Increased Facilities.-Convertibility of the Chinese.-Abundant Materials to work with.-Past Experience of Protestant Missions.

We now propose to bring into one view, the peculiar encouragements to more extensive missionary exertions on behalf of the Chinese.

1. The first that we shall mention consists in the increased facilities that now exist for extended effort. China is now comparatively open, and the Christian church is as it were invited to enter in, and take possession of the land, in the name of Christ. In the Imperial Edict, tolerating Christianity, it was declared that the doctrines of Jesus were virtuous and excellent in their tendency, "their principal object being to exhort to virtue and to repress vice." Persecution is no longer to be feared. Unlimited permission is now given to the Chinese to profess Christianity. Chinese Christians had formerly no security for their lives. Leang-afa, an aged evangelist at Canton, had to flee, about twenty years ago, in the dead of the night, from the Mandarins who sought to take his head. He took refuge in Malacca, where he remained some years. After the termination of the war he returned to China, but continued to be harassed by the threats of informers, who kept his life in fear and jeopardy. About the same time that he fled, leaving his family behind him, the son of another venerable preacher now at Hong-Kong, and whose name is Wut-Ngong, was taken and put in prison, where he languished and died. But since the promulgation of the Imperial

Rescript in 1845, the converts live in peace and security. We cannot help exclaiming-" What hath God wrought?" "The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad." "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water; He turneth it whithersoever He will."

one.

Further, the disposition of the people towards missionaries has improved within the last few years. If indignities are occasionally offered to them, it is generally in their character as foreigners simply, and not as teachers. They now understand the missionary's business and motives, and they now apply to him the title of Seen-sang, or first-born, the name by which their own teachers are addressed. Learning is venerated in China, and scholars are highly esteemed. Eight years ago the Chinese at Canton scarcely knew the name of Jesus; now it is in the mouth of every Till that time the character and aims of missionaries were misunderstood; now they are called Jesus's men. Then, there was only one missionary living amongst them at any distance from the factories, or residences of the merchants; now, there are a dozen missionaries in different parts of the suburbs, wholly surrounded by the Chinese population, and dwelling in quietness and safety. To show the altered and improved state of feeling that has been going on, an incident that occurred about the time of the attack on the Bogue forts, and the seizure of Canton, by Sir John Davis, a few years ago, may be mentioned. The foreign residents were fleeing from Canton, to take refuge among the shipping at Whampoa, when an American missionary was observed, in one of the small sampans or boats, with some of his pupils, also going down to Whampoa. Some Chinese, in the neighbouring boats, as soon as they saw him, cried out-" here is a foreign devil-come, let us kill him.' But the people in the boat in which he was, said "no, you shall not injure this man; this is a Seen-sang." When they heard this, they allowed him to pass unharmed.

But, besides the favourable eye with which the government regards Christianity, and the improved state of feeling amongst the people, other facilities for carrying on the work might be mentioned; increased facilities, for example, for acquiring the language, for moving about freely amongst the people, for conversing with influential and official persons, for circulating tracts, for multiplying copies of the Scriptures, and other Christian books, by means of English printing-presses and stereotype plates, for gathering the young of both sexes into schools, and training them up in a knowledge of Christianity, and for preaching the gospel in towns and hamlets, and in chapels in the large cities. These exist now to an extent that would have gladdened the heart of the first Protestant missionaries. In these respects, missionaries at the present day are in a much more improved position than that which their predecessors occupied. Dictionaries, chrestomathies, and grammars, are now multiplied. The services of native professional men may now be more easily obtained as teachers; and the missionary does not now need to fear either the jealous eye of the East India Company, the opposition of the mandarins, or the hostility of the people. The Chinese language itself, with all its peculiarities, is, viewed in one aspect, favourable to our cause.

