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 THE REV. GRIFFITH JOHN, ( f3 /- tp 
 
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 1872 . ' 
 
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FOR CHINA! 
 
 ^ Sermon 
 
 Preached on behalf of the London Missionary Society, 
 at Surrey Chapel, May 8th, 1872. 
 
 “ Let us not be weary in well-doing ; for in due season we shall 
 reap, if we faint not.” — Galatians vi. 9. 
 
 Being a Missionary, I desire to speak as a Missionary on a 
 subject of vital importance to us all. By many the Missionary 
 is regarded as a fanatic, and the Missionary enterprise as a 
 visionary scheme. The Duke of Somerset only gave a concise 
 and pithy expression to a widely-diffused sentiment when he 
 said, “ A Missionary must be an enthusiast ; for if he is not an 
 enthusiast he is probably a rogue.” Among ourselves, also, 
 there are some who seem to entertain grave doubts as to the 
 possibility of evangelising the Hindoos, Chinese, or Japanese. 
 They admit that the Gospel can raise the Malagasy, but they 
 doubt its power to turn the Chinese to God. One of our most 
 influential ministers told me some time ago that he very much ques- 
 tioned whether the Chinese would ever be Christianised, and that 
 not a few of his brethren held views similar to his own in regard 
 to the matter. During a Missionary career of fifteen years, I have 
 been compelled to examine and re-examine the grounds of my 
 convictions on this subject, and I am glad to be able to tell you 
 that my faith in the reality and ultimate success of the Mis 
 sionary enterprise was never stronger than it is now. I firmly 
 believe that “ in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” 
 
 It must be admitted that the success of Missions falls far short 
 of the expectations that were generally entertained in regard to 
 them. It is a fact that cannot be denied that many of the friends 
 of Missions are not satisfied with the results. They expected 
 greater things, and they are disappointed. But it is only fair to 
 bear in mind that most of these expectations were founded on 
 inexperience, or a profound ignorance of the real strength of the 
 power of evil with which the Gospel has to contend in heathen 
 lands. Some good people seem to think that the heathen mind 
 
 A 
 
2 
 
 HOPE FOR CHINA. 
 
 is in a beautifully receptive state in regard to Christian truth ; 
 and that the Missionary needs do little more, in order to effect 
 the conversion of whole races, than go from place to place and 
 repeat the glorious declaration, that “ God so loved the world 
 that he gave his only begotten Son.” The Gospel appears to 
 them so obviously true, and idolatry so glaringly false, that they 
 cannot understand why it should be a difficult task to induce the 
 heathen to adopt the one and abandon the other. Even Mis- 
 sionaries sometimes go forth with similar notions ; but they are 
 soon undeceived. “ Mr. John,” said a young brother to me soon 
 after his arrival at Shanghai, “ do you know. I was in a great 
 hurry to come out ; for I was very much afraid that all the 
 Chinese would be converted before I could do so.” I hardly need 
 remark that he is a much wiser man now. 
 
 The fact is, that nowhere does the Missionary find the people 
 prepared to receive or even understand his message ; and that 
 generally many years have to be spent in breaking up the fallow 
 ground and sowing the Divine seed before any fruit appears. 
 Heber’s well-known hymn is true or false according to the con- 
 struction that is put upon it. If the meaning is that the moral, 
 spiritual, and social degradation of the heathen is in itself a 
 loud call to the Church, it is solemnly time. But if the idea is 
 that the heathen, feeling their bondage and longing for redemp- 
 tion, are consciously inviting us to come and “ deliver their land 
 from error’s chain,” nothing can be more false. I have never 
 met a heathen who seemed to be troubled with a sense of sin, or 
 appeared to have the least desire to be delivered from its do- 
 minion. The Missionary alone can form anything approaching 
 to an adequate idea of the blindness, the hardness, the impeni- 
 tence, and the godlessness of the heathen mind when the Gospel 
 first comes into contact with it. It is not the work of a day to 
 build up afresh the ruins of nations that have been going to 
 decay for ages ; or to overthrow ancient, subtle, and consolidated 
 systems which are deeply-rooted in the minds of the people, and 
 interwoven in the very fabric of their society. Let the friends of 
 Missions bear these facts in mind, and their expectations will be 
 more moderate and reasonable. Let them also look around 
 them, and observe how slowly Christian truth is moulding the 
 thought and life of Christendom ; and they will cease to wonder 
 that not more has been accomplished in heathendom during the 
 short period the existing agency has been at work. Though the 
 Gospel has done much for Europe and America, yet the Popish 
 superstitions, the scepticism, the worldliness, the immoralities 
 and wars of Christendom make us often ask mournfully, “ Where 
 is the beauty and power of Christianity, even in these great 
 Christian lands ? ” 
 
 Allow me now to state some of the reasons which induce me 
 
HOPE FOR CHINA. 
 
 3 
 
 to believe in the reality and ultimate success of the Missionary 
 enterprise. 
 
 “ Let us not be weary in well doing ; for in due season we shall 
 reap, if we faint not." 
 
 I. I observe in the first place, that the bright future revealed in 
 Ood's Word, induces me to believe that “ we shall reap, if we faint 
 not." The past is dark, the present is unsatisfactory ; but there is a 
 future, all radiant and glorious, foretold in this blessed volume, 
 in which the Missionary delights to live, and from which he daily 
 draws strength and consolation. I desire to commence here, 
 because this is a firm and sure foundation to build our hopes 
 upon, and because I have found it an unfailing source of in- 
 spiration in many a dark hour. Mere theorists may fancy that 
 the world is rapidly outgrowing the Bible ; but I feel perfectly 
 sure that, as long as any practical Missionary work remains to 
 be done, the Grand Old Book, with its sublime revelations and 
 glowing visions, will not cease to live and give life. Allow me to 
 give you an insight into our Missionary experience. There is a 
 dark side to our experience ; and I wish you to see it as clearly, 
 and, if possible, feel it as deeply as we do ourselves. I have no 
 desire to give a rose-coloured account of our work. The story of 
 Missions has often been tinged with the gay tints of romance. 
 Pictures have been drawn of Missions which have no original in 
 the heathen world, and that in all sincerity and with the best 
 intentions on the part of the limner. Young Missionaries, too, 
 charmed with early appearances, and entranced with bright vis- 
 ions, will sometimes take their pen in hand and “ write the 
 things which shall be hereafter ” rather than “ the things which 
 are." Thus, premature hopes have been excited, exaggerated 
 conceptions have been formed, grand expectations have been dis- 
 appointed, and the cause has been injured. There are two sides 
 to our work, and the Churches ought to have both — the dark as 
 well as the bright ; for the Missionary needs their earnest prayers 
 and heart-felt sympathy, as well as their warm congratulations 
 and valuable contributions. 
 
 Whilst I regard the Missionary work as the noblest work to 
 which a human being can possibly devote his energies, I can- 
 didly confess that I have found it exceedingly practical, sober, 
 trying, and unromantic. Often does the Missionary’s spirit sink 
 in view of the blindness, the hardness, and the impenitence of 
 the heathen mind. He has often to preach and teach for years 
 without being cheered by a single apparent result. After a year, 
 or ten years, or perhaps a longer period of hard toil and earnest cry- 
 ing to God, his heart is gladdened by what appears to be, at the time, 
 the conversion of a single soul to Christ. But this one having 
 joined him from unworthy motives, is soon disappointed, and 
 shows his disappointment by forsaking the Missionary and his 
 
 a 2 
 
4 
 
 HOPE FOR CHINA. 
 
 God. Or a few gather around him as inquirers, but no sooner 
 are they convinced of the purely spiritual character of his mis- 
 sion then they disappear for ever. Or he establishes a new 
 station. Great prosperity attends his early efforts. He is de- 
 lighted with the prospects, and writes sanguinely to the Directors 
 and his Mends at home. By-and-by, however, the impulse dies 
 out, stagnation and death ensue, and atter years of patient 
 watching and prayerful teaching, the whole tiling collapses and 
 vanishes out of sight. He is sometimes sadly disappointed in 
 men, and forsaken by those on whom he has been building great 
 hopes and expectations for years. He preaches to hundreds 
 eveiy day ; the heathen listen with much curiosity and some in- 
 terest, but at the close of the week, the month, or the year, no 
 fruit appears, and he can only ask sorrowfully, “ Who hath 
 believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord re- 
 vealed?” Still he perseveres. His faith remains firm in the midst 
 of outward disappointments ; his hope continues to burn with a 
 steady lustre ; and his prayers become more earnest and heart- 
 felt every day. What is it that sustains his spirit? Idolatry 
 lifts up its head as proudly as ever. The heathen smile derisively 
 at his efforts to undermine its foundations. His fellow country- 
 men in heathen lands venture to suggest grave doubts as to the 
 practicability of the undertaking. At home he is spoken of as a 
 fanatic or a rogue by some of the peers of the realm. And 
 sometimes Satan will whisper in his own ears that there are 
 grounds for misgivings, that the task looks hopeless, and that he 
 might as well retire from the field. 
 
 In view of all this, what is it that inspires him with confidence 
 and corn-age to persevere ? I reply : His faith in God's word and 
 the bright future revealed therein, is one of the principal sources 
 of inspiration. He takes his Bible, and reads it under the 
 solemn conviction that it is God’s word, and therefore true. He 
 sees in it that the downfall of idolatry is decreed by the Almighty, 
 and that the earth is to be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as 
 the waters cover the sea. He thanks God and takes courage ; 
 and rises from his Bible and from his knees a stronger man, 
 determined to labour on and wait in prayer for the results. If 
 the progress seems slow, he remembers that to God time is 
 nothing — that to Him “one day is as a thousand years, and a 
 thousand years as one day” — that God has abundance of time, 
 and that He takes time to accomplish His grand purposes. He 
 knows that the work is God s work, that the plan is God's plan, 
 that the time is God’s appointed time, and that if there be danger, it 
 is God’s own word and honour that are in danger. In view of the 
 
 glorious future revealed in God’s word, his heart throbs with 
 unutterable joy even in the darkest hour ; and he cannot but be- 
 lieve, even in the midst of many reverses and disappointments, 
 
HOPE FOR CHINA. 
 
