people, and I feared to fall 
 under their influence. However, I went to P'ing- 
 yang Fu with my brother, and stopped in an inn. 
 My brother volunteered to go for me to get the 
 money, but he came back sajing the foreigner 
 wanted to see the very man who had written the 
 essay. Well, I was in a dilemma ! On the one 
 hand I feared bewitchment, on the other hand I 
 feared to lose the 30 taels. At last 1 decided to go. 
 On inquiring at the door, I met Mr. Sung and two 
 men of the name of Li, all three of them natives. 
 Addressing them, I said, " May I ask what you do 
 here?" "Oh," said they, "we are helping the 
 foreigner." " And don't you fear being bewitched ?" 
 " No, indeed," they replied, " nor would you if 
 you knew him." Mr. Sung then obtained an inter- 
 view for me with Mr. Hill. One glance, one word, 
 it was enough ! As stars fade before the rising sun, 
 so did his presence dissipate the idle rumours I had 
 heard ; all trace of my fear was gone, my mind was 
 at rest. I beheld his kindly eye and remembered 
 the words of Mencius, " If a man's heart is not right 
 his eyes bespeak it." I realised I was in the presence 
 of a true man. 
 
 He asked me most courteously to drink tea. The 
 Devil again suggested the vile slander, " What if 
 
TESTIMONY OF MR. BSI. 125 
 
 there be medicine in the tea ?" but instantly the 
 thought was banished. Tea having been drunk, he 
 produced the 30 taels, and complimenting me most 
 warmly on my essay, handed them to me, adding 
 at the same time that some learned scholars in 
 T'ai-yiien Fu had seen the writing and commended 
 it most highly. I had no sooner got the money 
 than again the Devil whispered the suggestion, 
 " After all he is a deceiver, though all appears so 
 fair : you had better take the 30 taels, go home, and 
 see him no more." 
 
 Not long after, Mr. Sung came to my house and 
 said Mr. Hill wanted to see me. Arriving at the 
 city [Mr. Hsi's home is fifteen miles to the south- 
 east of P'ing-yang Fu], I went straight to his house, 
 and soon got an interview. " I want you to help 
 me," said Mr. Hill. I replied, ''I fear I do not 
 understand foreign matters." " It is not foreign 
 matters I want," said he ; "I want you to write 
 essays. Can you do that ?" "Yes." "I want you 
 to read the character. Can you do that ?" "Yes." 
 " I want you to be my teacher for a period. Can 
 you be that ?" "Yes," I replied ; '' all these things 
 I can do." 
 
 I then went home, with the determination quickly 
 to return to Mr. Hill and help him, provided my 
 family were favourable to it. For although by that 
 time my fears of suffering delusion and bewitchment 
 were gone, it was by no means so with my mother 
 and wife ; they were quite alarmed, especially my 
 mother. So much so that I had to go back to Mr, 
 
126 DAYS OF BLESSIN'G. 
 
 Hill and say, " T must at first, if you will excuse me, 
 only be here ten days on trial : my mother is afraid 
 of my coming, and if on returning home after that 
 period she still objects, I must beg of you not to 
 expect me." Mr. Hill gladly consented to this 
 arrangement. At the end of the ten days, on 
 reaching home, my mother, seeing nothing strange 
 about me, ceased to object, and I returned, with her 
 sanction, to Mr. Hill. 
 
 At this time I still smoked opium. I tried to 
 break it off by means of native medicine, but could 
 not; by use of foreign medicine, but failed. At last 
 I saw, in reading the New Testament, that there 
 was a Holy Spirit who could help men. I prayed 
 to God to give me His Holy Spirit. He did what 
 man and medicine could not do ; He enabled me to 
 break off opium smoking. So, my friends, if you 
 would break off opium, don't rely. on medicine, don't 
 lean on man, but trust to God. 
 
 Thanks be to God, He afterwards saved my soul. 
 Mr. Hill led me to the gate, God caused me to enter. 
 I read more of the Testament ; I saw there that 
 Jesus was not a mere man, but God taking on Him 
 flesh. I remember weeping as I read how He died 
 for me. Jesus led me on, and trusting Him I 
 ceased to doubt. At that time there were only three 
 native worshippers. I asked Mr. Hill, by Mr. Sung, 
 as my spokesman, if I could join them in worship. 
 Mr. Hill said to Mr. Sung, " I fear it is yet too early ; 
 I fear lest, coming on too quickly, he will go back 
 too soon." I replied to Mr. Sung, " That I now 
 
TESTIMONY OF MR. CHANG. 
 
 127 
 
 want to worship God is not because of Mr. Hill, but 
 because of God's own teaching ; I know for myself ; 
 I have read His word ; I know my sins are great ; 
 I ought to go to hell. I know, too, that Jesus is 
 able to forgive my sins, able to save me from sin, 
 able to save me from hell, and to give me to live in 
 heaven for ever." 
 
 Mr. Hill returned the answer, " Come, by all 
 means." Returning from worship, Mr. Hill was 
 extremely pleased. Oh ! how kindly he treated 
 me. I loved him as a father, he loved me as a son. 
 I stayed with him two months, and then he had to 
 go ; fast fell the tears as we parted. Do you ask 
 why ? Not only for his own sake, but because I 
 saw this whole region left as sheep without a 
 shepherd. However, in time God sent others. 
 Shortly after, my wife and mother believed ; my 
 wife got healed of illness ; my whole household were 
 at peace. My friends, is not this the grace of 
 Jesus ? 
 
 Mr. Chang Chih-heng. 
 
 When I was eighteen years old, a friend told me 
 I ought to do right and live well. I began fasting 
 and chanting prayers. During that time the 
 thought often came, "Men must die; after death, 
 where do they go? " I was always wretched through 
 this fear of death. The fasting and chanting 
 continued for the space of two years. When I 
 was twenty years old there was a foreigner selling 
 books in K'iih-wu. I bought a gospel of Matthew 
 
128 O-i yS OF BLSSSING. 
 
 and a gospel of Mark, but hardly understood a 
 sentence. 
 
 Four years passed on, and I again heard 
 of an Englishman selling books. I questioned 
 him as to the meaning of " God," and hearing 
 his answer, determined to go to P'ing-yang for 
 instruction. Knocking at the door of the P'ing- 
 yang "Jesus Hall," I was met by Mr. Hsi, and 
 then saw Mr. Hill. After this I heard Mr. Turner 
 preaching from the words, "It is appointed unto 
 men once to die, and after this the judgment." 
 
 This seemed to me very awful ; and more and 
 more did I fear death. He went on to tell us it 
 we wanted to escape the ordeal of the Judgment 
 Day we must "trust Jesus." I only remembered 
 those two words, but they were enough. My 
 mother and wife were much opposed ; I could 
 only tell them, "Well, I believe Jesus died for me.'' 
 Now they both believe. Ever since that time I 
 have had peace, and the fear of death has gone. 
 
 Mr. Chang ChU-hui. 
 
 I am a P'ing-yang man, and all here know me. 
 Before the great famine I was a soldier in the 
 Ho-NAN province. Leaving the army, I got back 
 to P'ing-yang just before the famine began. At 
 the time of the famine, my family being in the 
 greatest distress, Mr. Hill directed three or four 
 thousand cash (twelve to fifteen shillings) to be 
 given me. Some time after, wanting to thank 
 Mr. Hill in person, I called at his house, but found 
 
TESTIMONY OF MR. CITU-HUI. 
 
 129 
 
 he had left P'ing-yang, and had gone to T'ai- 
 yiien. However, I saw Mr. Turner, and, men- 
 tioning the fact to him, he thought of a plan 
 of at once making use of me, and giving me 
 my heart's desire ; he sent me up to T'ai-yiien 
 with letters. 
 
 I then saw Mr. Hill, and he employed me for 
 three months. During that time he taught me 
 to read a good many characters ; I formerly did 
 not know one. Following him to worship once, 
 I heard him sing "Jksus loves me." "Ah," 
 thought I, " he can sing that, but I can't." After 
 the service, Mr. Hill said to me, " Jesus loves not 
 only me, but you." I afterwards followed him to 
 Pekin and Tien-tsin, and there saw him on board 
 the steamer. It was hard indeed to say " Good- 
 bye ; " I never shall forget his parting word, 
 "Jesus is able to forgive your sins. Don't you 
 ever forget this." 
 
 Returning to P'ing-yang, I found there were 
 five men waiting to be baptised. I asked Mr. 
 Turner, through Mr. Sung, if I could be baptised. 
 Mr. Turner said, "No, too early yet ; I don't know 
 if he thoroughly understands." A few days after, 
 standing by the baptistry, Mr. Turner said to me, 
 " Chang Chii-hui, what is this ? What is the 
 meaning of this baptism ? " I said, "This baptistry 
 is, as it were, a tomb ; just as Jesus died on the 
 Cross, was buried and rose, so we — dying to our 
 old life and being buried in the waters of baptism — 
 should rise again to serve God." He said, "Right ! 
 
 K 
 
'30 
 
 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 you may be baptised." One of the former can- 
 didates proving unsuitable, I took his place, and 
 we five were baptised together. 
 
 After this I went with an English missionary 
 selling books in Ho-nan. There we had some 
 strange experiences. The Ho-nan people hate 
 foreigners, and are very fierce ; once we only 
 escaped stoning by the missionary producing his 
 passport. At another time we could get nothing 
 to eat, the people of the town we reached 
 refusing to sell ta us : however, in that pro- 
 vince, God prospering us, we sold thousands 
 of books. 
 
 Two or three years after, being again in P'ing- 
 yang, my wife having died, Mr. Hsi took my 
 little boy and girl and brought them up as his 
 own. Some time after, I said to Mr. Hsi, "I 
 want to do a great work for God ; let me have 
 some of your opium pills and I will start an opium 
 refuge." I first went to K'iih-wu in the south; 
 but afterwards feeling that God would have me 
 work north, I went to Chao-ch'eng in the be- 
 ginning of last year. For two weeks no men 
 came, and my money was nearly all gone ; but 
 I kept praying and believing. God then sent me 
 eight men, they increased in numbers, till there 
 was not room for them ; many of them not 
 only broke off opium, but got their souls saved. 
 A little while after, God gave me to open an 
 opium refuge at Hoh-chau, and in that district, 
 too, God has led souls to Himself, 
 
TESTIMONY OF MR. SUNG. 
 
 131 
 
 Mr. Sung. 
 
 I formerly feared death. On hearing the Taoist 
 doctrines, I determined to enter that sect. I 
 studied their books, and for 25 years abstained 
 from all meat. I, moreover, followed the 
 Buddhists in reciting the incantations. Instead of 
 obtaining peace, my heart became increasingly 
 wretched and unsatisfied. Then came the great 
 famine. 
 
 In the first year of the famine, I saw a boy 
 with the gospel of Matthew ; he lent it to me, 
 and I read it. I was immensely taken with the 
 life of Jesus, but what struck me so was that such 
 a good man should come to such an end. I 
 remember weeping over the story of the crucifixion ; 
 but at that time, though I loved Jesus, I did not 
 know He could save me. Some time after, 
 Mr. Hill came to P'ing-yang; the famine was at 
 its height, my daughter-in-law and daughter both 
 died in the space of three days. At that time 
 Mr. Hill came to my house to ask me to look 
 after a young connection of mine who had been 
 cast out by his parents, and was nearly starved. 
 I told him my circumstances, how a few days 
 before I had lost two children by famine, and in 
 what straits I was. He promised to help me, 
 adding, he would pay for the keep of the child. 
 
 Just before this time, I happened to see a copy 
 of the treaty of the Western Powers with China. 
 I noticed particularly that each western kingdom 
 
132 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 took its year's date from the birth of Jesus 
 (Anno Domini) 1800 odd years ago. On thinking 
 the matter over it came to me, " Well, if the 
 doctrine of Jesus is 'the heavenly doctrine,' is 
 it not right that time should be so reckoned? 
 and will not China, too, soon own His sway?" 
 
