"We feel, however, at such times that if our lecture hall and reading-rooms were in existence, the Bible Society would be the natural center, and they would give an incalculable impetus to our already growing work.

"China is a land of unexpected happenings, and on account of a certain amount of unpreparedness upon the part of the Christian Church, which, however, in most cases may be traced to lack of funds, many of these extraordinary opportunities are to a certain extent lost.

"With direct reference to our depot work I feel this lack of readingrooms very strongly. It so often happens that a student comes in to buy a copy of the Scriptures and he brings with him a company of his friends. It always takes a considerable time before the choice is made, during which time the principal tenets of the gospel are being made known to his companions. With our present accommodation we have no means by which to make the best of the many opportunities which present themselves to us constantly; whereas, with a reading-room where they could be invited to sit down, we could carry on very effective personal work among men who do not mind coming into a Bible depot, but would not attend a Gospel meeting. We feel very loath to be compelled to let so many opportunities slip, and that all for the want of suitable accommodation. Some days ago I was asked if I would allow two officials from the West City to call on me late in the evening, as they wished to purchase some well-bound Bibles and could not manage to leave their offices in the daytime. They knew all about the native bookshop in that part of the city, which kept our books in stock, but wanting to get good binding they had to come all the way to this place. They spent quite a long time in conversing upon the subject of the gospel and showed great interest and a determination to study the Bible carefully.

"I give below a copy of a report sent to me by the Rev. H. T. Chen, D.D., who was the first person to receive the honorable degree of D.D. from the Peking University on its twenty-fifth anniversary. The report was sent to me in English and just as it appears here. This gentleman has done excellent work for the Society ever since I came to Peking, and he is one of my most valuable co-workers. This is his report:

"That the Bible Society is exerting a great influence on the evangelistic work in China is undeniable. Thousands of copies of Scripture are distributed among the people every year. Multitudes, having attained a little knowledge of the Saviour and being desirous of gratifying their curiosity in the name of Christ, are induced to come to church and to learn more about him, and consequently in many cases become Christians. So many of the people come to church and become members of it through the influence of the Bible Society. It is not too much to say that in many places the influence of the Bible Society is first felt, and that the Bible sellers are the first preachers the people hear. The workers of that Society, moreover, are co-operating with us in a remarkably harmonious way. They lead the van, we follow in their lead; they sow the seeds and we plow the field and reap the harvest.

In order to best carry on the evangelistic work in China it is vitally necessary that we should co-operate with the Bible Society.

"People are apt to overlook the part of the gigantic work done by the humble and insignificant colporteur in the Bible Society, and forget the truth that it is the humble and insignificant who are the real workers. We admire the talent of Christopher Wren when we see St. Paul's Cathedral in England, but we must not forget that that masterpiece of architecture was erected by the labor of insignificant artisans. We are fond of praising the military genius of Alexander the Great, Cesar, and other successful worshipers of Mars, but it is a mistake to overlook the fact that their victories were won through the efforts of hundreds and thousands of nameless heroes. It has been customary to disregard the insignificant but real workers and crown the more fortunate, who happen to be more conspicuous, with full glory-the glory bought by the sweat and even the blood of others. So it is with the evangelistic work done by the humble colporteurs. Although as a rule these people are not liberally educated and not highly polished, they are among the efficient and actual workers. They are everywhere the first people to proclaim the name of Christ. They are everywhere the forerunners in the propagation of the gospel in the interior of our country, and in the infusion of Christian influence into new regions.

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'Daily they itinerate from town to town and village to village, selling Scriptures as they go along. As they are mostly men from the laboring class, they have the advantage of possessing healthy and hardy constitutions. They are able to endure all hardships-cold, frost, snow, and storm. Having once started on a journey, the exact destination is undetermined. Although each colporteur is limited by the extent of his working field, it is often the case that he fails to reach a town where he can find inns, so he must either seek accommodation in a hospitable house or shelter in a deserted temple, keeping company with the "idols" -probably the latter is the more frequent resort. It is not always that he is fortunate enough to get into a village. In regions which are densely populated inns are frequent, but in many regions where people are few and villages are widely scattered this is not the case Between the villages are often large tracts of unproductive lands, which accounts for the scarcity of villages. When one itinerates in these regions it is not unusual that he fails to reach a village or even a deserted temple.

"Once a colporteur, not knowing the distance to the next village and taking no notice of the time of day, proceeded a little more than three miles when it was completely dark. He was then out of sight of any town or village. To return or to press on meant in his opinion equal labor. He decided to travel on, and finally reached the next town late in the night. Such a thing seldom, if ever, happens to the regular preacher. He is stationed in a town and does not need to go very far from home, while with the colporteur this is a common experience. The work done by the steady worker is splendid. Their enterprises are always a source of inspiration. Yet their labor has its fruits; their efforts are rewarded with success.

"During this year, in my district thirty thousand copies of Scrip

tures have been distributed among the people. This may not seem a very large figure, but it will surely appear so if you take into consideration the opposition to Christianity among the country people. The Scriptures sold may be symbolized as the visible seeds of Christianity. There are seeds that fell by the wayside, seeds that fell upon the rocky places, seeds that fell among thorns, and finally seeds that fell upon good ground.

"We should not be disappointed by the loss of some seeds, for crops, on the other hand, have been reaped in abundance.

"But what does the outlook into the future proffer to us? "With the transformation of the government, China has entered upon a new era, an era of new opportunities. New thoughts have come into the minds of the people. Their eyes have been opened. They have recognized the truth of Christianity. Opposition to it has gradually lessened, and Christian influence is steadily gaining ground. Never before have new members been acquired in such great numbers. Never before has there been such readiness to accept Christianity. In this age there has been no such opportunity as at the present time; never has the outlook for the future been so promising as now.