 6 
 
 that his work is a real work, and that success is a mere question 
 of time. Dr. Judson was asked on one occasion what were the 
 prospects for the conversion of the Burmese. His reply was : 
 *• The prospects for the conversion of the Burmese are as bright 
 as the promises of God.” Do you ask me what are the prospects 
 for the conversion of the Chinese ? My reply is : “ They are as 
 bright as God's promises;’ 1 for “ behold these shall come from 
 afar; and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and 
 these from the land of Sinim ” — that is China. “ Let us not be 
 weary in well doing," for the bright future revealed in God's 
 Word assures us that “ in due season we shall reap, if wo faint 
 not." 
 
 II. The present aspect of the work induces me to believe that 
 “ we shall reap . if we faint not." I am quite prepared to admit 
 that the progress made does not bear lull proportion to the time 
 and the means that have been expended on the enterprise. If 
 our organisations had been more perfect and complete from the 
 beginning ; if the Protestant Churches, instead of obtruding their 
 miserable divisions and distractions upon the notice of the 
 heathen, had presented one unbroken front to the common 
 enemy; if all the Missionaries had beeu men of apostolic mould, 
 atlame with love to Christ, and burning with desire to save men ; 
 if the prayers of God's people at home had been more importu- 
 nate and unceasing on behalf of the Missionaries and their work ; 
 and if the policy adopted and pursued by Christian Governments 
 in heathen countries, and the conduct of foreign residents and 
 visitors had been more worthy of the Christian name — if all this 
 had been the case, the success would have been far greater than 
 it is. But though the progress has not been as great as it might 
 have been, and though the Missionary work continues to be pre- 
 eminently a work of faith, still there has been progress, and 
 wonderful progress too, considering the number and magnitude of 
 the obstacles with which the Gospel has to contend in heathen 
 lands. There has been no failure, and the fact that the success 
 has not been greater can easily be accounted for. That Missions 
 have accomplished so much, in spite of many imperfections 
 within and gigantic obstacles without, is to my mind a clear proof 
 of their reality and power. 
 
 Let us just glance over the Mission field, and see what has been 
 accomplished. 
 
 Africa is one of the hardest of the Mission fields, and yet the 
 Gospel has been proved to be the power of God unto salvation 
 even in that dark region. We are told that not less than a 
 quarter of a million Africans are now professing Christians, and 
 the work is spreading in such a way as to inspire hope and confi- 
 dence. Missionaries are to be found at present two thousand 
 miles north of Cape Town ; and the chiefs of barbarous tribes in 
 
6 
 
 HOPE FOR CHINA. 
 
 inner Africa are applying for Missionaries for their uninstructed 
 people. 
 
 “ In the West Indies slavery has been abolished and Christianity 
 so diffused, that fairly it may be called the religion of the com- 
 munity ; and education, which was formerly denied to the people, 
 is now the heritage of tens of thousands.” 
 
 In India, notwithstanding the mighty obstacles the Gospel has 
 to contend with there, the Churches can boast of more than 250,000 
 converts and 50,000 communicants. Thankful as I am for these 
 numbers, I feel much more thankful for the indubitable evidences 
 we have of a vast amount of preparatory work which has been 
 accomplished in that great empire. Idolatry, we are told, is 
 rapidly losing its hold of all classes ; religious festivals are not 
 crowded as they once were ; suttee, infanticide, and human 
 sacrifices have been swept away ; and caste itself, the great curse 
 of India, is losing its charm, and beginning to be felt a bui’den. 
 The pilgrims are beginning to whisper that the sacredness of the 
 Ganges is fast drawing to its close, and that in about thirty years 
 its sin-cleansing properties will have ceased to be. A great 
 change is coming over the native mind in respect to female 
 education. A native professor at Bombay feels compelled to say 
 that Hinduism is sick unto death, and that he is full}’ persuaded 
 it must fall. The Calcutta correspondent of the Times tells us 
 that “ the middle and upper strata of Hindu society, under the 
 direct propagandism of Missions, and the moderate results of our 
 rule, are seething with new ideas, desires, and beliefs ; and 
 present a study full of significance to the philanthropist and the 
 scientific observer." These are the facts that cheer my heart in 
 respect to India, and not the number of converts we have there at 
 present. To my mind they speak volumes. They show clearly 
 that Christianity is slowly, but most surely, undermining the very 
 foundations of Satan’s kingdom in the land, and silently effecting 
 a revolution in the religious, moral, and social life of the people, 
 that will astonish the world some day. In respect to India, I 
 would say with the greatest emphasis, “ Let us not be weary in 
 well-doing ; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” 
 
 In Burmah the success has been very decided. It was about 
 sixty years ago that Dr. Judson and his truly noble wife 
 commenced the work in Burmah. Though the number of Mis- 
 sionaries has always been small there, they are able to report 
 now more than 100,000 converts, and 400 preachers and pastors. 
 
 In the South-Sea Islands the results have been encouraging in 
 the highest degree. Previous to the arrival of the Missionaries in 
 the year 1707, there was not a native Christian in the whole of that 
 region. For many years the Missionaries laboured in the midst 
 of indescribable disappointments, discouragements, aud personal 
 sufferings. Some of them were murdered, and some of them 
 
HOPE FOR CHINA. 
 
 proved unfaithful. About fifty years ago there were only two 
 Missionaries in all the South-Sea Islands, and it was then that 
 the work was beginning to take effect. But observe how wonder- 
 fully it has grown during these fifty years ! We are told that 
 “ not fewer than two hundred islands have been Christianised. 
 In most of them idolatry has ceased to exist, and the people, 
 with few exceptions, have declared themselves Christians. Edu- 
 cation is everywhere advancing. An aggregate of 500,000 are 
 nominally Christians, and 00,000 are in full communion with the 
 Churches. There are scores of other islands where Missionary 
 and native evangelists have planted the banner of the Cross, and 
 are steadily and successfully gaining the same peaceful and 
 beneficent victories. Aud all this has been done for less than a 
 million sterling — for less than the cost of a mile of railway in 
 London.” The Churches are, for the most part, self-supporting, 
 aud striving earnestly to send the Gospel to the regions beyond. 
 I don’t know how that picture strikes you, but I confess that it 
 fills my mind with wonder and gratitude. 
 
 I need not dwell on Madagascar. There the Divine ir.lluences 
 descend not in occasional drops, but in plentiful showers, making 
 the earth glad. There the Word of God is having free course 
 and being glorified. In vain did the most fiery persecution con- 
 tend with the power of the Gospel in that land. And how 
 mightily has the Word of God prevailed in Madagascar since the 
 re-establishment of the Mission ! Until within the last twelve 
 years, no schools or churches existed in the island, no Christian 
 worship was permitted, and no profession of Christianity was 
 safe. Now there are 300,000 adherents, 38,000 communicants, 
 and more than 2,500 native preachers. The Queen herself has 
 become a nursing-mother to the Church, and the Prime Minister 
 and other functionaries are exhorting the people to believe in 
 Jesus because He is the Saviour of the world. We are told that 
 “ large numbers of the people meet in places where they have 
 built chapels for themselves, and come and sit in silence every 
 Lord's-day without anyone to speak to them or to pray with them. 
 Occasionally, after sitting the usual time, perhaps an hour or 
 more, a man will rise, and lifting his hands, will look up to 
 heaven and say, ‘ O God, we wish to worship Thee, but we do not 
 know how. Teach us, O God, how to pray, or send some one to 
 teach us.’ ” That work in Madagascar, with all its imperfections, 
 is a wonderful work. For my own part, I cannot think of it 
 without exclaiming, “ Tliis is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvel- 
 lous in our eyes.” But, brethren, how is it that we are so slow 
 to go up and possess the land which the Lord our God has given 
 us in such a remarkable manner ? The whole land is before us, 
 and its four or five millions are waiting to be Christianised. It 
 seems to rest with us as to whether the next generation of 
 
8 
 
 HOPE FOE CHINA. 
 
 Malagasy shall be Christian or Pagan. Why, if we had possessed 
 the least spark of the enthusiasm of Missions. Madagascar would 
 have set our souls all ablaze long ago ; and instead of sending 
 forth ten or twenty men to gather in that rich harvest, we should 
 have been sending them by the scores and the hundreds. 
 
 I might proceed in this way and touch upon all the fields of 
 Christian Missions, and show how God causeth His servants to 
 triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of His know- 
 ledge by them in every place : hut I must pass on and speak of 
 China, one of the most remarkable spheres of Missionary labour 
 which the world presents, if not the most remarkable. 
 
 Many are greatly surprised that the work of conversion is 
 going on so slowly in that empire, and I confess that there was a 
 time when I thought it a great mystery. I don’t think it so now : 
 on the contrary, when I look at the difficulties by which the 
 work in China is surrounded, I am only surprised that so much 
 has been accomplished in spite of so many obstacles. I find 
 that very few even in China, with the exception of the Mission- 
 aries themselves, have anything approaching to an adequate idea 
 of their nature, number, and magnitude For instance, in a 
 lecture recently delivered in this country, by one of the oldest and 
 ablest of Her Majesty’s Consuls in China, an attempt is made 
 to account for what is called “ the comparative failure of the 
 Protestant Missionary enterprise ” in that country. It is. he 
 said, attributable to many causes, among which he would specify 
 the obtrusion of denominational differences ; the erection of pre- 
 tentious ecclesiastical edifices, which had the effect of exciting 
 the jealousy of the Chinese priesthood ; and the unfrequent adop- 
 tion of the native costume by the Missionaries. Now. if Her 
 Majesty’s Consul had possessed a little practical knowledge of 
 the Missionary work, he would have denied this “ comparative 
 failure” which he tries to account for, and he would have 
 deemed it childish to specify these as among the grand causes 
 of the apparently slow progress which we must all admit. 
 
 I have touched upon our denominational differences already, 
 and I am willing to nllow that they are an impediment in China, 
 as well as in India and elsewhere. Had we been united in one 
 mighty hand, and determined to know nothing as Missionaries 
 save Christ and Him crucified, the heathen would have listened 
 more respectfully to our message, less power would have been 
 wasted, and greater things would have been accomplished for 
 the Master. Still they do not form one of the great mountains 
 which stand in the way of the conversion of the Chinese. 
 
