Sketches from Formosa.

238
SKETCHES FROM FORMOSA
and are being continually over-reached by the wily
Chinese settlers around them, it goes for the saying that
any influential foreigner coming amongst
them would
be welcomed and treated with even lavish hospitality ;
a position of things which so far accounts for their rapid
and widespread profession at the beginning. But be this
as it may, a time of reaction set in when it was seen that
there must be a cessation of the old superstitious
beliefs
and practices, that the Kingdom of Christ is a spiritual
one, that strait is the gate and narrow is the way which
leadeth unto life eternal. This decadent condition of the
Church in Po-li-sia continued for some years. A hopeful
change for the better was brought about through the
labours of Preacher Tsan Chi-heng, and it is to his ordina-
tion at Aw-gu-lan in April 1905 that the following Notes
refer.
Mr. Tsan was my own servant-boy for several years,
and was then always diligent, obliging, and willing to help
others. After he had been with me for some time, he
set himself each day to get through his work smartly,
and afterwards retired to his room under my study, where
I often heard him working at the Chinese written language
late into the night. In this, and other studies, he made
so much progress, that he was admitted into our Theo-
logical College when the time came for me to leave upon
furlough.
Having completed his four years' course to our entire
satisfaction, Mr. Tsan was sent to take charge of our
station at Sia-thau, where he did good work during several
years, even although he suffered much from the dampness
of that place, and from a troublesome affection of the eyes.
When sent to Po-li-sia two years ago, his health immediately
improved in that bracing mountain air. He
instituted a house-to-house visitation in Aw-gu-lan and
the adjacent villages. The deserted prayer-meeting