of missionaries. Thus, then, while there may be in Asia an almost infinite variety of languages and dialects, yet in the department to which each missionary goes, there is only one. We are aware that in the same locality, as in large cities, different dialects, and even languages, may exist; but we mean to say, that the ability to use any one of these forms of speech, will introduce scores of missionaries to an amount of population sufficient to engross their whole time and energies. It matters not, then, so far as the work of the Church is concerned, whether there are in Asia one or a thousand varieties of speech.

And then the gospel is self-propagating. It is the "grain of mustard-seed," which, when sown, becomes "the greatest of all herbs;" the "leaven," which, when "hid in three measures of meal," leavened the whole. The message of the missionary in Asia will be like the voice of the traveller among the heights of the Himmaleh, starting a thousand echoes; or like the banyan of its plains, from whose parent boughs there strike down innumerable tendrils which grow up into fresh trunks, from whose branches other tendrils will spring. The history of missions confirms the legitimate expectations of the Church on this subject. Wherever the gospel has been perseveringly preached, there have been raised up native helpers, through whom the word of life has come to multitudes beyond the direct influence of the missionary.

Still another difficulty exists. As the Church looks over Asia, she finds it wholly in the possession of the enemy. The crescent of the false prophet gleams from the Golden Horn to the Indus; from the Strait of Babelmandel, to the cold waters of the Baltic. The praises of Brahma are hymned throughout Hindostan. The tenets of Budhism are enshrined throughout Farther India, the Central Table-land, and Eastern Slope; while with Confucianism and Rationalism, they share the mind of China. In the Northern Plain, the number and intense mixture of religions present a very Babel of confusion. Each of these forms of heathenism commends itself to the depraved heart by flattering its pride or gratifying its passions. The fierce Arab, the dreamy Turk, the treacherous Persian, and the wild Afghan, alike sanctify their crimes by the teachings of the Koran. The Hindoo finds both the apology and example for his vices in the mythology of his race; while to the proud Chinese, what so grateful as the stoical apothegms of Confucius, or the rationalistic paradoxes of Leau-Tsz? Heathenism is strongly intrenched throughout Asia. Its origin dates far back in the marvellous past. The legends of its gods form the first history of these nations. Its teachings are lisped by the infant, studied by the

aspiring youth, sung in the fiery rhapsodies of the poet, embodied in the loftiest conceptions of the philosopher, and imaged forth in the gorgeous trappings of state-pageantry. But for even this foe, there is a conqueror. The vaunting heathenism of Asia shall quail and perish before that gospel in whose presence have crumbled the temples of Greece and Rome, the Druidical altars of Britain, and the savage idols of the South Seas.

The climate of Asia presents no difficulty sufficient to intimidate the Church. Meteorological statistics establish its general salubrity. Some have supposed that the roving habits of many of the Asiatic tribes form an impassable barrier to their evangelization. That it is a difficulty, we admit; but that it is insurmountable, we wholly deny. Well-directed, persevering efforts will reach and influence the Bedouin of Arabia, or the Mongol of the high table-land. And then, when will the climate change? or when, under heathen influences, will these tribes cease to wander? Never! Their character, in this respect, is as fixed as the foundations of their mountain ranges, and the climate as changeless as the heavens that beam down on their plains. Government jealousy and restrictions, in certain parts of Asia, seem to stand in the way of the Church. We have already noticed this subject in the course of this article, and have stated the general result. It is a "vain thing" that "the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed. . . . He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision."

It is difficult to apprehend the moral condition, and appreciate the wants of the Asiatic nations. The glowing narratives of early travellers, the speculations of modern infidels, and the oriental imagery interwoven with the strains of our best poets, have, in a degree, preoccupied and intoxicated the public mind. Oriental literature has been with many writers the object of the most fulsome admiration. Its philosophy and poetry have been lauded in the most rapturous terms; and its systems of chronology have been thought at once to contradict and overthrow the teachings of the Bible. The time for such rhapsodizing is passing away. The recent researches of oriental scholars are correcting existing errors on the subject. The marvellous character and vaunting pretensions of eastern literature vanish like the mirage of the desert, leaving to the weary student only barren sands and scorching heat. "The Chinese literature," says Abel-Remusat, "is, incontestably, the first in Asia, in respect of the number, the importance, and the authenticity of its monuments."* And yet authentic Chinese history dates • Book of the World, vol. ii, p. 538.

back no farther than about B. C. 1000.* Sir John Davis remarks, that "the Chinese set no value on abstract science, apart from some obvious and immediate end of utility ;" and he justly compares the actual state of the sciences among them with their condition in Europe previous to the adoption of the inductive mode of investigation. "Perhaps," says Dr. Williams, "the rapid advances made by Europeans, during the last two centuries, in the investigation of nature in all her departments and powers, have made us somewhat impatient of such a parade of nonsense as Chinese books exhibit."

