aroused fresh interest in mission work and won for Dr. Ament a greatly increased circle of friends and admirers. There was a kind of magnanimity illustrated which could but assure for him new appreciation and friendships.

DEAR DR. AND MRS. LEETE:

Oberlin, Ohio, Dec. 5, 1901.

I am glad to say we are comfortably settled in Oberlin and greatly enjoy our opportunities here. The Messiah is to be rendered soon and will be the event of the season. We claim for Oberlin the best conservatory of music outside of Boston. I go to Michigan and Illinois for brief visits, and then go to New York and Brooklyn to spend the month of February. I expect to address the Manhattan Association, Wednesday, January 29th. The spirit of the churches in the West, Nebraska, Kansas and other states is delightfully warm and the religious note is high. I feel buoyed up by the association with dear brethren in these places. I get good news from my colleagues in China. Our chapels are full of inquirers and all the work seems moving along. The death of Li Hung Chang will work for good. His successor is in earnest for reform and is willing to sacrifice to attain that end.

Yours fraternally,

W. S. AMENT. Oberlin, Dec. 24, 1901.

TO MISS SCHIRMER :

I suppose no one can tell how many hundred miles I have travelled since I saw you last. I have been east and west, in the middle states. Now I am with my dear family for a brief season. January 12th, I start for St. Louis for a week and on January 26th I begin a campaign in New Jersey, Brooklyn and New York. I speak in Dr. Hillis's church, Dr. Cadman's and many others. I have worked hard during the last seven months, but as the people have been so sympathetic and friendly I have not felt the burdens, so true it is that love lightens labor. We find Oberlin a very pleasant home. The atmosphere is intellectual, music is in the air and the moral tone is high. Every one is busy. We find hardly time to call on a few old friends. Good news from China. People are flocking to the chapels and the country is settling down to a better growth

than before. We hope to go back to China some time in the late spring. May you have a joyous and delightful time recalling the Christ Child.

Oberlin, Dec. 31, 1901.

TO THE SAME :

We are a happy family. Christmas in our home, good health, and under our own roof. What more can people want in this world's things? Thank you for your generous gift. I must visit several places in Brooklyn and can stay in no place long. It will be a busy five weeks which I shall spend in and around New York, then comes the preparation and the flit for China. Mother and the boy must be left, and our hearts nearly rent in twain, but the problem is clearer now than it was two months ago. Mother is more cheerful and will go back to Owosso, and be among old friends and sights. She will then be happy. Good-bye, dearly beloved friend of so many years. I am some like the Chinese and cling to old friends.

DEAR DR. LEETE:

Oberlin, Ohio, March 21, 1902.

Our date for sailing from San Francisco is fixed at May 9th. I am just rested up from a very hard campaign in New York which drew heavily on my physical resources. Mrs. Ament goes on Monday to Michigan to attend the meeting of the state branch of which she is president. Early in April I go to our old home in Michigan, Owosso, and reinstate my mother, where she will not be quite so homesick as she has been here. Although eighty-four years old in May, mother is in good health and I see no reason why she may not be here waiting for us at the end of our next term of service. My boy, now in the academy at Oberlin, with Miss Wyett, Mrs. Ament's aunt, will hold the house together at Oberlin. The calls are loud and imperative from China. Full chapels are reported and work is opening on every side. What is to become of the old empire no one can prophesy. Nothing but truth can satisfy them and the poor bewildered people know not where to turn. We want to be on the frontier where the battle is hottest and do our share to turn the current of affairs in the right direction.

In a certain sense we are jumping into the dark in going

back just now. The place where the station resides at present belongs to the Chinese government and must be given up in October. The Board has advanced $10,000 on indemnity account but our new house cannot be put up and made ready for us for residence before next year. I am glad to return to China with the clear conviction that the tide of interest in world-wide work is rising and that our churches are working as never before in harmony with the teachings of Christ. Some divergence from traditional observances and teachings do not indicate any loosening of the tie that binds to the Personality of the Master.

Yours,

W. S. A.

It is only sober truth and no fanciful conceit, to say that men and women still are called upon to the help of the Master, to share His burden for the world.

-Henry Kingman.

L

XIX

RENEWALS AT PEKING

EAVING San Francisco May 14th the travellers

arrived at Peking four weeks later, after a very propitious journey. Great changes were in process on their arrival. The commission appointed to consider claims and indemnities had assembled. In the assurance that indemnities would be duly paid the missions were hastening to begin rebuilding. Mr. Stelle, formerly of Dr. Gilbert Reid's mission, had permanently joined our mission and was rendering invaluable aid in reëstablishing the mission in its old quarters. Several successive enlargements had been secured before 1900 carrying a line of premises directly through to the front street. During Dr. Ament's absence all the remaining courts and buildings on the east and west had been secured. These additions were made at an expense of about $10,000. It thus became possible to have a gateway front on Teng Shih K'ou and an open expanse within to the rear. It seemed advisable to form a general plan for the reconstruction. The accompanying photograph shows the new entrance, over the fine gateway of which is carved in Chinese characters the name of the missionKung Li Hui-the Congregational Mission. The new buildings on the street were the Front Chapel, on the left the book room of the American Bible Society. At