one.

application to the Religious Tract Society, a sum of 300l. was voted, for the purpose of assisting the Chinese mission, in printing and circulating religious tracts in the Chinese language. A second grant of 400l. was subsequently received from the same society, and for the same purposes. Great are our obligations to that institution, and great is the necessity that exists in these pagan lands, for the exercise of its beneficence. Tracts are soon read through, and easily carried about with Several hundreds of different sorts, and on different subjects, may with facility be packed up in a very small compass. They admit of a greater familiarity of diction, and a more diffuse style, than is befitting the sublimity of the sacred oracles themselves. They may be circulated more widely than the sacred Scriptures can. If we calculate either the price, or the persons capable of deriving profit from the religious books among the Chinese, we shall find, that fifty tracts may be given away for one New Testament. Thus fifty persons may be made acquainted with at least one important truth, for the expense of one Testament. A missionary, in his itinerant labours among the heathen, can carry a hundred tracts in his hand; and he will ever find great satisfaction, in leaving an appropriate one in the house where he has been visiting, or by putting one into the hands of those with whom he has been conversing; or by dropping one in the highway, where it is likely to be taken up by some passing stranger; or by reading and explaining one to those who are inclined to hear. A tract may be inclosed in a letter, and sent into a persecuting country, without much risk of discovery.

"These things show the high importance of the Tract Society, and how powerful an auxiliary it may become in the conversion of the heathen to Christ. Indeed, it holds the third rank, in point of utility, among those societies, which constitute the glory of Christendom. Missionaries must ever be entitled to the first place, at least in as far as the heathen are concerned; inasmuch as without them, translations of the Scriptures are not likely to be extensively made, nor tracts written. Next in order comes the Bible Society, that mighty agent of Divine Providence, for uniting the energies of the Christian public, and to which almost every Protestant mission in the known world is indebted. The Tract Society is the last of this sacred triad, and though, in some respects, it holds a lower place than the other two, in others, its utility is more immediate, extensive, and apparent, than that of theirs.

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Nothing is farther from the writer's mind than a wish to excite a dishonourable rivalry among those noble institutions, which will, doubtless, by their united efforts, in the course of time, make true religion to surround the globe on which we dwell, and extend the boundaries of the Christian church as widely as the habitations of men. But it is right that each institution should have its due honour; and we ought to know in what particular each excels, and how they all unite to promote the great cause of truth and righteousness in the earth. May Heaven continue to smile on them all, and may the joy of the Holy Ghost dwell abundantly in the hearts of those who direct their concerns."

The grants of the Religious Tract Society have

not been confined to the first ten years of the Mission in China: its reports show that every year the cause of the Chinese has been remembered. Even when the forces of China and England were opposed to each other in the unequal contest, grants of money were made, and books sent to the different missionary stations in the Chinese archipelago, for the benefit of that idolatrous people. Now the thunders of war have ceased, and peace is established between the two empires, the Society is endeavouring to enlarge its operations in that vast field of Missionary enterprise; a special fund has been opened for China, and the amount received was £1747 14s. 4d. on the 31st of March, 1843, and additional contributions are expected.

The Chinese are a reading people, and they all speak the same language and write the same characters. In other pagan countries it has been necessary to establish schools in order to teach the infant and the adult to read; but in China the people generally can read and write. Moreover, they are extremely inquisitive, patient in research, and fond of literature. Every thing they meet with in the shape of a book or tract is read with avidity; and had their own literature been capable of improving the moral character of man, the Chinese would, doubtless, have long ago presented a lovely picture of society: but how awfully deficient that is to teach right moral conduct and the way of salvation, has been shown in the chapter on the language and literature. All their writers, even the most enlightened, may be considered as "the blind leading the blind." The thick films of pagan

darkness had been gathered for ages over the universal mind in China, and reason was too impotent to chase its shades away. Confucius, Mencius, and a long list of philosophers, struggled to emerge from the night of darkness in which they found themselves, but in vain.

Here, then, is a wide field for the exercise of Christian philanthropy-a field already prepared for the scattering abroad of the good seed of the word of life: for, although the missionary may not yet be permitted to labour therein, there are facilities, as before shown, for sending books and tracts even into the interior of that exclusive empire; and these facilities are greatly increased by the recent peace between the two empires. In addition to the missionary stations in the Chinese archipelago, they may now be sent to the five ports opened to the British merchants, and the island ceded to Her Britannic Majesty, and, through these mediums, into all parts of China; and they may be sent in the perfect confidence that they will be read: the minds of the Chinese thirst for knowledge, and they will gather it even from the handbill posted on the walls.

On the reception of the word of God among the Chinese, Mr. Lay, a former agent of the Bible Society, remarks:-" Among the workmen and their acquaintances at a tailor's shop, I witnessed some of the best examples of an interest in the Holy Scriptures that I met with during my stay. I was asked for them again and again, with a cordiality of feeling that was truly refreshing. An interest in this kind of reading had been diffused from friend to friend, till, instead of single

copies, they began to ask for numbers, accompanying their requests with the remark, that ho too tung yun tuk shu, 'a great many now read the books.' One of the friends came and took a bundle away to supply some kinsmen at a distance, and thus to perform, in its first elements, the work of a native distributor. The man who introduced this person to me said, 'The ladies within read the books; they say they are good books, they understand them. Is not this good?' added he, with an air of triumph. 'Yes,' replied I, 'ten times told,' or good in the superlative. For, while I had heard some complain that they did not know what to make of their sense, among the males, it was in the highest degree gratifying to hear that females in China were reading the Scriptures with the understanding. It was a little fact, when taken by itself; but it gave me the most unfeigned pleasure, because it was unsought for and unexpected, and seemed like a symptom of something that may, in its development, fill the Christian and philanthropist with wonder and delight. The amount of successful labours that females have contributed to the advancement of Bible, missionary, and other causes, in this country, is truly astonishing; and, in the face of all that has been said about the degraded state of females, I will take a hint from this very little circumstance, and venture to predict, that they will be the first to welcome the gospel, and to set it fairly agoing in China."

The same writer, in common with the English and American missionaries, urges the necessity of distributing tracts in large numbers among the Chinese. And in the present state of the feelings