Morning Calm v.4 no.40(1893 Oct.)

THE MORNING CALM. No. 40, VOL. IV.] OCTOBER 1893. [Price 1d. The Bishop's Letter. NIU CHWANG: June 1893. DEAR FRIENDS, My last letter left me at Tien Tsin, or rather at the bar twelve miles from Taku, the mouth of the Peiho. For the greater part of the month I have been absent from my diocese. The Minister and Mrs. O'Conor, whose kind invitation I accepted to accompany them to Peking, left H.M.S. Leander at 2 P.M. in a tug which brought us, by the meandering Peiho, to Tien Tsin just before dark. It was a lovely afternoon-a still more lovely evening, and on entering the river I was not sorry to see the train leaving Tong Ku, the station where the railway from Tien Tsin to the Great Wall touches the Peiho five miles from its mouth. One does not mind missing a train when one has had nearly three years’ absence from the fuss and bustle of Waterloo or Victoria. And the muddy river and flat scenery looked almost beautiful on that beautiful evening. After a short stay at Tien Tsin, necessary to complete our preparations for the river trip to Peking, we started, a squadron of five house-boats, and, sailing when the wind was fair, tracking when it was foul, reached Tung Chow in three days. We were still fifteen miles from the capital. That distance, which is done by land, I suffered rather than travelled in a Peking cart, which, with its springless wheels, its very limited accommodation, and its most comfortable seat on the shaft, is indeed a terrible experience. And then the road. Remember it is the high road to the capital, and the daily traffic of carts, camels, coolies, horses, and donkeys is enormous. There is a broad paved way for the whole of these fifteen miles which no one uses if he can help, so tremendous are the ruts and the pitfalls caused by broken stones. The alternative is to make a road for yourself, which every cart and traveller does through the loamy soil, with the result in wet weather which you must travel in a Peking cart to realise. After super-mulish exertions on the part of the good strong beast which dragged my cart through or over all obstacles, we arrived at the east gate of the imperial city just before dark, and after a further ride of four   142 THE MORNING CALM.

miles reached the Legation at about half-past nine. Dinner and bed were all one could think of, and how I enjoyed the rest and quiet of my room during the forenoon of the day following ! But my visit to Peking was made chiefly with a view of seeing Bishop Scott, and consulting him on several important matters which are beginning to demand our attention in Corea. Accordingly on that afternoon I left the hospitable roof of the Legation and made my way to the Church of England Mission, which lies in another quarter of the city about three miles distant. I arrived in time for Evensong (which was in Chinese), and was much impressed with the reverence and attention of the congregation of some thirty present. The canticles, to Gregorian tones, and the hymns, translations of “Ancient and Modern,” were sung with a vigour and accuracy of time and tune which did credit to the organist, a young Chinaman, who played very correctly. On the Sunday following I attended the Chinese celebration of Holy Communion in this church, and afterwards preached at the Legation chapel. There was much in the schools-boys’ and girls’-to interest me. The conditions of Chinese education are so like those of Corea that I could not fail to derive much assistance and advice from our good friends in North China. The work of Miss Marston, the lady doctor, was another point of interest. She has a small but substantial, roomy, and beautifully clean hospital. But I understand that the number of her out-patients is greatly increasing, which involves her in long rides (in those dreadful Peking carts) all over the city. But Miss Marston does not seem to know the meaning of fatigue or sickness. I was thank-ful to note the advance-in every direction, so far as I could see—which the work of this Mission has made since my last visit to Peking three years ago. The good Bishop has his troubles (which Bishop has not ?), but they are the troubles which come of extended responsibilities and the necessity for meeting fresh demands. The North China Mission has lately started a Quarterly Paper, which I recommend all friends of Corea to get from Canon J. Scott, St. John's Vicarage, Leeds. After a delightful and all too short stay in Peking I returned to Tien Tsin, there to await a steamer which would take me to Niu Chwang. I stayed at the Mission-house with my kind friends Mr. and Mrs. Brereton. The Bishop is extending his work here too. Three years ago there was no resident clergyman in Tien Tsin. Now, after a nearly three years' experience of regular ministrations in a hired room, the Bishop has seen his way to procuring land on a very good site, and I found Mr.

