to be that he should not drink
it. Sometimes, after the service begins, I see the native preacher
come slyly up, as if he did not mean anything at all; and he walks
up to the teapot, and lifts the lid quite quietly, and slips that
tea back into the pot again, and puts on the lid and warms it up,
and it is ready for the next man who comes.

'If you get into conversation with one man, the congregation is,
for the most part, practically secured, because, though a Chinaman
is very much afraid of being spoken to directly by a foreigner,
most Chinamen are very curious to overhear any conversation that
may be carried on; so if you are speaking to him, in comes another
man to listen, and if you can get other men to come in and listen
over each other's backs, very soon more come in than the original
speaker cares to overhear his private conversation; and when that
step is reached, it is time to go to the platform and ask the
hearers to sit down and begin the regular service. Sometimes nobody
comes in, and then you have to try something else, and that is to
go and sit down a little nearer the door, and sometimes, in that
way, gradually a few people come in. But then in Peking sometimes
there is a great north-west wind blowing; and I think that is about
the hardest thing on a man's congregation before he gets it,
because, when the weather is unfavourable, there are not many
people about, and so we have to adopt another plan. We do not go on
to the streets, but inside the chapel the native preacher and I do
our best to sing a hymn. I say do our best, because sometimes these
native preachers do not succeed in singing very well; however, we
succeed in making a noise, and that is the thing that draws. The
people look in, and see what they suppose to be a foreigner and a
native chanting Buddhist prayers. In they come; they have not seen
that before, and they sit down, and, as soon as the hymn is
through, we have the opportunity of telling them the contents of
the hymn; and there you have your sermon ready to your hand.

'But suppose you have got your congregation, it is not all
smooth-sailing water. Sometimes there are interruptions. Sometimes,
just when you have the ear of your audience, all at once a
tremendous row happens just outside the door, and the congreg