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Gorunell University Library
Ithaca, New York

CHARLES WILLIAM WASON

COLLECTION
CHINA AND THE CHINESE

THE GIFT OF
CHARLES WILLIAM WASON
CLASS OF 1876
1918
Cornell University Library

q “ni
PREACHING IN SINIM:

oR,

THE GOSPEL TO THE GENTILES,
WITH

HINTS AND HELPS FOR ADDRESSING A
HEATHEN AUDIENCE.

BY

HAMPDEN C. DuBOSE, D. D.,

TWENTY-ONE YEARS A MISSIONARY AT SOOCHOW.

AvutTuor oF “ Tue Dracon, Imacz anp Demon; or, THE THREE RELIGIONS
or Cu1nA” (English); **‘ THe Street Cuaper Purpir”’ (Chinese); ‘‘ AN
IntustRaTED Lire or CHRIST WITH No PicruREB OF OUR LorD”’
(Chinese), Erc,, Etc.

«* Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men,”’

“The love of Christ constraineth us.’”

“For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and
him crucified,’’

RICHMOND, VA.:
PRESBYTERIAN COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION.

1893.
§
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a) 21

 

CopyYRIGHTED BY
Jas, K. Hazen, Sec’y of Presbyterian Committee of Publication.
1893.

 
TO
MY BELOVED BRETHREN

OF THE
Southern Presbhuterian Church,
WHO IN THEIR PULPITS

SO EARNESTLY AND ELOQUENTLY ADVOCATE
THE CAUSE OF

Foreign Missions,

Tuts Lirrnz Treatise oN Homiuetics IN CHINA IS

AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.
PREFACE.

 

O present the truth to those who have never

heard the message of salvation in such a way
that they may understand it, has been the single
aim of my ministry in the land of Sinim. Especi-
ally during the preparation of the two hundred
Street-Chapel sermons in Chinese was my atten-
tion called to this subject. The thoughts have
been committed to writing with the desire that
they might be of service to newly-arrived mission-
aries, and Sid them in preaching to the heathen
who know not God. It is also with the hope that
some laborers in other lands might read these pages
and mutatis mutandis adopt a few of the sugges-
tions to the special wants of their fields.

As preaching is the great work of the Church of
God, no doubt many of the friends of missions in
the home-lands desire to know how those whom
they send forth tell to the untutored pagan the
new story of God’s love, and we trust they will find
6 PREFACE.

these chapters satisfactory. Our great desire is
that the young men in the colleges, whose atten-
tion is now turned to Eastern lands, may by read-
ing be led to consecrate themselves to the work of
preaching in China. In the eighteen provinces
the four hundred millions need ten thousand mis-
sionaries immediately. May each one who hears
the divine call, ““Whom shall I send?” be enabled
with the apostle to exclaim, “Unto me, who am
the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I
should preach among the Gentiles the unsearch-

able riches of Christ.”
H. C. D.

Southern Presbyterian Mission, Soochow, China.

Nore.—The MS. of Preaching in Sinim was placed in the
hands of the Committee of Publication some two years since, but
the issue of the volume has, for sufficient cause, been delayed.
CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
Tue GRANDEUR OF THE PULPIT,

CHAPTER IL
Srvim’s Catt,

CHAPTER IIL
Avostroric Action,

CHAPTER IV.
Tur Street CHAPEL,

CHAPTER V.
ItrveraTion AND Woman’s Work,

CHAPTER VL
Tue SrreiruaL Kinepvom,

CHAPTER VII
Tuer Ampassapor To Srnm,

CHAPTER VIIL

Lirrrary PREPARATION,

CHAPTER IX.
Tur Sryte oF PREACHING,

Pace

23

32

49

62

71

87

97

109
CONTENTS.

CHAPTER X.
Narorat THEOLOGY,

CHAPTER XI

Tae Lichr or Ermics anp THE DaRKNESS OF
Sin, .

CHAPTER XII.

PReAcHING CHRIST,

CHAPTER XIIL
JEsus, THE MopEt PrReacHer To THE HEATHEN,

CHAPTER XIV.
Pav. THE PREACHER,

CHAPTER XV.
Tae Work oF THE Hoty Spirit,

CHAPTER XVL.
THe Wonpbers or THE Last Days, .

CHAPTER XVII.
Tuer Reaver anp His Rewarps,

130

154

169

190

207

219

229

237
PREACHING IN SINIM.

CHAPTER I

THE GRANDEUR OF THE PULPIT.

HE propagation of Christianity by preaching:

stamps the gospel as divine. Eighteen hun-
dred years ago, before ships traversed the mighty
ocean, au Israelite, living within the narrow con-.
fines of Judea, brought up and educated in an
uncultivated part of the land, and moving in the
humble walks of life, conceived the grand idea of
making Adam’s guilty*race the subjects of divine ©
grace, and reclaiming the world from its atheism
and polytheism, its superstition and idolatry, sim-
ply by preaching. Dead and buried at Jerusa-
lem, and now “alive forevermore,” a message.
was sent to his scattered disciples, ‘Behold, he
goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see
him,” and eagerly they -bent their footsteps to-
wards the “mountain where Jesus had appointed.
them.” There the resurrected Lord boldly de-
clares, “All power is given unto me in heaven

and in earth,” an authority transcending all human.
9
10 PREACHING IN SINIM.

claims, a majesty above all earthly glory, a do-
minion embracing all in heaven and in earth,
“when he shall have put down all rule and all
authority and power: for he must reign, till he
hath put all enemies under his feet.” The Me-
diatorial King, asserting his right to rule over
kings and kingdoms, angels and archangels,
heaven and earth, gave the order to take pos-
session of the whole world in his name, pledg-
ing his omnipotence and omniscience to insure
‘success. Because of this power given unto him
he issues the commission, ‘‘Go ye, therefore,
and teach all nations,’ to a “little flock,” for
the most part unlettered men, but who for three
years enjoyed the instructions of their Lord, and
who soon were to be “endued with power from
on high.” The command was not to go as Ma-
homet, with fire and sword, to propagate the new
faith, or like Shakyamuni, with incense, candles
and magical arts, but by mouth and voice to
proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ.

Tuer FooLisHNness OF PREACHING.

Truly the words of the apostle seem appro-
priate, “For after that in the wisdom of God
the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased
‘God by the foolishness of preaching to save
Tur GRANDEUR OF THE PULPIT. 11

them that believe. For the Jews require a
sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: but we
preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stum-
bling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
but unto them which are called, both Jews and
Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wis-
dom of God.” In English-speaking countries
the pulpit is honored; not so in ancient Greece
and Rome, or ancient and modern China. Fill-
ing, as they do, the universe with gods, the
thought that there is only one God is too simple
a concept for the profound mind of the philoso-
pher. Accustomed to their exalted views of hu-
man nature, how unlearned are our discourses
about sin! With their lofty ideas concerning
merit, how puerile seem our words about “filthy
rags”! All their lives admiring altars adorned
with fruits and flowers and fragrant with incense,
how revolting the teaching of salvation by faith
in a crucified Messiah! While they require God
to furnish them with some visible sign of his
existence, how empty seem our talks about an
unseen Jehovah! Then, to attempt the overthrow
of ancient religious institutions simply by preach-
ing, appears so ignoble! Yea, to christianize
three hundred and ninety millions by the oral
communication of divine truth seems the height
12 PREACHING IN SINIM.

of folly. And when we speak of conversion by
the supernatural influences of the Holy Spirit
they consider us as demented enthusiasts, and
cry as Festus, ‘Thou art beside thyself.” We
are to see our “calling” as preachers of the
gospel; “God hath chosen the foolish things of
the world to confound the wise; and God hath
chosen the weak things of the world to con-
found the things which are mighty; and base
things of the world, and things which are de-
spised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which
are not, to bring to nought things that are.”
When Christ was about to call the dead to.
life, three of the evangelists record the fact that
“they laughed him to scorn,” so the whole plan
of awakening nations sleeping the sleep of death,
by the voice of living men trumpeting the gospel,
is in contrast with human schemes. When Cesar’s
dominion extended over Europe and Western
Asia, for the man crucified by Roman authority
to claim “all power,” and with no arm of flesh
to befriend his cause to send a scattered band
of believers to go forth conquering and to con-
quer by the word of his power, seemed the
height of folly; but as victory crowned their
banner, so, nineteen hundred years after, may his
messengers bear witness “unto the uttermost.
Tur GRANDEUR OF THE PULPIT. 13

part of the earth,” and rely upon the presence
of the Master to give the word success.