THE MORNING CALM. 143

Brereton busy laying the foundations of a temporary church and parsonage. Having once exchanged the terror of living in rented buildings for the security of their own home, they will, I doubt not, do all they can to induce the large and wealthy foreign community of Tien Tsin to build a church worthy of the settlement. Whilst waiting for the steamer I was able to join Mr. Brereton on a most interesting journey, which he was on the point of making to the Great Wall, for the purpose of ascertain-ing what opportunity for work in the immediate future would be afforded by the extension of the railway from Tien Tsin. It already runs to within four miles of the Great Wall, or practically to the point where Bishop Scott's diocese joins mine, in Man-churia. We left Tien Tsin on Monday morning, the 19th, and passing Tong Ku, the station I alluded to at the beginning of my letter, reached Tong Shan, the colliery district, which we passed and arrived at Ku Yeh at about 2 P.M. Here the Tien Tsin line ends, and the Imperial line begins. We changed carriages, got fresh tickets, and reached Lan Chow, the terminus of the line opened as yet to general traffic, at about 5 P.M. Here we were hospitably received by Mr. A. G. Cox, the engineer of that section of the line which lies between Lan Chow and Chang Li. In fact we were now with the engineers, who with their large staff of workmen had charge of the con-struction line, which is nearly finished between Lan Chow and Shan Hai Kwan, the point where the Great Wall comes down to the sea. Beyond that there are some English engineers surveying and making arrangements for carrying on the line (next year) into Shing King. Ultimately it is intended to go to Kirin. The road runs almost uniformly north-east, and over level ground-the chief difficulties, in this province at least, arising from the number of the rivers, which, almost dry in winter, become torrents of wide dimensions during the rainy season. At Lan Chow, for instance, Mr. Cox was constructing a bridge of iron girders resting on limestone piers of great solidity over the river Lan, which falls into the sea some thirty miles south of Lan Chow, whilst it has its source in the mountains of Mongolia, more than 700 miles above the town. The bed of the river here requires a bridge of 2,000 yards to Span it; and so swift is the current and so shifting the sand during the rainy season, that the stone piers have been taken down TO 50 feet below the river-bed, in order to provide them with a solid foundation. The view up the valley of this river, which here emerges from the mountains, is very beautiful. The next

  144 THE MORNING CALM. morning at eight we crossed the ferry, and began our journey on the construction line. The train consisted of an engine and tender, a guard's van, and two trucks, between which was slung an iron girder, which had to be taken that day to a bridge now being constructed near Shan Hai Kwan. We received a welcome in the guard's van, and passing the stations of Shi Mên, An Shan, Chang Li, Lin Shon Ying, and Pei Tai Hoa, arrived at Lo An Chai shortly before noon. Here we were the guests of Mr. Poyntz Ricketts, the engineer of the section between this and the Great Wall. During our stay or two days in his house we took some delightful trips to the sea, which here is only four miles from the line. Mr. Ricketts is the fortunate possessor of a remarkable American organ, out of which we managed to get a considerable amount of music. But it did seem strange in a wholly Chinese village, almost under the shadow of the Great Wall, to be listening to the overture to Wagner's "Meister Singer," Brahm's “Academis Overture," Mendelssohn's Concertos, and Beethoven's Symphonies. The train arriving on Thursday with another girder from Lan Chow, we mounted the guard's van once more and saw the girder to its destination at the extreme limit of the railway. The remaining four miles between this and the Wall Mr. Brereton and I determined to cover by walking. We had just two hours before the train left on its return journey to Lan Chow, so, having seen the girder deposited between its two piers (a very interesting operation), we set out and had a good view of the Wall and of the hole in the Wall through which the railway is to run. Shan Hai Kwan is a large walled camp which contains a permanent garrison of Tartar troops. The famous Wall forms the northern wall of this camp, and then crossing about three miles of plain climbs the mountains, along the crests of which it and its numerous towers may be seen for a great distance. At five we were back on board our train, and with lightened load returning at a speed of between twenty and thirty miles an hour. At9.30 we rested for the night at Lan Chow, and left the following morning for Tong Shan, where we were the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Kinder, who received us with great kindness. Unfortunately our time was too short and the weather was too warm to allow us to explore the famous coal mines which make Tong Shan look as if it were nearer Birmingham than Peking. It is a veritable Black Country Saturday saw us once more in Tien Tsin, and the following Tuesday (27th) brought me my steamer. I took leave of the friends who had been so kind to me, and reached Niu Chwang the next day.   THE MORNING CALM. 145 But I am at the end of the month, and I fear at the end of your patience. Of Niu Chwang I will tell you in my next. With love and my blessing on you all, I am, your affectionate,

