CHRISTIAN BEGINNINGS FOR WOMEN IN PEKING

BY MRS. W. B. STELLE

(Mrs. Stelle is the daughter of Dr. D. Z. Sheffield, president of the North China Union College of Tung-chou, and gives her life to helping the people of her adopted country.)

N the autumn of the year 1900, as some of us were standing amid the ruins of our American Board Compound, which a few months before had been a busy hive of schools, homes and workers, Dr. Ament said, “It will take at least twenty-five years to get back where we were before this upheaval." Another of the company said, "Fifty would be nearer the truth." And as we thought of our workers, three Bible women out of four gone, of our schoolgirls, only thirty-five of the sixty left, equipment, everything in utter chaos, it was not strange that our hearts fainted within us.

And now that nine years have passed think what wonderful things our eyes behold! Opportunities for work of every description are ours.

After her return from exile, the late Empress Dowager was in a receptive frame of mind. And well it was for China and the aid which American missionaries were endeavoring to render that empire, that we had as our Government representatives, Mr. and Mrs. Conger. With a heart full of love for the Chinese and a desire to help China, Mrs. Conger gently tried in every way to influence the Empress Dowager toward reform. At the imperial audiences missionary ladies were asked to act as interpreters, and thus greater opportunity for conversation was gained. Such subjects as education of women, public school systems, literature for the home, and various topics of vital interest were talked about in those audiences.

Because the missionary ladies were received in court and in the homes of the highest in rank, other official homes that before, either through fear or dislike, were closed, are now open to them.

Some ladies of high rank are truly interested. One lady came to one of our mission hospitals for an operation. She was there several months and attended the daily service of prayer regularly. She also read with the Bible woman, and asked the little Christian company to pray for her. Just before the operation, she said to one who was calling on her, "I was afraid when I first thought of the knife, but I have prayed and now my heart is at rest and I am sure I shall recover." And though she has gone back to court duties, she still shows her friendly feelings and interest in religious things. Not only are homes opened to us, but because of the attitude of the late Empress Dowager toward education, a wave of interest in woman's educa

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tion has come over Peking and its vicinity, which also has affected the whole empire.

Ladies of wealth and education have given their means and time to starting schools for girls. One lady, the wife of a Mongol prince, is the pioneer in starting a school for Mongol girls. Inspired by her enthusiasm, another lady, a delicate girl accustomed to every luxury, went out to Mongolia to help in this school. One young man has started two schools for girls in Peking and hopes to start others. For the last two years he has held exhibitions of school work in which all the girls' schools of the city, under both missionary and native supervision, are invited to participate. And just

recently there have come out decrees from the government urging the establishment of schools for girls.

These teachers and ladies are not eager for the gospel message, but they do desire information, and to meet these desires we have instituted newspaper readings and popular lectures. And through these we have come into touch with those who long for deeper truths. One lady, whose life had been given up to caring for her invalid husband, happened in to one of the

gatherings where the newspaper was being read and explained. She was interested and came often, and then found what was of greater interest in the church meetings to which she was invited. Now the care of her sick husband is lightened and gladdened as they together read God's Word and

pray.

Not only are there these wonderful openings for work outside the church, but even more important in some ways are the opportunities within.

Think of the families of our Peking church. One thousand members, representing many hundreds of families, and these Chinese families living together in great communities, and bound by every tie to mutual helpfulness. What opportunity for working for the uplift of North China could be more inspiring than our Union Educational Work, four denominations sending their picked students to this Woman's College in Peking. These girls to be the leaders, not only of our mission institutions, but also eagerly sought for as teachers in the schools under Chinese supervision.

Think of our training school for Bible women, with its thirty pupils— women eager to learn, and to put into practice what they are learning. These are the home missionaries of our country work as they go about the villages. One of them, a young widow with five children, studies with her baby in her arms, and then goes back to her home to work in station classes, and visiting in the homes around her.

Another is a woman who, for forty years, was our neighbor, but never came near us. At last she became interested, and made up her mind in spite of her sixty odd years to learn to read. She has learned, and now is stationed in one of our hardest out-stations, where she is slowly winning the love of all as she gives herself to teaching.

Then there is our country work, with all its possibilities open to us. Never have the women been more friendly and receptive.

Such are our opportunities multiplied manifold, for I have mentioned the work only of the Peking field.

Our limitations are the natural result of such great opportunities, but they can in some measure be removed by the workers in this land. Your missionaries are not giants, and their strength is limited, but how great is the temptation, and at times how necessary to go beyond the danger point.

