In the evening I paid her another visit, and found her in a kind of doze. Upon her husband telling her that I had come, she replied, "Me be glad of that!" Again I asked her if she felt happy. She answered, "Yes, Jesus make me happy." I asked her how she would appear before God." She replied, "In the righteousness of me Saviour." I opened my Bible, and read a few verses of the 14th chapter of St. John's Gospel. LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY. While I was reading I saw her lips moving, and before I could finish the last clause of THE SPECIAL SUBSCRIPTION to the inthe second verse, she said, aloud," He go to tended Chinese missions, amounts already prepare a place for me." She did the same to upwards of £3000.

An Appeal to the General Baptist Churches to commence a Mission in China or Japan.

"The closest seal'd between the poles

Is opened to your toils;

Where thrice a hundred million souls
Are offered for your spoils."

CHINA, the mystery of Providence, the opprobrium of our common christianity, is now opening the massive gates of her ten thousand cities, towns and villages, to the commerce and religion of Europe and America. John, by his tears, obtained the opening of the mysterious book mentioned in the Apocalypse; and have not the cries and tears of the Church in our own day obtained mercies similar to those of the Church in Babylonish captivity, "I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut. I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron."-Isaiah xlv. 1, 2. The question of questions in the "great searching of hearts" among the tribes of Israel is, What is the moral state of China? and what prospect is there of the propagation of the Gospel among its teeming millions? The following information in reference to China, is extracted from Harris's "Great Commission; or the Christian Church constituted and charged to convey the Gospel to the world." The writer met with the passage on the past day, and was much interested with it.

"China-that world within itself-is doubtless surrounded with obstacles to conversion. But the existence of these constitute the very reason, and the only ground of necessity, why we should attempt it. She is guarded against the truth by more than one wall. Her material wall, as has been justly remarked, is crumbling dust compared with her political; her political wall is a mere illusion compared with her moral barriers-for civilization in China, can hardly be called religious; her moral wall of prejudice and pride is only that by which sin entrenches itself in every country and in every heart. The wall which overtops the whole, and which we shall find it most difficult to surmount, is that which our own unbelief and ignorance have created! Every other has been breached and entered. So far is China from being regarded as impregnable, that Judaism entered it proba

VOL. 5.-N. S.

bly prior to the christian era; Budhism entered it in the first century; Nestorianism in the seventh century; Mahometanism in the eight century; and Romanism in the thirteenth century. Such was the success of Popery in China, especially in the hands of M. Ricci and father Schaal, that many of the mandarins embraced its doctrines; one province alone contained ninety churches and forty-five oratories; a splendid church was built within the palace; the mother, wife and son of the emperor Yung-lish, professed christianity; and nothing apparently prevented China from being added to the papal see, but the disputes which broke out between the Jesuits and the Dominicans.

"But besides the encouragement derivable from the fact, that China has already been open to missionary aggression, it should be gratefully remembered, that obstacles existing elsewhere are absent here; and that many of those considerations which once operated as fears, have gradually vanished, or changed into hopes. The climate, for instance, so far from being relaxing or pestilential, is fully as salubrious as that of England, and much less changeable. The language, once deemed unattainable, has been mastered and "made easy;" and what an inducement should it furnish to the christian student, that when he has mastered the Chinese symbols, he will be able to make himself intelligible from the mouth of the Ganges to the Amoor, and to indite a book-for nearly all can read—for more than onethird of the human race! The despotic unity of its government, by which the will of one man moves and rules the entire mass, may itself be made the means, under God, of its more easy and effectual reconstruction on christian principles. At all events, the unity of character resulting from this unvarying uniformity of literature and government, is attended with this advantage to the missionary, that to comprehend the sentiments and reply to the objections of a single mind, is-to master the views and objections of three hundred and sixty millions of human beings! In this respect, too, the magnitude of the population, once regarded as appalling, presents the missionary with an advantage not to be met with elsewhere. But that which calls for special observation is, that the Chinese mode of writing is current and legible far beyond the limits of China, throughout Cochin China, Corea and Japan; and that the population of China is bursting forth on every side, placing itself in voluntary contact with christians, and seeking the shelter of European governments. Millions are already to be found in Burmah and Siam, in Pegu, Assam, and the Malayan Archipelago. All these are accessible to missionary efforts. What has been accomplished of late among these by the ardent and persevering zeal of two or three individuals, encourages the hope and points out the way of benefiting China at large. For only let suitable measures be taken to evangelize the emigrant Chinese, and a race of missionaries will be thus provided, which in despite of imperial edicts, will find their way into all parts of the empire, and become in the hands of God the instruments of its renovation."

