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Show 451 that la the aatter with tee Aaerioan Board la i t a stupendous su&oess a success, that has not been equalled by. the gifts of the churches." These men told ua of retrenchment past and contemplated. Among the twenty Congregational missions of the world, Horth China Is not the only one whose forces have been depleted . To the west of us is the Shansi Mission which had eighteen manners before nineteen hundred and which now has only seven, about the same proportion as our loss here at Lintsing. Before* Boxer time there were three families here, and now only one family and a woman physician. Ie rejoice to know that twoor three families have beon appointed to Shansi. , , , ., Jleatally we realize ail these things, that the Board is talking of retrenchment, but it waa only natural that we ahould hGzr with sorrow that if the work is to be cut down to the extent of reducing tho number of stations in the Sorth China Mission, it seemed to the Mission that the least loss would be Incurred it the Lintsing station should be named with P'a'ng Chuang. fa love Pfa'ng Ohuang very deany but it seems to us that only one station for such a large field cannot but mean less done in this field. You can understand that we could not but share with our people\the feeling of disappointment that we were unable to bring back to them any promise of a reopened station, and that tho compound which has stood in ruins for seven years must remain so for at least another year. But soon after our return from miasion meeting, we welcomed a^uost who made the trip by steamer and. t r a in and cart from the Shanghai Conference that he might see with hie own eyes* the work of the Lintsing station Rev. Saa*r Greene D.D. is a member of the Plyaouth church of Seattle, which does so ouch for the Lintsing field. The v i s i t coming when it did seems Providential. He was with ua for the week end only but this Sunday was one of the semi-annual gatherings of the Christians. Dr. Greene,was thus able to sea many of the church members, to be present when new members came into the church either by baptism or on probation, and to speak to then through an i n t e r p r e t e r . Since the groat Fourth month fair was at ita height at this time, he could see for bin-self too, as he watched the long lines of pilgrims, that the temples of China are used and that . in this region, heathenism Is by nc means dead. Ho brought messages of Ufa and encouragement for us and for the native Christians, and the assurance that this field Is growing dearer to them, and will be increasingly in their, thoughts and prayers. From aany other friends, also, have come l e t t e r s which have brought much of encouragement, Jhe aaaurance that here and there throug;- out the homeland are thoae who remember ua, has bean an u p l i f t . The oiits that have come tell of lowing hearts who- have made our work theism a l s o . Tou will be glad to know that money for the support of the student in Medical school has been provided for the t l r s t year and we believe n the money available for the*native preachera and Bible women is more than ever before. For this we thank Qod and take courage, believing l et the Lord of the Harvest will aoon f i l l our greatest need ~,the need of reinforcements. Tours sincerely. |
