reasons for his method, and he sets them forth with his usual clearness.
Possibly no other journey of his life more strikingly testifies to his
strict sense of duty, the unsparing way in which he spent himself in its
discharge, and his eager desire to win souls.

'On this occasion, partly owing to the shortness of the time at my
disposal, which made it hardly worth while to set up an
establishment, and partly owing to the peculiar season of the year,
which would have made it difficult to find pasture for travelling
cattle, I determined to go on foot, without medicines, in a
strictly spiritual capacity, and not seeking so much to make fresh
acquaintances or open up new ground as to revisit familiar
localities and see how far former evangelistic attempts had produced
any effect. In addition there were some individual Mongols who have
been taught a good deal about Christianity, and on whom I wished
once more, while there was still opportunity, to press the claims
of Christ.

[Illustration: A CHINESE MULE LITTER]

'Five cold days in a mule litter brought me to Kalgan, and another
day in a cart took me up over the pass and landed me in a Chinese
inn on the Mongolian plain. This inn has no separate rooms; the
guests all share the ample platform of the kitchen, and sleep on
straw mats laid over the brickwork, which is heated by flues
leading from fires on which their meals are cooked. The Chinese
innkeeper was an old friend of mine, and he permitted me to share
his room with him. From this, as a centre, I was able to make
expeditions to four Mongolian settlements.

'My first visit was made to a lama whom I have known for years, and
who has been instructed in Christianity by others, both before and
since I made his acquaintance. He is a man of influence, wealth,
and leisure, and, though a priest, has a wife and child. I spent
almost a whole day with him, and hardly know what to think about
him. He seems to admit that there must be a God of the universe,
and admits that Christ may be a revelation of Him, but in the same
sense in which Buddha was. From one part of his conversation I was
almost led to believe that he had been praying to Jesus, but I
could get him to make no such admission. I fear that the inquiring
spirit of former years has given place to a spirit of