AS A MISSION FIELD 
 
 A PREMIUM TRACT 
 
 prkm:cm offered by rev. i. j. Roberts, late mssioNARY to china.) 
 
 
 By Rev. M. J. KNOWLTON, 
 
 MISSIONARY TO CHINA. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 BIBLE AND PUBLICATION SOCIETY 
 
 530 y^RCH ^TREET. 
 
WHAT CHIXA IS. 
 
 The Rev. J. Ij. Nevius, in his late work on “ China 
 and tlie Chinese,” gives the following comparison with 
 the United States: 
 
 In giving a correct general idea of China to Western 
 nations, I cannot, perhaps, do better than to institute a 
 comparison between it and the United States, to which 
 it bears a striking resemblance. It occupies the same 
 position in the Eastern Hemisphere that the United 
 States does in the Western. Its line of sea-coast on the 
 Pacific resembles that of the United States on the At- 
 lantic, not only in length but also in contour. Being 
 found within almost the same parallels of latitude, it 
 embraces the same varieties of climate and productions. 
 
 A river as grand as the Mississippi, flowing east, divides 
 the empire into two nearly equal parts, which are often 
 designated as “ North of the River,” and “ South of the 
 River.” It passes through an immense and fertile val- 
 ley, and is supplied by numerous tributaries having their 
 rise in mountain ranges on either side, and also in the 
 Himalayas on the west. 
 
 The area of China proper is about the same as that of 
 the organized states of the American Union. The re- 
 semblance holds also in the artificial divisions. While 
 our country is divided into more than thirty states, 
 China is divided into eighteen provinces ; this division 
 furnishing still another name for the empire, in common 
 use, Shih-pah-seng, “ The Eighteen Provinces.” These 
 provinces are on an average about twice as large as our , 
 states. As our states are divided into counties, so each 
 
NO. 113. 
 
 CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 A PREMIUM TRACT. 
 
 By Rev. M. J. KNOWLTON, ' 
 
 MISSIONARY TO CHINA. 
 
 “ It is a great step towards the Christianizing of 
 our planet, if Christianity gain entrance into China.” 
 Thus spake Neander, in a speech at Berlin on the Chinese 
 mission, July 6, 1850, but eight days before his death. 
 
 His reasons for this deep interest in that field, were 
 these: “In the first place, there is that vastness; since 
 thereby Christianity may have access to a third jiart of 
 the earth’s population. Moreover, there is that peculiar 
 interest which the quality of the nation affords. We 
 find here a nation in which, for centuries, there has 
 been a large amount of civilization and culture ; where 
 many arts and handicrafts flourished a long time before 
 they were thought of in the European nations.” 
 
 That “ great step towards the Christianizing of our 
 planet,” has been taken. The opening of the Chinese 
 empire, — the throwing open of the doors to admit the 
 gospel to a third of the human race, — is undoubtedly 
 one of the greatest among the great events of the 
 present age, and one that should awaken no ordinary 
 interest throughout the Christian world. It is an event 
 in which the hand of God is clearly manife.st, preparing 
 A 
 
2 
 
 CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 the way, and leading forward the grand yet gradnal 
 movement of his kingdom, toward tlie period when the 
 heathen shall be given to the Son for an inheritance, 
 and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession. 
 The time has evidently come, when every Christian 
 should inform himself respecting this field, and labor 
 for its evangelization. 
 
 In the following pages, it is proposed to notice those 
 characteristics that render China a mission-field of 
 paramount importance. Those features are chiefly the 
 following: Its antiquity; its vastness; the “quality” 
 of the people ; their benighted and lost condition ; the 
 religious history of China ; the encouraging success of 
 Protestant missions in that field ; and the fact that it is 
 now brought so near Christian nations. 
 
 1. Its great antiquity. The origin of the Chinese, 
 from the best light we have, appears to be as follows : 
 During the first century after the confounding of 
 tongues, five or six nomadic tribes from the region 
 southeast of the Caspian sea, made their way eastward 
 by .successive stages seeking out the best watered and 
 most productive places, and finally settled along the 
 banks of the Yellow river in the north, and in the basin 
 of the great Yang-tze river, in the central and western 
 portions of what is now the Chinese empire. The tribe 
 which constituted the original progenitors of the Chi- 
 nese race, chiefly by their superior skill in agriculture, 
 their settled habits of labor, and by possessing them- 
 selves of the low, rich lands along the water course.s, 
 which the renowned “ emperor ” Yu, drained and pro- 
 tected from inundation by building dikes, became more 
 prosperous than their neighboring tribes ; and gradually, 
 by conquests, alliances, and intermarriages, they ab- 
 
CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 8 
 
 sorbed all the other tribes except the Mian-tze, who 
 exist among the mountains as a distinct race to this dav. 
 
 China was consolidated into a nation, in the feudal 
 form, about the beginning of the Chow dynasty, 1088 
 B. C., and the present de.spotic form of government 
 took the place of the feudal system, about two hundred 
 and twenty years before the Christian era. 
 
 Thus, China has existed almost from the time of the 
 confusion of tongues ; and has had a consolidated gov- 
 ernment or nationality nearly three thousand years. 
 Other ancient nations, as Assyria, Babylonia, ancient 
 Egypt, ancient Greece, and the ancient Turanian and 
 Aztec nations, all rose and flourished for a time, but at 
 length became extinct, and the mouldering ruins of 
 their renowned cities alone tell of their former great- 
 ness. Later empires, as the Syrian and Koman, rose, 
 had their pei’iod of prosperity, power, and luxury, and 
 long since fell into decay. • But there stands China, 
 unmoved by the waves of time, existing through all the 
 long ages, and through twenty-eight changes of dynasty ; 
 with her system of government, her laws, her arts, her 
 habits and customs, unchanged; and greater in popula- 
 tion and wealth during the first half of the present 
 century, than in any former period of her long history ! 
 A wonderful nation that, thus to withstand the shock of 
 repeated bloody revolutions, and changes of rulers, and 
 remain the same amid all national vicissitudes for so 
 man^ ages. Why, at the departure of the Hebrews 
 from Egypt, China was already about seven hundred 
 years old ; when Isaiah prophesied of her future conver- 
 sion to God (Isa. xlix. 12), she had existed fifteen cen- 
 turies; and while Homer was composing and singing 
 the Iliad, her blind minstrels were celebrating the deeds 
 
4 
 
 CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 of her ancient heroes, Yaou, Shun, and Yu, whose tombs 
 had been with them nearly thirteen hundred years ! 
 
 2. The vastness of this field. Some idea of the 
 vast extent of the Chinese Empire may be obtained by 
 considering its line of sea coast, running nearly three 
 thousand miles ; its extensive mountain ranges ; its 
 broad plains, rich and “ well watered ” as the plain of 
 Jordan that Lot beheld and coveted, yea, even “ as the 
 garden of the Lord,” the largest of which has an area 
 of about three hundred thousand square miles ; its mag- 
 nificent rivers, the largest, the Yang-tze, being thirty- 
 three hundred miles in length, the third river in the 
 world, and draining a basin of about eight hundred and 
 fifty thousand square miles, in which dwells a population 
 of some one hundred and eighty millions ; its vast 
 area, embracing nearly five million square miles, or 
 greater by about a million and a half than that of the 
 whole United States, including Alaska, and about one 
 million and three hundred thousand square miles greater 
 than all Europe. 
 
