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Show WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF 51 The Hope of China's Womanhood. Christian Schoolgirls, Tientsin bound, and prepare to be useful to the future mother-in-law. The custom of footbinding is no more obsolete than the wearing of the queue in North China, and the opposition to it has made no impression in any place outside of the cities and Christian circles. One can scarcely conceive of the lack oi foundation with which the average country woman starts : never having learned to read, she has never thought much of anything, and when such a mind has come to maturity, it takes time and patience and more than the human aid for them to get a grasp of the truth, which means a whole new outlook on life and living, in this world and in the world to come. Is it any wonder that results seem especially slow among them? Yet in FENCHOW there were over forty women and girls who look some step toward church membership, at Christmastime. In the hospital in TAIKUHSIEN, some young women have learned to read well, and have truly taken Christ as their Savior, and learned to pray. But when they must go home, goodbye is said with misgivings. A young married woman is nothing but somebody's daughter-in-law. She has no rights of her own. Though she wants to be a Christian, she cannot be one openly. Her books may be taken from her and burnt, and she may even at the command of her mother-in-law be forced to sacrifice to idols. Thinking of these poor girls, one is reminded of Naaman's plea to the prophet in the old story: " In this thing, the Lord pardon thy servant: wdien my master goeth into the house of Rinimon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing." Girls who have made a little progress in school are apt to be married off, like the girl in FENCHOW who had no idea of what awaited her when she went home for her last vacation before graduation. Near the end of the vacation, a cart drew up to the door and her mother bade her put on the rented bridal garments which she had ready for her, and be taken away to the home of her future mother-in-law! The frequent result of such a system is shown in a case in the hospital there, a young woman who at twelve |