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tion before us. There is a disposition on the part of the Chinese to give heed to the truths announced to them. At the north and the south concurring testimony is given on this head. So far as Hong-Kong is concerned, I speak of what my own eyes have seen, that our native chapel is filled with attentive hearers, two and three times every week. As to Amoy, I might refer to letters which I have received from the brethren there, to the same effect. As to Shang-Hae, 1 mentioned that a chapel had been opened there on the 24th of August last. "On that occasion," the Brethren write, “every part of it was crowded with hearers, who listened to the preached word, and both assembled and dispersed without noise. Since that time, Divine worship has been continued in it every Sunday afternoon, attended by crowded congregations, who come regularly, and sit quietly to the end. It is pleasing to observe how attentively they listen, every eye being turned towards the preacher, and every ear open to catch the sounds of his voice; while they uniformly rise when prayer is offered, and keep their eyes on the books while the Scriptures are read."

It will not be denied by any one, who dispassionately considers these statements, that our Saviour's words, "The harvest truly is plenteous," may be applied with remarkable appropriateness to China. Before passing on to the other declaration of our text, I must be allowed an observation or two, by way of caution. When it is said that there is among the Chinese a disposition to hear the gospel, that is a different thing from a disposition to embrace it. Far be it from me to leave the impression on any mind, that the work of a missionary in China will be all of triumph, or a progress from victory to victory. There is less of bigotry, stubborn irrational adherence to their own systems of superstition, among them, than among any other great heathen people. Such statesmen as Lord Ellen. borough and Sir Henry Pottinger have come to this opinion, as well as missionaries. Still the labourer among them will have to possess his soul in patience, to endure a thousand disappointments, to contend against various oppositions. This we could not but anticipate. There must be a continual miracle being wrought upon their minds if it were not so. To suppose that a people would abandon the habits and prejudices of three thousand years' growth on the first summons would be fanatical. But they listen to the truth, which is mighty through the power of God to pull down the strongholds of Satan. Their house is occupied by a strong man armed. We do not expect that he will give up his goods without a struggle. But they admit us into the house, and with us there is one stronger than our adversary,

so that we look forward to the issue with confidence. One may die in the strife, and another more than one generation may pass away, and the contest still appear doubtful, but it is true of this battle, that

"Though vanquish'd oft, 'tis ever won."

"The harvest truly is plenteous." Where we have so fair a field, it would be cowardice and treachery united, to doubt that in due season, we shall reap, if we faint not.

Our Lord further said to his disciples, "The labourers are few."

We are brought now to the painful part of our subject. "The harvest is plenteous;" how melancholy to see it uncared for, un. reaped!

On a careful enumeration, I find that the Chinese missionaries of the various Protestant Missionary Societies amounted in the past year to forty. A few were probably added to the number during the year from the United States, with whose names I am not yet familiar, but in the reckoning I include myself and others, absent through necessity from our duties for a season. Forty labourers amidst 360,000,000 of heathen! And of those forty the number is small, who have been studying the language for a sufficient length of time to be capable of speaking fluently to the Chinese in their own tongue. Perhaps if I said there were ten, fully equipt for their work by a compe tent knowledge of the language, I should. not be far from the mark. It is to be borne in mind, however, that the provinces in which the various stations are situated contain only 132 of the 360 millions of the empire. The five ports themselves and their vicinities may have a population amounting to no more than about three millions. If we take the lowest of these numbers, we have ten labourers to three millions of heathen-one man to 300,000, and expected to produce an impression on these, which shall extend itself so as to be felt over all the nation. Must we not exclaim, How few! If England were to be evangelized in the same proportion as all China is by all the labourers in it, there would be found barely two ministers in all its coasts. If it were evangelized in the same proportion as those five ports and their vicinities are by efficient labourers, London would have six or seven ministers, but I know not if there be another town or city in the kingdom which would enjoy the undivided labours of one !

