basin in which the city is situated. One of these hills, quite abrupt and mountainous, called Tiger Hill, which towers up in the distance just opposite the city, is supposed to have a strange influence over the destinies of Foochow. It is said that an early prophet declared that when this hill, which terminates in an abrupt precipice on the river's edge, should fall, the city would be destroyed. To prevent this great catastrophe two large granite lions are set up within the city walls immediately facing this threatening hill, which are supposed to counteract all evil influences of this rugged elevation.

As we come nearer the city we discover that another wonderful change has taken place. All along the southern side of the river we now see a number of foreign houses, many large merchant's hongs, and many beautiful homes on the side of the hill back from the river. A foreign population of about two hundred, and a foreign trade of millions of pounds per year, has sprung up in the city since we left it, twenty-five years ago. But old China is still the same. As we approach the city, hundreds of "sampans," or small row-boats, and larger vessels more permanently located, here throng the river, and serve as residences for their owners. These water residences are one of the striking features of Chinese life, and are found in all parts of the empire. The river population of Foochow must amount to several thousand souls, born and reared and spending their lives on these boats. Here, too, are the many junks of the olden time, of all forms and sizes, from the massive uncouth vessels coming down from Shantung, to the neat little black painted crafts of Hingpo; and these vessels pursue the same old method of sailing down the coast during the early fall and winter by the aid of the north-east monsoon, and then lying here for nearly six months, to sail back again when the monsoon shall have changed to the south-west. Here, too, in the center of the river, is the same Tongchiw, or Middle Island, connected with the banks on each side by stone bridges and densely covered with buildings, and occupied by a busy, thriving multitude, numbering several thousands. Several native official residences are found on this island, and formerly we made our own home upon it, accompanied by two mission families.

This city is the capital of the Fuhkien province, which has an area of fifty-seven thousand square miles, and a population of fifteen millions of the most hardy and adventurous natives of the empire. On the south side of the river is a great suburb called Ato, containing a population of fifty thousand, with extensive shops and markets and numerous massive temples. As it is well said:

Circumstances have fixed this locality as the chief center of our mission at Foochow. Here, on an extensive compound on the

southern face of the hill, we have five excellent residences, one of them owned by the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. We have a large three-story girls' boarding-school, also belonging to the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. We have another large three-story building, with basement, the lower part of which may be called the "Methodist Book Concern" of Foochow, and the remaining two stories may be designated the Theological Institute," of the Foochow Conference.

On the front face of the hill we have a fine brick building known as the Tieng-ang Tong, the "Heavenly Rest Church," divided into two compartments, the one for English and the other for Chinese service. A little removed to the west of this great compound is located the home and hospital of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, under the direction of Miss Sigour ney Trask, M.D.

On the west bank of the river is a still more populous suburb, extending two miles above the great bridge, and one mile below it, spreading out in some places considerably over the plain, and containing not far from one hundred thousand souls. On its main thoroughfare, leading to the gate of the city, is the Methodist Episcopal Church of Iong Tau, and in another portion of this same suburb is another commodious church, called Ching-Sing Tong, "Church of the True God," the first church erected in our China Mission.

The one hundred and fifty pages of the work that follow from this point are occupied with a vivid description of the city of Foochow and its environs, with a lucid historical sketch of the city, especially as connected with Christian missions, and particularly those of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Deeply interesting accounts of the transactions of the conference, and of the exercises and institutions connected therewith, are also given. The Bishop was also among the heathen and Mohammedan temples of the region, and saw the ceremony of the false worship therein, and gives us his meditations thereon. He also favors us with a most discriminating consideration of the character and writings of Confucius, which concludes the whole. All these various chapters are interspersed with incidents illustrative of Chinese manners and customs. Of these well-written and deeply-interesting chapters we can give but the merest outline.

We follow the Bishop as he enters within the walls and threads his way through the ten-feet-wide streets, jostled by

baskets of fruit, bags of rice, boxes of tea, sedan-chairs, etc., the din of gongs and bells, angry and vulgar epithets, and perpetual cries of "Look out!" "Take care!" and "Keep to the right!" ringing in his ears. He does not accept the multitude of temples that he beholds as evidence of the devotion of the masses to the reigning faith; but, on the contrary, the temples themselves bear witness to the decaying state of these idolatrous and unmeaning systems.

Nearly every one of them exhibits evidences of desertion and decay. Many of them seem never to be opened at all, and are covered with dust and filth; others, entirely abandoned, are crumbling into ruins. Their walls are fallen and overgrown with weeds and mosses. Their spacious courts are empty and desolate, and their huge idols are broken and crumbling to dust on their deserted shrines.

At one place he turned aside for a noisy wedding procession, while at another he saw the drill of native soldiers who had been trained under French and English officers, and felt that the Chinese were becoming formidable as a military power. He revisited the place where years ago he had accompanied the British Consul to witness an execution, and from which he had fled after seeing two, out of nineteen, decapitated. He accepted an invitation to a Chinese wedding in high life, and felt quite at home, treading upon Brussels carpet, and surrounded by foreign pictures, easy-chairs, sofas, etc., though feast and customs were all Chinese. He toiled up the Kushan Mountain to the magnificent ancient monastery of the Bubbling Spring, (Kushan,) near its summit. His eye could hardly be satisfied till he had fully taken in the field where for years he had toiled in great faith and some hope. All this sight-seeing was but incidental to the greater business for which the Bishop had come to Foochow.

