| Schools | 18 |
| Missionaries | 38 |
| Pupils enrolled | 1,457 |
| Average attendance | 810 |
| Ceased from idol worship | 171 |
| Giving evidence of conversion | 112 |
These figures show three more missions and twelve more missionaries than the statistics of last year. In the missionary force there are eleven Chinese helpers.
Four new schools have been opened at the following points: Alturas, Fresno, San Diego and Tulare. The school at Alturas, in the northeastern part of California, though established for the Chinese, like all other A. M. A. schools, is open to everybody, irrespective of race or color, and the Indians in the vicinity have so largely availed themselves of the privilege that they greatly outnumber the Chinese. This school is under the care of Mrs. Griffiths, wife of the pastor of the Congregational Church in the place. She has the constant coöperation of her husband, who welcomes to his church all who can be induced to attend from the school. The mission at Stockton, the first one established by us in California, was closed last year, but has been reopened with an attendance and promise such as it never had before. Our schools are all in the hands of devoted and efficient teachers, are well located and well rooted. We are justified in feeling that they are all fairly on the way to become permanent.
The California Chinese mission, whose superintendency has been under the care of Rev. W. C. Pond ever since its organization in 1875, is auxiliary to the American Missionary Association. It has its own President and Board of Managers. It works in closest harmony with the parent society, and while it must look to us for by far the largest part of the funds necessary to carry its work forward, yet it does not rely wholly upon our appropriations, but makes continuous efforts to raise money itself.
It reports as having received into its own treasury the past year $3,141.20. Its property consists of the Barnes and the West Mission Houses in San Francisco, together with an interest in the North Mission House of San Francisco and the new Mission House in Tulare. Mr. Pond has made strenuous efforts to secure sufficient contributions to bring to pass, without incurring debt, a transfer of these properties to the A. M. A., and he informs us that this result is now assured and that the transfer will soon be made. We shall thus come into possession of property worth upward of $9,000, free from debt.
The past year has not been in garnered results so fruitful as our Superintendent and his co-workers had expected; yet they have been faithful in the cultivation of the field. Early in the year they determined to be more aggressive than formerly. If the Chinese would not come in greater numbers to the schools, then the missionaries would go to them. Three men in the providence of God were at hand who were impressed with the importance of this aggressive work, and who were able to preach to the Chinese in their own language; Rev. D. D. Jones, who had returned from missionary work in South China, Jee Gam and Wong Ock. These brethren have been engaged in evangelistic work both at the mission houses and on the streets in San Francisco and at several other points. But "hard hearts," threatened persecution, and actively working prejudice have everywhere stood in the way of progress.
Still God did not leave His children altogether without some evidence of His favor. There were eighteen who professed conversion and twelve who received baptism. The reflex influence of these evangelistic services has been productive of great spiritual blessing to our missionaries and to the Chinese Christians. It has driven them to realize that they must more than ever trust in the power of God's spirit to overcome the difficulties; that they must faithfully hold and work every point now occupied; that they must pray on and labor on until the Holy Spirit descend in power to break the stony hearts and dissipate the opposing forces of Mongolian heathenism on the one hand and Caucasian inconsistency and infidelity on the other. "Brethren, pray for us!" is the almost heart-agonizing appeal Superintendent Pond makes to the constituents of this Association. "Never before," he writes, "were we so well prepared to do good service to the Master, and to move on with saving power among these dark souls purchased with His blood, as now, at the opening of this new fiscal year. Yet never before did we look on into the year with such a sense of utter helplessness or such a despair of real success except through the co-working of the Holy Ghost."
We commend this appeal for prayer to all our friends. Let there go up such a cry to God for help that in Pentecostal power His spirit may be outpoured upon our Chinese missions; and not only will the good results be felt in our own country, but they will reach in blessing even the vast empire of China and make strong and glad the hearts of our Christian brethren there.