And let not the churches of this country take to themselves the pitiful assurance that most of those forty labourers are from them. Of the forty, fourteen are from Britain; the others are American. We give honour to whom honour is due. I would that the American churches provoked us to good

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works in this matter. Of the fourteen English labourers, ten belong to the London Missionary Society; one to the Church Missionary Society; two are from the General Baptist body; and one is a lady, Miss Aldersey, of Ningpo, unconnected with any society.

It thus takes but a brief space to show how painfully applicable the words of the Saviour, that the labourers are few," are to the case of China. No rhetoric is wanted to aid the force of the numerical figures which have been adduced.

In proceeding to consider how the exigencies of the Chinese Mission are to be met,in other words, how the supply of labourers is to be augmented,-it may be necessary to anticipate an objection which will occur to some minds from the strain of remark which has been pursued. Are we then to supply all China with ministers? some anxious friend may be ready to ask. If not we alone, but we in conjunction with other Protestant communities on the Continent and in America, are to do this, we may as well abandon the attempt at once. We never can do it. Now we are by no means called to such a Quixotic undertaking. It is ours simply to plant the tree of life at different points. That once accomplished, its power of self-propagation will supersede the necessity of our further labours. Its seeds will be carried by the winds of heaven, by the Providence of God, to the most distant parts of the empire, and grow up there, nursed by no care but that of its own sons, to overshadow and to bless all its people. But for the work which we must do, a certain amount of force is necessary, and must be maintained for a considerable time to come. There has not been so little experience during the last fifty years of missionary exertions in the east, that doubt on this point can be left in the minds of any who have watched their history attentively.

Let us confine ourselves to the operations of the London Missionary Society. Its ten agents are divided at the three ports of Shang-Hae, Amoy, and Hong-Kong. With the last will ultimately be connected a mission in Canton. Here, therefore, are three stations, for the maintenance of which in a state of permanent efficiency, there must be a complement of not fewer than four-andtwenty foreign labourers. I have no idea, as was intimated before, that Europeans will evangelize China. That is an achievement which can be accomplished only by the united labours of multitudes of her own children. But these, in the first place, are to be brought by missionaries into the light of the gospel; they are, moreover, to be trained and moulded through them by the word of truth, till they will go forth to their countrymen in the spirit and power of Paul,

not counting their lives dear unto them, and mighty in a mental and moral power, which their adversaries will not be able to withstand. For teaching the young, for training evangelists, for preparing tracts, for revising the version of the Scriptures, and, in addition to all and above all other things, for preaching the gospel, as workmen that need not to be ashamed; in a word, for laying the foundations of the Christian temple at these several places broad and deep, the quota of eight men to each sta tion very barely meets the exigency. If we are to aim at great things, and expect great things, we must not do what is really worse than doing nothing at all. A beginning is necessarily small; but the time has now come, when we are entitled to look whereunto that beginning will grow. At the south there are already two ordained Evangelists labouring in connection with the brethren one, Leang A-Fah, who has maintained an honourable profession ever since his baptism more than thirty years ago, by the late Dr. Milne; and the other, Ho Tsin-Shen, only lately set apart to the work, but a man of established character, and qualified for his duties by a good knowledge of his own language, and also of the English. Still, if these two were added to the ten missionaries, we should only have twelve agents of the London Missionary Society in China.

But I do not regard these as an exponent of the interests felt by the constituents of that Society in their chosen mission. Our brother, who is to be ordained to-night, will add one to the number. With him there will sail to the same station two other brethren, and two more will sail about the same time to the south. The number will thus be raised to fifteen.

But

There still remain, however, nine to make up the complement of twenty-four, and it is a serious consideration, whether the Society is able to support that number of missionaries, with the unavoidable expenses of their operations in China, without crippling its labours in other spheres. the same impulse which should bring forth nine competent men, saying to the Directors, "Here are we send us," would bring forth, I am convinced, at the same time, all the gold and the silver which would be required. Of what nature must that impulse be? And in what way may we expect to see it produced?