 But the mere physical features of the empire, are ol 
 small importance as compared with the vastness of the 
 population. A stranger on first visiting that land, is most 
 forcibly struck with the immense number of people that 
 he sees swarming on every hand. Wherever he goes, to 
 the hills or to the islands, whose bare and apparently 
 barren summits appear incapable of sustaining a single 
 human being, even there he finds habitations and ham- 
 lets filled with inhabitants; he finds all the vast plains 
 thickly dotted with populous villages ; he beholds all 
 the water-courses and canals swarming with boats in- 
 stinct with human life ; while in the streets of every 
 one of the numerous great cities throughout the empire 
 
CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 5 
 
 he finds, on every day in the year, a vast crowd of 
 human beings hurrying, jostling, hustling on as if it 
 were some great festal day. 
 
 The Chinese census of 1839 gave a population of 
 four hundred and fifteen millions. And though some 
 have thought so great a number to be incredible, yet for 
 several years past, it has generally been admitted by 
 those best acquainted with China, that at least the pop- 
 ulation is about four hundred millions. During the 
 last twenty years, however, civil wars, famine, and 
 pestilence have probably reduced the population to 
 about three hundred and seventy millions. Even at 
 this estimate, the ’population is nearly ten times that 
 of the United States, more than thirteen times that of 
 Great Britain and Ireland, about one-third greater than 
 that of all Europe, and more than double the popula- 
 tion of the four continents of North and South Ameri- 
 ca, Africa, and Oceanica, all combined ; in short, about 
 one-third of the earth’s inhabitants is found in this one 
 empire. 
 
 It is this inconceivable number of our fellow men, 
 possessing in common with us intelligent immortal souls, 
 capable of indefinite improvement and happiness, that 
 especially constitutes China the greatest and most im- 
 portant of mission fields. The mass of Christians, it is 
 to be feared, have but a very vague and inadequate idea 
 of the vast extent and importance of this field, which 
 but recently has been opened to missionary effort. Has 
 not their attention been too exclusively confined to the 
 smaller fields already opened and occupied, so that now 
 it is difficult for them to comprehend the greatness and 
 sublimity of the enterprise here presented, and which 
 demands the most active employment of all the energies 
 
6 
 
 CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 and appliances at their command? What is the Chris- 
 tianizing of a few islands and small countries, compared 
 with the great work to be done in this populous empire ! 
 Were all the islands of Oceanica, with Siam, Burmah, 
 Assam, and all the other bordering nations to become 
 thoroughly Christianized, still they are comparatively 
 so small that the great system of heathenism in Asia, 
 would scarcely feel the shock. It would be but the 
 carrying of a few pickets and out-posts, while the main 
 fortress remains strong and impregnable. Until China 
 is converted to God, idolatry and heathenism will remain 
 in their pride, power, and ascendency in the world. 
 
 Should not then, all who are interested in the spirit- 
 ual conquest of the world, fix their attention earnestly 
 upon this stronghold of heathenism ? Should they not 
 in this age of broad views and great enterprises, take 
 the most enlarged views of the great work before them, 
 and not allow a few minor tribes or nations to ab.sorb 
 their attention and circumscribe their effort? Surely 
 the great commission will not be obeyed, until the gos- 
 pel shall be faithfully preached to every dweller in the 
 seventeen hundred walled cities, and the hundreds of 
 thousands of villages throughout the Chinese Empire ! 
 
 3. The superior quality or character of the people, is 
 another important feature of this field. The Chinese 
 have more strength of intellect, more solidity of char- 
 acter, and a higher civilization, than any other heathen 
 nation. This is shown by their early formation of a 
 wise system of government, and an able code of laws; 
 by their invention of the art of manufacturing silk 
 fabrics, which near the commencement of the Cliris- 
 tian era were sold to the luxurious Romans for their 
 weight in gold ; by the manufacture, also, of porcelain 
 
CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 7 
 
 and Cliina-ware, the best in the world ; by the early 
 use, and perhaps invention, of gunpowder and the 
 magnetic needle ; and by the invention of the art 
 of printing five hundred years before it was known 
 in the West. That they have good mental ability is 
 also shown by their extensive literature, containing some 
 works of sterling and permanent value ; by their 
 thoroughly elaborated language, possessing much ful- 
 ness and power of expression ; and by their long list of 
 sages and literary men. China has given a literature, a 
 code of morals, and a religion, to her dependencies, 
 Manchuria, Mongolia, and Thibet, to the inhabitants of 
 Cochin China, to the thirty-five millions of Japan, and 
 to the Coreans. The people of all these countries look 
 up to the Chinese as their acknowledged teachers. It is 
 not too much to affirm, that China has for ages been the 
 great centre of what light and civilization have been 
 enjoyed throughout Eastern Asia. As an indication of 
 their intellectual ability, the fact may also be mentioned 
 that the few Chinese who have been educated in Eu- 
 ropean and American colleges and universities have 
 acquitted themselves with honor. A few years since, a 
 Chinaman in Yale College bore off the first prize in his 
 class, for merit in English composition. 
 
 Their strength of character is manifest in their firm 
 adherance to the opinions and principles which they 
 adopt; and in the vital and recuperative energy of 
 those ideas into which they have been educated, and 
 which during their development and growth as a na- 
 tion, have carried them through all political agitations 
 and temporary impedinients. The stability of their 
 character is strikingly observable in their aversion to 
 change; in their love of order and method; the regularity 
 
d 
 
 CHINA AS A MISSION FIRLD. 
 
 of tlieir habits; tlieir diligence in business; and in 
 their quiet and persevering industry. 
 
 They confessedly stand superior to all other Eastern 
 races, in practical wisdom and common sense, and in 
 the manly vigor of their physical, moral, and intellec- 
 tual characters. Surely there is more encouragement 
 in laboring to Christianize and elevate a nation like this 
 than there is in the case of a people who have little 
 strength of mind or of character. 
 
 4. But there is a dark, as well as bright side to this 
 picture. The good qualities of the Chinese render 
 their ignorance and superstition, their wickedness and 
 lost condition, all the more lamentable, and should en- 
 list our deepest sympathies and most earnest efforts for 
 their salvation. 
 
 There are those who, boasting of the education and 
 enlightenment, the civilization and morality of the 
 Chinese, assert that these rendered all efforts to Chris- 
 tianize them uncalled for. 
 
