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I. Is the attempt to convert the heathen humane, pious, obligatory, practicable, and of sufficient necessity and importance to justify the calls which are made on Christian liberality?

It seems to me strange, that any one who believes the Old and New Testament to be a revelation from God, can for a moment doubt that it is his duty, as he has opportunity, to extend and propagate directly and indirectly the truths of this revelation. They who have felt its conscience-rousing, sanctifying, peace-giving and soul-comforting truths, cannot but desire that others should know and feel them, the near and the far off, the dwellers around us and the dwellers in the uttermost parts of the earth. This feeling of desire to give the word of God and the Christian ministry to others, has always existed, from the primitive ages down to the present period. Before the age of societies there was the age of individual effort; when pious men, counting not their lives dear to them, went among the Gentiles, preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ.

Nor is there any thing necessarily visionary in these efforts. They are practicable, and have been successful. The truths employed are suited to man's character and to man's condition, wherever he may be found. Hence the Apostle said, "I am not ashamed to preach the gospel at Rome also,”—heathen Rome," for it is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth." Imbued with this spirit, the first Christians at a very early period of the Christian era, went over to Britain and Wales and preached to the ancient Celts and Saxons, a race as rough and savage and uncivilized as any of the Indian tribes who wander through the forests of North America. And yet the gospel was received by them; it enlightened their dark minds, it subdued their lowest vices, it softened their ferocious tempers, it changed their social habits, it refined their personal manners, it has made them what they and their posterity are, the glory of the human race. Such are the elevating effects of the gospel wherever it is preached and received at the present day.

I need not say, these truths are designed and adapted to enlarge and correct men's views of God, and of their relations and duties to one another; nor, that they are no less adapted to raise and purify and transform man's character. They not only enlighten his darkness, but change the tiger to a lamb, the vulture to a dove; they bring the animal man into subjection, and place reason and conscience in authority; and while the tempers are attuned to gentleness and forbearance and sweetness and calmness, the mind has serenity and peace within, and is led forward to the high anticipations of heaven. It is supported and tranquilized under the ills of this life by the hopes of a better. Nay, it is calmed amid the agitations which others feel, by the assurances of the guidance of a wisdom that is infinite, the support of a power that is omnipotent, and the superintendence of a goodness that is immeasurable and unceasing.

II. But although the object is practicable and good, is not the distance a sufficient reason for our doing nothing,-especially when there are nearer objects of charity at home,-and where there is so much around us which needs to be done? Shall we give to a foreign object, when home objects most touchingly appeal to our sympathies and imperatively claim our help and attention? "Shall we give, or shall we not give ?" To these inquiries I would reply:

If giving to objects abroad, took from us the power and the means of giving to objects at home, then stay your hands; for it is a law both of nature and of grace, that charity begin at home. But if you can both be compassionate at home and raise the degraded and down-fallen abroad, and if giving to one dis

poses you to be more charitable to the other, then there is not so much cause for demur. Now I suppose it to be an indisputable fact, that the Christians who have taken the liveliest and most constant interest in the physical comfort, the mental improvement, the moral elevation and the religious character of the poor and the destitute in their own country, have been the men who have felt most deeply for the deplorable condition of the heathen, and contributed most liberally for their enlightenment and salvation.

By a law of our nature, he who tenderly and religiously sympathizes in one good object is likely to sympathize in another. An act of kindness is the rod that touches the rock of the heart, and the waters of sympathy gush out and run in full and copious streams; branching out and fertilizing the parched plains in different and opposite directions. This has been the case in regard to missions. Show me a man who patronizes ministerial education, the distribution of tracts, home missions, and I will show you one who patronizes foreign missions. My reading and my personal knowledge in Europe and America, are verifications of the fact. The men who originated foreign missions and stirred up the public mind to their support, originated home missions; and the men who did nothing for foreign missions, cared nothing for the poor and vicious and ignorant at home. I have known the leading men of England and Scotland, either personally or by reputation, of all denominations for the last fifty years; as I have also known others for more than forty years in this country; and I scarcely know a solitary man who has set in motion, or been an active coadjutor with others in promoting home missions, that was not equally the friend and supporter of foreign missions; and I do not know a man of any reputation or eminence, either in Great Britain or the United States, devoted to foreign missions, who has not been among the founders, prime movers or supporters of domestic missions. I never knew a warm friend of foreign missions who was a cold friend of home missions; nor have I ever known a man who cared much for home missions, or did much for them, who was indifferent to foreign missions. In truth, there is not a Home Mission Society either in Great Britain or the United States among all the evangelical denominations of which I have any knowledge, that was not formed and that is not supported by the founders and supporters of foreign missions. The truth is;-the one ought to be done, the other ought not to be undone. This is the doctrine of Christ. He commanded his apostles and first ministers to teach all nations, "beginning at Jerusalem." This is the true order; begin at home, but so far as we can, let us with the saving truths of the gospel encircle the world.

But is there any command,-is it the will of Christ, clearly revealed, that we should make any sacrifices to make known the gospel to the heathen? It seems to me there is.