Tar GLoRY oF THE MESSENGER.

Paul speaks of the “ messengers of the churches
and of the glory of Christ.” Those who “labor
in word and doctrine” are the messengers or
ministers of the glory of Christ. The grandeur of
the calling is summed up in the word “glory.”
From the beginning to the end of Revelation the
highest conceptions of things, divine and eternal,
are given to us under the term glory. The mes-
senger is sent by one whose glory filleth the
heavens, and of whom when on earth it was said,
“We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father.” The missionary is to
declare the glory of God among a people who
glorify him not. He is the minister of a covenant
of glory. “But if the ministration of death,
written and engraven in stones was glorious, so
that the children of Israel could not steadfastly
behold the face of Moses for the glory of his
countenance, which glory was to be done away,
how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be
rather glorious? For if the ministry of condemna-
tion be glory, much more doth the ministration of

righteousness excel in glory. For even that which
2
14 PREACHING IN SINIM.

was made glorious had no glory in this respect,
by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that:
which is done away is glorious, much more that.
which remaineth is glorious.” The minister is to
preach of him who was “received up into glory,”
and who, after he has guided us by his counsel,
shall afterwards receive us to glory.

An AMBASSADOR FOR CHRIST.

We are sent by Christ; we are equipped by
Christ; we come for Christ; we are ambassadors
for Christ. We do not receive our credentials
from St. James or Washington, but are ministers
plenipotentiary from the court of Heaven, sent
with full authority from Jehovah to make a treaty
with his rebellious subjects. We are to say,
“Come now and let us reason together, saith the
Lord.” The man of God stands as a herald to
make a proclamation of divine amnesty; as a
preacher he teaches all things whatsoever Christ
has commanded; as a minister he serves the
people even as the Son of man came not to be
ministered unto but to minister; as a shepherd he
feeds the flock over which the Holy Ghost has
made him an overseer; as an elder he rules in
the house of God; as a star in the right hand of
Him who walks in the midst of the golden candle-
sticks he shines with peculiar lustre,
THE GRANDEUR OF THE PULPIT. 15

THE MINISTER OF RECONCILIATION.

The apostle to the Gentiles distinctly sets forth
the great business of the missionary: “God, who.
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and
hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to-
wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world.
unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto
them; and hath committed unto us the word of
reconciliation. Now, then, we are ambassadors.
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us ;
we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to.
God.” The reconciled sinner becomes the minister
of reconciliation, and speaks the word of recon-
ciliation. Just as Phinehas stood between the
living and the dead, so, in a figure, we act as
intermediaries, setting forth the reconciling love
of the unseen God, and coming to men with the
message,—we gently beseech you; we earnestly
pray you; we humbly beg you—“ Be ye reconciled.”

Not GIveN To ANGELS.

To proclaim his gospel the Lord chose men and
not angels. This is one of the mysteries which
men may desire to look into. The angels are pure;
to them men would seem very vile. They dwell
in light inaccessible and full of glory ; this world.
would be very dark to them. Their appearance in.
16 PREACHING IN SINIM.

the pulpit would dazzle the eyes, and it would
be hard to restrain men from acts of worship.
They have never been tempted and could have no
‘sympathy with the Son of man, or the sons of
men, as they pass through fiery trials. Having
never sinned they know littie of the redemption
that isin Christ Jesus, and have never experienced
the preciousness of forgiveness and the joys of
‘conversion. It is given to man, who is conscious
of his own weakness and shortcomings, to speak
to his brother about the way by which he has
been led to love and serve the Lord. Ministers
not only preach the written word, but they preach
the word which has filtered through the inner life
-of their spiritual consciousness, and thus are
“manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ,”
“written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the
living God.”

Tur REGIONS BEYonD.

Paul rejoiced that he was called “to preach the
gospel in the regions beyond, and not to boast in
another man’s line of things made ready to hand.”
“So that from Jerusalem, and round about Illyri-
‘cum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.
Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not
where Christ was named, lest I should build upon
-another man’s foundation; but as it is written, To
THE GRANDEUR OF THE PULPIT. 17

whom he was not spoken of, they shall see; and
they that have not heard shall understand.” In
the home-land, with a pious ancestry, pious parents,
pious families, pious friends, pious Sabbath-school
teachers, pious pastors, pious churches, the air we
breathe is “holiness to the Lord.” Under such
circumstances, the influence of a minister upon a
new convert is reduced to the minimum, for many
agencies (humanly speaking) have a share in bring-
ing a soul to Christ. In the “field” which is “the
world,” the minister has few valuable colaborers in
the work. Here it is the freshness of the salvation
morn, with no gospel-hardened sinners to sit un-
der the sound of the glad tidings, the dewdrops of
grace glistening in the rising sun, and the joyful
notes of sacred song for the first time wafted on
the bracing air. There is a true romance of mis-
sions, the pioneer religious life in hoary lands of
superstition, where, as our Lord could say, “Lift
up your eyes, and look on the fields”—and what a
sight!—“for they are white already to the har-
vest,” like an Alabama cotton-field with its silken
bolls so large and white, looking like a fall of
snow in the autumn.

THE Joy OF PREACHING.
The apostle said that he was “a debtor both to
the Greeks and to the barbarians.” There is a
18 PREACHING IN SINIM.

real pleasure in paying our debts. We often
speak of the duty of obedience; there is no keener
joy in the Christian life than obedience to God.
In a heathen land we experience the preciousness
of a nearness to God; the darkness around makes
the light in the soul more appreciated. We talk
of luxury; but is there any luxury like that of do-
ing good? Philanthropy! the noblest form of ori-
ental luxury. It is pleasant to carry the news of
pardon to the prisoner in his chains; to tell “the
old, old story” here, where it is the new, new
theme. There is no possibility of its becoming a
wearisome task. Hundreds of times the question
has been put, “My friend, have you heard any-
thing about the gospel?” “No.” And the a-b-e
of Christianity has been taught with as much ex-
hilarating delight as if it were the first lesson to
the first scholar. Sixteen days across the Pacific,
on our return home, at nightfall the splendid
steamship, Zhe City of Tokio, stopped, and the
passengers rushed on deck to see what was the
matter. Directly a flash of light was seen from
the Farral Islands, and, as the light revolved, an-
other flash, and soon another; the whistle blew,
the engines started, and soon we were within the
Golden Gate. This was the first light from our
native shore, and oh! what delight to all on board!
THE GRANDEUR OF THE PULPIT. 19

So it is joy without measure to tell for the first
time the news of salvation to a benighted pagan.

Christian experience varies as do the lineaments
of our faces, which not only differ in one age, but
one generation is unlike another. Some find their
sweetest moments in the closet; others, in the
prayer-meeting; many consider their hours of
reading the Scriptures the happiest; the sweet
psalmists experience holy joy when singing the
songs of Zion; while perhaps to a few the hour of
preaching—the mind kindled to a white heat, and
the heart directly under the influences of the Holy
Spirit—brings the most vivid realization of God’s
presence, when he makes his goodness pass before
his servant, and places him in a cleft of the rock,
while his glory passeth by.

