“But, sir, beyond this class there is small hope, I fear, in preaching and praying.  The great mass of these wretched beings have had little or no early religious instruction.  There, are but few, if any, remains of things pure and good and holy stored away since childhood in their memories to be touched and quickened by the Spirit of God.  And so we must approach them in another and more external way.  We must begin with their physical evils, and lessen these as fast as possible; we must remove temptation from their doors, or get them as far as possible out of the reach of temptation, but in this work not neglecting the religious element as an agency, of untold power.

“Christ fed the hungry, and healed the sick, and clothed the naked, and had no respect unto the persons of men.  And we, if we would lift up fallen humanity, must learn by his example.  It is not by preaching and prayer and revival meetings that the true Christian philanthropist can hope to accomplish any great good among the people here, but by doing all in his power to change their sad external condition and raise them out of their suffering and degradation.  Without some degree of external order and obedience to the laws of natural life, it is, I hold, next to impossible, to plant in the mind any seeds of spiritual truth.  There is no ground there.  The parable of the sower that went forth to sow illustrates this law.  Only the seed that fell on good ground brought forth fruit.  Our true work, then, among this heathen people, of whom the churches take so little care, is first to get the ground in order for the planting, of heavenly seed.  Failing in this, our hope is small.”

“This mission has changed its attitude since the beginning,” said Mr. Dinneford.

“Yes.  Good and earnest men wrought for years with the evil elements around them, trusting in God’s Spirit to change the hearts of the vile and abandoned sinners among whom they preached and prayed.  But there was little preparation of the ground, and few seeds got lodgment except in stony places, by the wayside and among thorns.  Our work now is to prepare the ground, and in this work, slowly as it is progressing, we have great encouragement.  Every year we can mark the signs of advancement.  Every year we make some head against the enemy.  Every year our hearts take courage and are refreshed by the smell of grasses and the odor of flowers and the sight of fruit-bearing plants in once barren and desolate places.  The ground is surely being made ready for the sower.”

“I am glad to hear you speak so encouragingly,” returned Mr. Dinneford.  “To me the case looked desperate—­wellnigh hopeless.  Anything worse than I have witnessed here seemed impossible.”

“It is only by comparisons, as I said before, that we can get at the true measure of change and progress,” answered the missionary.  “Since we have been at work in earnest to improve the external life of this region, we have had much to encourage us.  True, what we have done has made only a small impression on the evil that exists here; but the value of this impression lies in the fact that it shows what can be done with larger agencies.  Double our effective force, and we can double the result.  Increase it tenfold, and ten times as much can be done.”