ITINERATING BOAT OF REV. A. A. FULTON, D.D. CANTON, CHINA. DR. FULTON, PREACHERS AND CHRISTIAN BOYS ON BOAT WHICH HAS BEEN IN SERVICE SINCE 1901 THE CHINA OF TO-DAY THEN AND NOW We have met travelers who have visited Canton, and have seen absolutely nothing of the missionary work of the Presbyterian Church. They have seen the thousands upon thousands of boats of every kind crowded upon the river, and they have gone through the reeking streets, and smelt the incense burning in the temples and seen the half naked masses of busy people toiling under the burden that is called life. They have heard the unintelligible clamor of the strange tongue, and been dazed by the great yellow, sodden rush of human movement like the tidal ebb and flow of the muddy river, and they come away thinking and saying that the idea of pene- trating and transforming all this by Christianity, is a delusion. They would think and speak differently if they had seen what we had seen, and especially if they were able to compare it, as I can, with conditions of fifteen or twenty years ago. Then, most of the work which is now carried on did not exist. No such crowded company of eager listeners could have been gathered as met one wet night in the Second Church of Canton and there would then have been no re- sponse at all to a call for immediate de- cisions for Christ and His Church. Then. I think, there was scarcely an in- dependent or self-supporting church in the province ; now there are many, and the great work of propagating Chris- tianity is being carried forward by Chinese Christians themselves. Then, even in Canton, exposed for a hundred years to Western influences, the old stagnant ideals were still dominant, and all inclusive ; now, the yeast of new principles has sunk down deep into the great mass of Chinese thought and feel- ing, and though the mass looks still the same, the ferment of the new life is there. Happy ought we to be to whom God has given so large a share in a work so great, and ive ought to be ready also, as the greatest and most successful propagator of Christianity said he was, to do whatever is in our pozver, and to make zvhatcver sacrifice may be required, in order that the great opportunities of these days may not be allowed to slip by. * * * * P'rom Peking, the old capital of the Manchus, dirty, decrepit, unchanging, we came out across great pitiful acres where one of China’s wandering rivers had left its old bed, and was roaming lawlessly across the country, spreading ruin over hundreds of square miles. With the mud piled deep over their farms, the people were warring with the stream, to shut it back into servitude. All the rest of the day to Shan Hai Kuan we crossed broad plains like our own north- west, with millet instead of corn. The train stopped for the night at Shan Hai Knan, and we went out in the moonlight to the great wall of China, and walked along its battlements and looked away at its dim outline crossing the plain and climbing the great hills. It possessed still the massive, solid grandeur of its past but it lay there in the dim light crumbling away in decay and neglect, un- related to the great movement and uses of humanity, rich in memory and stuff for human service but dumb, unlighted. What truer symbol of China could there be? It is day time now and the rich autumn sunshine is falling on the farmers gather- ing in their crops and zve sec poor, huge China like the zmll, zvandering, in the half light and no zvhither. Robert E. Speer. Note — Sec'y Robt. E. Speer and parly have just returned from a visit to China, Japan, Siam and the Philippines. 4 Dr. and Mrs. V. E. Yang. Dr. Yang, a former stu- dent of Ilanchow College, is now a powerful evangelist whoso message has quickened many Christians and won many to the Saviour. 5 CHINESE CHRISTIANS AND EVANGELISM J'lie situation in China to-day for the work of the evangelist is not one which permits thoughtless, highly colored, over- enthusiastic optimism. We are in the midst of a great battle and the line sways hack and forth. On the desk as I write there lie letters from six jn'ovinccs answering questions about the evangel- istic work, and there are shadow's in the reports as well as sunlight. Attacks which we hoped w'ould sweep all before them have w’on only the first trenches. Positions w’hich we thought abandoned by the enemy have been occupied again. Many of us must now' admit that we over estimated the present direct value to Christian work of the great intel- lectual and social movements of recent years. But when all admissions which the situation calls for have been made and we face conditions as they are rather than as we wish they were, one is justi- fied in speaking in strong terms of the evangelistic opportunity. From each of the six provinces referred to come re- ports of greater w’illingness on the part of people of all classes to give the gos- pel a hearing. The country districts in all directions are opening rapidly to Christian influence. There has been a verv marked change in this respect in G the report which comes from Hzvai Yuen in north AnHwe province. From Nan- king comes the news that in the large county seats wlienever there have been evangelistic meetings the attendance has been quite large, and in centres where the work has been in progress for some time the number of inquirers is very satisfactory. In the Lui Chow peninsula, just opposite the island of Hainan and territorially a part of that mission, an itinerant missionary found a number of inquirers although there is neither Chin- ese nor foreign evangelist resident in The thorough fai-e on which the street Chapel in Soochow is located. It ieads to the city gate and is aiways crowded, 7 that region. Soochozv reports a far greater openness among the country peo- ple than five years ago, and in a city centre large attendance at preaching service four nights each week. Dr. Shoemaker of Yu Yao, Chekiang, says, “there is certainly an unusual openness of approach to the old scholar class. The ladies are well received in the homes of the leading families, and sons of the oldest and most aristocratic families are being sent to Christian schools even at the risk of being won away from the faith of their fathers. The people in the country districts give the gospel a more respectful and interested hearing than formerly. Some of our country congre- gations have made a marked growth lately, and it seems to be spontaneous.” My personal observation in our Hang- chow field is similar. A feiv specific instances drawn from our Hangchow field, probably typical, are indicative of the new opportunity to get a careful hearing for the gospel. In a district in the mountains a hundred or more miles south, one of the Chinese evangelists was asked by the county magistrate to help in settling peaceably a long standing feud in a mountain dis- trict. He succeeded in doing so and came into close contact with the leaders of the clan, who were evidently im- pressed with the possibility of what the gospel might do for their community. 8 As a result they asked that work be opened, gave a temple for the preach- ing hall and another building for a school. They are bearing the expenses of the school and have promised to give to the church the deeds for two acres of farm land now held as public property. A school and a night school are running regularly and there are a large number of the people under instruction as in- quirers. As I write we have just closed a series of night evangelistic meetings in one of our city chapels. Eliminating the little children and a certain proportion for those adults who did remain for any length of time, we had by actual count a total attendance of nearly sixteen hun- dred. On the closing night sixty signed cards for Bible study and at the first date set for classes twenty-seven of these appeared. One of the significant opportunities in cz