J. Hudson Taylor

“ If, however, we can conscientiously say that duty—not inclination, not pleasure, not business—detains us here, are we labouring in prayer for these helpless ones as we might do? Are we using our influence and means as largely as they might be to help forward their salvation? In short, are we seeking first, for ourselves and for them, the kingdom of God and His righteousness, leaving to God to add other blessings? ”

“ The rough plough of war, famine, and pestilence, was breaking up the soil and opening it; and many a homestead, many a nest did it tear to pieces in its onward progress. Houses were burnt down, crops were pillaged, property was destroyed. Too often was the husband left a widower, or the wife a widow; parents were left childless, children were bereft of their parents. And now shall we be idle, and allow our opportunity to be lost? Missionaries tell us of such willingness to hear the gospel as never was found before. ”

“ Two days and a half would permit all the attendants on Christian worship in China to pass by, while seventeen years would be required by the heathen. Mournful and impressive fact—such is the proportion of those who are journeying heavenward to those whose dark and Christless lives, if not speedily enlightened, must end in dark and Christless deaths, and—after death the judgment! Two hundred and fifty millions! an army whose numbers no finite mind can fully grasp. ”

“ The dangers and difficulties in the way we knew would be neither few nor small; but with Jesus for our leader we feared not to follow on. We expected that dangers, and difficulties, and trials, while leading to a greater realisation of our own weakness, and poverty, and need, would also constrain us to lean more constantly, to draw more deeply,
THE CHINESE WHEEL-BARROW
and to rest more implicitly, on the strength, the riches, the fulness of Christ. ”

“ But here we have not shillings but precious souls; and not one million but twenty millions of souls, who must live for ever, either in happiness or woe—and who can estimate the value of one soul? So priceless is the treasure that heaven and earth in all their material splendour are not to be compared to it. ”

“ Those who have never been called to prove the faithfulness of the covenant-keeping God, in supplying, in answer to prayer, the pecuniary need of His servants, might deem it a hazardous experiment to send evangelists to a distant heathen land, with "only God to look to." But in one whose privilege it has been for many years past to prove the faithfulness of God, in various circumstances—at home and abroad, by land and by sea, in sickness and in health, in necessities, in dangers, and at the gates of death,—such apprehensions would be wholly inexcusable. ”

“ But still more important is the fact, that the spoken languages in many parts of China are so easy of acquisition that now missionaries of moderate ability may begin to use the vernacular of almost any part of China after a few months' study. Hence, while there is ample room for those whom God has endowed with special philological talent, there is no reason why men "full of faith and of the Holy Ghost," who have enjoyed but few educational advantages, should not be engaged in the blessed work of carrying the gospel into the regions hitherto unevangelized. ”

“ Looking on the state of the seven provinces now enumerated, the only provinces in which Protestant missionaries were labouring before 1865, there is an aggregate of perhaps 119 millions, of whom, allowing a hundred thousand souls to every missionary, there still remain over 80 millions, for whose direct benefit nothing is being attempted, to whom no herald of mercy is designated, and by whom the glad tidings of great joy have never been heard. Over eighty millions famishing for want of that food which God has so liberally provided ”

“ Many fail to realise how small Europe is compared with other continents; and still more are insufficiently impressed with the dimensions and importance of the Chinese empire. It will be seen from this diagram, that to benefit China means to benefit a much larger territory than Europe. Australia, vast as it is, together with Tasmania, New Zealand, and all the archipelagoes of the South Sea Islands, put together do not equal the Chinese empire in extent. ”

“ Imagine England with only 55 ministers of Christ and that number living in five only of our cities, while all the rest were left destitute! But of these 55 missionaries four are medical men; one superintends the mission press and the secular affairs of his mission; one is a colporteur of the National Bible Society of Scotland; and 17 are single ladies, of whom four are qualified medical practitioners. Thus there are only 32 ministers of Christ free to give themselves exclusively to evangelistic labour in a province containing 20 millions of souls. It is easy to talk of 20 millions ”

“ The crowded audiences which fill them strike the mind with an overwhelming sense of the solemnity of the task of proclaiming the word of life to such a mass of human beings. Filled four times on Sunday, and nine or ten times in the week besides, sometimes with men, sometimes with women, and sometimes with mixed audiences, we may presume that in the course of each fortnight's mission to a given locality, the evangelists preach and sing the gospel to perhaps 25,000 different individuals. ”

“ In these two provinces, therefore, covering together an area of 307,513 square miles, and containing 25 millions of precious souls, there are only 19 Protestant missionaries, fourteen of them men! one man, if you will, to 21,965 square miles of hill and dale, of mountain and valley—a district over two-thirds the size of Scotland. When could he traverse such a district, and reach the countless inhabitants it contains, even if the work of the city, in which he resides, were not in itself far more than he could possibly accomplish? Yet all these people must die ”

“ The masses of the people are unable to read or write; consequently, persons possessing only a limited education are competent to act as their teachers. By means of an adaptation of our Roman alphabet, the various spoken languages of China may be reduced to writing, and uneducated Chinese may be taught to read in their own mother tongue (which the written style is not) in a few months. High-style composition in the unspoken written character is, even to the learned, unintelligible when read aloud: it is addressed to the eye, not to the ear. ”

