"their fathers, on the other side of the flood, even Jerah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nachon, served other gods." After giving undue veneration to the solar fire and host of heaven, the old Assyrians began to render something like the worship which the Latin Church calls dulia to the founder of their state. This is the kind of worship alluded to by Paul, when he says, "Some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons." Plato tells us who these demons were, and what was this doctrine of demons. "When good men die," he says, "they attain great honour and dignity, and become demons. Every demon is a middle being between God and men. All commerce and intercourse between gods and men is performed by the mediation of demons." Nimrod may have been the first object of their saintly worship; and under the appellation of Baal or Bel-for Bel was a Babylonian as well as a Syrian idol-that name and worship spread abroad till it reached this land. We have a memorial of this Baal worship, in connection with the solar fire, in the celebration of the first of May by bonfire lighting on the tops of hills; and in the name given to that month by the old Celtic inhabitants of these islands, Mi-na Baal tine, or the month of the fire of Baal. It was only gradually that the knowledge of one God disappeared, and was replaced by polytheism. This knowledge was just beginning to wane when God called Abraham from the east; and it had a shaded existence, and was not wholly eclipsed, among some of the great old nations, at a period long posterior to the settlement of the Jews in the promised land. "The mistaken humility," says the writer in the Review quoted above (p. 799), "which deems God too far exalted to be addressed immediately by his mortal creatures, is the first step in the career of error. When, instead of trusting God's mercy, and approaching him in person as his child, man sets up a symbol of God, with the view of worshipping thereby more reverentially, he has taken his first lesson in heathenism. As far as history can reach into the matter, a symbol, taken either from nature or from among the honoured memories of men of ancient, and, as conceived, better times, is always the first form of idolatry." Το preserve alive the knowledge of one true God, and of the full and free salvation for man through the covenant of his grace; to preserve the true worship of his name, and give to mankind a written revelation of his will, God was pleased to separate to himself a peculiar people, in the line of Shem, and in the family of Abraham. And what a glorious declaration on the side of monotheism is this, the first passage of Scripture that a Jewish parent, even to this day, teaches his children, "Shama Jisrael Jehova Eloheim, Jehera echad," "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." See here, again, the Light Reflected, and how the Word becomes its own interpreter. The New Testament statement harmonizes completely with the declarations of the Old. Jesus said, "The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." And the scribe replied, "Thou hast said the truth, for there is one God." The Epistles re-echo the teaching of the Gospel. "Now a Mediator is not a Mediator of One; but God is one. There is one God, and one Mediator between God and man." The New Testament throws still further light on, if not the unity of God, the manner in which it may be interfered with, in which man, while yet he thinks not, may become an idolater. It teaches us that this unity is endangered, without reaching the gross idolatry of the heathen, that it is destroyed by the supreme love of a creature. The Saviour says the service of Mammon is inconsistent with the service of God; it dishonours him, and leads to a denial of him. "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." In the He made a case of the rich young man the unity of God was destroyed. god of his riches, a god that he preferred to the one living and true God; and he went away sorrowful. Paul also tells us in one of his letters, that "covetousness is idolatry." So that the unity of God is overthrown, in lands called Christian, as well as in the lands of the heathen, by an inordinate love of the creature. There may, then, be false gods in the imaginations and minds of man, as well as in their hands-in the hearts of men as well as in their temples. "Ye are the temples of God." "Your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost." Now if there be a rival, or rivals, in those temples, whether in the imaginations, minds, or hearts, it is clear that the unity of God is destroyed, and that the man in whom these are is an idolater. The one Jehovah of the Bible is Spirit, not matter; a spiritual, not a material being. The Old Testament declares the spirituality of God. You heard a voice out of the midst of the fire," said Moses to Israel, "but you saw no similitude." There was none to be seen. The people of God were allowed to make no likeness of their Jehovah. "Thou shalt not make any likeness of anything," was the command of God to them. They looked up and worshipped the God that dwelleth in the heavens. One of the Roman satirists, who could form no conception of worship without a visible object to which that worship would be paid, supposed that the Jews were atheists, and said, "Nullum numen adorant," they worship no divinity. He supposed that if they worshipped any being at all, the blue cloud must be the object of their worship, because it looked above. The God of the Bible is a