• C. J. CORFE.

Association of prayer and Work for Corea. THE following report has been received with much pleasure and gratitude by the General Secretary : - “On August 2nd a sale of work, organised by Mrs. Maximilian Dalison, was held at Hampton Court Palace, in aid of Bishop Corfe's Mission to Corea. “Permission had been obtained by the Lord Chamberlain for the sale to be held in Cardinal Wolsey's fine old kitchen, which is not on view to the public, and which proved a great attraction to the crowds which thronged the sale during the day. "Stalls were held by members of the Hampton Court Palace Branch of Workers for Corea, and Miss Joan Dalison superintended a stall on behalf of the Children's Fund for Corca. "Mrs. Jarley's waxworks were on view at intervals, under the direction of Miss Tate and Mr. J. Tate, and one of the Bishop's brothers organised a small concert. “The total results, financially, amount to ￡55. 5s. 6d. ; out of this sum £18. 9s. was exclusively obtained by the workers belonging to the Children's Branch, who, after deducting their share of expenses, have handed over to Mrs. Goodenough, their President, the sum of £12. 4s. 9d. £12. 4s. 51/2d. having been deducted for all other expenses, the sum of £36. 16s. 6d. is left to be sent to the Secretary, Miss Chambers Hodgetts, as the contribution from Mrs. Dalison's workers for the Central Fund of the Corean Mission. "Considering that this is only the third year of this particular branch of workers for Corea, it must be extremely encouraging to those associated with it to find that the money actually realised by their united exertions in August 1893 exceeds by about ￡30 the sum taken on a similar occasion last August (1892). In gratefully acknowledging all help given by one and by another, special mention must be made of Miss Mager, Mrs. Jack, and Miss May for their unfailing energy and Industry with regard to the valuable amount of needlework sold on the 2nd of August, and this report must not close without   146 THE MORNING CALM. a mention of Mr. Moore's great kindness in conducting the closing auction, without which matters would have been difficult to bring to a satisfactory end. "The following ladies, &c., kindly sent contributions : - Messrs. Ridgeway, Miss Taylor, Miss Wheatley, Mrs. Chamber-lain, Mrs. Townley, Miss Corfe, Mrs. Dawson-Damer, Miss Berners, Miss Fitzroy, Miss Greenside, Mrs. H. P. Tate, Miss Longley, Mrs. Carlton, Miss Ferraby, Mr. Oatway, Mrs. Buchanan, Mrs. Hallett, Miss Fowler, Mr. Corfe, Mr. Boyd, Lady Napier, Mrs. Lee Warner, Mrs. Frederic Gibbons, Miss F. Miller, Mrs. Stafforth, Mrs. Morrell, Mrs. Spencer Fellows, Miss G. M. Gedge, Miss M. Bahn, Miss E. Madan, Mrs. Arthur, Miss F. Pedder, Miss Waring, Miss Welsh, Mrs. Adams, Mrs, Sykes, Mrs. Horsley Palmer, Mrs. Unwin, Miss Unwin, Mrs. Gutch, Mrs. Nevile, Mrs. Last, Mrs. Bullock Webster, Miss A. Richmond." During the month of July, being the time of his annual holiday, the Rev. H. H. Kelly most kindly placed his Sundays at the disposal of the Association for visits to those localities in the north of England where a Corea preacher could then be wel-comed. July 9th he spent at Middlesborough-on-Tees, where he preached both at St. Columba's Mission Church and at the mother church of All Saints'. In the neighbourhood of Leeds he spent July 23rd and 24th, and preached and gave addresses both at Chapeltown and at Harewood ; and on July 30th he preached in the morning and evening, and in the afternoon addressed the children at St. Wilfrid's, Rossall Mission, Newton Heath. Our best thanks are due, not only to Mr. Kelly, but also to the secretaries who secured these opportunities for him to speak about our work, and to the clergy who granted him their pulpits. The General Secretary returned home by September 1st. She hopes to receive a large number of October reports. The following notice of the Gosport Working Guild has been for-warded for insertion by Mrs. York : - “GOSPORT WORKING GUILD. "The members wish to express their regret that Mrs. Grans-more has been obliged to resign her post in this Guild owing to ill health, and they offer their best thanks for the interest she has taken in the Society. “The members of G.W.G. also acknowledge with much gratitude the receipt of a large parcel of valuable work, kindly   THE MORNING CALM. 147 forwarded by Mrs. Elliot, local secretary for Tenby, from the undermentioned ladies :-Mrs. Lewes, Mrs. Dunn, Mrs. Gordon, Mrs. Morley, Mrs. Morris, Mrs. Graham, Mrs. Elliot, Mrs. Drury, Miss Gordon, Miss James, Miss Fletcher, and Mrs. Wilson." M. M. CHAMBERS HODGETTS,