"In addition to the general inferiority of Chinese mind to European, in genius and imagination, it has moreover been hampered by a language the most tedious and meagre of all tongues, and wearied with a literature abounding in tiresome repetitions and unsatisfactory theories. Under these conditions, science, either mathematical, physical, or natural, has made few advances, and is now making none." The Indian and Chinese systems of chronology, which far antedate the systems based on the Pentateuch, are now exploded; henceforth to be classed with the fabulous records of the Aztecs, or the grandiloquent antiquarian legends of the kings of Timbuctoo.§

The social condition, too, of these nations has been strangely misunderstood. Many who sympathize not with Christianity, have drawn enchanting pictures of their primitive simplicity and innocence; while thousands of Christians, though discrediting such statements, have suffered themselves to be lulled into most culpable apathy in reference to them. For full information on this point, we must refer our readers to the works already named in this article, and to others of a similar character; we can only notice a few features of the dark picture. As to physical comforts, the wealthy few enjoy a barbaric profusion, while the great masses struggle with poverty and suffering in their most terrible forms. Those born to titles and honours, have the advantages of a rude, unsatisfactory education, while the people are consigned to hopeless ignorance. The family institution, as it exists and blesses society in Christian lands, is here unknown. Woman is incarcerated in the harem, doomed to a seclusion scarcely less cruel in her domestic relations; or, despite her gentler nature, driven forth to the streets and fields, "hewers of wood and drawers of water"-the burden-bearers of nations. Crimes and vices, which in Christian society skulk in dark

Davis's History of China, (Harper's edition,) vol. i, p. 164.

† History of China, vol. ii, p. 252. § Book of the World, vol. ii, p. 492. Middle Kingdom, vol. ii, pp. 193-210.

Middle Kingdom, vol. ii, p. 145. Hist. British India, vol. ii, pp. 208-212.

ness and secrecy, here stalk abroad, with gaudy blandishments, at noonday. Among the religious duties of the Hindoo, are begging, pilgrimages, penance and self-torture, suicide, the suttee, and infanticide. What a catalogue! And this, too, in India! "The worship and services paid to the Hindoo deities," says a late writer, "are, generally speaking, irrational, unmeaning, and often immoral. They include no provision for instructing the people in the duties of life, or even in what is supposed to be divine truth."+

For the evils existing in society, heathenism furnishes no remedy. Its borrowed truth is paralyzed by the corruption in which it lies imbedded. The experiment has been tried for centuries, and has wholly failed. Such must ever be the result. Heathenism knows not the truth, shuns it, hates it, is in itself profoundly false-a stupendous lie. But heathenism has not simply failed to cure existing evils; it has ruined souls, for multitude like the stars of heaven. For thousands of years, the successive generations of Asia have trusted in it for eternal life; and it has given them eternal death. Theorize as we may, there still remains the overwhelming truth, that these countless hosts are passing from the gloom and despair of heathenism to the deeper gloom and fiercer despair of hell.

From the recent reports of the various societies sustaining missions in Asia, we ascertain that the number of Protestant missionaries labouring within its limits, is about six hundred. Distributing these among the entire population, we have one missionary to a population of one million ninety-four thousand four hundred and five. Omitting the Japanese empire, and all of China Proper, except the consular ports, we have one missionary to a population of four hundred and forty-six thousand and seventy-two. Finally, counting the population of only those countries in which the Church now has missions, we have one missionary to a population of three hundred and thirty-eight thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight. In Arabia, with a population of ten millions, there is only one missionary, (at Aden.) From the Sea of Aral, across the table-lands of Asia to Japan, a sweep of more than three thousand miles, with a population, including Japan, of about eighty millions, not a Protestant missionary can be found. In the Northern Plain, comprising a population of nearly four millions, there is no Protestant missionary. So with Afghanistan and Beloochistan; while in China Proper, with a population (exclusive of the consular ports) of more than three hundred and fifty millions, there has never been a Protestant mission established.

Hist. Brit. India, vol. ii, pp. 228-233. Hist. Brit. India, vol. ii, p. 228.

No part of Asia has presented such favourable openings to the Church, or has received so many missionaries, as India; and yet observe what a dearth of labourers even there. From Madras, southward, along the sea-board, for one hundred and fifty miles, there is only one missionary. At Combaconum, "a city of pagodas," there are only two missionaries. In the great city of Tanjore, there is only one missionary. At Seringham, where there is the largest heathen temple in the world, there is no missionary. At Manargoody, "where there are one hundred and fifty thousand idolaters, and where the heathen population appear to spread out endlessly," there is one missionary. "In the Presidency of Bengal I entered one province, with a million of inhabitants, and asked, Who is the missionary here? There was none at all. In another, with two millions of people, I asked, Who is the missionary here? None at all. I went to another, and another, and another, containing equal numbers of people, and found no missionary at all. In the Province of Oude, containing three millions of inhabitants, there is no missionary. In the fertile Province of Rohulcund, where there is a population of four millions, I asked, Who is the missionary here? Never was there a missionary at all. And yet India is well-nigh evangelized! The thing to me is most shocking and monstrous."*

We have now noticed the points proposed in the present article. With such a field before her, is it a time for the Church to indulge in enervating sloth and pampering luxury; or to amuse herself with feats of intellectual gladiatorship? If God's word is not a lie, if the present signs of the times are not the illusions of the magician, if the piercing wail of more than one-half of the human race lying in the darkness and wretchedness of heathenism, has not lost its power to move the heart, then has the time come when, in reference to the evangelization of Asia, the Church is called upon for action— instant, comprehensive, persevering action. No one pretends to think that the Church is doing her whole duty in regard to the heathen world. The Churches connected with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, contribute annually seventyfour cents per member for the missionary cause; the Methodist Episcopal Church contributes annually for the same object, about sixteen cents per member. Are Christians really in earnest, when they profess to aim at the spiritual conquest of the world? The plea of inability on the part of the Church cannot be sustained. Witness her costly altars and magnificent structures for the worship of God, the splendid mansions and gorgeous equipages of the folDr. Duff's speech at the Anniversary of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, Exeter Hall, London, 1851.