Spirit. "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit or flee from thy presence ?" He is a pure Spirit, dwelling in the light that is inaccessible, and clothed with it as with a garment. Here again we have Light Reflected, as the New Testament speaks of God in a strain similar to the Old. "No man has seen God at any time." Being a Spirit, he has no material likeness to be seen. "God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." God is pure Spirit. "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all; and if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with the saints, and with the Father and the Son." The personal Jehovah of the Bible, one in essence and spiritual in substance, is self-existent, exists of himself, has a necessary existence. He is the “I am that I am," having his being independent and of himself. We cannot form a conception of an eternity of empty nothing, or of infinite space being an absolute void. Had there been nothing in eternity, we cannot conceive how or why there should be something in time. So that the existence of an eternal being, an eternal self-existent being, is an ultimate truth. The mind needs it to rest on, receives it, and does not go beyond it. Had matter been the eternal existence, there seems no reason why matter should not have existence everywhere, and why boundless space should not have been everywhere filled with matter. But Jehovah, the eternal Spirit, the infinite Mind, could and did exist everywhere, and so occupied space as that matter might not be excluded from it, should it be the good pleasure of his will to call it into being. To mention this subject, however, is almost beyond our present purpose, and to pursue it would carry us out of due bounds. We thought to have included in this paper our remarks on the plurality of persons, in the one divine, spiritual, and necessary essence, but our space is exhausted, and we reserve them for a place in our succeeding number. J. F. CHINA AND ITS MISSIONS.* modern civilization; and that some of these arts we have not yet learned at all. They tell us that the Chinese practised the art of printing 500 years before it was discovered in Europe; that they have a literature, both ancient and modern, that will not compare unfavourably with our own; that since long before the Christian In the last two papers I read before you I endeavoured, by a glance at the extent of its population, the boundlessness of its wealth, and its position as a dependency of the British Empire, to show that India presented to us a field for missionary enterprise that demanded our earnest attention. To-night I have to direct your attention to a field of still greater magnitude, to a wil-era they have paid the greatest attention derness of still more unsightly barrenness, to a nation over which for centuries have hung such thick, dark clouds of superstition and idolatry that scarcely a ray of Gospel light has ever reached it, The population of China is equal to more than one-third of the whole human race, that is, the number of its inhabitants are 300,000,000 souls; and how many of that vast multitude have given their idols to the moles and to the bats ? From the latest statistics of nineteen Missionary Societies, all engaged in the work there, it appears that the total number of converts they have at present under their charge is little more than 2,000 (included in this number I may mention is 150 converts, the fruit of our English Presbyterian Mission). 2,000 against 300,000,000! and this 2,000 the fruit of years of devoted labour of at least 100 missionaries. It does look discouraging. But what of that? Is not China_part of Christ's purchased inheritance? Has not the prophet said, "These shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim." China possesses, from its history and its position at the present day, a peculiar interest, and our curiosity regarding it has been stimulated by the facts which have been brought to light by those who have been able to get into the interior, and, by mingling with the natives, to view it closely. They tell us that although the country stretches from east to west 1,400 miles, yet on the northern side it is traversed by a wall which was built 2,000 years ago; that the Chinese have preserved their customs from a period far beyond the beginning of history in any other land; that China was civilized when Europe was peopled by barbarians; that they have long practised arts which we have but recently discovered, and consider triumphs of our *A paper prepared by a member of the St. Andrew's Young Men's Society, Manchester, who is appointed by the Society to bring forward missionary intelligence at stated periods, and read by him recently to the St. Andrew's congregation at the Monthly Missionary Prayer-meeting. to education, and have given special honour to those who have devoted their whole lives to literary pursuits, considering them as forming the highest of the four classes into which they divide society-it is first the literary class, then the agricultural, then the manufacturing, and then the mercantile; that they are truly a reading people, fond of intellectual pursuits, and especially delighting in poetry and the drama; that their nature is to live peaceably with all men, and to be industrious and energetic in their pursuits, and though in their dealings with Europeans they have shown a large amount of cunning, venality, and deceit, yet they have many good traits to balance these defects. Such are the people we have to deal with in China; such are some of the characteristics