Rowancroft, Exeter. 								Gen. Sec. 

Some notes of a River journey in Corea. (Continued from page 137.) THE day's walk was uneventful, and through much the same kind of country as that we had passed through on the previous day, up hill and down dale, and passing very few villages, but when we got within ten miles of An Tong I felt rather knocked up, and as we were anxious to get in that night I managed to hire a pack-pony for the remainder of the journey. We arrived at An Tong late in the evening ; it is a largish town, and was very full of people as it was market day, and we had some trouble to find a place to sleep in. In the morning we went to see the magistrate, whom I asked to change some silver dollars into the current Corean cash, as we had, unfortunately, started from Seoul with too small a supply of the current money, trusting to being able to change the silver Japanese money easily ; we found it, however, very difficult to do this, and the magistrate here was exceedingly kind in helping us out of our difficulty. Here we got information that the Nak Tong River, whose course we had been following for the previous day and a half, did not become navigable for another forty miles or so, at a village called Nak Tong, from which the river takes it name ; this was a disappointment, but we could not have gained such reliable information without coming as far as An Tong. We were not able to start on our return journey till noon the next day, as we had to stay and thank the magistrate for his kindness, and also to get two ponies to carry back the heavy cash as far as the river. The official was a very civil old gentle-man, and was full of questions. Amongst other things, he wanted to know where he could obtain a set of false teeth, as he had heard that such things were made in Japan. On leaving, he gave us a present of some very fine pears, about two pounds of tobacco, and some persimmons, which, he said, were to help us on our way. Outside An Tong there is a very fine figure of Buddha carved in the rock, the head of the figure being formed of a separate boulder. There are many of these colossal figures   148 THE MORNING CALM. to be found in Corca, relics doubtless of the time when Buddhism was a far greater power in the kingdom than it now is. The dialect of the Kyeng-sang-to people is very peculiar, and the difference of the speech was very soon perceptible, even to my unpractised ears. The sound of it is very nasal, and the Seoul people compare it to the barking of a dog. We reached Tan-yang again on September 25th, after an uneventful journey over the same road by which we had come, and, after depositing the money we had bought in a house by the river-side, and stopping to have a bathe in the river—which was welcome after our quick travelling along the dusty roads—we started at once to walk up the river to Yeng-choun, where we had sent on the boat to wait for us. Nightfall found us a little more than halfway to Yeng-choun, and so we put up for the night at a little wayside inn in a village called Sai-pyel. Here we shared the accommo-dation with a few countrymen and a couple of pedlars returning from a neighbouring market. One old man, after having watched me eat my food in silence, grew very friendly, and came and sat near me to have a talk. He was full of questions, and wanted to know a great deal about foreign nations. His ideas were very primitive. Amongst other things, he asked where the kingdom was situated whose people had only one eye in the middle of their foreheads. I told him that as far as I was aware all mankind had the same number of eyes unless they were deformed, and that there certainly was no kingdom of cyclops. Again, he wanted to know if there was not a country called Nei Narrha, the inhabitants of which were all women, and so fierce that they tore in pieces and devoured any unfortunate male who might be shipwrecked on their coasts. He also declared that in some Western countries the people have a hole right through their stomachs, so that a gentleman who wishes to go out has a pole brought, which is pushed through this hole, and he is thus carried along by a servant at each end. I don’t know whether he believed my contradiction, but he was relieved to know that I had no hole through my stomach, at any rate. The next morning we started off early to rejoin the boat, and reached Yeng-choun soon after nine ; here we found our boat waiting, it having arrived the previous day at noon. We were glad to be on board again, and within an hour were on our way down stream on our return journey. We travelled at a good pace with the stream in our favour, but found that the rapids, though no longer presenting the difficulties they did on the way up stream, yet were very troublesome, as we frequently got a   150 THE MORNING CALM.

