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 WILLIAM ASHMORE, D. D. 
 
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CHINA’S MILLIONS.” 
 
 (( 
 
 You have heard of them. You must continue to 
 hear of them. They are forcing themselves on the 
 world’s attention. 
 
 They came into the great plans of God. Until 
 they are converted, the world will not be converted. 
 When they turn to the Lord, then it will no longer 
 be any great goddess Diana, but it will be Jesus 
 the Anointed, whom “ all Asia and the world wor- 
 shippeth.” 
 
 But great numbers in one concrete statement are 
 vague. Let us take them in detail. The popula- 
 tion of China has been set down at 400,000,000. 
 A late statement, based on partial returns, puts it at 
 382,000,000. Some people are frightened at that ; 
 so we will take the old official census of 1812, which 
 made it 360,000,000. 
 
 It was a solemn sight, and grandly impressive, 
 when the armies of the Lord in the wilderness took 
 up their line of march. No such review had ever 
 been held, and none such has ever been held since. 
 A nation of six millions on the inarch from one 
 country to another, by the way of the Red Sea, 
 the wilderness of Paran, and the river Jordan. 
 What a pageant was that which passed before 
 Moses, field marshal of the living God ! 
 
 We speak of battalions and brigades going forth. 
 
3 
 
 Among them it was said, they went forth accord- 
 ing to their armies, banners flying at the head of 
 each army, and the clarion notes of silver trumpets 
 guiding the stejis of the consecrated hosts. There 
 were twelve tribes of them. First of all came Judah 
 with his standard aloft; then the host of Issachar; 
 then another standard, and the host of Zebulon, and 
 so on till the vast cavalcade had filed along. No 
 wonder these sights and scenes entered into poetry 
 and song, and gave rise to such expressions as 
 “ terrible as an army with banners.” 
 
 In our days, though in a small way, kings and 
 captains general are fond of imitating these 
 ancient reviews. We had one such in our own 
 land at Washington after the war, when, before the 
 commander-in-chief and the assembled heads of 
 the nation, with drums beating and colors flying, 
 there marched along army corps and army columns 
 of the great republic. 
 
 Nobody that saw it will ever forget it. We will 
 borrow the design for a missionary use. Let us 
 make the different provinces of China pass in re- 
 view before us, one at a time, each with its vast 
 army of living men, women, and children. That 
 will be better than giving a lump number. You 
 will get a more detailed impression. 
 
 As each province passes, the population roster 
 can be given ; you can lump them afterwards. Get 
 ready your tents; make them good and strong, 
 able to endure pelting storms and changes of sea- 
 son, for it is no holiday work you now enter upon 
 when you sit down to review the procession of 
 Chinese as they go forth according to their armies 
 and according to their provinces. 
 
 Twelve hours a day is long marching, but we 
 must keep them going at that rate. You will need 
 
4 
 
 your sleep, and time for rest, for even a review may 
 become wearisome, so the other twelve hours will 
 be for yourselves. We must keep them going 
 Sundays as well, for this is only a hypothetical 
 march, and if it is more than a Sabbath-day’s 
 journey for business, it is only such a Sabbath- 
 day’s journey as they are all taking to eternity, 
 and you along with them. Besides, on the Sab- 
 baths you can think differently from what you can 
 on other days. 
 
 You can think of all these persons living and 
 dying v ithout Christ, without a Sabbath here, or a 
 hope of a Sabbath hereafter. And you can think 
 of the great commission and of Him who gave it, 
 and how long since He gave it, and of how many 
 Chinese have lived and died since He gave it, and 
 many other Sunday thoughts can come into your 
 heads on that day. 
 
 Soldiers marcliing in “ close order ” will take 
 about two and a half feet to each man, but so 
 much time will be required that we must put them 
 closer than that, and save every inch we can and 
 every minute of time. So we will expect them to 
 march in “lock step ” and allow only a foot and a 
 half to each person. In one mile there are 5,280 
 feet. At lock step there will be 3,520 persons to 
 each mile. Each million of them will stretch along 
 for a distance, say of 284 miles. 
 
 Twenty miles a day is good work for a column 
 on the march. We will reckon at that, — it is fast 
 enough for a column moving on to judgment, — 
 and so each million will require fourteen days in 
 passing. 
 