of this third of the human race to whom God has given us the opportunity of preaching the "glad tidings," and so to help forward his kingdom, and to hasten the complete triumph of Him who is the Mighty Conqueror. But what is the present state of China? Well, we can now see tokens of decay in this colossal empire, which for more than 2,000 years has remained unshaken, amidst the shocks of internal revolutions and the dangers and difficulties of conquest from without. Our missionaries tell us that "No stranger can come to China without having his attention strongly drawn to the traces of an energy and prosperity now gone." It looks like a country that has seen better days. "Everywhere there are temples that have been once rich in ornament in a state of dilapidation; everywhere there are fortifications and stone-paved roads, which have been made at great expense and are now falling to pieces, no one thinking of repairing them. Pekin, formerly a city of palaces, is now, speaking comparatively, a desert; and to crown all this, the country is now being devastated by the Taepings, who have rebelled against the reigning dynasty, and who are so strong as to be able to defy the power of the Government to conquer them." But from these facts our missionaries seem to draw encouragement, for they con sider that all these upheavings of society will be overruled by God for the furthering the Gospel in China, and they say that the spirit of indifference to everything beyond private gain, which seems to possess the people, has loosened the hold of their religious beliefs, so that a Buddhist will now even enjoy an exposition of the folly of his religion, and moreover that under all this apathy and selfishness they have not only a large reserve of energy, but considerable powers of organization and selfgovernment. May we not hope, therefore, that this very rebellion, which has so tried the faith of many of the Chinese converts already, and has caused them to suffer at the very outset of their Christian pilgrimage such severe hardships, will be like the Indian mutiny, just another proof how often God makes the wrath of man to praise him. to contemplate the vast array of agents It is now more than thirty years since the first Protestant English missionary was dispatched to China, namely, the celebrated Dr. Morrison, who devoted his whole life to the study of the language and the literature of the Chinese, translated the Bible into their language, and by his labours laid the foundation for the Christianising of the country; he has been succeeded by men of a like zeal and wisdom, and now there are at least 100 missionaries labouring in the field which for years he occupied alone. But let us see what is the nature of Chinese idolatry. The State religion, that established by law, and, as far as I can learn, the most influential, is a kind of Materialism, founded on the doctrines of Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher. Its worship is divided into three classes; the greatest objects of worship are the heaven and the earth; the next are the gods of the land and the grain; the third are departed heroes, states inen, and phil ›sophers. But there are two other sects besides this which are tolerated by the Govern- But what is the state of the China Misment, and have immense numbers of sion now? and what has been accomfollowers. One of these is Buddhism. It plished in the face of all the difficulties we was brought into China from India, and have noticed? All who have experience the principal features of it are that it in mission work, testify to the necessity of teaches the transmigration of souls, wor-organizing in every mission field a native ships idols, and allows its devotees to say their prayers by machinery; the other is the sect of Rationalists, whose doctrines seem to have been a sort of Epicurean philosophy, which time has turned into a gross superstition, a belief in talismans and spells, &c. Since 500 years before Christ two at least of these sects have held undisturbed sway over the millions of China, so we can easily conceive what an influence they must possess. church, to be presided over by native preachers, and of obtaining the services of as many natives as can be equipped, for the work of colportage and teaching; and the ratio of a mission's success may be pretty well judged by the number of natives so engaged. Now, in China we find that there are 146 native catechists and teachers engaged under the auspices of the nineteen societies before alluded to, who employ only eighty-four ordained missionaries. I The first European missionaries to China may mention that thirteen of these native were the Jesuits, and by their zeal and dis- preachers belong to our English Presbycretion they have been enabled to obtain a terian Mission, and that we have now three firm footing in the land, and now are not natives studying for the ministry. Let us only diligent in proselytising, but also in follow one of these natives through one trying to hinder the work of Protestant day's work, and we will be able to form a missionaries. They have met with more better idea of the value of these labours. success 80 far than our missionaries, Over the bay opposite Swatow, on the probably owing to the fact of their permit- west side, is a large town called Toa-chne. ting their converts to practise much the To this town, Chaiki, a native preacher, same superstitious rites as Romanists which was sent to break ground for the first they did as heathens; but these priests time in that district. He