 Chinese “ education and enlightment.” It is a mis- 
 nomer to speak of educated or learned Chinese. No 
 Chinaman is learned or educated in our sense of those 
 terms. No science is taught in their schools. Their 
 literary men are as utterly ignorant of the natural 
 sciences, of the geography and history of other coun- 
 tries, and of mathematics, and are as superstitious, as 
 the most uncultivated classes. In their view, the earth 
 is a plain occupied chiefly by China; the sun and stars 
 revolve around the earth ; the rain and the tides are 
 caused by dragons; the wind, by tigers in the hills; 
 sickne.ss, by evil spirits ; prosperity and adversity by 
 imaginary principles, or essences, called the Ying and the 
 Yang; necromancy, astrology, and every art of divination 
 
CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 9 
 
 are accredited sciences ; these and countless other ab- 
 surdities and superstitions are entertained as verities 
 by the great body of the literati of China. Their edu- 
 cation consists simply in committing to memory their 
 “ Four Books and Five Classics,” with the commenta- 
 ries upon them, and writing of ethical, historical, and 
 poetical essays, which are made up largely of quotations 
 from their classics. 
 
 Thus their memories are developed to the neglect and 
 detriment of their reasoning faculties, while all freedom 
 of thought and all originality are discouraged and pre- 
 cluded. Of those even thus very defectively educated, 
 constituting the literary class, the number is very small, 
 probably not more than two per cent, of the adult male 
 population. Of those who can but indifferently rea,<l 
 and write, there are perhaps thirty per cent. ; while the 
 education of females is entirely neglected. The ignor- 
 ance and superstition of the people have kept China in 
 a stagnant or retrograde condition more than two thou- 
 sand years, constituting an effectual bar to a high state 
 of civilization, and a clog to every move in the direc- 
 tion of progress. 
 
 The nature of Chinese civilization may be inferred 
 from the following facts, — the people have no news- 
 papers, no voice in the government, no politics, and no 
 trial by jury ; torture, as an ordeal to extort testimony 
 from witnesses, and confession from supposed criminals, is 
 in general use among the officials ; they also practice the 
 greatest cruelties upon offenders ; in time of wars, the 
 indiscriminate slaughter of innocent men, women, and 
 children is usually practiced ; the rudest warlike and 
 industrial implements, handed down from ancient times, 
 are still in universal use ; the nation is characterized 
 
10 
 
 CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 Dy a prevailing lethargy, as if struck with paralysis, 
 that gives it an air of senility, and the stamp of decay 
 and death. 
 
 Christianity alone can impart that life and vigor to 
 China which will enable her to throw off the incubus 
 that has for ages pressed her down, and cause her to 
 rise and take her place among civilized and enlightened 
 nations, and enter upon a career of progress. 
 
 There are others who say that “ the heathen being 
 ignorant, and living according to the light which they 
 possess, are not guilty and will not be lost.” But what 
 are the facts? Have not the heathen, — have not the 
 Chinese, — a knowledge of the principles of moral law ? 
 The Chinese are great moralists in their way, and de- 
 pend upon morality for salvation from punishment. 
 They have an endless number of moral maxims, which 
 they apply on every proper occasion. For example, 
 “ Punishment follows crime, as the shadow follows the 
 substance.” “ We may conceal from man’s eye, but not 
 from Heaven’s eye.” “ He who sins against Heaven, 
 has no place for prayer.” The readiness and correct- 
 ness with which they will talk on moral subjects, and 
 analyze moral character, and the earnestness with 
 which they will condemn immoral conduct, show the 
 moral “ law written in their hearts.” 
 
 But do they live according to the light that they 
 possess? Certainly not. Their own conscience “ac- 
 cuses ” them of doing wrong ; and though its voice may 
 be weaker in them than in those reared under the 
 teachings of the Bible and amid Christian influences, 
 still it makes itself heard. They are convinced of their 
 sinfulness, and acknowledge it, and feel the need of 
 some expiation of their guilt. Hence the numerous 
 
CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 11 
 
 expedients to whicli they resort, in order to avoid the 
 consequences of their sins. No, they cannot excuse 
 themselves ; nor do they try to shield themselves with 
 the excuses that some in Christian lands frame for 
 them ; they never affirm that “ they do not know right 
 from wrong,” — that “ they are ignorant, hence inno- 
 cent.” When a Chinese performs an immoral act, if 
 some heathen apologist should say to him, “ you poor 
 man, you did not know any better,” he would take it as 
 an insult. 
 
 The Confucianists, or literati, among whom we might 
 expect a pure morality, if in any class, we find to he 
 inveterately addicted to lying, treachery, and extortion. 
 Among the rulers, all of whom are professed Confu- 
 cianists, justice is unknown. Bribery, extortion, and 
 oppression constitute the universal practice among the 
 officials of every grade. 
 
 Avariciousness sways the hearts of all classes, from 
 the highest to the lowest. There is no mode of dece})- 
 tion and fraud, no trick nor art in trade, no quackery 
 nor jugglery, in which the Chinese are not perfect 
 adepts. Deception and lying are so common that they 
 have almost lost the consciousness that they are wrong. 
 Backbiting and quarreling, slandering and cursing, in- 
 trigues and broils, are universal. Pilfering and theft ; 
 extortion, robbery, and piracy ; suicide, infanticide, and 
 murder ; lotteries, gambling-shops, opium dens, and 
 brothels, are very common. In short, the description 
 given in Romans of the moral condition of the heathen 
 is true to the letter as apjjlied to the Chinese. 
 
 Moreover, there is the great sin of idolatry, — a sin 
 more frequently and severely condemned in the Bible 
 than any other. Some have supposed that the Chinese 
 
12 
 
 CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD, 
 
 are not mucli attached to idolatrous worship. This is a 
 mistake. If they were not thoroughly wedded to their 
 idols, they surely would not spend so much time and 
 money upon them. Nearly two hundred million dol- 
 lars are annually expended in China upon idolatrous 
 feasts and worship. For a period of over three thou- 
 sand years idolatry, from small beginnings, has gradu- 
 ally been extending and strengthening its hold upon tha 
 nation. It has grown with its growth, and strengthened 
 with its strength, until it has permeated every part of 
 it, and interwoven itself into the very frame-work and 
 texture of society. It enters largely into the customs 
 and habits of the people, and constitutes a marked fea- 
 ture in all the more important transactions in life. It 
 gives tone to every shade of religious belief and prac- 
 tice. Every pursuit in life has its own patron god. 
 Even thieves and pirates have their patron gods, whose 
 aid they invoke. Idolatry binds the minds with strong 
 fetters of superstition; burdens them with a depressing 
 dread of countless ills from fancied gods and evil spirits, 
 besides the crushing weight of expense. Millions earn 
 their living by manufacturing and vending shrines, 
 idols, and other articles used in idolatrous worsbiir. 
 Their idolatry assumes a Protean form. The gods of 
 their “ three religions, Confucianism, Taouism, and 
 Buddhism, are worshipped indiscriminately by all. 
 Many never visit an idol-temple to worship, yet they 
 worship the ‘kitchen god,’ or the ‘god of wealth,’ or 
 the ‘ local god ; ’ and all w-orship ‘ heaven and earth,’ 
 and their ‘ ancestors.’ ” 
 
 Now, how are the heathen to be saved wdthout the 
 gospel? While they will not be condemned for rejecting 
 the gospel, which they have never heard, nor for 
 
CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 13 
 
 disobeying tbe Bible, -which they have never read, yet 
 they will be condemned for disobeying the law of God 
 “ written in their hearts,” and for not living according 
 to the light which they possess. And while, like the 
 inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, it will be more 
 tolerable for them in the day of judgment than for 
 those who have rejected the full blaze of the gospel’s 
 light, still it by no means follows that they will be ac- 
 quitted as innocent and be saved. They have no inno- 
 cence, no purity, no fitness for the pure abode of heaven 
 and its holy and spiritual employments. 
 
