XII.—­CHINA.

[Illustration:  Map of Peking and Mongolia.]

In the Empire of China the London Missionary Society occupies seven principal stations and employs twenty-one English missionaries.  By their efforts several churches have been founded, which have been blessed with true prosperity.  No cases of earnest personal effort have been more striking in their character and results than those which have occurred among the prosperous churches of Amoy.  Last year the Directors published, in the usual way, detailed information from the Rev. John Stronach, of the opening of new stations at Bo-pien and Tio-chhu, and showed from Mr. Stronach’s journal the hearty reception which he met with on his visit to these villages in the interior of the province.  In the report of the Amoy mission further particulars were given, which indicated the progress of the movement, and the healthy manner in which it has been carried on.  The Directors trust that from the outset these earnest Christians will understand that it is their privilege and their duty to sustain for themselves the ordinances of that faith which they have now received:—­

“On the 2nd of December, Mr. John Stronach visited a large village still further distant, called San-io, and had, in the spacious public school-room, a numerous and attentive audience for two hours.  But the chief interest was displayed in the village of Tang-soa, distant from Bo-pien about twelve miles, the native place of the zealous, but as yet unbaptized convert, whose earnest efforts to instruct his numerous neighbours I referred to in my recent letter.  In Tang-soa his efforts among his relatives have been so successful that many of the villagers not only gave up the school-room for us to give addresses in, but, after listening to them with an interest altogether new in that part of the country, begged me to gratify their desires for regular instruction in Christianity by establishing services every Sunday.  I asked what proof they could give of the sincerity of their desire, and fifteen replied by bringing in the evening all the idols they owned, and in the presence of about forty of their fellow villagers, placing them on the table and then decapitating them, breaking them in sundry pieces, trampling them frequently under their feet, and otherwise ignominiously treating them, to the great delight of the numerous boys who were present and who joined gleefully in the sport; and we were at once offered the village school-room as another chapel, with the hope of eventually being put in possession of the idol temple.  One of the deacons at Bo-pien, who has often attended the examinations for the first literary degree, has been engaged as an assistant preacher.  At Tio-chhu, the new station referred to in my last letter, I had the pleasure, on the 8th December, of baptizing four additional converts, making twelve in all.”