Europeans wonder sometimes at the outrageous way Orientals have of making claims and requests, which seem to them unfair and impudent to the last degree, and they sometimes feel inclined to lose patience with them about it. I think their doctrine of Fate may account for this propensity. In looking after himself, the mind of the Oriental does not run on what is true, just, proper, or reasonable, but what will the Fates grant; and he likes to frame his request or demand on the off-chance that your charity, or necessity, or complaisance, or ignorance may induce you to yield to him. Thus, supposing six annas to be reasonable, if he asks for six annas, and gets it, he may, on that ground, see cause to upbraid himself for neglect of his own interests, in not trying to get twelve. If, however, he gets less than he asks for, or nothing at all, he can, with the aid of the doctrine of Fate, take it with equanimity, for he has, at any rate, given the Fates a fair chance, and got as much as it was destined for him to get. It was at an early period of our work in Burma that we felt it very desirable to take steps towards the training of mission workers from amongst the people. Our schools will want teachers, and we shall need to multiply these agencies greatly before our influence is widely felt. We need catechists to instruct the people in the Christian religion, and as our native churches spring up and grow, we shall need native pastors to minister to them. If we had five hundred such workers, we could easily find work for them. But where are these workers? You look around for them in vain. They do not exist. They will not rise up of themselves; we must grow them; we must take them as they are, in the rough, and train them. Heathenism cannot produce persons ready to our hands, with the character, the knowledge, and the experience requisite for Christian work.