EE MARKS 
 
 ON 
 
 MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE, 
 
 ESPECIALLY IN 
 
 CHINA. 
 
 BY 
 
 ' 
 
 ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE “ CELESTIAL EMPIRE,” 
 SHANGHAI, 
 
 AND NOW REPRINTED FOB PRIVATE CIRCULATION. 
 
 PRINTED AT THE “ CELESTIAL EMPIRE ” OFFICE. 
 SHANGHAI. 
 
 1880. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016. 
 
 https://archive.org/details/remarksonmissionOOunse 
 
PREFATORY. 
 
 The following “ Remarks ” took their rise in a survey of 
 the Christian Missions of the present century. 
 
 The writer has, iu common with many, that feeling of 
 admitted shortcoming — almost failure — that results from 
 such a review ; but he is equally impressed with the belief 
 that all this is remediable. 
 
 These “ Remarks ” are so-called properly. They profess 
 to be neither formal, exhaustive, nor even original, 
 much less exclusive of what might seem, casually viewed, 
 to be incompatible with them. Further they are almost a 
 mere republication of what could appear in the columns of 
 a newspaper, there being insufficient leisure to give them in 
 their entirety ; they therefore want the proportion and 
 kind of treatment to be looked for in a regular treatise. 
 
 A fairly extensive substratum of experience and ac- 
 quaintance with missions is supposed in the reader. 
 Nothing here is intended for those who are without 
 experience nor for those who fear or decline to accept its 
 lessons. 
 
 “ Remarks ” must necessarily be open, more or less, to 
 the charge of censoriousness, but these are offered in a far 
 different spirit, as a tribute of fellow-feeling and co-operation 
 with earnest and yearning laborers for the spiritual 
 welfare of Humanity, and especially in the hope of assisting 
 to convey to the Loved Land and People of our choice a 
 fuller share of the benefits for which we ourselves are so 
 deeply indebted to others. 
 
4 
 
 There is here subjoined the introductory prefixed to the 
 Remarks on their first appearance. It runs thus : — 
 
 APOLOGY. 
 
 The following passage is found in a letter from the 
 hand of that first missionary bishop of the Church of 
 England — Patteson — martyr-bishop of the Melanesian 
 Islands. He says : — 
 
 “ I almost feel that if I live a few years, I ought to write : 
 so much that is self-evident to us I see to be quite unknown to 
 good educated men. I don’t mean to write anything silly, but 
 a very simple statement oi general principles of Christian work, 
 showing the mode that must be adopted in dealing with men as 
 partakers of a common nature, coupled with the many modi- 
 fications and adaptations to circumstances which equally require 
 special gifts of discernment and wisdom from on High * * *, 
 but I can’t write what I might, if I chose, folios of events with- 
 out deducing from them some maxims of Christian practice.” 
 
 SYLLABUS. 
 
 Aspects of the work — the work regarded as 
 The Missionary — 
 
 1. — A moral and spiritual agent. 
 
 2. — An intellectual worker. 
 
 3. — His social status. 
 
 4. — His political status. 
 
 The Truth — 
 
 5. — The nature of the subject matter held. 
 
 6. — Intelligence, its true use in missionary work. 
 
 7. — The nature and circumstances of that which the mis- 
 
 sionary meets and is to act on. 
 
 8. — The relation of Christian truth to native thought, 
 
 feelings, systems, religious leaders, and existing 
 
 circumstances. 
 
 9. — Relation to native customs. 
 
 10. — Possible points of contact (d'appui) between Chris- 
 
 tianity and native thought and religion. 
 
 11. — Some principles of intercourse with the Chinese. 
 
 12. — Some hindrances. 
 
 Primary Missionary operations, properly so-called — 
 
 13. — Some principles on which error and darkness are to 
 
 be met. 
 
 14. — Some modes of opening work. 
 
 15. — Some conditions of success. 
 
 16. — Literature, translating. 
 
 17. — Colporteurs and evangelists. 
 
 18. — The use of money. 
 
5 
 
 Missionary operations beyond the primary stage — 
 
 19. — Some general principles, conditions, and modes of 
 
 clearing up and diffusing positive truth and pro- 
 moting true religion. 
 
 20. — Some principles and modes of presenting, teaching, 
 
 and applying truth. 
 
 21. — Some remarks on enquirers. 
 
 22. — Accessories of missionary work. 
 
 23. — Stages of missionary work. 
 
 The Church — 
 
 24. — Some principles underlying the establishment and use 
 
 of positive Christian institutions and ordinances, 
 both spiritual and ecclesiastical. 
 
 25. — The Sabbath. • 
 
 26. — Church membership, 
 
 27. — Organization. 
 
 Church Life — 
 
 28. — Worship and edification. 
 
 29. — Piety and education. 
 
 30. — Benevolent institutions. 
 
 Church Authority — 
 
 31. — Some remarks on the exercise of control over converts. 
 
 32. — Persecution. 
 
 33. — Native self-extension of the truth. 
 
 Miscellaneous — 
 
 34. — Personal difficulty. 
 
 35. — Cautions. 
 
 36. — Points for enquiry. 
 
6 
 
 No. I. 
 
 A SPIRITUAL AGENT. 
 
 Missionaries and others often feel a very marked contrast 
 between their life and modes of action and the doctrines 
 they inculcate. This is more than a fancy : it is a fact. 
 From what comes this chronic state of Christian malaise 
 that exists even where reality and zeal is unquestionably 
 found, and therefore is not from the want of these elements, 
 and if not, how then ? Doubtless, from the doing of a vast 
 and divine work in a human self-willed way, and as our 
 own work. 
 
 Anyone who knows the value of calm and equable self- 
 possession, and recognizes in it the universally appropriate 
 bearing and tone of the witness df a Divine message, will 
 never make light of the original and real intention of 
 Confucius in enjoining Ijjt: upon those who were to be 
 the teachers of others. Far less can one do so in this laud. 
 
 No. II. 
 
 AN INTELLECTUAL WORKER. 
 
 Much that is urged on Missionary matters as considera- 
 tions drawn from experience will be opposed as compromise 
 and a bending to expediency, but it must be remembered 
 that we have carefully to discriminate between two kinds, 
 viz., the expedients which sprang from crude Western, 
 untested preconceptions of the way in which Christianity 
 should be established, and those other expedients based 
 on and dictated by experience and real fact ; for it cannot 
 be ignored that the state of Christendom and China — the 
 moral state of man in both spheres — is so different, is a 
 resultant of such different forces and conditions, that all 
 theories, principles, and modes of Western origin require 
 careful weighing and testing by experience before being 
 put into full practice here. 
 
 Here is one point only for your Christian judgmeut, 
 viz., can embryo and full grown Christianity be the same ? 
 Have they ever been found so ? Does the New Testament, 
 history, or the analogy of nature warrant the idea ? 
 
 No. III. 
 
 SOCIAL STATUS. 
 
 On this point only one question. Let each ask himself : 
 
 ‘ Is my mode of life agreeable to the whole doctrine and, . 
 
7 
 
 life I teach and ought to exemplify — does it evidence it — is 
 it the proper and congruous form of it ? ” The question is 
 not merely what a missionary’s mode of life has in it that 
 is hindering his work, but further, what is it that is lacking, 
 and which it should have, in order to be the true expression 
 of the truth taught. 
 
 No. IY. 
 
 POLITICAL STATUS. 
 
 What the Chinese Government or any official hates, and 
 rightly, is anything suspected of interfering with it or his 
 proper economy and influence, especially combinations 
 that familiarise people with the power of united action. 
 
 Ordinary officials are genuinely ignorant of the real aim 
 of Christianity. Now, being, like all people, naturally 
 patriotic; nay, they being, in one sense, especially so, their 
 opposition to Christianity may be even found to have in it 
 an element that will command somewhat of respect. For, 
 surely, heretofore, even misguided patriotism has, at any 
 rate, been invariably respected. 
 
 Supposing there were as good and as many reasons for 
 invoking treaty protection as there are against it, or vice 
 versa, still, which course think you would produce the 
 sounder Church ? 
 
 May it not be truly said that the strongly felt • desire to 
 establish Christian societies should never lead to any desire 
 for protection or other means, the spirit of which jars with 
 the spirit of the organizations so sought to be established ? 
 
 Observe what the reliance of Roman Catholicism on the 
 temporal arm at home is coming to, especially in France 
 and Italy, or rather has come to. Observe here, in China 
 likewise, what it has brought its matters to. 
 
 No. V. 
 
 THE TRUTH, THE NATURE OF THE SUBJECT 
 MATTER HELD. 
 
 “ All mere maxims, views, on any or everything, prove 
 weak beside the proclamation of a living and eternal God 
 as the first step to His creatures out of their sensual and 
 natural degradation.” 
 
 What is the palpable difference between the Christianity 
 of the Founder and his Apostles, and that propagated by 
 Catholics and Protestants in these latter days? Why just 
 
8 
 
 this The religion now tried to be spread has about and in it 
 the results of all that apologists, controversialists, systema- 
 tizes and philosophers could do to make it fill the head 
 and be extruded from the heart. 
 
 Now it were an evil, though only a negative one, that 
 we paid no regard to the preconceptions and expectations 
 of those we come to preach to, but in this way, positively and 
 perniciously, to encumber ourselves with an inherent cause 
 of weakness, and cause converts to suffer from misconception, 
 diffuseness, and shallowness ; this must be adjudged on by 
 the candid reader. 
 
 Don’t let us assume that present Western Christianity is 
 typical and normal Christianity and everywhere thus to be 
 reprodnced. 
 
 You may say Christianity is always the same, what need 
 to strip, alter, or adapt ? Yes, true; but the apprehension is not 
 always the same ; and if you think the kind of apprehension 
 we now have of the truth is as affecting and effective as in 
 the early Church, then I would ask you to reconsider 
 your objection. Remember, moreover ; that present Western 
 Christianity is diluted with frivolities, overlaid with systema- 
 tizing, full of weaknesses, bound in rigid adherence to 
 Western principles, and lacks a full pulse of worship and 
 love. 
 
 What is it we aim by Christianity to extablish in men ? 
 Is it the free inclination of the heart to a loving, personal 
 will, or mere slavish compliance to the imperative of law ? 
 
 We take it that the genius of the Truth is to rectify 
 and turn iuto the right channel man’s whole nature to such 
 a degree as to amount to his having a new nature, and, so 
 called, “ born again, ” not to suppress nor dry up any of 
 that which came from God. 
 
 It has been said, “ he that speaks against his own reason, 
 speaks against his own conscience, therefore it is certain 
 no man serves with a good conscience who serves Him 
 against his reason,” 
 
 Who is it that, after they have listened to the dogmatiz- 
 ings of little minds, has not often stood in the still clear 
 night, looked up to the arch of heaven, seen worlds, thought 
 of the great Architect and Ruler, and thought again of Him 
 as the One from whom in all His works there could proceed 
 no contradictions — that in Him was no narrowness — that 
 His primer for man had been read awrong by man, and 
 then, realizing this, and going forward in larger confidence, 
 has found ere long that Great One, still near to bless and 
 
9 
 
 seal every true hearted watcher for, and follower of, His 
 inspiration. Who, with such an experience, can doubt 
 that there is a sense in which there is a true -yvtioi?. 
 
 Have you ever thought how it was that our Lord, when 
 he wanted to exemplify that inherent capacity of the truth 
 for self diffusion and incorporation of other elements, &c., 
 chose not his figure from science nor anything possessed 
 of mathematical precision, but named yeast as the emblem, 
 that least well-defined of all agents, and yet the most 
 powerful and subtle of agencies for producing impregnation 
 and coalescence of the heretofore dissimular. Religion is 
 the worship and love of God and man ; not knowledge, not 
 controversy. The more you controvert and combat, so 
 much the more you injure and misrepresent the spirit of 
 your message. 
 
 Let no one suppose the adaptation of the truth, means 
 altering its essential form. It does certainly mean denud- 
 ing it of the developments of the ages for use here and now, 
 and that while yet using and prizing these developments 
 ourselves as guides. 
 
 But wherever is preached substantially the truth held 
 by the universal church as to — 
 
 The Creator and Father, 
 
 God, man, redeemer, and intercessor, 
 
 Holy Spirits as personal indweller and sanctifier. 
 
 The inherited proneness of man to sin, and guilt, de facto. 
 The expiatory nature of Christ’s death. 
 
 The Scriptures as containing the Word of God, 
 
 That God moves toward man to bless him, 
 
 That man can have no merit, properly so called, 
 
 The insufficiency of ethical principles alone, 
 
 The two great typical ordinances, 
 
 Personal and social W'orship, 
 
 National allegiance and social order, 
 
 There is Christianity preached, and there are members of 
 the universal society. 
 
 No. VI. 
 
 INTELLIGENCE, ITS TRUE USE IN MISSIONARY 
 WORK. 
 
 “ The apostle full of the manifold gifts of the spirit, and 
 admitted already to the third heaven condescended before 
 the Athenians to the elementary process of arguing from 
 natural evidence for the being of God. The light of truth 
 
10 
 
 is abundant, but the clouded and almost blinded eye can 
 admit no more than a faiut glimmering; but if even that 
 faint glimmering be suffered to enter, it will train and fit 
 the organ that it lias entered to receive more and more.” 
 We must correct the errors of natural reason judging 
 according to sense, by the use of faith, and likewise we must 
 extend the view, and correct the errors of puerility and 
 thoughtlessness by appeal to reason. In a word, “ we 
 must be neither among the numbers of those who don’t 
 think at all, nor of those who do nothing but think.” 
 
 “If apostles and apostles’ followers used Alexandrian 
 and Stoic phraseology as the least inadequate to express 
 the highest doctrines of Christianity, making them instinct 
 with new force, life, and meaning, how shall not we do 
 similarly. Nay, more, they, the apostles, shew even a 
 studied coincidence with those modes of expression.” 
 