 As to our ecclesiastical edifices, they are ns simple and un- 
 pretentious as they can well be. I never felt that they were a 
 hindrance to the evangelisation of the people, but the reverse. 
 I wish we had many more of them. 
 
HOPE FOK CHINA. 
 
 0 
 
 As to the native costume, I will repeat what I have said on 
 another occasion, namely, that there are not half-a-dozen Mis- 
 sionaries in China who would not adopt it cheerfully if that 
 would in the least help on the work. To many of our Christian 
 friends in England it may appear an act of great self-denial to 
 imitate the Chinese in this particular ; but it is nothing of the 
 kind. The Chinese dress is comfortable enough and graceful 
 enough ; and it is quite possible, as in Mr. Burns' case, to get 
 so accustomed to it as to have no desire to make a change on 
 personal grounds. A missionary is safer in China, and will in- 
 variably command more respect, by being himself in dress and 
 manners ; and this is the reason why the Protestant Missionaries 
 generally do not adopt the native costume. 
 
 These are not the causes why the Gospel has not made greater 
 progress in China; if they were, I should think very much less 
 of the Gospel than I do now. The conversion of the Chinese 
 is a stupendous task, and the obstacles in the way are terribly 
 formidable. Let us endeavour to form some idea ot both. 
 
 Consider the vastness of the field. China is not a small island 
 which may be compassed in a day. The whole empire is one of 
 the largest the world has ever seen. It is much larger than the 
 whole of Europe. It comprises the one-third of the continent 
 of Asia, and ‘the one-tenth of the habitable world. It exceeds 
 the extent of the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 
 44 times, and that of Eugland alone 104 times. That part of 
 the empire called “ China Proper " contains eighteen provinces; 
 each province, on the average, is nearly as large as Great Britain, 
 and thus “ China Proper ” is about equal to eighteen Great 
 Britains. The features of the country are moulded on an im- 
 mense scale, and they ofton exercise a depressing inlluence on 
 the spirit of the Missionary. Sometimes an overwhelming sense 
 of his own nothingness seizes him as he takes a survey of the 
 land to be possessed, and he feels as if he could do nothing but 
 sit down and weep at his utter helplessness. I am speaking 
 from experience. 
 
 Consider, again, the vastness of the population. It is generally 
 supposed that the population of China is somewhere between 
 three and lour hundred millions. I don't see much reason to 
 question the substantial accuracy of the general opinion on this 
 point. Go where you will in China, and the same impression of 
 a teeming population is left on your mind. The cities, the towns, 
 and the villages seem to be innumerable. The great centres of 
 population, such as Peking, Hankow, Shanghai, and Canton pre- 
 sent wonderful scenes of life and activity. Twenty-live years 
 ago, before the place had been destroyed by the rebels, the popu- 
 lation of Hankow, together with the two adjoining cities, could 
 not have been less than three millions. It is now between 
 
 a. 3 
 
10 
 
 HOPE FOR CHINA. 
 
 a million and a million and a half. But then think of this 
 enormous mass of human beings. Four hundred millions ! 
 or three hundred millions ! We cannot take the number in. 
 Pent up there you have the one-third of the human family, and 
 nearly the one-lialf of the heathen world ! And then you must 
 think of these hundreds of millions as welded together and bound 
 by language, custom, education, religion, and government. It is 
 not the work of a day to move that mighty people, and a wise 
 man will not expect to see great changes taking place in their 
 moral, religious, and social life without many years of hard toil 
 and earnest crying to God. 
 
 Consider, again, their antiquity and civilisation. We must 
 allow the Chinese a national existence of more than four thou- 
 sand years, and thus regard the Chinese Empire as the most 
 ancient and venerable now existing. It has watched the rise, 
 the culmination, and the setting of some of the principal empires 
 of the world. Assyria. Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome have 
 all passed away ; but China remains a wonderful and most in- 
 teresting monument of patriarchal times. Compared with the 
 Chinese Empire, the modern kingdoms of Europe are but of 
 yesterday. But they are more than an ancient people, they are 
 a highly-civilised people. They have been a civilised people 
 for thousands of years, and a source and centre of civilisation to 
 the surrounding nations. Their walled cities, their canals, their 
 commerce, their agriculture, their government, their literature, 
 their education, their competitive system of examination, and 
 their remarkable discoveries — all show that they are a people 
 who have reached a high degree of civilisation. The Chinese, 
 taking them all in all, stand higher than any other Asiatic nation, 
 not excepting the Hindoos and Japanese. Now, whilst their 
 antiquity and civilisation constitute a very strong argument why 
 we should strive earnestly to Christianise them, it must be 
 admitted that they form a formidable barrier in tbe way of their 
 speedy conversion. They make them arrogant, self-sufficient, 
 and exclusive. The Chinese are intensely proud, and supremely 
 self-satisfied. They are proud of their magnificent country, 
 their great antiquity, their wonderful history, and their high 
 civilisation. The Chinese thank Heaven that they have been 
 born and educated in civilised China, just as we thank God that we 
 have been born and educated in Christian England. Having 
 been teaching others through the ages, they don't understand 
 being called upon to learn ; and they regard our conduct in 
 assuming the position of teachers to them as nothing less than 
 brazen-faced impudence. Notwithstanding our superiority in 
 many respects, they call us barbarians, and doubtless regard us 
 as such in their deepest hearts ; and the fact that the Gospel is 
 introduced into their country from foreign lands is to them an 
 
HOPE FOR CHINA. 
 
 11 
 
 all-sufficient reason for rejecting it. without inquiring for a mo- 
 ment into the intrinsic merits or demerits of its nature and claims. 
 
 Consider again, that these ancient and civilised people have, 
 according to their way of thinking, their Scriptures and Infal- 
 lible Teacher, just as we have; and that, according to their 
 standard of orthodoxy, the things most firmly believed in by us 
 are rank heresy. The Personalty of God, Creation, the innate 
 and universal depravity of man, atonement, the immateriality 
 and immortality of the soul— these and such doctrines as these 
 are repugnant to the established faith of the “ Sect of the 
 Learned.” Confucius is revered by the whole nation as the 
 highest manifestation of humanity — the ideal pattern of man — 
 the Infallible Teacher. Nature is incarnated in all beings, and 
 especially in man ; but in Confucius this incarnation finds its 
 highest point and effort. He is worshipped as if he were God. 
 His sway over the Chinese mind is universal and absolute. “ Is 
 this doctrine taught in our Classics ?” This is the first question 
 asked whenever a new truth is offered for their consideration. 
 What these Classics teach is true ; what they leave untaught is 
 useless ; and what does not harmonise with their teachings is false. 
 All moral and religious teachings are tested by this standard in 
 China ; aud the faith of the Chinese in their Bible is far more 
 implicit than the faith of Christendom is in its Bible. It is not 
 an easy task to dethrone Confucius and the Conl'ucian Classics ; 
 but this must be done before China can become our Lord’s and 
 His Christ’s . 
 
 Consider, again, their ancestral worship — the real religion of the 
 Chinese. The Missionaries are sometimes blamed by men who 
 know very little about its nature because they proscribe the ob- 
 servance of it. But in this matter they are left without an 
 alternative. This worship of deceased ancestors is a subtle 
 phase of idolatry, and as such cannot be tolerated in the Christian 
 Church. But it would be impossible for me to give you an 
 adequate idea of the greatness of this obstacle to the spread of 
 Christianity in China. Our members have greater difficulties on 
 this point than on any other. To refuse to bow before the tablet 
 — to refuse to sacrifice to the manes of a departed father or 
 mother, that is a heinous sin in the eyes of the nation as a 
 nation. There is something terrible to a Chinese pagan in the 
 thought of dying without a son to attend to his grave and sacri- 
 fice to lfis spirit ; but it is a heartrending thought to him that he 
 has a son, but so undutiful as to refuse to perform tMs, the most 
 solemn duty that devolves upon Mm as such. Such a son would 
 be denoimced as unfilial — the greatest of moral delinquencies in 
 China — by Ms neighbours, and cursed by Ms father and mother. 
 It reqMres more than ordmary courage to face such opposition ; 
 and consequently there are many in China who are convinced of 
 
 a 4 
 
12 
 
 HOPE FOR CHINA. 
 
 the truth of Christianity, but are unable to make a public pro- 
 fession of their faith on account of this obstacle. Moreover, the 
 fact that Christianity proscribes this observance, is to the mind 
 of the pagan a convincing proof that it is unfilial in its principles 
 and tendency, and therefore a strong reason why it ought not to 
 be allowed to take root in the land. 
 
 Consider, again, the great absence of religious life and moral 
 earnestness which characterises the nation as a nation. Confu- 
 cianism, the orthodox religion of the country, is essentially a 
 system of morals, applicable only to this life, and confined to the 
 duties which arise from the various human relations. Confucius 
 himself disliked to touch upon religious subjects. He clung to 
 the seen, the temporal, and physical with a tenacious grasp. The 
 invisible, the spiritual, the eternal, and the speculative had no 
 charm for him. He would attempt no replies to questions re- 
 garding man’s spiritual relations, origin, and destiny. From all 
 such themes he shrank with instinctive aversion. This stolid 
 indifference to everything beyond the present and physical has 
 been fully inherited by his disciples. They boast in their ignor- 
 ance, indifference, and scepticism in regard to everything pertain- 
 ing to religion. In their estimation religion is the most contempt- 
 ible thing in the land. As to the people at large, they worship 
 without cherishing a particle of reverence for the objects of their 
 worship. The Chinese are a shrewd, practical, commercial, 
 secular people, and never more so than in their religious perform- 
 ances. In the temple as well as in the shop, they have a steady 
 eye to business. They bargain with their gods just as they do 
 with each other, and their religion is a purely commercial 
 transaction. A sense of sin, contrition for sin, humble gratitude, 
 spiritual communion, reverence, love — these and elements such 
 as these do not enter into the composition of their worship. 
 There are three religions in China, and it is supposed by many 
 that the nation is divided between these three, and that there are 
 so many Buddhists, so many Tauists, and so many Confucianists. 
 No mistake could be greater. These three systems live in perfect 
 peace in China, though they are mutually as conflictive as Roman 
 Catholicism, Protestantism, and Positivism. The people of China 
 belong to them all. The Broad Church is in the ascendant 
 there ; and such is the latitudinarianism of the Chinese that they 
 would neither see nor feel anything incongruous in being mem- 
 bers of every Church and subscribers to every Creed under the 
 sun. They would have no objection on religious grounds to 
 admit Jesus into their pantheon, if He would take his place 
 among the other gods, and rest satisfied with being regarded as 
 one of the many. What they do not understand about Christianity 
 is its exclusiveness, and the earnestness of its tone in regard to 
 things spiritual and divine. This catholicity of theirs arises 
 
HOPE FOR CHINA. 
 
