have not equal natural gifts, or equally favourable circumstances and opportunities? But are not the natural advantages largely on the other side? Mr. Moody himself tells us that when he first preached in England he thought that the clergymen present, some of whom sat with bowed heads through the service did so because they were ashamed of his preaching. And an English clergyman writes of that work as follows: "While mighty masters of music and poetry are studying all the laws of art, and threading all the myriad mazes of harmony, while bishops and deans, archdeacons and canons are elaborately endeavoring to consolidate and adorn the edifice of Christianity, behold a common, uncultured, kindly, nasal man, with a single singer of affecting doggerel, steps on our shores and becomes the channel of infusing into our English Society a new flood of spiritual life, of which princesses and legislators and ministers both of State and Church press to drink."

Surely the secret is not in external circumstances. Mr. Moody says that he went there bearing on his mind this sentence: "It remains to be seen what God will do by the man who fully trusts him." Here is the secret, the secret of power. Faith lays hold of an infinite though invisible Force. "According to your faith," is the measure of blessing for an individual or a generation. Hence we cannot judge of God's work in the future by what He has done in the past. It yet remains to be seen what God will do in Japan by the foreign missionary, male or female, or by the native worker who fully trusts him.

We cannot fail to notice that the hand-maidens also were to receive the gifts of the spirit; and that the daughters as well as the sons were to prophesy. It may be that the richest lessons of faith and blessing are to come from our sisters. I have recently read the account given by a young English lady,* the daughter of an Oxford professor, of her efforts to lead the rough working men of England to the Saviour. Some of her sentences have such a thrill of life about them, and show such a firm grasp of the eternal verities, such a clear apprehension of the grand possibilities open to every Christian that I take one or two of them for the closing words of my paper. "If there is one truth that I have grasped more strongly than another it is this: Only be sure of your duty, and there must be an infinite store of force in God which you can lay hold of to do it with, as an engineer lays hold of a force in nature and drives his engine right through the granite bases of an Alp. If you are sure it is God's will you should do it. Then 'I can't' must be a lie on the lips that repeat 'I believe in the Holy Ghost.""

* Miss Ellice Hopkins' Women's Work for working men.

THE CHINAMAN IN CHRISTIAN LANDS VIEWED FROM A
CHRISTIAN STAND-POINT.

BY REV. H. V. NOYES.

THE HE Chinaman! The shrewd Chinaman, as some say; the stolid Chinaman! as others say. The peaceable Chinaman! as some say; the turbulent Chinaman! as others say. The industrious Chinaman! The much-abused Chinaman! The imcomprehensible Chinaman!

This Chinaman, whatever he has, or has not been in the past, bids fair to be an important factor in the future of this world's history. For he not only belongs to a very important nation, but he is also making his way persistently into other nations, in all parts of the earth. He is doing this too in spite of the most strenuous, and often angry efforts to keep him back. These efforts are made in different lands. They are made by means of popular clamor, reinforced by the persistent effort of many who hold the reins of power, and these supported also by treaty stipulation and by legislative action.

But no difference how high the stormy waves of opposition rise, no difference how fiercely the blasts of unreasonable fury smite him in the face, the patient Chinaman, with one careful eye fixed on his own interests, and the other on the world around him, goes quietly on, minding his own business, making himself indispensably useful to those who abuse him, pushing his way, always forward, never backward, and lets the storms blow themselves away.

When shut out from the United States, he goes to British Columbia and the Sandwich Islands. When shut out from the Sandwich Islands, he finds his way to Mexico or Brazil, and if these places should fail he would be sure to find some other place waiting for him; for the world has an immense amount of work to be done, and the Chinaman is willing to do it for a reasonable compensation. Therefore, no difference what is said, the fact remains that a considerable part of the rest of the world wants the Chinaman, and the Chinaman wants what he can get from the rest of the world. And so he is likely to go on emigrating perseveringly until to all his other titles the world will yet add one more and call him the irrepressible Chinaman.

It is almost ludicrous to think how he has turned the tables on civilized countries. Not many years have passed since we used to read such language as this in regard to the exclusiveness of China. "The whole earth is a common heritage given to man by the Creator, and no tribe or nation has any right to close its doors and shut up its products and its blessings from the rest of the world. Nor has a nation the right to forbid its citizens from going to other lands, or those of other lands from coming within its own borders. So long as guiltless of crime, men ought to have the undisputed

right to go when and to what countries they please." Such propositions were laid down as though they were axioms right politically, and right morally. But now the urgent exhortation is coming to the Chinese from all quarters, "By all means stay at home-better do it willingly, if not we intend to compel you; we close our doors against you, and that on the ground that nations have the right to say who may come within their borders; nevertheless we still expect to urge upon you the necessity of opening up your country more fully to trade with us.'