 The purpose of scope of revelation, or of the book, is 
 not to instruct man in things which God has given him 
 powers to discover. 
 
 “ Great strength is gained by a knowledge of the nature 
 of one’s own views and actions and by a complete and 
 rational adoption of a certain principle and design. Know 
 what you do, and wish to accomplish and be fully and 
 clearly aware of the principles on which you act and the 
 objects you have in view but let them be compassable, 
 definite, appropriate, and elastic. — Guizot. 
 
 Pascal well says, “ Nothing is so agreeable to reason as 
 disclaiming of reason in matters of faith : and nothing is so 
 repugnant to reason as the disuse of reason in things that 
 are not matters of faith. The extremes are equally dan- 
 gerous.” 
 
 No matter how any one may argue from their self- 
 established, or traditionary conception of God’s word, 
 or what they have learned in the West. Yet, when you come, 
 in the innocence of your heart, to put the said conceptions 
 faithfully into practice, and, in the issue, it plainly and ex- 
 perimentally leads tc a dead-lock or anything absurd, 
 then is it evident that human near-sightedness has mis- 
 taken or come short of the real intention of the divine mind, 
 and we are thrown back upon the discovery of sure original 
 ways by the use of the faculties God has given us for our 
 guidance, and which He never meant to supplant. 
 
 The scriptures contain the word of the moral revelation 
 from God to man ; to be that in all its variety and depth 
 is their object: but where say they, or imply thoy, area 
 
11 
 
 universal directory or band book of missions, or erect for 
 themselves the pretensions that are put forward for them? 
 Nowhere, no more than they pretend to be science class- 
 books, nor say they are. 
 
 The Apostles were illiterate and unpractised men (ificurat), 
 ergo, we may use such — foreigners or Chinese — to spread 
 the Gospel. Yes, true, to spread the Gospel on ground 
 they know, i.e., at home, or wherever they are at home. 
 But note that “ the rude in knowledge ” among the Apostles 
 went to the adjacent Semitic thinkers and speakers, whereas 
 it was the accomplished and versatile pupil of Gamaliel that 
 was sent unto the Gentile world, and with him went a 
 good Levite, but, of Cyprus. And not to stop there, it is 
 further to be noted that the men used by the great Mover 
 of hearts in affecting the various strata of that Gentile 
 world w’ere in the first instance, the centurion at Cesarsea, 
 the Greek youth of Lystra, and the eloquent Alexandrian 
 Jew Apollos. Are these facts without meaning, all one set 
 looking one way, and all the other set looking the other 
 way? No. God sends such men as are conversant, have 
 been made so, or are ready to make themselves conversant 
 and in hearty vital rapport with the modes of thought of 
 those among whom they go. 
 
 No. VII. 
 
 THE NATURE AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF THAT 
 WHICH THE MISSIONARY MEETS 
 AND IS TO ACT ON. 
 
 Have you learned, or can you imagine, that state of 
 heathen mind which looks upon all moving things ; sun, 
 moon, stars, clouds, rivers, wind, fire, as living personal- 
 ities with attributes, powers, gender, etc., — Gods, in fact 
 that they ought to stand in mysterious awe of ; or it is that 
 you have never reflected even as much as those old heathen 
 leaders of religious thought on the wondrousuess of the 
 unseen powers of nature and her living developments ? 
 
 The root of the most specious kinds of rationalism is not 
 merely in affirming the sufficiency of reason, but rather 
 in implying, or taking for granted, as reasonable and 
 true, an inherent and necessary opposition between the 
 first principle of all reasoning involved in man’s under- 
 standing and the special and suplementary revelation 
 given in Scripture. Now this being so, take care, brother, 
 
12 
 
 whether, in defending and propagating a rigid and precise 
 Christianity you be not actually guilty of this very kind 
 of reliance on that your faculty to interpret the Divine 
 dealings with man ; the misuse of which faculty is just 
 the very error you charge on your rationalistic friend as 
 his radical fault. There is, we think, quite ample room 
 to shew the incomparable superiority and range of the 
 Eevelation from on High without denying, or feeling that 
 we need to refuse to what man’s rationality has evolved, 
 the recognition that it, too, is, in a sense, and essentially, 
 of God. Man’s knowledge may be positive and correct, 
 though not exhaustive nor perfect ; and open to vitiating 
 influences from sense and earth. 
 
 Don’t be perplexed or startled when you stumble on 
 noble and truly elevating utterances of a heathen, for perhaps 
 you have not realized fully that the Divine Word was 
 teaching mankind before becoming Incarnate ; or you have 
 failed to perceive or experience all that is involved in that 
 fact, and which differentiates Christianity from every other 
 mere system of ethics. 
 
 Do you believe that whatever good impulses and higher 
 qualities still remain in the heathen are the remnants of 
 an original image of perfect a nature, in which, when man 
 was made, it is inconceivable he should not have been made; 
 and, with all their products, to be hailed accordingly as the 
 remnants of a moral, heaven-derived nature, and, in a sense 
 once perfect ? further, do you believe and appreciate that 
 very pregnant word contained in our Scriptures ! — “ That 
 call not thou common nor unclean.” 
 
 We are prone to forget here those parts and allusions of 
 Scripture which in the West we were neither called on to 
 explain nor to account for what is implied in them. But 
 here, in face of philosophy, as old as the time of Abraham, 
 we can’t but think differently of what is said of the tender 
 mercies from the beginning over all, of the Light of man, 
 in the world, yet known not of the world, and still none the 
 less shining in darkness because comprehended not of it. 
 
 Ask of a native religious system is it, in its essence, 
 (not necessarily in its corrupted form), favorable to the 
 principles of natural religion and a pure ethics, and, if it is, 
 as far as it properly goes, it is not unfriendly to revealed 
 truth. The further question whether it is all man needs, 
 or all the Creator designed for the creature, or can em- 
 power man or secure his eternal interest is another and 
 a very different matter, and must be recognized as such. 
 
13 
 
 Can any one deny that the wisdom of Chiuese sages, and 
 the result flowing from them so solidly and incontrover- 
 tibly for ages, are, in a sense, the appointments and decla- 
 ration of the Divine mind, and if so, then, the men, de- 
 clarers of the Divine mind and will ? If so, why rail, 
 instead of learning, and while we pity ? 
 
 You sit down and thoughtfully read and consider some 
 of Confucius’ writings and sayings. You do the same 
 with Lao-tsz’s work. You feel better. You are bene- 
 fited, that is if you come desirous to learn and respect. 
 The feeling clings to you. Can you, brother, stand up 
 and abuse them and take delight in laying stress on their 
 deficiencies 1 Is that our love for man, or can that be a 
 way I’m to show it ? 
 
 I believe it thoroughly correct to say to a native, “ The 
 more I know of your classics and the men who wrote them 
 the more I perceive (1) the good that dwelt so largely in 
 the writers, (2) The wide divergence of the present age from 
 their intention, and (3) the great necessity of special 
 Revelation and aid : this all being so, and presenting, 
 alas, an effeteness and deterioration which I, with you, 
 mourn.” 
 
 As men naturally are practically wicked before they 
 become good, and as the kind of evil men they were, 
 invariably affect the kind of good men they will be, so 
 men’s minds, being in a certain state of culture and imbued 
 with a philosophy before they receive Christianity, it 
 likewise cannot be expected that all that was chronologi- 
 cally first will- not affect the mental and moral change 
 following; rather, into this state of culture, be it what it 
 may, Christianity has always had to enter and begin to 
 initiate the exertion of its transforming power. 
 
 There were Judaistid, Hellenistic, Alexandrian, Antio- 
 chian, and Romish conceptions of Christianity, and the 
 man who thinks he can stamp out Chinese conceptions of 
 it, seems, to the writer, to have something yet to learn. 
 On the ri^lit way to deal with inevitable tendencies it is 
 not the sphere of these remarks to laydown. “What is 
 actually or possibly good in heathendom or Confuciunism 
 let us comprehend ; what is evil and degraded let us wrestle 
 with by proclaiming the good it counterfeits.” 
 
 Those who admit the unity of the canonical Scriptures, 
 but are disposed to question whether Gentile matter may 
 be received for Christian use, endorsed as the mind of God, 
 may, perhaps, have forgotten the bearing on this question 
 
14 
 
 of tlie precedent given in the reception of the Book of Job 
 into the Canon of the Jewish and Christian Church. We 
 know much of it was written only to show error ; but there 
 is, on the other hand, small evidence that the utterances 
 of Job are to be any better described than in his own 
 words, “the Inspiration of The Almighty” speaking “in 
 man” — and in his case, in a just and reverent Gentile. 
 
 “ Assimilation of good” is not to be confounded with 
 “ condoning of error,” nor are the results of these courses 
 to be mistaken either in history or in the present age. 
 
 No. VIII and IX. 
 
 THE RELATION OF CHRISTIAN TRUTH TO 
 NATIVE THOUGHT, FEELING SYSTEMS, 
 RELIGIOUS LEADERS EXISTING 
 CIRCUMSTANCES, AND TO 
 NATIVE CUSTOMS. 
 
 Are our measures of a tendency virtually to denationlize 
 people, or are we seeking to change as little as possible, 
 and only what is clearly incompatible with Christianity ? 
 This is not compromising vital truth ; it is not presenting 
 it in an unnecessarily self-obstructive form. 
 
 Just ask yourself can you deny whether, really and in 
 point of fact, Christianity has not, in a good sense, as well, 
 alas, as in a very bad sense, been adapted to the modern 
 social habits and life of the Teutonic, Latin, and Sclavonic 
 races 1 
 
 The difficulty of foreigners attacking any one mere Chinese 
 custom is shown by this : that of all recognised, unjust, and 
 unnatural inflictions from which females suffer, perhaps 
 none equal the violence done to their natures in native 
 betrothal; and this, all admit, there is no way at present of 
 rectifying ; to say nothing of private slaves. 
 
 All Chinese customs have a reason, and were instituted 
 to serve a purpose. With all their present apparent 
 hollowness and imperfection it is generally admitted that 
 it can be discerned they have served a very great and 
 unique purpose, as the institutions, history, and existence 
 of this people attest. Attachment to custom is, in 
 China, attachment to the principle and bond of social 
 order, i.e., a principle of patriotism, just as appeal to 
 the right and the fair is the proximate ground taken 
 by ordinary people in ordinary matters at home. It 
 
15 
 
 is partly in virtue of this vast unbroken unity of 
 deference paid to custom that the nation continues 
 one. This being so, and it is so ; and moreover, 
 mental transitions being very slow — a process of arduous 
 growth on the one hand aud slow lingering decay on the 
 other — how gently and considerately should non-Christians 
 aud Christians be dealt with while simply declaring the 
 perfect standard of truth to them ; and lmw forbearingly, 
 too, should we regard our slanderers and enemies; and so in- 
 telligently might we pray from our very heart, “ Father 
 forgive them, for they know not what they do.” 
 
 How slow should we be, too, unless where we are per- 
 suaded Cliristain motives have grown into Christian habits 
 strong enough to take the place of conventionality as the 
 controlling principle of conduct, in urging them to lay by 
 quickly what, perhaps, they may as yet feel hardly strong 
 enough to dispense with ? That this is especially so with 
 reference to females, still merged in aud surrounded by a 
 society without a consciousness of nineteen centuries’ 
 growth, and hardly restrained, by iron bands of custom — 
 seems clear on even a superficial glance. 
 
 All know the relation of women to public worship in 
 China as regarded by the State and by Society. This 
 knowledge is at least ground for caution in the matter ; 
 and taken with the remarks above, will snggest some very 
 pregnant thoughts to the careful reader. 
 
 Missionaries are not only destroyers — at least they should 
 be constructors — edifiers in the primary sense of the 
 word. That is, we cannot disregard the void in the native 
 heart created by giving up of even evil customs. They 
 must be healthily supplemented. With reference to 
 heathen customs of evil, false, degrading import, ex- 
 perience has shown that a continued partial retention of 
 such in connexion with Chritianity is a rottenness that in- 
 creasingly eats into those so doing ; i.e., it is then the 
 evidence of an original defect in the conception or ap- 
 prehension of the truth. 
 
 The unavoidable and real question regarding everything 
 desired to be inaugurated, or dispensed with, is, “ How, 
 from a Chinese point of view, does this appear ?” 
 
 Now, often, a few words of conference with an intel- 
 ligent native will suggest modes of becoming all things to 
 all men without one iota of compromise as to the underly- 
 ing and veritable reality of thought. We would say, “ Ee- 
 
16 
 
 move only as much of the custom as embodies, is founded 
 on, and clearly teaches, falsehood ; for custom is necessary 
 to mankind. Follow the example of those who were sent 
 with purified spiritual intuitions and a large measure of 
 common sense to guide the early Church.” They simply 
 secured the believers and their households from snare, evil, 
 and offeudiug of others, and no more. 
 
 What nation has pure customs, if tracked up to their 
 souree ? Isn’t custom actually itself based on a confessed 
 lack and imperfection of man’s nature ? Has the history 
 of Mediaeval Europe and modern Kussia no lesson for us 
 in China? Above all, let us not quickly make Western 
 notion the rule for Oriental propriety, nor in any case do 
 systematic violence to national feeling that might hinder 
 the priceless message that we bear. — e.g., Missionaries, 
 we’ll say, snowballing one another, we understand perfect- 
 ly, and, ourselves, relish, but it is the thing the Chinese 
 hate as the worst of “ bad form.” 
 
 As regards the correct relationship of Christianity and 
 native thought, especially Confucianism, let us see whether 
 a principle can be found for a correct adjustment of that 
 relation. Suppose we lay down such a one as the follow- 
 ing, for use as a kind of touchstone, i.e., “ The proper rela- 
 tion between parties is the pure relation existing between 
 the ideas they respectively embody.” Whatever is the cha- 
 racter of that abstract relation, such should be the character 
 of the real relation recognized and existing between the 
 respective schools. 
 
