ew order, and in the Christian community we see her
welcomed in babyhood, cared for in childhood, and receiving the honour
due to her womanhood when she becomes a bride. I have been amazed at the
sacrifices I have seen made by parents for their daughters. I have known
a father, too poor to afford the hire of a donkey, carry his little girl
nearly thirty miles to school. I have known the only bedcovering in the
home to be spared for the use of the little daughter during term, and a
man to endure the winter cold with the scantiest clothing that his child
might be warmly clad.

One class, a small one, has outstripped me in the race, and graduated to
a higher school to render service more needed there than here. I can
think of each one with joy as in the Great Teacher's Hand, learning
lessons which as yet are beyond me.

The one it seemed I could least spare was needed by Him, and since most
of this book was written my beloved Ling Ai went to serve, face to face,
the Lord she loves.

The intimate sympathy required to enter into the joys and sorrows of so
many lives is perhaps the heaviest strain laid upon the missionary, and
the mental discipline necessary to hold all in right proportion can only
be exercised where there is true adjustment of spiritual vision, whereby
we see "through the travail to the triumph, perfectly assured of the
ultimate victory of God," and rejoice, "cheering the battle by song and
shortening the marches by music."

CONCLUSION

"That Church controls the future which can demand
of her members the greatest sacrifices."--Dr. JOHN
HUTTON.

"When earth's last picture is painted, and the tubes are twisted and
dried,
When the oldest colours have faded, and the youngest critic has died--
We shall rest, and faith, we shall need it--lie down for an aeon or
two,
Till the Master of all good workmen shall put us to work anew.

And only the Master shall praise us, and only the Master shall blame;
And no one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame;
But each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star,
Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God of Things as They are."
RUDYARD KIPLING.

CHAPTER XXV

CONCLUSION

BEING A REVIEW OF THE PRESENT SITUATION

IT is now thirty years since foreigners came to reside in Hwochow,
during which time three generatio