certain position which it is destined to hold in the future, had been appreciated by our missionaries in a way which Americans and Europeans could not at that time fully understand. A vast Chinese population is settling upon all those shores, and the future of that entire region will yet be in the hands of these colonists. We believed them to be accessible in a peculiar way to gospel influences, and felt sure that it was of the utmost importance to the future unborn millions that Christianity should gain a foothold, not only in the colony, but in all the adjacent islands, at the earliest possible date. We had no money with which to equip a Mission, and very few workers from whom to choose the first pioneers. Dr. W. F. Oldham was selected to lead the advance movement, and, with his wife, entered upon his work vigorously in the early part of the year.
The story of the founding of this Mission is one of peculiar interest, but cannot be detailed further here. Suffice it to say that a foothold was gained, while the Chinese received our missionary with unexpected favor, and in due time a church was built, a school building erected, and up to the present time the Mission has been making steady progress. We have now a vigorous Chinese Church at Singapore, a smaller Malay Church, an English organization, and regular preaching to the Indian colonists in the Tamul language. We have a second station in operation in Penang, while a third has been established at the town of Ipoh on the Peninsula. In every respect the Malaysian Mission has proved very successful, and in no part of our history has the hand of God appeared more manifestly present with us than in directing our steps to that remote part of the world.
The most marked feature of our Mission in India during recent years has been the wonderful development of the work among what are called the “depressed classes” This term is common to all low caste people, and is popularly applied to about fifty million of the population. All these millions live below the line of social respectability. Their children are sel-
