General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1912 Original Publisher: Fleming H. Revell company Subjects: Missions Religion / Christian Ministry / Missions Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: IV THE "CATHAY" ABBIGHT June morning rose on the tea wharves along the New York water front. The clipper ship " Cathay " was ready to sail for China. Our party for Foochow included the man who had made the address on China, that eventful night eight months before, and his wife, who became, as it were, a second mother to me. The sailing of missionaries was an event in those days. The whole staff of missionary secretaries and a Bishop or two, besides many New York clergymen, were on hand to see us off. As for me, I was glad the good-byes that really counted had been said at the old home on the hill, hundreds of miles back. But Mr. Sites missed me from the deck, and came to find me in the cabin writing more last words to Mother. While the great clocks of the city were striking twelve, the order was given, " Let her go." A little tugboat drew us from our moorings and we were really afloat -- adrift, it seemed -- moving Chinaward. There was singing on the pier; and as we swung out into the channel, an answering strain from the ship: "Shall we whose souls are lighted, -- Shall we to men benighted The light of life deny! " Fainter and fainter echoes from the shore; fainter outlines of familiar forms; the city sinks slowly into the sea; solid land becomes a dream. Then as day after day passes, with no prospect but the heaving waters, endlessly the same, we wonder that there could ever be so much of anything ! And some of us wish a thousand times for the fulfilment of the promise: -- " There...