 With these thoughts in my mind, I went to 
 Mr. Hill's house to consult about m}' young 
 relation. I there learned that Mr. Hill taught the 
 doctrine of Jesus. At this time I still read 
 incantations. Mr. Hill, on hearing this, told me 
 I had better pray to God. I told him I couldn't 
 pray. He gave me a book called "Questions and 
 Answers on the Heavenly Doctrine." I studied 
 the book for five months ; and from that time I 
 began to pray to God and fully believe in Jesus. 
 
 My wife, however, was still a worshipper of 
 idols, and would recite incantations a hundred 
 times a day. But gradually she listened to my 
 words, and finally became a worshipper of the 
 Heavenly Father. 
 
 Since then we have both richly received God's 
 grace ; formerly we did not get on well together, 
 my temper was bad, and so was hers ; but since 
 we have believed in Jesus we have had the 
 deepest fellowship. 
 
 Mr. Fan. 
 I. am well known to you all; my home is in a 
 village close to Hung-t'ung. When eleven years 
 old I entered a secret society, for I heard that if 
 
TESTIMONY OF MR. TA.V. 
 
 133 
 
 you belonged to that society you could escape 
 calamity. While in this society I burned ever so 
 much incense, and piled up ever so much merit ; 
 but notwithstanding suffered ever so much ca- 
 lamity. I left the society. 
 
 Years after a friend of mine in Hung-t'ung 
 bought a book of a foreigner; its title was "The 
 Three Needs." He showed it me, and told me 
 a little of what it said. I was interested, and 
 determined to go to P'ing-yang to see the foreign 
 teachers. I there saw Mr. Turner and Mr. Drake. 
 Mr. Turner told me of the hope of eternal life, 
 adding, "If you want to obtain this, you must 
 awake to the sense of your danger, for your sins 
 are upon you, and must trust Jesus to be for- 
 given." 
 
 Afterwards Mr. Chang Chii-hui took me to 
 Mr. Hsi's village, where I saw Mr. Hsi ; it was 
 there I received the Holy Spirit. I then knew 
 that idols were false, that Jesus could save, and 
 that the Heavenly Father was the true God. 
 While there Mr. Hsi wrote out a prayer for me ; 
 as I could not read, I could not at iirst use it, 
 but I stayed at Mr. Hsi's house until I was able 
 to read and repeat it, and then returned home, 
 able to pray to God. While at Mr. Hsi's he had 
 told me to go to P'ing-yang and get a New 
 Testament. I accordingly went and got one : 
 on returning to my home, I found that my little 
 child of six years old, while playing in the yard, 
 had been carried off by wolves and eaten. 
 
134 
 
 DA VS OF BLESSING. 
 
 It was a time of deep trial, but I then greatly 
 obtained God's grace, and the Holy Spirit in- 
 fluencing my heart caused me to know the 
 Heavenly Father better. After this, the people 
 in the village wanted me to worship idols; but I 
 would not ; I knew that it was breaking God's 
 laws. The people said, "If you don't we shall 
 meet calamity, we shall get no water; and if so, 
 we will pull down your house." Through God's 
 grace the river water was more than ever, and 
 my faith in God increased. This being so they 
 could not carry out their threats, and from that 
 time I never offered to idols. 
 
 Since then the Devil has counted me as his 
 enemy. I lost two horses and a donkey ; again a 
 wolf took away another of my children, five years 
 old ; my farm had scarcely any crops : year by year 
 he has tried to harm me. This year I lost my only 
 little son by small-pox, and my nephew's son of 
 seven years old was also carried off by the same 
 illness in my house. However, I am deeply thank- 
 ful for God's grace. He constantly gives me 
 opportunities of hearing His teaching. Let the 
 Devil hurt if he will, I know Jesus can save. 
 My whole family is with one heart and mind 
 serving God — that is my great joy. 
 
 Mr. Shih Ch'ing-lan. 
 When I was sixteen I began smoking opium, 
 and continued till I was 27 years old. Mr. 
 Fan exhorted me to give it up, but I would 
 
TESTIMONY OF MR. SHIH. 
 
 135 
 
 not; I used to laugh at him, because at that time 
 I had money. However, shortly after came the 
 famine, and what with heavy opium smoking on 
 the one hand, and the famine prices on the other, 
 I began to be in want. "Well," thought I to 
 myself, "if I don't break off the opium I am a 
 ruined man." I feared the foreign medicine, 
 as men said if you took it you would be 
 bewitched. 
 
 On hearing of Mr. Hsi's medicine I determined 
 to try that. This was the medicine that Mr. Fan, 
 of my village, was using to cure his opium patients. 
 I accordingly went to him. At first Mr. Fan 
 would not receive me to break off opium, though 
 he told me I was at liberty to hear doctrine there. 
 In a little time Mr. Drake came to lead worship 
 at Mr. Fan's ; I heard him preach, and all the 
 more wanted to break off opium. Still Mr. Fan 
 would not receive me. Afterwards Mr. Hsi came ; 
 he said to Mr. Fan, "Why did Jesus come? It 
 was to save sinners ; don't look whether he is 
 good or not, but receive him; it may be the 
 Lord will save him." Mr. Fan consented. 
 
 When I came I was told to pray ; at first I didn't 
 understand ; however, that night I began to pray, 
 and went on about half the night, asking God 
 to help me. God did greatly help, and my cure 
 was effected. When I had been in the opium 
 refuge a few days, my case was getting on so 
 favourably that I went to my father, who is 
 sitting there, and asked him to join me in giving 
 
1 3 6 DAYS OF BLESSING. 
 
 up the drug. He was 63 years of age, and 
 had been an opium smoker 40 years. He had 
 formerly followed a secret society. The Devil 
 tempted him greatly ; he had served him so long 
 that the Devil was loath to give him up. At last 
 another disorder setting in, he determined to get 
 the craving cured. God helped him also. 
 
 When we were cured, we consulted together, and 
 determined to take all our false gods and burn 
 them. From that time we have worshipped God. 
 After that, my uncle, Shih Ta-hsing, seeing us, 
 also broke off opium. Shortly afcer this there 
 Avas a "great gathering" at P'ing-yang Fu. I 
 then went to Mr. Hsi's; he exhorted me never 
 again to smoke opium or worship idols. I told 
 him, I wanted for my lifetime to worship God. 
 After a little the Holy Ghost influenced my 
 heart, and caused me to see that Christ was the 
 Light of the World. The next year my father 
 and I were baptised. I want to praise Jesus for 
 ever and ever. 
 
 Mr. Liu Pao-lix. 
 At first I did not know God. I was a great 
 sinner, fond of cheating men, gambling, and 
 smokmg opium. One day, a friend named Chan. 
 Ho-ching said to me, "Why don't you <xive 
 up opmm smoking, and get your craving 
 cured?" "What!" said I, -have you been 
 bewitched by the foreigners.? You have suffered 
 their deception, and now vou want me to 
 
TESTIMOXY OF MR. IIU. 137 
 
 suffer." He came twice like this. I then began 
 to revile him ; he came again, and got like 
 treatment. 
 
 After he had gone, my conscience began to smite 
 me. I said to myself, "Ah! surely my sins are 
 deep-dyed to treat my friend like this, when he is 
 seeking my good." That night, I said to my wife, 
 "Although I revile Chang Ho-ching, you see his 
 opium smoking is cured. You have such an illness 
 it looks as if you won't live, and I also have disease, 
 and he says God is able to save us." My wife said, 
 "Well, who but God can help us ? But now that 
 you have treated Mr. Chang so badly, I doubt if he 
 will come again." I replied, "If God will indeed 
 help us, Mr. Chang will be sure to come again ; 
 when he does, I will certainly listen to his 
 words." 
 
 Not more than two or three days passed, and he 
 came again : that time I received and treated him 
 well. I said to him, " How did you get your 
 craving cured ? " "Ah ! " he replied, " I fear if I tell 
 you, you won't believe ; if you would believe, your 
 illness and your wife's would both be healed." " I 
 am ready to believe," was my answer. " Well then, 
 if so, you must no more worship these false gods ; 
 in three days' time I am going to Fan village ; 
 do you come there with me and worship the 
 true God." 
 
 Arriving at Fan village, I went to Mr. Fan's 
 house and stayed till my craving was cured ; my 
 heart, however was still wretched. Mr. Fan said to 
 
138 DAYS OF BLESSING. 
 
 me, "I fear your heart is not at rest, you look so 
 miserable." "It is because of my wife's illness," 
 was my reply, " I don't know if she be alive or not." 
 Mr. Fan said, " Let us pray, and soon go to her, and 
 see if we can help." So we went. On our arrival, as 
 soon as I saw her face, I knew that she was a great 
 deal better ; for three or four years past she had not 
 been able to wait on me. She, however, got up and 
 prepared tea for us. I was much struck with this 
 answer to prayer. Returning to Mr. Fan's village, 
 Mr. Fan constantly prayed for me. I could not 
 pray. 
 
 I remember one day hearing a hymn, "Alas! 
 my heart so dark ! " and thinking surely that is- me. 
 Not long after I went to the P'ing-yang Fu great 
 gathering. While there I met Mr. Hsi. He 
 questioned me as to my former life, and then told 
 me of Jesus. I went back to Fan village. Mr. Fan 
 preached on the ten lepers being cleansed, and only 
 one returning to give thanks ; thought I, "I will be 
 one to ''return.' That one in the parable did not 
 forget God's grace, neither will I." I went home 
 and told my wife ; she, too, believed — we were as 
 two raised from the dead. After a little while, 
 Mr. Fan came, accompanied by Mr. Hsi. Mr. Hsi 
 spoke with us, read the Testament and prayed ; 
 when he had finished I prayed, and so did my wife. 
 
 Mr. Hsi was full of joy, saying, " Truly this is the 
 grace of God." As we came to the parting-place on 
 the road, Mr. Hsi knelt down and prayed, and as 
 he prayed he wept ; he told me afterwards that he 
 
TESTIMONY OF MR. LIU. 139 
 
 wept for fear lest I should go back. After some 
 days I heard Mr. Hsi preach ; he said, "We were 
 not saved only for our own benefit, but to save 
 others ; Ave ought to pray for others, set a good 
 example and preach to men the Gospel." 
 
 I went home and began to pray to God for a 
 fellow-helper. Soon a man, with whom I had been 
 on bad terms, asked me how I got cured _of the 
 opium craving. On telling him, he offered to 
 accompany me to Fan village. There, hearing the 
 doctrine, he was converted, came back and opened 
 a worship-hall in his house for our village. The 
 Lord afterwards saved other souls. Truly, this is 
 God's loving-kindness. 
 
 Concluding Words. 
 
 This most interesting meeting then closed with a 
 few words of testimony from Mr. Hudson Taylor. 
 He told us how he was converted, wlien in a 
 careless state of soul, by reading this sentence in a 
 tract — '' the finished work of Christ ; " his mother, 
 many miles away, being in prayer for him at that 
 very time. 
 
 He also spoke of God's faithfulness to him in 
 after life, and the encouragement it was, after 
 twenty years' labour and prayer for Shan-si, to 
 have hstened to the words of testimony which had 
 been given. 
 
THE DRUM TOUER OF A NORTHERN CITY. 
 
ORDINA riON SER VICES. 
 
 141 
 
 Seconb Dag of Conference. 
 
 The next day, Monday, the second and last day 
 of the Conference, Mr. Fan took early prayers, and 
 in his speaking his theme seemed to be "Jesus" 
 right through. 
 
 At eleven o'clock we gathered together for the 
 ordination of native pastors, elders and deacons. 
 
 Mr. Hudson Taylor, inviting the brethren working 
 in the P'ing-yang district to unite with him in the 
 laying on of hands, after a few words of fervent 
 prayer, set Mr. Hsi apart to be a watcher over and 
 feeder of the sheep of God. He was ordained pastor 
 of no particular district ; he has done such an 
 extensive work, and been so owned of God, that it 
 was thought best that he should be considered as 
 free to go anywhere for the work of God in these 
 parts, knowing well how he would be welcomed by 
 all the churches. 
 
 Mr. Sung was then set apart as native pastor of 
 the P'ing-yang Church. 
 
