“Oakland, Cal.

“Rev. W. C. Pond:

“Dear Friend—As I am requested to give you a little outline about our manner of conducting the Christian work in Oakland, I will try to do so. On Sunday morning, those brethren who can get out in time from their occupations generally attend church, but this number is comparatively small, owing to the way in which they are situated. Our Chinese Sunday-school is held immediately after the morning service in the church, and continues till fifteen minutes of two P.M. The average number of scholars during the last few months was about fifty-five. Mr. E. P. Sanford is our superintendent, and I am the assistant. The school is generally opened by singing two hymns in Chinese and two in English, followed by a prayer. After the latter, each teacher proceeds to take charge of his own class; and when the lesson ends, passages of Scripture are recited by most of the Bible-reading pupils. Then the notices are given for all the exercises of the following week. The Lord’s Prayer is then recited in concert, and the school is dismissed.

“From 6.30 to 7.15 P.M., we assemble at our Christian Association Room (a small house of five rooms) for prayer-meeting. This meeting is conducted by the president of the Association. The exercises consist of singing, praying, and speaking from two of the members who are appointed by the president at the previous meeting. After these speakers get through, eight to ten minutes are allowed to all who wish to speak or pray. The meeting is closed with the Doxology and prayer. From this meeting we go back to the chapel where we held our Sunday-school. There we open our regular Sunday evening service. The average attendance is about twenty-five. The first part of this service is singing from 7.25 to fifteen minutes of eight. The singing is conducted by Mr. Sanford, assisted by Miss L. Gill and Miss Sanford. To these persons we are greatly indebted for their kindness in teaching us, especially Mr. Sanford, whose labors for us are unspeakably great. After the singing and prayer, Mr. Sanford takes the Bible. He then reads, and explains to them in English; I take the same lesson and explain to them in Chinese, after which the meeting is closed with a prayer in Chinese. On Wednesday evening our prayer-meeting is conducted entirely by myself. Its average attendance is about the same as that of Sunday evening. Thursday evening I have the whole Bible-class, consisting of from ten to eighteen pupils. Beside this Bible reading we also have another very interesting Bible exercise in the Association Room every evening throughout the whole week, with the exception of Saturday and Sunday evenings. This exercise commences immediately after the brethren get back from school and continues until ten P.M. We begin by reading and explaining the Scripture alternately. If one fails to explain his verse correctly, the one who sits next to him follows it up, and if he fails also, the third, fourth, and so on to the last one in the class. If he fails to succeed, I then explain the verse to them again. When this lesson is through, I read and explain to them the new lesson for the following evening. Then this exercise is closed with a prayer in English by one of the brethren successively.

“Yours respectfully,

Jee Gam.”