Sketches from Formosa.

164
SKETCHES FROM FORMOSA
They seemed very much interested in all the short addresses
which were given ; and, at the close, purchased
from us between two and three hundred cash worth of
tracts.
Wednesday the i8th was a day of pouring, continuous
rain, and early that morning I told my hearty little
company of workers to begin their preparations at once,
as I intended to examine them in the evening on every-
thing they could find out about St. Paul's Epistle to Titus.
The examination was to be given viva voce, but in order
to economize time, all the questions put to them would be
written out. I have seldom seen so much diligence
shown in preparing for any examination. In order to
lay a good foundation, and in the hope that nothing would
escape them, the colporteurs made the most strenuous
efforts to commit the whole Epistle to memory ; while
the preachers, fearing lest the attack might come upon
them from another direction, dived into the meaning of
the Chinese characters, made out all sorts of indices, and
ransacked the Acts and other Epistles for notices of Titus
and the Island of Crete. We had evening worship at
7 o'clock, and then retired to an upper room of the chapel,
where two and a half hours were spent in examining,
and in giving as complete and accurate an account as I
could of the contents of the Epistle. Their answers
came quite up to my expectation, and I can truly say that
every one of us benefited by this effort to know more of
Titus, and of his interesting and important work.
The morning of Thursday the igth found us all similarly
occupied with the Sermon on the Mount ; but about
10 o'clock the rain ceased, and the sky brightened with
the promise of a beautiful afternoon and evening. We
accordingly called a halt to our studies, and were soon
on the way for a group of villages which had not yet