For it is another characteristic of it, that, although pronounced in numerous different ways by the inhabitants of the eighteen provinces of China, the written character is everywhere one and the same. It has been calculated, that, besides the half dozen broadly marked diversities in the spoken language, there are in all about two hundred different dialects. Some of these are of course more nearly allied to one another, and to the original mandarin or court pronunciation, than others. As French will carry a man through all the courts of Europe, so the mandarin dialect is the language of the court and of all official places. But so great is the difference between this and the other dialects of the country, and so great is the diversity among these dialects themselves, that the natives of adjoining provinces cannot understand each other's speech. A missionary is sometimes called upon to interpret between two Chinese. Two men may be seen seated together and conversing, pencil in hand, by means of the written character; or, in the absence of writing materials, making imaginary characters to each other with their fingers in the air. The Arabic numerals, called by different names in the different European languages, but, to the eyes of all, conveying exactly the same ideas of number, is, though an old, yet a good illustration of the characters of the Chinese language. However diversely pronounced, they convey, when read, the very same ideas to the minds of all. An imperial proclamation, or any possible Chinese publication, can therefore be read and understood by all the millions of inhabitants of China, however differently the words may be, in each province or district, pronounced. One Bible, therefore, will suffice for the whole. Unlike India, where so many different versions are required for the different languages of Hindostan, there is but one language in China. Now that the word of God has been translated into this language, the myriads of this vast country have it in their power to read, in their own tongue, the wonderful works of God. And it is a remarkable fact, that this language is read and understood in many of the neighbouring nations and kingdoms. If, to the millions in China itself, we add the inhabitants of the vast region of Chinese Tartary, Thibet, Cochin-China, Japan, Corea, Formosa, and the Loo-Choo Islands, we have thus a population of at least four hundred millions, or nearly one half of the human race, accessible through one written language, and unto whom the word of God is now ready to be conveyed.

2. Secondly, let us now attend to some considerations of a peculiarly encouraging nature, drawn from their national character; or, humanly speaking, their convertibility, if we may use such a term. Viewed in certain aspects, this nation appears like a field "white already to harvest ;" and no one can attentively regard it without believing that it is one of the most promising, and most inviting fields for missionary labour, in the world. First of all, they are a people remarkable for shrewdness, good sense, and intelligence; not so acute and metaphysical as the Hindoos, but still capable of reasoning and judging correctly, and also more accessible to reason, and open to conviction. Many popular aphorisms might be quoted, to show the amount of practical wisdom amongst them.

The following are a few from amongst many, that

might be given "Prosperity is a blessing to the good, but to the evil it is a curse. A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor is a man perfected without trials.-Better be upright with poverty, than be depraved with abundance. He whose virtue exceeds his talents, is the good man; he whose talents exceed his virtues, is the evil.-Vast chasms may be filled, but the heart of man is never satisfied.-If you love your son, give him plenty of the cudgel; if you hate him, cram him with dainties. -He who is willing to inquire will excel, but the self-sufficient man will fail. While silent, consider your own faults; when speaking, remember those of others.-Kind feeling may be paid with kind feeling, but debts must be paid with hard cash.-The light of one star illumines the mountains of many regions, so one unguarded expression injures a whole life-time of virtue. They who respect themselves will be honoured; but, disesteeming ourselves, we shall be despised." The Chinese venerate these sayings of their sages, as embodying the wisdom of which their nation is so proud. Good sense and superior wisdom, wherever found, are acknowledged and respected. May we not hope, therefore, that they will readily perceive and candidly admit the superior excellence of God's word and of Christ's Gospel, when these are presented to them? The usual vices inherent in depraved human nature, must of course be met and contended with in the Chinese, and their keen covetousness has already observed of Christianity, that it is a religion which does not cost a man much.