 Is this relation one of compatibility ? they should be 
 friends. It is one that is of an interdependent and mu- 
 tual character ; they should treat it as such, in fact. Is 
 the relation one that is reeoncileable ? Then reconcile it. 
 
 Now let us bring the Chinese and the Christian ideas 
 into juxtaposition. What one word will express the sum 
 of Confucian thought ? — Suppose we say “ Commonweal ” 
 — and for the Christian we say “ The Spiritual.” Are 
 these two things in a relation of opposition or contradic- 
 tion ? In no sense. But it seems that some who under- 
 stood neither the one nor the other properly, thought, 
 because both ideas had developments, forms, and minor 
 points vastly dissimilar, that therefore there was a funda- 
 mental and irreconcileable contrariety between them ; while 
 others have imagined that because there were many 
 points in both similar, therefore both were of the same 
 
17 
 
 identical origin, i.e., alike human, and so, on both sides 
 others have kept on saying and propagating what 
 somebody first drifted into. But these things are not so. 
 The two schools (if I may use the expression) have aims 
 terminating differently, and no defect in the one can there- 
 fore be rightly charged upon it by the other ; no more than 
 political economists can afford to dispense with or cry 
 down diplomatists who have a range of activity beyond 
 them, though closely connected with them. 
 
 So it is with us, and the remedy is simply to under- 
 stand the matter and then cheerfully admit it. Such an 
 ingenuous course, so thoroughly accordant with the rea- 
 lity as it exists, is the safest, truest, and most natural way 
 ta procure for our aims and our sphere the recognition 
 which ingenuousness and truth never fail to command 
 among civilised people. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to add that that the above remarks 
 apply to pure Confucianism and pure fundamental Chris- 
 tianity, and not what has been on either side put forward 
 as such. 
 
 No. X. 
 
 POSSIBLE POINTS OF CONTACT BETWEEN 
 CHRISTIANITY AND NATIVE THOUGHT 
 AND RELIGIONS. 
 
 That there is a government of the universe. 
 
 That that government is a moral government. 
 
 That their Pantheistic conception of Nature leaves ground 
 at least for the idea of an omnipresent Creator. 
 
 An acknowledged conviction of demerit and sense of 
 the need of expiation and reconciliation. 
 
 The idea of the family, and all family relations, as the 
 root and type of a perfect society. 
 
 The stress laid on conjugal fidelity and duty. 
 
 The ruling power in the State holding authority as a 
 trust from on High. 
 
 That wise and holy men are Heaven-sent. 
 
 The acknowledgment of faculties, longings, and states 
 of heart, with an accompanying phraseology, confessedly 
 dealing with the Unseen, and taking it for granted. 
 
 The sense and obligation of gratitude to the supernatural 
 and unseen powers finding expression in rites, and thank- 
 offerings. 
 
18 
 
 The acknowledgment that self-denial and reflectiveness 
 are indispensable requisites to the superior man. 
 
 Feng-sliui has for its radical principle that Nature has 
 an Author and Tnspirer, and that the physical affects man’s 
 spiritual constitution and destiny. Is there not a common 
 ground here ? 
 
 Ancestral worship, the institution of China, is plainly 
 inconsistent with any but the belief in an after life and 
 reunion in another world. Isaiah’s writings, viii — 19 may 
 possibly indicate and suggest how cognate it is to some 
 Jewish notions. 
 
 The idea of mediation between the Infinite and the 
 finite. 
 
 No. XI. 
 
 SOME PEINCIPLES OF INTEECOUSE WITH 
 THE CHINESE. 
 
 As an instance of how cautious we should be in treating 
 Chinese according to naked Western ideas of justice and 
 propriety, an iustance may be mentioned of a prefectural 
 district in which no good literary man will hire to 
 foreigners, simply because of their never having recognised 
 native ideas on the regulation of intercourse between man 
 and man. 
 
 There is further to be borne in mind that we are here 
 first of all as conciliators, our message being nothing if not 
 distinctively conciliative, and thus, no wonder, since we 
 stand on grounds of right, they have not only failed to 
 perceive a distinctive tone in our lives, but even the foreigner 
 seems to have forgotten that it is by resignation of rights 
 that Christianity wins men, and in spite of all the selfish- 
 ness, power, and brutality that stand face to face with it. 
 It dares to do otherwise than be just to itself, and in dar- 
 ing, wins. 
 
 In the above paragraph the writer notes that he has 
 himself used the expression, “ treat the Chinese.” Now 
 that implies an habitual underlying consciousness that 
 needs only to be held up to view in order to be recognized. 
 No, if we could be genuine “winners” of men we must 
 harbour no such notions in our inmost hearts. Fancy the 
 expression, “ Christ treated his disciples this way and that 
 way.” Father “ I am among you as he that servetli.” 
 Brother, does our mode of life militate against that ? In 
 
19 
 
 so far as it does, it is wroug. I just ask what have you 
 thought when you have seen the native brethren taking their 
 shoes off as they entered a foreign missionary’s parlor. 
 Which, think you, should be uppermost in our minds as 
 important — the Communion of Saints, or the cleanness 
 of the carpet ? 
 
 The above may sound a little extreme, but it is to be 
 borne in mind that courses, which are quite unnecessary 
 where Christianity is long and firmly established, and 
 courses which are perfectly admissable, become, under other 
 circumstances, the one imperative, and the other totally 
 inadmissable. The natural states of childhood and maturity, 
 peace and war, etc., etc., present just the same difference 
 here claimed for Christianity in its present stages of 
 growth. 
 
 Another way of expressing it, and in which it presents 
 itself sometimes, is this : — 
 
 Since the Divine Will is to win people by attracting 
 them, we must never be repellant, nor, for any crotchets’ 
 sake, traverse the Divine intention. 
 
 Missionary intercourse is summed up in one word, 
 “Lead” men, that is, “lead” is that point where, cir- 
 cumstanced as we are, we are most likely to fail. 
 
 Don’t forget above all things that contact with the spirits 
 of men differs from iutellectual contact. There is as much 
 difference in kind as between mechanical and magnetic 
 force, between the language of a look and of a word. We 
 come to him not as man to man, but to deal with him as 
 a spiritual being, in other than terrestrial relations to the 
 God of the spirits of all flesh. 
 
 i 
 
 No. XII. 
 
 SOME HINDRANCES. 
 
 The spread of Christianity in China is regarded by the 
 Chiuese in about some such light for example as we regard 
 Socialism in America and Europe. 
 
 Therefore, from their point of view, it is genuine patriot- 
 ism to oppose it. 
 
 Isn’t that one thought suggestive of several more ? Con- 
 ceive the augui-di of such men at being compelled to 
 tolerate it and us in their streets. What does that suggest 
 to you ? 
 
20 
 
 I here subjoin a short epitome of the conceptions of 
 Christianity as generally current among the half-informed 
 classes. They arose regarding Boman Catholicism, unfor- 
 tunately, hut are t gonerally applied to all Western reli- 
 gionists. 
 
 That we confuse and have no suitable apprehensions of 
 the natural relations, and utterly do away with all truth. 
 
 That our religion originated with Jesus. 
 
 That the “ Tai Ping ” rebellion is chargeable to our 
 doctrine. 
 
 That we are unnaturally licentious. 
 
 That we deny them to have had teachers of wisdom from 
 Heaven. 
 
 That we localise God as the God of the Jews only. 
 
 That if you honor Jesus, you’ll go to heaven ; if you 
 don’t you won’t; whereas according to native religions 
 there must he change of life ; to say that he who honors 
 Jesus is a holy man and he who does not honor him is a 
 sinner, may he well enough. But suppose those who 
 honor him are wicked men and those who do not honor 
 him are virtuous men, would not this entirely invert 
 rewards and punishments ? The above is from the 
 ‘Pi-sieh-lu, and, at least is instructive to us in the 
 highest degree, as a lesson on what views we give cur- 
 rency to regarding “ the proportion of the faith ” we hold. 
 
 That we changed God’s name and deny Heaven, deny 
 the sages, deny parents and, ancestors, and by celibacy, 
 deny the conjugal relation and the common principles of 
 humanity. 
 
 That we have vagabonds guilty of death-deserving 
 crimes crowded in among us. 
 
 That we oppose and restrain the course of magisterial 
 justice. 
 
 That our ceremonies don’t deserve the name. Some 
 apology is made for quoting so freely from the ‘Pi-sieh-lu, 
 hut it seemed necessary to present these remarks afresh, 
 and in a fiesh connexion, for manifold reasons. 
 
 Next comes another kind of hindrance, viz : — converts 
 and followers are often “ converted ” into being a kind of 
 Christrian hornet — or theological scorpion — and in this 
 there is a genuine difficulty, and one rightly chargeable 
 to us. In short, we make one convert, and we do it in a 
 way to repel a thousand others — the man proves himself 
 a continual centre for the emission of repellant influences. 
 
21 
 
 Lastly, every foot of silk a native pastor or his family 
 buys and wears — with work in its present stage — becomes 
 either a hindrance, an anomaly, or an entanglement. 
 
 No. XIII. 
 
 SOME PRINCIPLES ON WHICH ERROR AND 
 DARKNESS ARE TO EE MET. 
 
 Much opposition proceeds from a defective, partial, neg- 
 ligent or erroneous apprehension of Christianity ; efforts 
 therefore must be made to show it in its right light, and 
 not only so, but that it perfectly fulfils the Chinese national 
 conception of right, and is not really hostile to the ends of 
 Confucianism. 
 
 We all know the attitude of the Chinese literary mind 
 towards foreigners. The question is, if there be this oppo- 
 sition that manifests itself as a primary symptom, pulling 
 back those who are ready to believe, or have already to 
 some extent, then, in our work, how far will we intelli- 
 gently address ourselves to this evil, or do so at all ? i.e., 
 how far will we ignore what we know? how far will we 
 prepare to treat symptoms or causes ? 
 
 How much might be expected in the long run from the 
 steady propagation of immutable and incontrovertible truths 
 and principles quietly and impliedly destructive or solvent 
 of error and false confidence. 
 
 Nothingcau seem more silly than the endeavour to pursue 
 any plan in the propagation of Christianity among a people 
 such as this, which simply goes to absolutely ignore their 
 character, institutions, faiths, and prepossessions. 
 
 Who of us, goiug to help a poor neighbour to build a 
 « new house, would first proceed to burn his old tenement 
 and leave him shelterless in the interim ? 
 
 All opposition comes of ignorance or emotional dislike, 
 as causes; ergo, use information adapted to correct the 
 ignorance and use Christian love and works to remove the 
 dislike. 
 
 One of the clearest living thinkers in the West, on hav- 
 ing the problem of Chinese missions put before him, said 
 “ The notion of man and life in the Far East seems very 
 hard to get into vital rapport with Christianity. It is to 
 be done no doubt, but more through, life than thought in the 
 present condition of Eastern Society, I expect.” 
 
22 
 
 “ lie ■who teaches men the principles and precepts of 
 spiritual wisdom, before their minds are called off from 
 foreign objects and turned inward upon themselves, might 
 as well write his instructions, as the Sybil wrote her 
 prophecies, on loose leaves of trees and commit them to 
 the mercies of the inconstant winds.” — Abp. Leighton. 
 
 Of what form must the message be, is the question ? 
 One answer — negative — is, “ It' it sets at nought, or is 
 permitted by the preacher to seem to set at nought, the 
 first conditions of man’s original faith, nay, of his very 
 existence ; this, then, man feels certain cannot be from 
 God. Only that which assumes and takes this as its 
 eternal foundation, (and Christianity rightly preached does 
 this) and which deepens and expands them, so that the 
 facts of human liffe, which seem least in accordance with 
 them shall he shown * to rest on them, only that will 
 carry the Divine impress which the Reason, and the Con- 
 science it awakens, will recognize aud receive.” 
 
 Since the Chinese have by reason of want of use become 
 almost completely spiritually hliul, virtually dead to the 
 fact of their spiritual relation to God, so nothing can be 
 of greater importance than to take such measures as have 
 in them tendencies, direct or indirect, to beget this lost 
 knowledge as a first step. 
 
 My own feeling, writes a celebrated missionary, is that 
 we should teach positive truth, the piain message of 
 Christianity, not attacking prejudices. Conviction will 
 cast out old habits. All error is a perversion of truth and 
 has its existence negatively only as being a negation of 
 truth. But inasmuch, as man’s nature, though damaged, 
 is not wholly ruined by the fall therefore, it is still not 
 only possible for him to recognize truth, hut more natural 
 to him to follow truth than error; i.e., more correspondent 
 to his true nature, and I believe the right thing is to ad- 
 dress oneself to the faculty in man which is constructed 
 to apprehend and will recognise truth from its caricature 
 error, and finally expel it. 
 
 The above quotation is somewhat abridged and modified, 
 hut is the sense of the passage. 
 
 Such things as fasting, abstinence, and herb eating 
 occupy in China an undoubted place. They do also in the 
 Christianity of many. The controversy of this and such 
 
 * Note the concluding remark of No. 8 and 9. 
 
23 
 
 like matters seems thus to be perfectly gratuitous, if not 
 positively wrong, and, most generally. Jamaging. Above 
 ail question it indicates a wrong conception of the true 
 method of approach. 
 
 To set men vpon asking, seeking, knocking, is a wisdom 
 always anterior to exposing oneself to the being turned 
 upon by them in their swiueishness when they, seeing, yet 
 see not, the pearly treasure of Truth. 
 
 Are the leaves of the great tree of heathoudom to be 
 pulled off or let fall off ? 
 
