Sketches from Formosa.

OUT AGAIN BY THE HIGHWAYS AND HEDGES 207
part in it. A few of the native brethren accompanied
me, and we left Taiwan-fu unfettered by any engagement,
and very much in ignorance as to where we might spend
the nights. A crowd of about two hundred persons
assembled in the market-town of Wan-nih, to whom a
hundred and ninety leaflets were sold, and the Word
preached in front of one of the temples. We halted, also,
for more than an hour in Tiam-a-khau, and endeavoured
to show many in this place of evil repute that, unless they
repented, there was nothing for them but to perish in
their sins.
One is often put to sore straits in thus labouring among
purely heathen audiences. The people are wholly in
darkness regarding the nature of sin in its Bible sense ;
they know nothing of God, or of holiness, or heaven, or
hell, or of any one distinctively Christian truth. We speak
to them of the true Siong-te or God, and they at once
conclude that reference is made to one of their own
divinities ; of sin, and they tell us they are not a bad
people, but poor, decent working men and women ; of
the immense blessedness of being saved, and some
anxious soul will immediately ask how much the fine
cloth of your coat cost a yard, or how many dollars a
month you get for going about preaching in this way.
Amid all discouragements, however, we often feel
strengthened in recalling the command and the promise
of our ascended Lord. Besides, the joy has already been
given us of seeing some from among this carnally-minded
people made living epistles of Christ Jesus, and it is the
belief that this will take place again and again which
renders our work not only bearable, but of all others the
most pleasant and exhilarating.
We afterwards went on to Thaw-khaw, a town where
one of our party Brother Tiau, student of the Theo-
logical College at Taiwan-fu was formerly well known,