Sketches from Formosa.

42
SKETCHES FROM FORMOSA
Tamsui, visited Toa-sia, and were afterwards led inland
to Po-li-sia. The joy and hospitality with which they
were received was overpowering. Hundreds of people
crowded round them from day to day, to whom medicines
were dispensed, and the words of eternal life declared
with all earnestness and sympathy. Of course, no one
would say that this interest proceeded wholly from
well-understood and genuine religious feeling. In such
circumstances, we never meet with a sudden and wide-
spread desire to embrace the Gospel for its own sake,
and I hardly know any truth which requires to be
pondered more frequently by those who are labouring on
the Foreign Mission field. The people need to be led
out from their gross heathenism ; they need to be kindly
and persistently spoken to about God, and sin, and faith
in Jesus Christ; and especially must the Spirit teach
them, or results will go very little beyond the indignant
and ostentatious breaking up of their pretty little shrines.
Yet, the opportunity was most precious, and fitted us in
every way to praise God, and think very hopefully of the
days to come. My brethren remained with the people
for about a week, admitted twenty-two persons by
baptism to the Church of Christ, and saw preparations
made for erecting chapels in the villages
Gu-khun-soa, and Toa-lam.
of Aw-gu-lan,
The second missionary visit to this remote region is the
present one by Dr. Dickson and myself, about which
only a little need now be said. At Aw-gu-lan we had a
good report from Brother Teng-iam, the preacher who
has been in charge for about a year. His work seems
to have prospered, as twenty-three of the children were
able to read, and ten able to write the colloquial Chinese
in Roman letters. At Toa-lam, one of the Church
members had to be placed under Church discipline for
improper conduct ; while at Gu-khun-soa, we had