 Be instant in season — when you have a good opportunity 
 evuatfHx — and when you are mthout it anaipu >? — does 
 not however mean be instaut when the time is decidedly 
 inopportune, damaging, and bad, and is shewn by expe- 
 rience to he so. 
 
 Nos. XIY and XY. 
 
 SOME MODES OF OPENING WORK, AND 
 CONDITIONS OF SUCCESS. 
 
 The Chinese must be convinced we are ahead of them. 
 To make out and evidence this superiority in intellectual 
 matters is good ; but to manifest Moral, Spiritual superi- 
 ority, that is the pre-eminent requisite, and no other way 
 is there to this having of a name highly exalted than by 
 our first taking upon us the form of servants. 
 
 Here are a few requisites in a Missionary, that we can't 
 see our way to compromise, no matter what the con- 
 sequences. 
 
 Of good report for virtue and beneficence. 
 
 Active manifestions of Christian love to man. 
 
 Unselfishness in his work, and devotion to it. 
 
 Dependence on and devotion to the spiritual in his work, 
 as distinguished from the mechanical. 
 
 Appreciation of the state of matters he copes with — the 
 people’s conceptions, beliefs, and practices. 
 
 Interpretative observation of his own and others’ errors. 
 
 There must be the manifestation in our work of spiritual 
 certainty and power, as well as of loving activity. 
 
 Will any one be disposed to dissent from the proposition 
 that all missionaries are bound by the singularity of their 
 position and circumstances to live as simply and natively as 
 their constitutions warraut them in, and nothing to be used 
 
24 
 
 nor displayed for it own sake, whether given to him or 
 otherwise obtained. 
 
 “It must be manifest to others that our convictions are 
 stronger then theirs, and that we have faith in unseen 
 realities, that are to them mere shadows. It must be 
 manifest we are witnesses for the Real and the Divine.” 
 
 To be isolated and feel no sympathy in others is a certain 
 way to excite no sympathy in others, and sympathy either 
 dies, or lives by acting. 
 
 As bearers of a message of good will and peace, its seems 
 inconceivable that such a message can rightly be pronmlagated 
 except under congruous conditions. Recollecting, therefore, 
 that we go among the Chinese, as suspected, if not hated, 
 it would seem that one of the first things to be gained was 
 the good mil and confidence of the well-disposed. "We are 
 among those who believe that in order to do this — nothing 
 is so effective as the law and principle of Christ of giving 
 no offence, always burden bearing, and manifesting such 
 conduct and other attitudes as are, consistent with this spirit 
 — a way far more efficacious than the roughshed introduc- 
 tion of the law of Western nations in treating people. 
 
 The Confucian by no means seems the man in Chiua 
 nearest to the Kingdom of Heaven, be he ever so perfect. 
 That is obvious, and the reason is obvious. 
 
 But there are to be met with secluded and yearning 
 religionists who know what it is to hold a sense of devotion 
 to the Unseen, and give it form and expression at the peril 
 of their lives — lost sheep — seekers after the Being whom 
 they ignorantly strive to worship and serve, if haply they 
 might feel after and find Ilim — men whose poetry bears a 
 relation to Christian sentiment as close and pertinent as 
 did the allusions of Cleanthes or Aratus. 
 
 “Sowing” and “fishing" are expressive of modes of 
 Christian work not to be forgotten. 
 
 The answer to the Missionary problem would seem to 
 run thus : “ At suitable centres plant missions on self 
 propagative principles, and of such vitality as to repeat and 
 multiply themselves infinitely ; be self- regulative, and embody 
 no primciple injurious to or destructive of these conditions.” 
 
 Experience to the front ; raw men at the rear. 
 
 Open up no greater amount of work than you have 
 good instrumentality and power to follow up. Continuity, 
 conservation, extension, are three distinct conditions of a 
 healthy mission work. 
 
2d 
 
 Xo amount of aquaiutance with the principles of work, 
 however corrreet, will do away with the necessity of our 
 mixing socially with people, whether heathens, inquirers, 
 or Christians, in order to know their motives, how they 
 view matters, and thus become throughly conversant and 
 familiar with them. 
 
 True missionary unity, is unity of principles, not unity 
 of organization. 
 
 It is sometimes necessary to distinguish ourselves politically 
 from the Church of Borne, but this does not make it necessary 
 to show our Christian faith by abusing them, or laying 
 stress on doctrinal distinction. 
 
 Have a very definite idea of all you aim to accomplish, but 
 this is quite consistent with only a very general idea as to 
 the means. Aim, then, for your gaol by the means which 
 seem, as you go, the best, but, not necessarily your fixed 
 theory. 
 
 We conceive the following points to be very important 
 in Missionary work. 
 
 Clearly discriminate the good that is among the heathen 
 and utilize it 
 
 From the first imbue them, not with the idea that every 
 hearer is to be a preacher — an often hard way of putting it 
 — but grave in their hearts the facts, whieh apprehended, 
 beget the desire of communicating good to others. 
 
 Originate for them, or adapt — i.e., provide after a native 
 fashion — such simple customs and plans as will he channels 
 for the spread of truth. 
 
 Educate Churches — societies — to do their own work. 
 
 Lead them to devise and support, instead of idolatry, 
 and with similar methods of giving, missionary boards for 
 non-local work under native management. 
 
 Distinguish clearly between the inauguration of the new, 
 and the entraining and diversion of the existing. 
 
 Have an abiding conviction that “ the good ” and “ the 
 do ” are in your people — for they are the work of God’s 
 hands. 
 
 Trust and honor the Xative leader. Don’t tempt him. 
 If you do select and send out the best to the front as 
 teachers, it certainly has this indispensable advantage — it 
 gives the next most promising a chance to grow. 
 
 Hold and state that man are brought into a state of re- 
 demption from evil and sin for this purpose — that they 
 may work to deliver others from the same. 
 
26 
 
 No. XVI. 
 
 LITERATURE, TRANSLATING. 
 
 Missionary literature falls into some such classification 
 as this. That which 
 
 Informs and conciliates the ignorant — thaws prejudice. 
 
 Silences the semi-hostile. 
 
 Convinces the rational, and 
 
 Satisfies those with the moral and religious instincts 
 naturally predominant. 
 
 And why does it so class itself ? Because society is made 
 up of such classes of people — and any movement to deal 
 with the Chinese as they are, which says it will neglect to 
 recognize Society as an organic whole, aud therefore deals 
 partially with it, will end, in unuecessarily bringing trouble 
 upon itself and its followers, and by neglecting, will raise 
 up endless troublous results. 
 
 It is reluctantly that I write the following words, and it 
 were an insult were it not that the existence of an immense 
 amount of translated literature proves the necessity of the 
 remark — viz: Translate ideas not works— the spirit, not 
 
 the letter — the reality not the word-form. 
 
 How amusing it must be to cultured natives to see the 
 theories that well-meaning but shallow foreigners — i-e., 
 shallow as regards the vastness and depth of much in 
 Chinese literature — seek either to educe from or put into 
 their writings. Imagine the critiques which the converse 
 course would draw from Western reviewers. 
 
 Has it ever struck you how much there is of an unsuit- 
 ability in e.g. Mr. Sankey’s hymns for many of the occasions 
 on which we Westerns use them ; but how much more is 
 that intensified when promiscuously sung by Chinese, and 
 however accommodated by the gifted translators. The 
 same thing may be said, not of the matter, but of the from, 
 &c., for instance, of the Epistle to the Romans. How 
 irrelevant for years and years that must all seem to a 
 Chinese! i.e., we don’t blame the apostle or the Chinese, 
 but those who wont draw out and adapt that which is 
 universally and eternally true, to the comparative neglect 
 of the temporary and local. 
 
 Let there be a deep religious tone in all our books, and 
 a reverential handling of the matter in hand. We mustn’t, 
 in religious books, give a secular coloring or mere intel- 
 lectual conception of the way of God. 
 
27 
 
 In the majority of the cases of natives who bought books 
 without explanation (notably portions of Scripture), they 
 will tell you afterwards that they had no definite conception 
 what these books related to. Why ? Because the writer 
 or salesman presumed on a substratum of knowledge only 
 found in the west, or did not begin at points already re- 
 cognized as true by the native. 
 
 It seems to us absurd to use what only the possessors 
 of modern science in the West know to prove doctrine to 
 those who never heard of these tilings. 
 
 In writing, at a rough blow, as it were, to level what the 
 Chinese must be excused for cherishing, seems to be an 
 extreme form of opposition to the order of things permitted 
 in the world, and is a certain violation of the laws which 
 are known to regulate the reception of truth or giving up 
 of error, according as the process is accompanied with the 
 painful or not. 
 
 A Chinese remarked to the writer some time ago a3 
 follows : “ I am acquainted with most of the best books 
 published by the western missionaries, and there seems to 
 be one mode of appealing to us native people which they 
 have never adopted. It is this : they have not searched 
 among the writers of our most distinguished literary period 
 in modern times, for the proof there so abundantly to be 
 had of a party who clearly saw and faithfully witnessed to 
 a declension and warping of the ancient principles and 
 ceremonies.” Now, continued my friend, “ once granted de- 
 clension — once granted that the present is not what it ought 
 to be or is mentioned to have been — once secure and popu- 
 larize this conviction, without controversy, and by native, 
 though generally inaccessible, means — and you prepare the 
 way for — the loosening of the entire superstructure that has 
 been added to, and has degraded, pure original Con- 
 fucianism.” 
 
 Nos. XVII and XVIII. 
 
 COLPORTEURS, EVANGELISTS, AND PASTORS, 
 THE SINEWS OF WAR, THE USE OF THE 
 MONEY. 
 
 Paying foreign money, or giving any equivalent for the 
 preaching of the Gospel within the range of native (church) 
 action, seems to be the way of procuring the extension of 
 
28 
 
 the truth most surely tending to attract the worst people 
 to it. 
 
 The idea of “ nett proceeds ” out of the preaching of 
 the Truth from Heaven, seems to need only this statement 
 of it to ensure how it shall be judged of. 
 
 Use foreign money for what it was given — to plant; 
 and once planted, use no more. 
 
 China can never be evangelized but by fearlessly telling 
 the enquirer from the very beginning it is his duty, not 
 only to spread the truth, but to support (such) teachers in 
 such a way as his spiritual instincts and appetites in their 
 now state of development dictate to him he should, and 
 that the obligations of such teachers, especially in such 
 circumstances as now, are to all men, and not merely to 
 his supporters. 
 
 Well wrote a brother missionary: — “Lift the whole 
 question of remuneration from duty and pay, on which it 
 has been placed by us foreigners, to love of God and pity 
 to man.” 
 
 Can it be possible that the people who have been 
 brought from darkness to light will refuse to help their 
 rescuer to save others ? 
 
 As this country supports Taoist and Buddhist priests, 
 such is the style in which we may reasonably expect it to 
 support Christian teachers. 
 
 Demands for pecuniary help on missionaries must be 
 met by the principle that they should help us. 
 
 Not to live on native Christians, is to live on foreign 
 Christians. 
 
 That the scholar should support the teacher is a principle 
 well understood in China. That those who experience 
 benefit should help to confer it, is a principle written in 
 man’s heart by the finger of God. 
 
 Whatever ends in being a financial success with a native, 
 may always be reasonably suspected as to its genuineness, 
 unless long experience shows the contrary, and as to what 
 is or is not a financial stroke, natives are the only judges ; 
 foreigners, in such matter, being reputed to wear leather 
 instead of glass spectacles when looking into such matters. 
 
 All the foreigner can (or perhaps ought to) give, is truth 
 and direction. The rest, natives should find. The force 
 is heaven-sent, not cash-created. 
 
 If you give away books (and we feel it is generally best, at * 
 first, to do so), in the second instance, do so, most assuredly 
 
29 
 
 only on evidence that they are used or learned, and sub- 
 sequently only in proportion as the use and effect of the 
 books is manifested by zeal. 
 
 One writing from India says, “ Remembering what was 
 done by heathens for the maintenence of the service of the 
 gods, I instituted the following custom : — Every morning 
 and evening when setting aside the rice for the family meals, 
 a handful is set aside for the service of God. At the end 
 of the month the rice is collected from the different fami- 
 lies and the proceeds go in support of the preachers above- 
 mentioned. Our people have also learned to give a part 
 of their first crop as first fruits for the service of God. I 
 have by these means succeeded to a great extent iu de- 
 veloping in our people a spirit of generosity.” 
 
 No. XIX. 
 
 SOME GENERAL PRINCIPLES, CONDITIONS, AND 
 MODES OF CLEARING UP AND DIFFUSING 
 POSITIVE TRUTH, AND PROMOTING 
 TRUE RELIGION. 
 
 Is there nothing to be gained by our representing our- 
 selves to be what we really are (though more), viz., the 
 aimers after and fulfillers of that end which Chinese 
 philosophers longed for — as including, in fact, the idea of 
 the true restoration of the ruin into which matters here, 
 for obvious reasons, have virtually fallen and which 
 restoration they so vainly, though so nobly, strove after, 
 in the sole use of the means laid down of old ? Must we 
 missionaries be theological privateers, sailing under Western 
 colours with a general commission “ to sink, burn, and 
 destroy” all we meet; or can we not intelligently include, 
 adopt, and become penetrated with the great desire of the 
 good men of old in China in a far higher sense, and make 
 it evident that we, in seeking a kingdom which cannot bo 
 moved, of all other ways choose that the most effectual and 
 fundamentally germane to the personal, social, and political 
 object in view with their philosophers from the beginning 1 
 One aspect of the question is, did the first messengers of 
 Christianity take for points of departure, in speaking to 
 their audieuces, what they all had iu common up to certain 
 points, and from that proceed to evolve or lead up to those 
 points which they in addition witnessed ; did they tumble 
 
30 
 
 out Christian doctrines before Jews and Gentiles in an 
 orderless, untimely manner, or are there direct indications 
 of the contrary in the records of their practices and writ- 
 ings. 
 
