ground in these difficulties he had to fight his way. But the Spirit of God was at work in his heart, which gradually opened to the truth. Ultimately he came to us with every prejudice yielded, every objection satisfied, under a deep consciousness of personal guilt and with strong faith in Jesus as the Son of God and Saviour of the world. The tears running down his attenuated face, and his whole frame agitated with emotion, indicating the deep struggle within, he said, "O, Teacher, I see it now, I am a Great Sinner, Jesus is the Son of God and the Saviour of Sinners, will He save Me? Will He save Me?" This earnest and all important question received the prompt reply, "Yes, Now." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." This answer was never more cheerfully given, and never more joyously received. He was a new man. His pride and prejudices were all gone. With the simplicity of a child he trusted in Christ as his Saviour, and from that moment followed Him with unfaltering step.

GROWTH OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER AND OPINION.

WANG immediately sought baptism and admission into the Church, not only as a duty but as a privilege. The Bible, not as a book of sages but as a revelation from God, became his constant companion. He loved its pages

and pondered them. Prayer was now a delightful means of sweet communion with God and Christ. All his sorrows, trivial or great, with all his anxieties and aspirations were brought to the throne of grace. Still, it was apparent that as yet his faith was more intellectual than moral-reasonrather than heart was most impressed. Nor can we wonder that in a character so constituted the intellect predominated over the affections. We do not say that his heart was not affected, but he received the truth rather through the. understanding than the heart, hence he first yielded an intelligent belief to its Divine origin and authority, and then gradually surrendered to its demands on his will and affections. With every new accession of light there was a new development of religious feeling of the most ardent nature. Such indeed was the earnestness of the man that in this respect, as in all others, whatsoever his hand found to do he did it with his might. In him was no supineness or half-heartedness, but an ardour and courage, which no difficulty or opposition could repress. He was particularly fond of searching for explanations of theological or scriptural difficulties. He would converse, read and meditate until his mind was satisfied, and he was able distinctly to explain the difficulty to others. His vigorous and inquiring mind was liable to err in this direction, as happened in reference to some of the abstruse doctrines and mysteries of Christianity, concerning which his fancy invented explanations when he could obtain them from no other source, but with this exception, he was strictly othordox in both belief and teaching.

A Christian Missionary in China has to decide important cases of conscience, or the practical bearing of Christian principle on certain religious and social customs of the people. Inquiries are started as to how far certain religious rites or social customs are in accordance with the teachings of Scripture, and to what extent toleration may be given to certain pactices of men in official positions. To many of these questions, Wang gave earnest attention in the early part of his Christian life, and brought them before us in a practical form. Such, for instance, as the worship of ancestors and sages, marriage ceremonies in which worship is offered to heaven and

earth, and the worship of deities and heroes by government officials, whether to be regarded as a civil or religious act? Because on the part of some, such worship is simply an official and not a personal act. These and other questions had to be determined in the light of Scripture, and when its sense was made plain there was no further doubt in his mind. Expediency and temporizing were utterly repudiated. To "the law and the testimony" he yielded an unhesitating assent and allegiance. My colleague will remember how keenly he argued for any view which he held to be right, or any position he took which involved a nice moral distinction or delicate question of conscience; Scripture teaching or example at once secured his full and cheerful acceptance. We say cheerful acceptance, for not only did he abandon the position formerly maintained, but took the one established by the word of God, stood on the side of the missionaries, and in the advocacy of their view he became as earnest as he had been in his opposition to it.

We have reason to know that many of these questions of expediency were argued on behalf of some dear personal friends whom he was anxious to win to Christ. They were intelligent and in good social positions. When Warg joined the church, he was of course deserted by many with whom he had been on terms of friendship, but there were others who had a deeper love for the man, clung to him after his change. and showed an intellectual appreciation of Christian doctrine. Two of them had been, and expected again to be in office as mandarins. By reading, conversation with Wang, and attendance at the chapels they had come to approve the excellence of Christianity, and accepted some of its peculiar doctrines. They raised the question, could a man hold office under the Chinese government, and be a consistent Christian? After much interesting discussion, the question was answered by another could a man hold office under the Chinese government and not worship idols? He could not. Still personally he might ignore idolatry, and attend the temple simply in his official capacity on the special occasions required by law. It was at last decided that such a question would not be asked by a man who truly loved the Lord, but that like Daniel he would feel he could not truly serve God and yet worship the golden image.

