The majority of local foreigners are absent from the city, seeking relief from the oppressive heat on the hills. Mission work, however, goes on pretty much as usual, and never were the chapels better filled with attentive audiences than they are at present. To missionaries who are interested in mission work, it is highly encouraging to -be able to present Christian trath to men whose minds, by force of circumstance, are compelled to search after knowledge of a kind they have hitherto been apt tv depreciate and even scorn. It is satisfactory also to learn that men who have been casual listeners in the chapels and who have returned to their villages are now studying the New Testament afd other Christian literature with diligence and zeal. Ttis the thoughtless and utterly indifferent character of the ordinary Chinese which has hitherto proved to be the chief obstacle to his propagation of Christiai truth in the Jand. Given a greater amount of mental activity and a less self-satisfied attitude on the part of these millions, there is no reason why, with God's blessing, Christianity should not make infinite strides towards the complete conversion of China within the next two decades. China needs a political regeneration very much, but she needs a spiritual salvation far more. And if the latter be effected as we surely hope it will, the former will follow in its train just as certainly as summer follows spring.
10th August,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.