 Christianity must be presented from those sides, by such 
 avenues, and in such form as will solve the perplexities and 
 allay the fears of the human mind ; and not by the bald 
 affirmation of truths, nor mere imposition of new require- 
 ments which stagger; much less in shapes, or having accom- 
 paniments, that will coalesce with scarcely any conditions 
 of the people to whom it is proclaimed. 
 
 What is required is, to make the change from heathen- 
 dom, darkness and spiritual death to the way of truth 
 and light and life, radical and essential; but in doing so, not 
 unnecessarily difficult ; i.e., we must neither combat so as 
 to repel, propound so as to offend, nor impose so as to 
 burden. Now the fact is that essential , fundamental truth 
 has less of such tendencies thau the distinctive and anti- 
 thetic features of modern Christianity badly brought, as they 
 are now, to the foreground in the very beginning. 
 
 The founder of Christianity during his ministry very 
 frequently said, “ Many are called, but few are chosen.” 
 The great Teacher who used the parables to such 
 effect knew well the extent to which the working of 
 heavenly and moral forces was modified by humanity as 
 it is. Yes, the choice ones are few, but they must be 
 sought. Affect them, and they will affect others better 
 than you can. This is fishing for men ; i.e., searching for 
 and dealing with those whose moral and religious tenor is 
 much of your own pitch, and yet sufficiently near others of 
 their countrymen to bridge the gulf between you and the 
 next class beyond. Any plan of missionary work that 
 neglects this feature, neglects also the utterances of Divine 
 Wisdom, its particular, i.e., its finer and minute teachings, 
 to say nothing of the violence done to reason, nature, and 
 experience. 
 
 Don’t say the Chinese don’t like the Gospel. True, the 
 evil nowhere like it, and the good have a difficulty in liking 
 it even at home when they hear it handled in a silly way ; 
 but find the right man, handle your subject in the right 
 way, lay down the great aim of all moral teaching and all 
 government, give him first what he can lay hold of — right 
 unfoldings of the goodness of God in Nature ; this brings 
 him to feel his obligations more or less; that is, in other 
 
31 
 
 words, bis sin, his debt, bis ingratitude, his recognition of 
 the obligation involved in the relation to a superior being. 
 Next lay hold on his conscience as to his moral state, and not 
 till then, and perhaps only then after much time and by an 
 inch by inch progress, can he understand what you mean by 
 the worth of Redemption. Not that indeed spiritual forces 
 invariably act in every person and time alike. This is 
 only intended to apply on the whole. But reverse these 
 steps, and what on the whole do you find: why, instead of 
 a patient and hopeful learner, you meet for the most part 
 an incredulous and restless scoffer, and that, most pro- 
 bably, made so by mismanagement. 
 
 Some say, “Take the law first to him;” others say 
 “ Take the gospel first to him.” The latter seems right. 
 Glad tidings are what create true religious feeling of regard 
 and obligation, but then let him begin with the Alpha of 
 the gospel — not the Omega. Go hack to his standpoint ; 
 don’t talk back from yours. 
 
 Speaking of glad-tidings brings up this remark. The 
 Gospel truly is such, but there is a difference in different 
 people’s apprehensions of what are to them good tidings — e.g. 
 to a hungry child and to a drowning man. Therefore, as 
 regards the peculiar feature of evangelical truth, it has 
 first to be asked what is that which is a real evangel to a 
 Chinese now and his present condition as he sees it, or as 
 you have brought him to see it. Now this all takes con- 
 sideration and adjustment, for we don’t so keenly appre- 
 ciate what they do, nor do they understand, or under- 
 standing, dwell on, the features we love. It is the power 
 and wisdom of Ged for all. That, we know ; only let us 
 rightly divide the word of truth so that we give the native 
 what he needs and longs for, not merely what we need for 
 ourselves, and may be above, or unprofitable for, him. 
 The spiritual healing of the nations is not to be accom- 
 plished iu any less discreet and discriminating manner 
 than is the physical work done in the dispensary and 
 hospital ward. 
 
 No. XX. 
 
 SOME PRINCIPLES AND MODES OF PRESENTING 
 TEACHING AND APPLYING TRUTH. 
 
 The Founder of Chi’istianity also spoke parables that 
 expecially concerned missionaries of his truth. Such were 
 
these regarding the Mustard Seed, the Leaven, the Tares, 
 New Cloth and Old Garment, Sower, Net, Seed growing 
 secretly. Consider these taken all together, and what a 
 flood of light they throw on this head. 
 
 Don’t let the phrase “antagonism to error” betray you 
 into any striving controversy that shall he out of harmony 
 with “the wisdom which coueth down from above.” In 
 a word, encourage nothing that is combative, and because 
 combative, repellant in form. 
 
 Truth has a growth, and a slow growth in the mind. 
 The perceiving and assimilating powers of human mind are 
 limited. There is such a thing as mental choking — mental 
 indigestion from overloading. Moreover, the mind receives 
 and accepts more easily and naturally those things which 
 indirectly reach it than those which are dogmatically pro- 
 pounded to it previous to its decision. Hence, by gradation 
 in the development of knowledge, ascent many be made, 
 and a high position attained, which bluffly occurring in 
 the path, would be insurmountable. 
 
 Get people to believe one thing and they will soon believe 
 evverything ; therefore we would say, with all their getting 
 get them to first accept one or few things. If they stumble 
 at the first thing you say, or at matter, the connection of 
 which with what they admit remains unperceived, the 
 chances are they’ll object right away to the whole line that 
 follows. 
 
 Seek to discern the indications th it the varied surface of 
 humanity presents as to where and how to work. We 
 enter not into the cause here. It is what an apostle 
 calls “ asuredly gathering that he was called to preach," &c., 
 &c. 
 
 Never close the avenues to man’s sympathies by cynical 
 abuse of his practices — never ridicule them — never even 
 smile at them. 
 
 The unanswerableness of appeals to the analogy of nature 
 in replying to all objections brought forward by Chinese 
 believing in ^ cannot be overrated. 
 
 That the Apostle Paul labored mostly in cities and large 
 centres is only saying that he labored on 11 prepared 
 ground,” i.e . , at points where commerce had attracted 
 numbers of Jews and proselytes — the strangers of the dis- 
 persion. 
 
 Concentrate your time on the matter and spirit of your 
 message — not on its accessories. 
 
33 
 
 Present the truth in the right order, of the right kind, 
 and in the right proportions — not so as to appear to others 
 as a caricature. 
 
 The teaching of Scripture, or of the men who spake as 
 they were moved, and of whose words, &c., that Scripture 
 is the record, is progressive, yet never in any early stage or 
 age compromising truth. Neither does it ignore the state 
 — so often the unreceptive state — of those hearers to whom 
 it was first addressed, but always in a manner adapted to 
 rude unspiritual natures and to indolent unthinking and 
 vacant minds. 
 
 Never stand up to address Christians or Heathens, except 
 in a spirit reflective of and beaming with the all-compre- 
 hensive and everexisting Love of God in Christ Jesus. 
 Everything will go right when that possesses the soul and 
 is seen in the expression, moulds the attitude, and fills the 
 words. 
 
 Has the question ever presented itself to you, “ Do I 
 understand — appreciate — that which constitutes the dis- 
 tinctive and essential kind of humanity found in China — 
 do I honour it in itself — do I sympathise heartily with it 
 as one of the great products that has come from the Divine 
 Hand ? ” 
 
 Reconciliation to the truth is a process, in which there 
 is a growth of certain elements and a withering of certain 
 elements. 
 
 The Scriptures are a treasury to which we are to lead 
 and point them, as they feel need of more Divine Teaching, 
 i.e., as if to find what they were in search of. That is, 
 this course is to he distinguished from a trying to take, 
 and irrespective of their desire to search, put all the con- 
 tents, relative and irrelative, wanted or not cared for, 
 before them, and into them. 
 
 It was once said by an afterwards great teacher of 
 heathen regarding an obscure congregation in a village in a 
 Christian country, “ To cram positive teaching down their 
 throats upon the authority of the Church or before they know 
 what the Church is, or feel the need of any power outside 
 their own minds to guide them, does seems to me, in a 
 place like this, suicidal.” How much more would he after- 
 wards have written that of his heathen converts. 
 
 “ There is one way of giving freshness and importance,” 
 says Abp. Leighton, “ to the most commonplace truths, 
 that of making men reflect on them in direct reference 
 
34 
 
 to their own state and conduct, to their own past and 
 future being.” 
 
 “ Education consists in teaching people to bear respon- 
 sibilities and laying the responsibility on them as they are 
 able to bear them.” But that takes a fearless confidence 
 in the power of Truth no less than a prudent circumspec- 
 tion in applying this principle. 
 
 The gospel possessess not only a suitableness and fitness 
 for mankind, but also an adaptability to mankind. 
 
 The present mode of preaching to the Chinese and 
 Hindus seems to me like a mother giving crude and 
 husky ears of corn to her babe, and saying, “ Take it or 
 leave it — live on it or die by it,” as it could — i.e., disregard 
 of nature and neither careful study of wants nor adapta- 
 tion. 
 
 Or it may bo compared to feeding dogs with jellies and 
 blancmanges. The dog would rather have the original 
 bones out of which this highly finished jelly has been 
 made and without the sherry and flavors. Yes ; the 
 Christianity current in China now is just the same as it is 
 met with in the West, only translated in toChinese characters, 
 and we, all the time, suppose we have done all we can, or 
 ought to do, and have done it in the right kind of way to 
 win the soul to God. Far, far, from this is the idea of 
 bringing the thought of God to the longings of the heart 
 as found here, and in channels and forms, along and 
 with which they look for all that is the gift and message 
 of High Heaven. Surely, as nearly as possible, to wh at 
 they regard as the sacred way of sacred truth should we 
 bring it to them, for certainly in such way it came to us. 
 
 Are there not among us those who, denouncing “ forms,” 
 are yet teaching and doing that which has a tendency to 
 produce (or impose), as it were, “ formations,” in, or by 
 which, the learner becomes imbedded, and goes no further. 
 
 How very imperfect and shallow it must sound to a really 
 thoughtful Chinese, to hear for the sum and chief point of 
 our religion that “Jesus can pardon sins." Can you not 
 feel that? Put yourself in his place, and 6ee. These lines 
 are written from such a standpoint, and in no 6ense intended 
 to derogate for a moment that great truth of the Jewish 
 Christian Church. 
 
 That western preachifying is inferior to catechising, as a 
 means of edification, seems beyond all question, and, carried 
 
35 
 
 to extreme, it unquestionably obscures the essential idea of 
 worship, and virtually hinders edification. 
 
 Teach by the actual and the concrete — as your Master, 
 not by Technical Definition. This latter is Western 
 altogether, and in Christianity, modern. 
 
 Too much stress could not be laid on the necessity of 
 using, as prime accessories of teaching. Simile, Parable, 
 Narrative, Dilemma and Catechising. Continued question and 
 instruction. Instruction and subsequent questioning of the 
 neophytes at every service is indispensable in the case of 
 the lower classes, especially just in the reception of truth. 
 
 We must consider the qualifications of Native teachers 
 with a reference to what they have to do, and also with re- 
 fered to what we emphatically do not want them to do. 
 They have to teach and examplify the Christian religion 
 forcibly yet simply. They have not to engage the thoughts 
 and energies of their people on theological refinements fit 
 only for advanced minds. 
 
 The process of coming from darkness to light is one 
 which there is abundance of evidence to show, is not al- 
 ways aided by the full, clear, distinct statements of the very 
 intelligent when made to the uncultivated. There is a re- 
 lation of congruity in teaching, and it demands that it 
 shall not violated ; at least that every effort be made to 
 lessen the violence done to it by the necessary elevation of 
 one mind above the other. In other words, this is again 
 the recognition of the inexorable presence and action of the 
 laws of gradualness, as in operation between the teacher and 
 the taught, or in the teacher, and as distinguished from its 
 operation in the taught. 
 
 The question is not really after all so much how to clothe 
 and apply the doctrine, as how to unclothe it from what 
 we have put round it in the course of centuries ; but this 
 remark is made apart from the consideration that Universal 
 Truth may have particular, temporary, special, and even 
 local form, expression, and accident 
 
 The human mind is liable to conceive nothing more 
 readily than that God might (as we say) have chosen other 
 and more perfect ways for teaching the human race — simpler, 
 surer, quicker. But it is quite evident that, circumstanced 
 as man is, and under the persent constitution of things, these 
 conceivably perfect plans would have been out of harmony 
 with things as we see and know them to to be; so therefore, 
 there is no greater impertinence than for man to suppose 
 
36 
 
 that things could Lave been managed better on the 
 ■whole, especially since we don’t know the whole end 
 of creation, and can therefore be no fit judges of the 
 means and conditions of things in their progress toward 
 that end. This being all most indisputably so it has a 
 lesson for us, (1) To recognize that, as it hath pleased the 
 Great Ruler of all to, as it were, and for want of better words, 
 permit limitations from evil circumstances to his moral 
 power, so, tve cannot proceed to act in ways which 
 virtually ignore what the Divine power and wisdom re- 
 cognize, God having in one view of the matter committed 
 the progress of this Truth and Church, to the mercy 
 almost of these said limitations. 
 
 (2) This teaches us positively that wheras “ the-prac- 
 ticable-under-the-circumstances” distinguishes the Divine 
 dealings with man in this imperfect and disorganized 
 state of matters, so should it be an element always in our 
 thoughts, and this without interfering with the Ideal that 
 ought never to be lost sight of. 
 
 Lastly as regards teaching, we would ask, and ask with- 
 out wishing to throw any slur on the proper province of 
 Dogmatics and dogma, Do you ever try in teaching of or 
 writing for the Chinese, “ to make them conscious of truth 
 solemn and tender in theirself-evidence” — to “ make explicit 
 to them that “ implicit ” and already enfolded in their spiri- 
 tual nature ?” 
 
