Thank God, these humblings have not come alone. If the great body of our Chinese Christians had been insensible to them, if there had been no movement, or if only a ripple on the surface of an otherwise stagnant sentiment, I should have been discouraged indeed. But there was an immediate movement, a deep sense of shame, an almost too speedy discipline. And now, taking counsel together, we have undertaken, with the help of God, to withstand more faithfully those beginnings of evil; to make the first symptoms of coldness and inattention and wandering the signal for more earnest prayer and for kindly and cautious, but effective, watch and care. In connection with this our schools in San Francisco propose to undertake something more general and more generous in the way of giving. Certainly the sum total of expenditures made by our Chinese brethren, in connection with their Christian work, is creditable already. When we consider their circumstances it is not a little thing that in this last year their offerings, one way and another, should reach a total of $2,000. But a scrutiny of the sources from which this amount had come showed that in some quarters the grace of giving had not been as generally cultivated or as fruitful in results as it might have been. And a recovery of lost ground in this regard, an advance beyond anything heretofore attempted is fully resolved upon. Plans are being laid, the mutual exhortations have begun, and it is believed that by the 1st of December they will show us definite and practical returns. One of the helpers writes me as follows: “Last night I have been spoken to the scholars and brethren about the gifts of the money for the missionary work and about the gas that you are going to put up instead of the oil lamps. They were so pleased to help. I can hardly know how to tell you how glad they feel to pay the gas and water bills and to help you pay the rent. I was surprised that I should receive a large sum of gifts last evening so soon as when I get through my sayings, and I expect another sum this evening, because great many have not any money with them last evening.” This same good spirit seems to pervade all the schools and I am greatly comforted by it.