Dis

once the new course was set, but ready to change an old course for a better one with a tempest and a tumult when convinced of what the better course was. Now this is not the nature of the Chinese people. Traditionalists, perfectly satisfied with themselves, contemptuous of innovation, the idea of change is alien and distasteful. There have been mighty revolutions in China. turbance and turmoil and overturning have marked more than one epoch of her history. But the China of this day is comatose, lethargic, sleepy under the powerful opiates of racial exclusionism and the pedantry of the Confucian classics, which one would be disposed to call the real "drowsy juices of the East," if they were not so arid and desiccated as to be juiceless.

It is, therefore, not solely a matter of regret that China does not leap spryly into the ways and opinions of the West as did Japan. It may be best for China and best for the whole world that she should come slowly, without "losing her face," i. e., without such a violent rupture with the past as would too harshly condemn the sages and the ways of the ancestors. Perhaps, from this point of view, the collapse of the revolutionary program of reform, which had apparently met the approval of the emperor and included the abolition of the "wen chang," or Confucian essay in the competitive examinations, and the substitution therefor of Western sciences and mathematics, the encouragement of a free-speaking vernacular press, and other progressive movements was not unfortunate. China may come more soberly and safely into the new ways if brought there by conservative leaders, whether they lead willingly or overcome by the power of the irresistible forces which are driving China out from her seclusion and conceit.

For China can never go back any more. She will try to do so. When once she is set in the way of progress, she will still keep turning back for another look at the days when she calmly considered herself the middle, the Celestial Kingdom, and the rest of the world was in her eyes as a petty and despicable thing. But the mills of God grind inexorably, and national monasticism is as doomed as mediæval monasticism is dead. The junks of China are bound for the open

sea.

It would be unwise, accordingly, for the friends of missions to look for catastrophic conditions in China. It is undesirable that such should come. It will be better for missions that China shall move slowly and that the spiritual motives drawing men into the church shall not be confused, as they were in Japan, with political, economic, educational, and diplomatic conceptions of Christianity. In the absence of any cataclysmic avalanche there will still be, in the slow onward movement of the Chinese, all that the missionary movement can take care of. In every part of the empire open doors invite entrance more earnestly, and closed doors swing slowly ajar. Especially in South China, least afraid of the West because best acquainted with it, baptisms by the score are reported where a few years ago missionaries rejoiced at conversions one by one.

The outlook for missionary effort was never so bright as now. The demand for education in the mission schools was never so great. The call for books-religious, scientific, general-prepared by missionaries and issued from mission presses, was never so loud. The reception of the preacher and the evangelist was never so cordial. And whatever may in the future cloud this outlook, it can never be obscured; for the whole situation in China is but the voice of God speaking to His church, "Beloved, I have set before thee a door opened, which none can shut."

CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD.

REV. A. B. LEONARD, D. D.,

Secretary Missionary Society Methodist Episcopal Church.

China is the greatest pagan nation in the world. In numbers and undeveloped natural wealth she excels by far any of the civilized nations. She has three great false religious systems, Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism, to say nothing of Mohammedism, which is prevalent in some parts of the country. God has given her history be yond all the nations even of antiquity-more than forty centuries without a break. Twenty dynasties have come and gone and the present one appears to be in great perï. Her religious systems have proven inade quate to the production of an advanced civ

"To begin with," Mr. Taylor has written, "we need forthwith twenty able, earnest, and healthy young men." Will all who read this article pause and raise their hearts to God, praying that He will select and send forth these men, so that their necessary preliminary Chinese studies may be commenced as soon as possible. It should be borne in mind meanwhile that the need for men and women for the general work of the mission is in no way lessened by this special advance

movement.

The qualifications for efficient missionary service in this connection include

A life surrendered to God and controlled by His Spirit.

Love for communion with God and the study of His Word.

A restful trus in God for the supply of all needs apart from human guarantees. A sympathetic spirit and a willingness to take a lowly place.

Tact in dealing with men, and adaptability to new circumstances and customs.

Zeal in service, and steadfastness under discouragement.

Some experience and blessing in the Lord's work at home.

A healthy body and a vigorous mind.

For the special work of the "forward movement," candidates should be between twenty-two and thirty years of age.

