y seventh day thereafter until the
forty-ninth day. Buddhist or Taoist priests are hired to conduct the
ceremonies. Mr. Ahok, probably partly that he might not antagonize his
relatives and friends by a disregard of their funeral customs, partly
because of the opportunity for spreading the knowledge of Christianity
thus afforded, followed the custom of having such a gathering every seventh
day. But instead of non-Christian ceremonies being held, the truths of
Christianity were preached.

Mrs. Ahok proved to be as active a worker as was her husband. When she had
been a Christian only a very short time, the leader for the Friday night
meeting held in their home failed to arrive. Evidently her husband was away
on one of his business trips, for there was no one else there who could
take charge of the service. So Mrs. Ahok said, "I will lead it, though I am
not very well instructed in the doctrines of Christianity." In telling of
it afterward she said: "I read about the woman who lost the piece of money
and took a candle and searched for it; and about the sheep that was lost
and found; and then there was singing and prayer; and I spoke to them, and
I was able to speak a great deal for them to hear. God helped me and
blessed me greatly in the service."

Soon after she had become a Christian she wrote a letter to the Woman's
Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, to be read at their
annual meeting. In it she says: "The time for your meeting is so near that
thoughts of it are constantly in my heart.... We have meetings in our
_hong_ (store), and also meetings in our house every Friday evening. The
praise for leading us to know the doctrine, and open the meetings, is all
due to the sisters who have not minded that the road to China led them so
away from their own country, but have come to teach us of Christianity.
Although I do not presume to say that my heart has been deeply sown with
gospel seed, yet I know that it has been changed into a different heart....
Now I send you this letter of greeting, thanking you for your favours, and
praising you for your great virtues. May God bless your fervour and spread
abroad the doctrine of Christianity in my country. This is what I always
pray."

II

WORK AMONG THE WOMEN OF THE UPPER CLASSES

Interested in every form of Christian service, Mrs. Ahok was especially
eager to share the joy of her new-found faith with the women of her own
class, the wealthy aristocrati