Neither legislative exactment however, nor bitter complaint, is likely to prevent the Chinese from continuing to emigrate and certainly cannot alter the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of them already living outside of China. They are in the United States, in British Columbia, in Mexico, in Peru, in Brazil, in British Guiana, in the West India Islands, in Australia, in New Zealand, in Mauritius, in the Sandwich Islands, in the Philippine Islands, in Malacca, in Siam, in Japan, and a few are beginning an emigration to European countries by setting up shops in London. Gradually too more and more of them are joining the number of those, "Who go down to the sea in ships, who do business on the great waters,"

Gold was the powerful magnet that drew them from their ancient seclusion and led them to settle in Western lands. It was the discovery of this precious metal, in the mountains and sands of California, in the year 1848, that brought the Chinese to that land. In 1849, 300 came; in 1850, 450; in 1851, 2,700. Then foreign shipping merchants in China took up the matter, and by glowing accounts of the wealth of the "Golden Hills" induced a much larger emigration, amounting in 1852 to more than 18,000. This emigration has gone on, spreading up and down the coast of America, and to the islands of the Pacific Ocean. The same powerful motive which drew the Chinese to these distant places, holds. them there still, viz., gold and silver not dug so much from the hills, as gained in the operations of trade, and also by patient, faithful labor. This is their motive, but in the Christian heart there rises, almost involuntarily the question whether, "He who doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth," has not another purpose, and designs that many of these people, in their wanderings, shall find and bring back to their own land that which is far more precious than gold or silver.

It is to some points connected with such a view that the present inquiry is directed, and will therefore refer specially to those Chinese who have emigrated to Christian lands, viz., the United States, the British Colonies, and the Sandwich Islands.

How do Christians in these lands regard them? How ought they to regard them? What ought they to do for them? How can

Christian effort for them there and Christian effort in China be made to so co-operate as to be mutually helpful?

These are some of the questions which naturally arise and which it is the object of this paper to discuss.

I.

How do Christians in Christian lands regard the Chinese among them?

(1) With curiosity undoubtedly, especially on first acquaintance. Their strange appearance, dress, and mode of life is sufficient to insure this. Curiosity however often goes farther, and wishes that the unbridged gulf of a strange language did not lie in the way of an inquiry into the mysteries of a Chinaman's mind and heart.

(2) After curiosity is satisfied, some regard them with indifference and some with aversion.

For this an excuse may be found in the habits of many of the Chinese. Still it is a very uncharitable view which looks only at these habits, and persistently keeps out of sight those redeeming traits which certainly exist. We can appreciate too how the inhabitants of a well-built city may feel that "the Chinese quarter is an eye sore." Yet they ought to be just enough to bear in mind that there are few cities where there are not other "eye sores made by others than the Chinese.

(3) But there are those who call themselves Christians, who regard the Chinese among them with a bitter hatred, which is anything but Christian. They sometimes carry this so far as to refuse to assist in giving them Christian instruction. We can understand how men from political, or other motives, may wish that Chinese immigration should not be encouraged, but to object to giving these heathen immigrants Christian instruction is in itself a thing so heathenish, that we fail to understand how it can be reconciled with true Christianity. And yet the writer, while in California, knew of churches who refused to allow Sabbath Schools for the Chinese to be established on their premises. He was informed that one fine Church building was fired and burned to the ground, because a Chinese Sabbath School was held in it, and that some wealthy men, who were supposed to know something about the burning, offered to pay the money necessary to rebuild the church, provided that the members, on their part would give their promise not to reestablish the Chinese Sabbath School, and that this promise was actually given and the church rebuilt. Let us hope there may have been some mistake about this information, but if true, how could anything else be expected than that the curse of God would rest on such a recreant church. How could He be expected to give spiritual life to a church that had made such "a covenant with death?"

(4) But there are Christians, and we trust that their name is legion, who, finding these heathen among them, feel that it is their bounden duty, and their privilege as well, to give them that gospel which is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;" that in God's providence it is more than likely that they have been brought to Christian lands for the very purpose of receiving deep and abiding impressions of Christianity; and that many of them will not only accept the gospel for themselves, but will also be "Light bearers," bearing the light of life back to many darkened cities and villages in their own land. These Christians meet with many difficulties in their efforts, not the least of which is the difference of language. But earnestly and patiently they are endeavoring to overcome every difficulty and meet faithfully the responsibilities which God has laid upon them.

II.

How ought Christians to regard the Chinese in Christian lands? This question has just been answered. They ought to regard them as those do who are taking an interest in them, and laboring for their spiritual good. The very fact that the Chinese are so badly treated by many, gives all the better opportunity to make a powerful impression upon them by Christian kindness. It is like a dark back-ground which makes the light of Christian character seem all the brighter. Those who cannot speak a word to them in their own language, can by kind treatment set in contrast with the abuse of others, make impressions upon them, favorable to Christianity which will last as long as life. III.

What ought Christians in Christian lands to do for the Chinese among them?

This question may be answered, in large part, by an account of what has been already done. We begin with the work in the United States where, as shown by the last census, there are about 105,000 Chinese. They first settled on the Pacific coast, and largely in San Francisco and the neighboring cities and villages. This was naturally so, as for a long time there was no easy method of communication across the wide wilderness that lay between California and the other states of the Union.

The first mission work done for them was by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, which in 1852, stationed Rev. Wm. Speer, D.D., in San Francisco. He began his work, as he himself states, among the sick, opened a dispensary and also commenced regular preaching. "A church was organized November 6th, 1853, composed of several men who had been members in China. This was the first Chinese church in the New World. The first elder was