Sketches from Formosa.

XXXVIII
STUDENT LAU-SENG IN THE PULPIT
DURING the earlier years of our Mission, the staff of
foreign workers was so small, and the requests to open
new places of worship so urgent, that native brethren had
occasionally to be sent forth as preachers without
having received anything like an adequate training for
their work. As those brethren were very illiterate to
begin with, it is to be feared that many of their expositions
and discourses must have been unsatisfactory, if not
even misleading at times. An illustration occurred some
time ago, which would not have been referred to here,
were it not that I wish readers to have as full-orbed a
view of things as possible. The illustration was used by
an elderly brother, whose loquacious ingenuity in
spiritualising the simplest statements of Scripture
awakened no end of interest and aspiration in the minds
of his younger colleagues. One evening this middle-aged
expert rose to address a large congregation, and chose
for his text that passage in which believers are exhorted,
as new-born babes, to desire the sincere rnilk of the Word ;
and, with all the calm assurance of one who was on firm
ground, he made his introductory sentences to
"
Yes, my friends, in this
run
text
somewhat as follows :
let us see the beauty and the aptness of the types of
Scripture. Can any object be more interesting than a
new-born child ? Think of the vicissitudes and the
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