 The ordination of pastors being over, two 
 additional native elders were set apart : Mr. Chang 
 Chih-heng to P'ing-yang, Mr. Shih Ch'ing-lan 
 to Hung-t'ung. 
 
 There were sixteen deacons appointed, of whom 
 only seven were present. Altogether it was felt to 
 be a most solemn service. We ask the prayers of 
 
1^2 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 all friends that a sense of the solemnity of their 
 several charges may increasingly rest upon them. 
 
 The number of members having already begun to 
 thin considerably, it being the busy time of harvest, 
 it was determined to have the Lord's Supper in 
 the afternoon. Of this sacred ordinance over 70 
 partook. The newly-ordained pastor, Mr. Hsi, 
 presided, and Mr. Stanley P. Smith gave an address 
 on, '' This do in remembrance of Me." 
 
 This service finished the Hung-t'ung Conference. 
 Early the next morning some started for P'ing-yang 
 Fu, the others following them the day after. 
 
THE 
 
 P'ING-YANG FU CONFERENCE, 
 
 August ^th and Gth. 
 By Mr. STANLEY P. SMITH. 
 
 THIS Conference was a much smaller one than 
 that at Hung-t'ung, there never being more 
 than 50 people present at the meetings ; but still it 
 was a very profitable one. This gathering was 
 specially held for those who could not get to 
 Hung-t'ung ; but many of them were unable to 
 come owing to the flooded state of the River Fen 
 and other streams. 
 
 The first early morning meeting was taken by 
 Mr. Ch'ii, who has been through much perse- 
 cution for the Lord's sake at Ta-ning Hien, 
 and a Mr. Fan, Mr. Beauchamp's teacher. The 
 midday meeting was led by Mr. Hudson Taylor 
 and Mr. Hsi. It is much to be regretted that the 
 notes taken of this blessed meeting were scanty. 
 The Lord specially helped His servants. 
 
 I then gave a short account of the Hung-t'ung 
 Conference, and Mr. Hsi added a few words of 
 testimony. 
 
144 
 
 DA rS OF BLESSING. 
 
 tTbc 3Be6t JfrleuD. 
 
 " Oh, Christ, He is the fountain, 
 
 " The deep, sweet well of love ! 
 " The streams on earth I've tasted, 
 
 " More deep I'll drink above. 
 " There to an ocean fulness, 
 
 " His mercy doth expand, 
 " And glory, glory dwelleth, 
 
 " In Immanuel's land. 
 
 " Oh, I am my Beloved's, 
 
 " And my Belov'd is mine ! 
 " He brings a poor vile sinner 
 
 " Into His 'house of wine.' 
 " I stand upon His merit ; 
 
 " I know no other stand, 
 " Not e'en where glory dwelleth 
 
 " In Immanuel's land. 
 
 " The Bride eyes not her garment, 
 
 " But her dear Bridegi-oom's face i 
 " I will not gaze at glory, 
 
 " But on my King of Grace — 
 " Not at the crown He giveth, 
 
 " But on His pierced hand : 
 " The Lamb is all the glory 
 
 " Of Immanuel's land." 
 
TESTIMONIES OF NA TIVE BRETHREN. 
 
 14s 
 
 ffurtber IRatlve tlesttmontes. 
 
 THE EVENING MEETING 
 
 was led by Mr. Stevenson, and was a testimony 
 meeting. 
 
 Mr. Stevenson, in his opening remarks, after 
 defining witnessing for Jesus, said, — I can say 
 Jesus is my very best Friend. He has forgiven my 
 sins, and fills my soul with perfect peace. I know 
 He is in my heart. If I did not constantly praise 
 and extol Him, the very stones would cry out 
 against me. 
 
 Mr. Wang. 
 I recently was fond of opium and gambling. Six 
 years ago I was thin and emaciated. See how stout 
 I am now ! This is all God's grace ; others all 
 rejected me ; I had not a friend ; but He saved me. 
 One look at the Cross and I was healed. I hope 
 for a lifetime to put forth strength for God. 
 
 Mr. Tung. 
 
 For seven or eight years I gambled and was fond 
 of using bad language. I spoke with .some of the 
 Christians, but they were not my lot, and I didn't 
 believe in them. One day Mr. Chang Chii-hui left 
 me a book, asking me to read it. I read about 
 Jesus, but although I was interested, I did not 
 
 L 
 
1^6 ^--i y^ OF BLESSING. 
 
 understand the doctrine. Shortly after, Mr. Fan 
 having been beaten by the mandarin, I attended 
 him daily. I heard his words, and also in the chapel 
 attended worship. I then went everywhere trying 
 to find out how to get saved. Now I know that 
 those who repent earnestly and believe in Jesus 
 obtain salvation. 
 
 Mr. Ch'u. 
 
 Brethren and sisters, please hear my words. 
 Formerly I was fond of reading books. Eight years 
 ago a friend of mine of the name of Chang came to 
 Ta-ning Hien and brought with him a gospel of 
 Mark. I was delighted to read this book and its 
 wonders. I thought to myself, " I wonder if there 
 be other books, or is there any society holding 
 these doctrines." The next year I heard that a 
 foreigner — Mr. Hill — had come to P'ing-yang, and 
 that he preached the doctrine of Jesus and gave 
 away books. I always wanted to see him, but never 
 did. A pupil of mine brought two books from 
 P'ing-yang ; I read these two books, and then got 
 to know where the foreigner lived. 
 
 The third year my pupil again returning from 
 P'ing-yang brought with him a New Testament ; 
 afterwards he gave it me. I was always reading it; 
 though I didn't thoroughly underst-and it. I 
 remember reading "the way was narrow and the 
 gate strait that led to life," that " few obtained 
 salvation," and I feared, saying, " Ah, the time is 
 soon coming, and I am not saved." Two years 
 
TESTIMONY OF MR. CH'U. 
 
 147 
 
 after I saw another book, entitled " The Gate of 
 true Doctrine." The next year I wanted much to 
 go to P'ing-yang. Some said Mr. Drake was there, 
 others said he was away. I went to P'ing-yang and 
 there I saw Chang Chih-heng and Mr. Sung ; 
 afterwards I saw Mr. Drake. Mr. Drake said, 
 " Come and stop here ! " I accepted his invitation. 
 I then saw Mr. Hsi and prayed with him. Mr. Drake 
 gave me twelve or thirteen books ; at that time I 
 fully trusted Jesus. 
 
 Arriving again at my home at Ta-ning they were 
 very displeased. Gradually, however, others came 
 to hear and believed too. Mr. Chang, who gave 
 me the first copy of Mark, hearing my words also 
 believed. In the ninth month there was a great 
 gathering at P'ing-yang ; I went to it accompanied 
 by my brother. When I returned home my 
 only child died — my brother also took ill. I 
 was much depressed, and the Devil tempted me 
 that I had been deluded. Shortly afterwards my 
 brother died, but before his death he was always 
 saying, " Thank God ! the Saviour is able to 
 save men." 
 
 The next year, second month, inquiry was 
 made whether I worshipped idols or no. I 
 replied, "No!" Thereupon the inspector of 
 instruction had me beater. He wants now to 
 take away my degree, but I count it as nothing. 
 Jesus has a greater glory in store for me than 
 that. The next month I was baptised. In the 
 eleventh month I was made an elder. Truly, 
 
1 48 DAYS OF BLESSING. 
 
 this salvation is as it were being alive from the 
 dead. We who trust Jesus constantly have 
 peace. 
 
 The next morning this Mr. Ch'ii was ordained 
 pastor of the Ta-ning and Sih-chau district, and 
 five more deacons were appointed. This ended the 
 Conference. 
 
A VISIT TO PASTOR HSI. 
 
 By Mr. STANLEY P. SMITH. 
 
 ON Saturday, August 7th, Mr. Hudson Taylor 
 left P'ing-yang for Han-chung. The ar- 
 rangements made were for him to go to 
 K'iih-wu, a city 40 miles south of P'ing-yang, 
 and there picking up Mr. Beauchamp, Mr. 
 Herbert Hudson Taylor, and Mr. Studd, to proceed 
 west to Han-chung. 
 
 As, however, there were still some matters to be 
 settled with the native pastors, &c., and in going 
 south to K'iih-wu, Mr. Hsi's village would be very 
 little out of the way, Mr. Taylor, in response to 
 Mr. Hsi's invitation, spent Saturday to Monday 
 with him. He went there accompanied by Mr. 
 Stevenson, Dr. Edwards (from T'ai-yiien), and 
 myself. We arrived at 9 p.m., and found a goodly 
 number — some 30 or 40 — assembled at evening 
 prayers. 
 
 The house was nicely prepared for us, the little 
 court covered with an awning, the main room — his 
 
I JO DA YS OF BZESS/A'C. 
 
 worship-hall — being faced with these words in large 
 Chinese characters, " The acceptable year of the 
 Gospel." This worship-hall was, for the time being, 
 our bedroom. 
 
 The next day (Sunday) Mr. Ch'ii and I took 
 morning prayers. Mr. Taylor took the midday 
 service, while in the evening Mr. Stevenson led 
 another testimony meeting. 
 
 Several interesting testimonies were given, 
 amongst them one by a lady, Mr. Hsi's aunt. 
 
 Mrs. Liang. 
 
 I want before the pa-stors and Church members to 
 tell of God's grace. A short time ago, as I was one 
 day entering an oil factory, the inside being dark, 
 I fell into a pit and damaged my leg. After suffering 
 acute pain, and being unable to move, I sought 
 medical aid, but without benefit. One day my 
 nephew told me how that his brother-in-law — Mr. Hsi 
 — trusted in Jesus, and cast out devils, and was much 
 blessed in healing diseases by faith in God. I 
 replied, "If you believe in God, you can invite 
 him." 
 
 My nephew went to invite Mr. Hsi to come. 
 He came, laid his hands on me, and prayed to God. 
 The third day I was healed, and descended from my 
 couch, able to walk. I then believed in the power 
 of God. Of course, I at once cast away my idols, 
 and worshipped the true God. The next year those 
 of my own home and village greatly persecuted me ; 
 they took my husband, too (who is a believer), and 
 
TESTIMONY OF MRS. LIANG. j - j 
 
 beat him terribly. My nephew and I recanted, and, 
 for fear of persecution, offered to the idols. I was 
 immediately smitten with a great illness, and nearly 
 died. 
 
 I again had Mr. Hsi invited. On coming, he 
 warned me, adding, " If in truth you will repent, 
 and no more worship idols, God will certainly forgive 
 you, and your illness will certainly be healed." 
 At that time I firmly determined, " If God will once 
 more save my life — though men should persecute 
 me even to death — I will not again worship those 
 false gods." From that time I truly believed in 
 God ; with my whole body I want to serve Him. 
 At present, however, we have to worship in secret, 
 not daring to do so in public. If we want to do so 
 in public we have to come to this village. I there- 
 fore ask your most earnest prayers on our behalf. 
 
 We were all full of thanksgiving that this lady 
 (without the slightest suggestion on the part of 
 foreigners) should have been led thus to testify for 
 God. Humanly speaking, in China, where the 
 etiquette about ladies is so strict, it was impossible. 
 But this is just an instance of the fact that neither 
 men, nor devils, nor long-established customs, can 
 defeat the purposes of God, or bring to nought His 
 Word. In Ps. Ixviii. ii (r.v.) it reads, " The Lord 
 giveth the Word ; the women that publish the 
 tidings are a great host." Later on, in the Prophets, 
 is the word which was quoted at Pentecost, " On My 
 handmaidens will I pour out My Spirit, and they 
 
DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 shall prophesy." From the birth of Jesus till now, 
 how has God set His seal on these Scriptures ? The 
 first heralder of the Gospel was a woman. Of the 
 aged Anna (Luke ii. 38), this short but sweet and 
 simple testimony is given, " She spake of Him." 
 The Lord hasten the day when "a great host" of 
 His handmaidens in this heathen land may have 
 their tongues loosened for the like hallowed object ! 
 The Lord grant that the same mighty blessing 
 which has attended the preaching of women in 
 home lands may be vouchsafed to their missionary 
 and heathen sisters here ! For never until their lips 
 are opened can the women of China's millions be 
 effectually reached, or the mothers of China cease to 
 be curses to this world in rearing a Christless and 
 God-dishonouring offspring. 
 
