years they are with us cover also the course indicated by Dr. Campbell
Morgan's Graded Bible, which Miss French has translated for their use.

The instruction of inquirers in the village centres is undertaken by
those women evangelists who have completed their course. In places to
which they are invited by the local church they hold classes of ten
days' duration, following the course of study as in the central station.
By this means a large number of women are under instruction, and
heathens are brought in contact with the messengers of the Cross.

City and village visiting forms an important branch of the training, and
last but not least, classes taken under criticism, when it falls to the
lot of the missionary to ask the questions which might occur to a
heathen audience, and to impress upon the students the necessity of
clear presentation of the Gospel. It is desirable that they should
express the things which have gripped them in an individual way, not
adopting a Western colouring but using to the full their Eastern
knowledge: "Originality is like a fountain head; orthodoxy is too often
only the unimpeachable fluid of the water company."

The prodigal son, for example, naturally smoked opium in the far
country, and the Chinese pictures so represent him. It was not, as we
have supposed, in her confidence that oil would be supplied that the
widow's faith was exemplified, but rather in her willingness at Elisha's
command to go forth on a borrowing expedition when she was already so
deeply in debt.

We are sometimes treated to illustrations truly Eastern in character, as
the following example will indicate. It was accepted by the audience as
a solemn exhortation, as was the preacher's intention, the missionaries
being the only ones present to whom the humorous side was evident. The
subject was the importance of a whole-hearted acceptance of the Gospel,
and the foolishness and uselessness of a half-hearted belief. A man, we
were told, was begging by the roadside; he was very ill, and a passing
doctor had pity on him, and gave him some medicine which the man
promised to take. Questionings, however, arose in his mind as to the
reliability of the said doctor, and yet he could not but take the drug,
as he felt so ill. A compromise was decided upon, and he took half the
dose. For a few hours he felt wonderfully well, and rejoiced in his
restored condition; towards night the pain was more acute than before,
and he was at h