 13 
 
 wholly from their profound ignorance of. and their stolid indiffer- 
 ence to, the nature and claims of any form of religious belief. 
 Religion, as realised in the inward experience of the Chinese, is 
 not worthy of the name. They seem incapable of assimilating 
 non-materialistic ideas. There does not appear to be anything in 
 their minds for religion to lay hold of. There is no thirsting 
 there for the spiritual, the heavenly, and the divine — no longing 
 for glory, immortality and eternal life. This feature in their 
 character makes it difficult to draw their attention to the question 
 of religion at all, and, even when secured, to make them feel that 
 it is a matter of importance. And they are as devoid of moral 
 earnestness as they are of religious earnestness. Morally the 
 nation is rotten through and through. Bribery, corruption, and 
 extortion fill the land. From the beggar's hovel to the dragon 
 throne there is an entire absence of truth and honour. Such is 
 the soil in which the Missionary has to sow the seed of divine 
 truth in China. Can you conceive anything more unprepared 
 and unpromising? Can you be surprised that the progress of 
 spiritual truth is slow in China? How could it be otherwise? It 
 is not an easy task to regenerate a people so utterly destitute 
 of religious life and moral earnestness as the Chinese are. It 
 will be done, I know it will be done, but not in a day. 
 
 Consider, again, the inertness and conservatism of the Chinese. 
 Various influences have been brought to bear upon China from 
 time to time ; but the effect produced has been very small — in 
 most cases hardly perceptible. But I am reminded of the spread 
 of Buddhism in China. It would appear, at first view, as if this 
 statement were contradicted by the progress of Buddhism in 
 China. But we must bear in mind that of all religions Buddhism 
 is the most versatile, plastic, and tolerant ; und that, whilst it has 
 been adopted by the Chinese to some degree, it has made no 
 mark of its own on the nation. It has pulled nothing down. 
 The Chinese are the same now as they were before the introduc- 
 tion of Buddhism. Buddhism has accommodated itself to them, 
 but they have not been changed by it. There is something ter- 
 ribly formidable in this vis inertia of the Chinese. They have 
 every confidence in it ; and they believe that it will prove more 
 than a match for Christianity and every other foreign force brought 
 to bear upon them. I look upon the immobility and conservatism 
 of the Chinese as forming a main hindrance to the progress of 
 Christianity among them, and, indeed, to the introduction of im- 
 provements of every kind. In this respect they differ widely 
 from the Japanese. In Japan you have vitality and progress ; in 
 China finality and immovability. As a people, the Chinese 
 belong to the past. In their views and feelings they are more 
 nearly related to the men beyond the flood than to us. Th re 
 is no end of talent among them. The Chinese are not among the 
 
14 
 
 HOPE FOR CHINA. 
 
 perishable races. There is abundance of stamina in the Chinese 
 character ; but the national mind is kept in a state of torpid 
 hybernation by their extreme veneration for antiquity. They 
 appear to me to be a nation with their heads turned in the 
 wrong direction. Every look is backward, and every eye is 
 fixed on the hoary past. The consequence is that China has 
 been a petrifaction for ages. The otficials and scholars wor- 
 ship antiquity, and deem it to be the grand object of their 
 existence to perpetuate it. It is their interest also to keep 
 alive the old, and to keep out the new. They depend upon 
 the old for their influence, position, and even their daily 
 bread. To strike the old on the head would be to break the 
 charm of the Confucian name, to despoil the Confucian School of 
 its prestige, and to make the Confucian scholars appear as other 
 men. Hence the reason why the officials and scholars are so 
 enraged against the foreigner and everything that belongs to him. 
 They hate with all their hearts your railways, your telegraphs, 
 and all your modern inventions and appliances. They dislike 
 intensely to see the foreigner pushing himself into their great 
 country with his notions of modern progress and modem improve- 
 ments. They would, if they could, banish us from the country to- 
 morrow — whether ministers, consuls, merchants, or missionaries, 
 and restore to the whole land its pristine state of isolation and 
 seclusion. The fresh and vigorous civilisation of the West has 
 been within their reach for a long period ; but they have hardly 
 condescended to notice it; none of them understand it; the people 
 know nothing about it ; and the mandarins and scholars loathe the 
 very thought of it. For some time they have been constructing 
 arsenals, building gunboats, and translating books ; but the object 
 in view has been to put themselves in a position to oppose an 
 effectual resistance to innovations of all kinds. They have 
 adopted innovations to a certain extent, in order to prevent further 
 innovations. To this anti-progressive spirit and policy the mas- 
 sacre of Tien-tsin and all the disturbances of the last four years 
 are to be ascribed. Religious fanaticism as such has had nothing 
 to do with it. In each and all of them the people were mere 
 instruments in the hands of the mandarins and scholars. In 
 this spirit and policy the Gospel, also, meets with a formidable 
 obstacle. So far as they understand it, the mandarins and 
 scholars must hate — hate it, because it is new and foreign— hate 
 it, because it is life, light, and liberty — hate it, because its dis- 
 tinct and avowed aim is to cause old things to pass away and to 
 make all things new. In this obstacle we see the entire influence 
 of all the learning and authority of the empire exerted in order to 
 prevent Christianity from taking root in the land. 
 
 I cannot do more than mention the opium trade, and the 
 selfish and unchristian conduct of the British Government in 
 
HOPE FOR CHINA. 
 
 15 
 
 respect to it ; but it would be a sin to allow an opportunity of 
 this kind to pass without referring to it. Our consuls and mer- 
 chants may speak of the opium trade as a “ political necessity,” 
 and as being “ regulated by the ordinary laws of supply and 
 demand.” That is one way of looking at it, and a very soothing 
 way, I suppose, to those who may be interested in it. But 
 the Chinese themselves say that “ England trades in opium 
 because she desires to work China’s ruin.”* And the Missionary 
 is made to feel constantly and deeply that this vile trade, with its 
 disgraceful history, speaks more eloquently and convincingly to 
 the Cliinese mind against Christianity than he does or can do 
 for it. And yet opium merchants will sometimes ask — Why is it 
 that the Gospel does not make greater progress in Cliina ? “ The 
 name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you.” 
 That is one reason at least. The trade is immoral, and a foul 
 blot on England's escutcheon. Would to God it were possible to 
 bring the British Government to see its unchristian character, 
 and to induce them to “ sacrifice their opium revenue on the altar 
 of our national Christianity and China's well-being!” No one can 
 study the liistory of modern Missions in India, Cliina, Polynesia, 
 America, the West Indies, and Africa, without being solemnly 
 impressed with the fact, that the positively wicked policy often 
 pursued by Christian Governments in heathen lands, and the 
 unchristian conduct of many of the foreign residents and visitors, 
 have formed one main hindrance to the progress of Christ’s 
 Kingdom. When I think seriously of these, I am only astonished 
 that we have any success to record, and not at all that it has not 
 been greater. 
 
 Such is the magnitude of the work which we are attempting to 
 accomplish in Cliina, and such are the principal causes why its 
 progress is not more rapid there. Are not these obstacles 
 gigantic barriers ? Are they not alpine obstructions ? It is not 
 easy to penetrate them. It is difficult to remove them. But 
 shall we, in view of them, tumour backs upon China as a country 
 too great and too strongly-fortified to be taken even by the Lord 
 of Hosts ? No, never ! say I. What say you ? The obstacles 
 are many and great ; but they are being overcome one by one. 
 The harvest is not yet ; but there are already precious first- 
 fruits. The great mountain is beginning to tremble. Let us 
 have faith and patience — let us labour and wait, before Zerub- 
 babel it shall become a plain. Enough has been achieved to 
 inspire us with courage and confidence, and the Divine resources 
 are infinite. 
 
 I do not despair of the conversion of the Chinese, and I will 
 tell you the reason why. 
 
 See Appendix. 
 
16 
 
 HOPE FOR CHINA. 
 
 Look, in the first place, at the marvellous wav in which God 
 has been pleased to open up that immense empire. Believing in 
 the God of providence as well as in the God of grace, I cannot 
 think of the changes which have taken place in China during the 
 last thirty years, without asking with wonder and gratitude, 
 “What hath God wrought?” Previous to the year 1842, China 
 was in no sense of the term open to either the merchant or the 
 missionary. In Dr. Morrison’s days it was a crime to teach the 
 language to a foreigner, a crime to learn it by a foreigner, and a 
 crime to print anything in it for a foreigner. No public preaching 
 was tolerated. To address an individual or two with fear and 
 trembling, in an inner apartment, and with the doors securely 
 locked — that is the way Dr. Morrison had to carry on his Mission- 
 ary work for many a long year. To him China was a sealed 
 country, and his being allowed to remain at Canton and Macao 
 at all is to be ascribed to his connection with the East India 
 Company. Taking all things into consideration, we are not sur- 
 prised to learn that at the close of a laborious career of twenty- 
 six years, this faithful servant of Christ could not boast of ten 
 converts. A brave man that ! Think of a man toiling on year 
 after year for twenty-six years, and not being able to report ten 
 converts at the close, and yet dying in faith ! Milne knocked for 
 admission, but was ruthlessly driven away. The other Mission- 
 aries were excluded from China, and employed in preaching to the 
 Chinese scattered over the Archipelago. 
 