 Where then is there any hope for the hundreds of 
 millions of heathen in China, in their present state ? 
 Missionaries do not go to that land to preach the gospel 
 to poor innocents, over whom a fate is impending which 
 they do not deserve It is because they are deserving 
 and exposed to everlasting perdition, that the gospel is 
 preached to them, the only hope of salvation. And 
 the command of Christ lays the obligation upon Chris- 
 tians to make known the gospel to every one of those 
 vast multitudes. 
 
 5. In order to a more complete understanding of 
 China as a mission-field, a brief review of its religious 
 history will be necessary. 
 
 In most ancient times the Chinese evidently had 
 .some knowledge of God, whom they designated 
 “ Heaven,” and the “ Supreme Ruler.” Yet the heads 
 of states, of tribes, and of families, constituted their 
 only priests. In addition to the worship of “ Heaven,” 
 they sacrificed to the “ Six Honored Ones,” which were 
 probably the tutelary gods presiding over the more con- 
 spicuous objects of nature ; they also made offerings to 
 the rivers and hills, to their ancestors, and to the host 
 
14 
 
 CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 of spirits. They also were very much given to the 
 practice of divination. But their most ancient books 
 are silent respecting rewards and punishments. 
 
 Confucius, who flourished about 500 B. 0., founded 
 his system upon the sayings and practices of the 
 ancients. He edited and expounded some of their 
 W'orks, and wrote a history. The sayings and doings of 
 Confucius him.self were recorded by his disciples after 
 his death. 
 
 The ethical teachings of Confucius, comsisted in incul- 
 cating the “ Five Virtues,” and the duties pertaining to 
 the “ Five Eelations ” in life. The “Five Kelations ” 
 were those subsisting between emperor and officer, 
 father and son, husband and wdfe, older and younger 
 brothers, and between friends. The “Five Virtues” 
 were benevolence, righteousness, propriety, knowledge 
 and faith. His moral precepts were good, and have 
 had a very great, and in some respects beneficial influ- 
 ence upon the nation. 
 
 But his system has a few radical defects. He ignored 
 a future state of rewards and punishments. He also 
 taught that man’s nature is naturally good, and that he 
 may by his own exertions become holy. This false 
 view of man’s moral state, tends to foster pride and 
 self-righteousness, and leads to the rejection of the 
 scriptural doctrine of the new birth, and of the neces- 
 sity of a Saviour to deliver from sin and its conse- 
 quences. Confucius inculcated the worship of ancestors. 
 This being regarded as the highest act and clearest 
 proof of filial piety, a duty largely dwelt upon by the 
 venerated sage, and by the wliole class of moralists, 
 and being also recognized by law, it is of all forms of 
 religious worship in China, the most popular, the most 
 
CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 15 
 
 venerated, and the most endeared to the hearts of the 
 people. But the tendency of the practice of making 
 offerings to the spirits of their ancestors, has been to 
 foster universal devil-woi'ship. 
 
 Confucius often spoke of “ Heaven ” in terms that 
 can only be appropriately applied to a personal Deity. 
 But his later expositors have interpreted “ Heaven ” to 
 mean merely the material “heaven and earth;” they 
 have deified cosmos, and thus by their pantheistic teach- 
 ing, have obscured the ancient and Confucian idea of a 
 “ Supreme Ruler.” An atheistic philosophy was de- 
 veloped, chiefly by Chufucius about the middle of the 
 twelfth century, which is extensively held by the 
 literary men of the present day. This philosophy at- 
 tributes the existence and order of the universe to a 
 self-existing, perpetually operating essence, guided by 
 an eternal principle of right. The essence and princi- 
 ple are indissolubly united, but are not spiritual in their 
 nature, and are devoid of intelligence. The existence 
 of spiritual beings,- — whether men, gods, or evil-spirits, 
 — is attributed to the same cause. Growth and decay, 
 life and death, in short all the changes and vicissitudes 
 that are transpiring in the universe, are produced by 
 the oscillating operations of the essence described by 
 Chinese writers as “motion and rest,” “expanding and 
 contracting,” and designated by the “ dual powers," the 
 “ male and female principles,” the Yavg and the Ying. 
 Order and virtue exist in consequence of the controlling 
 presence of the principle, while the operations of the 
 essence are often lawless, overstepping the bounds which 
 the jjrinciple of right prescribes, and producing moral 
 evil, anarchy, and distress in the universe. Thus this 
 philosophy dethrones the eternal Author and Sovereign 
 
16 
 
 CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 of tlie universe ; subject's man to a blind fate ; tends to 
 uproot all sense of moral accountability ; accommodates 
 itself and gives license to the deepest depravity and 
 wickedness ; gives scope to any amount of superstition ; 
 and lays a foundation for the whole system of geomancy, 
 and prognostication. The withering, benumbing, dead- 
 ening influence which this system exerts upon the re 
 ligious instincts and moral sensibilities, no one can 
 realize unless brought into contact with consciences thus 
 “ seared,” and the hearts thus rendered “ hard as 
 adamant.” 
 
 Buddhism was introduced into China from India, 
 about A. D. 66. This system answers the wants of 
 man’s religious nature far better than Confucianism 
 or the atheistic philosophy, inasmuch as it furnishes a 
 full system of idolatrous worship and religious super- 
 stition, and holds out future rewards and punishments, 
 which, though of a gross and material character, are 
 very impressive to ignorant minds. The system, how- 
 ever, exerts but little moral restraint upon its adherents. 
 Its ordinary worship is simple, requiring but slight 
 mental or physical exertion, thus adapting itself to 
 man’s natural indolence as well as ignorance. Some of 
 its feasts and rites are showy, and calculated to please 
 and captivate the dark-minded and superstitious multi- 
 tude. Its temples are costly and numerous ; its priests 
 number over a million ; and, what has great influence 
 with the Chinese, it is ancient, and its rites and super- 
 stitious observances are long established and almost 
 universal customs ; hence it is very popular among the 
 masses of the people. 
 
 Tauism originated with a Chinese philosopher, 
 Lan-tzc, who was born B. C. 604, hence was contempoi’ary 
 
CrTlNA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 17 
 
 with Confucius. His great work was a “ Treatise 
 on Truth and Virtue,” a very abstruse and transcen- 
 dental production. The Tauist system is materialis- 
 tic, including an atheistic theory of the universe, and 
 the so-called science of alchemy and astrology. It has 
 been dignified by the term “ rationalism,” but a far 
 more befitting title for it, as it now e.vists, is sorcery. Its 
 devotees are much given to conjuration, necromancy, 
 and devil-worship. They also, like the Buddhists, wor- 
 ship numerous idols. The chief obstacles which this 
 form of idolatry presents to the reception of the gospel, 
 consist in the doubt which it tends to throw upon the 
 testimony of prophecy and miracles, the inspiration of 
 the prophets and apostles, and the divinity of Christ, 
 and in the peculiar fascination which sorcery and magi- 
 cal rites have over unenlightened minds. 
 