It is plain to my mind that it must be the fruit of consideration and prayer. We cannot expect the recurrence of transactions in Providence so spirit stirring as the peace between this country and China in 1842, and the toleration edict in 1844. Could the ever honoured Morrison have foreseen in 1834 that in eight years China

would be opened by force of arms to the commerce of the west, and in two years after opened by the act of the Emperor himself to the gospel, and yet that so feeble a response would be made to these unparal leled events by the churches of Great Britain, that would indeed have been a thorn in his dying pillow. The news came to England that China was opened. Thousands hailed it as an answer to prayer. Such it was. Public meetings were held. Thanks were given to God. Pledges were offered to send out men. And, finally, a considerable amount of money was collected. And after all this up to the present time only eight men have been forthcoming. How can this phenomenon be explained? There is utterly a fault among us somewhere. On what place, shall the hand be laid as if the fault were there?

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The thing is not to be charged upon the Board of Directors. It is not at their door that the guilt lies. I would not say that they have done what they could. God only can pronounce such a judgment on any man or any body of men. I know they have done much; and I am sure the man breathes not who is in a condition to throw a stone at them. The Church Missionary Society, moreover, is in a more painful position with regard to China than our own. With greater general resources and larger fands in the hands of their Treasurer, specially for that country, they have a solitary labourer in the field, and I have reason to believe there is not much prospect of his being speedily re-inforced. I could almost wish that my own judgment on the case were incorrect, for I find it difficult to resist the opinion, that there is something wrong in the religious feeling of the country, that there has taken place some decay in the missionary spirit, which is of the very essence of the gospel, among the professed subjects of the Redeemer. The language of Deborah and Barak might find its application, I fear, in many a pulpit and many a church, "Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flock? For the divisions of Reuben, let there be great searchings of heart." There have been to be sure subjects of great excitement connected with home affairs during the past few years, and special efforts have "been put forth. I need only adduce the agitation upon the Factories' Education Bill, and the subsequent noble contributions of funds for educational purposes. Looking at these and various other things which might be mentioned, some may think that there has only been a temporary lull, and no decay of the missionary spirit. I shall be truly happy if such be the case. Meanwhile the lull is as injurious while it lasts as the decay would be. It has endured already too long. Be |

the state of things eithere the one or the other, the remedy is the same- -Consideration and Prayer,

The facts must be looked till they assumé their proper magnitude and importance. The plenteousness of the harvest and the paucity of the labourers must be frequent subjects of meditation in all our churches. Let ministers bring and keep them before their people, and say that the responsibility of such a painful contrast rests with them. It may not be devolved upon any Board of Direction. Let the people revolve them in their minds till the rich shall be constrained to bring their offerings, and the young and talented shall feel their obligation to devote themselves. Let the members of churches look around them, and reflect who among them is fit for this mission. It is a most mistaken idea, that a man has done all his duty, when he has contributed his ten, or his hundred, or his thousand pounds. Let students for the ministry and men of education entertain the question whether they be not called to this work. I have been told, but I hope erroneously, of young men who had thought of the Chinese mission, and then dismissed it from their minds because of the difficulties of the language. How any man, looking forward to the work of the ministry with proper views, could act in this way, I can hardly conceive. Is the work of a minister an easy one? Is it to be sustained without the hardest labour, and the most diligent study? The Chinese language is difficult of acquirement-very difficult. But it has been mastered by several: it may be mastered by any one who is competent to the ministry at home. The study of it requires no brilliant powers: solid parts and a determined purpose, such as every missionary must possess, will overcome all its peculiarities, and enable him in the course of years to speak freely to the people in their own tongue.

The grand remedy, however, is prayer. Without this, consideration will do little. There will in fact be little of consideration itself. If there be a lull of the spirit of missions, it is by prayer that a sense will be awakened of the necessity of immediate action. If there be really a decay of the missionary-the philanthropic, the Christian life, it is only in answer to prayer that we can expect a revival. There is the instruction given by our Lord to his disciples in the verse following our text, "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth more labourers into his harvest." Let that be well pondered. If it were complied with for a brief period simultaneously and extensively throughout the churches, how would our sorrow give place to joy, and our depression be exchanged for hope! The great element, which needs to

be inwrought into our minds, gives to the passage all its life and power-that the Saviour is really the Lord of this harvest, and deeply, anxiously, interested in the reaping of it. Unless our religion be a pretence, we could not realize this, and be indifferent to the present position of the mission. There would be, there could not but be, a sympathy induced between the Head and the members of the church. Individuals would appear whose hearts the Lord had touched, and the treasury would be abundantly supplied with all that was necessary to send them into the field, and to maintain them there.

