and sure,
The handle grasped, my God, by Thee.
To kill the cruel, ravening foe,
And save the sheep for whom Christ died.

Translated from Pastor Hsi
by F. L. F.

MRS. HSI'S GIFT

"First love is the abandonment of all for the love
which has abandoned all."--Dr. G. CAMPBELL MORGAN.

". . . such men
Carry the fire, all things grow warm to them.
Their drugget's worth my purple, they beat me."
R. BROWNING.

CHAPTER I

MRS. HSI'S GIFT

BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE OPENING OF THE STATION OF HWOCHOW

MRS. HSI was in great mental distress. The blow she feared had fallen,
and her husband was a prey to the bewitching power of the "foreign
devils." How cleverly the trap had been laid. Firstly, the offer of a
monetary prize for a classical essay--which he had won; secondly, the
insistence of the foreigner on a personal interview with the writer, on
the occasion of which, certain as her husband had been that he had
tasted neither food nor drink under his roof, some means had certainly
been found to introduce into his system some of that subtle foreign drug
which, as every one knew, must eventually compel the victim to embrace
Christianity and follow the "foreign devil" to the world's end. Thirdly,
he had been invited to become the teacher of this dreaded man (Rev.
David Hill), and she had foolishly yielded her consent. She had taken
every precaution and had, on three occasions, sent for him on plea of
her own illness during the time he was an inmate in the foreigner's
household. His clothing had been carefully searched for traces of the
magical compound, but in vain; nothing had come to light, and now here
was her husband, one of the leading Confucianists of the district,
declaring that, of his own free will and action, he had determined to
follow--not the foreign devils--but this Jesus, around Whom all their
preaching centred. He attributed this change of mind, evidently quite
irrationally, to the reading of a book printed under the strange title
of _Happy Sound_,--but perhaps even the sacred Chinese character might
become a snare in their hands! Nothing but the influence of some
powerful magic could have worked so complete a transformation. Even his
intense craving for opium was go