 The above three religions of China are not consid- 
 ered by the people as antagonistic sects, hence it is 
 very common for the same persons to profess and per- 
 form the rites and worship of them all. 
 
 Of other religionists in China, the Mohammedans are 
 most numerous. They began to come from Arabia as 
 early as the seventh century. Their number has gradu- 
 ally increased by emigration from Mohammedan states, 
 and by natural descent, and not by proselyti.sm. They 
 are now found in all parts of the empire, have mosques 
 in all the large cities, and number a population of over 
 a million. 
 
 There is also at least one colony of Jews in China, at 
 the city of Kai-fung in the province of Honan. They 
 claim to have settled there at a period prior to the com- 
 mencement of the Christian era, and number about 
 three hundred persons. They have the law and some 
 
18 
 
 CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 other portions of the Scriptures in Hebrew, hut their 
 last rabbi who could read the sacred language died about 
 forty years since. Their ritual worship has ceased, cir- 
 cumcision is neglected, their synagogue, built A. D. 
 1183, has recently been pulled down and the timbers 
 and stones sold; and a few years will, not unlikely, put 
 a period to their existence as a distinct people. 
 
 Christianity in some of its forms, is no new thing in 
 China. There is a strong probability, to say the least, 
 that the gospel was preached in China, and churches 
 founded, during the first century. According to the 
 ritual of the Syrian churches on the Malabar coast and 
 in Persia, the apostle Thomas himself preached the gos- 
 pel and founded churches in China. Assemanus, a 
 learned Syrian historian, maintains the same viev/. 
 Mosheim says, “ There are various arguments collected 
 from learned men, to show that the Christian faith was 
 carried to China, if not by the apostle Thomas, by the 
 first teachers of Christianity.” He also states that 
 “ Arnobius writing about the year 300, speaks of the 
 Christian deeds done in India, and among the Seres, 
 (Chinese,) Persians, and Medes.” Chinese history also, 
 make a clear reference to Christianity in China at this 
 period. On the whole, the historic testimony is quite 
 united and strong in favor of the view that Christian 
 churches were established in China during the first 
 century. 
 
 As we come down to the sixth century, we find that 
 the Nestorian Christians certainly had missions in China. 
 It was in the year 552, according to Gibbon, that the 
 “ two Persian (Nestoilan) monks, who had long resided 
 in China, brought the eggs of silk worms thence to 
 Constantinople.” Mosheim states that “ from the 
 
CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD, 
 
 19 
 
 Nestorian school at Nisibas (Persia) issued those who in 
 the fifth and following century carried the Nestorian 
 doctrines into Egypt, Syria, Arabia, India, Tartary, and 
 even to China.” 
 
 In the seventh and eighth centuries the Nestorian 
 missions in China were very flourishing. This we learn 
 from an inscription upon a remarkable marble tablet, 
 discovered A. D. 1625, in Sigan, the capital of the 
 Shen-si province, and still to be seen there, which was 
 erected A. D. 781. From this inscription it is evident 
 that Christianity, as taught by the Nestorians, and of 
 a much purer type than Eomanism, had made great 
 progress among the Chinese ; the greatest prosperity 
 occurring during the eighth century. It enjoyed the 
 .special favor and patronage of six or seven emperors of 
 the Tang dynasty ; the Bible, or at least portions of it, 
 was translated and was “ in the library of the palace ” ; 
 churches were built and adorned, and priests were 
 appointed and supported by the command and munifi- 
 cence of the Chinese emperors ; many men occupying 
 high official stations were the warm friends of the foreign 
 missionaries, and the firm adherents and zealous sup- 
 porters of the faith ; and converts, churches, and priests 
 were numerous throughout the empire. 
 
 Sixty-four years after the erection of the tablet, 
 A. D. 845, persecution arose, and by an edict of the 
 emperor, Wu-tsung, “ the priests that came from Ta- 
 tsin,” (Syria), numbering no less than three thousand, 
 were ordered to retire to private life. From this time, 
 these missions appear to have declined. Still, foreign 
 priests continued for several centuries occasionally to 
 arrive, and churches continued to exist in various parts 
 of the empire, until a fierce persecution arose that 
 
20 
 
 CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 “ scattered the Christians, and changed their place of 
 worship into heathen temples.” This occurred about 
 the middle of the sixteenth century, when the churches 
 had already become very corrupt and feeble. Since 
 that time, it is not certainly known that a single Nes- 
 torian church has existed in the empire. The Jesuits 
 in the early part of the seventeenth century, found 
 some traces of Nestorian Christians, but they were 
 classed by the Chinese among the Mohammedans and 
 Jews; while the greater part had become idolaters. 
 The benevolent and eleemosynary institutions of China, 
 there can be little doubt, come from these missions, for 
 the tablet speaks of distinguished native Chi'istians 
 “ distributing alms, giving food to the hungry, clothes 
 to those suffering from cold, and curing the sick,” in* 
 “ imitation of the Christian missionaries.” 
 
 Roman Catholic missions have also been in operation 
 in China for a long period. Their first missions were 
 commenced by the Dominicans and Franciscans, in 
 1292, or nearly six hundred years since. They con- 
 tinued till the expulsion of the Mongols from the throne 
 of China, in 1368, when their missions were broken up, 
 after having existed but seventy-six years. From this 
 time, for a period of two hundred and thirteen years, 
 we hear no more of Roman Catholic missions in China. 
 
 But in the year 1581, the Jesuits commenced a 
 mission. It continued to prosper for a period of one 
 hundred and forty-three years, and many churches 
 were established. Then, in consequence of the polit- 
 ical intrigues of the Jesuits on the one hand, and the 
 envy and suspicion of the Chinese officials and literati 
 on the other, a fierce persecution arose. Since that 
 time, the mbssious have suffered frequent severe perse- 
 
CHINA AS A MISSION I'lELD. 
 
 21 
 
 cutions ; but the missionaries have continued to prose- 
 cute their work, through various prosperous and adverse 
 fortunes, down to the present time. Their zeal and 
 self-denial, their steadfastness and perseverance, amid 
 persecution, torture, and death, merit high praise, and 
 are worthy to be imitated by all missionaries of a 
 purer faith. 
 
 The statistics of Roman Catholic missions in China, 
 in 18G6, were as follows : Bishops 20 ; Colleges 12 ; 
 Foreign Priests 233 ; Native Priests 237 ; Native 
 Christians 363,580. 
 
