At the invitation of the Yung-kang Church, the fifth annual Conference of the preachers and leaders of the China Inland Mission was held there a short time ago. Workers gathered from the Kin, Chu, Nien Prefectures and throughout the three d meetings a very happy sp' fellowship prevailed. One special feature of this year's assembly was the presence of Mr. Bao of Nanchangfu. Ki. He was the preacher of the Conference. His message was fresh and stimulate ing and. being a gifted Bible student, it was most interesting to observe the Chinese point of contact in his presentation ai Scripture Truth.
The Conference opened with words of welcome from Mr. Gracie after which the election of officers for the ensuing year took place. Evangelist Chu of Lanche was chosen Chairman and the Rev. F. Dickie, of Kinhua, Vice-chairman. There was a full programme for each session and Bible School work was one of the outstanding topics for discussion. Miss Tranter, in reporting on the women's work, gave a fine message from the Word about the Word. She was elected to lead the Women's School to be held in Lanche, next year. The Bible School—more specially for men—which has, for the past three years been held at Yenrhow, was reported on by Mr. Fairclough. In the course of his remarks he lamented the failure of the Churches in our midst rising to the great opportunities of the day. This sad failure he attributed mainly through the Christians cing anaemio, inefficient and purblind. He maintained that the only hope for revival was the creation of a greater love for the Word of God. To this end it was unanimously decided to continue the school for 1923—the place being Yenchow.
Other important subjects on the agenda were discussed, i.e., primary schools; industrial schools; appointment of a visiting pastor; family prayers; Christian giving; Church rules; wud most interesting reports were listened to on the work of the year of the Preacher's Band "A Report of progress of the Churches in the Kinhuadao" was introduced by Mr. Fairclough. By the use of diagrams a birds-eye view was obtained of the advancement made in the work of the C.I.M. as a whole, respecting the. number of converts, outstations. schools and voluntary workers. There was a striking comparison with the figures of to-day and those of some 30 or 40 years ago. So marked was the contrast that the Conference spontaneously arose and sang the Doxology. Focussing the thoughts on the work of the Churches of the immediate district, the diagrams revealed that; while in places, distinct progress had been made, yet. in some areas, the work wags in reality only holding its own, or at best, but making feeble progress. The discussion closed with a few statistics of the 19 counties of the Kinhuadao—the major part of which is worked by the C.I.M. With a population of well. mgh 4.000,000—the numerical strength
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.