THE FAREWELLS. 
 
 By Mr. STANLEY P. SMITH. 
 
 ON Monday morning Mr. Hsi led the Com- 
 munion service, and in the late afternoon 
 we started for K'iih-wu, Mr. Hsi and others 
 accompanying us about three miles. The next day 
 we got to K'uh-wu, and that same day Mr. Taylor, 
 with his son, and Mr. Beauchamp, started for the 
 West, Mr. Studd waiting till the morrow. Their 
 first stage was by moonlight ; we accompanied them 
 out some way. xl few last words of helpful counsel, 
 a few last words of mutual love, a few last words in 
 solemn stillness, as with hands locked in his, we each 
 received his parting blessing ; and the visit to Shan- 
 si — so long expected, so long deferred, but now so 
 blessed in its outcome, so treasured in our hearts — 
 was over. 
 
 What wonder if the thought stole across our 
 minds as we retraced our steps : "A little while and 
 he may come again ! " What wonder if we were 
 led up to think of that more certain return of his 
 Master, or found comfort in the re-assuring words 
 
1^4 DA YS OF BL ESSIKG. 
 
 of Jesus, " It is expedient for you that I go away !" 
 Yes ! it is " expedient." The partings, the separa- 
 tions, the crosses, the disappointments of this world, 
 are all expedient. They are His appointments, 
 therefore they are expedient. They are the inlets 
 to deeper and greater blessings ; they remove from 
 under us the props of the creature, that we may ■ 
 learn to find our heart-rest in leaning on the 
 Creator ; they bid us " seek another country, that 
 is an heavenly ; " they bid us look not at the western 
 hills, behind which, as it were, at Calvary His sun 
 did set in darkness, but gaze with eager eye on 
 eastern skies, where even now the night is yielding, 
 and the first grey streaks of early morn are telhng 
 out our glorious Lord's return ; they lead us on in 
 a natural train of thought to these personal ex- 
 pressions of His love: "If I 'go away' I come 
 again, and will receive you unto Myself, that where 
 I am, there ye may be also." 
 
 A LAST WORD. 
 
 Our Lord is surely coming ; but " till He 
 come" let us of English tongue go forth! — go 
 forth at His command into the world's great 
 harvest-field. 
 
 Thrice, thrice are we the debtors of the heathen 
 world. 
 
 Debtors — for we possess Avhat they have not. 
 
 Debtors — for we have kept back for centuries what 
 should have been given them with generous hand. 
 
 Debtors — for instead of a loaf we have given a 
 stone, instead of a fish a serpent 1 
 
A LAST WORD. 
 
 155 
 
 This weary world cries out for rest — rest which, 
 though it knows not, can alone be found upon the 
 bosom of God. 
 
 Its cry is well-nigh unheeded by the majority. 
 
 This wretched world exclaims for peace — peace 
 which, though it knows not, can only be found 
 through the blood of Christ. 
 
 Lo ! we poison them with spirit ; we drug them 
 with opium. 
 
 Christians ! let us arise and shake off from us 
 the dust of inactivity. Let us to Calvary's hill. 
 Behold He dies ! 
 
 Shall we pass by with heart not wholly won, with 
 life not fitlly yielded, a grace so special and a love 
 so true ? 
 
 No ! it must not — cannot be ! 
 
 His love. His dying love, shall constrain us ; it 
 shall put devotion into our lives ; shall stamp upon 
 our hearts the " All for Jesus " cry ; it shall 
 awake us trumpet-tongued from the grave of sloth, 
 to the risen life of gladsome service. 
 
 Christians ! hark we to His word : " All power 
 is given unto Me in heaven and in earth." 
 
 Christians ! look we upon the open field ! Africa, 
 South America, India, China, the ocean isles which 
 "God so loved ; " for which Christ died. 
 
 And then — the marching orders — His last com- 
 mand that knows no compromise : " Go ye ! and 
 make disciples of all nations." 
 
 Who will miss the privilege of obedience ? 
 
i HILLSIDE ViLLiGE 
 
AFTER THE CONFERENCES. 
 
 By Mr. STANLEY P. SMITH. 
 
 SIH-CHAU, September 1st — Mr. Stevenson and 
 I started with Mr. Hsi on August 23rd, in- 
 tending to take the following route. From Hung- 
 t'ung to Ta-ning, thence to Sang-goh, and then 
 on to Hsiao-i by way of Sih-chau ; at Hsiao-i Mr. 
 Stevenson to leave us and go north to T'ai-yiien, 
 en route for Shanghai, and Mr. Hsi and myself to 
 return to Hung-t'ung by way of Hoh-chau and 
 Chao-ch'eng, then on for a short visit to Yoh-yang 
 and back. 
 
 In these three last places, Hoh-chau, Chao-ch'eng, 
 and Yoh-yang (all in my parish), there are believers 
 and opium refuges. Leaving Hung-t'ung on the 
 23rd we came in three days to Ta-ning Hien ; 
 the country between these two places is of high 
 altitude, the oak-tree being met with, and grass, 
 oats, and potatoes much grown ; we were much 
 reminded of England in seeing cattle and sheep in 
 this pasture land. 
 
I :- 8 DAYS OF BLESSING. 
 
 A good part of the way was through a wild 
 mountain pass, the rocks being very bold and 
 grand, and the stream of a mountain torrent adding 
 much to its beauty. Ta-ning Hien is a very small 
 place surrounded by high hills, but though so 
 " little " it is, it would seem, destined, as Bethlehem, 
 to be an important centre in God's work. The 
 house is of a comfortable size, and most admirably 
 adapted for mission work. 
 
 Mr. Cassels was in this place for four months, 
 and in that short time, with God's blessing, he had 
 not only been instrumental in leading souls to 
 Christ, but of endearing himself very deeply in 
 the hearts of the people — both Christians and 
 heathen. One young man, who was baptised during 
 our visit, himself brought to the Lord by means of 
 Mr. Cassels, told me how when Mr. Cassels went 
 away they all wept. 
 
 The second day at Ta-ning, some of us went out 
 on the street, for there is only one worth the name 
 in this very small country town, while Mr. Stevenson 
 examined the inquirers. It was delightful to hear 
 Mr. Hsi and Mr. Ch'u, both scholars, preaching in 
 the streets, and so evidently with the joy and reality 
 of the Gospel in their hearts, and that, too (in Mr. 
 Ch'ii's case), in the very town where not long ago 
 he had been beaten for not worshipping idols. 
 
 Sang-goh. 
 
 The next day (Saturday) we started, including 
 Mr. Ch'ii, Mr. Chang, the native elder, and some 
 
VISIT TO SANG-GOH. 159 
 
 Other Church members, for Mr. Ch'ii's house, distant 
 some forty li. It had poured in torrents in the 
 night, and as this whole district is composed of 
 precipitous hills, which drain very quickly, the river, 
 along which was the " path " to Mr. Ch'ii's village, 
 was swollen into a roaring cataract, racing down to 
 the equally intractable Yellow River, which last is 
 distant only ten miles from Sang-goh. This made 
 the journey a little longer, and in two places we 
 had to wade, not indeed through the main current, 
 but through some side slack water. In this we 
 were very much more fortunate than the day before 
 reaching Ta-ning ; on that day we had to cross the 
 river 30 times, those who^ were not on beasts 
 wading, the river being low. 
 
 We arrived at Mr. Ch'ii's house in the village of 
 Sang-goh about three o'clock in the afternoon. 
 The first thing that struck the eye as one entered 
 the gate, was a memorial tablet given to his grand- 
 father by grateful patients as a tribute to his medical 
 skill. Entering the courtyard, which is about 15 
 yards square, one is struck by the regular, stone- 
 faced " caves ; " they are on three sides of the square, 
 the fourth side being a wall, and are ten in 
 number, in shape like a small railway tunnel, 
 and go back some 20 feet or more into the soil. 
 We soon gathered with some of the Church 
 members and had prayer and praise. Food 
 was then served. Afterwards the greater part 
 went down towards the river's side to see if there 
 was a suitable place for baptism. A most ad- 
 
1 6o ^A ys OF BLESSING. 
 
 miraWle baptistry was soon found, deep enough 
 for our purposes, and in the evening all returned, 
 looking forward to an outpouring of the Spirit of 
 God on the morrow. 
 
 That evening we had an address by Mr. Hsi, 
 after which there was a public examination of the 
 baptismal candidates by Mr. Stevenson, which con- 
 tinued till past midnight. I have already mentioned 
 the state of the river ; Mr. Ch'ii's house is close to 
 it ; there are converts in villages on both sides 
 scattered along the valley. As some could not 
 come, owing to the river, on Saturday, some Church 
 members were sent off early on Sunday morning to 
 bring them on donkeys. 
 
 Baptism of Nineteen Converts. 
 The first service was taken by Mr. Hsi and Mr. 
 Key. After a little interval Mr. Stevenson gave an 
 admirable address on "Confession with the mouth," 
 and during that address, not only with his mouth, 
 but with face full of the joy of the Lord, he bore 
 witness to Jesus. The address over, Mr. Stevenson 
 further examined the candidates ; their examination 
 was no light test of sincerity. In view of the 
 persecution which has been in this district, they 
 were well forewarned before taking the step of 
 baptism, and many in answer to the question replied 
 they would sooner part with life, if need be, than 
 Jesus. We then had a meeting of Church officers 
 and members to approve of the selected candidates ; 
 they were all, to the number of nineteen, held to be 
 
BAPTISM OF NINETEEN CONVERTS. i6i 
 
 fit for baptism — twelve ef them being men, the rest 
 women. 
 
 Dinner being over, the male candidates walked 
 down in a procession, singing hymns, amongst 
 which were the well-known " Jesus loves me," 
 and " When he cometh." The baptismal service 
 was interspersed with plenty of singing, and 
 two short addresses by Air. Hsi. Although the 
 village of Sang-goh is small, only consisting of 
 twenty families, there were very nearly loo 
 onlookers. Most reverent were they, too, nor was 
 there the slightest interruption. Very impressive 
 and deeply blessed it was to make those hills resound 
 with praises to the one true God, our heavenly 
 Father, and then to see those nineteen publicly 
 profess their faith in Jesus, His only begotten Son, 
 in the rite of baptism. They were baptised by 
 Mr. Stevenson. 
 
 The service at the riverside over, we all returned 
 to Mr. Ch'ii's, where we had a further meeting, 
 which I took. In the evening we had the Lord's 
 Supper, led by the two native pastors, Mr. Hsi and 
 Mr. Ch'ii, after which the meeting was protracted 
 till past II p.m. Mr. Ch'ii's address was very much 
 to the point, urging us all, especially those newly 
 baptised, never to forget Christ crucified. Thus 
 ended a most happy Sabbath. On the Monday 
 morning, Mr. Hsi spoke most helpfully on John xiii., 
 showing us that the Lord washing His disciples' 
 feet must be the spirit that must always energise 
 us if we would win souls to Christ and serve God. 
 
1 62 DAYS OF BLESSING. 
 
 Mr. Stevenson then shortly exhorted the new 
 Church members, and commended them to God in 
 prayer. 
 
 Our stay at Mr. Ch'ii's, though so short, was 
 delightful. There was such an absence of for- 
 mahty, such natural friendliness, one felt quite the 
 home-feeling that should always be present when 
 Christians meet. There were plenty of httle 
 children, too, romping about between times, blind- 
 man's buff being attempted once with them, to the 
 amusement of young and old. Mr. Ch'ii was most 
 lavish in his hospitality ; nothing seemed too good 
 for us, no trouble too great. Knowing we English 
 were meat-eaters, nothing would do but to have a 
 young goat brought in and killed for us — killed in 
 the courtyard, as of old in England. It was quite 
 hard to leave them. Mr. Ch'ii's mother, on being 
 reminded of steadfastness, said at once, " No, my 
 love for Jesus shall never change." This old lady 
 (amongst those who received baptism) has a 
 beautiful face, beaming with the peace and joy that 
 is within. Mr. Ch'ii's wife, alas ! does not yet 
 believe ; she cannot get over her husband suffering 
 persecution. Please pray for her. 
 