It is only by such a measure of consideration and such a spirit of prayer, that the exigencies of the Chinese mission can be met. I pray God that they may be both vouchsafed. If we arouse not from our lethargy, let us remember that it is highly criminal, and the churches of England may not hope to escape the righteous judgment of God. Carne says, in his Life of Xavier, that the apathy of the Chinese would have killed that ardent spirit. Forbid it that there should now be labourers in the field, who will sink beneath the apathy of their own countrymen! If missionaries be denied to China, the Lord of the harvest may be provoked to deny to England pastors after his own heart. It was Dissent which in this country evoked the spirit of missions fifty years ago; with the growth or decay of that spirit, Dissent is in my humble opinion destined to increase or fall. I would address the petition, "God be merciful to us, and bless us, and cause his face to shine upon us, that thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations." Great is the confidence reposed by the Saviour in his servants in these realms. Great is the charge committed to them by Him. We are called in China to lay the foundation of the vastest Christian temple which the world has ever seen. What innumerable multitudes of living stones will yet adorn it! When its top-stone shall be brought forth with shoutings, Grace, grace unto it," and all China shall be holy to the Lord, then surely the angelic choir will be heard again hymning over our world, "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, goodwill to men."

46

SWITZERLAND.

Extract of a Leller from a young English Student. Switzerland alas! is now fast approaching

the end of her days. She stands surrounded by her children-but they are not all children. All honour to the few who raise voice and hand in her defence against the many who seek to exalt themselves at the risk of her existence! These are patriots, and she stands amongst them yet, but the bitter draught of poison has already wetted her lips, which, before long, must rid her of an existence so intolerable to her rebellious sons. Viewed politically, Switzerland may indeed be regarded as one dying, while many confidently assert she is actually numbered among the dead. Sure enough, all her true children are in mourning-mourning displayed not so much in the outward apparel as in downcast looks and anxious brows, stagnation of trade and temporary extinction of all commercial enterprise; and the festive season of Christmas and the new year has passed away, quietly and sad. Terrible things are foreboded from the ill omens which flit unpropitiously by our left hand. Men, to whom the very moonlight would seem ungrateful-with an owl-like love of night for the accomplishment of their plans, which give no ray of hope to lovers of midday-men such as these, ay, and worse, far worse, have seized the reins of government, have mounted a steed, which they are now quarrelling how best to manage, and presently, as it seems reasonable to suppose, the animal will turn furiously under this mal-equestrianship, and refuse to be priest-ridden, by ridding itself of the priests. A sad and tearful time for lovely Switzerland! The hoary Alps look pale and chill upon this corrupted generation. Yes, the mountains and the valleys-the waterfalls, glaciers, and lakes remain for the traveller to explore; but where are the simple-hearted, contented, and blithe peasantry? How hast thou fallen, oh, Switzerland!-thou land of so much interest and praise, how art thou transformed! Thy children cherish the traveller's gold, and thirst for more; contentment has quitted their humble cots, yea, and their breasts, while restless aspirations for equality and power stupify their minds and beguile them, to the ruin of their country. Alas! alas! that the inexperienced, unrefined, uneducated, eh, and too often the foully immoral hand, should seek daringly to bid defiance to and insult those whose intelligence and capacity point them out as superior, and alone fit to discharge the duties of the canton. Yet so it is in Genève at present.

VOL. XXV.

MISSIONARY MAGAZINE

AND

Chronicle.

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HINDOO PILGRIMS PRESENTING GIFTS TO THEIR HIGH-PRIEST.- Vide paye 156.

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