We are limited by our small number of workers. In the United States there are 468,786 Congregational women, responsible for 8,000,000 women and girls, which makes each woman responsible for 171 women. In North China there are 35 foreign women workers responsible for 6,000,000 women, which means that each worker has for her share to help 172,857 women and girls. If one woman out of every 1,500 of our Congregational women

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would go to the field the working force of ladies on all mission fields under our Woman's Boards would be nearly doubled.

We do not ask for North China double the number of lady workers. We ask for only seven, and those we must have. The time will come when these doors will be shut in our faces, but now the women of China are looking to us for help. Shall we fail them?

WHAT THE GOSPEL BRINGS TO MOTHER HEARTS IN

CHINA

BY MISS MARY E. ANDREWS

(Miss Andrews has been a missionary in North China since 1868.)

IS your baby better?" one mother asks of another whose little one has been sick. "We have thrown it away," is the stolid answer. "Well, it is gone, and you cannot get it back. Just forget it as soon as you can. There is nothing else to do." Such is the hopeless outlook and such the comfort which heathenism brings to aching hearts in China when death invades the home and the little ones are taken. But oh, the change that comes when our blessed gospel enters those hearts and homes!

I think of a poor, old woman with a heavy, stupid face, Mrs. Chu, who came to our chapel some years ago. Sabbath after Sabbath she was in her place there. Sabbath after Sabbath I sat down beside her when the morning service was over, and told her in the very simplest possible words the simplest truths of our gospel. It seemed as if she could never take them in. She always listened eagerly, hungrily, but had forgotten it all before the next Sabbath came, and wanted to hear it over again. Months passed before the dull mind and heart opened to receive the Glad Tidings, but they did open at last. Slowly the stupid look disappeared, and the poor, old face lighted up with the new-found joy and love. And then a little grandson was born into the home, and the mother died as the little new life began. Poor baby, it seemed as if it must soon follow the mother, and as if it would be better so. But the grandmother folded the little one into. her heart with a different love from that which she had felt for her own children, because she had learned of the Saviour how to love. Tenderly she sought to supply its needs, carrying it day after day to one nursing mother and another all through the neighborhood, begging of each a little milk for the motherless baby. Willingly it was given, but it failed to meet the baby's need. Then it was brought to us, and at last condensed milk and the wise counsel of an American mother saved the little life. The baby grew strong and healthy, and came to be more and more the joy of the grandmother's heart. Great was her delight that the first word the

baby lips learned to say was the name of the Lord. Proudly she told how the little head was bowed and the little hands folded as they sat down for each meal, and the baby would not eat till the blessing had been asked. Eagerly she looked forward to the time when, grown to manhood, he should make it his life work to preach the gospel. But the Lord had other thoughts for the little one. Coming home from a summer rest at the hills, the word was brought to me that Mrs. Chu's little grandson had suddenly sickened and died. The poor old woman came to see me soon. Crushed, heartbroken, with the tears streaming down her wrinkled cheeks she told me the sad story of the little one's going away. Then we sat and talked together of the Saviour. Out of the Word I read to her the sweet story of his love for the little ones, and told her, what she had never before taken in, of our blessed assurance that when loving arms unclasp here to let the darlings go, the Saviour's stronger, more loving arms fold them tenderly in. It was such a new, glad thought to her. Never shall I forget the look of ecstatic joy on the poor old face from which the tears were not yet dried as she went out of my room holding in her heart the blessed hope that her darling was not lost, was with Jesus, and that she should see him again by and by. It was not long before the Lord called her too to the Heavenly Home, and I doubt not the baby welcomed her there.

I think of a funeral service I saw once in our little cemetery, when a beautiful baby boy had been taken by a sudden and terrible accident. As the little box containing the precious form was lowered into the resting place I saw the Christian father bend over the little grave and say quietly, Tsai chien ("I'll see you again"), the common parting salutation of those who expect soon to meet again.

I think of a dear young mother, who in one short fortnight had given back to the Lord two dear children, a bright, promising boy of four or five years, the only boy in the family, and a beautiful little girlie not yet a month old. The mother came to my room one day at twilight, and after we had talked for a little of the things precious to our hearts, she quietly laid at my feet a string of cash, saying with tears in her eyes and in her voice, "This is my thank offering." No need to tell why she brought a thank offering to the Lord. I knew well that in the midst of the heartache and the longing she was yet rejoicing and thanking God because she knew so surely that her dear ones were not "thrown away," but were kept for her beyond all possibility of sorrow and of sin-safe forever in the Saviour's tender keeping. Among the many joys that come to us in our blessed work for the Master in China not the least is this, to be able to bring such hope, such comfort, such joy into the sad, sorrowing, hopeless hearts of our sisters in that far away land.