 A Greek church, composed of twenty-five captive 
 Russians, one of whom was a priest, was established at 
 Peking, in 1685. In 1689, a treaty was formed be- 
 tween the Russian and Chinese governments, which 
 resulted in the permanent establishment of a college of 
 Greek priests at the capital, usually composed of the 
 Archimandrite, or head priest, who also acted as Rus- 
 sian ambassador, a clergyman, a physician, a mathema- 
 tician or asti’onomer, and eight or ten young Russians 
 learning the Manchu and Chinese languages. They 
 have not until recently sought to proselyte the natives 
 to their faith. They have in Peking two churches, and 
 between three and four hundred native converts. 
 
 6. Protestant missions to the Chinese were com- 
 menced in 1807. In that year, the Rev. Robert Mor- 
 rison, of the London missionary society, began a 
 mission at Canton. As China was not yet opened, and 
 the East India Company, which then monopolized the 
 trade with China, was oppo.sed to missions, Mr. Morrison 
 was not at liberty to preach openly ; but “ he held 
 secret meetings with a few natives in his own room, 
 where with locked doors, he read and explained the 
 
22 
 
 CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 gospels every Lord’s Day.” He labored alone for six 
 years, and was then joined by the Rev. William Milne. 
 
 Up to 1841, a period of thirty-five years, fifty-eight 
 missionaries had joined the various missions, of whom 
 only four came direct to Canton ; eight were stationed 
 at Macao, a small peninsula near Canton, occupied by 
 Portuguese ; the remaining forty-six were stationed 
 among the Chine.se settlements in the Malayan Archi- 
 pelago. The missionaries studied the language ; con- 
 ducted day and boarding-schools ; prepared and circu- 
 lated a large number of tracts and Scriptures, in both 
 the Chinese and Malay languages ; and preached the 
 gospel extensively to the people. 
 
 Tn 1842, when British cannon had opened the long 
 closed gates of China, the missionaries, evidently feeling 
 that their position in settlements out of China was un- 
 favorable to their work, removed and established them- 
 selves at the five treaty ports of China-proper. Mis- 
 sionaries in greatly increased numbers entered the field, 
 and with great zeal began to lay broad and deep the 
 foundations of their future missions. Lots, often with 
 difficulty, were secured ; buildings were erected ; schools, 
 dispensaries, printing establishments, and chapels were 
 opened; the colloquial dialects and the written lan- 
 guage were acquired; and the gospel was faithfully 
 proclaimed. Thus for eighteen years they labored at 
 the five ports, and on the island of Hongkong, which 
 had been ceded to England. 
 
 By the treaties of 1860, secured by the second war, 
 ten new ports were opened, chiefly on the river Yang- 
 tze, and in the north of China. At most of these, mis- 
 sions were soon established. Day and boarding-schools 
 have been extensively maintained; hundreds of native 
 
CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 23 
 
 preachers have been raised up in training schools ; dis- 
 pensaries and hospitals have been established at nearly 
 all the ports, where more than one hundred thousand 
 patients have annually been treated, and at the same 
 time have been brought under the influence of the gos- 
 pel ; five complete versions of the Bible and over seven 
 hundred other treatises have been prepared and circu- 
 lated in vast numbers. The Scriptures have been very 
 extensively circulated, chiefly by sale, throughout fif- 
 teen of the eighteen provinces. But the preaching of 
 the gospel has been the grand means employed, and not 
 without encouraging success. 
 
 In estimating success, the numerous obstacles to be 
 overcome must be taken into account. The vast inert 
 mass to be acted upon; the pride, self-conceit, and exclu- 
 siveness of the people; their suspicions and prejudices 
 against foreigners and everything foreign, intensified by 
 the dis.solute conduct of most foreigners who visit their 
 shores, and by the pernicious opium traffic forced upon 
 them ; their strong attachment to ancient and revered 
 customs, and utter aversion to change ; their false re- 
 ligions, their puerile superstitions, and abominable 
 idolatries; their sordid worldliness, inordinate love of 
 money, and their grossly material views and aspirations 
 both respecting this life and that to come; the igno- 
 rance, depraved character, and vicious habits of the 
 people ; added to these, the difficulties of the language, 
 and the paucity of adequate terms to convey Christian 
 ideas; — all these circumstances, if taken into ac- 
 count, will give some idea of the obstacles in the way 
 of the successful propagation of Christianity in that 
 empire. 
 
 The vast amount of preparatory labor necessary to be 
 
24 
 
 CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 expended before extensive results can be attained, must 
 also be taken into account in estimating success. Much 
 labor spent in laying the foundations of missions in a 
 heathen land, does not appear upon the surface. In 
 China especially, it was slow and difficult work to re- 
 move the prejudices, the ignorance and superstitions of 
 the people, which, like a vast pile of rubbish, had been 
 accumulating for ages. And when Christianity has 
 already overcome prejudice against foreigners and their 
 religion ; when it has broken the spell of superstition, and 
 hurled idolatry from its throne in the heart, its difficult 
 woik is but fairly begun. It must then encounter not 
 only natures besotted, “ dead in tra.spasses and sins,” 
 but also a tangled and luxurious growth of deep rooted 
 vices. 
 
 As was to be expected, the visible progress of the 
 work, at first, was slow. The results, in conversions and 
 gathering numbers in churches, were not immediately 
 abundant. In consequence of this, and the want of a 
 due regard to the preparatory labor necessary to be 
 performed, and the numerous obstacles to be overcome, 
 some prematurely and unwarrantably have affirmed that 
 “ Protestant missions in China are a failure.” 
 
 Happily we are now able to point to results of 
 mi.ssionary labor in that most difficult field, which prove 
 bevond all question that Protestant missions there are a 
 success. The foundations of God’s spiritual temple 
 have there been laid, and the walls of the glorious 
 superstructure are now beginning to appear. The 
 region of country already occupied, embraces a large 
 portion of the six provinces on the coast, extending 
 from Canton and Hongkong in the south, to Kalgan, 
 one hundred and fifty miles beyond Peking, in the 
 
CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 25 
 
 north ; a region nearly two thousand miles in length by 
 from one hundred to six hundred miles in breadth and 
 containing an area of about four hundred thousand 
 square miles, or a fourth part of China proper. Through- 
 out this section, missions have been established in about 
 forty walled cities and three hundred and sixty vil- 
 lages, making a total of four hundred stations and out- 
 stations, which constitute centres of Christian light and 
 knowledge to the regions adjacent. Over four hun- 
 dred native preachers have been raised up, who are 
 constantly employed in preaching the gospel to their 
 countrymen. About ten thou.sand converts have been 
 received into the churches, of whom some have already 
 gone home to be with Jesus, while some seven thousand 
 are at present communicants. 
 
 It is a cheering fact that the ratio of conversions, of 
 out-stations, and of natives entering the ministry, is 
 every year rapidly increasing. The number in all 
 these departments has, of late, doubled once in a period 
 of a little over three years. Should the same ratio of 
 increase continue, we may reasonably expect that by 
 the year 1900 the native Christians in China will num- 
 ber over two millions. The following table will give 
 some idea of the rate of progress : 
 
 
 1853 
 
 1863 
 
 1864 
 
 1868 
 
 Stations and Out-stations 
 
 26 
 
 108 
 
 1-30 
 
 306 
 
 Native Preachers 
 
 59 
 
 141 
 
 170 
 
 365 
 
 Native Christians 
 
 351 
 
 1974 
 
 2607 
 
 5743 
 
 But mere statistics give a very inadequate view of 
 the results of these missions. The incidental results 
 are also important. Prejudices have been wearing 
 away ; confidence in the missionaries has increased ; 
 their peaceful and benevolent intentions are becoming 
 
26 
 
 CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 widely acknowledged; tens of thousands have had their 
 confidence in their false gods and superstitions shaken ; 
 much Christian knowedge has been diffused, which, like 
 good seed sown in good ground, will ere long spring up 
 and yield a bountiful harvest. 
 
