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"What"406 CHINA MISSION YEAR BOOK.time to make its influence felt, one of the secretariesreports as follows :There are man)* evidences of a deepening interestin Christianity on the part of leaders here such as wehave never seen. The president of one governmentinstitution is a member of a Bible class; the vice-president of another important institution confesses that hisbecoming a Christian is inevitable an ; aged and veryinfluential member of the literati, through the influenceof his son, recently converted in the association, hasbecome an inquirer and is attending the associationmeetings the head of a; large business concern, a manof official rank as well as wealth, is earnestly inquiring of a member of our Board of Directors as to Christianity, spending nearly all of last Sunday on thequestion. Another gentleman of very high standing,a Chinese scholar and writer on Confucianism, hasrecently been attending our meetings, and in a numberof interviews has shown a sympathetic interest in Christianity."The association is having to cope with a mostvigorous anti-Christian propaganda, and the difficultieswhich young men experience in accepting Christianityin the turmoil of life in the Far East at the presenttime, is considerable. A recent investigation securedthe following as the essence of answers to the question,constitute the five chief obstacles in the way ofa Chinese young man becoming a Christian ?"Opposil<tion in the home, by parents and wives, who thinkthat in giving up ancestor worship (the centre of homelife in China) their dead ancestors will be angry withthem and will make a curse upon The them." children sview point is thus given by another: "We are underthe influence and control of our parents and guardians,disobedience to whose instructions will be unfilial, andthe greatest of crimes that can ever be committed by aChinese young man." It is far different to meremoral cowardice."