Sweet hour to preach, sweet hour to preach,
May I thy grace and glory reach,

When on Mount Carmel’s lofty height,

I view false gods just in my sight,

And call to men, Turn ye, and live;

Here is the way, God’s Son believe;

And shout, while I can daily teach,

Welcome, welcome, sweet hour to preach!

When leaving the chapel, and the footsteps are
turned homeward, the messenger’s feet fly swiftly
along, the mind absorbed in celestial themes, the
20 PREACHING IN SINIM.

thought suddenly occurs: “Well, I am really here,
walking on the earth.”

What a beautiful couplet in the Missionary
Psalmody ¢

“Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations;
And, lo! I am with you alway.”

The presence of the Master is specially vouch-
safed at the very moment when we teach the peo-
ple to observe his commandments. If the chief
attraction of heaven is to be “forever with the
Lord,” what on earth is better than the mission-
field, with its daily preaching, and daily walks to
Emmaus ?

THE RESPONSIBILITY.

The apostolical evangelistic motto is: “Knowing,
therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade
men.” Paul feared lest, when he had preached to
others, he himself should be a castaway. As the
soul is of more value than the body, so the re-
sponsibility resting upon winners of souls is a
thousand-fold more weighty than that which lies
upon those who deal with things temporal. The
preacher is a watchman upon the towers of Zion.
“Tf, when he seeth the sword come upon the land,
he blow the trumpet, and warn the people, then
whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and
THE GRANDEUR OF THE PULPIT. 21

taketh not warning, if the sword cometh and taketh
him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
But if the watchman see the sword come, and
blow not the trumpet, and the people be not
warned; if the sword come, and take any person
away from them, he is taken away in his iniquity;
but the blood will I require at the watchman’s
hands. So thou, O gon of man, I have set thee a
watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou
shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them
from me. When I say to the wicked, O wicked
man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak
to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man
shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I re-
quire at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn
the wicked of his way, to turn him from it; if he
do not turn from his way, he shall die in his in-
iquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.”

‘¢ Let Sion’s watchmen all awake,
And take the alarm they give;
Now let them from the mouth of God
Their solemn charge receive.

‘“‘They watch for souls, for which the Lord
Did heavenly bliss forego;
For souls which must forever live
In raptures or in woe.
22

PREACHING IN SINIM.

‘*All to the great tribunal haste,
The account to render there;
And shouldst thou strictly mark our faults,
Lord, how should we appear?”
CHAPTER IL.
Smvimm’s Cau.

“ TTNTO you, O men, I call; and my voice is to

the sons of men.” It is a personal, direct,
pressing summons, and requires immediate atten-
tion. “How then shall they call on him of
whom they have not heard? and how shall they
hear without a preacher ?”

It is the call of a great multitude, even of
890,000,000. The vast wealth of William H.
Vanderbilt was computed at his death: the dollars,
if piled up, how high the column would reach ;
if spread out, how many square miles the silver
would cover. Here there is a man for a coin,
and a hundred million over!

It is a wide call: “Behold I set before you
an open door.” A half-century since the Middle
Kingdom was compassed on every side by the
great wall of seclusion. Thirty years ago for-
eigners were limited to the five open ports. The
number has since increased to twenty. Now, by
the toleration clause in the treaties, missionaries
have the privilege of preaching in every part of
the empire, and by the interpretation the Man-

darins put upon the treaty, they may rent houses
23
24 PREACHING IN SINIM.

and live in the interior, and the officials grant
them special protection. While the merchants
are confined to residence in twenty localities, the
ministers of the gospel are free to enter “the
door great and effectual,” which has been opened
to the thousand walled cities, the one hundred
thousand market towns, and the million villages,
and everywhere proclaim salvation.

It is a philanthropic call. Says the royal
preacher, “Withhold not good from them to whom
it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to
do it.” Is not the gospel good? Is it not the
supreme good? Is it not due the heathen? Are
we not debtors to the barbarians? Is it not in
our power to give it? Does not the church
send forth every man that offers? Shall we then
withhold the bread of life from the famishing?

It is a pointed call. It does not generally
come as a light from heaven, as in the case
of Paul, or as a view of the throne as with
Isaiah, or in audible words as with the child
Samuel, but as a still small voice, ‘What doest
thou here?” here in a gospel land, abounding in
Bibles and preachers; here, where flows the
water of life so freely; here, where whosoever
will may be saved?

It is a Macedonian call. The apostle’s bio-
Srnim’s CAL. 25

grapher says, they “were forbidden of the Holy
Ghost to preach the word in Asia,” probably
because so much work had been done there.
“They assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit
suffered them not.” At Troas “A vision appeared
to Paul in the night: there stood a man of
Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over
into Macedonia, and help us. And after he had
seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to
go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the
Lord had called us for to preach the gospel
unto them.”

It is a call which requires obedience: ‘“ What-
soever he saith unto you do it.” Does the
Master say, “Go ye into all the world”? then
the presumption is, that the field of labor assigned
the one who is called to preach is beyond the
limits of his own country, and before he con-
cludes to remain he should seek a clear call to
stay at home.

It is a dévine call: “Pray ye therefore the
Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth
laborers into his harvest.” It seems that the
disciples did pray, for immediately follows the
roll of the twelve whom Jesus “called.” The
evangelists give the simple narrative how Christ.

called his disciples one by one. He said, “ Fol-
3
26 PREACHING IN SINIM.

low Me.” He is the great Captain of the sacra-
mental host that goes forth to the peoples
which “sit in darkness and in the region and
shadow of death.” ‘And no man taketh this
honour unto himself but he that is called of
God.”

It is a call from the Holy Ghost. The anoint-
ing of the Spirit is an essential prerequisite.
At the first missionary meeting at Antioch, when
the apostles and elders were assembled together,
“As they ministered unto the Lord and fasted,
the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and
Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.”
When the designation to the sacred office comes
from the third person of the adorable Trinity it
may be said, “For he is a chosen vessel unto me,
to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings
and the children of Israel.”

The call is both external and internal. It is
external in the leadings of Providence, which
open the way to heathen nations and which
remove the obstacles from the path of the one
appointed. It is external in the approbation of
the church and in the laying on of hands, by
which the candidate is set apart to the sacred
office. It is internal in that the man by prayer
and the study of God’s word feels prompted to
Srnim’s CALL. 27

go and teach the benighted nations. As an aged
minister said to me when I was at the Theological
Seminary, “If the Lord puts it into your heart to
go, why go.” When the party who feels the inter-
nal call receives the approbation of God’s people,
there is evidence that he is called of God.

It is a call for volunteers: “And I heard the
voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send,
who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I;
send me.” Our Master was an illustrious example
of a living sacrifice. “And he saw that there
was no man, and wondered that there was no
intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation
unto him.” ‘Wherefore, when he cometh into the
world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou
wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me.
Then said T; Lo, I come (in the volume of the
book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God.”
No church forcibly sends a man to the mission
field; he must volunteer.

It is a glowing call. A yearning to lead the
most useful life during our few years upon
the earth, a hungering and thirsting to preach
he word to the heathen, a burning of the heart,
within as we walk with Jesus and hear his last
great command. Into it enter all the elements
of the higher Christian life; love for Jesus,
28 PREACHING IN SINIM.

compassion for the helpless, zeal for the Master's
glory, obedience to his commands, and joy in
carrying the word to earth’s remotest end.

