HE following pages contain some record of work in China during another year—a year
if^jHj which has been in several respects unprecedented in the history of the China Inland
Mission. The most cursory review suggests many reasons for the most devout thanksgiving ^and praise to God, and a few of these may, in this brief preface, be gratefully
noted.
There has been peace and tranquility m the stations of the Mission. The deplorable and
exasperating action of France has caused, in many parts of China, great uneasiness and excitement ; and in some places it has led to much persecution and suffering among the native Christians ; and
at a number of stations Mission property has been destroyed by excited mobs. This, for the most
part, has been in South-Eastern China, but up to the present time no record has reached us of
disaster or disturbance at any one of our seventy stations and out-stations, though not a few of them
are in the remote parts of China proper. Telegraphic tidings have told of the destruction of mission
property in Wun-chau, and at this station we may have sustained loss ; but as yet we have no
definite intelligence.
There has been no removal by death of any of our missionaries. In the year 1883 we had to
mourn the removal of Dr. Schofield, Mrs. Jackson, and Mrs. Geo. W. Clarke. The record of the
death of the latter comes into the present volume, and has led, we are thankful to learn, not a few
to remember the lonely mourner and his motherless babe ; but no tidings have reached us of the
removal during the year 1884 of any one of our many brethren and sisters from earthly service to
the rest above.
There has been much spiritual blessing. In the way of hopeful conversions our letters from the
mission field have recorded more accessions than in any previous year. These have been but very
imperfectly reported in China's Millions, owing to the very great pressure upon the Editor's
time and strength caused by the number of public meetings, the many departures for China, and
the unusually heavy general correspondence of the year; but our pages show that at many of the
stations there has been much blessing. At one station, Ping-yang Fu, the number of candidates
and inquirers is reported at three hundred. A little more than thirty years ago, there were only
three hundred and fifty native Christians in the Chinese Empire, including Chinese Christians in
the Straits.
There has been a remarkable increase in the number of labourers. God has given us the joy of
sending forth forty-five new missionaries this year, besides which, more than twelve others have been
accepted, some of whom will leave before this volume is in the hands of our readers. We have also
to note that the changes in the working staff, caused by temporary return to England on account
of health, or permanent retirement from the Mission, have been very small considering the extent
of the work.
There has been an enlarged income. From month to month we have been enabled to report a
gratifying increase in the contributions for sustaining the work, as compared with the previous year ; but it is scarcely needful to remark that the expenditure of the year has been unusually heavy.
This will be obvious when the large addition to the number of missionaries h remembered, and the
outlay involved for their outfits and passages. Still we can gratefully record that absolute needs
IV INDEX.
have been met, and this is what God promises ; and that when the supply, like that of the widow's
meal and oil, has been small, GOD has made it to suffice.
" To GoD be the glory ! great things He hath done ! So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,
Who yielded His life an atonement for sin,
And opened the L'fc-gate that all may go in."