face, he utterly refused to say the same to the people, who are, I believe, only too anxious to receive his permission to favor

us.

Thus step by step the ground is being yielded up, and we shall soon be able to occupy the field without a foe to contest it, save the prejudices of the people and the deep-seated superstitions of heathenism. This happy result was brought about by my representations through our consul to the governor of this province last spring. "The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad."

Seemingly but one step more is necessary to the execution of our proposed plans of occupation, namely, the promulgation of the treaty abstracts above referred to. With these before the people, I see no reason why we may not, with funds in hand, move up at once to possess ourselves of the land, and I am now trying to bring about this result.

LETTER FROM MR. KNOWLTON.

Fruits of Former Labors. Ningpo, Sept. 8, 1868. Recently we have been reaping the fruits of former labors. At our last communion at Ningpo, the first Sabbath of July, eight were baptized; and at Chusan, the first Sabbath in August, five. Most of these converts had been more or less under Christian instruction for several years, and some had been applicants for baptism for several months. The gospel is often, even here in China, like seed long buried in the ground, which at length springs up and bears fruit. This i- one encouragement to labor on, though we do not witness immediate great results; those who follow us will reap the fruits of the seed we are now sowing with tears.

Dr. Dean has been reaping the fruits of the labors of his predecessors, as well as those of his own.

Tour South of Ningpo. I recently made an interesting preaching tour, south of Ningpo about twenty miles. I had with me three of my students and a Bible woman, to assist in preaching. Starting on the morning of the 17th of August, we went with the tide up the Fung-hwa

branch of the Ningpo river, and arrived about nine o'clock in the evening at a village called Teo-Mung Giao, where a member resides who was baptized last year. This member, a man over fifty years of age, was formerly a zealous Buddhist, but became interested in Christianity by reading portions of the Scriptures, and came to our chapel to learn more of the doctrine. He is violently opposed by his wife, and ridiculed by his neighbors, for being a Christian; he is the only one in the village.

Though it was so late when we arrived, yet we had a service at which several of the neighbors were present, to whom we preached the gospel about an hour, prayed, sang a hymn, and then retired. The students and myself slept in the boat, on the hard boards, to which I have got quite accustomed. It was one of the better class of small passenger boats, of which there are countless numbers wherever you go, on the rivers and the interminable net-work of canals throughout China.

New Openings. The next morning after we had sung a hymn, and prayed, and talked a long time to the people at the member's house, we visited and talked to the people at two villages. In the first we stopped at the house of a sister of a preacher connected with Mr. Taylor's China Inland Mission. She seemed desirous to become a Christian, and wished us to establish a chapel in the vicinity, that she might hear the gospel. At the other village we found an old man and his daughter-in-law, who said they believed. He was also anxious to have me establish a chapel, that is, preaching place, at the principal village, that he and his family might attend. The member of our church put in an earnest plea for a chapel and preacher, for it was "too far to go to the chapel at Ningpo." He mentioned two or three houses that could be obtained for a chapel. I began to think that God was calling me to erect in this dark place the standard of the cross, and the light of the gospel. My mind was predisposed to receive favorably such a call; for the very thing we want to do and ought to do, is to

establish places where the gospel shall be constantly preached, all over the plains. I felt that it would not do to let so favorable an opportunity for beginning operations at this point pass by unimproved. So, though I have already built one chapel this year (at Red Bridge, Chusan), I determined at once to obtain a house, if practicable, and fit it up for a chapel. But as we wished to go on to a very large village, where some friends of the Bible woman lived, we proceeded on our way after dinner, leaving word that we would contract for a house on our return the next day.

As it was but six miles, we arrived at the large village long before night. We had time to go to the great ancestral hall, where we were allowed to preach to the crowds that assembled, as long as we chose. In one part of the building, the Bible woman talked to the crowd of women that came together, chiefly out of curiosity, hoping to get a sight of the "red haired man," the common designation of all foreigners, — while the three student preachers and myself preached the gospel to a company of about two hundred men and boys and a few women, for about three hours. My young assistants talked boldly and well.

