inion over
him. It is an awful reality of life that the point on which a man has
most conspicuously conquered is likely to be his weakest, for the enemy
plays a waiting game,

"And where we looked for palms to fall,
We find the tug's to come,--that's all."

* * * * *

Mr. Nieh came early under the influence of Pastor Hsi. He was a man of
conspicuous ability, business capacity, and influence. In early days he,
too, had smoked opium, but when he left that habit, he became a
Christian and an earnest student of the Word of God. Few could speak
with such power as he, and at any conference where he was present,
eager, interested crowds would gather to hear him. Many have been led to
Christ by his influence, and he seemed a man raised up of God to carry
on the work of the late Pastor Hsi. He administered the opium refuges
with great ability, and the work of the Church for many years prospered
in his hands. Every one turned to him for advice and help, and when the
Boxer troubles broke out, it was to Mr. Nieh that both Christians and
officials looked in their hour of need. "He was marvellously helped
until he was strong," and then, as to Uzziah of old, came the decline.
Power he loved, and in the position in which he found himself, holding
office in the Church, was able to exercise it in many directions.

Only God knows at which period the spiritual decay set in, which
silently, and at first quite invisibly, began a work which has ended in
the complete downfall of this man on whom the hopes of so many were set.
A desire to increase the prestige of his name, and love of popularity
led Mr. Nieh, as opportunity occurred, to lend his influence in
law-cases and village disputes on behalf of unworthy men, with the
motive of self-aggrandisement. Slowly but surely the material overcame
the spiritual in his life.

At this hour he is no longer even a member of the Christian community,
having publicly repudiated his former profession of faith. He even
smokes opium again, and finds his power and influence to be a thing
wholly of the past. Extraordinary trials have come to him in family and
personal life, but he remains hardened and untouched. The light has
gone from his face, for he has ceased to walk in the Light, but as we
look on his dissatisfied appearance, hope revives that he, having tasted
so deep of earthly bitterness, may yet be found amongst the suppliants
for mercy at the