from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the
covenants of promise, without God and without hope in the world. To
penetrate, somehow, this Chinese wall of prejudice, conceit and
superstition, and pierce, with the sword of the spirit, the hearts
intrenched behind it--to reach, somehow, the myriads not reached, and
to bring them forth from the darkness that they love into the saving
light that now they hate--this was the problem. You can look at it. I
_have_ looked at it--till the sense of helplessness and uselessness
threw me down upon my knees with my heart next door to despair. But
there the still small voice was heard again, the voice of an
_infinite_ Saviour saying, "Be not afraid, only believe." "If ye have
faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say even to _this_
mountain, Remove hence, and it _shall remove_."

But with fresh courage, born of faith, came a conviction that some
change of method,--not as abandoning by any means our schools, but as
introducing new methods, breaking in upon an old and worn routine,
was indispensable. What it should be I could not tell. One could
conceive of several plans of operation, which would be beyond our
reach for lack of means, but to find the work and then the workers,
and still keep inside the line of safe expenditure--this called for a
wisdom which could come to _me_, at any rate, only from above. We
have been seeking this guidance. I say, "we," for I believe that
teachers and helpers have prayed with me for it. We expect it to
come. We venture to hope that we see it coming.

One token is the opening of new fields, especially at San Diego and
Tulare--experiments yet, but hopeful ones. Another token is that in
one, at least, of our helpers evangelistic power seems to appear. Not
without anxiety did I see him brought within the fascination of the
"Holiness Band" and the "Salvation Army," and my fears were not
groundless, as some minor symptoms in his spiritual life clearly
disclosed. But I believe that his Master and ours knew what was going
on and will bring him forth out of it all, unscathed and better
fitted for high service than he has ever been hitherto. At present
he is in Oroville. After being there less than a week he wrote, "God
has given me three souls--one of them at the meeting last night." And
later, Rev. Joseph Adams, pastor of our church there, wrote as
follows: "There is a very blessed work going on among the Chinese
here. After conference with Wong