The ten days we passed there [at Ta Chêng Tzu], we were the song of the drunkard and the jest of the abjects; but the peace of God passes all understanding, and that kept my heart and mind. We put a calm front on, put out our stand daily, and carried ourselves as if nothing had happened. The great thought of my mind in these days, - and the great object of my life, - is to be like Christ. As He was in the world, so we are to be. He was in the world to manifest God; we are in the world to manifest Christ.

I go out as a missionary not that I may follow the dictates of common sense, but that I may obey that command of Christ.

To me the soul of an Indian seemed as precious as the soul of an Englishman, and the Gospel as much for the Chinese as for the European.

I thought it reasonable that I should seek the work where the work was the most abundant and the workers fewest.

...in place of seeking a reason for going abroad, I would prefer to say that I have failed to discover any reason why I should stay at home.

But I go out as a missionary not that I may follow the dictates of common sense, but that I may obey that command of Christ, 'Go into all the world and preach.' He who said 'preach,' said also, 'Go ye into and preach,' and what Christ hath joined together let not man put asunder.

This command seems to me to be strictly a missionary injunction; so that, apart altogether from choice and other lower reasons, my going forth is a matter of obedience to a plain command.