 On the return to Ta-ning, Mr. Stevenson paid a 
 visit to a little village where Mr. Cassels had stayed 
 for a short time. He found there several inquirers, 
 and was deeply touched, at a small service he held, 
 on hearing these simple folk, including men, women 
 and children, joining in the Lord's prayer. Yester- 
 day, coming here, we were caught in the rain, so 
 
STREET PREACHING. _ 163 
 
 we stopped here for one day ; in the afternoon it 
 cleared up, and Mr. Hsi, Mr. Ch'ii and myself went 
 out on the main street, and had a single file pro- 
 cession, singing " Jesus loves me." This drew a 
 gathering of about 50 ; we all three then spoke 
 in turn, the people listening most attentively. We 
 came home praising the Lord for His goodness. 
 
 ZiXX out tbe jogtul tlDings. 
 
 " Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound.' 
 
 " Tell out the joyful tidings 
 
 " That once the SAVIOUR told ; 
 " Thro' village, town, and city, 
 
 " His precious truth unfold. 
 " Tell out the joyful tidings, 
 
 ''And publish far and wide 
 "The blessed, blessed story, 
 
 " That Christ for sinners died ! 
 
 " Tell out the joyful tidings, 
 
 " That all His grace may share, 
 " Who, trusting only Jesus, 
 
 " Will come by faith and prayer. 
 " Lift up the trembling mourner, 
 
 " So weak and crushed within ; 
 '•And say, 'The blood of Jesus 
 
 " ' Will cleanse from ev'ry sin.' " 
 
 F. J. Van Alstyne. 
 
164 
 
 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 'mi 
 
 •Irn «i> 
 
HOPE FOR THE FUTURE. 
 
 A Letter from Mr. J. W. STEV£NSON. 
 
 WE are greatly encouraged out here, and are 
 definitely asking and receiving by faith 
 definite blessings for this hungry and thirsty 
 land. We are fully expecting at least loo fresh 
 labourers to arrive in China in 1887. I am happy 
 to think that God is very likely to rebuke our small 
 faith by sending a great many more than the number 
 stated above, " according to His riches in glory by 
 Christ Jesus." The field is opening up most won- 
 derfully, and prayer is being answered for this land. 
 But before the overwhelming flood of blessing that 
 is coming there must be more prayer and more 
 living sacrifices.^ holy and consecrated, offered. 
 
 My visit to Shan-si has been most delightful,, 
 and I am sorry to leave for several reasons. I have 
 met the most of the native Christians in the south 
 of the province. They are warm-hearted and 
 zealous disciples, and some of them are very prayer- 
 ful. I have learned many a lesson of simple trust 
 
1 6 6 DAYS OF BLESSING. 
 
 and faith from them. They are marked by a strong 
 faith in the power of prayer, and no wonder, for 
 they get so many proofs of God's faithfulness in 
 answering that it would be a thankless and useless 
 task to try to explain away the direct help they get 
 from God in answer to prayer ; some of them fast 
 regularly as well as pray. Up to date, loi persons 
 have been baptised upon profession of their faith 
 this year in the P'ing-yang district, and I know and 
 have had conversations with others to the number 
 of about So, who I hope will be baptised 
 shortly. I am not including a great many who 
 have not decided for Christ, though attending 
 services more or less regularly. I had a conference 
 at Chaoch'eng Hien (one of the district cities in Mr. 
 Stanley P. Smith's large parish), to which 53 pro- 
 fessing Christians came ; all stood up to signify that 
 they had decided to follow Christ ; many told the 
 story of their conversion and details connected with 
 persecutions manfully borne for Christ's sake. Yet 
 out of the 53 only 17 are yet baptised. Surely a 
 few facts like these will encourage you to go on 
 praying and working. 
 
 Then another pleasing fact is, that the converts 
 are from a wide extent of country and scattered over 
 g good many districts. Praise God for these lights 
 placed in so many dark places. There is one thing 
 that has pained me, and that is, that so little— 
 almost nothing — is being done for the women in 
 Southern Shan-si. There is work among them 
 notwithstanding : I baptised seven three weeks ago, 
 
NEED OF LADY WORKERS. jdj 
 
 and six a week later in another district. I am long- 
 ing to see, and I am praying hard for it, Mildmay 
 establishments of consecrated and whole-hearted 
 ladies in every province ; we could do with two or 
 three in each province. The great desideratum is 
 competent and fully-consecrated ladies to lead and 
 head such establishments. They can also be found. 
 Praise the Lord ! The influence of such lives 
 among the women of China would be great, and 
 would soon tell in large ingatherings of souls into 
 the kingdom of God. The soul and centre of 
 society being thus touched by Divine power and 
 grace, the whole fabric of heathen society would 
 soon show the mighty influence of womanhood 
 wholly consecrated to Christ. I wish you would 
 pray for this, and when you get among ladies ask 
 them to pray and think about it. The Lord hasten 
 the multitude of women to publish the glad tidings 
 of His love in China. 
 
 Work in the Hiao-i Hien. 
 
 Mr. Stanley P. Smith wrote you of our visit to Ta- 
 ning and Sih-chau, and I want to tell you a little of 
 what happened after we left Sih-chau. After three 
 days' travelling we reached the village of Tao-hsiang 
 after dark ; we had a long climb to get to that 
 mountain village, and were specially delighted with 
 the warm welcome given us. We were put up in a 
 cave, and received every attention from the hospit- 
 able villagers. We were rather a large party, i.e., 
 Mr. Stanley P. Smith, Mr. Key, Mr. Hsi, Mr. Ch'ii, a 
 
1 6 8 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 servant, and myself, but we got packed away com- 
 fortably in the cave. There were two Christian 
 tracts on the wall, which indicated that something 
 was known of the true God, even here. 
 
 Formation of another Country Church. 
 
 The following day (Sunday, September 5th) the 
 inquirers came in from several villages, and the 
 cave was crowded in every part at the services we 
 held. During the day we held a special examina- 
 tion of the candidates for baptism. It would have 
 rejoiced your heart to hear some of the answers by 
 the women, and men as well ; when it was clearly 
 pointed out that their profession would involve 
 them in persecution, and even death might be the 
 outcome, and it was put to them whether in the 
 face of these things they would still continue to be 
 Christians — they eagerly said, '■'•rather let life go 
 than Christ." Jt was glorious to hear such testi- 
 mony from those so recently without the least 
 knowledge of the Gospel. After careful examination 
 ten persons were accepted for baptism and were 
 accordingly baptised during the day. Of this num- 
 ber six were women and four men. In the evening 
 the two native pastors (Hsi and Ch'u) conducted a 
 most impressive Communion service, and thus a 
 church was organised. 
 
 You may ask how the people of this out-of-the- 
 way village heard the Gospel and got interested. It 
 appears that Mr. Ch'ii, the native pastor at Ta-ning, 
 had been visiting some relations near by, a good 
 
WORK AMONG THE HILLS. 169 
 
 while ago, and embraced the opportunity of telling 
 them of his newly-found Saviour and of his joy in 
 the Lord. The people listened with interest and 
 begged for further instruction ; this was given to a 
 limited extent, and the interest increased. A 
 Mr. Li, who is now Mr. Stanley Smith's teacher, 
 visited this village and helped the inquirers a good 
 deal, and later Mr. Cassels left Mr. Chang, an elder 
 at Ta-ning, to help to teach them the way of the 
 Lord more fully. God blessed the efforts of His 
 humble servant, and the foundation of a blessed 
 work, we trust, has been laid, which will grow and 
 extend all over that hill-country. The station is in 
 the Hiao-i Hien (sometimes spelt Usiao-i), and three 
 days from T'ai-yiien, and the same from Sih-chau. 
 
 I am staying here for a few days and hope next 
 week to leave for the coast. I am convinced God is 
 about to do very great things for us, and that floods 
 of blessing will descend upon this dry and thirsty 
 land. I am expecting that we shall hear of good 
 tidings from home soon in revived life and increased 
 consecration of life and substance to the salvation 
 of the heathen. 
 
170 
 
 DA ys OP BZESSTNG. 
 
 
 ENTRANCE TO A GENTLEUANS HOUSE. 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 By J. HUDSON TAYLOR. 
 
 AS some time has elapsed since tlie meetings 
 took place recorded in the foregoing pages, 
 the thought naturally arises, how far have the anti- 
 cipations thus raised been fulfilled ? To this ques- 
 tion the subsequent history of the work affords a 
 most satisfactory answer. 
 
 I. — At T'ai-yuen Fu. 
 Dr. Edwards, writing from T'ai-yiien Fu on 
 September 27th, 1886 (two months after the Special 
 Meetings), says : — 
 
 " Yesterday we were greatly encouraged, as Miss Broomhall's 
 little maid told her she had decided to be a disciple of the LoRD 
 Jesus. In the morning, at our early prayer meeting, Mr. Orr 
 Ewing had asked that at least one soul might be given us, and 
 before the day was out we had the little maid's confession." 
 
 On October 29th, writing from the same station. 
 Miss Gertrude Broomhall wrote as follows : — 
 
 " When I last wrote I told you of one conversion ; I can now 
 tell you of more. Three of the old school-girls have confessed 
 Christ and two women who have come regularly to the Sunday 
 services for some time. These (with the exception of one girl, 
 who has gone to P'ing-yang with Mrs. Bagnall) have been 
 formed into a class. We hope soon to tell you of further 
 additions. GoD is opening doors in this city, I have encouraging 
 times on Monday afternoons, with a number of Manchu women, 
 not far from here." 
 
172 DAYS OF BLESSING. 
 
 On December 23rd, Mr. Orr Ewing writes : — 
 
 " Mr. Sturman and I are living together at the opium refuge 
 (the Memorial Hospital), and, although he of course does all the 
 work, I see a good deal of the patients, and am truly interested 
 in them. They come into our rooms and make themselves quite 
 at home, and we have asked the Lord for the souls of all the 
 patients ; several have been interested in the truth, and one 
 who has all but completed his time is causing us great joy by 
 admitting that he believes in the true doctrine. 
 
 "There are continual answers to prayer week by week, and I 
 feel sure we shall soon be able to tell of many getting blessing. 
 Among the Christians I am certain there is more health of soul, 
 and this is the first step to better work among the unsaved." 
 
 On January 19th, 1887, Mr. Sturman sends us 
 further information of an encouraging character : — 
 
 " I am sure you will be delighted to hear of blessing in the 
 opium refuge. One man, a mason, has come out and confessed 
 Christ. Praise God ! Last Sunday I had just returned from 
 school, and was feeling a little downcast, because of the seeming 
 hardness of the hearts of those to whom I had been speaking. 
 I went to the Lord with it ; a few minutes after this man came 
 and looked in at my window. I asked him in, and, as soon as 
 he was seated, I said to him, ' Why do you not give your heart 
 to God, and let Him hereafter be your MASTER ? ' And he 
 replied with great stress, ' That is just what I wanted to tell you ; 
 I have done it, and I believe fully in jESUS.' 
 
 " I could not help saying, ' Praise GoD ! ' and then went on 
 to talk with him. After a little while he said, ' But my heart is 
 not happy.' I asked why. He said, ' You know I have a 
 brother and mother at home : they do not know about Jesus ; 
 and you say they can only get to heaven by faith in Him ; how 
 could I be happy and see them in hell?' 'Well,' I said, 'you 
 must go home now and tell them what you know, and we will 
 pray for your family, and the Lord may lead them also to 
 believe.' He was delighted about this, and said, ' My brother is 
 religious and recites prayers every night ; if only he would put 
 that hot heart on this Gospel (taking up my New Testament), 
 that would be good ! ' 
 
 " He has gone home now full of joy, and one of the last things 
 he said was, ' My brother smokes opium ; pray that he may also 
 
ENCOURAGEMENT AT THE CAPITAL. 
 
 173 
 
 come here ; then you can teach him, and I can teach my mother 
 at home.' The Lord keep him bright. 
 
