place in which to
live, the house was destroyed, her clothes were stolen, and had it not
been for the thoughtfulness of one missionary who, in the midst of
personal danger, found time to buy and send to her some garments and
bedcovering, she would have been in a sad plight. Her old mother could
not walk, so badly had she been beaten by the robbers, and terrified,
the two women crept to the fields and hid themselves. When night fell
they returned to shelter and to get a little food, crawling out to their
hiding-place before the cock crew each morning. Terror was upon the
whole populace. The official had not been successful here, as in
Chaocheng, in dealing with the movement, and the party of missionaries
who had for some time been gathered in Pingyangfu were openly attacked
and robbed by Boxer bands as they left the city under official escort.

In loneliness and peril Mrs. Hsi and her aged mother cried to God, as
the anxious, weary days passed by. The missionaries were gone, very many
killed, others in hiding, and some, after perils and sufferings
unspeakable, had reached Hankow. After some months came the additional
sorrow of the death of her brother-in-law, Elder Si, who had managed
for her all matters in which she required help.

Gradually the storm blew over, but those who passed through that period
can never forget it. For Christ's sake they had suffered, and they could
not again be as before. The Church in Shansi "had a new and powerful
weapon" in her hands, "the power of her sufferings."

A few months later, as soon as passports were available, the
missionaries were back at their posts. There was much to tell and to
hear, as old friends met and were able to recount all the wonderful
deliverances of the past year. But how many vacant places there were!
How could they be filled? Ripe experience and Christlike sympathy were
needed to deal with the new situation.

Some had, under pressure, in a weak moment, recanted; others had
resisted this temptation, but fallen over the more subtle question of
indemnity for property destroyed. The situation, moreover, was changed;
foreigner and Christian alike were now in the ascendancy. Compensation
for life and property was granted, and though the members of the China
Inland Mission declined to accept this, their action was made the
occasion of a laudatory proclamation which called upon the people to
note and imitate such an exemplification of self-forgetting goodness.

In