Sketches from Formosa.

SEED AMONG THORNS AND ON GOOD GROUND 225
commenced to manifest an interest in the Gospel.
Mr. Barclay was privileged to baptize three men from
Tau-lak about six months ago. In all, some thirty
persons meet statedly for worship ; so that there, too,
there is good reason to look forward with gratitude
and hopefulness. The whole region is a very populous
one, and such a light as this would be sure to bring
guidance and peace to many who are weary and heavyladen.
On the occasion of my present visit, about
forty persons listened attentively to an exposition of
the miraculous draught of fishes as recorded by St.
Luke.
I returned to Ka-gi on Friday afternoon, and on the
following morning started south to be in time for
baptismal
4th
and communion services at Giam-cheng on
inst. A part of my preliminary work included the
examination of five candidates for baptism. One of
them was Lim Chiah-be, a young man who has been
worshipping with us for some time. He is now acting
as schoolmaster at Giam-cheng, and has certainly
suffered a good deal on account of (no other apparent
reason than) his sincere profession of Christianity. I
believe myself that Chiah-be is a genuine man although
unable to see my way to admit him on this occasion.
After being under examination for about half an hour, he
became strangely excited, and evidently nothing could
disabuse his mind of the belief that the Holy Ghost,
in the form of a bright object, was always hovering in
front of him. I do not lay much stress upon this. It
is quite plain that the poor fellow is in a very weak
condition of health, and what was of far more value
from an evidential point of view is the fact that our
resident preacher, who had been in close fellowship
with him during the past five months,
is convinced of
the sincerity of Chiah-be's desire to become a follower
15