 It was our first treaty with the Chinese Government, concluded 
 at the city of Nanking in 1842, that began to open China to the 
 merchant and the missionary, and thus the age of Protestant 
 Missions in China is not quite thirty years. I mention the Mis- 
 sionary, not because he was thought of by the Plenipotentiary, Sir 
 Henry Pottinger, when framing that treaty. Indeed we know 
 that his existence was completely ignored, and that nothing could 
 have been further from the intention of our Government at the 
 time, than to widen the sphere of his operations. I mention the 
 Missionary, then, because it was that treaty that made it possible 
 for him to establish himself in China ; and because I discern in 
 that event the finger of God, and a Divine purpose infinitely 
 transcending that of saturating the country with opium or even 
 British manufactures. But it was the last treaty, which came 
 into operation in 1800, that opened Chinn, and it is during the 
 last ten or twelve years that our work has flourished most. That 
 treaty did not only add nine new ports to the preceding five, hut 
 threw the whole country open so far as the right to travel is con- 
 cerned. Now, this is a marvellous change. Just think of it. 
 Only thirty years ago no Missionary durst stnnd up in any city 
 in China and preach Christ. Now lie may go, with the Bible in 
 his hand and the Gospel on his lips, and declare the life-giving 
 
HOPE FOR CHINA. 
 
 17 
 
 truth, that there is *' one God and one mediator between God and 
 men, the man Christ Jesus," in every city and town and village 
 of the land. Missionaries are to be found now in Peking, the 
 capital, and in Hankow, that immense mart, in the very centre ot 
 the empire. They have established more than three hundred 
 stations and out-stations in different parts of the country, and 
 have proclaimed the glad tidings of salvation over the length and 
 breadtli of the laud. 
 
 An effort was recently made by the Chinese Government to 
 close the door once more against the Missionary; for that was 
 the object of the famous “ Chinese Circular." But it cannot be. 
 That door, I verily believe, has been opened by God Himself, 
 and it is such that no man can shut. I am not sure but that the 
 Chinese will make one effort more to exclude all foreigners. The 
 exclusive and anti-foreign spirit of the officials and scholars re- 
 mains unchanged. They still desire to see their great country 
 stand apart, like a great world within itself, from the rest ot the 
 globe. But this also cannot be. That empire is no longer self-con- 
 contained and self-poised . We cannot unravel the future, and learn 
 what is mingled in its web; but we know that that magnificent coun- 
 try can never return to its former state of isolation and seclusion. 
 There are mighty forces at work which are impelling China tor- 
 ward, and to which she must yield whether she will or no. The 
 world is advancing, and China must advance too. I believe she 
 will move, and that a bright future is awaiting her. The re- 
 sources of the country are simply inexhaustible, and the Chinese 
 are capable of the highest development. I am looking forward 
 with the utmost confidence to a time when that great but slum- 
 bering nation will awake, and shake itself from the dust ; and 
 when that wonderful land shall “rejoice and blossom as the rose.” 
 
 Again, look at the noble band of men that God has given 
 China. This is another reason why I do not despair of her 
 evangelisation. It is not pleasant for me to speak on this sub- 
 ject; but is there not a cause ? Please bear iu mind, however, 
 that I am speaking of my brethren, and not of myself at all. 
 Mauy faults have been found of late with the Missionaries in 
 China. It has been stated that they are indiscreet, and that 
 their indiscretion is the sole cause of danger to the friendly re- 
 lations which have sprung up between China and foreign nations. 
 Now, I am glad to be able to say that there is not a word of 
 truth in this statement as far as the Protestant Missionaries are 
 concerned. The object of the Chinese Circular was to make out 
 a strong ease against the Missionary and his work, whether 
 Roman Catholic or Protestant, and yet it does not contain a 
 single charge against Protestant Missionaries. Not long since, 
 the Chinese Foreign-office admitted to the American Minister, tliat 
 “ Protestant Missionaries had never been found guilty of political 
 
18 
 
 HOPE FOR CHINA. 
 
 intrigue.” And this witness is true. They have never shown the 
 least desire to establish an imperium in imperio in China. They 
 ask for no special privileges for themselves, and they do not wish 
 to stand between the converts and the operations of the laws of 
 their country and the obligations of citizenship. The Chinese 
 Circular is, I think, a satisfactory answer to the many unfounded 
 imputations which have been heaped upon them in this country 
 during the last four years. 
 
 It lias been stated, too, that “ the human instrumentalities 
 brought to bear upon the Chinese people for their conversion, is 
 seemingly ill adapted to secure the end proposed.” Now, though 
 the Missionaries in China would be thankful if they were better 
 fitted for the stupendous task which lies before them, and would 
 greatly rejoice to see men more highly endowed than themselves 
 coming out and take up the work, yet they need not be ashamed 
 of themselves, and the Churches need not blush on their 
 account. Among them there are many names that will never 
 perish in China. Neither the Diplomatic service, nor the Con- 
 sular service, nor the Mercantile enterprise can boast of men of 
 greater ability, of higher culture, and in every way better adapted 
 to secure the end proposed. The Chinese are indebted to them 
 for nearly all the scientific as well as the religious works that 
 have been translated into their language, and the world is in- 
 debted to them chiefly for the most valuable information it 
 possesses in regard to the language, the literature, the history, the 
 religions, and the manners and customs of the Chinese. But it 
 must be confessed that some of the best Missionaries are men of 
 whom the noisy world hears least. They are not authors, not 
 because they lack the requisite taste and ability for the pro- 
 duction of literary works, but because they deem it to be their 
 duty to crucify their natural predilections, in order to devote the 
 whole of their time and energy to what seems to them to be a 
 more urgent and toilsome work. It certainly requires “ special 
 grace ” in China not to write a book. All honour to the trans- 
 lator and the author. Our enterprise needs both. But theirs is 
 the easier, and in the eyes of the world the more honourable task. 
 The man who is to be found in season and out of season super- 
 intending his churches and schools, preaching and teaching in 
 the chapels, the streets, the tea-gardens, and other places of public 
 resort, travelling among the surrounding cities, towns, and vil- 
 lages, and everywhere dispensing the bread of life to perishing 
 men, and striving to impress upon immortal spirits the image of 
 Jesus — this is the Missionary par excellence , the true Apostolic 
 successor, the kind of man China most needs at the present 
 time. Well, you have such men in China, or, at least, you have 
 men there who are exerting their utmost to realise this ideal, and 
 they are doing a noble work. One of our ministers made the 
 
HOPE FOH CHINA. 
 
 19 
 
 remark not long since, that he did not know more than one who 
 had not bettered himself by becoming a Missionary. I wish I 
 could take him and many like-minded with him to China (in spirit, 
 at least, for I doubt whether they would care to go in any other 
 form), and let them see the Missionaries in the midst of their 
 work. They would soon be convinced, I think, that most of them 
 were there, not because they look upon the Missionary work as 
 a bread-and-butter enterprise, but because they can say from the 
 depth of their hearts, “ The love of Christ constraineth us." 
 “ Necessity is laid upon me, and woe he unto me if I preach not 
 the Gospel." Whilst the Lord of the harvest continues to send 
 forth labourers of this stamp into His harvest we need not despair 
 of China. 
 
 Look, again, at the amount of work that has been accomplished 
 in spite of the numerous and formidable obstacles iu the way. 
 
 The language is a great barrier, but it is not insurmountable. 
 It is much easier to master it now than it was in the days of 
 Morrison, Milne, and Medliurst. At present it is thoroughly 
 understood ; excellent dictionaries and grammars have been pre- 
 pared in it ; the Bible has been translated into it ; and not a few 
 valuable works on theology and the sciences have been given to 
 the people in a style both intelligible and idiomatic. There are 
 but few Missionaries who are not able to master it sufficiently 
 within two years to be of real service ; and there are tens of Mis- 
 sionaries who preach in it daily with accuracy and fluency. 
 During the last twelve years the Gospel has been preached, and 
 the Word of God extensively distributed in seventeen of the 
 eighteen provinces ; and thus there are tens of thousands in each 
 of these provinces who have heard the Missionaries speak in 
 their own tongue the wonderful works of God. 
 
 The attachment of the Chinese to antiquity, and their vener- 
 ation for Confucius and other sages, constitute a mighty obstacle. 
 But we have in China at present more than 7,000 communicants, 
 and among them some of the scholars of the land, who have 
 learned that the ancients were fallible beings, that Confucius was 
 only a man, and that Jesus alone is the Saviour of the world. 
 
 The weakness of the religious instinct in the Chinese mind is 
 a great obstacle. But there are among our members, men who 
 have tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the world 
 to come — men who are earnest, zealous, and warm-hearted Chris- 
 tians — and men who are exerting their utmost to sow the divine 
 seed in the hearts of their fellow-countrymen. I have seen the 
 story of Divine love move even the Chinese to tears. 
 
 Their ancestral worship is a terrible barrier. But we have 
 men in our Churches who have learned that there is to them a 
 Father in Heaven — a Father infinitely greater, and infinitely 
 nearer to them than any human parent can be, and that his com- 
 
20 
 
 HOPE FOR CHINA. 
 
 mand is, “ Honour thy father and mother,” but “ Thou shalt 
 have no Gods before Me.” There is sufficient strength in the 
 spirit of adoption whereby they cry, Abba Father, to remove every 
 idol from the heart, and secure the throne to God alone. 
 
 The work being in its infant state in China at present, I 
 attach no great value to the statistics of our Missions as an index 
 of their success; yet I am glad to be able to show that they are 
 such as to inspire confidence. When the late Rev. Robert Wilson 
 and myself went to Hankow, in 1801, there was not a single native 
 Christian in the place, that is, in connection with the Protestant 
 Church. When I left, at the close of nine years, we had re- 
 ceived more then two hundred members in connection with our 
 Mission alone, among whom there were more than 30 whole 
 families and more than 50 women. The other Missions also had 
 been successful in bringing souls to Christ. Though we are 
 bound to confess that hitherto “not many wise men after the 
 flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called ; ” yet I am 
 glad to be able to say, that among our most zealous converts 
 and most efficient native teachers, are to be found respectable 
 scholars. For instance, in our little Church at Hankow, there were, 
 when I left, eight or nine B.A’s., one M.A., and several under- 
 graduates besides. The progress in other parts of China is 
 equally satisfactory, and in some parts more so. The Missions 
 at Amoy and Fuchovv, have been making rapid strides of late. 
 And the ratio of increase over the whole field is very encourag- 
 ing. Take the following table : — 
 
 
 1853 
 
 1863 
 
 1804 
 
 1868 
 
 Stations and Out-Stations 
 
 26 
 
 108 
 
 130 
 
 306 
 
 Native Preachers 
 
 59 
 
 141 
 
 170 
 
 365 
 
 Native Christians 
 
 351 
 
 1974 
 
 2007 
 
 5743 
 
 Let this rate of progress continue, and we shall close the 19th 
 century with more than a million and a half of Native Christians 
 in China. 
 
