LETTER FROM REV.  W.C.  POND.

Our anniversary was an occasion of much interest.  The attendance was large, and our brethren acquitted themselves well.  The Record-Union, the principal daily of Sacramento, published both the addresses in full.

We have good news from our evangelists.  They are doing great good, if we can judge at all by what we see:  and they are in training, I believe, for larger and better service in the years to come.  I shall have much to write about this for the next Missionary, much more than I can crowd into the space allowed me.

The new work at San Buenaventura opens finely.  It is already one of our largest interior schools; and two or three, possibly four, of the Chinese have already been led to believe; so that before Low Quong returns he expects to organize an Association and get Christian work into systematic operation.

I am greatly pleased also with the reports from Tucson.  Yong Jin, who has done excellent evangelistic work at Santa Cruz, goes to Tucson next week.  He is an earnest Christian, and though somewhat deficient in English is better educated in Chinese and is an excellent preacher.

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  FOUR MONTHS OF EVANGELISTIC WORK.

BY LOW QUONG.

In January last I was asked to do some evangelistic work in the Northern part of this State.  The first place I visited was Oroville.  There we have a branch mission with a fine mission house, or, we might call it a Chinese church and school combined.  The church has a membership of about fifteen.  The evening scholars were usually about twenty or more.  This school has a faithful teacher, and all together makes a fruitful mission.  Although I was there only about a month—­yet I enjoyed the work very much, and my acquaintance with the brethren there and their kindness to me I can never forget.  I will now give you some little incidents of my work there.  The town has about three hundred Chinese inhabitants, and most of our brethren and scholars live in the town, but there were also a good many outside of the town.  These are mostly miners.  But even these hard-working men, when they got through their day’s work, {138} came to town at night to attend our evening school; and on Sundays also, to hear the preaching of the gospel.

At the end of the month, when Mr. Pond came to Oroville, we had the Lord’s supper in our little Chinese church.  It was held in the evening.  One far-away brother was informed by letter, and he came over a long, rough road to attend the Lord’s table.  It was about eight o’clock when he reached the church.  We asked him what time he started to walk; he said at one o’clock in the afternoon.  He had walked fully seven hours just for the Lord’s supper, and early in the morning he had to walk back again to his place, while we took the train for Marysville.  During my stay at Oroville, four members were added to the Association and one was baptized and received to the church.  We would have had two, but one had gone to work in a place sixty miles from town.  He had waited for Mr. Pond to come up for nearly a whole month, so he could be baptized, and he had gone only a week when Mr. Pond came.  Lately I have received a letter from him, that he has returned to Oroville.