It is a growing call. When I was taken under
the care of Presbytery a venerable preacher asked,
“Do you feel, ‘Yea, woe is me if I preach not
the gospel’?” The answer was, “I do not,” but
three years afterwards the meaning of the words
was a matter of personal experience. When the
sinner is called to Christ he does not care to
come till he feels his need, so no one desires to
come to the foreign field till he realizes the needs
of the heathen. This is developed by the study
of what the Bible says about idolatry, of the
promises in reference to the kingdom, and of the
missionary journeys of the apostles. The study
of geography and of the comparative civilizations
and the religions of the heathen awaken the
slumbering call. Missionary literature opens a
wide field for investigation, and leads the inquirer
to personal consecration. Were there a large
heathen city just across the river, would not
many desire to labor within its walls, and is not
time and distance annihilated by the great ships
which now traverse the ocean? As we strive to
grow in every Christian grace, let the young see
they neglect not to cultivate the call to Foreign
Srntm’s CALL. 29

Missions, chiefly by prayer and communion with
God. All learning is useful, especially as the
opportunities for mental improvement in the
field are limited, but as a long literary cur-
riculum is necessary in learning the language, any
man of ordinary ability, after a brief theological
and thorough Biblical course, may, under the
blessing of God, become eminently useful. The
qualifications of a Sabbath-school teacher are
those especially needed by missionaries who teach
the pagan.

The lines written by Rev. Dr. Nathan Brown
find an echo in many a heart. The only time it
was the writer’s privilege to meet him was at
a social prayer-meeting at his home, and the
stranger invited to speak mentioned how widely
“The Missionary’s Call” had been copied, and
placed it beside Bishop Hebevr’s

“From Greenland’s Icy Mountains,”

as a part of the missionary heritage. Dr. Brown
was requested by one present to give the history
of the poem, and he said it was the first time he
had ever been asked to do so. Written at the
age of nineteen, when he was at college, it was
sent to a newspaper, but hearing nothing from
it he was discouraged as to further attempts to
30 PREACHING IN SINIM.

reach the heathen field, and went to the printer’s
trade. Afterwards he saw it copied in a Prince-
ton magazine, and this held out some hope. Af-
ter a lapse of time it was printed in the Baptist
papers, and (though he did not say so), the So-
ciety sought him out. He lived 3x19 years to
to preach in Assam and Japan.

‘My soul is not at rest: there comes a strange
And secret whisper to my spirit, like
A dream at night, which tells me I am on
Enchanted ground. Why liveI here? The vows
Of God are on me, and I may not stop
To play with shadows, or pluck earthly flowers,
Till I my work have done and rendered up
Account. The voice of my departed Lord,
‘Go teach all nations,’ from the Eastern world

Comes on the night air and awakes my ear.

‘© And I will go. I may no longer doubt
To give up friends, and home, and idle hopes,
And every tender tie that binds my heart
To thee, my country. Why should I regard
Earth’s little store of borrowed sweets ?
‘ : ‘ . Never was it his design
Who placed me here that I should live at ease
Or drink at pleasure’s fountain. Henceforth, then,
It matters not if storm or sunshine be
My earthly lot, bitter or sweet my cup:
I only pray, God fit me for the work;
God make me holy and my spirit nerve
Srnim’s CALL. 3L

For the stern hour of strife. Let me but know
There isan arm unseen that holds me up,

An eye that kindly watches all my path,

Till Imy weary pilgrimage have done ;

Let me but know I have a friend that waits

To welcome me to glory, and I joy

To tread the dark and death fraught wilderness.”
CHAPTER III.
ApostToLic ACTION.

HE eloquent Athenian, when asked, “What is
the chief element in oratory, answered, “Ac-
tion.” “And what is the second?” “Action.”
“And whatthe third?” “Action.” Thesame might
be said of apostolic evangelization. There is need
of Action, Action, Action. Our Master calls atten-
tion to the wisdom of the children of this world,
and the energy they display in their generation.
For instance, go into a native store in this city,
and see the prints, a hundred different patterns,
prepared in Europe to suit the Chinese eye and
taste. How the consuls at the foreign ports watch
trade, and keep their respective governments in-
formed of every available opening! In all depart-
ments of business throughout the world the most
intense activity is displayed. This is the example
which our Lord sets before the children of light
in the evangelization of the nations.
We do not find Christ sitting in the temple at
Jerusalem, or building a tabernacle in the metropo-
lis, and summoning all Judea and the region round

32
AposToLic ACTION. 33

about Jordan to come and sit at his feet, for it is
recorded, “He went about doing good.” After he
had preached in the synagogue at Capernaum, the
people “sought him, and came unto him, and
stayed him, that he should not depart from them.
And he said unto them, I must preach the king-
dom of God to other cities also, for therefore am I
sent.” Constant activity, unceasing labors, and
unremitting exertions marked the daily life of our
Lord; so, if we are hereafter to share in his glory,
we must now share in his toil. Blessed privilege,
to be co-workers with God!

The apostle to the Gentiles, in speaking of his
work, could say: “I labored more abundantly than
they all.” Doctor Charles Hodge says: “This may
mean either more than any one of the apostles, or
more than all of them put together. The latter is
more in keeping with the tone of the passage. It
serves more to exalt the grace of God; and it is
historically true, if the New Testament record is to
be our guide.” In the great work of converting
the world the labors of the apostle are placed be-
fore us in a formidable array. Are we followers
of Paul, as he followed Christ? It is not a safe
method to count the laborers, numbering one by
one; for though all are members of the same body,
yet all are not of the same relative importance, as
34 PREACHING IN SINIM.

what is the utility of the little finger, compared to
that of the eye?

A fearful responsibility rests upon the foreign
evangelist because of his independent position.
He has no congregation upon whom he is financi-
ally dependent, and who make vigorous demands
on the pulpit and the pastorate. The home so-
ciety is across the sea, and takes only a general
oversight of the work. He preaches as often as
he desires, and itinerates whenever he chooses, so
his stay in the city or country is according to his
own will. Asin ancient Israel, “every man doeth
as is right in his own eyes.” ‘Truly, our Lord has
gone on a long journey, and the preparation for
his return is the great object before the missionary
in all his labors.

The field is the world, but China is specially the
field for preaching. By treaty-right, we may go
from province to province, and from city to city,
and proclaim salvation; and here almost is fulfilled
the vision of John: “And I saw another angel fly
in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gos-
pel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth.”
Throughout Christendom it is considered that the
minister’s duties fall chiefly on Sunday, but here
it is different, for every day is a day of preaching,
and, freed from heavy pastoral labor, after three
APOSTOLIC ACTION. 85

years of language study one is as free as the birds
of the air to make known the glad tidings of sal-
vation.

There is a pleasant variety in evangelistic meth-
ods. In one sense, continued preaching is a wea-
riness to the flesh, as spiritual labor is so much
harder than manual. On the other hand, it may
be considered light work. To be out of doors, free
from books and teachers, going from place to place,
taking active exercise, and breathing the pure air
of heaven, is wonderfully invigorating to both the
physical and spiritual man. In the chapels, when
too tired to preach longer, we may sit down on a
bench and engage in conversation; or, if we be-
come weary at this, we may pass from shop to
shop when, in the unoccupied portions of the day,
the dozen clerks leaning upon the counter are glad
to have some one to converse with. Or to vary
the scene, we may step into a tea-shop, sip a cup
of tea, and converse with the ten, twenty, or thirty
who gather around. If the voice is tired, it may
be rested by colportage. If suffering with bron-
chitis, we may pass from house to house, distrib-
ute leaflets, or mount posters and gospel proclama-
tions on the walls. When the city work becomes
monotonous, the country, with its green fields, is
open, and the courteous peasants will bring out a
36 PREACHING IN SINIM.

bench, offer a cup of tea, and press the visitor to

stay and preach.
One element in successful missionary work is

punctuality, When the clock points the hour,
let the man of God go forth to his daily task.
There are many interruptions incidental to mis-
sionary life,—Chinese visitors who call, converts
coming for instruction, native ministers who wish
to consult, the general oversight of the mission to
be taken,—but if on some day there is only one
and one-half hours, and it takes one-half hour to
walk to the chapel and one-half hour to return,
let the other thirty minutes be given to public
preaching. Punctuality in a minister is a cardinal
Christian virtue.