went in a boat show a devotion and a wisdom that teaches from Swatow, and his reception was not a lesson to our missionaries. One of our pleasant. As soon as he began to preach missionaries writes of them, "It is fearful he had plenty of people to hear him; and he told, in his own earnest, impassioned way, the story of the wonderful love of God. Some ridiculed, some stoned, and some abused and threatened; but he kept on, first in one place, then in another, in the streets, in the markets, and at the gates of their temples. One of his hearers, a so-called wise man, came to puzzle him with hard questions, and taunted him with eating foreign money, that is, being supported by foreigners, but nothing could daunt this brave soldier of the Cross. In the course of his wanderings, Chaiki came across one man who had heard this truth before, and knew enough about it to say that it was not the folly his fellow-villagers thought it. But it was getting late; time passed rapidly away, and the setting sun bade him hasten back to the landing. When he arrived the regular boats were all gone; he tried to hire a special one, but no one would take him for less than twice the sum he had in his possession. What was he to do? He was a stranger preaching an unwelcome doctrine in an unfriendly place. He felt a little dejected, he said, but he prayed to God to take care of him, and give him a place to rest in due time. His care being thus rolled off on Him who careth for us, he began preaching again in another quarter of the town. Just as he concluded, a woman came up and gave him an invitation, on the part of a shopkeeper near by, to come and stop for the night at his house; but just then an unwelcome sight met his eye, the town was at clan feud with an adjacent town, a crowd of the stronger portion of the people had been out fighting all day and were now coming home; Chaiki had been warned to keep clear of them, and he meant to do so, but here they were, and here he was. In a moment they were down upon him, for he was a stranger, and might have some connection with their enemies. Chaiki told them at once that he had nothing to do with the other village, but that he was preaching the Gospel of Jesus, peace on earth, and goodwill to men. One man, on hearing the name of Jesus, came up to Chaiki and raised his choppingknife ready to strike, and said, "Now speak the name of Jesus if you dare." That was Chaiki's hour of peril, but grace was given to him to reply even while the knife was still poised over his head. "My friend," said he, "if you want to cut me I can't resist, but first hear what I have to say. There was once a man called Paul, who hated this doctrine as much as you do, and went about persecuting and killing its disciples, but afterwards he repented and believed the doctrines himself, and went about preaching it to others; so I am not angry at you at threatening me, but rather do I hope that when you hear what the doc trine is you will love it as Paul did;” and then he went right on and preached Jesus. Chaiki had won the victory, and this very man who had threatened him offered to take him home to his house and give him his supper and bed. The next morning Chaiki returned to Swatow and told how another door was opened to him for preaching the Gospel. The advantage the native preachers have over the missionaries is, that they can go where the missionaries dare not, and we cannot look for great results in China until there is a large native agency at work. It is a satisfaction for us to know that our Presbyterian Mission in China is carried on with great energy and success by men thoroughly fitted for the work, men of talent and of apostolic zeal, who, taking their lives in their hands, have gone forth at their Master's bidding to this vast field which is whitening to the harvest. Two of our missionaries, Mr. Douglas and Dr. Maxwell, have lately gone to the island of Formosa, and there established a missin after much opposition and many trials. But every letter received from China is filled with urgent demands for more labourers. Our missionaries are every day lighting upon new fields where a wide door is open for them; yea, even in some cases they have urgent calls from the natives themselves to come and preach to them the new doctrine; but what can they do, 100 men among 300,000,000 ? They are compelled to wander from place to place, and one of them tells us that his circuit is so wide that it will take him a year to visit every town and village included in it. Thus you see our missionaries are always, as it were, breaking new ground, and have no time to build up the converts in the faith, and to teach them the way of God more perfectly. And the very success of the mission increases the missionaries' difficulties, and makes it all the more necessary to send help to them at once. We hear from one of them "that a wide-spread interest in the Gospel message exists among the scattered villages; and in the neighbourhood of Baypay the whole of that densely peopled district is becoming leavened with it. At Kwaytham, never before visited, for nearly two weeks after his arrival the missionary and his native helpers were thronged with crowds of people, who came to see and hear, from morning till late at night." Oh, is there not then a loud voice coming from China, saying to us, "Come over and help us"? and should not every one of us be stirred up by our prayers and our means to forward this glorious cause? What is wanted is more missionaries who will devote their souls and bodies to this work. And is it |