he ground covered with snow; the sky still
covered with clouds; no sunshine; yet there was a congregation of
about one hundred and thirty, of whom eighty (about) would be
women, and fifty (about) be men. The next Sabbath, January 26, was
still dull; the congregation numbered about two hundred and
eighty--men, say, one hundred and thirty; women, say, one hundred
and fifty. Mr. Lees took the women into the chapel. I took the men
outside in another court, and preached to them from a terrace which
gave me a commanding view of my congregation. Mr. Lees had too
little ventilation, I had too much of it; but both of our
congregations listened well, though there was no sun, though the
cold was intense, and though stray flakes of snow wandered slowly
down among us as we worshipped. The next Sabbath, February 2, was
fine. All except adherents were excluded, and the congregation
numbered about eighty men, and one hundred and twenty women. Twelve
men and seven women were baptized.

'The most novel feature of the work I noticed was the eagerness
displayed to learn and sing hymns. Sometimes poor old women, from
whom we could not extract much Catechism information about the
unity in trinity and other theological mysteries, brightened up
their old wrinkled faces when asked if they could sing, and when
asked to give us a specimen of their singing, would raise their
cracked and quavering voices and go through "There is a happy
land," or "The Great Physician," or "Safe in the arms of Jesus," a
good deal out of tune here and there, it is true, but on the whole
creditably as regards music, and with an apparent earnestness and
feeling that was hard to witness with dry eyes. And if the old
women sang thus, what of the young people? They seemed to revel in
hymns. The old, big, orthodox hymn-book used in our chapels got a
good deal of patronage and attention; but their great favourites
were those in a small collection of the Sankey revival hymns
translated (with a few exceptions) and published by Mr. Lees. These
hymns contain good gospel, seem to be easily learned, and are set
to tunes which the Chinese seem never to sing themselves tired of.
The preachers have mastered a goodly number of them, and teach them
to all comers; but, Mr. Lees being a singer, of course, when he