THE CHINESE.
EXTRACT FROM ADDRESS OF MRS. W. C. POND.
I will not waste time upon an introduction. I will only say that I am glad to be among you; glad that you are interested in the Chinese work, with which we have been connected so many years in California. We feel that we are greatly privileged in having these dark souls within our reach. We can obey our Saviour's last command, "Disciple all nations," without having to go far from our homes and native land. They are with us and we have but to open our hearts and our churches to them and they will come in. They are coming in; not in large numbers but one by one. In the church of which my husband has been the pastor for nearly ten years there are over seventy Chinese members—about one-third of our whole membership.
Many inquire how Chinese converts are tested. They join the Christian Association on probation and after a test of six or eight months are recommended to the church. Then they come before a committee of the church and are examined, and after studying the articles of faith, in their own language, for several weeks they are propounded for church membership, and if they prove satisfactory are baptized and come into full fellowship with the church. They are not hurried into the church and are themselves timid and prefer to wait.
We have no work among the Chinese women that we can call our own. Both Presbyterians and Methodists have such a work in San Francisco, and it divides into very little sections what can be at best but a small work, because there are only three or four hundred Chinese women in San Francisco, and not a tenth of these accessible. But if means would allow we would be glad to attempt a work among the women at Sacramento, where nothing is done for them. With our very limited resources we can save more by working among the thousands of men and boys.
But we have much work by women of whom I would like to make mention. Patient and heroic, prayerful and soul-saving have been their efforts among the Chinese. I would like to tell you of one who has recently gone to her reward. Before leaving my home two months ago I called upon her and found her strength failing. But she was hopeful respecting her recovery, and the strongest incentive she had to get well was that she might have more opportunities to tell the story of Jesus to her boys, as she called those in the Chinese school. And when death came to her, six Chinese acted as pall-bearers at her funeral, at her own request. The church was more than half filled with Chinese, and the scene was touching in the extreme, as one by one they went to look upon her face for the last time.
You are all, doubtless, more or less familiar with the American Missionary, and read from time to time Mr. Pond's reports found therein. I will give a few statistics quoted from my husband's report, read recently before the General Association of California, convened in Santa Cruz. They are as follows:
Nineteen schools, as against 15 the last year; total enrollment of scholars, 2,823, as against 2,567 the former year; 40 teachers, of whom 14 were Chinese, as against 31 teachers the previous year, of whom 11 were Chinese; number of those who have professed to cease from idolatry, 175, as against 156 the year before; number of those who have given evidence of conversion, 121, as against 106 the former year, and the whole number of those who have turned to Christ during the history of the Mission, 400, who are scattered over the United States and in China. We hear of many of them who are doing good work for the Master and for the salvation of their countrymen.
Toward the expense of the Mission during the past year the Chinese themselves have contributed $730.05.
I would like to have you remember the name of our church. It is "Bethany." Remember us in your prayers, for God has laid a great work upon us. We started in much weakness, but God has been with us and blessed us. We have felt His presence in our Bethany as Martha and Mary of old did in theirs. We have heard the Master's voice saying unto us frequently, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, My brethren, ye have done it unto Me."