 There is one consideration, also, too important to be 
 omitted ; that there are facilities for the evangelization 
 of China, which in a measure, offset the obstacles. 
 Though China merits the designation of being a hard 
 mission field, still there are many circumstances which 
 may be classed as favorable to the propagation of the 
 gospel. First, we may mention facilities for travelling 
 throughout the empire. True there are no railroads, 
 and, except in the north of China, no wheel carriages 
 nor carriage roads ; yet the facilities for travelling by 
 water, are more complete than those of any other 
 country. In addition to the numerous rivers and their 
 tributaries, there are countless canals, forming a com- 
 plete net-work of water communication over all the 
 plains of the country. The missionary has but to step 
 into a boat, taking with him his assistant, books, food, 
 bed, and by a quiet and easy mode of conveyance, 
 he is soon at any part of the field that he wishes to 
 visit. The clanship of families, and the custom of 
 living together in villages and cities, will also facilitate 
 the spread of the gospel. The eminently social habits 
 of the people will contribute to the same end, since what 
 one ]>erson learns he soon communicates to others. The 
 settled habits of the people constitute another circum- 
 stance far more favorable to their evangelization than if 
 they were roving, fickle, warlike tribes. Another 
 facility is the universality of the written language. 
 Though the spoken dialects are numerous and very 
 
CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 27 
 
 diverse, the written language is the same throughout the 
 empire ; so that the Scriptures and other books and 
 tracts, when once printed, at any station, may be circu- 
 lated everywhere, requiring no revision though carried 
 to the most distant parts of the land, and even to several 
 bordering countries. 
 
 Closely connected with the above, is another advan- 
 tage, that the views, objections, and characteristics to be 
 met with are substantially the same throughout the em- 
 pire ; hence the same arguments found best adapted to 
 combat false doctrines, meet objections, and convince of 
 the truth of Christianity, in one place, would be found 
 equally useful in other parts of the empire. Again, 
 the intelligence of the people upon moral subjects, as 
 compared with more barbarous nations, constitutes a 
 stepping-stone to their more ready acquaintance with 
 the precepts of Christianity and when converted, to 
 their more rapid progress in religious knowledge. 
 Moreover, their religious instincts are on the side of 
 Christianity. They feel themselves in some way amen- 
 able to a power higher than men or gods. Something 
 within them points to a future existence and future re- 
 tributions, and they feel the need of some sure directory 
 in all these matters, and some means by which their 
 sense of guilt may be removed, and they may attain a 
 happy state of future existence. The adaptation of 
 Christianity to meet all these spiritural wants and 
 religious aspirations of the soul, gives it an important 
 vantage ground, and does not fail to commend it power- 
 fully to the minds of even the heathen. 
 
 But as the greatest obstacle to the propagation of 
 Christianity in China is found in the depravity of the 
 heart, so on the other hand, the greatest encouragement 
 
28 
 
 CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 is found in the promises of God. One “ Lo, I am with 
 you,” constitutes a surer guaranty of success, and af- 
 fords more encouragement in the work than a thousand 
 favorable circumstances. Still these facilities have 
 their place, and when the Spirit shall be poured on 
 the people from on high, and the word of the Lord 
 shall have free course and be glorified, then these 
 favoring circumstances no doubt will be found to greatly 
 accelerate its progress. Owing to the denseness of the 
 population, their tendency to move in masses, and to 
 the facilities enumerated, we may reasonably expect 
 that when the Chinese begin in earnest to “ seek the 
 Lord,” the work of conversion will move forward with 
 greater rapidity than has ever been witnessed in any 
 other nation. 
 
 7. And now, that which should greatly enhance the 
 interest especially of American Christians in this field, 
 is the fact that it is brought so near to them. The 
 e.stablishment of the Pacific mail steamship line, and 
 the Pacific railroad, has revolutionized the relations of 
 the foreign mission-field to the home churches. For- 
 
 O 
 
 merly, in contemplating the foreign field, our attention 
 was directed across the Atlantic toward the “ great 
 East;” now, we are compelled by force of new cir- 
 cumstances, to gaze westward ; beyond the “ great 
 West,” across the broad Pacific, there looms in view, 
 like Alps rising on Alps, a greater West ; and here 
 we find our great foreign mission field. Formerly, 
 China was at the very “ ends of the earth,” too far 
 away to awaken much interest ; now, the facilities for 
 intercommunication have brought her almost to our very 
 doors, and she is beginning to command our attention. 
 Formerlv, missionaries to China were about five months 
 
CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 29 
 
 in reaching their field ; now, they can reach it in five 
 weeks. Then, they had the discomforts of a long voyage 
 “ around the Cape ” in a sailing vessel ; now, in a splen- 
 did and comfortable “palace-sleeping-car” they cross 
 the continent to San Francisco in a week, thence in a 
 magnificent steamship, with every comfort that can be 
 enjoyed at sea, they cross the Pacific and reach China 
 in less than a month. 
 
 In the Pacific railroad cros.sing the rugged Sierra 
 Nevada and the lofty Piocky Mountains, have ive not 
 a striking fulfilment of that prophecy in Isaiah xlix. 11 : 
 “ I will make all my mountains a way, and my high- 
 ways shall be exalted ? ” Is not that road evidently 
 God’s “highway ” for sending his word and his servants 
 to Christianize the idolatrous nations of Asia? This 
 view is confirmed by the next verse, “ Behold, these 
 shall come fi’om far ; and lo ! these from the north, and 
 from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.” 
 Sinse or Thinse was the ancient name of China, to which 
 land the allusion of the prophet no doubt here refers. 
 If this interpretation be correct, then this great high- 
 way acro.ss the mountains has direct connection Avith 
 the conversion of China to God. Is there no marked 
 providence in thus bringing that old, exclusive, popu- 
 lous, heathen nation so near our Christian land? Is 
 there no significancy in the fact also, that China is pour- 
 ing upon our shores her heathen population ? Is there 
 no divine plan of mercy for the benighted multitudes of 
 Asia, manifest in bringing the oldest and the newest 
 empires into contact ; in the meeting of the eastern and 
 the western courses of civilization ; in bringing Amer- 
 ican enterprise to bear upon Chinese lethargy, and a 
 living purifying Christianity to operate upon their 
 
30 
 
 CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 corrupt lieatlienism ? Is not the finger of God pointing 
 Christians to the long neglected multitudes of China, 
 and in effect saying ; “ Say not ye, there are yet four 
 months, and then cometh harvest, behold, I say unto 
 you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they 
 are white already to harvest ” ? 
 
