It is but a single illustration of this spirit which Mr. Pond’s recent visit offers. Both at Santa Barbara and San Diego the missions have lost their rented premises, and are literally homeless. It seems imperative that, if the work is to go on, they should no longer be subject to the disabilities of rented buildings. But it is a fixed principle of this mission, on no account to incur a debt. So it is of Mr. Pond, as regards himself; but for Christ’s needy ones he has more than once accepted the burden. This he has now again done. In Santa Barbara he purchased a lot for $600, for which land he is personally liable, but which he holds in trust for the mission. On that lot, by the close of this week, a chapel will be erected by a Christian friend, at a cost of $340. For this property a moderate rental is to be paid by the mission, and when the sums thus paid shall amount to the price of the land it, together with the building, (toward which the little Chinese band have already paid $150), becomes the property of the mission. In San Diego the course pursued has been the same, only that here, owing to the rise in real estate, the amount assumed by Mr. Pond and one other friend of the work, is $2,500. By similar acts of Christian self-sacrifice in the past, the mission has already become possessed of property to the value of $10,000, all without the burden of debt, or an even temporary diversion of its funds. But is the mission work worth all this toil and sacrifice? Mr. Pond, in a carefully guarded statement, says, that since the establishment of this mission the Chinese converts number over 600, at least fifty having been added during the past year; and this statement, you observe, makes no mention of results wide reaching in their beneficence which do not involve this radical heart work. If this statement be accepted as correct, the question is answered. But is there really any such a character as a Christian Chinese? Many persons say, “No.” It is but a day or two since a Christian man denied it, in my hearing. My reply to him was to ask for his standard of judgment. If his demand was that Chinamen should cease to become Chinese, and, abandoning all their associations, habits and prejudices, become simply Americans, doubtless they are not Christians; but in that case, neither are converts from many another nationality to be reckoned as Christians. Or if absolute freedom from infirmities and faults be made the test, this would shut them out, but it would shut out many others also. Alas! it would be fatal to the hopes of the writer. But if the test be the same we apply to ourselves, love more or less enthusiastic, loyalty true, even if troubling, to our Divine Master, and our judgments be according to the law of charity, then we have no more reason to look askant upon a Chinese than upon a Bohemian, or a negro brother. The grace of God works out in these and in those alike, encountering similar