ee what sort of place the barbarian
kept. He would pick up the Bible and other books, throw them on the
floor, and with words of contempt strut proudly out.

Mackay endured this treatment patiently, but he set himself to study
their books, for he felt sure that the day was not far distant when he
must meet these conceited literati in argument.

He went about a good deal now. The Tamsui people became accustomed to
him, and he was not troubled much. His bright eyes were always wide open
and he learned much of the lives of the people he had come to teach.
Among the poor he found a poverty of which he had never dreamed. They
could live upon what a so-called poor family in Canada would throw away.
Nothing was wasted in China. He often saw the meat and fruit tins he
threw away when they were emptied, reappearing in the market-place. He
learned that these poorer people suffered cruel wrongs at the hands
of their magistrates. He visited a yamen, or court-house, and saw the
mandarin "dispense justice," but his judgment was said to be always given
in favor of the one who paid him the highest bribe. He saw the widow
robbed, and the innocent suffering frightful tortures, and sometimes
he strode home to his little hut by the river, his blood tingling with
righteous indignation. And then he would pray with all his soul:

"O God, give me power to teach these people of thy love through Jesus
Christ!"

But of all the horrors of heathenism, and there were many, he found the
religion the most dreadful. He had read about it when on board ship, but
he found it was infinitely worse when written in men's lives than when
set down in print. He never realized what a blessing was the religion of
Jesus Christ to a nation until he lived among a people who did not know
Him.

He found almost as much difficulty in learning the Chinese religion as
the Chinese language. After he had spent days trying to understand it,
it would seem to him like some horrible nightmare filled with wicked
devils and no less wicked gods and evil spirits and ugly idols. And to
make matters worse there was not one religion, but a bewildering mixture
of three. First of all there was the ancient Chinese religion, called
Confucianism. Confucius, a wise man of China, who lived ages before, had
laid down some rules of conduct, and had been worshiped ever since.
Very good rules they were as far as they went, and if the Chinese had
followed this wise man they would not have dri