His visit to the rural regions was chiefly that he might inspect the mission work at Kucheng. A delegation of native Christians met the visiting company two miles outside of Kucheng, who were re-enforced at a nearer point by the presiding elder, the saintly Hu Yong Mi, and other members of the mission. We cannot pause to rehearse the affecting Christian experiences that the Bishop records as given at the love-feast, or to speak as we would of the high Sabbath at Kucheng, or

of the great spiritual outpouring with which the assembled. Church was favored. Every part of the occasion was of a type to be compared only with Methodism of the olden style, and reminds us of the glory revealed on like occasions to our fathers. The chief interest was concentrated in the organization and session of the conference, held after the Bishop returned from Kucheng to the city of Foochow. The Bishop says:

It was an occasion of intense interest to myself, as well as to all. Twenty-seven years ago I had come to this city among the earlier missionaries. Twenty-three years ago I had left the city with but very little encouragement or indication of what was to be the grand result. Then there was not a single merchant here, all the foreign trade that there was at that time being carried on by two opium ships, located near the mouth of the river. Now I find a large mercantile settlement, filled with elegant residences and busy hongs. Then there was not a church nor a native Christian; now there are in this city three large churches of our own mission, besides several of other missions. Then we could not, by treaty rights, pass more than five miles beyond the city; now our missionaries and native preachers have their districts and their circuits, reaching one hundred and fifty miles to the north and west, and two hundred miles to the south and east. Now there are over four hundred native Christians in the three missions and in this Church. I now see before me eighty native Chinese preachers, and between two and three hundred native Chinese Christians, representing a Church membership of more than two thousand, ready to be organized into an Annual Conference.

The Bishop transferred five missionaries and fifteen native preachers from conferences in the United States, where they held their membership, and declared them to constitute the Foochow Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, authorized by the General Conference of 1876. Of the two secretaries one was native. Committees were raised on self-support, opium, Sunday-schools, the Sabbath, etc. Anniversaries were held, and all the business of the conference done as in conferences in our own land. The Bishop continues:

There was an affecting scene when we began the examination of character. S. L. Baldwin, who had been superintend ent of the mission, stood first on the list, and Hu Po Mi was called upon, as presiding elder, to represent him. The venerable brother arose and said: "I cannot do it, I cannot do it," and the tears began to roll down his cheeks, and he said again, "I cannot do it. The like was never seen in China; these foreign

teachers have come here to teach us of Jesus, and now we are in an Annual Conference, and I am called upon to represent the teacher. I can think of nothing like it but when the Saviour insisted on washing the disciples' feet." The whole conference was much affected. The Sabbath of the conference was a day of full work and blessed enjoyment. The love-feast commenced at half past eight in the morning, in which a large number of the brethren gave excellent and interesting testimonies to the reality, the value, and the blessedness of the religion which they enjoyed. Some of them had endured serious trials and persecutions during the year for the cause they had espoused. To this day it is not a matter of gain, but of very serious loss in every temporal and earthly respect, to the Chinese who become Christians. It is not, therefore, for the hire, which is but a little pittance, which these native preachers get from the Missionary Society, that they enter into this work; but always with great pecuniary sacrifice, and with opposition every-where, and with persecution in most places. They enter into this work, being called by the Holy Ghost, and sustained by a conscious personal Christian experience. Every one of our presiding elders could immediately retire from his Christian and official character and make three or fourfold the amount of money he is receiving in the Christian work. . . . Immediately after the adjournment of the conference we had a consultation with the missionaries and presiding elders as to the distribution of the missionary money appropriated to the native preachers. The rate was fixed at three dollars a month for each of the preachers, a dollar and a half for his wife, and seventyfive cents for each child. As large a part of this as is possible is paid by each circuit and district, and the balance is then paid by the mission. The conference itself passed a resolution that all the circuits in the older work ought to be able to support their own preachers in five years from this time, and recommended that missionary money should not be paid to the preacher, but to the stewards of the charge, as supplementary to whatever they could do, and to be administered by the stewards; and they also passed a rule that the amount appropriated to any circuit should gradually diminish from year to year, and cease entirely within a limited period.

...

At this scale of prices it really looks strange to an American to see such men as Hu Yong Mi, Hu Po Mi, and Sia Sek Ong-men who, in character and ability, if they had the same experience and acquaintance with American life as they have with that of China, would be qualified to fill the highest places in the Church in the United States-receiving as the compensation for their labor three dollars for themselves, one dollar and a half for their wives, and seventy-five cents for each child, making in the case of the saintly Hu Yong Mi six dollars a month for his invaluable services. Sia Sek Ong for some years has refused to receive any missionary money, and has depended entirely upon the contributions of his district, which has been able to contribute FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XXXII.—28