 But it would be very unfair to look upon our six or seven 
 thousand converts as representing the total apparent results of 
 cur labours. There are hundreds around the various stations 
 who are standing somewhere between the two kingdoms, and we 
 are constantly receiving into our communion men who have been 
 halting between two opinions for years. Some of those who 
 were in this state of mind when I left Hankow have been re- 
 ceived into the Church since. Here and there the people are be- 
 ginning to question their old creeds and superstitions ; some have 
 already cast them aside as worthless things ; and there are not a 
 few who have become Christian in sentiment, though they have 
 not'yet joined us. 
 
 But I protest against the unfairness of guaging the work in 
 China at present by what is called “ apparent results." The in- 
 
HOPE FOR CHINA 
 
 21 
 
 visible results are, I verily believe, far greater and far more im- 
 portant than the visible. The growth of our work is similar to 
 that of a plant. The root of a plant takes a longer time to grow 
 than the stem ; but maturation takes less time than either. The 
 giant oak is wrapped up in that tiny acorn, but to develop it, the 
 acorn must have time to strike its roots, and the sapling must be 
 exposed to the necessary influences. Summer and winter, spring 
 and autumn, the stormy winds and soft breezes, have all had a 
 share in, and were all necessary to, the development of the baby- 
 oak into the fair tree you see to-day. So it is with our work. 
 All great work requires time. It takes a long time to prepare 
 for, and lay the foundation of. a great building. The Chinese 
 finish off the foundations of their houses very rapidly ; but it is 
 hollow walls they build thereupon. If we intend to erect solid 
 walls we must lay a solid foundation. If we wish to see durable 
 results, our preparations must be slow and real. In looking 
 back upon my Missionary life, I can see clearly that I have com- 
 mitted many blunders, and that the principal cause was my 
 hurry and bustle. I have had many an illustration in China of 
 the old proverb, “ The greater haste, the less speed.” I would 
 say, Let us beware of allowing ourselves to be driven on by the 
 cry for results. God takes time to accomplish His grand pur- 
 poses ; let us do the same. There was a time when we thought 
 the work of creation was completed within six ordinary days. 
 Geology has taught us a different lesson. Slowly — very slowly 
 — did God build up this wondrous fabric ; but see the amount of 
 work that He has put into it. Slowly — very slowly — is He now 
 carrying on a still more glorious work in the moral world ; but 
 the foundation has been laid, the superstructure is advancing, in 
 due time the temple will be finished, and again it shall be re- 
 corded — “ And God saw everything that He had made, and, be- 
 hold, it was very good." Though there were not a single convert 
 in China, I should not allow that the work was a failure. I 
 should still go on ploughing and sowing ; for the husbandman 
 sows his seed, and then “ waiteth for the precious fruit of the 
 earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and 
 latter rain.” 
 
 Still I bless God that it is not a matter of experiment with us 
 now as to whether the Gospel can or cannot influence the 
 Chinese mind. It is influencing it, and doing precisely the same 
 thing for them that it is doing for you and me. It gives them 
 the victory over sin and death. It enables them to say that old 
 things have passed away, and that all things are become new. 
 It makes them feel that to be carnally-minded is death, but to be 
 spiritually-minded is life and peace. You have been told that 
 those who say that “ the Missionaries are making sincere Chinese 
 Christians ” must be governed by a delusion or guilty of a fraud. 
 
22 
 
 HOPE FOR CHINA. 
 
 Well, I am prepared to say this, distinctly and boldly, and you 
 must judge for yourselves as to the parties who ought to he re- 
 garded as authorities on this subject — whether the Missionaries 
 who live and labour among the people, or a Correspondent of the 
 Times, who pays a flying visit to the country, and leaves it as 
 ignorant of the Missionaries and their work as the day on which 
 he landed. I don’t say that all our converts are genuine ; neither 
 do I say that all that are genuine are all that we could wish 
 them to be. But I do mean to say that we have genuine Christians 
 there ; and that they have risen rather than fallen in my estima- 
 tion since I have had an opportunity of comparing them noth the 
 professing Christians of this country. Christ, I firmly believe, is 
 taking possession of China. When it shall become wholly His, I 
 know not. Hundreds of years hence, perhaps — tens of years 
 hence, perhaps. It has not been given to me to know the times 
 and the seasons. But I know that it is becoming His ; I feel 
 that it is becoming His ; I see that it is becoming His. I have 
 no more doubt of the ultimate evangelisation of the Chinese 
 than I have that the sun will rise to-morrow. I don’t regard 
 the time that I have spent in China as having been spent in 
 vain, and I shall return to that great country much stronger in 
 faith than when I went. I never saw the obstacles in their 
 number and magnitude as I see them now — never felt them so 
 deeply as I feel them now — was never so conscious of my own 
 nothingness, and the nothingness of all mere human instrumen- 
 talities as I am now ; and yet I never felt more sure of the 
 victory. I have seen the Gospel work miracles in China, I 
 have seen it make the lying truthful, the dishonest honest, the 
 earthly heaven-aspiring, the godless and Christless God-fear- 
 ing and Christ-loving. I have seen it take Confucius down 
 from his lofty pedestal, and converting the proud Confucianist 
 into a humble disciple of the lowly Nazarene. 
 
 Not much has been done, it is true, as compared with what 
 remains to be done ; but “ my faith is large in time, and that 
 which shapes it to some perfect end.” The obstacles are great, 
 but they shall be overcome. “ For every valley shall be ex- 
 alted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low ; and the 
 crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. And 
 the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it 
 together ; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” What are 
 obstacles to God ? To man in this age they are mere incentives. 
 See how man triumphs over difficulties. Look at the Suez 
 Canal, the Atlantic Cable, the Pacific Railroad, and the Mont Cenis 
 Tunnel. See how man compels nature to yield up her treasures, 
 and reveal her secrets. See how he girdles the earth with his 
 iron roads, the speed with which he “ ploughs the watery wave,” 
 and the ease with which he tames the lightning to carry his 
 
HOPE FOR CHINA. 
 
 23 
 
 messages. Man in these days defies obstacles, matures his 
 plans, and completes his work. Shall God be less than man ? 
 Shall man succeed and God fail ? Impossible ! God said in 
 the beginning, “ Let there be light,” and there was light. Do 
 we not hear the same Voice in these days speak the same 
 almighty fiat in regard to the dark regions of the earth ? In 
 Polynesia Pie said, “ Let there be light,” and there was light. 
 In Madagascar he said, “ Let there be light," and there was 
 light. In China, He is now saying, “ Let there be light.” Shall 
 He speak in vain ? Impossible ! The light has already been 
 kindled there ; and having been kindled, it must spread till all is 
 luminous. The Sun of Righteousness is rising upon the land of 
 Sinim. The mountain tops are beginning to catch His gladsome 
 beams and rejoice in a new day. Ere long He will descend into 
 every valley, enter every ravine, chase away all the darkness and 
 shadows, and fill the whole land with light, life, and joy. A 
 vast amount of earnest work has been done in China ; the 
 Divine seed has been widely sown ; here and there it is springing 
 up and bearing fruit ; a rich harvest is awaiting us, which we 
 shall reap with joyful hearts in days to come. Thus the present 
 aspect of the work induces me to believe that in due season “ we 
 shall reap, if we faint not.” The experiment has been made, and 
 everywhere the Gospel has proved itself to be the power of God 
 unto salvation. 
 
 III. In the supernatural origin of the Oospel and the abiding 
 presence of the Holy Spirit tee have a pledge and a proof that tee 
 shall reap, if we faint not. Christianity is Divine. It is not a 
 something which man has evolved out of the depth of his own 
 nature, but a mighty power which has descended into this world 
 from Heaven itself. A long period had been given to man to find 
 out how far he could advance in the knowledge of God and in 
 moral and spiritual culture by his own power. We know the 
 result. Instead of advancing, he went back; and instead of 
 rising, he sank deeper and deeper in moral and spiritual degra- 
 dation. These systems of religion elaborated by the unaided 
 reason of man are pitiful failures. Some of them have dis- 
 appeared wholly ; all of them have lost the little vitality they 
 once had ; and the day cannot be very far distant when these 
 human inventions shall have ceased to be But Christianity is 
 God’s new creation, and it cannot pass away. It must accom- 
 plish that wliereunto it has been sent. It did not spring up from 
 the plane of nature like other systems, to have its day and then 
 cease to be. In it, as it has been well said by another, we see 
 Christ as the Great Power of God, working mightily among 
 men, transforming human hearts, remodelling institutions and 
 governments, and directing and consecrating the spiritual forces 
 of the world. It assimilates to its own nature all that is good, 
 
24 
 
 HOPE FOE CHINA. 
 
 beautiful, and true in the race, and imbues it with its own spirit. 
 It takes possession of the soul, struggles with its corruptions, 
 and ultimately expels all the demons that lurk therein, and 
 secures the throne to its Maker. It penetrates the darkness of 
 society, becomes blended for a time, it may be, with the im- 
 pure elements by which it is surrounded, so as to lose its 
 Divine form, and assume a shape wholly alien to itself ; but there 
 it works, and, by its own intrinsic power, transforms and purifies, 
 and ennobles the whole, and ultimately reappears in its native 
 brightness and glory. Thus, I look upon the Gospel itself, apart 
 from any accompanying agency of the Spirit, as a mighty power 
 in the world, whose source and centre is Jesus Christ. But I 
 cannot stop here. I believe in the Holy Ghost. Wherever the 
 Missionaiy is, there I firmly believe the Holy Ghost is too, to 
 guide and strengthen him, and to open the eyes and move the 
 hearts of men to heliold the beauty and feel the power of the 
 Gospel. When Dr. Morrison went to China, he was asked if he 
 expected to make an impression on the Chinese. “ No," was 
 his reply, ‘ but I expect God will." 
 