Another element is saving time. ‘“ Redeeming
the time” is the Scripture phraseology. Much
of our time is, as it were, locked up in the musty
store-rooms of apawn shop. It must be redeemed.
“Slowly, slowly go,” is the Chinaman’s motto ;
“Diligent in business” is the Christian’s rule of
life. The apostle says, “And we desire that
every one of you do shew the same diligence

. . unto the end, that ye be not slothful.”
Itinerating in this well-watered region, by voyag-
ing at night we may redeem the days for labor.
The preciousness of time must be ever promi-
APOSTOLIC ACTION. 37

nently and intently before the child of God.
Dr. Bacckus, of Baltimore, was noted for his
efficient pastorate. It is said that if he had ten
minutes to spare before an appointment he would
step out and call on a parishioner.

A third element is to make a business of
preaching, jast as the merchant at his store, or
the lawyer at his office. And here is the great
besetting sin to which the preacher of the gospel
is exposed; that is, to do this spiritual work in
a professional way; still, according to the parable
of the two sons, it is better to go in a wrong
spirit than not to go at all, for in the act of
obedience we are in the line of receiving the
blessing. The claims of flesh and blood—mail
day, family cares, times of social intercourse—
must not interfere with our one great object of
being preachers of righteousness. It must not be
light work ; it must be our life-work. The hand
of the diligent in spiritual as well as temporal
things, maketh rich. “Seest thou a man diligent
in his business,” says the royal preacher, “he
shall stand before kings.” The missionary must
be a hard-working man. There is nothing that
makes more impression upon a Mongolian, travel-
ing in the “old stage coach,” than activity and
enterprise.

4
388 PREACHING IN SINIM.

Along with this, the man of God has a holy
horror of the sin of laziness. Is it not to be
classed with idolatry? There sits the idol with
the hollow of his feet turned heavenward, but
not so the heaven-sent messenger. Paul was
called to preach; but the call was so glorious he
lay flat upon his back. What a picture of a man
appalled at the magnitude of the task of bringing
a nation to Christ. The command was given,
“Rise, and stand upon thy feet.” Then was
delivered unto him the great missionary com-
mission: “I have appeared unto thee for this
purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness
both of these things which thou hast seen, and of
those things in the which I will appear unto thee;
delivering thee from the people, and from the
Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open
their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to
light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that
they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheri-
tance among them which are sanctified by faith
that is in me.” Paul repeated the charge to
his son Timothy: “I charge thee therefore before
God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge
the quick and the dead at his appearing and his
kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season,
out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all
APOSTOLIC ACTION. 39

long-suffering and doctrine. .... Watch thou
in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an
evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”

In the fifth place, we must, as far as in us lies,
keep our bodies in trim for preaching, and do
nothing that would interfere with our duties as
speakers. The athlete looking forward to the
games keeps his limbs in training. If study
unfits one for the great aim of life, the time out
of the pulpit must be spent in buoyant recrea-
tion, enjoyable reading, or pleasant visiting. The
health and vigor of the body is a prime factor
in arduous labors. The work reacts on the man,
and there is no surer panacea for headache or
languor than an attack on idolatry.

Prime attention must also be given to keeping
the mind bright by sharpening the axe on some
literary grindstone. In the interior, separated
from the great Western world, dullness is apt to
creep over our intellects, and unfit us for our
avocation. Though in the old country, we are
in a new world of intellectual enterprise, so there
is no necessity for mental torpor. It should be
our effort to consecrate every talent to the Mas-
ter’s service.

Again, the gospel messenger must not spend
his time in his study. It would be like a courier
40 PREACHING IN SINIM.

from the capital loitering at an inn. Dr. Knowl-
ton, of precious memory, says: “The command
of Christ, and the nature and necessities of the
work, demand that missionaries maintain the
campaign in the field against the enemy, and
not spend their time in more congenial pursuits
than the rugged contact with the heathen in
preaching. The great Captain has given them
strict orders to preach his gospel, and they are
not at liberty to neglect this work for any other.
What would we say of an ambassador to a for-
eign court, who, instead of devoting himself ex-
clusively to the interest of the government by
which he is commissioned, should spend his time
in literary pursuits, or devote himself to trade, or
entangle himself in the political affairs of the
government to which he is sent? And how can
@ missionary answer to him who gave him his
commission, if he does not devote himself to the
explicit business that was entrusted to him?”
We are to mingle with the people, become
friendly with them and know them intimately.
Of our Lord it was said, “The Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us.” During the snows
of winter and the summer suns we may bring
our barks into port and mend our tattered sails.
“As we have, therefore, opportunity let us do
good unto all men.”
APOSTOLIC ACTION. Al

Literary work seems to open a wide field of use-
fulness, and some may think: “Write a volume,
and it will be read by millions; preaching is evan-
escent, but a book endures for generations!”
There is no more fallacious form of reasoning.
Only a small percentage of the people can read.
The eyes of those who do read the written page
often merely run down the lines of characters.
without thinking of the meaning. It must, too, be
remembered that spoken words live for centuries
in their effects upon the minds and hearts of men.
Also, only those books which are evolved from
the energizing power of an active ministry are
likely to be practical and useful. Yet we are not.
to underrate the labors of the great students who.
have prepared the text-books in language and lit-
erature, by the use of which we have been quali-
fied for our great work. The church needs a few
of her mighty men in the quiet retirement of their
studies, with time for meditation, to prepare the
great books which mould the minds of men. By
their writings they preach to many. Division
commanders are often at their headquarters in the
rear, removed from the scene of actual conflict,
and from thence control the movements of their
troops. The major-generals direct the forces, but
the rank and file of the missionary corps must go.
42 PREACHING IN SINIM.

into the enemy’s camp, and wield the sword of the
Spirit.

The doctrine of justification by faith is so pre-
cious to the church that the Christian is prone to
forget that faith must be shown by works, as the
Apostle James so pointedly correlates the centrifu-
gal and centripetal forces of salvation: ‘But wilt
thou know, O vain man, that faith without works
is dead? Was not Abraham, our father, justified
by works, when he had offered Isaac, his son, upon
the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his
works, and by works was faith made perfect? And
the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham be-
lieved God, and it was imputed unto him for right-
eousness.” It is by zeal in preaching that there is
proof of faith in the Lord who gave the command
to preach. To the railway, steam without the en-
gine evaporates, and the engine without steam is
motionless; so to the minister, preaching without
faith is powerless, and faith without preaching is
vacuity. Of our Saviour it was said, he “was clad
with zeal as a cloak”; ‘for the zeal of thine house
hath eaten me up”; “my zeal hath consumed me.”
It was not simply a fervent, glowing zeal, but a
consuming Zeal. The foreign evangelist is “to give
himself wholly to prayer and the ministry of the
word.” Along with his prayers, faith, fastings,
APosToLic ACTION. 43

and reliance upon the power of the Holy Spirit,
must be the active work of the body to prove that
the spiritual soul is alive. Do we read the life of
Christ, and behold his mighty deeds of power and
love? Our Lord himself said: “And greater works
than these shall he do;” referring, perhaps, not so
much to his miracles as to the disciples uniting
with him in seeking and saving the lost, and in
proclaiming the truth, not in one little country,
but throughout the earth. In the parable of the
body and its members, the apostle charges believ-
ers not to judge of the usefulness of others: “But
now hath God set the members every one of them
in the body, as it hath pleased him. . . . Nay,
much more those members of the body, which
seem to be more feeble, are necessary.”

