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misdeeds and asking to be received back. He was not immediately reinstated as a member in good standing by the church, but the missionary committee permitted him to teach again. His salary, however, was reduced from $20 to $15 a month, until he was granted full fellowship in the church.
In reporting this, Dr. Legge says: "He continues to exhibit a humble and subdued deportment.” Some time after he was restored by the church, he was described as “a wiser and seemingly better man."
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In 1853 he was sent by Dr. Legge to Shanghai to investigate the possibility of missionaries taking up residence at Nanking, the capital of the Taiping Kingdom.
The missionaries hoped to influence the Taiping movement and correct some of its mistaken views of Christianity which formed a part of its ideology.
As a companion on the trip A-sow had another Hongkong mission worker, Keuh Agong, sometimes also called Wat Angong. He was the same man who years earlier had called Dr. Legge's attention to the boy A-sow as a possible object of Dr. Legge's benevolence.
The investigatory trip of the two men from Hongkong was unsuccessful. Conditions created by the conflict between the Taiping and the Imperialist armies prevented their making the necessary contacts at Nanking.
After his return to Hongkong, A-sow taught English to advanced students at a day school opened by the London Missionary Society in their rebuilt Bazaar Chapel. He also began to do some preaching, but not for long.
Towards the close of 1855, Dr. Legge had this to report: "The young man A-sow, who had received so many advantages, turned aside in the course of the year to the world, and we had to declare his separation from the church.” He was again associating with bad companions and his conduct violated the standards of the