 These are the facts which give weight and meaning to the 
 Missionary enterprise ; and these also are the facts which our 
 traducers constantly forget, or are unable to understand. The 
 foolishness of preaching has ever been scorned by the unbe- 
 lieving world. Are the Missionaries mad ? Do they expect to 
 convert such countries as India, China, and Japan by preaching 
 sermons ? Give these nations schools. Give them the arts and 
 sciences — introduce our western inventions, and baptise them 
 with our western civilisation. That is, give them everything 
 but Christianity, believe in every power but the Gospel, and 
 preach what you will, but don't preach Christ. We are told by 
 one writer on Chiua that the secret of evangelising as well as 
 civilising China consists in saturating China with British manu- 
 factures. 0 folly! Men forget, will forget, that the Gospel is 
 not a product of this earth, but a Divine thing sent down from 
 Heaven itself, and that the power is not of the Missionary but of 
 God. When will men learn that we have to deal with human 
 sin and offer a Divine redemption ; and that all these things, 
 however desirable in themselves, are utterly unequal to the task 
 of healing the spiritual maladies of the race, of restoring holiness 
 to the soul, and of lifting men to freedom and the favour of God. 
 
 I believe in the advancement of commerce ; I believe in satu- 
 rating China with a knowledge of the arts and sciences, and secular 
 learning of every kind ; I believe in introducing into China rail- 
 ways, telegraphs, and all our mechanical inventions and appli- 
 ances ; but I believe, too, that China will never ri-e without 
 Christ. I don't decry commerce; still I cannot shut my eyes to 
 the fact, that there is no power in British manufactures to save 
 
HOPE FOR CHINA. 
 
 25 
 
 souls. Wliat the Chinese must have, before they can possibly 
 advance in the path of true progress, are deep religious convio- 
 tions and acute moral sensibilities. What the Chinese need 
 above everything else, is something to infuse into the nation a 
 new and divine life — something to make them good, holy, and 
 happy evermore. Without this, they must ever remain the un- 
 truthful, dishonest, deceitful, and impure people they are ; and 
 material prosperity in their present moral condition would be a 
 bane rather than a blessing to the nation. The religions of 
 China are entirely powerless to accomplish this. Huddhism and 
 Tauism have made the people extremely superstitious, but not 
 religious. Confucianism has dried up the religious sentiment 
 in the Chinese mind, and left it the most worldly and un- 
 spiritual thing imaginable. Commerce can do u great deal ; 
 the arts and sciences can do a great deal ; but they cannot bid 
 the dead in trespasses and sin rise and live again. The Gos- 
 pel alone is the power of God unto salvation, and salvation 
 from her moral and spiritual misery is the great need of China. 
 And the great need of China is the great need of India, Africa, 
 and all heathen lands, and the Gospel is equally adapted to 
 all. You have rend of the pearls that tilled the water-skins of 
 the fainting Arab in the desert, and which he flung down with 
 the despairing cry, “Alas, they are only pearls!" Just so; 
 your arts and sciences are only pearls. The world has a great 
 thirst, and the Gospel alone can quench it. 
 
 He who has been born again will not despair of the conversion 
 of the heathen, and he who has not felt the power of the Gospel 
 in his own heart is no authority on this subject. The Missionary 
 who can say, “ The Gospel has conquered me,” will not hesitate 
 to add, “It can conquer the pagan too.” Conscious that the 
 Gospel is Divine, and that the Holy Ghost is with him, he fears 
 not to face the most gigantic form of error and darknsss, and 
 say, “ I am stronger than thou art. and thou shalt perish.” 
 Hence he goes forth strong in the Lord and in the power of 
 His might. He sows beside all waters ; he drops the Divine 
 seed even where thorns and thistles grow, and scatters it on the 
 rock. He is not weary in well-doing, for his faith in the Divi- 
 nity of the Gospel, and the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, 
 assures him that we shall reap, if we faint not. 
 
 IV. The rtlation of Christ to the world makes it absolute!]/ 
 certain that “ ire shall reap, if we faint not." This is Christ's 
 world ; He died for the whole of it. He is the Saviour of all 
 men. The Chinese have their sages many, hut to them as well 
 as to ourselves, there is no salvation in any other. If the Gos- 
 pel is not adapted to them, their condition is sad beyond all de- 
 scription. Can we believe that God's great plan of salvation has 
 nothing to do with the millions of India, China, and Japan? 
 
20 
 
 HOPE FOE CHINA. 
 
 Can we believe that the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, can 
 cleanse us from all sin, but that the sins of those great nations 
 are beyond its reach ? If we can, it is certain that we know 
 nothing of the depths of God’s love, nor of the cleansing power 
 of the blood of Atonement. “ For God so loved the world.” 
 “ And He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins 
 only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” Again, God has 
 given the heathen to Christ for His inheritance, and the utter- 
 most parts of the earth for His possession. Not all the heathen, 
 excepting the Hindoos, Chinese, and Japanese, God has given to 
 His Son, but all, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His 
 possession. Of this w r e are perfectly certain. But w r e know also 
 that the Son can never be satisfied with a world short of these 
 great empires. “ He shall see of the travail of his soul and be 
 satisfied.” But how can the Son be satisfied without India’s two 
 hundred millions, or China’s more than three hundred millions ? 
 
 There is another fact touching Christ's relation to the W'orld. 
 Christ is still in the world. I don’t think of Jesus as One who 
 has retired to some distant corner of the universe, and there en- 
 joying quiescent repose far beyond the reach of the noise of the 
 battle that is going on in our world. I cannot conceive of Jesus 
 as resting yonder, whilst His people are toiling and straggling in 
 the interest of His kingdom here. The Missionary must bave 
 Jesus as an ever-present friend with whom he may talk and tell 
 his all, and on whom he may lean and ever feel strong. When 
 travelling alone in that vast empire, I never felt that I was 
 alone ; there were always two of us at least — Jesus and myself. 
 “And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." 
 Though invisible, He is here, and now planning all things, 
 directing all things, and leading us from victory to victory. He 
 is here toiling and suffering in connection with the work to a 
 degree inconceivable to us. We may slumber and sleep, but He 
 never rests day nor night. The restoration of the world to 
 God is the work which is nearest and dearest to Christ’s heart, 
 and to which He is wholly consecrated. He is present in all the 
 changes, upheavings, and commotions of the world, and making 
 all things subservient to this one great end. This is a source 
 from which I have been deriving consolation and strength for 
 many years. Whilst Jesus lives, and whilst He remains with us 
 as our Leader, I shall never admit a failure — I shall never turn my 
 back on the battle-field — I shall never refuse to face the enemy, 
 though he be Goliath himself. “ Let us not be weary in well- 
 doing ; ” this is Christ’s world and He is ever-present with us ; 
 “ in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” 
 
 Brethren, let us try and look at the Missionary work hi its 
 greatness and glory, and feel the deepest interest in it as our own. 
 Let us look heyond England and even Europe, and take the 
 
HOPE FOR CHINA. 
 
 27 
 
 whole world into our hearts. It is Christ’s world — every king- 
 dom, and province, and city, and hamlet, and hut of it. He 
 took the whole of it into His bosom, he loved the whole of it, He 
 shed His precious blood for the whole of it, and He is now taking 
 possession of its mighty kingdoms and tribes. “ And I, if I 
 be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me,” — that is 
 Christ’s promise. “ All power is given unto me in heaven and 
 in earth," — that is Christ's empire. “ And I saw, and behold a 
 white horse, and he that sat on him had a bow, and a crown was 
 given unto him, and he went forth conquering and to conquer,” 
 — that is Christ’s work. “ And the seventh angel sounded, and 
 there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of 
 this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, 
 and he shall reign for ever and ever,” — that is Christ’s triumph. 
 “Goye therefore and teach all nations,” — that is Christ’s command, 
 which comes to each one of us, and for the execution of which 
 each one of us is responsible to his Divine Master. The Captain 
 of our Salvation is gone forth conquering and to conquer. Shall 
 we look on with indifference and say, “ That’s His business ” ? 
 Or shall we fold our hands in despair, and mutter to ourselves — 
 
 “Ab, folly, for it lies so far away, 
 
 Not in our time nor in our children's time, 
 ’Tis like th- second world to u- that live, 
 ’Twere all as one to fix oor hopes on Heaven 
 As on this vision of the golden year.” 
 
 Oh no, for 
 
 “well I know 
 
 That unto him who works, and feels he works, 
 This same grand year is ever at the doors.” 
 
 Let us rather put on our armour, and follow Him who is leading 
 us from victory to victory. 
 
 It is Christ’s work, this Missionary work ; and ours because of 
 the love we bear to Him as our Almighty Redeemer and the 
 Sovereign of our hearts. It is a glorious work ; for Christ has 
 undertaken it as a work worthy of Himself. It is a work that 
 must prosper ; because the Gospel is Divine, because Christ Him- 
 self is with us, and because we see on His vesture and on His 
 thigh a name written, “ King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” Let 
 us believe in Him and His everlasting truth. Let us follow Him, 
 sympathise with Him, and suffer and die for Him, if it be neces- 
 sary. Let the unbelieving world sneer at the Missionary enter- 
 prise as much as it likes; and let noble Dukes belabour the 
 Missionaries until the cudgel of bad names, and dub them 
 enthusiasts, visionaries, and rogues as much as they please ; but 
 let us go on with our work. Like the four living creatures in the 
 vision of Ezekiel, let us go straight forward ; whither the Spirit 
 
23 
 
 HOPE FOB CHINA. 
 
 goes let us go, and let us turn not as we go. They live in a world 
 different from ours. They cannot see with our eyes, nor feel with 
 our hearts ; and, thank God! we cannot see with their eyes, nor feel 
 with their hearts. We can pity their blindness, but we cannot pay a 
 compliment to their scorn by abandoning our glorious enterprise. 
 We have felt in our deepest heart that the Gospel is the power of 
 God unto salvation. Heady are we therefore to preach it to every 
 kindred and tribe. We will preach it everywhere — we will preach 
 it in its simplicity, purity, and fulness — we will preach it as the 
 power of God unto salvation, and we will conquer the world to 
 Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. And “ his name 
 shall endure for ever ; his name shall be continued as long as the 
 sun ; and men shall be blessed in him ; all nations shall call him 
 blessed.” ‘‘ Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who 
 only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name 
 forever; and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen, 
 and Amen.” 
 
