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She said she was not a Christian, and yet she was not a sinner. -There was a woman that had been reared in the church whose parents were good peo ple, and she had gone through a course of Sunday School teaching, and yet up to that time, she had not the right conception of sin. The Power of Love. “But if she were a woman of such refinement, how do you account for her conduct on that occa sion? Surely she must have been a common woman from the street, and knew nothing about the social customs, or she never would have intruded upon an occasion of that kind.” Well, let us see if we cannot get the key that un locks the secret. Jesus gives us the key: “She loved much.” Nobody needs that I should go a step far ther. What cared she for difficulty? What cared she for criticism? What cared she for custom? Her heart was on fire, love was on the throne, and ev erything else must get down. Has it ever occurred to you that the one great trouble with us to-day in our church life, our Christian experience, and our dealings with our fel low-men, is the lack of the very thing that she had? Why is it that men are so particular about the dot ted “I” and crossed “T” in religions service? Why? It is because we lack the thing she had. You let the church get on fire for God and love for one another, no matter where the church is, and the peo ple attending it will have a good time. What is it that love will not master and over come? What difficulty cannot be brought down by the mastery of love? Do we really love our Bibles? Why not? You say, “I would enjoy my Bible, but I am not learned and I cannot understand it.” You cannot under stand the letter that you received from your three year-old child. It is simply a bundling together of marks with out meaning to anybody else, but my! when you get that letter you read in every line, and between ev ery line, love. When we get in love with the author it is no trouble for us to read His word. I have heard of a woman who was given a book when she was going away from home on a visit. She read the first chapter and it was so dry and dull that she would not read any more. Within a few days the young lady met a gentle man who was staying at the same hotel. They talked together, but she never dreamed that she had ever heard of that man before. Finally, one day they were down on the bank of the river talk ing. Things had become a bit interesting. The man had begun to say some very interesting things to her. As they walked along the banks of the stream he said, “If you don’t mind, I will make you a present of a little volume that I have written.” In a short time he brought her a copy of his book, and behold, it was that old, dry thing that she had been trying to read for two weeks. She read the first chapter over again, but it did not read like it did at first. The more she read the more interesting the book become, and she never closed her eyes in sleep until she had fin ished it. Then said she to herself, “How I ever could have thought that bookwas dry, I do not see. It is the best book I ever read.” The next day she wrote her friend saying, “I want to apolo gize for waiting so long to read the book you gave me. It is the lovliest and sweetest and best book I ever read in my life.” The secret of that woman’s change is the very thing I am now trying to impress. She had sud denly become mastered by the wonderful passion of love, and when mastered by it, everything that love dictated was sweet and pleasurable. Oh, God, forgive us if we have not enjoyed our Bibles as we ought. Help us to get in love with Thee as its author, then we shall love thy book. No Cost for Love. In the town of Goldsboro, N. C., a farmer one morning went to market with his loaded wagon, pulled by two spirited mules. He drew up in front of a store; stopped his wagon; went in, and began talking to a merchant. Suddenly he heard a noise, and looking through the window, saw that his mules had gotten scared and were running away. He never stopped to discuss the best method The teolden Age for March 29, 1903. of getting to those mules, whether it was to be done decently and in order or not. He never stopped to see whether his face was washed, his hair was combed, or his trousers creased. As soon as he heard the dash of the mules, he rushed for ward to head them off. When he got to the door he never asked for the key that he might get out iu an orderly way. On reaching the gate, he found it locked. He never stopped to unlock the gate, but jumped over the fence out into the street, and began running after them. It did not make any difference to him whether people thought he ought to run fast or slow. He finally got hold of the check of the bridle. The mules managed to pull him down under their feet, and trampled his life out. In a few minutes some people came to his res cue and assisted him. They took him out from under the feet of the mules and laid him on the sidewalk. The blood was oozing from his head, eyes, nose and mouth. An old neighbor came up just about that time. This old neighbor thought a great deal of him and began to weep. Among other things he said, “ Why didn’t you count the cost? Why didn’t you count the cost?” The dying farmer said in a whisper, but a whis per that was audible: “Look in the wagon.” The old neighbor got up in the wagon and looked in the straw, where he saw lying by the side of the vegetables that had been brought to market, a chubby boy, the only child the farmer had. “Look in the wagon, that will tell you why I did not stop to count the cost.” Ah, what is the cost where love is. Oh, God, baptize us with the spirit of the woman, which is the spirit of Christ. The People of China. (Continued from page 2). of its inhabitants, many of whom live on the rivers in houseboats. The amusements of Chinamen are few, although he has a passion for the theatre. The plays last a month, and there is seldom a vacant seat in the large auditoriums provided