 Do you “ seek for every shred of truth and good in the 
 local modes of thought, so as to secure all possible lines of 
 genuine sympathy from which to advance into new fields, 
 not stepping over the whole interval between opposed 
 religions and the Gospel, but seeking to carry the hearts of 
 men from the best they already love to the better still they 
 are capable of loving ? ” 
 
 No. XXI. 
 
 REMARK ON ENQUIRERS. 
 
 There seems only necessity to make one remark ; one 
 which seems to touch the centre of the question — and 
 that is, the simple enquiry, How much is there in the 
 man, or in the movement, that is really of value in the 
 sight of Heaven — in this turning, is it, as far as I can 
 judge, the embryo of a real moral and spiritual change in 
 the relation of the creature to his maker ? 
 
37 
 
 No. XXII. 
 
 ACCESSORIES OF MISSIONARY WORK. 
 
 Man’s nature can be appealed to and conciliated iu 
 many ways. Good, excellent things please his senses. 
 High moral views, rightly exhibited and consistently lived 
 out, his conscience approves ; and they destroy his suspi- 
 cions. Good composition and style appeal to his proper 
 and pardonable literary taste. A proper worship satisfies 
 his spiritual instincts. Virtuous acts of beneficence speak 
 a universal language, and make slander an impossibility. 
 
 In a word, “ whatsoever things are right ” and excellent 
 in the eyes of he Chinese, think on these things, is a sentence 
 that we would feel to be in full accord with the sentiments 
 of the man who first used the well-known words with which 
 they begin. 
 
 No amount of ignorant slander, opposition, misconstruc- 
 tion, or diversity of opinion or practice, however really 
 absurd, must ever stand in the way of our seeking the good 
 of this people in any way they’ll permit, if not in the best 
 possible way. Don’t turn away because you can’t or they 
 will not stand on Western professional ettiquette. No ; 
 do all you can to seek their good. Never willingly indulge 
 the feeling of leaving them to themselves on such grounds, 
 however much possibility of misconstruction may induce 
 habitual caution. 
 
 Where opposition to the gospel is inveterate the use of 
 medical simples undoubtedly tends to restrain it and gra- 
 dually dispel it as a preparatory for, perhaps in conjunction 
 with, teaching. The idea, of course, is negatively to act 
 on public hostility, and this, whether done by medicine or 
 special literature appropriate to this object and stage of 
 matters, is right. 
 
 But, apropos of this, we have to enter our protest against 
 “ evidential doctoring,” i.e., practising for the sake of evi- 
 dencing the truth — proving — Christianity, as it were, 
 whereas it only proves the drugs are good and rightly and 
 intelligently prescribed. God sees not as man sees. Jesus 
 Christ felt not about his works as men speak about them, 
 much less as modern medical missionaries, or missionary 
 medical men have drifted into feeling about theirs. Christ’s 
 work of beneficence shewed the heart of the Godhead yearn- 
 ing over and laboring for a sin-sick and burdened Human 
 
3tf 
 
 nature — in a word, in all their afflictions Himself afflicted. 
 The mind that should be in us 1 
 
 No. XXIII. 
 
 STAGES OF MISSIONARY WORK. 
 
 Distinguish pioneer thoughts, views, plans, books, and 
 modes from the pastoral mind, weapons, object, books. It 
 is in this latter, as we take it, that Redemption in all the 
 depth of its objective aspects and subjective effects can, 
 and is to be, brought before them. 
 
 The first thing seems to be, to ask what is the method 
 adapted to the state of things in any given time and place, 
 taking fully into account the state of the native mind 
 towards you, as you both presume it to be on the whole, 
 have found it to be in individuals, and have modified it 
 by your action. 
 
 There is a stage of only gaining people’s confidence and 
 affections, and many measures and plans suited to other 
 stages are plainly uusuited to this particular one. It 
 must be evident how little use words are till confidence in 
 the speaker is moderately established by observation of 
 his acts. 
 
 Has it ever appeared to you that the planting of Chris- 
 tianity in China may now be approaching a polemic stage, 
 in which Confucian and other champions may come down 
 to the tournament and make, or give, such opportunity 
 for, a display that will interest the whole Empire in the 
 result. Never in such an encounter has Christianity came 
 off second. 
 
 The writer of the Epistle of the Hebrews gives us his 
 ideas pretty freely about “ foundations,” and “ principles," 
 and “ going on,” and “ feeding with milk,” and “ strong 
 meat,” and so forth. 
 
 “ Stages ” are not of one kind. Stages are to be con- 
 sidered in the evangelization of a person, a family, a village, 
 a city or district, a province, the whole kingdom ; and 
 then again, with reference to the different classes of persons 
 in the said district, province, or kingdom. 
 
39 
 
 No. XXIV. 
 
 SOME PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING THE ESTA- 
 BLISHMENT AND USE OF POSITIVE CHRIS- 
 TIAN INSTITUTIONS AND ORDINANCES, 
 BOTH SPIRITUAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 
 
 “ To form institutions in advance of society is a great 
 mistake, and almost as great a mistake as to keep institu- 
 tions behind the advance of intelligence,” &c. It is a re- 
 mark as common as it is inexorably true, that as long as 
 the human nature remains as it is, so will things remain 
 pretty much as they are ; and we may add, irrespective of 
 institutions, so-called. Institutions are to be evolved out 
 of certain elements or conditions, either already existing 
 or brought about ; that is, as distinguished from the im- 
 posing or laying upon others of them. Nor does this idea 
 of their being not imposed, debar the notion of moulding 
 that which is evolved. 
 
 Institutions presuppose real varying necessities to be 
 met ; therefore should be shaped accordingly, not arbitrarily, 
 nor after a fixed model or letter. Further, an institution 
 that is to be worthy of the name, if anything, supposes that 
 the persons concerned are alive to and feel these said 
 necessities, and the aim of the institution; further, that 
 they more or less possess capacities for conducting it when 
 once established ; such are, appreciation of the aim in view, 
 regularity, coustaucy to principle, and in procedure ; some 
 acquaintance with the exercise of power, and fearlessness 
 of the result of doing right; exactness of plan, and willing- 
 ness to spend time and money for a public end; to say 
 nothing of unity and sinking of private end for general 
 benefit. The last few are some of the secondary require- 
 ments that have to be present, but that the members who 
 work an institution should have first the clearest and most 
 indubitable beacons marked out for them and always before 
 them, seems too apparent almost to need mention, were 
 it not that we see so much that warrants a fear to the 
 contrary. 
 
 Closely touching this question is that, whether is Christain- 
 ity a message of truth suited to the human heart and 
 calculated to introduce new, devolop dormant, and entrain 
 existing forces for the the furtherance of it own cause in 
 
40 
 
 each heart, and collectively in the world; or is it an imposed, 
 tutorial, and external economy anywhere or ever ? Why are 
 there these parables that liken this Heaveu-boru sway on 
 earth to an inworking energy of unlimited competence ? 
 And how is it they are confined to this object and not ap- 
 plied to the forerunning dispensation ? Why this absence of 
 instruction, injunction, and rules properly so->called, in the 
 founding ? 
 
 Can there be conceived anything more calculated to defeat 
 its end than the external compliance with some formality 
 while the vital truth, meaning, and spirit, of the form are 
 as yet not understood nor the ordinance cared for. Such a 
 course, favoured, encourages the mind to save itself the 
 trouble of thinking out spiritual religion, and helps the 
 ignorant to substitue for new conscious light and power a 
 mere acquaintance with their tokens. 
 
 I think this a view that should not be forgotton in dealing 
 with those emerging from heatheadom viz — “ I shall be glad 
 even however little youjcan do for God. All the worship, all 
 the alms, all the help you can give, and give cheerfully, I 
 will cheerfully receive. Of course, I tell you plainly that, 
 the True God is not to be served in any measure less than 
 the false ones, but yet, notwithstanding, all, be it little or 
 much, — given, not as then, from selfishness, but now in 
 faith on the Unseen — I cheerfully receive in God’s name.” 
 
 This seems far superior to always keeping ourselves in a 
 state of chronic discontent at the native as if their Heavenly 
 Father hated them for doing so little. Perhaps after all 
 He doesnt so approve of all we have done for them in train- 
 ing them into doing so little from the outset. 
 
 The Apostles were not church makers, and yet chur- 
 ches sprang everywhere from their teaching. Of course 
 it may truly be said the early churches where just Christian 
 synagogues, but I think it will be found, too, that they 
 taught these things, i.e. they unhesitatiugly laid down the 
 principles and encouraged the tendency in man to federate 
 and hereby help growth and development. 
 
 For this inevitable propensity in man to “ party ’’ has a 
 meaning ; a good one when it goes under the direction of 
 right reason for the advancement of virtue, and nothing to 
 be ashamed of ; a wrong and vicious use is the only one 
 o be restrained. 
 
 Slow learning of Christianity is, as a rule, inevitable ; 
 and therefore the development of the perception of the 
 
41 
 
 relative value of Christianity must be slow; hence the 
 teaching and organization must be as gradual, as simple, 
 and inexpensive as is suited to such conditions ; if not, 
 some pressure on the converts is inevitable ; and it has, in 
 many instances, proved fatally burdensome, especially when 
 imposed upon them and not self-assumed. 
 
 There is another way of bringing about this trouble, and 
 far more subtle, than the above-mentioned. It is our con- 
 ceiving fancied necessities for them — either conceived here 
 or imported from another state of society. But we can 
 nevertheless make them uneasy about themselves, and 
 over-anxious to assume church burdens in the same way as 
 they to follow their foreign teaching in most things, and 
 often proceed to carry it out with an indiscretion that the 
 originator would have been the first to censure. 
 
 Admitted the ideal desirability of a command, doctrine, 
 or rite, being perfectly observed, must, then, the actual ac- 
 ceptance of it be equally peremptory, absolute, or cau it 
 wait till a Christian consciousness of its reasonableness, 
 fitness, and desirability has grown so as to produce an un- 
 constrained service of the spirit, not of the letter, from 
 converts, they being, meanwhile, led. 
 
 I fear in our day the word of Him would be, “ Ye are 
 they who enjoin the institutions of men as the institutes of 
 God — ye strain out gnats of error and swallow camel-loads 
 of luxury and inconsistency.” 
 
 See that, in the early stages of Church forming, parti- 
 cular care be taken that the more worldly and venal don’t 
 disgust, offend, and produce an extrusion or repulsion of 
 the good. I fancy the “ Church of Jesus,” (a name or a 
 misnomer, by the way, we don’t remember any sufficient 
 and pertinent authority for) in this land of China, has al- 
 ready, on this account, eaten no small amount of bitter 
 
 Property and endowment, as the possession of infant 
 Churches, are dangerous as leading to all know what. 
 
 It is of the primest importance to recollect that no mat- 
 ter, how good your organization may be, unless the very 
 best men are appointed selected to work it, it will still be 
 unavailing. 
 
 Never allow anyone to present Christianity as an obliga- 
 tion to be met and shouldered by the convert before even 
 the rootlets of the truth — the germs of the source of all 
 power — are to be found in his heart. A lever without a 
 fulcrum wore as reasonable and as effective. 
 
42 
 
 With reference to tlie theory of “ propping ” weak 
 Churches, and gradually taking the props away through a 
 course of years, we would say, not only is it troublesome, 
 heartburning, but unnecessary. That is, the necessity for 
 it is probably a fancy resulting from our coming from the 
 West and imagining all that there is, must be here repro- 
 duced, and as quickly as possible. 
 
 Childhood is the period of simple food and few wants. 
 
 Nothing raises more trouble in China than the scruples 
 of native Christians about heathen rites over the dead. 
 Of course the outward and visible form is, in the eyes of 
 the natives, much nearer the essence of the matter — much 
 more an equivalent — .than in ours. But really and truly, 
 where the (Scripture) authority for our rites of burial or 
 marriage ? We fancy that question of Western burial and 
 marriage customs (not rites) would stand an investigation 
 very poorly if judged by the purist principles laid down 
 for the Church of China. 
 
 Or, it may be asked further, which is the most im- 
 portant, heathen rites, or the grave and repeated protest of 
 convinced but coerced men who can only protest? 
 
 It is hardly necessary to remark that conspicuous 
 Western public Christian services and ceremonies, as a 
 rule, and as they are to put it mildly, can be found to 
 have no tendency to further the doctrine. 
 
 No. XXV. 
 
 THE SABBATH. 
 
 In all questions regarding this it seems very necessary 
 to clearly distinguish the principle of keeping it and the 
 manner of doing so. 
 
 Let us remember there was a primaeval sabbath, of the 
 patriarchs in their condition ; and of the Jewish polity, 
 legally regulated, and on which its society was framed from 
 its very foundation in the wilderness. 
 
 It is important to remember that the day of rest is not 
 only, nor simply, an ordinance, but rather itself a fact 
 proclaimed and maintained by the Universal Church irres- 
 pective of its acceptance by others, as a standing pledge 
 of the Creator’s free grace, first to all mankind in their 
 labour, difficulty and anguish of unceasing toil, the special 
 embodiment of a gospel for the work-bound ; next, and as 
 
43 
 
 more commonly recognized, in its ordinary Christian 
 sense, a pledge of the gospel for the sin-conscious and soul- 
 weary. To the first class it tells in unmistakeable terms the 
 divine will that a continued, unmitigated, groaning and 
 travelling in worldly toil is not their Father’s will nor 
 desire, however they may fail to perceive its intent or its 
 advantage. This is not bread and butter theory ; it is 
 downright evangelical philosophy — which frees man by 
 communicating the fact of the freedom. 
 