 Brethren, we must go on with this work. We dare not turn 
 back; we cannot stand still. But if the work is to go on, you 
 must consecrate yourselves to it. We want your money; we 
 want your best men ; and we want your most heartfelt sympathy 
 and importunate prayers. You may not be able to go forth as 
 Missionaries yourselves, but you are bound in the sight of God to 
 do what you can to send out others. This is a great spiritual 
 work ; and you must infuse your spiritual life into it if you would 
 see it triumphant. I thank God for organisations ; but they must 
 not be allowed to come in between the Churches and the work, 
 and prevent individual and personal identification with it. 
 Machinery is desirable ; but if the spirit of life — and I refer now 
 to the lifeof the Churches — is not in the wheels it will answer but 
 little purpose. This is a matter of vital importance. God has 
 devolved upon the Church the gigantic task of Christianising the 
 nations ; and consequently the progress of the work must greatly 
 depend on the tone and temper of the Churches in regard to it. 
 It has been well said that a truly Missionary pastor will make a 
 Missionary people ; but it is equally certain that a truly Mission- 
 ary people will produce able and true-hearted Missionaries. Your 
 Missionaries wall be just like yourselves. If they are not up to 
 to the mark, it is your fault as well as their own. You live on a 
 high level of consecration to Christ in this matter, and your 
 Missionaries will tower above it, and by their devotion and 
 ardour will kindle within your breasts aspirations still higher and 
 nobler. But be you cold and dead, and they will be chilled down 
 to your own coldness and stiffened to your own dendness. It is 
 absurd to expect to see the Missionaries flame and coruscate 
 with Missionary enthusiasm, whilst the Churches are sitting 
 among the snows, frost-bitten, shivering, and almost lifeless with 
 
HOPE FOR CHINA. 
 
 2 !) 
 
 cold. The work of converting the heathen world is ns hard as it 
 is glorious. Before it is accomplished God's people generally 
 must take a much deeper personal interest in it. The Churches 
 must give more freely aiul generously of their gold and silver; 
 men of ability and personal influence must go forth in much 
 greater numbers than they do at present ; and our prayers must 
 become more earnest and heartfelt for the dark places of the earth. 
 Don't suppose that any sort of praying for the heathen will do — 
 we must all wrestle with God. Don’t suppose that any sort of man 
 will do for a Missionary, and deem it a pity and a misfortune 
 when a man of real worth devotes himself to the work. There is 
 not a Missionary on the field, however gifted and accomplished, 
 who does not feel that lie would be much more efficient as a Mis- 
 sionary if he were more highly endowed as a man and a Christian. 
 
 It is not my habit to say anything to induce young men to 
 devote themselves to this work, for I have a wholesome dread of 
 man-inspired Missionaries. But I cannot allow this opportunity 
 to pass without telling you. young men who are preparing for the 
 ministry, that I thank God most sincerely and devoutly that I am 
 a Missionary. I have never regretted the step I took many years 
 ago in opposition to the strongly-expressed wishes of 1113' best 
 friends ; and if there is a sincere desire burning within my breast, 
 it is that I may live and die in labouring and suffering for Christ 
 among the heathen. Oh ! it is a glorious work. I know no work 
 like it — so real, so unselfish, so apostolic, so Christ-like. I know 
 no work that brings Christ so near to the soul, that throws a man 
 back so completely upon God, and that makes the grand old 
 Gospel appear so real, so precious, so divine. And then think of 
 the grandeur of our aim ! Our cry is, “ China for Christ ! ” “ India 
 for Christ ! ” “ The world for Christ ! ” Think of China and her 
 hundreds of millions becoming our Lord’s and his Christ’s ! Is 
 there nothing grand in that idea ? Is there nothing soul-stirring 
 in the prospect ? Is that not an achievement worthy of the best 
 efforts of the Church, and of the noblest powers of the most richly 
 endowed among you? And then think of the unspeakable privi- 
 lege and honour of having a share in a work which is destined to 
 have such a glorious issue. Oh ! young men, think of it ; dwell 
 upon it ; and if you hear the voice of God bid you go, manfully 
 take up your cross and go, and 3 r ou will never cease to “ thank 
 Christ Jesus our Lord ” for counting you worthy to be Mis- 
 sionaries. 
 
 And oh, brethren, we, the Missionaries, must have your prayers, 
 and the prayers of all the Churches. Without you we are weak ; 
 but sustained by your prayers we are strong, we can brave all 
 things, dare all things, and endure all things. You carry the 
 Missionaries to heaven in your prayers, and they will descend 
 upon the heathen “ like rain upon the mown grass, as showers 
 
30 
 
 HOPE FOR CHINA. 
 
 that water the earth ! ” May God baptise us all afresh with the 
 Missionary spirit. May He continue to smile upon this great 
 Society, and all the other Societies. May He cause the present 
 coldness, indifference, and scepticism in regard to Missions, 
 speedily to pass away. May He bring all His people to see and 
 feel the responsibility which devolves upon them individually in 
 respect to the extension of the kingdom of His Son and the sal- 
 vation of the heathen. And may He so inspire us all with love 
 for souls and compassion for perishing men, that we shall feel it 
 to be not only a solemn duty, but also a great privilege to contri- 
 bute towards the Missionary cause according to our means, and 
 labour in its behalf according to our ability. Amen. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 The following despatch was addressed to Sir R, Alcock, by the 
 Chinese Foreign-Office, and was read by him in the course of his 
 late examination before the Parliamentary Committee on Indian 
 Finance : — 
 
 “the tsung-li yamen to str r. alcock. 
 
 “ The writers have on several occasions, when conversing with his 
 Excellency the British Minister, referred to the opium trade as being 
 prejudicial to the general interests of commerce. The object of the 
 treaties between our respective countries was to secure perpetual 
 peace, but, if effective steps cannot be taken to remove an accumu- 
 lating sense of injury from the minds of men, it is to be feared that 
 no policy can obviate sources of future trouble. Day and night the 
 writers are considering the question, with a view to its solution, and 
 the more they reflect upon it the greater does their anxiety become, 
 and hereon they cannot avoid addressing his Excellency very 
 earnestly on the subject. That opium is like a deadly poison, that it 
 is most injurious to mankind, and a most serious provocative of ill- 
 feeling is, the writers think, perfectly well known to his Excellency, 
 and it is therefore needless for them to enlarge further on those points. 
 The Prince (the Prince of Kung is the President of the Board) and 
 his colleagues are quite aware that the opium trade has long been 
 condemned by England as a nation, and that the right-minded mer- 
 chant scorns to have to do with it. But the officials and people of 
 this empire who cannot be so completely informed on the subject, all 
 say that England trades in opium because she desires to work China’s 
 ruin, for (say they) if the friendly feelings of England are genuine, 
 since it is open to her to produce and trade in everything else, would 
 she still insist on spreading the poison of this hurtful thing through 
 the empire P There are those who say, Stop the trade by enforcing a 
 rigorous prohibition against the use of the drug. China has the right 
 to do so doubtless, and might be able to effect it ; but a strict en- 
 forcement of the prohibition would necessitate the taking of many 
 lives. Now, although the criminals’ punishment would be of their 
 own seeking, bystanders would not fail to say that it was the foreign 
 merchant seduced them to their ruin by bringing the drug, and it 
 would be hard to prevent general and deep-seated indignation ; such 
 a course, indeed would tend to arouse popular anger against the 
 foreigner. There are others again who suggest the removal of the 
 prohibitions against the growth of the poppy. They argue that as 
 there is no means of stopping the foreign (opium) trade, there can be 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 32 ' 
 
 no harm, a3 a temporary measure, in withdrawing the prohibition on 
 its growth. We should thus not only deprive the foreign merchant 
 of a main source of his profits, but should increase onr revenue to 
 boot. The sovereign rights of China are indeed competent to this ; 
 such a course would be practicable, and indeed the writers cannot 
 say that, as a last resource, it will not come to this ; but they are 
 most unwilling that such prohibition should be removed, holding, as 
 they do, that a right system of government should appreciate the 
 beneficence of Heaven and (seek to) remove any grievance which 
 afflicts its people, while to allow them to go on to destruction, 
 although an increase of revenue may result, will provoke the judg- 
 ment of Heaven and the condemnation of men. Neither of the above 
 plans indeed are satisfactory. If it be desired to remove the very 
 root and to stop the evil at its source, nothing will be effective but a 
 prohibition to be enforced alike by both parties. Again, the Chinese 
 merchant supplies your country with his goodly tea and silk, con- 
 ferring thereby a benefit upon her ; but the English merchant em- 
 poisons China with pestilent opium. Such conduct is unrighteous. 
 Who can justify it ? What wonder if officials and people say that 
 England is wilfully working out China’s ruin, and has no real friendly 
 feeling for her. The wealth and generosity of England are spoken of 
 by all ; she is anxious to prevent and anticipate all injury to her 
 commercial interest ; how is it, then, she can hesitate to remove an 
 acknowledged evil ? Indeed it cannot be that England still holds to 
 this evil business, earning the hatred of the officials and people of 
 China, and making herself a reproach among the nations, because she 
 would lose a little revenue were she to forfeit the cultivation of the 
 poppy ! The writers hope that his Excellency will memorialise his 
 Government to give orders in India and elsewhere to substitute the 
 cultivation of cereals or cotton. Were both nations to rigorously 
 prohibit the growth of the poppy, both the traffic in and the consump- 
 tion of opium might alike be put an end to. To do away with so 
 great an evil would be a great virtue on England’s part ; she would 
 strengthen friendly relations and make herself illustrious. How 
 delightful to have so great an act transmitted to after ages ! This 
 matter is injurious to commercial interests in no ordinary degree. If 
 his Excellency the British Minister, cannot, before it is too late, 
 arrange a plan for a joint prohibition (of the traffic), then, no matter 
 with what devotedness the writers may plead, they may be unable to 
 cause the people to put aside ill-feeling, and so strengthen friendly 
 relations as to place them for ever beyond fear of disturbance. Day 
 and night, therefore, the writers give to this matter most earnest 
 thought, and overpowering is the distress and anxiety it occasions 
 them. Having thus presumed to unbosom themselves, they would be 
 honoured by his Excellency’s reply. 
 
 “ Peking, July, 1869. 
 
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