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250 CHINA MISSION YEAR BOOK.POSTGRADUATE STUDY.Most of the missions require further study fromstudents who have left the college and have becomepreachers. The methods employed sometimes separately, sometimes in combination are examinations andgatherings for Bible study. The Church MissionarySociety prescribes courses of study for all catechists, withyearly examinations. The American Board Missionrequires preachers, after leaving college, to pass througha further course of three years. The Methodist Episcopal Mission, through its general conference, arranges afour years course of study for all preachers who enterthe regular ministry. The English Presbyterian Mission,in addition to the Presbyterial examinations whichcandidates for the ministry have to pass, seeks to encourage all its preachers to engage in systematic study.In Swatow, for example, preachers are expected to pass asemi-annual examination. In Wukingfu the preachersgather together in spring for a fortnight of Bible teaching and in the autumn are examined on the teachinggiven in spring. A similar planis followed in theAmoy field, except that the teaching is sometimes givenat the ordinary preaching meetings, when the preachersgather together in different places for special evangelisticwork. The Berlin Mission reports that Bible teachingis given at quarterly conferences. The WesleyanMethodist Mission organises conventions for Bible studyin country centres. The American Presbyterian Missionin Canton made the experiment last year of a four daysBible study conference during the vacation, an experiment which they report will probably be repeated. TheBasel Mission arranges annually a short course of instruction for its preachers, and further requires them to enteran outline of the sermons they preach in a book. Thesuggestion made at the Shanghai Conference to establishcorrespondence classes for Bible study does not seem tohave been tried, so far as the provinces of Canton and