Our labors must be unremitting. Before Jeri-
cho, “The seven priests bearing seven trumpets
of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord went on
continually, and blew with the trumpets.” This
seemed a very foolish method. Why not take a
few thousand braves and make a breach in the
wall? The priests blew, and blew, and blew.
The Bible puts the trumpet as the symbol of
the ministry, and the blowing of the trumpet as
the preaching of the word. Our Saviour’s in-
structions are two-fold; that the disciple have
44 PREACHING IN SINIM.

girded loins and burning lights. How important
to the Chinese garments is the girdle, and to
Elijah I. and Elijah II. a “leathern girdle” was
appropriate. The minister’s light must be burn-
ing and shining, as John’s camp-fire in the wil-
derness of Judea. It has been said of a vener-
able lady, whose bow still abides in strength and
whose active labors have been richly blessed,
that her life is summed up in the word “Go.”
President Lincoln wittily said of a famous Gen-
eral, “He is an admirable engineer, but he seems
to have a special talent for a stationary engine.”
Before General Grant, whom success seemed
always to attend, took command of the army of
the Potomac, and when Stonewall Jackson, the
God-fearing and Sabbath-keeping chieftain, was
making his rapid marches, and, by his sudden ad-
vances, placing a double line of pickets in front
and attacking the rear, with 13,000 successively de-
feating three Generals whose combined armies
(which were never suffered to combine) numbered
60,000, General Halleck, under date of October
7, 1862, wrote: “There is a decided want of legs
in our army.” May the multitudes who dwell
within the walls of China, like the people of
Jehovah at the gates of Jerusalem, who watched
the messengers of mercy descending the Mount of
APosToLic ACTION. 45

Olives, exclaim: “How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring
glad tidings of good things.’ The heralds of
salvation must be Alexanders in their wide
marches, and Napoleons in their impetuous
ounslaughts.

The Saviour’s command is to bear much fruit.
A tree is known by its fruits, and is prized for
its fine large crop. How, some years, the vines
which twine around our verandahs are borne
down by the heavy clusters; not one grape here and
another there, but, as the Chinese say, “Globes
of fruit.” Let the preach tree bear much fruit.
“So,” says Jesus, “shall ye be my disciples.”
Trees of the Lord’s planting, whose branches
bend beneath the weight of the rich golden fruit.
Our Master says, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.”
Also, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
My command is to preach, therefore preach
“with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.”
When past fourscore, it is recorded of John
Wesley, “Every day his voice is still heard some-
where sounding the alarm at five o’clock in the
morning. Nearly every evening the sun goes
46 PREACHING IN SINIM.

down upon him in some other place. He has
chapels scattered over the whole country, but he
still, almost daily, proclaims his message in the
fields and on the highways.” On the Ist of
January, 1790, when eighty-five, he wrote, “I
am now an old man, decayed from head to foot.
However, blessed be God, I do not slack my
labor. I can preach still.” In the midst of
formalism and church inertia in England arose
this great spiritual man, who preached several
times each day, and success marked his labors.
Amidst the deadness of Chinese systems mis-
sionaries have the golden opportunity to show
forth the glory of preaching. Just as a native
said of a faithful Wesleyan in this land, ‘“ When-
ever you meet him he talks about Jesus.”

“Take the name of Jesus with you,
Child of sorrow and of woe ;
It will joy aud comfort give you,
Take it then where’er you go.
Precious name, O how sweet,
Hope of earth and joy of heaven.”

There are so few men we must multiply our-
selves. Itisnotx + y but (x+ y)% A division
of labor is often spoken of; that is not the
question; it is a multiplication of labor. The
Chinese rotate their crops, but it is not corn
APOSTOLIC ACTION. 4T

this year and cotton the next, but rice and wheat,
and beans and vegetables, from the same land
within one twelvemonth. The more one does, the
more he has the ability to do; the strength in-
creases with the increasing endeavors. Just as
the muscles improve by training, so the missionary
athlete, year by year, has more facility in his
work. The heart expands, the feet grow nimble,
the hands more skilled, the voice better trained.
“Jn the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening
withhold not thy hand; for thou knowest not
whether shall prosper, either this or that, or
whether they both shall be alike good.” In the
parable of the pounds, to each servant was given
one pound. Said one, “Lord, thy pound hath
gained ten pounds,” or 1000 per cent! He was
appointed to a prefecture.

A special blessing is promised to those who,
like Caleb, wholly follow the Lord; and the young
warrior who could say, ‘Let us go up and occupy
the land, for we are abundantly able to overcome
it,’ could at fourscore, when coming to claim the
promise, exclaim, “‘As my strength was then, so is
my strength now, for war, both to go out and
come in.” To his eye a walled city was no more
than a mud fort. Look at the fifteen hundred
missionaries!—twelve to one of the disciples in the
48 PREACHING IN SINIM.

upper chamber at Jerusalem. “To them is ac-
corded the high honor of making known the
gospel to the millions.” The salvation army
comes not with drum, and fife, and gong, but
with the sweet notes of invitation, ‘““Come unto
me all ye that labor.” The true crusaders are
leading the consecrated host through the narrow
passes of Asia to the Jerusalem above.

“ But this I say, brethren, the time is short.”
We may have ten springs in which to sow our
seed, or twenty summers when Apollos may
‘pump water on the fields, or thirty autumns to
gather the golden grain, or, by reason of strength,
forty winters preparing for those who are to enter
into our labors, yet our lives are but as a shadow
which fleeth away. “Whatsoever thy hand
findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is
no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom
in the grave, whither thou goest.”

‘Work for the night is coming,

Work through the morning hours,

Work while the dew is sparkling,
Work ’mid springing flowers ;

Work when the day grows brighter,
Work in the glowing sun,

Work, for the night is coming,
When man’s work is done,”
CHAPTER IV.
THE STREET CHAPEL.

HE Saviour’s ascension command is not limited
to clime or place. In Japan theatres are of-
ten rented by the native Christians, and one thou-
sand Japanese will patiently sit, their pipe and
rice beside them, for five or six hours, and listen
to several speakers advocate the claims of Chris-
tianity. Also “ preaching-places” are established,
and become the nuclei of churches. In India,
public preaching is held in the bazars of the great
cities. In China, the principal place is the street
chapel. The hall for preaching may be described
as a part of the street cut off and enclosed, or a
combination of the church and the highroad of
travel. This is a biblical institution : “And Paul
dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and
received all that came unto him, preaching the
kingdom of God, and teaching those things which
concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence,
no man forbidding him.”
Its advantages are: 1, It secures punctuality on
the part of the minister. 2, It becomes known as

a central place for preaching, and by its perma-
5 49

~
50 PREACHING IN SINIM.

nency influences a people who are influenced by
perennial institutions. “A city that is set on a
hill cannot be hid.” 3, The hearers are impressed
with the sanctity of God’s house. 4, When seated,
they will listen twice as long as if standing on the
street. 5, Inquirers may quietly sit and ask ques-
tions. 6, There are opportunities for prayer: “Is
it not written, My house shall be called of all na-
tions the house of prayer?” 7, It is the hub
around which the wheel of itineration revolves.
Chapels should be situated on the most promi-
nent streets of the city. Rents may be high, and
lots sold by the front foot, but these items should
not enter into the calculation. If the missionary’s
salary is $1,000, why not give him $500 more as
rent for a chapel, if it will place his influence at
the maximum? It is the price of the horse and
the cart together, not taken separately. Again, if
the moneys spent in travelling, in the three years
at the language, and in furloughs, be considered,
the church is at great expense in maintaining the
missionary, and it should be used in the most ef-
fective way possible. Another thought is, that the
man sacrifices his life for the gospel’s sake, and he
ought to be so situated that the highest good might
be accomplished. Three thousand or five thou-
sand dollars spent on a lot would be a permanent
THE SrrEeetT CHAPEL. 51

investment for the mission till the land was evan-
gelized. As a practical matter, good houses may
be rented for $100 a year, or one purchased for
$1,000, in most of our cities. The street chapel is
for the heathen; churches where Christians as-
semble for worship on the Sabbath should be in
quiet localities, and ought to be built with Chinese
silver. To the millions we should ery, “Buy wine
and milk, without money and without price,” on
the first streets of the metropolis.

