Once the Mission was established, frequent visitors came uninvited to hear something of the principal articles of our faith. The Chinese are a thinking people who frequently entertain doubts, and not without reason, about the many absurdities contained in their own religious beliefs. Copies of the Commandments were printed in Chinese and given out to all who asked for them. Many who received them said they would live in the future according to these commandments, because as they claimed, they were in such perfect accord with the voice of conscience and with the natural law. Their reverence for the Christian law increased with their admiration for it. Some of them, without being asked or told of it, began to bring incense for the benedictions, others brought oil for the sanctuary lamp and a few made voluntary offerings for the support of the house.

If they had wished to accept the generosity of the Governor, the Fathers might have obtained a grant of land that was originally intended for a temple of idols, but they deemed it wiser not to compromise the newborn liberty of Christianity by subjecting it to the power of the governing Magistrates. Their refusal to accept the offer served to exempt Christianity from any suspicion of cupidity or avarice, and it became known among the people from the very beginning that the preachers of the divine law were not looking for material gain from their religion. This gave them an easy entrée to the palaces of the officials who knew that when the European priests came they were not looking for favors, as was generally the case with those who cultivated the friendship of all civil rulers. Thus the method of mute publication, substituting deeds for words, was more than a little effective in spreading the reputation of the newly arrived Christianity. No doubt, many who came to see a Christian service were prompted by curiosity, but many returned touched with admiration of the evidence of the divine. . . .

The first one in the Chinese Kingdom to make open profession of the Christian faith was from the very lowest rank of the people. God had evidently chosen the lesser things of earth to confound the greater. This man was afflicted with an incurable disease, and when the doctors held out no hope of betterment, his people, who could no longer support him, cruelly put him out of the house, and he was left lying abandoned on a public road. When the fathers heard of the case they went out and found the man, told him there was no hope of curing his bodily ailments, but that there was a means of taking care of his soul and of leading him to salvation and eternal happiness. His first reaction was as joyful was it was courageous, and he answered that any law offering such sympathy and pity to its observers was quite acceptable to him. They took him home and had their Chinese servants construct a neat little rustic hut for him, close to the mission house, where they took good care of him and taught him the fundamental truths of Christianity. When he was sufficiently prepared, he became the first one in the great empire to receive the sacrament of baptism. Indeed, it would seem that in order to preserve his innocence, God in His mercy took him to Himself in Heaven only a few days after his conversion. This was the first small beginning of the great work to follow. . . .

The high esteem acquired by the Christian religion, from its seemingly futile beginnings, was built up not only by the truth of its doctrines and the holy lives of its missionaries, but at times from little things which in themselves were quite insignificant. For example, among the many books in the mission library there were two large volumes of Canon Law, which were greatly admired by the learned Chinese for their exquisite printing and also for the excellent workmanship of the covers, which were ornamented in gold. The Chinese could neither read these books nor did they have any idea of what they treated, and yet they judged that the content of such volumes must be of major importance, when no expense was spared on their binding. Moreover, they concluded that letters and science must be held in high esteem in Europe, and that in this respect the Europeans, with such books, must surpass not only the other nations but even China itself. This indeed was an admission that they would never have made without seeing evidence of it with their own eyes. They noticed also that the fathers, not satisfied with a knowledge of European science, were continually, day and night, delving into Chinese scientific tomes. In fact, they had hired a Chinese scholar of high reputation, and at good wages, to live at the house with them as an instructor, and their library was well stocked with Chinese books. There was no doubt among the educated Chinese that these Europeans had a reputation for doctrine and learning. It was this reputation that accounted for the fact that some of the highly lettered class requested a fuller explanation of the precepts of Christianity than was contained in a copy of the Commandments which they were accustomed to carry about with them.