Sketches from Formosa.

212 SKETCHES FROM FORMOSA
There were several interruptions while I spoke ;
a some-
what officious individual always coming in as a kind of
interpreter by saying that it was Thi-kong I was exhorting
the people to worship, this Thi-kong being only a highclass
deity of their own creation.
One of the students followed with a very homely and
practical address on man's sin against God ;
as shown in
failing to acknowledge Him, in worshipping dumb idols,
and in the wrong-doing and misery seen everywhere
around us. The awful curse of opium-smoking having
been referred to, a person took occasion to remark that
it was our foreign country in which the " flowing poison "
was cultivated. His meaning was that there would have
been no opium-smokers among the Chinese had foreigners
not first supplied them with the drug. In such oft-
recurring cases, I find it best as a rule simply to say that
we do greatly regret that a few of our countrymen are
engaged in the trade, but that this fact in no way
exonerates them from the sin and folly of using opium
as they do. The explanations are generally received in
very good part ;
but it is impossible for one to overcome
a feeling of shame in thinking of our countrymen as being
so largely accountable for flooding China with an article
whose hopeless victims can now be numbered by tens
and hundreds of thousands. We remained there about
two hours, preaching and conversing with many people,
who both questioned some of our statements, and expressed
a desire to know more about the matter we had
been speaking about. At the close, from thirty to forty
small Christian books were readily purchased.
We then moved away to that before-mentioned temple
where the play-actors had taken up their quarters, to
find that nearly all of them were busy gambling in front
of the idols. I tried to say a few words to the people
who came after us, but the confusion was too great ; so