The building, constructed in the style of native
halls, should be large, and accessible to the sun-
light, so that it may be well ventilated when there
is no service. To secure large audiences, stoves
in winter, and pun/as in summer, may be success-
fully introduced. The doors should be large, or
the entire front removed, as with the native shops.
It disarms prejudice, and the Chinese like it. I
once preached in a large chapel on a very good
street to an audience of five. The door was small,
and there was a screen-door within, and the pass-
ers-by never noticed that there was preaching. A
few masons to knock out the end of the building
would have remedied the evil. The benches
should be four or five feet apart. A Chinaman
takes his seat on the end, and as, in winter, he has
on many layers of cotton-padded clothing, he ef-
52 PREACHING IN SINIM.

fectually bars the way; and so, if the forms are
crowded, there will be only one man toa pew. It
was remarked by a friend: “I cannot get the peo-
ple to sit in my chapel;” and the suggestion was
made, “Remove two out of three of your benches.”
The hint was taken, and no difficulty was after-
wards experienced on this point. It is of the ut-
most importance to require the people to be seated,
as it increases vastly their respect for the house of
God.

The invitation is to “all that pass by.” The
open doors, like unto the gates of the celestial city,
which “shall not be shut at all by day,” bespeak a
welcome. The voice of song attracts attention.
Twenty or thirty are present. Prayer is offered.
Men know they have not come to a theatre, but to
a solemn assembly. The speaker commences, and
all eyes are fixed upon him. He warms up in his
subject, and soon the vacant sittings are filled, and
fifty or a hundred are giving ear to the word. The
attention is unwearied. Here sits the countryman,
resting on his journey; the artisan, who wishes to
know something of this strange cult; the clerk,
who likes to hear the foreigner speak his own lan-
guage; the merchant from a distant province; the
passing traveller, with only five minutes to sit, and
the mandarin’s assistant, wishing to while away an
THE STREET CHAPEL. 53

hour; the coolie in his sandals, and the gentleman
robed in satin; the old woman who goes to the
temple to worship, and the scholar, full of pride
and prejudice, armed against the teachers and
teachings of Christianity. Some are attracted by
the foreigner’s appearance, many come to listen to
illustrations and allegories, and others, simply be-
cause they have nothing better to do. Some listen
as to a lecture on a literary theme, others seek for
something better than the religions they possess.
The Chinese, though an industrious people,
are not busy like their Western antipodes, so
they have time to watch a sparrow on the roof,
or to assemble, like the sons of Heth at the cave
of Machpelah, to witness an important transac-
tion, so they have leisure to come to the chapels
during the day. The congregation is composed
of a succession of those who come in and pass
out. At the sound of the mandarin’s gong, or
the music preceding a bride or a coffin, a large
number suddenly go to the door, but a hymn
fills the vacated seats, and the foreigner and na-
tive, each taking turns two or three times, have
addressed the two hundred or five hundred who
have entered the sacred courts. Some days the
audience is restless, as at the feasts, but on others,
they sit as if riveted to the spot, and give the most
54 PREACHING IN SINIM.

serious attention. At times the speaker is electri-
fied by the fixedness of the gaze of a whole con-
gregation. There is no sphere where tact is so
much needed as when the audience is fluctu-
ating. Sometimes, when the preacher reaches
“fifthly,” those who heard the first point have
retired and others have taken their places. The
mode of address is not so much one long ser-
mon as a series of short ones, resembling on
a narrow-guage railway a train of little coaches
coupled together.

The street chapel is the missionary’s fort, where
he throws hot shot and shell into the enemy’s
camp; the citadel, where he defends the truth;
the school, where he teaches the A, B, C of
heaven; the home, where he loves to dwell; the
altar, upon which he is laid a living sacrifice;
the church, in which he worships; the throne, on
which he rules the minds and hearts of the hea-
then; the happy land, where he enjoys com-
munion with his Maker; the hill of Zion, where
he sings sweet songs; the gate of heaven, where
the angels ascend and descend. There are spe-
cial promises to these earthly tabernacles filled
with the glory of Jehovah: “Thy way, O God,
is in the sanctuary.” Where is it that revivals
have occurred and souls have been converted?
THE STREET CHAPEL. 55

Is not God’s way of salvation in the sanctuary ?
The Bible constantly mentions how specially
Jehovah delights in the families of his people,
but the sweet Psalmist says: “The Lord loveth
the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of
Jacob.” “And of Zion it shall be said, This and
that man was born in her: and the highest him-
self shall establish her. The Lord shall count,
when he writeth up his people, that this man
was born there.” ‘“ Who hath despised the day
of small things?” “This is the word of the
Lord . . . Not by might, nor by power, but by
my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” ‘Who art
thou, O great mountain” of idolatry? Before
the street chapel “thou shalt become a plain,
and he shall bring forth the headstone there-
of with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace, unto
it.”

The audiences are made up of men from many
provinces. We always bid them, “When you go
home, ‘Let him that heareth say, Come.’” In all
the adjoining cities, as soon as the foreigner goes
on shore, he is immediately recognized, and called
by the name of the chapel. The very church, with
its open doors and voice of free grace, becomes a
mighty agency for bringing Christianity to the no-
tice of the people. At home a town may be moved
56° PREACHING IN SINIM.

by a revival service of three or four weeks, but
here these great cities need a protracted meeting
of three or four centuries.

, The minister should aim at immediate conver-
sions, and it is essential to have a room attached
to the chapel for prayer and conversation, to which
men are invited, and where they may receive more
particular instruction. It is the special duty of the
fishers of men to be keenly alive to seeking out
the more hopeful cases, and no efforts should be
spared to bring the party without delay to confess
his sins, believe in Christ, and receive baptism. A
chapel without prayer is a field with her hedges
all broken down. The Master preached to vast
multitudes, and afterwards withdrew to commu-
nion with his chosen few. He who spoke to the
five thousand in the wilderness afterwards
preached to the one at the well. All great evan-
gelists, after they have ministered to the great as-
sembly, hold special converse with those who re-
tire to the inquiry-room. The way to obtain the
“hopeful few” is by preaching to the many. To
get a little cream we must have a quantity of milk.
Preaching to the multitudes, and making special
efforts for the few, are supplementary. The ques-
tion, however, is not whether it is better to preach
to the many, or to speak individually to the few,
THE STREET CHAPEL. 57

but that of systematic, persistent efforts to make
_known the gospel.

The inquiry is sometimes made, “How often
shall we preach?” Do we ask the question, “How
often shall we eat?” In one place the morning is
the time to reach the countrymen, and sow the
seed in drills; in another, the afternoon affords
the finest opportunity for broadcasting the grain;
while at night, when the neighbors gather together
and listen so solemnly, the missionary realizes,
“He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing pre-
cious seed, shall doubtless come again with re-
joicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” It is.
the speaker who uses his voice one day a week,
not seven, who suffers with clergyman’s sore
throat.

Some may prefer an office, or a large reception-
room, upon a prominent street, with glass doors
hung on patent hinges, which open with a Pusu,
where the fire burns brightly in the grate, and the
missionary can sit a long time teaching the law of
God to those who come in. The effectiveness of
work depends more upon the number of hours a
day given to religious teaching than upon the size
of the chapel. In connection with the chapel
there should also be a reading-room and book-stall
well supplied with Christian and scientific litera-.
58 PREACHING IN SINIM.

ture. No pains should be spared in making the
place attractive.