 There was a country and time when “ three timos a year 
 shall all thy males appear before the Lord ” was the rule of 
 the public worship of God appointed by God. 
 
 I knew a man turned out of house and home “for the 
 word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ ” — a 
 most consistent (perhaps ?) Christian Chinese, but one who 
 had to work on Sunday as well as worship — he was both 
 proved and persecuted — yet I suppose he would be in the 
 eyes of many, a Sabbath breaker, and one of those to 
 whom Christ would not, in their estimation, say, “ Come 
 unto Me.” 
 
 I knew a Chinese who, when the foreman of the gang of 
 farm laborers ordered him to work on Sundays, though he 
 refused, yet offered to hire a man in his place for the day. 
 He was accounted a Sabbath breaker in my hearing, by 
 foreigners, for doing so. He afterwards, however, become 
 the founder and leader of a new company of Christians on 
 going to work in a fresh village, and is their recognized 
 local-head. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. 
 
 The Chinese have a natural, and under the circumstan- 
 ces a really pardonable inclination to enter any kind 
 of a “hui” that has the idea of mutual support, party, 
 or protection, about it ; and this must be so, simply because, 
 and so long as, the Government of the country does not 
 protect it subjects. 
 
 The aged mostly receive truth from conviction producing 
 a decision to do so, the young, often from impulse. Time 
 tests impulse more than decision : the inference is obvious. 
 
 We believe it is the condition of the churches who receive 
 members quickly, and in face of what they themselves assent 
 to regarding “ growth in grace,” to also have large numbers 
 
44 
 
 of members under discipline. We do not, however, confuse 
 quick with incautious reception, nor carefulness with 
 stringency and narrowness. 
 
 Do what we will, or say what we please, human nature 
 remains very human still ; aye, even presumably regenerat- 
 ed nature carries a good deal of the old man into its deal- 
 ings, and so the Chinese regard being let into the church 
 very much as our “ taking off the screw." This often 
 being so, it proves on closer examination what we should 
 expect ; for regeneration means new birth, but that is far 
 from meaning new manhood — something to which they 
 grow up in all things afterwards. 
 
 On this view, and in order to the discernment of some 
 degree of Christian adolescence the Primitive Church, in 
 its day and sphere, decreed classes of catechumens, wdth 
 separate and graduated instruction and worship for them, 
 as all, even superficially acquainted with early history, 
 know. If that system had faults, let these faults not be 
 repeated. Such is the use of history. If it had in it what 
 is pertinent to us, or of universal and unchangeable good, 
 then let us accept and adopt it. 
 
 We ask you to note that those who hold the highest 
 views on sacramental elficacy are yet the same men who 
 labour most pointedly at “ preparation ” of their converts 
 for that sacrament. They are moreover those who retain 
 a rite — a check rite practically — between baptism and the 
 communion — viz., confirmation, for which, I believe, eccle- 
 siastical authority only is contended. 
 
 We must confess that we know of no test given in 
 Scripture, or valuable in experience, except the one, “ By 
 their fruits ye shall know them, for every good tree bringeth 
 forth good fruit.” 
 
 We take our stand on that one positive qualification for 
 admission of those to the Christian Church otherwise 
 eligible. They are the only things, i.e., actual facts, on 
 which we are competent to decide as to their existence and 
 sufficiency, though, often, indeed, hardly as to their 
 genuineness. It is only requiring that all who take upon 
 themselves this profession shall more or less actually, 
 tangibly, and visibly express and represent the principles 
 and doings of Jesus Christ in this land of China. If not, 
 a church of any other kind is a misrepresentation. 
 
 Baptism may be said to have two ordinary and untheo- 
 logical aspects (nothing in these “ Bemarks ” being in- 
 
45 
 
 tended to touch the Theology of matters they deal with) — 
 viz., What it indicates to the subject of it, concerning his 
 altered relations; and secondly, what it is construed by the 
 world to mean. The subject of it, it severs and decides for 
 a cause of truth and good. Hence the argument for using 
 it pretty freely, and on all who wish to take this step. But 
 it is also interpreted, and rightly too, as attaching its 
 subjects to the visible communion and body of Christians, 
 and as a public manifestation of who are and who are not 
 to be regarded as so attached ; hence the need for caution ; 
 but yet such a caution as proceeds from and is always 
 mingled with a kindly cherishing of all or any who may yet 
 be one or some of the least of the little ones. 
 
 Bishop Jeremy Taylor states in the dedication prefixed 
 to, we think, his “Holy Dying” — and we can hardly find 
 a better witness on such a matter in such a connexion — “ that 
 no ceremony can make a spiritual change without a spiritual 
 act of him that is to be changed, nor can it work, by 
 way of nature, but morally, and after the manner of reason- 
 able creatures,” and so we feel ready to act on that same 
 view and fear no argument legitimately flowing from it 
 with reference to either the living or dead. And we cite 
 the above merely because we had more than once heard from 
 unsuspected quarters expressions that seemed as if they 
 had some undercurrent or lurking feeling that, somehow or 
 other, the benefit of the doubt had always to be given to the 
 candidate for baptism in some way or other, hoping thus to 
 help him. 
 
 The following reasons taken collectively seem to warrant 
 the general principle that a long probation is desirable for 
 converts before receiving them to full communion. 
 
 1. — The primitive church found it increasingly needful. 
 
 2. — Christian faith must grow; and growth demands time. 
 
 3. — Old habits are the greatest foes to faith ; habit de- 
 mands time for its eradication. 
 
 4. — Probation is analagous to assayiug : when proved to 
 be genuine, stamp it. 
 
 5. — Because the most hopeful men often seem shallow 
 in time of temptation, and their Christianity almost seems 
 a mere gloss. This only appears in time. 
 
 6. — Because delay only can prove the power of the con- 
 vert to pass the critical periods free from idolatrous rites. 
 
 7. — To see if family quarrels, questionable motives, or 
 perilous connexions, leak out. 
 
4G 
 
 8. — To see if they stand persecution, tho best church 
 discipline, the purging fan. 
 
 9. — To see if hidden or checked evils re-develop. 
 
 10. — To wait the passing over of the Hush of excitement 
 and novelty that possesses the neophyte, and espcially in 
 proportion as he is sanguine and attractive. 
 
 11. — Because, as tho church enlarges, others have to be 
 more relied on who are less acquanted with the gravity of 
 the matter, and time is needed to help them to discern 
 manifestly, i.e., to serve as experience for them. 
 
 No. XXVII. 
 
 ORGANIZATION. 
 
 How far shall we organize and depend on it ? The 
 answer is, “ as far as is is called for, and no farther.” 
 Less, won’t do. More, will burden your converts. In a 
 word, there are several things which correspondingly develop 
 and necessarily proceed together in any Christian work, 
 such as : — 
 
 (1) The development of the capacity — appetite for 
 Truth. 
 
 (2) The development of the spiritual and ethical in 
 them. 
 
 (3) The development of the necessity for and capability 
 of positive institutions and organization. 
 
 (4) The development of the capacity of appreciating dis- 
 cipline. 
 
 None of these four conditions or states stands out of 
 connection with the other three ; the lack or excess of either 
 will surely manifest itself. 
 
 We conceive that we are saying a good deal for all such 
 organization as tends to the autonomy of native Churches, 
 when we say it is the condition for freeing those foreigners 
 who should be at the front, that is, not necessarily in propria 
 persona, but their energies at the front. It matters verylittle 
 where a man’s body is if his energy is not going on trifles. 
 In the earlier stages of Church-forming, appoint those whom 
 God marks for the work. We say appoint, no matter what 
 your theories are on the matter. Definitely mark their 
 duties for them. No general instructions will do for a 
 Chinese. Subsequently let them be taught gradually to 
 revise or endorse as they please, your appointment. But 
 
in the first place be sure you have the right man or better 
 not stir at all. 
 
 No. XXVIII. 
 
 WORSHIP AND EDIFICATION. 
 
 Enjoin reverence on the converts; nay, do more than 
 enjoin it. They often seem to think the more flippant they 
 are, as a rule, the better. 
 
 Inexorably regular private devotion at home is nowhere 
 to be more pressed than in China; especially owing to the 
 hindrances in the way of half the population — women — • 
 attending worship in public. 
 
 One of the most incontrovertible and appreciable features 
 of the Heavenly Doctrine is its giving to men, and exhort- 
 ing men to, a pure, Divine, life-helping, soul-satisfying, and 
 elevating worship. Let China once understand and see 
 that that , and not feats of controversial dexterity, theo- 
 logical juggling, nor jaunty flippancy, is its first gift and 
 first requirement, and who or what will withstand its 
 sway ? 
 
 No. XXIX. 
 
 PIETY AND EDUCATION. 
 
 Expend, or cause to be expended, the same care on 
 deepening and consolidating your converts as on acquiring 
 them ; and recollect as Evangelization has its true prin- 
 ciples and appropriate modes which concern the extension 
 of the Gospel directly ; so has Edification its right methods, 
 &c.; and they also are very closely allied to, and concern 
 the extension and fortunes of the Gospel, though in- 
 directly. 
 
 Don’t let them learn more or faster than they under- 
 stand, nor any one other book until the previously learned 
 is understood. 
 
 What is “ meat,” and what is “ milk ? ” Meat is just 
 what infants can’t swallow, nor if swallowed, digest. 
 
 Analyse carefully the actual wants of your converts in 
 the * order of their importance and dependence. Diagnose 
 their evils and treat them accordingly. 
 
 Teach very much deeper within the Church than what 
 you preach outside. This is not wearing a mask. It is 
 this that Christians must be taught, built, and fed as others 
 can’t be, and if you don’t do it your Christians will remain 
 
48 
 
 dwarfs, but let no high development of teaching lead them 
 to either an obnoxious and hateful pride, an empty self- 
 satisfaction or an indiscreet traversing of your special inten- 
 tion. The matter may be viewed this way. Our Chris- 
 tianity should be like one of those closely-leaved flowering 
 shrubs we have so often seen in a perfect sheet of bloom. 
 One look and the attention is rivetted — every thought is 
 lost in one feeling of admiration at what meets the eye. 
 It commands the taste of the bluntest. But the enquiring 
 mind asks, “ Whence comes all this ?” — And one answers, 
 “ From the root.” So it is. Our lives and our Churches 
 should more prominently manifest the beauty of holiness 
 and the fruits of the spirit. These universally command 
 admiration, and China would be struck, and would ask, 
 “ Whence comes all this ? ” and the answer would be the 
 same, “From the Root.” What is the Root? It is 
 knowledge of One Living and True God, beside which all 
 other knowledge is as naught. And how does that serve 
 to make so much display ? Ah I Here is the province of 
 Christian, teaching — viz., to make patent the knowledge, 
 and perfect and real, the connection in the souls, between 
 the One Root (which so concerns the Heathen), and these 
 supernatural displays with which we should prove the 
 Redeemer’s doctrine to be divine. 
 
 That is, we take it, the province of Church superstruc- 
 tural teaching, as distinguished from that which is proper- 
 ly missionary and radical. 
 
 No church can afford to despise education in the ordinary 
 sense when considered in relation to superstition, fanati- 
 cism, and religious error. 
 
 Education of women, as an accessory of a Church al- 
 ready established, if accomplished in ways that will not 
 develop venality or hypocrisy in the parents, unfitness for, 
 and discontent of life at home, must be regarded as a most 
 valuable outgrowth and accompaniment of a Christian 
 Society. 
 
 No. XXX. 
 
 SOME REMARKS ON THE EXERCISE OF 
 CONRTOL OVER CONVERTS. 
 
 Practically I would restrict a voice in the exercise of 
 Church authority to those members who are evidencing 
 their vitality by working. 
 
19 
 
 I tliink as a whole we foreigners are inclined to mix 
 laxity in admitting to the Church with subsequent incon- 
 siderate severity of discipline for contempt of positive or 
 ecclesiastical institutions. 
 
 Ask yourself on this matter of discipline. How much 
 of the notion of the superiority of foreigners enters into it. 
 How much do you feel inclined to dogmatise on your poor 
 weak brother fur whom Christ died ? Ah ! how different a 
 spirit would we show if we were indeed clothed with an 
 ardent compassion to our poor struggling brothers — first 
 fruits of heathendom — each so very dear to God. Oh ! let 
 us cultivate that. 
 
 No. XXXI. 
 
 PERSECUTION. 
 
 Ascertain whether all persecution (except that arising 
 from the direct hatred of light and good by the wicked) 
 hasn’t a real and somewhat justifiable cause — and whether 
 it be not due to the exhibition of controvesial virus by 
 Christians, or what not. Truly to-day, as then, is it neces- 
 sary to put the question. “ Who is he that will harm you 
 if ye be followers of that which is good ?” But I fear our 
 native Christians in fol lowing good, often do unloving 
 things to irresponsible people and hence, trouble. 
 
 Meet opposition by dissolving it, not by proclamations 
 to repress it ; for the most virulent is that which official 
 proclamation cannot stem, i.e. family and friends casting 
 off one. 
 
 Persecution is the sifting necessary for the correction of 
 false views among natives regarding the Kingdom of God ; 
 and in establishing a doctrine such as this, in hearts such 
 as these are, in a world such as this is, and for practical 
 use in the disordered circumstances of life, then persecution 
 is the one condition required to make the centre heart and 
 beginning of the movement, sound and sincere, and as no 
 disciplinary system could or ought. 
 
 Moreover, persecution is a necessity to train and temper 
 them to a degree of hardness adequate to the exhibition of 
 virtues that will command the admiration of even Chinese 
 stolidity. A proclamation converts the Church into a 
 refuge of desperadoes, to squeeze under foreign protection ; 
 but the chances of persecution prevent any but the genuine 
 from joining us, and, by spontaneously keeping the Church 
 
50 
 
 pure, prevents the missionary from coming into that 
 disciplinary relation with those new converts who under- 
 stand it so little. 
 
