Cartwright Institute,
when Joe Carbrook had made his first confession of and surrender to
Jesus Christ, and it seemed to him that the likeness between these two
so different gatherings was far more real than all their contrasts.

On Monday the anniversary banquet brought the American consul, a
representative of the provincial governor, and many other dignitaries.
And on Tuesday the students put on a pageant which illustrated in
gorgeousness of color and costume and accessories the history of the
college. Besides all this pomp and circumstance there was a wonderful
industrial exhibit. The president of China sent a scroll, as did also
the prime minister. Former students in the cities of China, from Peking
to Amoy, sent subscriptions amounting to twenty-five thousand dollars
for new buildings, and other old students in the Philippines sent a
second twenty-five thousand dollars.

All of which stirred J.W. to the very soul. Here was a Christian college
older than many in America. Its results could not be measured by any
visible standards, yet he had seen graduates of the school and students
who did not stay long enough to graduate, men of light and leading, men
of wealth and station, officials, men in whom the spirit of the new
China burned, Christian workers; and all these bore convincing testimony
that this college had been the one great mastering influence of their
lives. A Christian college--in China!

J.W. thought of it all and said to himself: "I wonder if I am the same
individual as he who not so many months ago was talking about the good
sense of letting China wait indefinitely for Christ? Anyhow, somebody
has had better sense than that every day of the last forty years!"

The "tour of the tools" was teaching J.W. more than he could teach the
merchants of Asia. And yet he was doing no little missionary work, as
evidenced both in his own reports to Peter McDougall, and still more in
the reports which went to that observant gentleman after J.W. had moved
on from any given place. The Cummings Hardware Corporation may be
without a soul, as corporations are known to be, but it has many eyes.

These eyes followed J.W.'s progress from Shanghai to Foochow, to Hong
Kong, to Manila. They observed how he studied artisans and their ways
with tools, and the ways of builders with house fittings, and the
various devices with which in field and garden the toilers set
themselves to their endless labor. As the eyes of the Cumming