Page:China's spiritual need and claims.djvu/70

56 lips For in season and out of season was and  still is his theme. Another of the members went into a Buddhist nunnery, and preached the gospel with such power, that the abbess, one of the nuns, and a neophyte about to take the veil, were converted, and added to the church.

About this time Mrs. Lord, who conducted an orphan school in faith in the living for supplies, had likewise been much blessed in labouring amongst the native women, to whom  gave her a wide door of access. She had one or two Chinese Christians with her, labouring as Bible-women.

Writing in 1864, she stated that if she had five Bible-women, she could give to each of them districts which would find them ample employment; and that she might herself be employed from morning to night, in teaching Chinese women to read the Scriptures in the Romanized colloquial. With the duties of the orphan school devolving upon her, this was, of course, impossible: and as opportunities for working among the women continually increased, she wrote most earnestly, begging for some one to be sent out to assist her in the orphan school.

It was distressing to hear of large districts where every house was open, whose female residents were eager to hear her instruction,—districts, in each of which she might have spent the whole of every day, but to which she could only devote a few hours weekly or fortnightly, on account of other claims, equally or still more imperative. As the orphan work was carried on in faith, it was necessary that any one assisting in it should be able to depend upon for personal support. Much earnest prayer was offered that would raise up a suitable helper. We knew of none; but at a meeting for prayer of the members of the committee of the Foreign