 There seems to be no juncture in pursuit, or defence, of 
 right which firm adherence to principle and fearlessness 
 of consequences, trouble and death cannot find a solution 
 to. 
 
 It is a matter of far greater primariness and importance 
 that adherents be sound than numerous. 
 
 No. XXXII. 
 
 NATIVE SELF-EXTENSION OF THE 
 TRUTH. 
 
 To anything like an thorough evangelization of China, 
 foreigners must ever be inadequate : moreover, foreign 
 money must ever be inadequate. We may begin with the 
 idea, but neither far, wide, nor long can we go on with it. 
 China must be evangelized, in the thorough sense of the 
 word, by an ordinary process of Chinese telling Chinese. 
 
 This being so, ask yourself, are my principles and modes 
 of working such, or have they such tendencies, either by 
 the expectations they raise or otherwise, to create au im- 
 pressiou contrary to what I know, to be the inevitable truth 
 in this matter. 
 
 What am I relying on for the extension of the truth ? is 
 the (stimulus and) support of foreign money an element in 
 it ? 
 
 Do you, by carrying on foreign supported work in the 
 district where Christianity is already rooted, convey the 
 idea, as a consequence of so doing, that it is your duty to 
 do so and not that of the Native Church ? Do you thus 
 practically or virtually foreclose the opportunity for, and 
 stunt the growth of native aspirations after evangelization ? 
 
 Do you feel this, above everything, that the Gospel had 
 better not be preached than preached by men who do it for 
 mouey’s sake — that it is better to go forth alone with one's 
 servants and teacher than tempt a man to go for mouey to 
 affect the hearts of others ? 
 
 The Gospel has a power of self-extension. It has rightly 
 put such au inherent fitness for man’s heart that it carries this 
 stimulus and efficacy with it if unimpaired. Now, will such 
 impulses be trained and strengthened better by exercise and 
 being left to themselves, or by another stimulus of a very 
 
different kind being incorporated with it, and that of a ten- 
 dency to supplant them ? Only one master, one ruling 
 stimulus can be in a man’s heart. Are those who have two, 
 or one, the best characters ? 
 
 Well, was it said “ Christ kept the unworthy aloof by 
 offering them nothing they could find attractive,” and as 
 for the worthy, to pay them is the surest way to make them 
 unworthy. 
 
 The idea that the Gospel will not spread, deepen and 
 support itself without foreign aid to local churches is now 
 known in this and other countries to be only an idea arising 
 out of (1) want of confidence in the inherent power of truth, 
 (2) impatience of the Divine permission of slow developments, 
 (8) a rather indiscriminating and confused want of ap- 
 precation of the real circumstances connected with the 
 Bpread of truth. 
 
 Nothing needs to be more clearly perceived or more 
 firmly held than this, that unpaid Heaven-sent and Heaven- 
 rewarded men are clearly superior to paid “stagers” for 
 advancing the truth in the hearts of others. There is a 
 boldness, freedom, and native consciousness of untainted 
 purity of intention about them that you find sadly contrasted 
 with the stiff, careful, quid pro quo pensioner-like spirit 
 found in the paid men, and which we fail to recognize as the 
 concomitant of what is heart moving ; thus, in both cases, 
 the issue proves our intuition to be correct. 
 
 Bo with the raising, care, and carrying on of Christian 
 organizations. Reward and acknowledgment there is and 
 ought to be unquestionably for all trouble incurred by any 
 one on behalf of others ; but nothing seems more certain to 
 the writer than that some, i.e., sufficient natives are in- 
 variably found competent, or become so after some short 
 time, for bearing the entire burden ; unless they have pre- 
 viously been either inoculated with the idea, or trained into 
 the habit of thinking that they are not. 
 
 The foregoing remarks are not, however intended to be 
 pushed to an extreme contradicted by common sense; for 
 instance, we distinguish “hiring” and “helping.” Foreign 
 money has its use, but it is a use consistent with all the 
 foregoing. 
 
 With reference to what natives preach ; it is manifest 
 that so long as they go merely or mostly to decry gambling, 
 opium, official oppression ; to ridicule idols, national 
 customs, foot-binding ; and extol Western civilization as 
 
the burden of their message, so long will the Chinese con- 
 ceive wrongly of our meaning. 
 
 Some few remarks on extension — whether by natives or 
 others, may be subjoined here, e.g., Beware of the idea, 
 “ I’ll establish a mission at so and so.” That has been 
 the notion in China, but it wants true warrant and spiritual 
 wisdom. Select by trial the fittest place, and where the 
 Spirit has hearts prepared. Work there; not where you 
 determine, or is agreeable, or seems, in your opinion, 
 best. 
 
 Don’t fail to perceive that there is a medium between 
 careless, irregular scattering of Gospel seed, and the other 
 extreme of a too limited and too exclusively concentrated 
 effort on one spot. 
 
 Both must be combined, and, however, they be com- 
 bined, “ plan,” in our work, is indispensable. 
 
 It is a law which no organization can afford to despise, 
 viz.: — that men of proved effectiveness must have real 
 distinction made in their favour by those who are the 
 benefited, and separate spheres be allotted for their energy. 
 
 Religion is a pearl not to be cast before swine, yet, 
 natives must ever be cautioned that is it neither to be 
 concealed like contraband, nor selfishly to be hugged, but 
 a power that ever increases by the use. 
 
 Continuously unsuccessful missions, doubtless, on exa- 
 mination, will show some error, some breach or infringe- 
 ments of Christian principle. That is, speaking generally, 
 it will be so. 
 
 No. XXXIII. 
 
 CAUTIONS. 
 
 Readers of the above remarks will remember that they 
 fall under two heads, for the most part, viz. : — those prin- 
 ciples which are difficult to state and go more to the mould- 
 ing and forming of our views than anything else ; secondly, 
 those which are designed to influence action directly, yet 
 not to be carried out ruthlessly or rashly. 
 
 Nothing here said is to be construed into the condoning 
 of idolatry, or superstition, or the trying “ to fit lies into 
 truth,” or anything but a firm, yet patient, gradual, uncom- 
 bative, though not passive, opposition to error. Every 
 one can know and judge of our belief without controversy, 
 
53 
 
 and the most powerful argument for our being right must 
 be our lives — “ the attraction of living goodness.” 
 
 Be slow in acting and deciding in China. Life — society 
 — moves much slower here ; or in other words, moral 
 forces take longer to produce effects. There are, too, often 
 unseen grounds of action or forbearance not yet brought 
 to light or understood. 
 
 It is a matter always demanding extreme caution when 
 mutually uncomprehended ideas and systems come into 
 contact ; but it has passed beyond the limits of caution 
 when you place two incompatible civilizationm conflict. 
 
 Converts would wish to change Temples into Churches. 
 It is not wrong, but is it premature ? 
 
 Beware of substituting Western Or Christian supersti- 
 tion for native. 
 
 The Chinese, under modern Christian teaching and 
 leading, invariably stress the “ learning ” of the doctrine 
 and disregard the life of Christianity. We are aware 
 that the word “ learn ” in Chinese has a somewat fuller 
 meaning than in the West. But the Primitive Church 
 had three or four classes of Catechumens. The period 
 of probation was from two to three years. Even the Creed 
 and the Lord’s Prayer were not learned till a few days 
 before Baptism. Now, for ichat, then, was that long delay ? 
 or for what kind of instruction ? Remember, I am not 
 seeking to justify that; but what was its meaning? It 
 had one, and one they were thoroughly alive to, and so 
 ought we. 
 
 ‘ No. XXXIV. 
 
 POINTS FOR INQUIRY. 
 
 What is the misunderstanding between the Chinese and 
 Western mind? There is one — what is it? 
 
 What views and emotions prevent — hinder — the recep- 
 tion of the Gospel by Chinese ? They are most complex. 
 What are the natural solvents of them ? 
 
 The Deity has, with a wisdom which experience justifies 
 to us, prohibited symbolism in teaching man His name. 
 That same God used symbolism, and in Scripture is still 
 using it — to teach man of things not so defined or re- 
 stricted, and, in condescension to man’s nature as limited. 
 What lessons have these things for us ? 
 
54 
 
 “ How may Christianity be safely put on a broader 
 trial ? — How best may we bring Christianity into contact 
 with the actual convictions of people here ?” 
 
 What are the well-meant efforts to advance Christianity 
 which may actually be all the while operating to retard 
 it? 
 
 What is it that in many places increases the coolness 
 and distance between resident missionaries and resident 
 Chinese to a very frigidness 1 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Lest these remarks should have begot only a passive ac- 
 quiescence, or, still worse, an indefinite impression — lest 
 any one should say, what practical issue should all this 
 have — in what respects is it intended I should be and act 
 different from at present. I reply, first, namely : In adopt- 
 
 ing the mind and living model of Jesus Christ as the at- 
 titude you take toward natives, that is, first, one of warm 
 loving and compassionate interest in them, and with, then, 
 a gentle forbearing, yet decided, testimony to the truth. 
 
 Recollect, too, that we stand before the Chinese, not as 
 conquerors, but as suppliants somewhat. Remember the 
 front which bare Confucianism has presented for two 
 thousand years to its compeers, and how it has maintained 
 that front on the whole. 
 
 Forget not the excellence of the precepts of its founder, 
 by the best and strictest of which you will be tested and 
 judged; men forgetting that their own shortcomings form 
 the one bar to the use of such a pure test by them, yet, this 
 the while, rightly nerving us, if for nothing else, still for this 
 to strive, viz: toshoiv them not merely that our written pre- 
 cepts exceed theirs, but that it needs what we have, a 
 special and supernatural impulse to carry out the high 
 requirements of their sage. He called, and he called well 
 and rightly, for the most uncommon and extraordinary 
 virtue. Let, then, the virtue that we exhibit be quite as 
 uncommon as what he justly required. If not, we will stand 
 condemned, and that justly, in the eyes of current scholars ; 
 and how much more by Him whom we say we have come 
 here to serve, and whose precepts we certainly are here to 
 exemplify. 
 
 Whatever may be inherent in human nature, indolence 
 certainly is, and in Christians as well as others, and so. 
 
55 
 
 after all, much abused Confuciau morality lias two true 
 blessings for us, first to make us greatly ashamed of our 
 indolence, and secondly to set us on a just and honorable 
 course of emulation. 
 
 These remarks on our bearing towards the dominant 
 school of “ the greatest man of the largest kingdom ” are 
 not to be construed as coming from a lost admirer of that 
 school. Nor are they made in ignorance or forgetfulness 
 of the follies, of the empty pretensions of some of its most 
 prominent men, or of the imperfections sanctioned and 
 uncorrected by it. Much less is ignored the pitiable figments 
 which they have raised, in order, by them, practically to 
 deify their sage and so make his example and influence 
 complete. 
 
 Nevertheless, after all we can see (and who cannot ?) 
 features in Confucianism as an ethical system terminating 
 on society — the state — which entitle it to the deference 
 here claimed for it. If indeed its perfection and sufficiency 
 were here positively maintained, then its defects might 
 well be cited against these remarks. What we stress is 
 what it has done, not what it has not done ; what it 
 enjoins, not what it does not affirm, and that its principles 
 (not its methods) of social regulation are not inconsistent with 
 Christianity, and not that they are wholly sufficient. To 
 take its Classics and leading writings and judge of them 
 piecemeal is hardly better thau to judge of the Bible by an 
 examination of the Canticles and Apocalypse, and really, 
 we have no more desire to join in such a rude crusade of 
 criticism against it than we have to be, ourselves, judged of 
 in the above fashion, as if the short-sightedness of the early 
 Church on some things, the childish conceits of the fathers 
 and of the middle ages, or the errors of destructive criticism 
 in Germany, were forsooth to be sufficient grounds for proving 
 Christianity superfluous, erroneous or effete. 
 
 This being so, seek for and recognise candidly, as from 
 above, all truth held, however, imperfectly and mixedly. 
 Clear it. Draw the lessons from it. Lead them on beyond 
 it. Give up the despising of everything native. Lay aside 
 the tone of opposition. Cease to regard them as Canaanites 
 or to patronise them as negroes. Found good alone on good. 
 Be patient. Trust your own doctrine. Remember that, as 
 the faith of the embryo Jewish Church in its after spread 
 as Christianity recognized the worth of and drew into its 
 service the language and philosophy of Greece, the laws 
 
56 
 
 and order of Rome, the customs and the free unfettered ideas 
 of the Teutonic races, and each in their turn to affect it, so, 
 perhaps there are in India and China social or religious 
 characteristics being formed, both real, and it may be 
 necessary to the future great organic unity of the kingdom 
 of God, treasures which, when appropriated, incorporated, 
 and revivified, will become the common blessings of 
 mankind. Recognise then a great possible future for 
 Christianity in China in the way just indicated, and do all 
 you can to aid towards it. 
 
 Study deeply and critically the conditions of our difficulties 
 and hiuderings. Offer them a gospel and a worship that 
 cannot but commend itself to them. In all your inter- 
 course, conversations and reasonings “ encamp near 
 the indisputable regions of practice ” lest philosophic 
 ground become a tournament on which they are hurt and 
 withdraw. Think of the absence of all precipitancy from 
 the Divine ways. 
 
 There is no use in western scholars searching up and 
 providing materials and thinking while we work on blindly. 
 It comes to this, there must be an absolute change of 
 spirit in the way we regard men if we want to win them, 
 and this must find effective and appropriate expression and 
 form in our lives and literature. 
 
 Such a change being made — no, not a change — a reverting 
 to our true attitude, there will gradually follow in the 
 Chinese throughout the eighteen provinces the feeling that 
 both sides have misunderstood one another, and, good feeling 
 being once established, we may trust the truth in free 
 unfettered form to commend itself to human hearts and win 
 them back to full allegiance to their Heavenly Father.