 And now all is ready. When shall the column 
 form and the review begin ? Let us have a fine 
 day to start with, even though wintry ones should 
 
5 
 
 be ahead. We will pitch on the first day of June, 
 wiih the whole of an all glorious summer before us. 
 
 / Chihli, which means “direct rule.” It is the 
 capital province of the empire, and is about the size 
 of the State of Illinois. Population, 27,990,871. 
 They will reach 7,952 miles nearly. The line will 
 stretch from the steps of the Capitol at Washing- 
 ton, across the continent, and far away into the 
 middle of the Pacific Ocean, and will require 397 
 days in passing. 
 
 You see you are in for it. You thought you 
 would sit it out on that line if it took all summer. 
 But summer comes and summer goes, and there 
 you are still. Lay in a stock of coal, for winter 
 will be upon you before a quarter of them have 
 gone by. Autumn passes, winter pacses, spring 
 passes, and you are well into the heat of a second 
 summer before you have seen the last of that col- 
 umn, and that is only one column. 
 
 ^ Shantung, “ East of the hills.” Here comes 
 the banner of the second province. Population, 
 28,958,764, near enough to twenty-nine millions to 
 call it that. They will reach 8,230 miles, and will 
 take 41 1 days to pass. The previous division left 
 you in July of the second year; this one will keep 
 on moving till August of the third year. Your 
 tents will be mildewed and rotted by the rain; 
 better build yourself a house, and lath and plaster 
 it, for there are years before you yet. Your second 
 winter will be upon you soon. Is it not solemn to 
 look upon them as they move.^ And how many 
 army chaplains ought to be furnished to meet the 
 needs of such a host? If it were an army of the 
 United States there would be a chaplain to every 
 thousand men, a thousand chaplains to each mill- 
 ion, and twenty-nine thousand for them all. Of 
 
0 
 
 course we could not and would not send any such 
 number as that; but then, we scarcely send any- 
 body. I do not know how it is just at this writing, 
 but a little while ago there was not one preacher 
 to a million. 
 
 ^ Shansi, “West of the hills.” This is an inland 
 province, much less thickly settled. It is smaller 
 than Illinois, but it has 14,004,210 people. They 
 will not occupy you so long. 
 
 They will reach 3,980 miles, and will be only 199 
 days in passing. In all these ages, since Christ 
 ascended, nobody has taken them the gospel. Re- 
 cently, those Cambridge men went there, C. T. 
 Studd, Stanley Smith, Montague Beauchamp, 
 and others. Away off in those mountain regions, 
 the Lord has worked with them with signs and 
 wonders following. In the month of April of the 
 past year, there were 215 baptisms ; yet ten years 
 ago, it was not known that a man of the whole four- 
 teen millions had ever heard of Christ. Woe unto 
 you, Cambridge and Oxford ! for in the day of judg- 
 ment, the men of Shansi shall rise up and condemn 
 you, for some of them repented under the first ser- 
 mon they heard, while many under the shadow of 
 your old cloistered walls have heard a thousand 
 sermons, and are not so near the kingdom of God 
 as when you first began. 
 
 <4 Honan, “ South of the river,” contains 23,037,- 
 ^171 people. Their column will be 6,534 miles long, 
 •• and will require 326 days to pass along. For forty- 
 six .Sundays, one after another, you can think of 
 them, and hear missionary chapters in the Bible 
 read about them, with the missionary application 
 left out. 
 
 The promises made to the whole earth are lo- 
 calized to one’s own church o: association. There 
 
7 
 
 they go, — without hope and without God in the 
 world, and without any one to teach them, — and 
 yet, in the United States, we have 80,000 ministers 
 of evangelical denominations, multitudes of whom 
 are doing nothing but just listening to other people 
 preach. 
 
 Kiangsu. Population, 37,843,501 — enough to 
 stock an empire of itself. Japan is an empire, yet 
 it has not so many people as that one province. . 
 Great Britain is an empire; France has called it- 
 self an empire; Germany is an empire yet, but the 
 population of none of them is much larger. 
 