 " On Saturday last I had a most interesting man in. He came 
 once before, and seemed very much interested ; but one could 
 not make him feel the real need of a Saviour. He took away 
 a New Testament, and now there are only » few chapters in 
 Revelation that he has not read. He was here fully two hours ; 
 said he always prayed to Buddha, and on one occasion, when almost 
 dying, Buddha ' appeared to me, and I was instantly healed.' 
 
 '• He wanted to have Christ and Buddha, and for a long 
 time was proof against all I could say. At last I said, 'Have 
 you a son?' He said, 'Yes.' 'Well, now,' I said, 'if your 
 son came in here and honoured me as his father, and took 
 no notice of you, how should you like it ? Would it be right or 
 wrong ? ' ' Ah,' he said, lifting both hands, ' that is right. I see it 
 now ; it is wrong to worship a man (for he admitted Buddha was 
 only such) and forget the FATHER of all. I will never worship 
 again any but GoD.' Then, after a most interesting conversa- 
 tion, we had prayer together before he left. The LoRD lead him 
 clearly out into the true light. This is two since last mail upon 
 whose hearts the Spirit is surety working. Praise the Lord ! " 
 
 Again, Mr. Sturman writes on February 7th 
 
 (after giving an account of a visit to the country, 
 
 and mentioning his return to T'ai-yiien Fu) ; — 
 
 " Yesterday, after the afternoon service, four of the men con- 
 fessed faith in the LORD. We do praise God for this. One, 
 who is sick, prayed with Mr. Orr Ewing after some little con- 
 versation. The Lord is with us, there is no doubt about that ; 
 and we are crying to Him to help us in laying hold of the 
 promises. We continue praying daily for the 100 workers." 
 
 II. — In the South. 
 In the southern stations great progress has been 
 made in the work. In the city of Hoh-chau, Misses 
 Reuter and Jacobsen have gone to labour among 
 the women. Writing from Hung-t'ung on No- 
 vember 8th, 1886, Mr. D. E. Hoste says :— 
 
 " Mr. and Mrs. Bagnall are now up at Sih-chau, whither they 
 went at the close of the gathering here, which passed off very 
 
J 7 - DAYS OF BLESSING. 
 
 well. The P'ing-yang Fu gathering was also a good time. Mr. 
 Bagnall baptised three men and three women. At Hung-t'ung 
 Mr. Stanley P. Smith baptised fifty-four men and two women, 
 Praise GoD ! 
 
 " Good news comes from Hiao-i Hien, where Mr. Ch'u has 
 been staying for two or three weeks. He reports some thirty who 
 are interested and anxious to attend worship. 
 
 " Mr. Hsi is very well, and through God's blessing things are 
 all harmonious in the church, with one or two exceptions, 
 There are signs of blessing coming here very soon ; there is a 
 great deal of readiness to hear the Word, and prejudice seems 
 greatly on the wane.'' 
 
 On December 8th, 1886, Mr. Stanley P. Smith 
 writes : — 
 
 " Since I last wTote I have been up to see about the ladies' 
 opium refuge. When they arrive they will find an admirable 
 place awaiting them. You ascend a hill in the town of Hoh- 
 chau ; the houses few, nicely open spaces abounding. At the 
 top of the hill you see an unpretending gate large enough to 
 admit a cart. On entering you see a large courtyard, 50 yards 
 by 20 ; this is theirs. Flanking this on one side are three 
 smaller courtyards — the north, the ladies' courtyard ; the middle, 
 the women's opium refuge ; the south yard, the men's opium 
 refuge, separated by a wall and entered by a door on another 
 side. The rooms are admirable and numerous, I trust next 
 year there will be a glorious work there. I went to visit one 
 village where there was a young Christian, and six or seven 
 young fellows interested ; but was only there at Hoh-chau some 
 three or four days, 
 
 " Later I started for Chao-ch'eng to go round eleven villages* 
 in which there are believers ; it was indeed an interesting time, 
 I saw enough indeed to make one's heart rejoice. In two 
 villages we had a family strip the house of idols ; it was grand, 
 having worship and praise after abolishing their former wretched 
 objects of worship. But the message I felt led to give in every 
 village, as well as the Gospel, was the Lord's coming ; telling 
 them it was good for them to turn from idols, and better to 
 serve the living and true GoD ; but not to forget ' to wait for 
 His Son from Heaven' — that blessed hope, the glorious 
 
 * See map on page 120. 
 
VILLAGE WORK. 
 
 175 
 
 appearing of our great GoD and SAVIOUR, Jesus Cheist. 
 How glorious ! ' caught up,' ' for ever with the Lord ! ' Well 
 may we comfort one another with such words. 
 
 " In most of these little villages they have now chapels or 
 worship-rooms. The blessed work is spreading ; it must ; GoD 
 is with us, nay more, IN us ; and He will work to will and to do 
 His good pleasure, which is to save guilty man.'' 
 
 HiAO-I. 
 
 Mr. Sturman and Mr. Orr Ewing have also visited 
 the Hiao-i Christians. Of this visit Mr. Sturman 
 writes as follows : — 
 
 " On Friday we left for Hiao-i Hien to visit a man who had 
 been a patient. We spent the evening with him, and it was 
 interesting to find him with his New .Testament and hymn 
 book. Though the family were there, he said several times that 
 he was trusting the LORD, but we did not like to see the idols 
 about. I trust that he will come clearly out. He pressed us to 
 stay for a few days and teach him, but we were unable. 
 
 "On Saturday we left for the village where the Christians 
 are, that we might spend Sunday with them. They gave us a 
 royal welcome. On Saturday we had a little gathering, and 
 another on Sunday morning. In the afternoon we went to a 
 village five /«' distant, where two other Christians were living ; 
 we had a very refreshing time there, and returned to the first 
 village for evening service. The LORD gave me great liberty 
 in preaching, especially on the subject of His second coming. 
 Oh, how those dear people's faces beamed as they heard this 
 precious truth, probably for the first time : we had real blessing. 
 
 "After the evening service, the eldest son of the family where 
 we stayed, a man of thirty, confessed his decision to follow the 
 Lord Jesus. We intended leaving very early in the morning, 
 but they were before us, and we had another gathering early 
 before leaving. They besought us to spend a few days there, 
 but we were bound to leave, so they followed us out, and parted 
 with us in tears. It did one good to see such love. Poor 
 people, one feels how much one would enjoy a month with them, 
 to lead them on to know the Lord, for really they are very, 
 very ignorant, though sincere, I feel sure." 
 
 Mr. William Key, writing from Sih-chau, sends 
 us interesting intelligence of the Hiao-i work, and 
 
I y 6 DAYS OF BLESSmG. 
 
 mentions the opening of two new opium refuges, 
 one at Pu Hien, the other at K'o-shih. We hear 
 that in connection with the Pu Hien work twenty 
 or thirty persons are turning to the Lord. 
 
 " We have been cheered by a visit from JVTr. and Mrs. Bagnall, 
 During their stay Mr. Bagnall and I visited Ta-ning, and spent 
 the Sunday at Sang-goh. 
 
 Thirty New Converts at Hiao-i. 
 
 "We found Pastor Ch'ii bright and rejoicing in the Lord. 
 He had stayed about a month with the Hiao-i Christians, and got 
 great blessing. He visited all the villages round, and brought 
 back over thirty names as inquirers. The old man Li, who put 
 us up during our visit, accompanied him and brought their first 
 donation for the work — 1800 cash. 
 
 " Mrs. Key and I have just returned from a vi.sit to Ta-ning. 
 We spent a very happy fortnight with the Christians, visiting 
 seven villages in which we found converts, who were very poor but 
 very pleased to receive us, and did all in their power to make us 
 comfortable. Once or twice we were rather packed at night- 
 six or seven on the brick bed. We had good meetings ; while 
 Mrs. Key was having a meeting with women, Pastor Ch'ia and 1 
 would hold one next door with the men. We had quite a 
 hallelujah time. The Lord is indeed working amongst the 
 villagers, and before long we expect many more will be added 
 to the church. 
 
 Severe Trials. 
 
 " Mr. Yang has had to pass through a severe trial ; he has 
 lately lost his wife and a grown-up daughter ; in the spring he 
 had his child carried off by a wolf. Poor man ! he seems to 
 feel it very much. 
 
 "At Pu Hien a literary man has been converted, and has 
 opened an opium refuge. Another has been opened at K'o-shih, 
 a small town between Hoh-chau and Sih-chau." 
 
 As is usual in every true work for God, we have 
 abundant evidence of Satan trying to hinder. There 
 cannot be so much blessing without much opposition 
 from our watchful foe. We would ask, therefore, 
 the prayers of our readers that the missionaries may 
 
THE HUNG-r UNG CIRCUITS. 
 
 177 
 
 be increasingly blessed, and the native Christians 
 may grow in knowledge and experience and not 
 diminish in evangelistic zeal. The map given on 
 page 120 shows the towns immediately connected 
 with the Hung-t'ung work divided into two circuits. 
 The first circuit, indicated by continuous lines con- 
 necting the out -stations, is visited by Mr. Stanley 
 P. Smith in the first, third, fifth and other corres- 
 ponding months. The second circuit, indicated 
 by dotted lines, he visits in the second, fourth, sixth 
 and corresponding months. Mr. D. E. Hoste, who 
 is labouring with Mr. Smith, visits the same circuits 
 at an intermediate time ; so that now, by great care 
 and labour, the converts in and near these places 
 will have definite instruction from a missionary — 
 though only once a month / May the Lord's 
 blessing richly rest on them, and on all the other 
 Christians connected with the Shan-si work. 
 
 postscript. 
 
 Latest Baptisms, 226. 
 
 While passing the last sheet through the press, a 
 
 telegram, dated Shanghai, May 21st, 1887, has been 
 
 received from Mr. J. W. Stevenson. It informs us 
 
 that in April 226 persons were baptised in Shan-si. 
 
 " To God be the glory, 
 
 " Great things He has done, 
 " So loved He the world 
 
 " That He gave us His Son : 
 "Who yielded His life 
 
 " An atonement for sin, 
 " And opened the life-gate 
 
 " That all may go in." 
 
178 
 
 DA YS OF BLESSING, 
 
DESCRIPTION OF SHA N-SI. 1 7 9 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Extract from "The Middle Kingdom." 
 
 " The province of Shan-si (?>., West of the Hills) lies 
 between Chih-li and Shen-si, and north of Ho-nan ; the 
 Yellow River bounds it on the west and partly on the 
 south, and the Great Wall forms most of the northern 
 frontier. It measures 55,268 square miles, nearly the 
 same as England and Wales, or the State of Illinois. This 
 province is the original seat of the Chinese people ; and 
 many of the places mentioned, and the scenes recorded 
 in theix ancient annals, occurred within its borders. 
 
 "Its rugged surface presents a striking contrast to the 
 level tracts in Chih-li and Shan-tung. The southern 
 portion of Shan-si, including the region down to the 
 Yellow River, in all an area of 30,000 square miles, pre- 
 sents a geological formation of great simphcity from 
 Hwai-king as far north as Ping-ting. The plain around 
 the first named city is bounded on the north by a steep, 
 castellated range of hills, which varies from 1,000 to 
 1,500 feet in height; it has few roads or streams crossing 
 it. On reaching the top, an undulating table-land 
 stretches northward, varying from 2,500 to 3,000 feet 
 above the plain, consisting of coal formation, above the 
 limestone of the lower steep hills. 
 
 ''About 40 miles from those hills, there is a second 
 rise like the first, up which the road takes one to another 
 plateau, nearly 6,000 feet above the sea. This plateau is 
 built up of later rocks, sandstone, shales, and con- 
 glomerates of green, red, yellow, lilac and brown colours, 
 and is deeply eroded by branches of the Tsin River, 
 which finally flow into the Yellow River. This plateau 
 has its north-west border in the Wu-ling pass, beyond 
 
1 8o £>A YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 which begins the descent to the basin of the Fun River. 
 That basin is traversed, near its eastern side, by the Hoh- 
 shan nearly to T'ai-yiien ; its peaks rise to 8,000 feet in 
 some places ; the rocks are granite, and divide the coal 
 measures ; anthracite lying on its eastern side and bitu- 
 minous on the west, as far as the Yellow River, and 
 north as far as Ta-t'ung. On the top of both plateaus is 
 spread the loess deposit, varying in depth from 10 to 
 500 feet, and deeply gullied by water courses in every 
 direction, which expose coal and iron mines. 
 
