t in its
beginnings.

* * * * *

THE CHINESE.

* * * * *

THE OUTLOOK.

REV. W. C. POND.

With the beginning of a new fiscal year there came to me a deep sense
of dissatisfaction with the present status of our work--a sadness
which almost touched the borders of discouragement at the decrease in
attendance on our schools, and the lack of eager outreaching and
aggressive endeavor on the part of us all--Superintendent, Teachers
and Chinese helpers,--all alike. The methods, which had been so
strikingly efficient in years past, seemed to be failing us now. We
were settled down into them, as ruts; and, no matter how slow or hard
or fruitless our movements along the old line, it seemed impossible
to see what else to do, or how we could strike out into new paths, or
plan any material change in the ordering of our campaign.

Sometimes the question would arise; Is our work done? Has the
Restriction Act, which for the present diminishes so greatly the
incoming of fresh recruits for our schools, rung the knell of our
missionary success? But to this question only one answer was
possible. Even if, looking out from a stand-point of consummate
Calvinism, we should venture to decide that the Lord's elect among
the Chinese in California had all been gathered in, there were,
nevertheless, these little flocks of Christ's own sheep and lambs
already gathered that must not be left without a shepherd's care.
Surely there is a duty that we owe to these, and to leave them
untended in this wilderness would be to count ourselves in among the
goats on the left hand of the Judge.

But no Calvinism of any sort--and certainly not of our sort--gives us
any basis for such an unchristian decision. We cannot shelter behind
it, and think to retire with honor when we have as yet only
skirmished on the edges of the field. For the Chinese heathenism of
California remains to-day, so far as we can see, substantially a
solid mass, without any fissure, though not without a scar. Many
chips have been struck off from it, and for these we bless God; but
the rock-like hardness of the Chinese heart remains substantially
unbroken. Say that all our missions have reached, in the aggregate,
5,000 of these souls--there remain 65,000 virtually untouched.
Suppose that we could count 1,000 born of God in all the missions
(and this would be a large estimate) there remain 69,000 that are
still aliens