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Show 38 The Missionary Herald January Bible reading and join in not a few hymns; and there is his chubby, happy little brother, who usually goes to sleep and is put down on the rug to nap until the meeting is over. Then there is often Mrs. Sung's little grandson, and the serious little son of the Liu home. They all like to come. Do you exclaim, 'Remarkable!' Not at all. Part of the explanation is that there are low stools for them to sit on and also at least one cooky for each child. More American children might enjoy prayer meeting under those circumstances. All Kinds of In-patients "One of the busy Fridays this spring it was my turn to lead the meeting. After hymn and opening prayer and Bible reading, according to a prearranged plan, I asked Mr. Liu, the evangelist, and Mrs. Sung, the Bible-woman, to tell for the benefit of all of us about each of the in-patients. Mrs. Sung reported that most of the women were willing to be taught, but that there were some who listened or made an effort to learn only when they thought the doctor might be around. The brightest patient was a young woman with tubercular spine, who was making great progress, reading pages of the catechism daily. There was the woman who had been home for a few days and returned to say that the members of her family were anxious to hear the gospel, because they wished to know what kept her from flying into a passion at every slight annoyance, as had been her habit; the blind Woman who was old and slow, but who listened and tried earnestly to learn the prayers and Bible verses repeated for her; the girl whose father could not read, and wished her to learn all she could so as to teach him; the young woman with a tubercular elbow, who was so distracted by pain and by the care of her baby girl that she had little heart for learning anything-this was part of her report. "Mr. Liu, too, found the patients had varying degrees of interest or indifference. One man, a patient who had a cataract operation three years ago, had returned for an operation on the other eye. He had joined the church on probation and was gladly learning more. Another eye patient had never known anything about Christianity until he came to Lintsing for treatment, but the seed seemed to have fallen into good soil and was springing up. He was from a village only a few miles from the station of another mission, so he was going home with a note of introduction to the workers there. The father of the little lad who had a serious operation some weeks before was a 'reading man,' and was thoughtfully investigating the claims of Christianity. A Custom Official's Gift "After the closing hymn I asked Dr. Ma, my associate, to tell every one about the visit we had received that day from Mr. Chu, the new customs official. This Mr. Chu is a descendant of the Ming emperors and a very progressive young man. He has visited England and France and knows much of foreign ways. He told me he had read the Bible and believed there was no other true doctrine. He had already sent a contribution of $100 (silver) towards the fund the Chinese are raising for a new surgical ward for men. Dr. Ma told how that afternoon he had ' come with one of his secretaries to make inquiries about the amount of money received yearly from America for hospital expenses, about how much went for supplies and how much for salaries, etc. He said that with the enlarged hospital (a new ward for men is about to be added to the hospital, which was originally for women) the expenses of carrying on the work would surely be increased, and that if we would accept he wished to donate certain funds under his control, amounting to about a thousand dollars (silver) a year, to the use of the hospital. There would be no restrictions as to the expenditure of these funds, for he was sure they would be used |