thorough wetting from the waves coming over the side into the boat. We were carried through them at a great pace by the force of the water, and the boat needed very careful navigation. The next few days were quite uneventful, except that we had a couple of rainy nights, which swelled the river and increased our pace down the stream ; the thatched roofing of the boat kept the rain out well. Michaelmas Day found us back again at O-kang, the place where the gentleman lived who had treated us so hospitably on our way up. His son got news of our arrival, and came down to the river bank to meet us, to say that his father had put aside a little pig, which he hoped we would accept and take with us to eat on our journey ; this we were glad to do, but when he had brought the pig he said his father wanted us to stay the night there, and not go on till the next day. I was rather unwilling to do this, as I wished to push on, but he would take no refusal, and so we tied up and spent the remainder of the day there very pleasantly. On October 1st we reached a small tributary, known as the Koi-san River, which we tried to go up in order that we might find out whether there were many villages on its banks. We soon found, however, that we could not get far, and, after going about a mile and a half up the water became so shallow that we could go no farther ; moreover, we found only one village on its banks. Returning to the main stream, we arrived next morning at the Ouen-chu tributary ; after going up this some little way we found a Roman Catholic Mission station - the only one we came across during the whole journey. The town of Ouen-chu, the capital of Kang-ouen-to, is about twenty miles from here, but we had no time to visit it. We returned to the main stream the same day, and two more days sufficed to bring us to the place where the large northern branch of the river joins the main stream. (To be continued.) The Spirit of Missions. "THE world lauds and admires Arctic explorers, who, with every ap-pliance that science, ingenuity and lavisb expenditure of money can provide to make them comfortable, spend one or two seasons in Arctic regions ; but very little is heard of the men, and women, too, who, with scanty appliances for making themselves comfortable, spend twenty-five or thirty years, and even their lives in these same regions, that the dark, desolate homes of the natives may receive the light of the Gospel. It takes from $25,000 to $50,000 to fit out an Arctic expedition for two years-to do. what? Perhaps get a few miles farther north than anyone else. But the Church hesitates if asked to provide $10,000 for an Arctic mission."   THE MORNING CALM. 151

