The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-03-24
MISSIONS IN CHINA.
Rev. w. l.. Beard Writes Interestingly
 of His Oriental Field.

i of funds in his Chinese missionary l field and also gives an interesting &C., count of the recent rapid adoption of western customs and merchandise. The letter is dated at Foochow and is as follows;
 have not been tied to the seminary as previously, but the demands on time and strength have decreased but lit- tie. The money granted me for use in my field this year is not enough to meet the expenses of the seminary alone, to say nothing of the work among the churches. I called the pas tors and preachers and other helpers together, the other evening, and told them the plain facts and said that the work among the churches in my held | would have to be supported entirely by native contributions. I promised to help them on the rents of the chapels. Preachers salary, janitors' salary, in- cidentals and repairs they would have to look to the church members to sup ply Then I asked them to express their opinion as to the possibility of | CdTTylHS lIlS lUEOuSll. 1No OiiS SNo | gested a backward step; they treated the matter with all the gravity that 1t demanded. They understood what It meant to them as leaders of these church members. They are in the del icate position of being obliged to urge the, people to support them. They must face an immense amount of dis couragement, and this sentence does not convey to you what it means in this land. They will have to be on their guard every day this year to keep 1 the members up to their promises. | think 1t can be done and will be done, and have faith that the work will not suffer retrenchment during the coming year. It will take not only faith in God, but in ones fellowmen, and it will take an immense amount of mental | and physical strength, and what pa- tience!
 But I am committed and the business must go on this basis i. e., will guar antee the rents of the chapels All else must come from the natives or they must shut up the churches.
 You will be interested to hear how we can do this. I needed for the whole Ol IHy MOTh IillS yGttl IllliC llullol Cd eeiie thirty-six dollars in gold. have four hundred and sixty-eight dollars. It will take to meet the expenses of the seminary, which cannot be reduced eX- cept by turning the students away, and this would be suicidal to the work Of the whole mission, five hundred dol- lars The rents on the chapels, which | I have promised to be responsible for, will amount to about one hundred dol- I lars I must find somewhere about one hundred dollars to keep the work in my care from going down.
 We are going to pursue the same course that we did last year. That is, lay the whole matter before God and ask Him to send the needed funds from the friends at home. Money has been entrusted to us to expend this year, so that the work has not suf- fered and we believe when the friends hear of the condition the work is in now, they will be only too happy to meet the small amount that Is necessa- ry to make up the deficiency in the na- tive contribution.
 l Germany has evidently got her foot on Chinese soil and expects to make a protracted stay There is some talk of division of the empire but with the recent loan in the hands of England, rather think China will remain intact for some time to come. The whole en- pire is yielding very fast to the influ- ence of western teaching. Schools of western learning are being opened in all parts of the empire; the English language is taugh+sas one of the funda- mentals in these schools. Mathemat- ics is the most important of the branches in the eyes of the native. Mathematics is the avenue that leads him to the construction of gunboats and other engines of war by which he may conquer his enemies, as the Japa- nese conquered him. He is beginning to realize that the mountains of his native land are rich in wealth of near ly every kind of mineral. He also sees a willingness on the part of crafty of- ficials to allow this treasure to be util- ized. He knows that the road to the mine is found by the application of the principles of mathematics. History also interests him and it Is this, per- haps, that leads him to study geogra- phy to some extent.
 The more he sees of western products he observes the superiority to the pro- ducts of his country. Change is very apparent as one passes along the streets. There has been an increase of foreign articles for sale in the shops of Foochow that Is noticeable since we arrived. Such articles as elastic gar- ters, wristers, jackknives, white enam- el ware, tinware, condensed milk, soap, kerosene, lamps, umbrellas and such articles. These are mostly of German or Japanese make and of an inferior quality, but here they pass for good ar ticles. They are mostly made in fash ing colors and a store which sells for eign articles is. at distance, not at all unattractive in appearance.
 Condensed milk and foreign medi- cines of many kinds may be bought at places far in the interior. When we were in the Ing Hok region, two weeks ago, we heard the praises of quinine at every place we visited.
 Tuesday, 1Sth-This evening another case of persecution came to me, not that it is a rare thing q am getting a little callous with so many), but this is one of the rare kind that calls for inn mediate action and which shows a Chi nese custom so clearly that I am going to run the risk of tiring you with it's