"Another thing characteristic of the new era is the religious enthusiasm of the people. This is shown in the movement toward the establishment of a national religion. This comes up for the first time in the Chinese history. It shows evidently that the people are awakening to the fact that a moral revolution in China is needed. The politi cal one is ended, with its surprising success; a moral one is needed to consummate the work of construction, and in order to accomplish this end what means, except Christianity, can there be? The writer strongly urges the enlarging of the work of the Bible Society, and still better results are sure to follow.'

"As a reminder of the expansion of the work of this north district, I give below the following figures, i.e., the actual sales for each year:

"In five years a total of 1,852,884 copies. In this total is included 11,446 complete Bibles and 45,031 New Testaments.

"We start the new year with increased faith in the power of the Word of God, believing that we shall see even greater things done in this land as the direct result of the distribution of the Word of Life."

SOUTH CHINA

Superintendent, James Moyes (acting for Alfred Alf).
Place of residence, Canton.

Mr. Moyes has carried on the work throughout the year in place of Mr. Alf, who continued his assistance to the John G. Kerr Hospital for the Insane. After closing the year's report Mr. Moyes handed over charge of the South China field to Mr. Alf and returned to Shanghai to assist at the head office during the absence on furlough of Mr. Cameron.

The lack of a knowledge of the Cantonese dialect was against Mr. Moyes somewhat, but it will be seen from the table of sales and his descriptive report that, notwithstanding his ignorance of the dialect and also the unsettled conditions consequent on the revolution, the work has been very successful. Mr. Moyes' report, which gives some fresh views of the province of Kwangtung and the conditions prevailing among its people, is as follows:

"In submitting a report of our work in the Canton Sub-Agency for the year ending November, 1913, it is with a sense of thankfulness and satisfaction that, in face of the many hindrances and discouragements due to the political situation and the changed attitude of the people toward Christianity, our colporteurs were allowed to continue their work almost without any interruption.

"When the recent rebellion was at its height and the whole province of Kwangtung was practically at the mercy of looting soldiers and lawless bands of robbers and pirates, the people were only too glad to be able to remain in their homes or other places of safety. Our colporteurs, however, could continue their work, after a fashion, when commercial and all other activities had been suspended. This is due to the fact that the colporteur, as a rule, has no money or clothing worth robbing, and the robbers have no desire to lay in a supply of Scriptures; so our men were often allowed to pass freely through an infested district when no other person dare travel there. One can imagine with what delight the terror-stricken people would hail at least one man they could trust to do them no harm, even though that man was carrying books calculated to make many of their people abandon their cherished idols. A few would even venture to buy some books from him, but on the whole the work of Bible selling under such conditions was no easy task, and the men complained to me sometimes of the increasing difficulty they found in persuading people to buy the Scriptures. We are pleased to report, however, that, taking the year all through, the work done and the sales made have maintained a fair average, our figures for the year being 949 Bibles, 2,773 Testaments, 145,295 Gospel portions, or a total of 149,017 volumes.

"In many districts where our colporteurs visit the population is much scattered, and they have sometimes to go long distances without dealing with many people, but as a rule the districts of this province are thickly populated, and the men never need to consider where they will travel to meet with people. The city of Canton is situated in the center of an immense system of waterways. It has an estimated population of two million people, besides thousands who visit the city daily. It also has lying around it, in the moats and rivers, a population of about three hundred thousand people living on boats. These people

know no other home, and it is pathetic to see the thousands of small children who are forced to spend their young lives couped up on a deck space of about 10 feet long by 4 or 5 feet wide. This constitutes their home, and they will probably never know any other.

"It takes one some time to get accustomed to the peculiar conditions in this part of China. The great delta on which Canton stands is intersected by a network of waterways, and about the only convenient way of travel is by boat; even our local calls—going to the post-office, shopping, or visiting friends-all have to be done by boat, until one longs for a few miles' stretch of good road to relieve the monotony of continual boat travel. The introduction of railways will no doubt greatly change this, and also to some extent break down the wall of exclusiveness and the inaccessability of country villages. In most parts of China the towns and villages are conveniently built along the main roads and thoroughfares, a row of houses on either side, thus forming a street through which the traveler finds his way easily; but here in Kwangtung they are grouped together, two or three villages in close proximity to each other, and standing in some secluded spot, with evidently no thought for convenience to the highway.

"When one considers the strong clan spirit of these districts, and the danger from pirates, the conclusion is formed that these villages are built with no consideration whatever for the convenience of the stranger or traveler, but chiefly as a place of refuge in time of attack from robbers or clan fights, and this impression is further strengthened when one considers the peculiar plan of construction of these villages. The houses are built of brick or other material, and arranged in rows facing each other, about five feet apart, and these again are formed into blocks or squares, and all arranged so that the backs of the houses become one complete wall of defense against attack, and the only entrance is one small door at the end of an alleyway. The whole atmosphere breathes of suspicion, fear, and apprehension, and no doubt the people have found from experience that this method of building villages enables them better to defend their homes against attack. One strange feature which I could not quite understand is the fact that in most of these villages the only people to be found in them during the day were women and children. Where were the men? Had they migrated to foreign countries or drifted to the larger towns and cities, or was it that they went to swell the bands of robbers and pirates which infest the country everywhere?

"These things give us some idea of the difficulties the colporteur often meets with in some of the districts he visits, and we can sympathize with him in the discouraging work it must be sometimes. I noticed that many of the doors were closed and barred as we passed the houses. They had heard of our approach and shut themselves in till they were sure there was no danger. One good method which some of our men adopted to overcome these difficulties was to go up the lanes singing a hymn and then offer books for sale, and talk with the people as they returned down the lanes again, for the people nearly always opened their doors and came out when they heard the hymn singing.