As an illustration of the manner in which they may be expected to reason on the comparative claims of Christianity, and their own superstitions, the case of a native doctor who came from Canton to HongKong, to attend a bible-class, a few years ago, may be mentioned. The Chinese, he observed, could not proceed to build a house without consulting for a lucky day, and attending to numerous other superstitions; whereas, foreigners, he saw, never did any thing of this sort, and yet prospered also in their undertakings. The conclusion to which he came therefore was that these superstitions were useless and absurd. Whilst the Chinese in general repose blindly in idolatry, and connect good fortune with their superstitions, they are not slow to perceive the vanity of these delusions when pointed out to them. The Rev. Dr. Legge, on the occasion of a visit to the temple of the god of riches, began to point out to the people the folly of worshipping this idol. A very ragged man in the crowd briskly stood up in defence of the god, and insisted that great benefits were to be obtained by worshipping him; and, when asked to name those benefits, mentioned good luck, wealth, happiness, honours, and so forth. The missionary next inquired if he were a worshipper of this god, and, upon his replying in the affirmative, it was then observed, that he must in that case be a very wealthy man, and that surely he

* Others of a more humorous nature might be given :—thus, to instigate a villain to do wrong, is like teaching a monkey to climb trees; to paint a snake and add legs, is spoken of exaggeration; to sue a flea and catch a bite, of the results of litigation; to cut off a hen's head with a battle-axe, of unnecessary valour ; a paper tiger, is like a coward who boasts of his valour; a pigeon sneering at a roc, like a mean man despising a prince.

could not have been paying court to the god of opulence so many years in vain. The shout of laughter which arose among the bye-standers, at the evident confusion of the poor man, covered both him and his cause with ridicule, and showed also how far a little reasoning, and plain common sense, may go in shaking their faith in their idols.

Further, and as another characteristic of the Chinese, it may be observed that they are not so wedded to their idolatry as some other heathen nations. There is not the same fierce religious bigotry and devoted attachment to idolatry, nor the same zeal for the honour and worship of idols, that are to be witnessed among the Hindoos. Multitudes seem to be characterized by religious indifferentism, and multitudes more have a mixed religion made up partly of all the three systems put together. They can plead nothing better in favour of their own systems than merely "old custom." The popular superstitions are a stupid and senseless will-worship, and when the light of Christianity is brought to bear upon them, they must fade away, as the shades of darkness before the rising sun. Their systems are effete. Their philosophy is vain. There is nothing in them all to satisfy the heart, to slake the cravings and thirstings of an immortal soul, or to allay the anxiety of a reflecting and inquiring mind. Educated persons have long looked down with contempt upon the superstitions of the vulgar. Fo or Buddha, is especially stigmatized as "a black devil;" for he was not a Chinese by birth, but an obscure Hindoo prince. His doctrines, though believed in by the many, are sometimes denounced by government, and often ridiculed by thinking men as "incapable of proof." The Buddhist priests have none of that influence over the people, which the Brahmins possess over the Hindoos. Instead of being worshipped as gods, they are in sooth generally despised, their worship neglected, and their pretensions to superior sanctity derided. A common saying among the people is, in the form of a couplet,"can a Ho-Shang (priest) ascend on high, and become an angel? As well might a pestle be expected to fly up to heaven." A respectable native writer denounces the priests as "a set of ignorant, indolent, filthy ascetics, who are not worth the down of a feather to society." It may be affirmed then, that the superstitions of the Chinese are only waiting to be overthrown by the vigorous assaults of Christian missionaries. And when the people learn that God is the Father of us all, we may confidently expect, from the experience of the past, that they will also abandon their ancestor-worship. Before the superior light and more excellent morality of the gospel, the boasted philosophy of the sages must disappear. And the more that the people are plied with the claims of God upon their hearts, and the responsibilities which they, as guilty beings, are under to the just God, the more quickly will they begin to discover, that in the baseless moral systems of Confucius, Mencius, and Choo-footsze, there is nothing to pacify the conscience, to save the soul, or lead it up to God.

Once more, not only is the reflective faculty largely at work amongst the Chinese, but a keen moral sense is also widely observable. In the case of multitudes, doubtless, conscience has become blunted, perverted, deadened, from long practice in wickedness; but many indications of its