 Never has the Christian church in any previous pe- 
 riod of her history, had so wide a door of usefulness 
 opened, nor so great a demand upon her efforts and re- 
 sources. Never before has any mission field invited the 
 people of God to engage in an enterprize of such vast- 
 ness and grandeur. 
 
 The question now arises, will the disciples of Jesus, 
 in view of these va.st perishing multitudes now in tha 
 providence of God rendered easily accessible, yield 
 hearty obedience to his last great command ? Will the 
 people of God go where he opens the way, and clearly 
 points the road? Are they ready to follow “ the pillar 
 of cloud,” and “the pillar of fire,”' whither.soever they 
 may lead ? Will the churches of Christ take possession 
 in his name, of the “goodly land” of China? 
 
 Christians of happy, free America, to you in a most 
 emphatic sense, is intru.sted that which alone can meet 
 the wants of those benighted millions of your fellow 
 men. To you is committed the antidote for all their 
 ills ; the light that can dispel their darkness ; and the 
 only means which can secure them pardon, hope, holi- 
 ness, and eternal salvation and happiness. To you it is 
 granted richly to enjoy the gospel with its manifold 
 blessings. Hence a correspondingly heavy responsibility 
 is laid upon you to impart it to others. You are 
 “ debtors ” to all those who are not similarly blessed. 
 And how gi-eatly is that debt increased by the abundant 
 
CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 31 
 
 means and facilities placed in your hands for dissemi- 
 nating the gospel. God is pouring wealth into your 
 colFers for a higher purpose than selfish indulgence. To 
 make this use of riches will bring leanness upon your 
 own souls, and ruin upon your children, and eventually 
 upon the churches and the nation. The ancient people 
 of God were req-uired to give for the various services of 
 the Lord, nearly one-half of their entire income. In a 
 more spiritual kingdom, under a dispensation of better 
 promises, possessing far more means and a vastly en- 
 larged field for benevolent labors, the people of God 
 now are required to give in no stinted manner, but 
 “ every one ” is regularly to give “ as God hath pros- 
 pered him.” The establishment of Christ’s kingdom on 
 earth, occupies the first place in the divine counsels re- 
 specting our world ; so also should it have the first jilace 
 in the heart of every Christian, and in his plans, his 
 business, and his use of the property over which God 
 has made him steward. Learn then, Christians, highly 
 favored of heaven, from the advantages that you enjoy, 
 and the means confided to your trust, both your pe- 
 culiar responsibility and your exalted privilege. 
 
 Has that responsibility been fairly recognized re- 
 specting the millions of China? It is true .something 
 has been done. Twenty-four missionary societies, of 
 which one-third are in the United States, have over one 
 hundred and sixty missionaries in that field, of whom 
 about one hundred and forty are ordained. One or- 
 dained missionary to some two million six hundred and 
 fifty thousand inhabitants! Is this what should be 
 done by all Christendom to save the hundreds of millions 
 of souls in China? Why, opium-sellers from professedly 
 Christian nations annually sell to Chinese over sixty 
 
32 
 
 CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 million dollar's wortli of the drug, and can shou^ over 
 three million of confirmed opium-inehriates, whom they 
 have helped to ruin body and soul ! 
 
 How little has been done for the salvation of China, 
 compared with what remains to be done, and with the 
 ability of Christians ! The labor hitherto has been 
 chiefly preparatory. But the time has now ai’rived .or 
 putting forth direct efforts on a large scale, for the 
 evangelization of the people. This enterprise demands 
 large views and plans ; a large amount of faith, prayer, 
 zeal, and liberal giving, and a far greater number or 
 laborers. Oh, Christian, does not the authority and 
 love of Christ, the vast multitude and miserable con- 
 dition of your fellow men in China, and the debt that 
 3’ou owe them, constrain you to employ all the ability 
 with which God has endowed you, to give them the 
 gospel, which alone is adapted to regenerate and save 
 their souls? 
 
 Bible and Publication Society, 530 Arch St., Philadelphia. 
 
WHAT CHIHA IS. 
 
 3 
 
 province has about ten divisions, called Fu ; and each 
 Fivds again divided into about an equal number of Hien. 
 These divisions and subdivisions of the provinces are 
 gC'.ierally translated in English, departments, or prefec- 
 tdf<;3, and districts. The above-mentioned divisions and 
 subdivisions are much larger than our corresponding 
 eounties and to\vn.ships. While the empire has its capi- 
 'ttal at Pekin, so each province, Fu, and Hien, has its 
 capital or seat of civil power, in which the officers exer- 
 • cising jurisdiction over it reside. While our national 
 name. United States, covers not only the states, but the 
 dc comparatively sparsely-populated territories, so the Chi- 
 nese Empire includes, in addition to the eighteen pro- 
 1 vinces, or China proper, Manchuria, Mongolia, Sungaria, 
 Eastern Turkistan, Koko-nor, and Thibet. The most of 
 these territories belonged originally to the present Tar- 
 tar rulers of China, and, after the subjugation of the 
 eighteen provinces, were united with them in the same 
 empire. The whole circumference of the empire is 
 about twelve thousand miles, and the whole area about 
 five millions of square miles — nearly twice that of the 
 United States, exclusive of the lately-acquired Prussian 
 possessions. 
 
 Here the parallel between the United States and 
 China ceases, and in nearly every point of comparison 
 we have a decided contrast. The capitals of the dif- 
 ferent divisions of the empire are all walled cities. 
 These form a striking feature of the country. There 
 are important distinctions between the cities of the third 
 class, most of which are designated by the character 
 Hien, a few by the character Cheo, and a few by the 
 character Ting, which need not here be particularly 
 
4 
 
 WHAT CHINA IS. 
 
 described. Though varying considerably in size, these 
 different cities present nearly the same uniform ap- 
 pearance. They are surrounded by walls from twenty 
 to thirty-five feet in height, and are entered by large 
 arched gateways, which open into the principal streets, 
 and are shut and barred at night. These walls are 
 from twenty to twenty-five feet thick at the base, and 
 somewhat narrower at the top. The circumferences of 
 the provincial cities vary from eight to fifteen Engli.sh 
 miles ; those of the Fu cities from four to ten ; and those 
 of the Hien cities from two or three to five. 
 
 The provincial capitals contain an average population 
 of about one million inhabitants; the Fu cities from one 
 hundred thousand or less to six or eight hundred thou- 
 sand, while the cities of the third class, which are much 
 more numerous, generally contain several tens of thou- 
 sands. 
 
 All the names to be found on our largest maps of 
 China are the names of walled cities, and many of those 
 of the third class are not down for want of space. The 
 whole number in the aggregate is over seventeen hun- 
 dred. Supposing them to have an average circumference 
 of four miles each, the whole length of wall such as has 
 been described wmuld be sixty-eight hundred miles, 
 nearly one-third the circumference of the globe. If we 
 add to this the fifteen hundred miles of continuous wall 
 separating China from Chinese Tartary in the North, it 
 will swell the estimate to more than eight thousand 
 miles.