The preface of this valuable work is dated Feb. 12th, 1842, but what important events in reference to China have transpired since that date. In what glowing language would the essayist have spoken, if the recent peace with China had been obtained, which the emperor himself styles "everlasting!" What would he not have augured, and almost prophesied, of the issue of "five cities," not in the land of Egypt," but in the land of Sinim," learning "the language of Canaan?" An invalid missionary

from India, in a recent appeal on behalf of China, appears richly imbued with the unction of the author of the Great Commission. He writes, "The late events in China are of the highest importance. The long-desired time is come; the wall is scaled; a breach is made in it that will never be closed. England has done in China what Portugal did in India, she has demonstrated that she may be conquered; and thus her position is altered for ever. She will no longer stand apart from all the world, despising all nations, and unknown to all; she must henceforth take her place amidst the great powers of the earth. The problem is solved; the amount of her resources is known; the dread of unknown strength is passed away. She is manifestly weaker than England. China is open to the whole world-open to the enterprize, the civilization, the religion of Europe. Who does not sympathize in the tremulous and prophetic feelings of Gutzlaff, as he stood by the side of the imperial commissioners in the cabin of the " Cornwallis," and witnessed the signing of the treaty which broke for ever the exclusive pride of China; which met the long yearnings of his heart for her welfare, and which seemed to him an answer to the prayers of years? Men are beginning to feel that the peace with China is destined to tell upon the mind of Europe like the discovery of America by Columbus. A continent is opened to us, and more than a continent-a new world; not a world of thinly peopled savages, but a world teeming with human beings, one-third of the human race, in a high state of civilization, celebrated for their arts and enterprize; a people who have called themselves the heaven of earth! This is the people and this is field to which the finger of God points; this is the country which he has opened for you; this is the enterprize he sets before you. What does it demand from you?"

The question returns like the echo, What can be done for China? "Who will go for us, and whom should we send?" Coming events cast their shadows. At a missionary meeting held in this town lately, the Rev. R. Newton stated, that he knew a lady who had devoted £1000 to China, and if their Society did not attempt something, she would give to another. He also mentioned one of their preachers who had studied Chinese for years, and who said he could not say No to a call to engage in a mission to that world of souls. Is there not here the germ of a Wesleyan mission to China? And who can tell what God is preparing for our "half tribe of Manasseh ?" The following extracts of letters to the writer will appear interesting "at such a time as this." A brother in the ministry writes me, "Respecting the mission, I can now only say a few words. If medical men, if pious and good men in the Committee, and if the Providence of God, as far as we can judge, approve of my going to India, I should be answerable to refuse these indications of the Divine will. I cordially confess, I have for some time thought of China and Japan. If I might decide, and could do it, I should go to Ningpo, in China; there endeavour, by the divine blessing, to form a missionary station, and make preparations for getting into the Japan islands. I have thought of bringing this subject before the next Association, and proposing to go myself, and get some other brother to go also, next June but one. This has been a plan which has floated on my mind for some time. I have only been puzzled with the when and how the plan could be executed." In another letter, dated Feb. 22, 1843, he says, "I have had some fear of the plains of India, but as China is opening, and Japan cannot close her gates much longer against the Prince of Peace, I have been deeply