I

been anxious for some time that the Free Methodist church should have a mission in China, and I believe that the time has now arrived for it to become a reality. I hope you will rest and visit a few months before the general conference at Greenville, Illinois; and then attend it. I also hope that at this conference the church will offer you an appointment as our missionary to China. am sure that God would have us open up a mission in China at this time. There are some among us who think it would be better to strengthen the work we already have begun, but I am fully convinced that God is opening the way for you to return to China and found a Free Methodist mission, and I am equally confident that the church will insist upon its being done now."

She did attend the general conference referred to above, and was most enthusiastically received. It was at this conference that the first general representative gathering of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Free Methodist church was held, and at this meeting there was a large gathering of prominent women of the denomination from all parts of the United States. These women were especially enthusiastic over the prospect of a new mission in China, and all who came in contact with Miss Leffingwell, especially those who were privileged to hold personal conversation with her or to hear her public address, were much impressed with the opportunity that had come to us in the possi bility of securing her as a leader for opening this work. The woman's society, in their business meeting, voted to turn over to such a mission their sur

plus fund, amounting to about four thousand dollars, whenever the general board should decide to undertake its establishment. Rev. A. Beers, of Seattle, Washington, also brought to the missionary board an offer of a donation from Mr. Peterson, also from Seattle, of a certain property valued at about five thousand dollars. This donation was to be given for mission work in China, and was to be available whenever such work should be established in that Empire.

All who were privileged to attend that wonderful gathering at Greenville will never forget the spirit of blessing that came to them over the prospect of this enterprise. The newly-elected missionary board at a special meeting, held immediately after the adjournment of the general conference, unanimously voted to open a mission in China; instructed the secretary to make arrangements for the same; commissioned Miss Leffingwell as their first missionary, authorizing the collecting of funds necessary for the project. While there was no diminution either in enthusiasm or donations for the other fields of missionary labor already undertaken by this church, there was a marked outburst of both for the China field, which proved to be neither premature nor spasmodic. The representatives of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society who attended the conference separated and went to their respective fields of labor especially moved with the spirit of determination to make this proposed enlargement of the mission work a certain success.

CHAPTER XXIX.

LABORS IN THE UNITED STATES-FREE METHODIST

MISSION IN CHINA.

We are living-we are dwelling
In a grand and awful time;
In an age on ages telling,

To be living is sublime.

Hark! the waking up of nations,
Gog and Magog to the fray;
Hark! what soundeth is Creation's
Groaning for its latter day.

Will ye play, then? will ye dally
With your music, with your wine?

Up! it is Jehovah's rally!

God's own arm hath need of thine.

Fear not! spurn the worldling's laughter;
Thine ambition trample thou!

Thou shalt find a long hereafter

To be more than tempts thee now.

On! let all the soul within you

For the truth's sake go abroad!
Strike! let every nerve and sinew

Tell on ages-tell for God!

-A. Cleveland Coxe.

Soon after the general conference at Greenville, Miss Leffingwell entered with a full heart and all her energy into the work of raising up for the Free

Methodist church a mission in China. This consisted of three separate phases of labor. 1. She was to stir up the church regarding their responsibility to China as a mission field. There was a strong undercurrent of feeling already existing in the Free Methodist church on this subject. This she was to find, develop, direct into intelligent and organized effort, and make this mission a permanent organization of the church. 2. She was to collect the funds necessary to establish the mission on a perma nent basis. 3. She was to select suitable candidates for the China field who should be appointed as regular missionaries by the missionary board, if they were found to be satisfactory.

Miss Leffingwell entered upon this work with her accustomed zeal and energy; and as an instance of her devotion to the work it may be mentioned that she attended several camp-meetings in Western New York in July on her way east from the general conference at Greenville, before she went home to see her own family at Bradford, Pennsyl vania. To do this she took with her the baggage that she had brought from China, re-checking it from place to place. She arrived at her sister's in Bradford in July, but only remained a short time, her great zeal pushing her out to hold meetings in various places to which she was invited. In fact she did not get home to unpack her baggage until some time in November.

Her first great encouragement came to her during these trips, when she was holding a missionary meeting at FWe will let her tell it in her own way. "I am having a splendid time, and