oulders of willing helpers,
that we ourselves might be free to undertake fresh enterprises.

MRS. HSI'S SECOND GIFT

"It is Jesus who has introduced into virtue a
passion before which vice is not condemned but
consumed as by fire."--Rev. CARNEGIE SIMPSON.

"Round the cape of a sudden came the sea,
And the sun looked over the mountain's rim:
And straight was a path of gold for him,
And the need of a world of men for me."
ROBERT BROWNING.

CHAPTER IX

MRS. HSI'S SECOND GIFT

BEING AN ACCOUNT OF HER LIFE FROM WIDOWHOOD

ONE direct result of the lack of foreign workers was the appointment of
Mrs. Hsi to the oversight of the women's work in Chaocheng. During her
husband's lifetime she had been eager to learn all she could, and had
with difficulty mastered some of the Chinese characters. She often
expressed to him her desire to learn more, but he told her to remember
that the need for her to attend to the domestic side of the large
establishment at the Middle Eden was essential, and her life until his
death was largely a busy domestic one.

Not entirely, however, was this the case. When it became necessary to
open a Refuge for Women in the city of Hungtung, it was to his wife that
the Pastor looked for help, and she, there and in other places, did a
truly Christlike work. It was in the city of Hsugo that she accomplished
her most difficult task. It seemed as if the devil had a special power
there, and Pastor Hsi was almost in despair. Man after man, amongst them
some of his most trusted helpers, fell into sin, or were overcome by
difficulties in that place.

How to hold it at all was a problem. He solved it by sending his wife,
and alone she went to live six days' journey from the place where he
was, and for the first time the work in Hsugo was successful.

Almost immediately after her return home, Pastor Hsi developed the
illness from which he never recovered. He was at work on some Refuge
accounts when he felt unwell, and his spirit became conscious that the
messenger had come with a command "that he must prepare for a change of
life, for his Master was not willing that he should be so far from Him
any longer."

For nearly six months he lingered still, making preparations for the
journey ahead; he gave directions for the temporary closing of the
Refuges, recognising, doubtless, that t