 The Kiangsu part of the procession will reach 
 10,750 miles, and will require in passing 537 days. 
 Such numbers are appalling! While they are filing 
 along by the million, seventy-seven Sabbaths will 
 pass over your heads. You will need a chaplain 
 of your own to preach to you who review the pro- 
 cession. During all these days he can preach to 
 you a whole body of theology upon all manner of 
 subjects except your duty to save the perishing. 
 Twice during that time will “ Merrie Christmas^’ 
 come and go ; twice will you sing Christmas carols, 
 and hear about the birth of Him who was given to 
 save all mankind. Twice will you eat your Christ- 
 mas dinner, and send around among your friends 
 your costly presents of superfluous albums, and 
 yet forget to send a little frankincense and myrrh 
 to those breadless, starving hosts whom Christ in 
 vision committed to your trust. 
 
 Nganhwui. Here is another one nearly as ^ 
 large. Other great countries are groups of states 
 and districts ; China is a group of empires. It is 
 a great empire, made up of smaller empires. The 
 population of this province is 34,168,054. 
 
 This line will extend 9,706 miles, and will take 
 
8 
 
 up 483 clays of your time. Ah, but those empires 
 do not make so much stir in the world as do our 
 small States! Yes, just now; but before a half- 
 century has rolled away, these minor empires will 
 be heard from. They hav'e been in the torpor 
 of a W'inter, millenniums long, but the ice age is 
 passing by; they have been in the Nigban of 
 Buddhism, but the mists of Buddhism are slowly 
 lifting, while at the same time they are beginning 
 to settle down in the theosophic circles of Boston 
 and London. 
 
 You may not introduce Buddhistic ritualism in 
 your cultured society, but you will surely feel the 
 chill of Buddhistic teaching. The darkness of 
 Egypt has been upon this people for ages, while 
 for ages you have been basking in the sunshine 
 of Christianity, which has been shining steadily 
 upon you ever since those early centuries, when 
 foreign missionaries from Rome took the gospel 
 to your Druid fathers, howling and dancing around 
 a human sacrifice. 
 
 Give the gospel a chance to thaw them out for 
 just one century, and see what they will be, and 
 how they will gain on the nations of the West. 
 f Kiangsi, “ West of the river.” Population, 
 23,047,999, making a line 6,547 miles long, and 
 requiring 327 days to pass along. They keep up 
 their solemn, silent, and yet awfully voiceful tread. 
 Whither are they bound? Do they know any- 
 thing at all about God as a Saviour? Have they 
 heard of Him who was set forth to be a propitia- 
 tion for the sins of the world ? When John said 
 those words through the Holy Ghost, had he in 
 mind the whole world, or did he refer chiefly to 
 the United States ? Why are the preachers of 
 
9 
 
 the cross massed in such solid phalanx in the 
 United States, and so few over here? 
 
 Why is it that these multitudes of Kiangsi are 
 left to themselves? “No man careth for my 
 soul,” may be the refrain of them all. Nobody 
 except a dozen men and women of the China 
 Inland Mission. 
 
 Chehkiaxg. Once more, enough to set up one of 
 the “great powers ” of Kurope ; 26,256,784 people 
 in a line, reaching back 7,454 miles, and taking up in 
 passing 372 days of your precious business hours. 
 “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Is it my duty to 
 give these hosts the gospel, even in small meas- 
 ure? lathe legacy of Christ, He gave us the riches 
 of glory, and at the same time he laid on us a re- 
 sponsibility which is apart of the will. He gave 
 us a goodly land; one as fair as the sun ever 
 shone upon. He was ages and ages in getting it 
 ready, in covering its surface with a rich soil, in 
 cleaving it with rivers of water, in underlaying 
 it with mines of the richest ores, and then handed 
 it over to our fathers. What for ? That we might 
 settle down in idleness and luxurious living; or 
 in order that we might do good, as well as enjoy 
 it ourselves? We are enjoying it. Our splen- 
 did mansions are built, our costly and cushioned 
 churches are lifted heavenward, even when we are 
 not; but the other feature of the will, which refers 
 to “all the world,” we set aside, saying, “ We have 
 enough to do at home.” 
 
 Fuhkien, “Happily established.” This is a 
 hilly region, and the population is not so large ; yet 
 there are 14,777,410 people, forming a line 4,198 
 miles long, and taking up 209 days in passing. 
 What the people lack in quantity, they make uj) in 
 quality. This, and some of the provinces ^that 
 
10 
 
 follow, contain the most vigorous population of 
 China. They have the raw material for the high- 
 est forms of national greatness. 
 