Interested Inquirers. We then proceeded to another large village about half a mile distant, where our labor was of a more social kind, since through the labors of the Bible woman who was with us among her relatives here for a few years past, there are some sincere inquirers. One old lady who had palsy in one arm, and suffered much pain, said she had given up all her old gods, and prayed only to the true God, and trusted not in Buddha, but in Jesus to save her. Another old lady, eighty years of age, and deaf, and in a state of almost second childhood, said that she prayed only to her heavenly Father and Jesus. She said she prayed thus: Heavenly Father, forgive my sins, and save me. Amen." " Jesus, save, save me. Amen." Her daughter-in-law said that several times a day she kneeled upon her bed and offered up the above prayers; indeed

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Others seemed interested, and were anxious to have a preacher sent to them. O that we had suitable men for that important field. The old gentleman at whose house we were guests, offered us a room for holding meetings, if we would send a preacher. His daughter-in-law who had been to Ningpo to be doctored for dropsy, where she heard the gospel, appeared decided in her determination to be a Christian.

The old man was in affliction; for one of his sons had lost in a lottery about $400; and, not being able to pay up the amount demanded, he took a dose of opium (the usual mode of committing suicide), and killed himself. His father is trying to have those who conducted the lottery and thus seduced his son to ruin, brought to justice for their crime. But hitherto he has failed, because the guilty parties have money, and bribe the officials and their runners. The old man is fast expending his property in this lawsuit. He listened attentively to all our preaching, but his heart seemed so full of his worldly trouble, that he was little affected by the gospel. Still he was very friendly, and as I said, offered us a room for holding meetings, and said he would attend and invite his neighbors. I greatly regret that we have not a strong man to send to this town, said to be the largest village on the Ningpo plain, numbering over 20,000 inhabitants, while within the radius of a mile there are several other villages, one quite large. There are no separate farm-houses in China; the people all live in villages or walled cities, and the above instance illustrates the denseness of the population on the Ningpo and other plains throughout China. And it is the rice so easily and abundantly raised, not bread nor meat, that sustains the enormous population.

People of the West say, "Bread is the staff of life," but it is a great mistake; rice supports ten persons to one supported by bread, the whole world over.

Male and Female Shopkeeper. On the forenoon of the second day we returned to Teo-mung-giao, where we spent several hours in preaching, and succeeded in renting a house, though I had to advance $18, to remove a mortgage, which sum

will be returned when the house is returned to the owner. The Bible woman visited two or three villages and talked to the women. The wife of the native Christian is a great trial and hindrance to him. He wishes to shut the shop on the Sabbath, but his wife will not consent to it, and declares she will sell when customers come, if he don't, and she will do it in spite of him. He sells salt and wine, and was also selling raw opium, as it comes in the ball from India, brought by "Christian (?) merchant princes;" but he readily consented to give up the trade in that article. Every shop along this street where he lives sells opium, the great curse of China.

I determined to send the "blind student," as I often call him, since his eyes are very near-sighted and dim, caused by disease; but he has rare ability, and so retentive a memory that he with much less labor gets his lessons as well as any in the class, and is, I believe, a sincere Christian. He commits two chapters, one in the Old Testament, and one in the New, daily, with the utmost ease. For a year or two he has been employed more or less as a colporteur, and has been studying several months.

In the afternoon we returned to Ningpo with the tide, singing hymns by the way, and arrived about ten o'clock, feeling that we had performed a pleasant, laborious, and useful two days' work; and this too, in the heat of summer, when most foreigners feel that they do well if they manage barely to exist. However, this summer is somewhat cooler than usual. On the first day of our tour occurred the great eclipse, though at this latitude only about one fourth of the sun's disc was obscured. The Chinese did not observe it much; so there was but a small din with gongs, "to drive off the heavenly dog who was eating up the sun." The eclipse furnished a text for several addresses on the absurdity of the Chinese superstitions.