for theatres. A Chinaman’s mind lacks two things which Amer icans consider essentials—melody in music and per spective in drawing, but perhaps The Essential Differences between the Chinaman and the American are best summed up in the words of Wingrove Cook, the eminent traveler, who says: “China is a country where the roses have no fragrance, and the women no petticoats; the la borer no Sabbath, and the magistrate no sense of honor; the needle points to the South, and the sign of being puzzled is to scratch the antipodes of the head; the place of honor is on the left, and the seat of intellect is in the stomach; to take off your hat is an insolent gesture ,and to wear pure white garments is to indicate that you are in mourning.” No study of China is complete without a glance at the Impress Made by This Nation. ’ on modern life itself. That they have made such an impress is borne out by the fact that almost intuitively we accredit to this wonderful nation the manufacture of porcelain articles; a manufacture which so undeniably belongs to China that the name is given to the ware in common use to-day. Then, too, the Chinese are associated with the invention of gunpowder, with the early use of print ing, with' the exquisite manufacturing and decorat ing of silks; with the most wonderful ingenuity in wood carving and with the manufacturing of any number of curious articles for ornaments, util ity and amusement. There has been so much said in regard to the validity of the claim of the Chinese as to being the inventors of printing that it is of interest to note just how the claim originates. Printing, as known to us to-day, was not, even in a remote degree, known to the Chinese, but what they did practice undoubtedly gave rise to the present methods for the perfection of an agent that has been the most potent factor in the civilizing of the world. As early as the Sixth Century, the founder of the Suy Dy- nasty had the remains of classical books engraved on wood, although it was not until the Tenth Cen tury that printed books became comparatively com mon. This was nearly 900 Years Before Printing Was Known in Europe. Originally it was necessary to laboriously engrave each page of a book on wood and to impress them singly which naturally limited the number of printed books. But during the iSuy Dynasty—96o-1127, B. C., movable type was introduced by a blacksmith named Ching. His method was to make a fine paste of thin glutinous clay, of a regular thickness, on which he engraved characters, and for each charac ter used he made a type which was hardened at the fire. An iron plate was then placed on a table and covered with a cement composed of rosin and wax and lime. To print from this an iron frame, divided by perpendicular iron threads was placed on the iron plate and types ranged in it. This was then held near the fire and when the cement was sufficiently melted a wooden board was pressed tightly upon it so as to render the surface of the type smooth and even. Despite the inconvenience of this method, it was assuredly printing, and when the controversy as to the original inventor of this great art followed hundreds of years later, full credit should have been given to the ‘Chinese. The brush pencil was invented about this time, and as the Chinese used then, as they do now, only picture writing, the brush pencil was a vital ne cessity. The ones used to-day do not differ mate rially from those in use during the reign of the Emperor, Hwang-Ti. This emperor did not encour age the cultivation of letters, fearing the impetus given by Confucious, but despite his order that all books should be burned save those containing rec ords of his reign, the brush pencil, that easy and practical method of transmitting written messages, was invented at this time, as was also a sort of rough paper made chiefly of silk. Silk culture has ever been a paramount industry of the Chinese, and is produced all over the coun try save in the extreme north where the cold is too severe for the cultivation of the worm. Every variety of food supplied the worm influences the kind of silk produced, and in the feeding of the silk worm the Chinaman excels. The best sort is that produced from worms fed on grafted mulberry, but there were four hundred different samples sent from Shanghai to the Vienna Exposition, and there were even more in the different provinces. Bamboo is a universal product in China, and tea is as closely associated with the Chinese as is the manufacture of porcelain. Os the latter in dustry much might be written—too much for the limited space at our command, but it is hoped that enough has been said of the attainments of this wonderful race to warrant the interest that is uni versally felt regarding the country and the people. That we have no authentic records of the begin ning of the Chinese people, that their early history is shrouded in darkness and each ray of light was only gained by close study and persistent research would seem to mean that a force beyond the power of man was needed to rouse these people from the sleep of untold ages. Dr. Allen says that force has been found, and that it is the advent of Christianity. That no other force in all the years that China has lain asleep behind her impregnable walls, has even penetrated beyond her outposts. That with Chris tianity has come the longing for personal freedom and personal liberty, and the young Chinaman to day is struggling in the grasp of new and untried emotions, desires and ambitions. That the hope of the country lies with America and American insti tutions, and of all the many triumphs of the En glish-speaking race, and of the Christian Faith, there will be none recorded in all the future more significant than that indicated by the Awakening of China. Mrs. Fannie Griscom Parsons has been named to fill the office of director of farm colonies which the New York board of estimate and apportion ment has just created in that city, with a salary of $2,500 attached. 5