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Show 16 N O R T H CHINA MISSION the meetings. Iu PEKING, nearlj- two thousand signed cards pledging themselves to investigate Christianity, and of this number there were at the end of December over 900 in actual Bible study. Our North Church there drew one hundred students into its church life, of whom eighty regularly attend Bible classes and eighteen have joined the church on probation. Our Central Church has also drawn in one hundred of these students, for whom a special Christian Endeavor Society has been formed, as well, as a University Club, declaring its purpose to be: Bible Study, Fellowship and Social Service. PAOTING-FU enjoyed five addresses in fourteen hours, as a consequence of which 440 men A Ruined Temple, Paotingfu signed cards, more than double the number of the year before. The Christian Association is now running four night school classes and has had to refuse to open others, because of being short-handed. The student class is undoubtedly important, but so are the mass of the people who can neither read nor write. For such, the great opportunity comes in the fairs, religious THEATRES A N AID TO EVANGELIZATION or otherwise, which come regularly every year, and which assemble crowds of people from the neighboring towns and cities. The chief attraction of these great gatherings is the theatrical representations given by bands of itinerant actors, in fancy costumes, on a stage opposite the entrance to the temple. Thousands of people gather daily for a holiday. And in the intervals between plays, the chapel, or a tent conveniently located, can always be filled with a crowd far more attentive than yon might suppose under the circumstances. In TUNGCHOW, at one of these large fairs, they have secured a half-promise that they may use the stage for preaching between plays next year! Held though they are in temple courts, most of these fairs have little to do with worship. Provision is made in most cases for preaching to women as well as men, and to the little mat sheds |