Fields to be occupied. The same Bible woman, a native assistant and myself, three years since, made a tour to the same localities, and preached in the same great ancestral hall, to as large and a still noisier crowd, as above narrated. How quickly times flies, and how little, comparatively speaking, is accomplished! I then fully intended to visit the place frequently, and expected that a native preacher would soon be established here. But alas! this is the first visit I have paid since, and where is the preacher?

But I am somewhat comforted when I consider that still more important fields, great centres in the interior, have in the mean time been occupied, and that I have been able to supply br. Kreyer at Hang-chau and vicinity with three native preachers, two of whom I had supported and educated at my own private expense, and the third having had aid in the same way for several months; and, that I have also been able to supply br. Jenkins in the great city of Show-hing, with two men, educated at my own expense, and the ablest preacher and man in the whole Ningpo mission, the other also supported by myself about a year that he might study, and now laboring as a colporteur, who though not a talented man, is a most excellent, pious Christian. To God be the praise!

New Preachers employed. I received a short time since letters from some of these young preachers; and the very kind, respectful, and grateful terms in which they speak of my example and instructions, repaid me for much of my care and expense on their behalf, and gave me encouragement to hope that they will be useful laborers in the vineyard of the Lord. The preacher at Show-hing said he remembered and often thought of my advice and instructions, and expressed gratitude for them, and the desire to profit by them and by my example. I take no praise to myself in this. I am too painfully conscious of my deficiencies to do this; but such words from those for whose good and improvement we have labored, yea, are our children in the gospel, are comforting and encouraging.

The sending off of these five men to new fields, has weakened the working force in connection with the Ningpo mission very much, and of course proportionally retards the progress of the work here; but the advancement of the cause in China would, on the whole, be greater by the arrangement, I believed ; hence I was willing to make the sacrifice. I am trying to raise up other laborers, but I know that unless they are called and anointed of God, the attempt will be fruitless. Still, the necessities of the work have compelled me already to thrust three of the young men into the field with a very limited preparation; one at Ningpo, one at Mao-ka-zao, and one just now at Teo-mung-giao. They are all still studying, however. But the men, all of them, now employed in connection with that and the Hang-chau missions, need a more thorough training than they have had. If the Eastern China Mission is prospered, the time is not far distant when it will need a Theological School for training native preachers, something like that at Rangoon.

Mission to Sweden.

LETTER FROM MR. DRAKE.

A Lesson for Praying Parents. Orebro, June 12, 1868. My heart is full, and I must tell I trust the beginning of a new chapter in our history, also evidently a work of God. Br. Wiberg has told of the baptism of a young man from Finland by the name of F. V. Heikel. As he is an intimate acquaintance of the relatives of my wife, I have had a good deal of intercourse with him, and feel convinced that he is a real, Heaven-born soul. In relating his experience before the church, he remarked, for the encouragement of praying fathers and mothers, that the Christian truths inculcated by pious parents from his infancy had proved a bulwark against the infidel notions leavening uropean universities. Also, that being in distress on account of his sins, out on the Indian ocean, and many miles from land,

he felt the power of his mother's prayers; and in finding peace in believing, it seemed to him that all the blessings she had invoked on him from his infancy, and treasured up by a prayer-hearing God, had come down upon his head in a moment.

How the Convert became a Baptist. Ten years ago our Baptist brethren on the Aland Isles had to appear before the Abo Consistory. His father publicly disputed with them; but privately received them as brethren in Christ into his own house, fed them, and held sweet fellowship with them in prayer, singing, etc. A love of these brethren was kindled in the breast of the son.

Further, in going on a voyage in a Finnish vessel, the Invisible Hand led him to Burmah, and here he found no Christians but Baptists. He especially mentioned Mr. Douglass, as having shown great kindness to him. Arriving in London, he tried to find out some dissenting chapels, but could find none but Mr. Spurgeon's Tabernacle.

