the amount of work done, which will do injustice to the work, rather than good.

"I returned from Shanghai, September 24th, 1884, and immediately opened the work, though no few difficulties attended the effort, on account of the attitude of the people toward foreigners at that time. During the year, beginning September 24th, 1884, ending September 9th 1885, including a vacation of two months in July and August, the record is a follows:

"The work opened this autumn, September 9th, 1885, most favourably. Within four weeks I have made 130 visits to bedside patients, prescribed for 350 dispensary patients, and treated 33 ward patients. Being entirely alone, with the exception of our untrained assistant, I have had to refuse many calls. The hospital at present, accommodates properly only 18 patients, though the last few weeks the number in the wards has exceeded 18, while I have had to refuse admittance to patients almost daily. During the past year $520 were subscribed by the foreign community, for the purpose of furnishing iron beds for the hospital, and seventy-five, have already been ordered. We are planning now for various improvements, during the coming year.

"The experience of ten years, with the hospital in its present situation, about three miles from the native city, has I think convinced all interested in this kind of mission work, that it is not placed in the most favorable position to attract patients to its wards. For the year ending September 9th, 1885, the number of patients attending hospital dispensary, and received into the wards, has been small compared to the possibilities of medical work in Foochow. A hospital for Chinese women, especially, should be among the people. In view of these facts, we are planning to secure property and build a branch hospital in the native city. Evangelical work, of course, is carried on in connection with the medical."

Miss Kate C. Woodhull M.D., under the A. B. C. F. M., who arrived December, 1884, writes that she is devoting herself at present to the study of the languge, doing as little work as possible.

SWATOW.

Owing to an omission in applying for it, we regret that no report has been received from Miss C. H. Daniells M.D., of the American Baptist Mission, Swatow, who arrived in China in 1878. We shall hope soon to publish a report from her.

CANTON.

A Dispensary was opened in Canton, in February, 1885, by Miss Mary M. Niles M.D., under the auspices of the Presbyterian Board, North. The attendance has been small, besides which however, Dr. Niles has visited a number at their houses. At the Annual Meeting of the Canton Medical Society, she was appointed Lady Physician to the Hospital, and has since then had charge of the Woman's Department. At present she has no report to make, but hopes to be able to do so at some future time.

Miss M. H. Fulton M.D., of the same mission, who arrived at Canton in 1884, has recently accompanied Dr. Kerr to Kwai Peng, in the province of Kwang Sai, where they have leased the house they occupy for ten years. "The opposition," writes Dr. Thomson, "might have succeeded against anybody but Dr. Kerr, whose prudence, wisdom, and experience, you know. Official and popular favor at least seem now to be with them." Dr. Fulton purposes remaining permanently at this station, with her brother Rev. A. A. Fulton.

The above facts show the importance of the Missionary Work done by Lady Physicians in China. In Canton, where foreign medical missionary work has been carred on for fifty years, there has been some change of sentiment on the part of the people, and it is reported that a third of the patients at the Missionary Hospital have been women; but even there it will no doubt he found that a medical lady will have a sphere all her own; and in the regions less influenced by foreign practice, it still remains true that Chinese women are beyond the reach of the male physician for many of their peculiar ailments. Our limits do not permit of our doing more than submit the above facts to our readers; though, in the interests of the missionary work at large, we must express the hope that this branch of missionary work in China will hereafter be more fully and frequently reported than it has been in the past.

THE

METHODS OF MISSION WORK.

LETTER III.

BY REV. J. L. NEVIUS, D.D.

HOW SHALL WE DEAL WITH NEW CONVERTS.

HE reception of first converts in any mission is an epoch fruitful of consequences for good or evil. The course pursued at this time will establish precedents, and in a great measure fix the policy and determine the character of the Church of the future. then shall these first converts be dealt with? To this weighty question the Scriptures furnish us some ready answers.

I.-"Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called." 1 Cor 7. 20. This command is repeated in a different form in the 24th verse of the same chapter. "Brethren let every man wherein he is called therein abide with God." This Apostolic injunction we are further told was ordained "for all the Churches." It teaches most emphatically that Christianity should not disturb the social relations of its adherents; but requires them to be content with their lot, and to illustrate the Gospel in the spheres of life in which they are called. How many of us have given these passages of Scripture that weight of authority which they deserve? How many of us have realized that in taking untried Christians out of the positions in which God has called them, and making evangelists of them, we may be literally, though unconsciously, opposing a divine purpose. Such a course directly tends to unsettle the minds of new converts, and excites the very feeling of restlessness and discontent which this command seems specially designed to prevent.

