Sketches from Formosa.

BROUGHT INTO A WEALTHY PLACE 31
It was good to be there, and those of us who were present
at the Thanksgiving Service in the evening were again
assured of the merciful lovingkindness of our Heavenly
Father.
There is, indeed, much cause for gratitude in looking
back upon this season of renewed Communion at our
various little churches. No doubt, we have had fewer
baptisms than upon any previous occasion, but we feel
that the enlargement of our Membership Roll is not the
only way by which true progress can be indicated. It is
quite possible to have an important preparatory movement
going on outside of the Church, and for a work of
education in its higher sense to be advancing within her
pale, while the number of baptisms may be far from
showing the real extent of this.
What I do regret is the non-intelligent and almost
superstitious way in which baptism is still regarded by
many of our people. They think of it too much as a
mere terminus ad quern which should call forth their
energies up till the time it is obtained, and then leaves
them waiting to see what sort of substantial worldly
good may afterwards come along. Some of them even
go the length of supposing that the water of baptism is
able to confer blessings which the Spirit of God alone
can give.
In writing thus, however, I do not by any means wish
to convey the impression that we are despondent, or that
some remarkable defection has just been brought to light.
I would only be reminded that the very peace which we
enjoy, the vague desire of hundreds to become connected
with the Church, and what might be called the excitement
resulting from this rapid extension of interest in a new
religion, while far from being an evil in itself, ought
certainly to increase our watchfulness, and make us
strive with all our might to keep the movement under