Both in the "forward movement" and in the general work there is abundant scope for men of the highest intellectual attainments, if these are held in subjection to Christ, and there is also room and work for those who have had fewer early advantages, provided that there is power to study, and evidence that there has been real industry in obtain ing a fair English education.

If any are led, after prayerful thought, to offer to the China Inland Mission for the service of the "forward movement" they are invited to address the direc' or of the mission, Mr. Henry W. Frost, at the mission offices, 632 Church Street, Toronto, Canada.

Prophecy is said to be a lost art, and no wise man will undertake to foretell what is to be a decade hence. At the same time there are tendencies in current events which carry within them the history of the future. Even within recent years the attitude of the officials of China toward mission work has been distinctly unfriendly. The Literati have as a class been openly hostile, and the greater part of the disturbances against missionaries, have come either at their instigation, or with their connivance.

The decisive change that has been wrought is apparently due to positive orders from the central government, incited thereto by the Chiao Chou "incident." If the murder of two priests was to result in the loss of a large tract of territory of that province, together with a concession of vague rights and claims for railways and the like, the Chinese emperor was certain to do all in his power to protect missionaries of all sorts, which is not only now the case, but seems likely to be increasingly so in future. As an illustration of this, a case might be named

where the missionaries had right clearly on their side, but had totally failed to get the justice claimed for their clients. But within a few months of the Chiao Chou affair, which occurred in the same province, overtures were made by the Chinese for the re-hearing of the case which was reversed, and everything that had been claimed was granted. The practical opening of China in many new ways will necessitate a stricter control over the turbulent districts, which must operate in every case in favor of missions.

RESULTS OF EDUCATIONAL REFORMS.

The next aspect of mission work to be considered, is the evangelistic. China has always been a slow moving empire, and until very recently it has seemed as much like a granite rock as it did to the early Jesuits. The war with Japan was disappointingly barren of any practical improve ment in the temper of the officials, although the people were greatly softened. There has never been so much readiness to listen to preaching as within these last three years.

But within the past three months, events have taken place which make it certain that the present opportunities are as nothing to those which will be offered in the immediate future.

Reforms which had been often proposed, but always shelved to a misty tomorrow, are now actually begun, and begun with an impetus which shows that a dormant power has at last been roused. The examination system by literary essays has been overturned by a stroke of the imperial pen, and while the classics are still held to as the ostensible basis of education, they are a basis only, and the superstructure is to be western learning. The mere announcement of this stupendous revolution, the greatest in the history of the dynasty, was enough to take away the breath of the candidates for a degree. Nobody knew what western learning was, and when it is explained to be geography, mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, and physics, there is a sudden rush of scholars for the books containing the keys of the door leading to advancement and fame.

This suddenly brings the haughty Confucian students to the feet of the missionaries, not single spies but in battalions. The evangelistic and the educational aspects of missions are inextricably blended. Those missionaries who now have pupils far enough advanced to be teachers of candidates for degrees, are in a position to acquire at once an influence which, in the previous course of things, could not have been rationally expected in a century. District magistrates, who formerly quite ignored the presence of the men of the West, are now glad enough to call upon them, and to invite return calls, as an aid to themselves in the new régime.

TEMPLES AS SCHOOLhouses.

About six weeks ago one of the almost unintermittent series of edicts from the emperor commanded that, in addition to the Imperial University to be set up in Peking, there should be secondary universities in the provincial capitals, and lesser ones in each district. To promote this object it is ordered that all temples, not included in the list of those required to be worshiped at by officials, shall be forthwith turned into public schools. The various grades of magistrates are given two months in which to

report the means for carrying this order into effect. It is easy to perceive in this edict the seeds of a mighty change, albeit, per haps, a slow one. The countless publications of all the missionaries in China have been constantly pointing out the waste as well as the sin of such multitudes of useless temples, and, now that the government is about to lay a hand upon them, the effect can only be most favorable to the further diffusion of Christian ideas.

MISSIONARY LITERATURE A POTENT FACTOR

IN EDUCATION.