It may be objected that the literal carrying out of this injunction would prevent missionaries ever employing any native assistants, and would in fact have prevented our coming to China, or entering the ministry. This objection so far as it has any weight lies against the Scripture itself. It may be remarked however that all Scripture commands are limited and conditioned by other Scripture teachings, and are to be interpreted by them. This passage does not determine whether a man is to abide where he is called, permanently, or only temporarily. This is a question to be left to the future. Special providences afterwards may indicate a further and different divine purpose no less clearly. So Paul did not hesitate, when the proper time had come, to remove Timothy from Lystra, and there was no inconsistency in his doing so.

As for ourselves, we entered the ministry because we believed we had a divine call to it; and the Church has sent us to China because it concurred in this opinion, and considered our characters sufficiently tested and proved to warrant them in sending us forth to preach the Gospel, with a reasonable assurance that we had renounced worldly aims and worldly advantages, to give our lives to the service of Christ. All we insist on is that the same principles, and the same prudence should be used in dealing with the Chinese.

In determining whether this command to let every man abide in his calling is applicable and binding at present, it is undoubtedly legitimate to enquire whether there may not be special reasons in this present time which overrule and annul it. I can think of none except such as we may regard as growing out of our special circumstances. For instance we may have been praying for labourers for the "great harvest," or more specifically that God would give us a native agent to occupy an important station at and we say: "Is not this the man God has sent for this very object." We should not forget however that when this injunction was given, there was as great need of workers, and as many important places to be occupied as now.

The object we all have in view is of course to secure the greatest usefulness of the convert, and the greatest good to the common cause. Now if the young Christian seems to have qualifications for making a good evangelist, is he not just the man wanted to develop the work where he is? And will not further experience fit him all the better for doing other work to which he may be called in the future, when perhaps he may be spared from his station without its suffering in consequence? God's designs with reference to this man are wiser than ours. Let us wait for those designs to develop as they surely will, and follow carefully as we are led.

Other passages of Seripture place our duty in this matter in a still clearer light. "Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil." By one rash and unauthorized step we may inflict an irreparable injury on the person in whom we are so much interested, and destroy all hopes of his future usefulness. Again; "Be not many masters (teachers) knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation." This is a warning to would-be teachers, and may be applied with equal force to those who would gratuitously assume the responsibility of recommending and employing teachers, without sufficient Scriptural grounds for doing so. Again we are taught; "Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partakers of other mens' sins; keep thyself pure." The pertinency of these passages is too obvious to require lengthened remarks.

II.-The Importance of Precedents. The Chinese are remarkable for their tendency to follow a fixed routine, and to be governed by precedents. If the first convert is soon employed, those who follow will expect to be. If the first station is supplied with a chapel, succeeding ones will require the same, and so on indefinitely. As a matter of precedent, the question as to whether the Gospel shall be first introduced by the instrumentality of paid or unpaid agents, is of such importance as to deserve very careful attention. Here again we get light from Scripture. Nothing is more strikingly characteristic of the missionary methods of the Apostle Paul than his purpose to preach the Gospel freely or "without charge." He gives us very clearly his reason for doing this. "For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us; for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; neither did we eat any man's bread for naught; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread." 2 Thes. 3: 7-12. There were in Thessalonica and other places in Greece, as there are now in China, idlers, busybodies or disorderly persons, who would fain live without work. From such persons Paul apprehended great danger to the infant Church; and he not only denounced them in unsparing terms, but determined by his own example to furnish a precedent which would have more weight in establishing a fixed usage in the Church than anything he could say. In addressing the Ephesian elders he gives the same reason for the course adopted. "Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. I have showed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." Acts 20: 34,35.

The Apostle in the 9th chapter of 1st Corinthians lays down the general rule that, as a matter of right, the teacher should depend for his temporal support on the taught; still in first introducing the Gospel to a heathen people, he felt it his duty to waive this privilege. The example which he set was that of a preacher not having his influence curtailed by the suspicion that he is laboring for pay. While the Church at home has decided that in lands where Christian institutions are established the pastor should depend for his