 Warriors, statesmen, scholars, and prosperous 
 merchants are continually rising up among them. 
 Young brethren in the ministry, when you left the 
 seminary, your friends told you that men of your 
 talents are needed at home, and that somebody of 
 less ability will do to go abroad. Now and then 
 a man has succumbed to this delicate flattery and 
 has been sent to All some “important city church.” 
 Once there he has found himself elbowed right and 
 left, and with no greater field of usefulness than 
 some of these discarded places present. Men of 
 your talents are needed at home, but so too are 
 they needed here, where, if you come, you will find 
 yourself laying foundations for a whole denomina- 
 tion to build upon. Tell me if it is not a worthy 
 field for your abilities, where you help mould the 
 coming faith of coming millions. 
 
 Hufeh comes next, — another great nation in 
 itself, — 27,370,098 strong, stretching far away, the 
 head and foot of the line 7,775 miles apart, and 
 consuming more than a solid year in the march. 
 “ Ah, yes, but one good American like Dr. blank 
 is worth a hundred Mongolians ; better to catch 
 one large trout than a dozen minnows.” My 
 brother, who taught you to say that.? 
 
 “Cometh this persuasion of Him that calleth 
 you.?” Who are the trout and who are the min- 
 nows before God? But for the gospel, where 
 would all your learned doctors be to-day ? 
 
 I grant that there is such a thing as strategy in 
 evangelizing, and shall hope some day to speak of 
 it. Even the New Testament exhibits it, but you 
 never hear the apostle saying that one Jew is worth 
 
II 
 
 a hundred Syrophenicians. But this is wearisome 
 and heart sickening. The heathen are long and 
 the time drags heavily. Would that the display 
 were over. It is a terrible sight ; will it never end ? 
 Yes, we can hasten. 
 
 Yonder comes the yellow imperial banner of 
 Hunan, “South of the lake.” Following it is a 
 file of 18,652,507 human beings who have never 
 heard of Christ. They reach back 5,296 miles 
 more. O Lord, deliver us from indolence and 
 selfishness 1 
 
 Kwangtung next, — Kwangtung, that knows so ' ^ 
 much about the opium traffic and the coolie trade, 
 with its 19,174,030, and extending the line 5,444 
 miles farther. O Lord, open the eyes of the 
 ministers in our pulpits, and of all teachers in our 
 colleges and seminaries, to the claims of Christ 
 upon them to preach and teach a missionary 
 gospel 1 
 
 Kwangsi, Yunnan, and Kweichow, three of 
 them the smallest of them all. We will put them 
 together, for you are tired, and so am I, of this in- 
 terminable march. All told, they have only about 
 18,000,000 between them, taking up over 5,000 miles 
 more. O Lord, forgive us for our indifference 1 
 
 SucHUEN, one of the great provinces, with 24,- of 
 435,078 people, making a line over 6,000 miles long. 
 
 O Lord, move on the hearts of young men to 
 give themselves at once to this work ! Make them 
 willing to go forth and preach Christ among the 
 heathen. Make them willing to go without wait- 
 ing to be driven. 
 
 Shensi, with 10,207,256, and a line reaching 
 over 2,000 miles. O Lord, loosen the money bags 
 of the people ! Make them to send forth their 
 rusted coin to help save the nations. 
 
12 
 
 “ How shall they hear without a preacher, and 
 how shall they preach except they be sent?” 
 
 Ic Kansuh. It is nearly over. Here is the last 
 column, 15,193,125 strong, and reaching over 4,000 
 •miles farther. What a pageant! but it has been 
 the pageantry of death. O Lord, have compassion 
 upon the multitudes, for they have nothing to eat! 
 O Lord, in our own land there is bread and to 
 spare, but it comes not hither! Bless the barley 
 loaves of thy servants, and make them feed at 
 least a few of these provinces. 
 
 This procession has been over one hundred 
 thousand miles long, and it has occupied more 
 than thirteen years in passing. 
 
 While they have been on this move one third as 
 many more have been born into the world to follow 
 after. 
 
 O Lord of the harvest, awake a slumbering 
 church and a lethargic ministry out of this tornor 
 of death ! • ' 
 
 SwATOw, January, 1888. 
 
 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION, BOSTON.