success. This mandarin, who seemed to be the highest authority of Tung-chow, and wears an opaque blue button on his cap, came out to meet us, and treated us with every possible token of respect. He took us into an inner apartment, a more private room, but was followed by a large number of writers, runners, and other semi-officials. I related to him the object of our visit, and begged permission to give him a copy of each of our books and tracts, for which he thanked me. As I presented him with copies of the New Testament, part of the Old (from Genesis to Ruth), and some tracts, I gave him a short account of them; and also gave him a brief summary of our doctrine, telling him that all were sinners, but that Jesus Christ, the Son of the only living and true God, had come down to this earth and paid our debt on the cross; that having risen from the dead and ascended into heaven. He is now interceding for us; that belief in Jesus was the only way to secure everlasting life, and that any works of righteousness that we could do were of no avail to save our souls, &c. He listened very attentively, as, of course did all the others present. He then ordered some refreshments to be brought in, of which he partook with us. These were very, welcome to us.
"After a long stay, we asked permission to see something of his city, and to distribute the books we had with us, before our return. To this he consented. We then told him we had been most disrespectfully treated as we came in, but did not think anything of that, as we were aware the soldiers knew no better; but desiring not to have it repeated, we requested him to give orders that we should not be molested. This also he promised to do; and, with every possible token of respect, he accompanied us to the door of his official residence, and sent several runners to see that we were respectfully treated. We distributed our books well and quickly, and left the city quite in state.
"It was amusing to see what use the runners made of their tails. When the way was stopped up, they used them as whips, and laid them about the people's shoulders, right and left. We had a little trouble to find our wheel-barrows, but did so eventually; and paying our chair coolies, mounted the humble vehicles, and returned, accompanied half-way by an attendant from the magistrate's office. Between 6 and 7 p.m., we got back to our boats in safety, sincerely thankful to our Heavenly Father for His kind aid and protection."
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MOORED FOR THE NIGHT.