“ The area of these three provinces together is 227,828 square miles, over seven times that of Scotland; the aggregate population is 25 millions, nearly seven times that of Scotland; and there are only the four C.I.M. missionaries among them, and two others designated. Some of these workers are often cast down and discouraged, for want of companionship and help—living alone in these vast regions and among these 25 millions! Is it not time we cried mightily to the great Lord of the harvest, to succour the lonely ones, and to send forth more labourers into His great harvest field? ”

“ On Monday the poor had their breakfast as usual, for we had not told them not to come, being assured that it was the Lord's work, and 'Jehovah Jireh.' We could not help our eyes filling with tears of gratitude, when we saw not only ourselves supplied, but the widows and orphans, the blind and the lame, the friendless and the destitute, together provided for, by the bounty of Him who feeds the ravens. 'O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.' 'O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that trusteth Him. ”

“ We cannot but believe that the contemplation of these solemn facts has awakened in many the heartfelt prayer, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do, that Thy name may be hallowed. Thy kingdom come, and Thy will be done in China?" It is the prayerful consideration of these facts, and the deepening realisation of China's awful destitution of all that can make man truly happy, that constrains the writer to lay its claims as a heavy burden upon the hearts of those who have experienced the power of the blood of Christ ”

“ Yet with all this stupendous amount of united effort, and all this freely consecrated wealth, with the unique and remarkable gifts of the evangelists themselves, and the rich blessing of God poured upon their labours, what is the utmost the movement can accomplish in the way of reaching the population of the metropolis? ”

“ No one is pointing them to the great Sin-Bearer! If we aggregate all the workers in these 11 provinces, and allow to each 100,000 people as his or her sphere of labour, there will remain over 100 millions without missionary supply. Add to them the 83 millions beyond the reach of the gospel in the seven provinces first mentioned, and we have an aggregate exceeding 183 millions absolutely without those tidings which the Saviour so long ago commanded to be carried to every creature. My Christian reader, are you quite sure that it is not your duty to carry the gospel to these perishing ones? ”

“ They are perishing, and they are left to perish. Among them no missionary resides to make known that wisdom, the merchandise of which "is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold." Throughout this immense territory, larger than the whole continent of Europe, with the exception noted above, there is not a single ambassador for Christ from all the Protestant churches in Europe and America to carry the word of reconciliation, and to pray men in Christ's stead, "Be ye reconciled to God." ”

“ Consider Who it is that has said, "If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it? and He that keepeth thy Soul, doth not He know it? and shall not He render to every man according to his works?"
THE DEPENDENCIES OF CHINA.
Having completed our survey of China Proper, we must now cross the border, and cast a passing glance at the extensive, though thinly-populated regions of Chinese Tartary and Thibet. ”

“ Some hours thus spent proving unavailing, I set out on my return; and after a long, weary, and painful walk, reached Chang-gan about noon. My enquiries here also failed to give me any trace of my missing goods and man; so I had a meal cooked in a tea-shop, got a thorough wash and bathed my inflamed feet, and after my dinner rested and slept till 4 p.m. Much refreshed by this, I set off for Shih-mun Hien. On the way I was led to reflect on the goodness of God, and recollected that I had not made it a matter or prayer that I should be provided with lodgings last night. ”

“ Another result of the constitutional government of China has been the steady increase and spread of its population. The Chinese have not been divided into tribes and clans, whose chief employment has been to wage war against, and to exterminate, one another. Principally occupied in the peaceful engagements of agriculture and commerce, or seeking celebrity by literary attainments, the increase of the people has had fewer checks than in most nations. As to the number of inhabitants at present contained in the whole empire, we are unable to speak with certainty. ”

“ When the writer, and other Christian friends, have been satisfied of the fitness of one and another for the work in China, the Lord has been asked to open the way, and provide the means for outfit and passage; and He has answered prayer. By God's help, we purpose to continue working on the same plan, and to help out none who are not personally known to us, or to those who superintend the home department of our work.
Our work is evangelistic and unsectarian: we desire to win souls for Christ, and not to spread any particular views of church government. ”

“ We have shewn that in seven provinces of China Proper, after allowing far more than they can possibly accomplish to the Protestant missionaries and their native assistants, there still remains an overwhelming, multitude altogether beyond the sound of the gospel. We have further shewn that there are eleven other provinces in China Proper still more needy,—eleven provinces, the very smallest of which exceeds Burmah in population, and which average each the population of both Scotland and Ireland combined! ”

“ Moody can freely speak to them of the love of God without stopping to explain what love is, or that God is not a bit of painted and gilded wood. He can allude to the good Samaritan or the prodigal son without pausing to tell the stories. ”

“ Those on the letter-boat agreeing to the terms, I was taken on board as a passenger. Oh! how thankful I felt for this providential interposition, and to be once more on my way to Shanghai. These letter-boats are very small inside, being long and narrow; one has to lie down all the time they are going, as a very little thing would upset them. This was no objection to me; on the contrary, I was but too glad to lie down. They are the quickest Chinese boats I have seen. Each one has two men, who work in turns, night and day: they row with their feet and paddle with their hands ”