What message shall we send back to them, O people of God?

Shall it not be this?  “We pledge you our prayers, our sympathy, our best sons and daughters and five hundred thousand dollars in consecrated money this year; and in the great name of the Lord our God let the thing be pushed.”

* * * * *

THE CHINESE.

SCRAPS FROM MY CORRESPONDENCE.

BY REV.  W.C.  POND.

Our limited space forbids the publication of extended correspondence; and yet, often, in the familiar and unstudied letters which I receive from our workers, there are paragraphs or sentences which I greatly desire that our Eastern friends and helpers might share with me.  The following are a few of these.

Mrs. Carrington, our very faithful and efficient teacher at Sacramento, writes as follows:  “Our school seems in better condition than for many months.  Chin Toy [missionary helper] is true and watchful.  Two joined the church at the last communion, one has given his name to join the Association, and others seem almost ready.”

Our school at Oroville has been for a year past in the hands of two quite young, but true hearted and enthusiastic teachers, from one of whom I hear in this way:  “We have had a very good school this month.  The attendance has been very good; the scholars seem to feel better, and I think the teachers do too.  We had quite a re-union one evening last month.  There was one brother who had just returned from China, and another from away out in the country.  The former had not been here for years, nor the latter for more than twelve months.  It would have done any one good to see how glad they were to meet each other.  I never saw so much hand-shaking, and talking, and laughing.  Both these are good scholars and will help us much.  We have the Bible lessons twice a week, and they are very interesting to us both.  We have nearly finished the Gospel of Mark, and it gets more interesting towards the last.”

Other extracts shall be from letters of our Chinese brethren.  Here is one who has evidently gotten over into an American way of thinking.  He is so much in earnest that his English is badly wrenched in the effort to convey his views, but I give his words very nearly as he wrote them.  “What I think and what often I observed is that the Chinese very meanness and sordidness, just exactly what were the Jews.  Scatter all round the world, and still they feel very proud of their country, despise the foreigners, close all their sea-ports, would not allow the poor celestial to go out or have civilized men to enter the happy country.  On account of their ignorance of Christ, unhappy, miserable, wretched.  Some of them think good deal of their improvement, national, naval, but if the Government will not adopt the Christianity and put behind their ancestor and evil ways and the wicked custom, they will not be very flourishing what they look for.”  For himself he says, “I hope I will have a good opportunity while I am working for the Lord and looking for some souls to bring to the Lord, as His will be done.”