 "On the eastern side of Shan-si the rocks are made up 
 of ancient formations or deposits of the Silurian age, pre- 
 senting a series of peaks, passes and ranges that render 
 travelling very difficult down to the plain. By these out- 
 lying ranges the province is isolated from Chih-li, as no 
 useful water communication exists. This coal and iron 
 formation is probably the largest in the world, and when 
 railroads open it up to easy access it can be readily worked 
 along the watercourses. 
 
 "The northern part of the province is drained through 
 the rivers ending at Tien-tsin. This elevated region 
 cannot be artificially irrigated, and when the rainfall is 
 too small or too late, the people suffer from famine. The 
 northern and southern prefectures exhibit great diversity 
 in their animal, mineral and vegetable productions. 
 Some of the favourite Imperial hunting grounds are in 
 the north ; from the coal, iron, cinnabar, copper, marble, 
 lapis lazuli, jasper, salt and other minerals which it 
 affords, the inhabitants gain much of their wealth. 
 
 "The principal grains are wheat and millet; there are 
 a large variety of vegetables ; and fruits, such as persim- 
 mons, pears, dates and grapes. The rivers are not large, 
 and almost every one of them is a tributary of the Yellow 
 River. The Fun-ho, about 300 miles long, is the most 
 important, and empties into it near the south-western 
 
THE PRO VINCE OF SNA N-SI. t 8 1 
 
 corner of the province, after draining the central section. 
 East of this stream, as far as the head-waters of those 
 rivers flowng into Chih-li, extends an undulating table- 
 land, having a general altitude of 3,000 feet above the 
 plain. South of it runs the river Kiang, also an affluent 
 of the Yellow River, and near this, in Kiai-chau, is a 
 remarkable deposit of salt, in a shallow lake (eighteen 
 miles long and three broad), which is surrounded by a 
 high wall. 
 
 "The salt is evaporated in the sun, under Government 
 direction, the product bringing in a large revenue ; the 
 adjacent town of Lung-tsiien, containing 80,000 inhabi- 
 tants, is devoted to the business. Salt has been obtained 
 from this region for 2,000 years. The water in some 
 of the springs is only brackish, and used in culinary 
 operations. There are two smaller lakes near the Yellow 
 River. 
 
 "The iron obtained in the lower plateau, in the south- 
 east, near Tsih-chau, is from clay iron ore and spathic 
 ore with hsematite, which occurs in limestone strata at 
 the bottom of the coal formations. It is extracted in a 
 rude manner ; but the produce is equal to any iron in the 
 world, while its price is only about two cents a pound. 
 The working and transportation of coal and iron employ 
 myriads of people, though they are miserably paid. The 
 province barely supplies its own cotton, but woollen gar- 
 ments and sheepskins are produced to make up the 
 demand for clothing. 
 
 "T'ai-yiien Fu, the capital, lies on the northern border 
 of a fertile plain, 3,000 feet above the sea level ; this 
 plain extends about 2,000 square miles, and owes its 
 existence to the gradual filling up of a lake there, the 
 waters having cut their way out, and left the river Fun 
 to drain the surplus. Across the Hoh-shan range lies 
 another basin of equal fertility and mineral wealth, in 
 
1 8 2 DAYS OF BL ESSING. 
 
 Ping-ting chau, where coal, iron, clay and stone exist in 
 unlimited quantities. 
 
 "In the northern part of this province, the Buddhist 
 temples at Wu-tai shan, in T'ai-chau, draw vast crowds 
 of votaries to their shrines. The hills in which they are 
 built rise prominently above the range, and each cele- 
 brated locality is memorialised by its own particular 
 divinity, and the buildings where he is worshipped. The 
 presence of a living Buddha or Gegen, here attracts 
 thousands of Mongols from the north to adore him; their 
 toilsome journey adding to the worth of the visit. Most 
 of the lamas are from the north and west. 
 
 "The region north of this seems to be gradually losing 
 its fertility, owing to the sand which is drifted by 
 north winds from the Ortous steppes; and as all the hills 
 are bare of trees, the whole of Shan-si seems destined to 
 increasing poverty and barrenness. Its inhabitants are 
 shrewd, enterprising traders, as well as frugal agricul- 
 turists ; many of the bankers in the Empire are from 
 its cities. 
 
 "The great roads from Pekin to the south-west and 
 west pass through all the chief towns of this province, 
 and when new probably equalled in engineering and 
 construction anything of the kind ever built by the 
 Romans. The stones with which they are paved average 
 IS inches in thickness. Few regions can exceed in 
 natural difficulties some of the passes over the loess- 
 covered tracts of this province, where the road often 
 winds through miles of narrow cuts in the hght and 
 tenacious soil." 
 
PRINCIPLES OF CHINA INLAND MISSION. ]8^ 
 
 THE CHINA INLAND MISSION. 
 
 Directors : 
 
 J. Hudson Taylor, 8, Pyrland Road, London, N. 
 
 Theodore Howard, Westleigh, Bickley, Kent, 
 
 B. BroOMHALL, Secretary. 
 Charles T. Fishe, Assistant Secretary. 
 
 Bankers : 
 London and County Bank, Lombard Street, London. 
 
 Mbe formeD. 
 
 The China Inland Mission was formed in 1865, 
 because of the overwhelming necessity for some 
 further effort to spread the knowledge of the Gospel 
 among the unevangelized millions of China, and with 
 the definite and avowed purpose of commencing 
 missionary labour in the interior provinces, eleven 
 of which, with an aggregate population of about 
 one hundred and fifty millions, were entirely with- 
 out a Protestant missionary. 
 
 Deeply impressed by the spiritual destitution of 
 China, which at that time had only 97 Protestant 
 missionaries among its hundreds of millions of 
 people, the Rev. J. Hudson Taylor was led to 
 attempt the formation of the China Inland Mission. 
 Referring to this some ten years later, he said ; — 
 
 "There was a little difficulty attending it. I was very 
 anxious that what we did should not appear for a moment to 
 conflict with the worlc of any older societies ; and still more 
 that it should not actually divert any help of any kind from 
 channels already existing, because that would have been no 
 gain to China or to the cause of God ; but that we should 
 have such a method of working given to us as should draw 
 out /resA labourers, who, probably, would not go otherwise ; 
 and should open /i-esA channels of pecuniary aid, which 
 otherwise, perhaps, would not be touched." — From Address 
 delivered at Westminster Chapel, August i^^t/i, 1876. 
 
1 84 DA YS OF BLESSING. 
 
 Jts character. 
 
 Like the British and Foreign Bible Society, and 
 the Young Men's Christian Association, the China 
 Inland Mission is evangelical and unsectarian. This 
 is clearly shown by the fact that duly qualified can- 
 didates for missionary labour are accepted without 
 restriction as to denomination. 
 
 3t6 ageiicg. 
 
 The present staff of foreign workers numbers 
 215, viz.: — missionaries and their wives, 86; un- 
 married missionaries, 129; and ten associates who 
 are working under the direction of the Mission, 
 though independently supported. Besides these 
 there are 117 native helpers, whose whole time is 
 given to Mission work as pastors, evangelists, 
 colporteurs, Bible-women, &c. 
 
 Several of the missionaries, having private pro- 
 perty, have gone out at their own expense, and do 
 not accept anything from the Mission funds. The 
 others have all gone out in dependence upon God 
 for temporal supplies, and with the clear under- 
 standing that the Mission does not guarantee any 
 income whatever, and knowing that, as the Mission 
 does not go into debt, it can only minister to 
 those connected with it as the funds sent in from 
 time to time may allow. 
 
 Ibow supported. 
 
 The missionaries and native helpers are sup- 
 ported, and the rents and other expenses of Mission 
 premises, schools, &c., are met, by contributions 
 sent to the Office of the Mission without personal 
 solicitation, by those who wish to aid in this effort 
 to spread the knowledge of the Gospel throughout 
 China. The income for 1886 was ^^22,149. os. iid. 
 
 Sts success. 
 
 Stations have been opened in ten out of the eleven 
 provinces which were previously without Protestant 
 
PRINCIPLES OF CHINA INLAND MISSION, ig^ 
 
 missionaries ; from one of these, however, the 
 missionaries have had to retire, but continue 
 itinerant work from over the border. The eleventh 
 province has been visited several times, and it is 
 hoped that in it permanent work may soon be 
 begun. 
 
 More than 70 stations and out-stations have 
 been opened, in all of which there are either 
 missionaries or resident native labourers. 
 
 Cbina'6 present neeJ>. 
 
 China at the present time, taken as a whole, has 
 only one missionary to about half-a-million of its 
 people ; while its interior provinces have only a 
 missionary to several millions of the population. 
 
 Daily prayer is being offered that during this 
 year., 1887, God may se7id out 100 additional workers 
 in connection with the China Inland Mission. 
 
 "Cblna's /IRilKons." 
 
 Reports of the work of the Mission and much 
 useful information concerning China, appear in 
 " China's Millions," published monthly by Messrs. 
 Morgan & Scott, 12, Paternoster Buildings, London, 
 price One Penny. 
 
 " China's Millions " may be obtained through 
 any Bookseller ; or direct frem the Offices of the 
 China Inland Mission, post free, for one year, upon 
 sending is. 6d. in postage stamps to the Secretary, 
 4, Pyrland Road, London, N. 
 
 Any further information desired will be gladly 
 supplied upon application to the Secretary. 
 
 A meeting for prayer for China is held eiiery 
 Saturday, at i^ p.m., in the large room of the Mission, 
 2, Pyrland Road, Mildmay, N., to which the friends 
 of the Mission are cordially invited. 
 
 ©races ot tbe ^tsslon : 
 2, 4 and 6, Pyrland Road, Mildmay, London, N. 
 
LIST OF MISSIONARIES. 
 
 MISSIONARIES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CHINA INLAND MISSION. 
 
 "Brethren, Pray for us." 
 
 
 Date of Arrival. 
 
 Date of Arrival. 
 
 J. H. Taylor, Director . 
 
 .. 1854 
 
 Mrs. King 
 
 883 
 
 Mrs. Hudson Taylor . 
 
 .. 1866 
 
 J. Cameron, m.d. (u.s.a,) i 
 
 875 
 
 James Meadows ... . 
 
 .. 1862 
 
 George Nicoll \ 
 
 875 
 
 Mrs. Meadows ... . 
 
 .. 1866 
 
 Mrs. Nicoll i 
 
 879 
 
 George Stott ... . 
 
 .. 1866 
 
 G. W. Clarke 1 
 
 875 
 
 Mrs. Stott 
 
 .. 1870 
 
 Mrs. G. W. Clarke ... i 
 
 880 
 
 J. W. Stevenson ... . 
 
 .. 1866 
 
 J. F. Broumton 1 
 
 875 
 
 Mrs. Stevenson ... 
 
 .. 1866 
 
 Mrs. Broumton ... ... 
 
 879 
 
 J. Williamson 
 
 .. 1866 
 
 G. F. Easton 
 
 875 
 
 Mrs. Williamson ... 
 
 .. 1875 
 
 Mrs. Easton 
 
 881 
 
 W. D. RUDLAND ... 
 
 .. 1866 
 
 Miss E. Wilson 
 
 876 
 
 Mrs. RUDLAND ... . 
 
 .. 1876 
 
 Edward Pearse 
 
 876 
 
 John McCarthy ... 
 
 .. 1867 
 
 Mrs. Pearse 
 
 875 
 
 Mrs. McCarthy ... . 
 
 .. 1867 
 
 George Parker 
 
 876 
 
 J. E. Cardwell ... . 
 
 .. 1868 
 
 Mrs. Parker 
 
 880 
 
 Mrs. Cardwell ... 
 
 .. 1868 
 
 Horace A. Randle ... 
 
 876 
 
 Charles H. Judd ... . 
 
