to Societies or individuals engaged in missionary or educational work amongst the Chinese, and to make grants of money to assist societies or individuals engaged in the preparation, translation, printing or circulation of Christian and educational literature amongst the Chinese; but the Board of Directors shall not have power to commit the Society to pecuniary obligations which the funds on hand are insufficient to meet." to assist them, and no pecuniary obligations which they may undertake can possibly come back upon the friends at home." The Rev. J. Corbett, D.D. spoke of rendering "help to almost every kind of society in China which claims our aid, and would be the better for it, no matter to what denomination it may belong." Dr. Corbett further spoke very sensibly about the pictures sent out by the Society as "a little glaring;" but he thinks that very fact will draw "the attention of the Chinese people to them, and lead them to inquire what they are about!" Rev. William Boyd, LL.D. fell very naturally into the exaggerated statement which we have before criticised, that the women of China It is stated in the Annual Report which submitted this new Constitution to the Annual Meeting of members, that "Should this constitution be adopted, the plant already referred to will no longer be required by the Society; and steps will be taken for its disposal, and for arranging with Mr." are not accessible to the missionMcIntosh for the termination or transfer of his agreement." The radical nature of these changes, by which the Society ceases to be a Society in China, but only for China, and by which it ceases to have a Foreign Committee or even an officially representative individual in China, and by which it becomes an auxiliary to any existing societies in China whom it may choose to assist, will be further gathered from the following extracts from addresses at the Annual Meeting. Prof. Kendrick, one of the Honorary Secretaries, in his address which is officially reported by the Society, spoke of the Society as now, "Entirely a home society (with no foreign committee) for the purpose originally intended, namely to collect morey and to assist missionaries in China in the diffusion of this particular class of literature. We may be able to give them grants of money, to send them out parcels of books, and to get from publishers here the electrotypes suitable for the illustration of books in China. We will send them what we can, but we are not to be responsible for any liabilities contracted there, We simply want aries," and that it is only through illustrated books that they can be reached-an assertion daily disproved by the experience of many missionaries in China, though welladapted pictures may of course assist. It appears distinctly from these statements that there is no organization among us which may be called the Book and Tract Society of China, nor an Agent representing it; in view of which we learn with the greater pleasure, as will the body of missionaries in China, that the "School and Tract Book Series Committee," appointed by the Conference of Missionaries in 1876, have not allowed themselves to be stultified by the ill-advised attempt to merge them into the Book and Tract Society. They have, we understand, taken on more complete organization, on their original basis, and very wisely propose to take the missionary public into their confidence by frequent publication of the minutes of their meetings. THE HEATHEN CHINESE AND "A picture that preaches such a sermon as ought to touch the heart cious even than the direct charges. We regret not having space for larger extracts from the Proclamation. of the whole country was presented | be remembered that the impliin a recent number of Puck. It cations which a Chinaman reads represented the Chinese Minister between the lines, are more atroseeking an audience with Secretary of State Bayard. In the back-ground were two former Secretaries, Evarts and Blaine, who held the same views as to indemnifying the Chinese that Secretary Bayard has recently promulgated. The picture made it evident that as the Chinese have no votes, it makes little difference in the view of these statesmen how they are treated. The Chinese Minister calls to the attention of Mr. Bayard the fact that his Government had paid upwards of $700,000 indemnity for outrages upon Americans, and he quotes the words. "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets." The Secretary yawningly replies, "That's some nonsense of that old Confucius of yours, I suppose." The Illustrated Christian Weekly. KIDNAPPING OF CHILDREN BY We learn that the Futai of Soochow, Governor of the province of Chekiang, has issued a proclamation against the kidnapping of children by foreigners. A translation of the most important of the proclamation has been sent us, from copies posted up at the residences of the two principal magistrates of Nanking on the 23rd of May. It will be seen, from the following extracts, that the charges are very adroitly put in such a way that all foreigners are implicated in the outrages. That such false accusations should be made over his own signature, by the highest official in this province, is certainly very extraordinary, and merits the attention of all representatives of foreign interests. The Governor should be made publicly to withdraw, or qualify, his unqualifiedly sweeping statements. And it should "About the kidnapping and selling of young boys and girls, even those from the womb, to foreign lands:-The law against such is decapitation. If any use medicine, and by wicked, magical, arts kidnap children, they must be beheaded as robbers. Why establish such severity? How can we allow such a set who continually in this way seek gain? This kidnapping is not