Christian era, there are immense tracts of our globe either wholly destitute of, or most inadequately provided with, the means of grace and the knowledge of salvation.
Leaving other fields, however, let us concentrate our attention on the Chinese empire. Let us reflect on its great antiquity, its vast extent, its teeming population; on its spiritual destitution, and overwhelming need. Let us survey the efforts that have been put forth for its good, and contemplate the work which still remains to be done, ere the gospel is preached to "every creature" throughout this empire. And may the view we shall obtain give rise to devout gratitude to God for our own superior privileges, to humiliation before Him for our past want of earnestness in the dissemination of the truth, and to more strenuous efforts in future for China's good.
ANTIQUITY AND CIVILIZATION.
It is surely high time that this ancient and most interesting empire had the gospel fully proclaimed in its purity and soul-saving power. Long enough has it been held in the thralldom of sin and Satan. No other nation has been left for so many centuries to suffer in darkness, and to prove how utterly unable man is to raise himself without Divine revelation, and the regenerating power of the Holy Ghost. This empire, in its antiquity, stands the sole remaining relic of the hoary ages of the past, and of patriarchal times. For forty centuries it has enjoyed many of the fruits of a certain measure of civilization and of literary attainment. Our own antiquities sink into insignificance in comparison. As early as the reign of Edward the First, fire-arms were invented in China. The art of printing was discovered there in the reign of our Saxon king Athelstan. Paper was first made about A.D. 150; and gunpowder about the commencement of the Christian era. While the inhabitants of our now highly-favoured island were wandering about, painted savages, the Chinese were a settled people, living under the same form of constitutional government as they at present possess. Or to go back to times long antecedent to the history of our own country;—when Daniel foretold the rise and fall of the Persian, Grecian, and Roman empires; when at an earlier period Isaiah foretold the downfall of Babylon; or earlier still, when Jonah threatened the destruction of Nineveh–the Chinese nation was one of the greatest in the world. When Solomon reigned in Jerusalem in all his glory; when David, the sweet singer of Israel, wrote his psalms of matchless beauty; then the Chinese were enjoying many of the benefits of civilization and good government. One of their classical writings–to this day committed to memory by every advanced scholar
