WITH CHRIST IN INDOCHINA - IndoChina1911

each direction. The telephone, electric light, and
other modern conveniences have been introduced,
making the larger centers of French Indo-China upto-date
in every respect.
This civilization with its culture and conveniences
has been a help to the Mission in a material way.
The facilities for travel, and the postal and telegraph
communication have enabled it to spread its missionaries
over a larger area. The humanitarian and educational
efforts of ^Government have enabled, and
even constrained the* missionaries to concentrate on
evangelism, which, after all is the task to which the
Lord called His followers when He said, "Go ye into
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."
Cambodia also is a land of antiquity. In the forgotten
past it must have been the seat of a great and
advanced empire. Angkor, the ancient capital, was
lost to civilization until about 75 years ago when the
most extraordinary ruins of ancient temples and
buildings were discovered hidden away in the heart
of a primeval forest of cocoa, betel-nut, and toddy
palms. A traveler describes these ruins as follows:
"The first sight of them strikes the beholder with
an awe and astonishment which a closer examination
only serves to intensify. They embrace walled cities
of large extent, and often most elaborately decorated
with long galleries of storied bas-reliefs; artificial
lakes enclosed by walls of cut stones, and stone
bridges of extraordinary workmanship,"