yet stopped, either taking little children, kidnapping them away, cutting off their hands and feet, turning them into cripples, and making a show of them for money. This is a new and strange thing! Or they are carried to the outsiders, and sold unto the ends of every Kingdom, making them miserable, and naming them "little pigs "-the girls for prostitutes and slaves. This is an intolerable device. "But turning to the source of all this ;-it is just for that reason that to every seaport the trading steamer comes. Communication is thus very convenient for the aforesaid kidnappers to take the young children and steal them away from one foreigner to another, to distant places, not leaving a trace behind. No matter from what family they are taken, they have no means of searching. Even getting a warrant, it is very hard for the Yamenrunners to arrest them." Diary of Events in the Far East. May, 1886. 6th.-Ratifications exchanged in London of the late Chefoo Convention between China and Great Britain. 16th. The first number of the Shek Pao (The Times), a Chinese Daily, appears in Tientsin. 19th.-Sir Robt. Hart leaves Peking to visit the Central and Southern ports of China. 21st.-Explosion at the Gun Powder Mills east of Tientsin; five men killed. 22nd. The Foochow Native Hospital, sustained by the Foreign Community, destroyed by fire. 25th.-Memorial from East India Opium Merchants of Shanghai to Sir John Walsham, British Minister to China, against the Opium Clauses in the late Convention between England and China. 27th.-Opening of the Philander Smith Memorial Hospital at Nanking; Col. Denby the United States Minister, and many Mandarins, present. June, 1886. 2nd.-An Imperial Decree bestowing various decorations on Chinese and Foreigners, in connection with Prince Ch'un's visit to Tientsin, Port Arthur, and Chefoo. 3rd. The Foundation Stone of the Alice Memorial Hospital laid at Hongkong. 4th.-Treaty between France and Corea signed at Seoul, virtually granting, among other things, liberty to Roman Catholic Missionaries to live and teach in Corea. 9th. The first Typhoon of the season, off Luzon. 11th.-Hon. J. D. Kennedy, United States Consul-General, arrives at Shanghai. 15th.-Great fire in Canton; 200 shops burned. 23rd. Mr. Tsai Yee Yuen takes over the seals as Magistrate of the Mixed Court, Shanghai. THE BY REV. GEORGE OWEN, PEKING. HE works which the Chinese call the Four Books, or the Books of the Four Philosophers, are the Ta-Hsio or Great Learning, the Chung Yung or Invariable Mean, the Lung Yü or Analects, and Meng-tsz or works of Mencius. The Great Learning is a small work consisting of only a few pages and is supposed to have been compiled by Tseng-tsz, a celebrated disciple of Confucius. The Invariable Mean, according to general acceptance, was written by Tsz-sz or K'ung chi, the grandson of Confucius. It contains only thirty-three short chapters or sections, we may almost say verses, The Analects are mostly a record of the sayings and doings of Confucius with occasional notices of his disciples. The work seems to have been compiled by some unknown hand or hands from the notes and oral teachings of the disciples. The Works of Mencius consist of seven books which were composed either by Mencius himself during his later years and subsequently edited by his disciples, or by a few of his disciples after his death. Roughly speaking these books were written between the years 470-280 B. C. These four works treat almost exclusively of morals, ethics and politics. The Chinese sum up their contents in two words, lun ch'ang, or the five social relations, and the five constant virtues, and we may accept the summary. Such being the contents of the Four Books, there can be no very deep parallel between them and the New Testament. God is the central thought of the Christian Scriptures, but God is almost entirely absent from the books of China's four great philosophers. The grand theme of the New Testament is salvation from sin and death, or eternal life through Our Lord Jesus Christ. There is not a hint about salvation or life in the Four Books. Christianity is a religion. Confucianism is only a philosophy, The central figures are equally unlike. Jesus of Nazareth, standing by the sea of Galilee, preaching to Galilean fishermen and peasants, is a striking contrast to the Man of Tsou passing from court to court, the honoured guest and counsellor of Kings, and followed by a train of wealthy official and courtly disciples. Christ and Confucius may be contrasted, they can hardly be compared. Paul and Mencius are equally unlike. Read Paul's brief, but terribly vivid autobiography. "In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day, I have been in the deep: In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the Churches!" (I Cor. XI. 23-28.) Contrast this heroic sufferer with Mencius, travelling from state to state followed by a retinue of a hundred carriages, declining the visits of princes, because not paid with sufficient ceremony, accepting or refusing their munificent gifts according as they were or were not presented with due etiquette, meeting princes on more than equal terms, and treating them with proud philosophic complacency. The style too of the New Testament and the Four Books is altogether different. The Four Books are written in terse classical form, intelligible only to the learned. The New Testament is in the vulgar tongue and easily understood by all. The style in each case is characteristic and suggestive. The Four Books are intended for princes and scholars. The New Testament is the book of the common people. To the poor the Gospel is preached. The Four Books contain no parallels to the higher truths of the New Testament. They only touch it along its lower lines. |