talking and praying with them, to lead them to a knowledge of the
truth. From six in the morning until ten at night he was at the service
of all comers. In the afternoon he attended one or both of the Peking
chapels, preaching if there were the opportunity, but always eagerly on
the alert for any individuals showing signs of interest in the Gospel.
It had been the custom of the missionaries to reserve the Sunday evening
for an English service, devoted to their own spiritual refreshment.
This, which was held in the mission compound, he ceased to attend, even
although his absence sometimes made it impossible to hold the service,
in order that he might find time to read and talk and pray with his
Chinese servants. Frequently the meal-time would find him thus engaged,
but the meal had to wait until his visitor had left, or until the
interview came to its natural close. He ceased to read all newspapers
except those distinctively Christian. He found no time for books, as he
felt that direct work for the Chinese should fill the hours he might
otherwise devote to reading. He became more wholly than ever the man of
one book--the Bible--and so absorbed did he grow in this close dealing
with souls that in the earlier stages of his wife's illness he felt
constrained to place it before even her wish that he would remain by her
at periods of severe suffering and weakness.

'_December 9, 1883._--At chapel met Wang from a place 300 li away
down in the country. He had heard a sermon there two or three years
before which he remembered, and could quote. I began the service,
and brought him up here to my study. We were talking when another
man, Jui, came in from 130 li north of Peking. He had to run away
from home on account of misconduct. These two kept me till dark.'

In a letter to the Rev. S. E. Meech, dated November 9, 1885, Mr. Gilmour
refers to a number of these individual cases in which he has been
interesting himself, and the way in which he has dealt with them. It
illustrates his method of close and careful dealing with each native.

'Ch'ang attends Sunday and Friday services. My opinion about Ch'ang
is that he wants mission employ. He has no expectation of that from
me, and little from Rees. I think, too, that he does not mean to
break with Christianity or with us, and I faintly hope that his
experiences with us will do us good, though they have been most
painful to us