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a hundred smiling faces among the women in any village I choose to enter.'

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In visiting the homes the missionary must use great tact in order to please and win the confidence of the people, and give no offense, lest the hearts harden and the seed sowing he in vain. The women in China are most easily won by quiet gentle treatment. "In quietness and confidence" we gain strength among them in their homes. When I enter a Chinese home the first thing I do is to look for the kitchen god, and rejoice if he is not there; but if he is, I use every art and wile (praying all the while) to get that god torn down, and I rejoice to say that in almost a hundred homes in this section those kitchen gods have been destroyed in my presence by the Chinese families and the Christian calendar posted up and the worship of the true God established. It is remakable how tenaciously they cling to that god. Even when they become Christians, they often exclaim: "I have only just become a Christian," and you must argue with them till they are convinced that Christ demands that the kitchen god must go. When they truly believe, they experience a great blessing as they themselves destroy their false gods, and while they do it my Bible-women and I always sing "Praise God from whom all blessings flow," in which they often join, and I believe there is great rejoicing among the angels in heaven too at that sacred time.

One day, while I was teaching a class of women in a country village, 150 li from Wei-hsien, six heathen boys, about ten years old, strayed in; leaving my regular class in charge of my Bible-women, I ranged these boys on a bench and taught them. How quickly they took in what I told them and soon learned by heart the little prayer. One of my helpers then took these boys away to another room, and at the close of the day they returned and repeated perfectly the ten commandments. From that time on they continued coming to learn and also to our evening services. One little fellow, named "Lai Yi", came early every evening, and if no one were looking, he would slip his hand in mine and repeat his prayer. One evening he missed coming, and the next day he said: "I wanted to come, but my father made me wait on his guests and carry wine to them." Then he said: "No. I didn't drink any, because you told us not to drink; even

when they laughed at me, I wouldn't drink!" I visited that boy's village that day with my Bible-women, and he came to meet me and led me to his home. I saw the kitchen god there, and, asking God to help me get it down before I left that home, I sat down on the k'ang and made myself acquainted with the family. The father was a red-faced coarse looking man, but he and his wife were both kindly disposed, and after some conversation I suggested they destroy their kitchen god and worship the only living and true God. The man said: "All right," and "Lai Yi" was so glad that he ran to the wall and began to tear at the god. But I said : "Don't you do it. Let your father destroy it." He looked scared then and tried to press back to the wall the piece he had torn, but his fears were soon allayed by his father who took a stone and scraped away every trace of the false god, and in the evening he took his whole family to our service. I was delighted this year to find great encouragement in that village, which was then all heathen. Now there is a Christian boys' school there, and every Sabbath a goodly number of believers go from that village to attend service.

We are having the privilege of a visit in our station from Miss McKinney, a sister of our Mrs. P. D. Bergen. One day they were invited to visit in the home of an official. When they arrived, they were most delightfully received, and the official removed his hat and bowed low in the presence of Miss McKinney, saying he would consider it a privilege to prostrate himself before her to do her honor because she had devoted herself to her mother all her life and did not marry. He said: "What has your governor done? Has he not honored her in some way for this remarkable filial devotion?" And the next day sent her a fine feast.

While our customs are very different from theirs, yet we may find in the homes of both rich and poor the cordial welcome and the open heart, and oh! dear missionary co-laborers, let us avail ourselves of these opportunities to sow the precious seed, for the "night cometh when no man can work."

"When my Heavenly Father calls me from this world to higher service there is just one word that I should like to have remembered in connection with my name, and that is Missions -the cause for which my Savior lived and died.",

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The Opening for Chinese Young Women

T

BY MISS HELEN RICHARDSON.

HE Miracle of the Topic! Whatever may be claimed for the civilization of China it can never be said that it has made for the development, expansion and ennoblement of its womanhood. To have begun existence as a female in China has ever meant the opposite of all that Christian thought and love could bestow. The little feet have not been more tightly bound than the intellect and heart. From the shut-in existence of the mother's home has the ofttime girl-bride gone to the home of her motherin-law there to live out her daughter-in-law life by rule and custom as rigid as the laws of the Medes.

Laden with jewels, given a monthly stipend, supplied with novels and surrounded by slaves, what more could any woman need? Visiting in the home of a relative might be a desire, but one ever to be discouraged. Temptations subtle lurked abroad. Henceforth a mother's duties and a mother-in-law's demands must fill up the measure of existence. Under that one roof she must live and move and have her being till in the fulness of time she becomes the mother-in-law-her acme of bliss, failing to attain which she is only known as "creation's blot, creation's blank."