A small but energetic body of missionaries in China has for decades been preparing good books, under the auspices, in part, of the "Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge among the Chinese." These books have exerted a great influence in instructing those who should ultimately influence others. The time has now arrived, however, when the demand for these and many other like books will probably be far in excess of the possibility of immediate supply. With the new learning current throughout the empire, this state of things must continue indefinitely. The present innovations have already gone too far to make retreat possible. The bearing of this upon the educational aspects of future mission work is obvious at a glance. With the exception of the missionaries, there is literally no body of men in all China who are prepared to do anything considerable in the line of ministering to China's educational needs. Missionary literature, being first on the ground, and having largely preëmpted the place in the intellectual renaissance of the Chinese people, must occupy a position in the future from which it cannot be dislodged.

The writings of Dr. Martin, Dr. Faber, Dr. Fryer, and Dr. Allen have exerted an enormous influence everywhere. The same is especially true of the numerous and timely publications of Rev. Timothy Richard, the secretary of the "Diffusion Society" just named, whose translation of Mackenzie's "Nineteenth Century," together with Dr. Allen's "History of the War between China and Japan" have been, perhaps, more widely read than any other foreign made books. The monthly periodical called The Review

of the Times, finds its way all over the eighteen provinces, and even into the hands of the emperor himself, who recently sent out urgent orders for all the back numbers for some years.

AN ORGAN FOR THE REFORM PARTY.

It is but a few months ago that a reform society was begun in Peking by some of the most progressive young men in the capital, but it was frozen out and removed to Shanghai, where it began an important paper called Progress. It is now reported that the emperor has made it an official magazine, and ordered that its expenses shall be paid by the board of revenue. It is also commanded that it is to be supplied not only to his majesty, the emperor himself, but also to all the high metropolitan and provincial authorities of the empire, for the enlightenment and education in Western politics and affairs.

When steps like these are taken in such a country as China, it is certain that the openings for influencing the leading minds of the empire are to be far greater than the most enthusiastic optimist had ever hoped for. Let it not be supposed that by reason of all these changes the Chinese people are about to succumb to the arguments or to yield to the authority of Christianity. They will do nothing of the kind. It is known that his majesty, the emperor, has lately secured from a missionary bookshop in Peking about one hundred and sixty different kinds of Christian books, and that he has read them. It is currently believed among the members of the native church that he has even learned to pray. What is certain is that the emperor, though young and inexperienced, has recently been powerfully influenced by the advice of prominent statesmen in special audiences, and in particular by one man known as "The modern sage of China," who presented his majesty with a "Life of Peter the Great," in Chinese, and other books, telling him frankly that he might make himself as famous and as useful to China as Peter did to Russia, if he would only initiate the changes absolutely needed.

THE CONSERVATIVE SPIRIT of the chinese.

There are further reforms said to be under consideration which are more radical than any yet foreshadowed. They may not come

at once, nor is it desirable that they should; but they are in the air, and are inevitable. China will not capitulate to Western civilization, much less to Christianity, without a mighty struggle, and this ought to be made clear to every well-wisher of the Chinese. That the forces which are to transform China are already actively at work, however, is as clear to him who is able to read the signs of the times, as is the future expansion of Russia or the decadence of Spain. The philanthropic branches of mission work, such as the medical, the teaching of the blind, industrial schools, and the like, will more and more attract the attention of educated Chinese to their vast and far-reaching results. A dis

trict magistrate who had got hold of a copy of Dr. Faber's "Civilization East and West," was struck with the chapter of the treatment

of prisoners. He determined to set his to work also, and had them put to weaving, spinning, making baskets, and the like, to the intense merriment of the "yamen" followers, who had never heard of such a thing.

The immobile conservatism of the Chinese yields to the force of an influential example. "We do not do so," is a mountain range that cannot be crossed. But "the present custom is to do so and so," justifies the novelty as having received due sanction. It is thus that Christian ways will begin to be introduced. It is thus that the unbinding of women's feet is already making headway in China as a practical reform. The momentum of such movements must be greatly augmented in the years immediately to

come.

RECENT GROWTH OF THE CHURCH IN CHINA.

Christianity is not to be measured by its external success, but its external success is yet an irrefragible proof of its inherent vitality. Two general missionary conferences have been held, the first in 1877, the second in 1890. At the first, the number of Chinese Christians was reported as 13,000, and at the second as 37,000. No one can say what it is at present, but probably twice that number, with a rapidly widening circle of adherents. In a single Manchurian mission of the English Presbyterian church, for the past year the baptisms have been 4,685, of whom 3,432 were men. The growth of the churches in Fukien within the past two years