Mackay endured this treatment patiently, but he set himself to
study their books, for he felt sure that the day was not far
distant when he must meet these conceited literati in argument.

He went about a good deal now. The Tamsui people became
accustomed to him, and he was not troubled much. His bright eyes
were always wide open and he learned much of the lives of the
people he had come to teach. Among the poor he found a poverty of
which he had never dreamed. They could live upon what a so-called
poor family in Canada would throw away. Nothing was wasted in
China. He often saw the meat and fruit tins he threw away when
they were emptied, reappearing in the market-place. He learned
that these poorer people suffered cruel wrongs at the hands of
their magistrates. He visited a yamen, or court-house, and saw
the mandarin dispense "justice," but his judgment was said to be
always given in favor of the one who paid him the highest bribe.
He saw the widow robbed, and the innocent suffering frightful
tortures, and sometimes he strode home to his little hut by the
river, his blood tingling with righteous indignation. And then he
would pray with all his soul:

"O God, give me power to teach these people of thy love through
Jesus Christ!"

But of all the horrors of heathenism, and there were many, he
found the religion the most dreadful. He had read about it when
on board ship, but he found it was infinitely worse when written
in men's lives than when set down in print. He never realized
what a blessing was the religion of Jesus Christ to a nation
until he lived among a people who did not know Him.