Page:China's spiritual need and claims.djvu/47

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Shen-si and Kan-suh.
33

Wurtemberg together. Desolated by the Mohammedan rebellion, and having suffered fearfully from the famine, it has yet probably seven millions of souls. The China Inland Mission has 4 brethren and 6 sisters in 2 stations, occasionally itinerating in the province, and some 90 converts have been baptized, of whom (excluding cases of removal and discipline) 50 are in communion in the province. Still further west Hes the vast province of Kan-suh. The modern province is very large; far more extensive than the ancient one, which is still delineated on most English maps. It will be remembered that France is nearly four times the size of England; and that Spain is not much less than France. But Kan-suh is larger than both France and Spain put together, and contains perhaps three millions of precious souls—a small number compared with its former population, but still far more than the whole island of Madagascar. The C.I.M. has two married missionaries, and one single sister, working there, in the only mission station in this extensive region. No Protestant missionary of any other Society has ever been stationed either in this province or in Shen-si. A few Christians have been gathered in Kan-suh also. In Kan-suh and Shen-si there are two immense regions, containing probably 10 millions of souls—Chinese, Thibetans, Mongols, &c., &c., and six men, four missionaries' wives, and a few single sisters alone are resident and itinerant among them to witness for the Lord Jesus!
AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS IN SÏ-CH'ÜEN.
In the face of facts like these, can we consistently profess ourselves to be believers in the Bible, and servants of the Crucified One, whose parting word of command was—Preach "in all the world"—"to every creature?"

Sï-ch'üen and Yun-nan.

South of Kan-suh lies Sï-ch'üen, almost bordering on Assam, and nearly as large as Sweden. The population is probably 20 millions. The C.I.M. has worked in Chung-k'ing, the commercial capital of