When Wang's mind was made up on these important questions he urged upon his friends his new views with uncompromising firmness. With his growth in Christian opinions and character grew up a corresponding antagonism to the superstitions and idolatries of his countrymen. While he deeply mourned over the ignorance of the majority, he strongly denounced the idolatries and the atheism of the higher classes. Nor did he spare his fellow Christians. He had high views of Christian privilege and duty, and could not brook the insincerity and unfaithfulness of those who had taken upon themselves the name but knew nothing of the power of Christ.

It is not strange that the new life of Wang should separate him from old associations, and as his views and principles became more mature, that his old friends should break away from him. Some of them indeed became his persecutors. He was regarded as a fanatic and madman, and his son was urged to keep him in confinement lest the disgrace he had brought upon his family and friends should become widely known. He was thus called upon to suffer for Christ's sake. On one occasion during the literary examination in Tientsin, Wang accompanied the missionaries to the neighbourhood of the examination hall, to distribute books and preach to the students. He was of course recognized by many of his old acquaintances

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who were horrified at the defection of the old man. A friend of the family, a Mohammedan., was deputed to wait on him and try to reason him out of his shameful abandonment of the usages of his country. During the interview, argument, expostulation, and cajolery were used, but all failed to move Wang. At length high words were used, his friend charged him with disgracing his family, his class, and his country, by adopting the religion of a foreign sage. Wang retorted on him with withering scorn that it was much more reasonable to believe in the teaching of the Son of God, than in the crudities of the false prophet Mohammed, whose faith was also as foreign to China as that of the Christian. At this time the old man was dependent on his son for support and was exposed to much annoyance and discomfort from his son's opposition to his Christian views and conduct. Wang proved that a man's foes are those of his own household. A restraint was put upon his liberty, and for a time he was kept a prisoner at home, but he reasoned with his son and told him that "he was resolved at any cost to maintain his faith in Jesus." These family disputes were continued, and to such lengths did the persecution go that for three or four years, prior to his death, Wang was compelled to seek a home on the mission premises, and had during that time little or no intercourse with his family. He had long relinquished all desire for official honour and emolument, and now, the comfort of home was abandoned for the sake of that name which he loved above all others. The son, who, according even to Chinese morality, ought to have sustained and comforted his aged father, never came to see him until a few days before his death.

AS A PREACHER.

DURING several years after his conversion, Wang was only a private member, but ever ready to lend a helping hand in anything that would advance the interests of the church. In our social meetings, as in our chapels, when conversing with any one on the things of Christ, he always showed a ready familiarity with scriptural truth. He did not speak the pure mandarin of North China, but his clear statements and earnest manner compensated for his colloquial defect, and soon enabled his hearers to understand him. He loved to preach the gospel, and when appointed to the work gave himself to it with an entire dedication. With wonderful rapidity he familiarized himself with the Old and New Testaments. He was a sincere believer in the divine inspiration of Scripture, and used to say, that the Spirit who inspired the revelation could alone make it plain. Here he saw the fitness and need of prayer for the Spirit's help. He spent several hours every day in reading the Scriptures and in prayer, and after a morning spent in such preparation went to his place in the chapel to speak to the people about the things of God.

As a preacher, he had great freedom of utterance, a clear voice, and as he warmed with his subject, became energetically eloquent. His whole nature was fired with his theme. His face was lit up with intelligence, his eye sparkled, his hand was held forth, while from his lips flowed a torrent of burning words. He was comprehensive and clear in his views of evangelical doctrine, though sometimes an exhuberant fancy carried him into a region of mysticism. He was powerful in argument, apt in illustration, and ready in quoting from Chinese classics or the Scriptures appropriate to his theme. In appeal he was sometimes forcible and overpowering. No one

could hear him in his best moods without being impressed with the fact that he was an earnest, eloquent man, and that his strong convictions and fervent piety, with his high literary culture, were the sources of his commanding eloquence.

There was one peculiarity which became a habit with Wang, notwithstanding our frequent remonstrances against it. On entering the desk to preach, he took the Bible in both hands, held it up reverently above his face with his eyes closed, and in this attitude offered a silent prayer. After this exercise, before a mixed audience, he opened the book, and whatever the chapter on which he opened, that he would read and expound. He chiefly used the New Testament, but often opened on chapters not suitable for the audience he had to address. We could not induce him to give up this haphazard practise, and adopt the more systematic and rational plan of preparing his thoughts on a given chapter at home. He fully believed that the Spirit of God directed him to that portion of Scripture, and that it was his duty, in dependence on the Spirit's help, to expound and enforce it. He thought that our Lord's words, It shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak," referred to such occasions as well as to those specified in reference to the Apostles. He would also say, "I am always preparing; no part of the Bible is strange to me now, I read it and pray over it at home, and ought to be able to speak about any part of it at any time."