"Go preach the gospel to every creature,"—" Go teach all nations." But to accomplish this, they who go, need to be sustained by their brethren. They cannot cross the wide seas, they cannot devote themselves to the mental and religious instruction of the heathen, unless their wants are provided for. This, in the distribution of duties and of labors, seems to devolve on those who remain at home. They cannot go a warfare at their own charge. If, therefore, the heathen are to be converted, we must fulfil our part, we who remain at home. Here is a reason why Christians should give, and give liberally, though it cost something.

III. But cannot the heathen be left to the mercy of God? He will not condemn them for an ignorance they cannot help. Where little is given, little is

required; and it will add to their accountability, to be more enlightened. Shall we give, or shall we not give?

It is a blessed truth that God is merciful and that he will not condemn men for an ignorance they cannot help. But, then, it is a glorious part of his mercy, that he has given a revelation of his will, that he has given his law, told us what to do and what to avoid, and that he has given his gospel to teach us how we may lay hold on his goodness and be saved. And a part of his mercy to the heathen is, not to save them in their low vices and their sins, but in making it the duty of Christians to take his revelation to the heathen, and to turn them, instrumentally, from the power of Satan unto God.

God's great mercy to the heathen is, in making it the duty of Christians to go among them and preach the gospel to them, and in disposing and inclining them to do so. God is merciful to the heathen, not in conniving at their sins and allowing them to live in the lowest vices, and then making them eternally happy; but he is merciful to the heathen in calling upon us to pity them, to take to them those truths which will enlighten, purify, elevate and comfort them; and which will open to them, while it prepares them through your instrumentality for it, a blessed and holy immortality. Here, then, will we give, or will we not give?

IV. But is not the money misappropriated? Is it not spent on men at home, and arrested in its destination? These are proper questions; but if others know not the men, or believe not their professions, I believe that the Boards of the different religious sects, many of the members of whom, of all denominations, I know, are pious, pure, benevolently minded men, anxious to do good; and that many of the managers expend for this object, some hundreds, and others thousands of dollars every year from their own personal funds. For many years, in the early history of our own missions, the duties of treasurer and secretary were performed gratuitously; until the labor to be performed required all the time and thoughts and efforts of a few executive officers. And I am sure that in regard to our own officers of the Missionary Union a most rigid and strict regard to economy has been observed. Not a dollar has been expended that could well be avoided. Few secretaries or treasurers in any other institution, in which talents and integrity were requisite, have labored for so small a recompense. It has not been, I believe, the pecuniary recompense, but a sense of duty and a desire to coöperate in extending Christianity among the heathen, that has influenced many of the men who receive recompense for their labors. But they give all their time to the work, and must be sustained.

I will not say whether the 99 missionaries with their 144 assistant preachers, having the oversight of 108 churches, 10,000 church members, and, perhaps, 2,000 scholars, are sumptuously supported. They never have received the support which I would have voted them. They are praying, self-denying, laborious, self-sacrificing men; fainting sometimes, and discouraged, that Christian people do not feel a deeper interest in the objects to which they have consecrated their time, talents, bodies, souls and spirits. God has blessed them, and is blessing them. But they need our pecuniary assistance. "Shall we give, or shall we not give?"

D. S.

American Baptist Missionary Union.

CHINA.-Letter of Dr. Macgowan, dated

at Ningpo, Nov. 1, 1847.

The first part of the following letter gives some interesting notices of Puto and Chusan, islands in the neighborhood of Ningpo, which were visited last year by Dr. Macgowan and family for the benefit of Mrs. M.'s health.

The arrival of br. and sr. Lord was providential and most unexpected. In addition to the depressing cares and painful responsibilities inseparably connected with the position of a solitary missionary at a new station, there was also at that time much cause for solicitude owing to the dangerous state of Mrs. M.'s health. By the time br. Lord had been a month at Ningpo, her health had so far improved as to permit the trial of change of air for recovery, which I was enabled now to make without detriment to the mission. A whole month was accordingly spent on board a boat, cruising amongst the islands of the Chusan group, and at the mouth of the river off Chinhai, with the exception of the Sabbath, which was spent at Ningpo.

Puto island-Priests-Historical legend-
Decay.

We were nearly a week at Puto, or as it is called by foreigners, The Worshipping Island. On my previous visit, more than three years ago, I was obliged to remain a silent spectator of scenes painful to every Christian heart, and to content myself with the distribution of a number of tracts. These tracts, I found upon inquiry, had been carefully laid by unread. On this occasion I was so happy as to be able to converse with the priests, their attendants and the visitors from various parts of the main land. With few exceptions the priests are the most ignorant people in China. Men seldom enter the priesthood; but poor parents who cannot support their boys send them to monasteries, where they are supported in absolute idleness for several years, until such time as they are admitted to orders. The mental powers are gradually stultified by inactivity and gormandizing and meditating on Budha. These poor men being for the

most part in a state closely allied to
idiocy, cannot be addressed with any
reasonable hope of success. Some of
the priests, however, are
men who
have experienced desires of the soul
which neither nature, reason, litera-
could satisfy, and who sought that rest
ture, nor worldly success of any kind
for their wearied minds which Budh-
ism proffers to its votaries-namely,
annihilation, a consummation to be oh-
tained after a life spent in the practice
of rigid austerities.

