THE K I N G ’S BUS I NES S to tell the gist of the "pld, old story»” Five minutes is the inininiiim time wherever five minutes is granted by the hearer. Conversation follows and at the close of the visit some booklet, or in special cases a copy of the New Testa ment is offered. These books are given not sold. Such attention to the tru th of the story as has been gained is never frittered away by chaffering about cash. John Wesley told his preachers “It is not your business to preach so many ser mons or conduct so many meetings, but to save all the souls- you can.” The motto needs but slight alteration to sum up the teaching impressed on every band worker: “It is not your business to enter so many houses or dispose of so many books, but to save all the souls you can." Tenth Autumn Bible School The seventy-eight workers of six of these bands together with the students in the Changsha Bible School, many of whom are being trained for work in the bands, formed the nucleus of this tenth autumn Bible Sehool. The numbers were brought up to 211 by preachers, teachers, stewards and leaders from many of the country and city churches. Distinguished amongst these visitors this year were three workers and a mis sionary from Honan and one Chinese worker from Kiangsi whose object was to find out how similar work could be started in these distant places. Added to the 211 students all of whom were Chinese, were missionaries coming from five other countries. The Chinese came from seven different provinces: the bulk were, of course, from the home province and they came from no less than twenty- eight different counties of Hunan. In regard to church organizations, we two hundred odd represented thirteen “de nominations.” What the converts con nected with these thirteen churches know about their respective differentiae, neither I nor anybody else has the slight est idea; What they know concerning the beliefs and doctrines common to all thirteen was revealed in every hymn and prayer, a t each lecture and service and above all a t the central service when we all met a t the one table and ate of the one loaf and drank of thp one cup in memory of, and blessed with the very real presence of our One Lord. Nobody has yet heard a t Nanyoh a sectarian word from teacher or taught. Nor has there ever been any defence of either the Bible or the Lord of the Bible—it would
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be as out of place as a “defence” of father or mother in the .homes in which we and our children have been brought up. “The Bible says so” is the end of every form of teaching a t Nanyoh: “The Lord commands” is the beginning of every work th a t is done there. Three of the morning hours of each week day are given up to Bible exposition and study. The Students a t Work In the afternoons the students take their turn under the guidance of thè ripest workers in book distribution car ried on with the retiring pilgrims as closely as possible on the lines of the home visitation. The students found out th a t large numbers of the pilgrims start from the inns and hotels before dawn. So they resolved to be ready with books for such. At 4 A. M.,, and even earlier, they start off from the school house to accomplish this object. This early ris ing is not, as is the afternoon work, part of the school regulation: it is en tirely voluntary. But it is done by ev ery student. One of the leading Qhi- nese evangelists who greatly blessed the students with his straight talks one year, and who was himself greatly blessed in his communion with the men, said to me, “It isn’t the mere fact that they get up so early th a t impressed me most: it is the way they do it. Each man seems to have a conscience as to the man in the next bed whose tu rn it is to sleep on (they go out twice a week in the afternoons and others twice in the mornings). I am much struck with the quiet way in which they get up and go OU t.’'* I think I am right in saying that we have never had a year without having evidence borne by some student or other th a t the work of the previous year (or years) has borne fruit in positive addi tions by baptism during the past twelve months. A Refreshing For All Year after year my real holiday comes a t Nanyoh. Kuling gives me a round of committee meetings. At Nanyoh I have nothing to do but the very enjoy able work òf reading all th a t I can on the book I talk about,—e. g. last year the F irst Epistle of John; this year, Ephesians. But more enjoyable than the mountain air and scenery, more en joyable than good books, is the joy that comes from living for three weeks in the midst of men who are first and last eager to see souls saved. Twenty-four of our own church mem-
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