The Reverend Dr. Imad-ud-din, one of the missionaries of the C.M.S. at Lahore, is of very noble Mohammedan lineage, and became a convert to Christianity in 1866. Since then he has done much by his learning and devotion for the spread of the faith, is examining chaplain to the Bishop of Lahore, and in 1884 received the degree of D.D. from the Archbishop of Canterbury. Dr. Imad-ud-din was recently invited to attend the so-called "World's Parliament of Religions” at Chicago and read a paper. He declined the invitation to attend, but wrote a very able paper, from which the following account of his own conversion to Christianity is taken: - "Before I go further into the matter in hand, it is necessary that I should refer briefly to myself, for I was myself at one time a Mohammedan, though, by the grace of God, I am now a Christian. I know my forefathers by name for the last thirty generations. They were all Mohammedans, and amongst them have been some renowned champions of the faith of Islam. I was born in the town of Panipat, near Delhi, about the year 1830, and from my earliest youth my steadfast desire was to learn all things concerning Mohammedanism, and to spend my life in its defence and in its propagation. I was sent at the age of sixteen years to Agra for my education, and there I was taught in matters concerning the faith of Islam by men of light and learning and note amongst Mohammedans, and, in order that my secular education should not suffer, I at this time entered as a student in the Government College at Agra, and in that institu-tion I remained five years. Having completed my curriculum in Oriental learning, I passed out of the College with credit. having obtained my degree and testimonials with honour. From boyhood until the year 1860, I most earnestly and true-heartedly observed all the precepts of Mohammedanism in their minutest details with much pain and weariness, and I dived also into the waters of Suffism and tested it. For three years I preached in the Royal Jama Musjid of Agra, and for many years I preached in numberless mosques all over the country. I was a determined opponent of the Christian faith, but I found nothing in Moham-medanism from which an unprejudiced man might in his heart derive true hope and real comfort, though I searched for it earnestly in the Koran, the traditions, and also in Suffism. Rites, ceremonies, and theories I found in abundance, but not the slightest spiritual benefit does a man get by acting on them. He remains fast held in the grip of darkness and death. As the result of much such painful experience, and quite of its own motion, my heart was no longer willing to submit to the profit -  152 THE MORNING CALM. less weariness of Mohammedanism ; nevertheless, I thought none the better of Christianity, nor did I cease to oppose it with all my might. “In 1864 I met an aged, God-fearing, honourable, English layman, who was in Government service, and in conversation with him the talk happened to turn on the true faith-which one is it amongst the many faiths of the world ? He con-tended that the Christian faith is the true one: I maintained GREAT BUDDHA, OUTSIDE NORTH-WEST GATE, SEOUL.

This shrine is situated outside the north-west gate of Seoul, and is a fair representation of the shrines which abound throughout the country. In most cases, as in the above picture, the figures hewn out of the rock, but the shrines are frequently found with only pictures on the walls. Some on these figures are much larger than the one in the picture, the most noted, Miriok, being at Unjin, which is hewn out of the solid rock and stands about 68 feet in height.

that there was not one that was true. All faiths, I held, were merely a collection of the thoughts and customs of men, and that nothing whatever was to be gained by following any of them, and I told him that this observation of mine was the result of years of painstaking and conscientious endeavour and inquiry. ‘But,’ said the gentleman, ‘have you really honestly examined the Christian faith, and have you found it lacking?’ I said, ‘Yes, I have, and I have found it false.’ I lied. He re-   THE MORNING CALM. 153

