Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 375

1850.

What I have Seen in Shanghái.

337

Boone and the Rev. Mr. Syle. The following services are maintained by Mr. McClatchie. Sunday, at 101⁄2 a. m. and 2§ P. M. preaching ; between these hours, his day-school is assembled in the vestry and catechised: on Monday, a class, consisting of ten blind people, is in- structed; on Tuesday, at 2§ P. m., services as Sunday; the same again on Friday; on Wednesday, a class of inquirers is examined and in- structed; on Thursday, his school teacher, who is a candidate for baptism, is carefully instructed; the poor in considerable numbers are assembled on Saturday, and addressed by Mr. McClatchie and Mr. Hobson, and afterwards supplied with a small quantity of rice. This church is situated in the western part of the city, not far from the West gate; its name, Yésú Táng, 'Jesus' Church,' written in large capi- tals over the front door, indicating that the house is appropriated to the worship of Jesus, attracts attention, and induces people to enter.

The day-school connected with this church is small, and the atten- dance very irregular, a suspicion having gone abroad that the pupils are to be taken away from the country. Mr. Hobson has cominenced a boarding-school in his own house, which at present contains only four pupils.

The labors of the mission of the London Missionary Society have been continued without any very material change, excepting the af- flictive Providences to which allusion has already been made. Such afflictions are doubtless designed, while they teach us our frailty, to incite us to greater diligence and purer devotion. The Hospital under the care of Dr. Lockhart, has become more and more an object of in- terest, as the benevolent labors connected with it have been multiplied.

Public religious services arc sustained by the Mission in the Hospi- tal, in two chapels within, and one without the walls of the city. In this latter, the preaching is in the Fuhkien dialect. One of the cha- pels in the city has been fitted up this year on a site recently purchased for the Society, in a very eligible position on one of the main streets, and not far from the magistracy. In these two city chapels, as also in the Hospital, there are daily services, in which both Mr. Muirhcal and Mr. Edkins take part with their senior brethren. The native church now numbers seven communicants, of whom five have been baptized in Shanghii, two of them recently. In his day-school, Mr. Muirhead has now twenty boys, and a small number of boarding scholars, a part of whom are girls under the care of Mrs. Muirhead. Mr. Wylie's time is occupied principally with the care of the mission press, as that of Dr. Medhurst and Mr. Milne is with the Chinese version of the New Testament.

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