Stopping at a Swedish harbor (Sundsvall), he found br. E. Palmquist, and from his lips heard a "never-to-be-forgotten sermon." The last winter he spent in Stockholm, he almost exclusively attended our services, thinking he found the gospel more fully preached than in the Lutheran churches. At his baptism he requested to be permitted to state publicly his reasons for this step. During the spring he has given a gratuitous course of lectures to our students; they were excellent.

The First Baptist in Finland. Being the first Baptist in Finland proper, he needs earnest intercession at the throne of grace. He is the nephew of a bishop, I understand, the imperial councillor for Finland in ecclesiastical matters. Thus the Lord Himself has opened a door in Finland. None but a Russian subject could labor there. Others are sent over the borders. May God carry on His own work, and to Him we will ascribe all the praise forever.

LETTER FROM MR. BROADY.

Excessive Labors. Stockholm, Aug. 29, 1868. Besides my usual services in the chapel Lord's day evenings, I felt it my duty, owing to the illness of br. Edgren, to preach also in the mornings to the second church during the winter and spring, till the beginning of June last,when a brother, who for some years has been serving as a home missionary, was installed as the regular pastor of this church. It was rather too much for me, however, to preach to two churches on the Sabbath, besides attending evening meet ings almost every night in the week, superadded to my daily labors in the school. Consequently when in the middle of April I took a little cold, I lacked strength to throw it off, and was laid up with fever for a couple of weeks. I felt thankful to the Lord however, that it did not result in something more serious, and that He was pleased to restore me so soon. My labors with this little church were, notwithstanding, a blessing both to me, and, as I have reason to believe, even to others. The Lord was pleased to show me, before I left the place, that the Word had not been preached in vain.

Anniversary of the Theological Seminary. Our seminary held its Commencement, a public examination, on the 3d of June. The scholars, eleven in number, who had received instruction during the year, were all present but one. This one was obliged a few days previous to leave us for the drill in the army, according to the law of the land, which provides that every able-bodied young man of twenty years of age and in civic station shall turn out at a certain time during the summer, to learn the art of arms in the country's service. Nine of the eleven had received full scholarships, and two had supported themselves. Ten of them are devoted to the calling of the ministry, two of whom have already acquired some experience in that service. The eleventh, the youngest, is yet without a settled purpose in life. The examination, which was attended by a fair number of spectators, was creditable to all concerned. I must say in truth, that the young breth

ren had displayed during the year more than a usual amount of diligence and attention to their studies, and it was with special pleasure that I witnessed the results of their earnest and persevering toil.

Course of Studies. Br. Edgren had given instruction in arithmetic, algebra, geometry, physical geography, natural philosophy, and astronomy. Br. Drake had instructed in the Swedish language, Swedish history, general history, church history, and the Greek language. Br. Nystrom had taught the Hebrew language, and myself had instructed in the English language, logic, rhetorical exercises, moral science, Isaiah, exegesis, and homiletics. Besides this, br. Heikel, a fine medical student, offering himself to do it without being solicited, had given the school a course of lectures on anatomy and physiology.

The exegetical studies had been pursued every school-day during the year except Fridays. These Biblical exercises I consider by far the most important as well as the most profitable, and they have been confined during the year principally to the first half of the Epistle to the Romans. What I, by the grace of God and under the sought-for guidance of the Holy Spirit, especially aim at in these studies, is to get the young brethren to acquire a sound and living acquaintance with the word of God, and to train them into the habit of a patient, faithful, and thorough study of the Scriptures.

The Future of the Young Men. The three brethren who, when the school opened two years ago, began with the studies of the second year, will continue with us, at the farthest, only to the close of October next, when, the Lord willing, they intend to enter upon their respective fields of labor. These will be the first of the regular courses to go out from the school. But we have good hopes of their usefulness in the Master's service. They are all promising, devout young men, and the benefit they have received in the school is very apparent. Two of them, Lindblom and Backman, possess already