THE

'HE second attack was regarded by the Christians as more serious than the first. Although their enemies were not so numerous, they were all bad characters, whose object was doubtless plunder. The brethren encouraged themselves in God, remembering past help, and the many promises in his word. Messages were sent to outlying groups of believers, asking their help in prayer.

The day came. The attacking party met in an opium shop to discuss plans. The two brothers, ringleaders in sin, arranged to rendezvous under the spreading branches of a great camphor tree, a short distance from Wu-shih-ping. The people were to gather there by midday, in little groups, so as not to attract too much attention, and invite other eagles to the spoil. The business concluded with wine, a feast and opium. They felt they needed more than their usual stock of courage for the work they had to do.

The day was hot. The way was long. The half drunken crowd meeting under the great camphor tree was tired, quarrelsome, and not at all comfortable in the business they had undertaken. After much noisy talk the ringleaders commenced to draw lots for the division of the spoil. They knew what they were going to get. Beyond cattle, grain and farming tools there was but little to steal.

Still the believers waited and prayed. A lad ran in and reported the rioters gathered under the camphor tree as gambling for their goods, and then they were coming to "shah!" (kill). Now they are coming! A dull roar reached their ears. a sound of blows and smashing wood. What did it mean?

The Christians rushed out and saw down the valley a confused, struggling, yelling,

The leaders had quarrelled over the division of the spoil not yet theirs. Angry words led to blows, sides were taken, and strife raged up and down the little valley, but the wave of war never reached the Christians. The defeated party fled, chased by the victors as far as Stone Gates, bleeding, bruised, wounded, hair torn out, to be received with howls of derision by their friends.

When the Christians reached the spot it was to help their wounded enemies. One of them was dying, beyond human help: a heavy blow had crushed his skull. one of the ringleaders.

It was

This unexpected end of the expedition astonished everyone, and made a great sensation. The Christians again praised God, who had by terrible things in judgment again answered their prayers. The heathen said: "We must let these Jesus men alone; their God is too strong for us."

The result upon the Christian character of the converts was astonishing. They realized as never before that the living God hears prayer. "We will never doubt him again," said one. "Let us gather our money and bring a thank-offering," said another, "and try again to get a mission hall at Stone Gates, so that the people there may hear the gospel oftener."

This proposal met with general acceptance. In a short time $70, then worth about 10 sterling, was subscribed, and a suitable house was found at Stone Gates and fitted for mission use.

WE

E were to have six baptisms after the service. The water in both of the wells at my house was so low that we could not get half enough to fill the pool, and to hire the water carried from the river would be very expensive. What were we to do? It occurred to me that we might go to the river. It is true that no one here ever publicly baptized in the river at Hu City, but what of that? We had God's promises that he would care for us when we are doing his work, and it seemed to me that he had shut us up to this one way, and so I made up my mind that we would follow what seemed to be his leading. The preacher came in about this time, and to my delight, on learning the facts he immediately suggested going to the river.

On Saturday afternoon we went to the river to find a suitable place. We found one near the bridge, and also a man living

The

near by who was willing to give me a room in his house to change my clothes, and so thus far we were prepared. After the service we all went to the place we had chosen and met our first disappointment. man who had promised me his house had become alarmed, and when we arrived refused to let us in. All the time a large crowd was gathering. What were we to do? While we were in the midst of our dilemma two young Chinamen stepped out of the crowd and said, "Will that little house do?" I looked in the direction which they indicated with their chins for they seldom used the hand to point- and there on stilts about ten feet from the ground, was a little house made of bamboo. It was about eight by four feet, and perhaps five feet from floor to roof. The only approach was by a ladder, and through a tiny little door. The whole thing reminded one of a dog

kennel. I accepted, however, and climbed up the ladder.

By this time the crowd had become quite large, for a foreigner will draw a crowd under any circumstances, and much more under these, for here was a foreigner climbing up into this little house. What could it all be about? And so as I changed my clothes I heard them speculating. Some said one thing and some another. The one, however, that struck me the most forcibly, was that I had come to take a bath. It does not seem to occur to them that if this was the sole reason, that a half-hour's walk up the river would have brought me to a place where the water would be clean and the place private. When I came down the crowd had grown still larger. We gathered on the bank and sang a hymn and read the scriptures passages bearing on baptism— and explained them, after which we administered baptism to six men. As this crowd was purely heathen, the audience must have felt very strange. We anticipated a great deal of confusion as this was entirely new and in one of the most public places on the river; but, as it frequently occurs when we are acting in obedience to God's will, it was very quiet, and beyond laughing, there was no disturbance.

The advantages of this public adininistration of baptism are many. It proves the sincerity of the recipient. There are many who are ready to be baptized privately, but when they are prepared to take the step publicly, it is a very sure sign that they are true disciples. Some of the men who were baptized are well known in the city. One of them is a boatman, and in the presence of hundreds of those who knew him- by sight, at least for the river was full of boats, he put on Christ.

Now this may be called a new epoch in our work here. In conversation with resident Chinese, they tell me that less than twenty years ago, when foreign officials had occasion to visit this city on state affairs, the people were so hostile that the utmost precaution

was necessary in order to secure them from danger in going to the yamens. The streets were cleared and soldiers were lined up on either side to protect them. To-day a foreigner can not only traverse the city up and down alone, but he can go to the river and perform baptisms in safety. We may well sing songs of praise and thanksgiving. to Him who is able to bless in such a wonderful way. I am convinced that living in these cities is one of the most forcible agencies for preparing the Chinese to receive the gospel. The missionary lives among them, deals fairly and honestly with them, and in time the distrust which dominated their minds at first, gives way to confidence and friendliness, and they come to regard him as a neighbor. I am glad that I ever chose to come to Hu City to live.