There are several of this interesting class at Puto. The one with whom I had most intercourse, had immured himself in a small room for eighteen months, which was one half the period which his vow required; the object in this instance being to procure funds for repairing the dilapidated temple of some adjacent goddess, whose name I now forget. Those who would share in the merit of the anchorite, must subscribe for the proposed repairs; and should the required sum be made up at any time before the expiration of the three years, he quits his cell and is once more at liberty. This man never affected to work; his beard and nails were of several years' growth; the latter were longer than his fingers, and like the claws of an enormous bird. Though filthy in the extreme, there was something in his appearance which awakened a strong interest in his favor; his melancholy and pensive features beamed with intelligence and benevolence. He could not take it kindly when told that all he had undergone and all his contemplated sufferings would not atone for a single sin; nevertheless he listened with apparent attention to much that was said concerning the gospel, and assured me that soon after his release he would visit me at Ningpo. When we last visited him, he thrust his head, shoulders and arms out of the hole in his door, that he might approach nearer. He seemed happy when visited, as he was thereby relieved for a time from bis prostrations before the idol.

There was another priest with whom I had frequent interviews, who was a victim of the bane of China. He placed himself under my care for relief from the habit of opium smoking, and complied with the rule which re

On my former visit to Ningpo I

quires in the first place the delivery of we use the rain-water which falls from the pipe. Ou quitting the island he the dirty roofs of our houses; if prehad abstained six days from the stimu- served and used with care, it is wholelant, which before he had deemed some.. necessary for his existence; and the severe ailments which followed its dis-picked up some vegetable fossils, a continuance were almost entirely re- species of algae, on the pier; the locallieved. He attended religious service ity of which at this time I was so foron board our boat, listened attentively tunate as to discover, it being the only to our expositions of the Bible, and ex- palaeontological field I know of in pressed his intention of following me China. very soon. Unhappily, however, some days after my departure he came in a state of intoxication to the boat of another missionary and demanded a passage to Chusan; which was very properly refused him, as he would have proved a dangerous passenger. Since that time, I have heard nothing of him; it is to be presumed that he has another pipe.

Some of the priests were disposed to be rude, and sought opportunities to excite a laugh at the expense of foreigners. To one of these I put the question, "Have you a family?" With undisguised indignation he exclaimed, "Oh me to veh-No!" (Oh me to veh is an unmeaning ejaculation to Budha, which precedes almost every sentence uttered by the devout, and is to be found written at almost every turn on the island.) "Are you married ?" "Oh me to veh-No!" "Were your parents married?" "To be sure they were!" "That is very strange; here is a Chinaman who is wiser and better than his parents!!" He seemed as much amused at the dilemma in which he found himself, as were the bystanders.

Puto is remarkable for its beautiful scenery. Although less than three miles long and about one half in breadth, it contains above sixty temples; but only two or three of these are of the first class, the remainder are generally small. The history of the island informs us, that during the second De Liang dynasty (907 to 923, A. D.) a Japanese priest was bearing an image of the Queen of Heaven to his native country. Having embarked at Ningpo, the vessel made a pleasant passage as far as Puto; but when abreast of the island, the goddess signified her determination to be taken no further, by increasing to such an enormous weight that the junk could not be made to inove. The priest promised to land her forthwith and to provide for her the best accommodations the place afforded, if she had taken a faucy to the island; whereupon she again became portable, and was taken ashore. In the year 1000 of the Christian era, the reigning emperor granted several thousand dollars for the erection of temples; and again during the Ming dynasty, large grants were made for the Early one morning I visited a monsame purpose. The celebrated Kanghé astery of difficult access on a rock of the present dynasty exceeded his whose base is lashed by the waves of predecessors in grants of money to the misnamed Pacific; its position was this favored spot; the queen and his singularly beautiful in a copse of grace- daughters, we are told, also contributed ful bamboos, and so retired that its largely. Since that time, the imperial quiet is only interrupted by the doleful bounty appears to have been withheld, sound of the anchorites in their wor- and everything seems falling into deship. From an eminence near by, a cay. The mendicant portion of the view is afforded of the great waste of fraternity procure no more in their waters which divides us from our travels than is required for the ordiOrient region America, equal in gran-nary expenses of the place. deur to any maritime prospect I have

ever seen.

The monks of this establishment base their reputation for sanctity mainly on their abstinence from the most grateful of all beverages-tea; but then the water is so excellent at Puto that nothing is lost by the change. A quantity of very good green tea is produced on this island, which brings a high price at Ningpo. Speaking of water, it may be mentioned that at Ningpo

The

This

priests, when all at home, amount to
about one thousand, and their attend-
ants, including laborers, shopkeepers
and others, form as many more.
is a falling off of two thirds of the
population, since the palmy days of
the establishment.

Visit to Chusan-Salubrity of the climate.

The month having expired for which the boat had been hired, with but a slight improvement in the health of

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