While he gave great prominence to the doctrines of salvation, he also faithfully urged the moral duties attaching to man in his domestic and social relations. He had a profound abhorrence of idolatry, and in his public addresses boldly denounced it. No phase of it received the least toleration. With the skill of a master, he exposed its ugly deformities, its hellish origin and destructive tendency, With withering scorn he decried the hypocrisy of intelligent men, who, from self-interested motives, countenanced, instead of reprobating it, and with apostolic fervour urged the people to "turn from these vanities to serve the living God." When we remember that idolatry, under its various forms in China, is professedly ignored by the followers of Confucius, while the mass of the people worship the different deities of Buddhism and Taouism, and that these systems are not only tolerated and patronised by the imperial family, but by the officials in their representative capacity, who periodically worship at the shrines, and thus encourage these superstitions, and that literary men are at best indifferent to them; we shall see the fitness and faithfulness of the attitude taken by Wang.

Wang was a diligent student, not only during the day, but late in the night he would read or ply his industrious pen. When admonished about the injury of night work to his health, he would reply, "I was very late in starting on this heavenly course, and to make up for that I must travel two days' journey in one." To the younger men in our mission he often said, "I am now an old man, and have not many years before me in this world for studying the doctrine and serving God. You are young, and need not to go out of the usual routine. But, if I am to learn as much of Christ, as you with ordinary diligence may be expected to learn, I must do two days' work in one, or learn as much in one day as you can in two."

He had great force of mind, and a profound love of knowledge. To gratify his desire for a knowledge of Divine things, he eagerly read every book in Chinese which treats on the great themes of Christianity, The more elaborate he carefully preserved and often re-read. Many years he was afflicted

with deafness, which increased as he drew nearer the end of his course. This prevented him deriving the profit he might otherwise have done from the ordinary ministrations of the missionaries. But he would stand close under the desk to catch the words which fell from the lips of the preacher, and he would gather from the notes of the theological tutor the substance of our expositions and lectures given in class to the students. He had special delight in reading works which shed any light on the interpretation of the sacred Scriptures. Unfortunately, the range of Christian literature in China is very limited, and he soon became familiar with all our Protestant publications. The result was seen in the clearness and extent of his knowledge, and in the firmness of his convictions. He was always ready and able to give to every man a reason of the hope that was in him. With his love of knowledge it could not be expected that he would be content with reading the works of one sect or class. Learning that the Roman Catholics had a number of works in Chinese on theological and moral subjects, he procured and studied them with discriminating care. Translations of foreign treatises on scientific and historical subjects also had a share of his attention, thus enlarging the stores of his knowledge, and dispelling many contracted notions and unhealthy prejudices peculiar to the Chinese literati. His intelligence and love of reading were so well known by most of the foreign sinologues, that when any of them issued a new work from the press, a copy was sent to Wang. These acquisitions were zealously devoted to illustrate, expound, and enforce the truths of the Gospel.

Soon after his conversion, Wang felt a strong desire to bring Christianity under the favourable notice of the literary men of China. He thought that if they could be induced to espouse the Gospel, its rapid spread would be secured, as he knew that from them also the strongest opposition would arise. He was perfectly familiar with the blind prejudices of his class for the superlative excellence of Confucius, and he himself had naturally a profound respect for the Great Sage, though he gave the palm to Jesus. He saw the defects of the Confucian philosophy as compared with the pure and perfect morality of the Gospel, with its Divine sanctions. In his conversations with learned men, he expounded his belief as a Christian, but he desired to reach and influence the whole literary class. He determined therefore to write a book for literary men, setting forth, in good style and in a form which might not offend their prejudices, a comparative estimate of the teachings of Chinese Sages and of Jesus. With almost youthful enthusiasm he believed that such a work would deeply impress, if it did not convert, the great body of the Chinese literati to Christianity. Fired by this conviction, it is well known how diligently he applied himself to his task. And when at last, after many weary months the work was written, filling three volumes, he fretted that he had not means to publish it. A few copies were transcribed and given or lent among his immediate friends, but the result did not verify his hopes. They expressed admiration for his work, but remained unchanged in their views and conduct. He found that "old Satan was too strong for young Melancthon." This circumstance, with the judicious suggestions of friends, led him to subject the manuscript to careful revision and correction, a wise and necessary expedient. His zeal outran his knowledge. When he began the work his Christian experience and views were necessarily immature. Some of his opinions on the side of the Christian argument were indefinite and even erroneous; fancy was sometimes substituted for fact, and dogmatism