plied, ‘Is it really true, this, that you say that you have exa-mined Christianity and found it wrong?' Hearing the word ‘true' from his mouth, I was ashamed before God ; and I said, 'Sir, I have not yet myself tested this faith, nor have I as yet read the Bible and informed myself concerning its principles ; but having read all that the Mohammedan contro-versialists have to say against Christianity, on the strength of that I declare that this religion also is false.’ And this really was the true state of the case. He said to me. ‘And what answer will you give to God at the last day? He has given the light of reason to every one, and it is the duty of each man to use the reason God has so given. You have not yet exercised your reason concerning the faith of Christ, and yet you declare it to be false on the strength of the mere statement of others. This is to follow others blindly instead of honestly inquiring for yourself into the matter. ‘ “These words so pierced my heart that from that moment I gave myself up whole-heartedly to examine into the Christian faith. This I did unremittingly for two years, and, having come to the conclusion that the religion of Christ is the true faith, I was baptized on April 29, 1866. From that day to this, for nearly twenty-seven years, it has been my thought night and lay how to rescue Mohammedans from the errors in which they are plunged ; and by the grace of God I have written a number of books, big and little, for their benefit, twenty-four in all. These have been printed and circulated by the Punjab Religious Book Society. A number have passed through several editions, and all are at this time sold over the whole country. Now whatever seemed to me to be necessary to write for Mohamme-dans I have written. I am now engaged on a Life of Christ in Urdu. This will appear in a series of books, of which each will be published as soon as it is ready. The first book of the Series has already appeared, the second is now ready for the Press, and the third is being written. "Even as the Lord has had mercy on me, and has called me Into His Church, in like manner has He shown His grace to many other Mohammedans also, who have now been or are being called by Him." The first number of the new Quarterly Paper of the North China Mission contains the story of a Mr. Chao, who is the main Support and stay of the work in the village of Ta-kuang-chuang. “Many years ago this man's younger brother was admitted as a catechumen, but shortly afterwards lapsed and returned to his