RIOTS AT CHAUCHAUFU

Things have been going on so smoothly for the past year that it began to seem as though our troubles were over in this district, but all at once there came a break in the quiet. First of all in the city. In April and May there was no rain and so the rice crop was suffering. Many of the pools west of the city dried up. This led

to the necessity of turning the waters of the Han river into that section. The place most favorable for this was near the English Presbyterian plant, for there is a canal opening from the river into that district, but owing to the floods that occur so frequently it had become filled with sand. The people, in digging, came so near to the foundations of the wall that the missionary there objected, because it would cause the wall to cave in. The people were desperate, and of course any attempt to hinder them from getting the muchneeded water was calculated to arouse their anger. They therefore threatened to tear down the house and hospital, and actually began to carry their threat into operation by going to the hospital in force. They used their tools and began to batter down

the door which entered from the street. Some of the hospital helpers (natives) became frightened, and took carbolic acid and threw on them. This drove them away, but started the rumor in the city that the foreign devil had thrown fire medicine on them, which was likely to prove fatal. The city, as a result of this report, was very angry, and proclamations were posted at the great Buddhist temple, offering a reward of $500 for the heads of the foreigners, and $300 for the heads of native Christians. But when they saw that the medicine did not prove fatal, but simply raised a few blisters, their anger began to cool off.

In other parts of the district there has been considerable unrest, owing to the high price of rice brought about by the threatened drought. Thieves have become very numerous and are plundering the people. They threatened to destroy our chapel at Phu Ien. I told the brethren to make no attempt to protect it by force, which is too often the disposition of our Christians, and which is liable to get us into endless trouble. The thieves gathered in a body of nearly one thousand, armed with various kinds of war implements, rusty knives, spears, and guns and revolvers of obsolete pattern. They would come and look into the chapel and say, "We are going to pull this chapel down and kill the Christians." I saw the magistrate of the prefecture and told him that I wanted him to protect the chapel, which he promised to do. One very gratifying and encouraging feature of the whole was the bravery of the native Christians. On June 12, when the mob was largest and most angry, thirty out of

thirty-four brethren came together for worship. The chapel was crowded with the mob, and they called the brethren every vile name which they could think of, and threatened them with death, but they were not tempted into saying anything which. would give occasion for them to carry their threats into action, but sat quietly, listening to as much of the gospel as could reach the ears, through the din which was going on around them. At the close of the service they quietly left the chapel for their homes, which vary in distance from the chapel from one to twelve miles. I am very thankful to the Lord for the grace of patience and bravery which he gave to those brethren, for had they showed signs of fear or spoken back, a quarrel might have been started, the evil of which would be hard to foresee. From that time the force of the movement began to abate around Phu Ien. They concluded that the

Jesus doctrine" as they call it, was too weak. His followers will not fight. The last that we heard from them was that they had decided to go to a Roman Catholic chapel, distant from us about five miles; but on arrival there they found the Catholics armed with guns, as well as themselves, and what is more they were armed with modern repeating rifles, and so they concluded that it would not be advantageous to attack them.

It is very quiet just now. Our people do not seem to be any the worse for having encountered this trouble. While many of the Christians are very unsatisfactory, there are many also, who give us great reason for rejoicing.

I

HAVE toured only around the Gologhat station and have visited and preached on not less than seventeen great tea estates, eight of which are larger than the largest tea-garden on this side, and yet have only visited a few so far. Well, what did I find? At Golaghat station I preached in the bazaar to thousands of Assamese villagers, who come in to trade there every week. I sold all the gospels, and distributed as many tracts as I had with me. At Mokrung tea estate I stopped for three days and preached every day in the coolie lines. I was the first missionary to visit and preach there. The power of the gospel was manifested in that on Sunday, the 30th of January, I baptized twenty-two converts. On Monday morning there were nine more who were believing, and wanted to follow Jesus in baptism before I left. So the result here was that thirty-one people were converted and baptized. The manager at the garden promised to build a chapel at once.

At Rangajan I found three Baptist Christians from Midnapore. At this place we preached and prayed, and on Sunday, the 6th inst., I baptized four new believers. So we have now on this garden seven people who began to gather and have meetings by

themselves when I or the workers are not there. At Dygroom we stopped a few days and made the way of salvation known, which resulted in four persons being baptized; among these four, one man who has a little education and will be able to take charge of meetings and do some Christian work. We stopped in many more places, but will only mention one-a great tea estate called Negriling. There are over three thousand coolies employed. After getting permission from the manager we preached the word of God to great crowds. The last night we were there we saw and felt the power of the Holy Spirit working upon the hearts of all that were present; and in the midst of the meeting old men and young men got up on their feet and said: "Sahib, we believe these words, we want to accept that name, Jesus, which you have told us about." As I had my tent close by, I invited all those who wanted to be Christians to gather there, and although it was late at night I had nineteen men in the tent praying to Jesus for salvation. I believe these men were truly converted. I had to leave the next day, yet I promised that I would be back in a few weeks, when they all could be baptized.