exalted position of the teacher in China is borne in
mind; and the, if possible, more urgent fact, that unless we seriously
prepared some Chinese missionaries we should go from year to year,
decade to decade, with no trained Chinese staff. The material was there,
and the Chinese Church was supplying young men and women, earnest
devoted servants of Jesus Christ, who, given the training and granted
the blessing of God, could do a work which it would be impossible for
the most earnest Westerner to accomplish. Chinese of the Chinese, with
neither linguistic nor climatic difficulties, understanding the minds of
the most subtle of people, they enter their work with a flying leap
which we may envy, but cannot attain. The Holy Spirit will deal with
them as He does with us, and recognising them as fellow-workers together
with God, we shall cease to hinder them by perpetual criticism and
doubt. Faults they will have, as we, and while of a different order, who
shall say that these failings make them in God's sight more unfit for
the work of preaching the Gospel than ours have made us?

We therefore accepted the form of ministry which pressed with strongest
necessity on us, and from the free and irresponsible life of the
itinerant missionary, accepted the calling of teachers, and allowed
ourselves to be tied to the numberless claims and responsibilities of
institutional life. In addition to the girls' school, a plan was formed
whereby we agreed to accept married women for terms of varying
length--twenty to thirty days--as far as possible classifying them
according to ability and previous knowledge. The teaching was graded
from the first elements of Christian doctrine to fairly advanced New
Testament classes. From amongst the first groups of women who came to
us, it was evident that some were capable of receiving a far more
advanced training, and the zeal they exhibited in teaching the little
they knew on their return home, promised future usefulness. Two small
rooms in our own living-court supplied the only accommodation for these
station classes, and as each group scattered it was almost immediately
replaced by other eager inquirers.

A small inner court containing two good rooms was set apart for the use
of the girls' school. Every term brought an increase in the numbers, and
it was soon evident that more suitable accommodation was essential if we
were to meet the growing need. Though we knew it not, the necessary
provision was