154 THE MORNING CALM. heathen practices and idolatrous worship. Two years ago he paid a visit to our little church at Ping-yin, and while there struck with his pipe a picture of our Lord on the Mount of Beatitudes, at the same time using very improper and abusive language. Within a few days of this occurrence he was suddenly struck dumb, and very shortly afterwards died. Before his death, though quite unable to speak, he was continually pointing with his finger to heaven, and endeavouring to assume the exact attitude of our Lord, as shown in the picture he had previously insulted. This remarkable incident made such a deep impression upon the elder brother that he resolved to become a Christian at once, and he is now the chief stay and support of our work in this village of Ta-kuang-chuang. With the Bishop's permission we are about to commence a day school for boys in the village, when the above-mentioned Mr. Chao will act as schoolmaster, and conduct the daily service in the temporary church set apart for that purpose." The same paper gives an account of the dispensary work at Tai-an, the centre of the district in which Ta-kuang-chuang is, by the Rev. G. D. lliff. "Regular dispensary work," he says, “was begun in Tai-an more by accident than intentionally. When I came out from England I brought two small boxes of drugs with me, rather for the purpose of doctoring our own people than for doing any definite work among outsiders. At first this intention was kept to, but after a while the question came up, where the line was to be drawn? Whether the relatives of those on our compound should receive medicines when they needed them? This being decided in their favours, it had next to be settled whether the friends of those friends might not be included, and so on, until finally whoever wanted medicine had to have it if we had it to give them. This soon became a nuisance, as people came at all hours and on all days ; so finally it was fixed to see patients on the afternoon of every fifth day, viz. the 3rd, 8th, 13th, 18th &c. of every Chinese month. This rule was adopted in November 1890. The number of patients was never very great during the first few months, seldom exceeding fifty. It was during my absence in Peking in the following summer that the numbers increased so much. The work was then under the care of Mr. Tung (formerly a pupil in the Peking school), who had received a medical train-ing at the American Presbyterian Mission there. During the summer that he was here there were often as many as 150 patients on one afternoon. In September he left Tai-an, and   THE MORNING CALM. 155 for two months no medical work was done. After my return, it took some time for patients to come in large numbers ; but in the summer of this year (1892) we frequently had over a hundred on one day, though seldom as many as Mr. Tung had during the previous summer. The Chinese evidently prefer one of their own race to doctor them to a foreigner. Since my return I have had several cases of opium-smoking on hand. They are very hard to manage as a rule, because they are not enough in earnest to put up with a little inconvenience to get rid of the habit. Some of them went on with the treat-ment for several weeks, but only eight out of twenty allowed themselves to be entirely cured. The number of opium-Smokers in Tai-an is something appalling-one in five would be a very moderate estimate, so Chinamen tell me. But to continue this work we must have far more convenience than we have at present, as opium-smokers are distinctly a difficult class of people to deal with. Another set of cases with which we frequently have to deal is that of attempted suicides by taking poison-chiefly opium or arsenic. These come at all hours of the day and night. The Chinese, as a rule, have very little control over their tempers, and if a man gets the worst of a quarrel, the first thing which occurs to him seems to be to commit suicide, because his adversary, according to the Chinese law, is in such a case to a certain extent answerable for his death. This peculiar legislation is answerable for a vast number of deaths every year. The following list will give an estimate of the work done during the present year: - Dispensary opened 58 days ; also 4 visits to Ping-yin: Total number of cases, 2.763 ; total number of attendances, 3770 ; opium-smokers, 22 (about 8 successful, 2 still on hand); attempted suicides by poisoning, 27 (2 died). It only remains for me to say that I feel convinced that a Medical Mission in Tai-an would be a vast assistance to the work of preaching. Hitherto the work has done little more than do away with prejudice and win goodwill, but I think that even to accomplish this is a great gain, for unless we first have the goodwill of the hearers, our preaching is not likely to have great effect." We are glad to see that the Mission is looking for a qualified doctor to take up the work, and hope that one may be very soon found. There is already a lady doctor, Miss Alice Marston, Working at Peking, with another English lady as dispenser, and a Chinese lady as assistant.   156 THE MORNING CALM. “One of the most common misconceptions regarding the S.P.G. is that it is mainly a Society for Colonial work, and that its missions to the heathen are, so to speak, after-thoughts. In point of fact, it has in intention always been a Missionary Society. It is quite true that its extensive missions in India date from 1825, when it took over the whole of the old S.P.C.K. missions, and that most of its other existing missions to the heathen have been undertaken since. But important work was done in the last century, especially in British America, both in the Colonies which are now the United States and in Canada and the West Indies. Not only were clergymen sent out to minister to the settlers, who added to their primary work efforts to evangelise the Red Indians, but others were sent directly to the Indians, and also to the large negro population. Even in Africa some little work was done. Very few persons are aware that the first English missionary to West Africa was sent out by S.P.G. half a century before C.M.S. was founded. The Rev. T. Thompson resigned his fellowship at Christ's College, Cambridge, to go to New Jersey in 1745, and in 1750 he offered to go to the Gold Coast, and arrived there in 1752. After three or four years' work, ill health com-pelled him to return home. But he had previously sent to England three negro boys, one of whom, Philip Quaque, was, says the compiler of this book, ‘the first of any non-European race since the Reformation to receive Anglican ordination.' He laboured many years at Cape Coast Castle. "It should also be noted that, although the S.P.G. missions to the heathen are not on so large a scale as those of C.M.S., yet they are more extensive. In no field occupied by C.M.S. has the S.P.G. been unrepresented, except the Mohammedan lands of the East, Eastern Equatorial Africa, and the more northern dioceses of North-West America ; whereas it is re-presented, in addition, in Central America, South Africa, Madagascar, the South Seas, Burmah, Malaysia, and Corea. Some portions of the work, however, are not strictly under the direction of the Society, its part consisting in money grants to support local missions. For instance, the Melanesian Mission appears in this book as having been an S.P.G. Mission up to 1881. We do not refer to this mode of work as in the least disparaging it. It is a perfectly legitimate method, but the fact has to be remembered in comparing S.P.G. statistics with those of other societies which undertake the entire administra-tion, and whose missionaries are solely supported by them."-From a very appreciative review in the C.M. Intelligencer of the "Digest of the Records of the S.P.G."