 .. 1868 
 
 Mrs. Randle 
 
 878 
 
 Mrs. JuDD 
 
 .. 1868 
 
 R. J. Landale, m.a. ... 
 
 876 
 
 Miss Turner 
 
 .. 1872 
 
 Miss HORNE 
 
 876 
 
 Fredk. W. Baller 
 
 .. 1873 
 
 Miss J. H. Murray 
 
 [876 
 
 Mrs. Baller 
 
 .. 1866 
 
 Charles G. Moore ... 
 
 [878 
 
 Benj. Bagnall ... . 
 
 .. 1873 
 
 Mrs. Moore 
 
 [878 
 
 Mrs. Bagnall 
 
 .. 1880 
 
 A. C. DORWARD 
 
 1878 
 
 A. W. Douthwaite, m. 
 
 D. 
 
 Samuel R. Clarke ... 
 
 [878 
 
 (U.S.A.) 
 
 .. 1874 
 
 Mrs. S. R. Clarke 
 
 1878 
 
 Mrs. Douthwaite... . 
 
 .. 1874 
 
 Frank Trench 
 
 1878 
 
 Henry Soltau ... . 
 
 .. 1875 
 
 Miss Fanny Boyd 
 
 1878 
 
 Mrs. Soltau . 
 
 .. 1883 
 
 W. L. Elliston 
 
 1878 
 
 George King.. 
 
 •• 1875 
 
 Mrs. Elliston ... ,.. 
 
 1882 
 
LIST OF MISSIONARIES. 
 
 187 
 
 Date of Arrival. 
 
 Date of Ar 
 
 rival. 
 
 Edward Tomalin 
 
 ... 1879 
 
 Mrs. Burnett 
 
 1881 
 
 Mrs. Tomalin... 
 
 1866 
 
 Miss S. Seed 
 
 1883 
 
 John J. Coulthar 
 
 D ... 1879 
 
 Miss L. Malpas 
 
 1883 
 
 Henry W. Hunt 
 
 1879 
 
 A. Langman 
 
 1884 
 
 Mrs. Hunt 
 
 1878 
 
 Thomas King 
 
 1884 
 
 Thos. W. Pigott, 
 
 B.A. ... 1879 
 
 William Key 
 
 1884 
 
 Mrs. Pigott ... 
 
 1882 
 
 Mrs. W. Key 
 
 1884 
 
 W. L. Pruen, l.r.c 
 
 P. ... 1880 
 
 Miss Whitchurch 
 
 884 
 
 Mrs. Pruen ... 
 
 1876 
 
 Mrs. Cheney 
 
 [884 
 
 Mrs. SCHOFIELD 
 
 1880 
 
 Thomas Windsor 
 
 1884 
 
 Mi6s C. M. Kerr 
 
 1880 
 
 Edward Hughesdon ... 
 
 884 
 
 William Cooper 
 
 1881 
 
 Miss Emily Blackv.. ... 
 
 884 
 
 Mrs. Cooper ... 
 
 — 
 
 Miss Emily FosBERY ... 
 
 884 
 
 David Thompson 
 
 1881 
 
 Miss Mary Williams ... 
 
 884 
 
 Mrs. Thompson 
 
 1883 
 
 Chas. H. Hogg 
 
 884 
 
 Arthur Eason 
 
 1881 
 
 J. MCMULLAN 
 
 884 
 
 Mrs. Eason ... 
 
 1881 
 
 John Finlayson 
 
 884 
 
 George Andrew 
 
 .. ..'. 1881 
 
 J. A. Slimmon 
 
 884 
 
 Mrs. Andrew ... 
 
 1882 
 
 Miss Cath. a. Todd ... 
 
 884 
 
 H. Hudson Taylo 
 
 R ... 1881 
 
 Miss Mary Black 
 
 884 
 
 Mrs. H. H. Taylor 
 
 ... 1884 
 
 Miss Annie R. Taylor... 
 
 884 
 
 Miss Mary Evans 
 
 ... 1882 
 
 Miss Ellen A. Barclay 
 
 884 
 
 E. H. Edwards, 
 
 M.B., 
 
 H. Parry, l.r.c.p., &c. 
 
 884 
 
 CM 
 
 1882 
 
 Mrs. Parry 
 
 884 
 
 Mrs. Edwards 
 
 1882 
 
 Miss A. G. Broomhall 
 
 884 
 
 W. Wilson, m.b., c 
 
 M. ... 1882 
 
 A. Hudson Broomhall 
 
 884 
 
 Mrs. Wilson ... 
 
 1883 
 
 Miss Maria Byron 
 
 884 
 
 Mrs. Riley 
 
 1882 
 
 Duncan Kay 
 
 884 
 
 Miss S. Carpenter 
 
 ... 1883 
 
 Mrs. Duncan Kay 
 
 884 
 
 Miss M. Carpente 
 
 R ... 1883 
 
 George Miller 
 
 884 
 
 Fredk. a. Steven 
 
 1883 
 
 William Laughton ... 1 
 
 884 
 
 F. Marcus Wood 
 
 1883 
 
 Mrs. Laughton 
 
 885 
 
 Mrs. Wood 
 
 1883 
 
 Stewart McKee 
 
 884 
 
 Henry Dick ... 
 
 1883 
 
 Thomas Hutton 
 
 884 
 
 Owen Stevenson 
 
 1883 
 
 Mrs. Hutton 
 
 885 
 
 Mrs. Rendall... 
 
 1883 
 
 Charles Horobin ... i 
 
 884 
 
 Miss E. BUTLAND 
 
 1883 
 
 John Reid ] 
 
 884 
 
 Miss J. Black ... 
 
 1883 
 
 Albert Phelps 1 
 
 884 
 
 Miss S. MuiR ... 
 
 1883 
 
 Miss C. K. Murray ... i 
 
 884 
 
 J. H. Sturman 
 
 1883 
 
 Miss M. Murray 1 
 
 884 
 
 W, E. Burnett 
 
 1883 
 
 Miss Macintosh 
 
 884 
 
LIST OF MISSIONARIES. 
 
 Date of Arr 
 
 ival. 
 
 Date of Arrival. 
 
 Miss Agnes Gibson ... i 
 
 884 
 
 Miss E. C. Fenton 
 
 1886 
 
 Miss McFarlane I 
 
 884 
 
 Miss F. R. Kinahan .. 
 
 1886 
 
 Miss Lily Webb i 
 
 884 
 
 Miss Tapscott 
 
 1886 
 
 Miss Alice Drake i 
 
 884 
 
 Miss L. Davis 
 
 1886 
 
 Miss Eleanor Marstok 
 
 884 
 
 Miss C. Littler 
 
 1886 
 
 Herbert L. Norris ... 
 
 884 
 
 Miss Annie Say 
 
 1886 
 
 F. T. Foucar 
 
 885 
 
 Archd. Orr Ewing, Jun 
 
 1886 
 
 T. James 
 
 885 
 
 Eldred S. Sayers 
 
 1886 
 
 John Smith 
 
 885 
 
 Geo. Graham Brown .. 
 
 1886 
 
 Stanley P. Smith, b.a. 
 
 885 
 
 Andrew Wright 
 
 1886 
 
 W. W. Cassels, b.a. ... 
 
 885 
 
 J. C. Stewart, m.d 
 
 
 D. E. HosTE 
 
 885 
 
 (U.S.A.) 
 
 1886 
 
 M. Beauchamp, b.a. ... 
 
 885 
 
 MissH. E.Kings 
 
 i885 
 
 C.H. POLHILL-TURNER... 
 
 [885 
 
 W. S. Johnston 
 
 1887 
 
 A. PoLHILL-TuRNER, B.A. 
 
 [885 
 
 John Brock 
 
 1887 
 
 F. W. K. GULSTON 
 
 [885 
 
 Wm. Russell 
 
 1887 
 
 Richard Gray Owen ... 
 
 1885 
 
 John Darroch 
 
 1887 
 
 Maurice J. Walker ... 
 
 1885 
 
 Miss P. L. Stewart .. 
 
 1887 
 
 T. E. S. Botham 
 
 1885 
 
 Miss G. Muir 
 
 1887 
 
 W.E.Terry 
 
 1885 
 
 Miss Cath. Thomson .. 
 
 1887 
 
 W. T. Beynon 
 
 1885 
 
 Miss Kate McWattere 
 
 1887 
 
 Miss Jennie Webb 
 
 1885 
 
 Miss E. J. Burroughes.. 
 
 1887 
 
 Miss Jane Stevens 
 
 1885 
 
 Miss F. M. Britton .. 
 
 1887 
 
 Webley Hope Gill 
 
 1885 
 
 Miss Emily Johnson .. 
 
 1887 
 
 D. M. Robertson 
 
 1885 
 
 Miss Annie McQuiLLAh 
 
 1887 
 
 J. A. Heal 
 
 1885 
 
 Miss Caroline Gates .. 
 
 1887 
 
 R. Grierson 
 
 1885 
 
 Miss J. A. Miller 
 
 1887 
 
 J. R. Douglas 
 
 1885 
 
 Miss Maggie Mackee .. 
 
 1887 
 
 Maurice Harrison 
 
 1885 
 
 Miss Harriett Parkee 
 
 1887 
 
 Miss J. D. Robertson ... 
 
 1886 
 
 Miss Ella Webber 
 
 1887 
 
 Miss L. E. Hibberd 
 
 1886 
 
 Miss Ada E. Knight .. 
 
 1887 
 
 Miss S. E. Jones 
 
 1886 ■ 
 
 Miss Louisa K. Ellis .. 
 
 1887 
 
 Miss C. P. Clark 
 
 [886 
 
 Alex. Armstrong 
 
 1887 
 
 Miss S. Reuter 
 
 886 
 
 Mrs. Armstrong 
 
 1887 
 
 Miss A. S. Jakobsen ... 
 
 886 
 
 Miss M. E. Scott 
 
 1887 
 
 Miss Sarah Wilson ... 
 
 886 
 
 Miss A. A. Miles 
 
 1887 
 
 Miss Jane C. Oliver ... ] 
 
 886 
 
 Miss H. A. JuDD 
 
 1887 
 
 Miss Emily Taylor ... i 
 
 886 
 
 Miss E. CULVERWELL .. 
 
 1887 
 
 Miss Mary L. Legg .,. ] 
 
 886 
 
 Miss L. M. Forth 
 
 1887 
 
Missionary Literature. 
 
 '■'■Facts are the fingers of God. To kiiow the facts 
 of modern missions is the necessary condition of intelligent 
 interest^ — Dr. Pierson. 
 
 CHINA'S SPIRITUAL NEED AND CLAIMS. 
 
 By J. Hudson Taylor. Cloth gilt 
 
 TtKiio^m paper covers ... ... ... ... X/~ 
 
 CHINA'S MILLIONS. I ^,^ 
 
 r 2/6 
 
 Volume for 1886. Clot A gilt ' 
 
 Ditto, paper boards ... ... ... ... l/D 
 
 /« preparation — 
 
 A MISSIONARY BAND. 1 
 
 A Record of Missionary Consecration, and An Appeal V 3/6 
 for the Evangelisation of the World. New and 1 
 enlarged edition. Cloth gilt J 
 
 Ditto, c/oM 2/6 
 
 X)\'[,'i.o.^ paper boards l/O 
 
"CHINA'S MILLIONS." 
 
 REPORTS OF THE WORK OF THE MISSION, AND MUCH 
 USEFUL INFORMATION CONCERNING CHINA, 
 
 APPEAR IN 
 PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY 
 
 Messrs. MORGAN & SCOTT, 12, Paternoster Buildings, London. 
 
 PRICE ONE PENNY. 
 
 "China's Millions" may be obtained through any 
 Bookseller, or direct from the Offices of the China 
 Inland Mission, post free, for one year, upon sending 
 IS. 6d. in postage stamps to 
 
 THE SECRETARY, 
 
 4, Pyrland Road, London, N. 
 
 Atry further information desired will be gladly supplied 
 upon application to the Secretary. 
 
 HUTCHINGS AND CHOWSLEY, LTD., ST, JOHN'S WOOD N.W.