Of social life a Chinese woman knows nothing. Her toilet, opium smoking, the news and gossip gathered by the servants,these fill up her days. The relation of servant to mistress is most intimate, and with perfect freedom are the most private matters discussed. Children hear all, and from the earliest childhood are conversant with life's mysteries and curtained corners. The bringing into the home of a new concubine, the quarrels, the jealousies, the anger, -all this the child knows about and hears discussed and thinks that her world is the whole world.

Ability to read Chinese character and write a letter is considered education sufficient, but even this modicum is enjoyed by very few.

The above is a picture of old China, one would fain say, but alas! it pictures all China to-day, save in a few progressive centers and where Christianity and contact with Western thought have made a difference.

Marchioness Nabeshima, after a recent visit to China, says she finds Chinese ladies more conservative than Japanese ladies during the feudal régime.

For centuries the Chinese girl, young lady, woman, has been satisfied with the conditions that shut her in and the world out; if she has not been, she has kept it as her secret. There is resignation that is stagnation, even unto death, and when Christianity entered China it found all female life, as it found the entire nation in its old completeness, resting.

An opening for Chinese women; did they desire it? No. Did their fathers and brothers desire it for them? No. Were social conditions such as to invite them out of their seclusion? No. They would bind their feet, manicure their nails, paint and powder their faces, and so please "lord and master", but think not of change; to them 'twere evil ever. The walls of their homes must be the horizon of their existence. So it was for centuries, and family life, as national life, had crystallized. At this door Christianity knocked and asked admission. There

was none !

Missionaries with their message of salvation and education would, oh, so gladly have entered these homes of wealth and culture, but nowhere was there an entrance. What was to be done? The message was burning in the heart of the messengers and some somewhere would surely be willing to receive it.

What about the daughters of the humble poor? Could they be reached? Would parents be willing to have them enter a Christian school and remain there under contract for eight or ten years, unbind feet and give to the school the right of veto in betrothal? Yes, here and there some were found and where possible they were gathered together as a nucleus for what was known as a (( charity boarding-school", where they received food, clothing, books, everything free.

The foreign missionary gave her whole time to the school. Little she knew of the Chinese language, less she knew of the Chinese people, but on they struggled together, and with the passage of years came something of the longed-for transformation in mind and character. The education given was real, but limited. The Chinese classics were memorized, a thorough course in Bible study was given, primary arithmetic, geography and physiology, this was usually the course of instruction. Singing, organ playing, sewing, embroidery, housework; any or all to be

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added and the course extended at the discretion of the lady

in charge.

During their school life these girls formed the church. choir, played the organ, and taught in Sunday School. Many of them in closely guarded buildings taught the little day-schools that were being opened as wedges into the family life of the street people. For this they were paid from three to five dollars per month, as much as either brother or father could earn, and so far the poor education had a marketable value and was worth while. Others upon completing the course were married to Christian young men and established Christian homes. As many of these young men were ministers and moving from place to place, these new homes were established without the assistance and control of the mother-in-law; the young people having entire charge.

These young women were forming a type, new to China and strange. In company with their foreign teachers they were seen on the streets, in stores, in church, and occasionally

on a steamer.

They were closely observed, and many and interesting were the questions asked about them. "Did they have to eat foreign rice?" "Did they have to eat foreign medicine?" "Did we compel them to bathe in cold water?" "Did every girl have to eat the church?" Only by following such drastic measures did they think the new type could be evolved.

Coming as it did from the poor, could this type ever influence the higher classes? It did not seem possible. But the masses were within reach and the masses ever and everywhere present were not hedged about by barriers of custom and stone walls of prejudice. And while, albeit, a gulf was fixed between the rich and poor, that gulf would yet be spanned and over it would pass angels of light bearing God's gifts of healing for body, soul, and mind, caring not on which side dwelt the rich, on which side camped the poor.

Various were the causes which set many of these young women free to plan their lives as they might choose. Some took up teaching as a life-work, some nursing, while a few here and there took up the study of medicine. Through favoring fortune a few have gone abroad for special study.

It is most gratifying to missionaries all over the land to note the estimation in which these young ladies are held by their own people. Far and near are they now being sought as

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