To reach the masses the most effective way is
by the street chapel. During the course of twenty
years, one million men may come into a chapel
daily opened, and hear something of the plan of
salvation. It is the Master’s scheme for leavening
a great lump: “So is the kingdom of God, as if a
man should cast seed into the ground; and should
sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should
spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the
earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade,
then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.
But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately
he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is
come.” Asa pious naval officer looked from the
top of the pagoda at the millions within view, and
his attention was called to the feeble band trying
to evangelize the plain, he said: “It must be dis-
couraging, it must be discouraging.” The answer
was made: “Not at all; the government does not
expect your flagship to conquer the world; you
are simply to go where you are ordered, and do
your duty.”

To reach the same men over and over again
there is no method like the street chapel. As it is
a public resort for all classes and conditions of
THE STREET CHAPEL. 59

men, if a man’s heart is touched he is likely to
come whenever he has opportunity. Hundreds of
faces are as familiar as the regular attendants at a
home church. All throughout the country round
about, men will say, “I have heard preaching many
tens of times.”

As a civilizing agency the street chapel is
prominent. The root of opposition to Western
institutions is prejudice. The daily association
of a missionary with hundreds gradually dis-
lodges these prepossessions and makes a breach
into the wall of Chinese obstructiveness. Just as
King James’s version has exercised a most con-
servative effect on English literature, or as the
American pulpit is a most powerful element in
the education of the masses, so the incidental
effect of the street chapel is elevating, and that
in a very marked degree.

The chapel is an enlightening agency. Its
great effect is seen in the diffusion of the truth.
“For God, who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God.” After a chapel has been opened for a
number of years in a centre, if we go one hun-
dred miles away we will mark the difference in
the amount of general knowledge about Chris-
tianity the people possess. The enliyhtenment
60 PREACHING IN SINIM.

of the multitude is a great object in missionary
labor.

It is a converting agency. When the oldest
chapel now in this city was first opened, three
men immediately professed the faith. Since then,
one and another in the city and in the country
have been brought in. A man in Peking, uniting
with a church of another denomination, said that
he first heard the gospel in a Soochow chapel.
The preacher who first arrests the attention of a
carnal pagan to spiritual things is, in a figure,
his spiritual father. One who, for thirty years,
has done chapel preaching in the central me-
tropolis of the Flowery Kingdom writes: “There
is scarcely a communion Sunday, from one end
of the year to the other, on which some are not
admitted into the church by baptism. Last year
more than a hundred adults were admitted into
our fellowship.”

We come, as John the Baptist, to prepare the
way for the descent of the Holy Ghost,—the
seed must first be sown, then cometh the rain.
There are three departments of knowledge which
precede regeneration—the knowledge of God, the
knowledge of sin, and the knowledge of Christ’s
death. While reasoning on these topics, the
minister is kept in lively expectation and ear-
nestly looking for the glorious appearing of the
Tur STREET CHAPEL. 61

Lord at his second coming, and with brightest
hopes for the judgment of the great King, when
all the streams of influence will be traced from
their source to where they empty into the great
ocean of eternity. The street chapel will then
shine with the brightness of the firmament. Re-
sults are not to be estimated by the annual number
of converts, for we do not labor by the day,
or the month, or the year. We are to preach
the gospel of the kingdom in all the world for a
witness unto all nations. What proportion of the
ten thousand or fifty thousand patients treated in
a hospital in one year embrace Christianity?
The best definition for a chapel is a hospital
for sin-sick souls. Many an humble preacher
when asked, “Where are your converts?” can
reply, “These are they which... have washed
their robes, and made them white in the blood
of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the
throne of God.” Of some laborious missionaries
it may be said, “These all died in faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen
them afar off, and were persuaded of them and
embraced them.” How full of tenderness are
the simple words of the writer to the Hebrews,
“For God is not unrighteous to forget your

work and labor of love.”
6
CHAPTER V.

ITINERATION AND WOMAN’S WORK.

HOUGH the prophets of the Old Testament

economy travelled much of their time as
Samuel, who “went from year to year in circuit”
to hold court; or as Elijah and Elisha, who taught
the people in the city and in the forest, and
spake, “Thus saith the Lord” to kings and
priests; or as Isaiah, who “walked naked and
barefoot” three years throughout the coasts of
Israel, yet the true itinerancy began with our
Lord in Judea, and was carried on throughout
the known world by the twelve apostles of the
Lamb. “These twelve Jesus sent forth, and
commanded them, saying, Go, . . . And as ye
go, preach.” “After these things the Lord ap-
pointed other seventy also, and sent them two
and two before his face into every city and
place whither he himself would come.” His in-
structions were, to go before his face, and to
go into every city and place whither he himself
would come. And when the disciples returned
they came unto “Jesus and told him all things,
both what they had done and what they had

c2
ITINERATION AND WoMAN’S Work. 68

taught.” This is an example that each tour
must be ended by a report to the Master.

In China, missionary circuits are of three kinds.
The first, the city and its suburbs; the second, the
county or the prefecture; the third, a wide extent
of country with its mighty cities and flourishing
towns. The man of God is not to confine his la-
bors to the chapel; he must also be a pedestrian
preacher, and gain the advantage of both the out-
door and indoor methods. Along the streets he
may reach numbers, and have groups of from ten
to thirty to listen for fifteen or twenty minutes.
Thus short sermons preached in a forenoon in sev-
eral different localities will be heard by many per-
sons; or by tract-distribution from house to house,
speaking a word to each one, the living preacher
may bear witness for Christ. It is important for
the missionary to go once a day to some busy mart,
and there preach regularly. In the courts of the
temples, the open spaces of the city, at the gates,
and upon the highways—wherever men are to be
found—the servants of the King are to compel
them to come in unto the wedding supper. The
Spirit of the Lord may touch a heart, and lead
some one to the chapel to receive instruction.

The second circuit is that of the county or the
prefecture, a field of labor within definite bounds,
‘64 PREACHING IN SINIM.

is the region of country which the central chapel
directly influences. By itinerating in this section,
the city and country work mutually act and react
‘on each other. The peasant coming to town re-
-cognizes the missionary as an acquaintance, and
feels as if he meets a friend in a strange city. It
is important “to ride this circuit” several times a
year, regularly, patiently, painstakingly, and so
continue in well-doing till the seed springs up and
bears fruit. When groups of native churches are
established, these demand much of the itinerant’s
attention and care, that they may become both
self-sustaining and self-supporting. The minister
grows weary in town, and the hills and dales, so
densely populated, furnish recreating labor. The
Master spent much of his time in the villages.
The tea-shop, with fifty or a hundred men sipping
the national beverage, may be converted into a
chapel by the purchase of a cup of tea, and all lis-
ten for a few minutes. In the open spaces of the
towns, a congregation—from twenty to five hun-
‘dred—will assemble, and listen to something they
have not heard before. In the hamlets, a bench
is brought out, a cup of tea offered, a number sit
around, the preacher is asked to talk, and the
children ordered to be silent. There is nothing
more striking than the courtesy of the farmers and
ITINERATIONS AND Woman’s Work. 65

the kindness they show to a foreigner. Passing
through the fields, and talking to the country peo-
ple, a number will propose to take a smoke, and,
seated on the green turf, will converse for a half-
hour on gospel themes. One of the most effective
modes of work is by regular appointments for
preaching at night, when the neighbors, the labors
of the day finished, will assemble, and remain till
the service is ended. The opportunities in the
country for a minister to preach to the women are
unbounded; in fact, the large majority of the lis-
teners belong to the gentler sex. .

While there remains such a vast amount of un-
occupied territory, missionaries must occasionally
take long evangelistic tours, covering a vast extent
of country. One of the most effective methods,
when only one or two days can be given to a place,
is colportage. Where several hundred books,
tracts, and portions of the Bible can be sold in
one day, it seems wise to leave the written word in
the place. It is only those who have travelled
through the land who can appreciate the excite-
ment which the presence of a foreigner creates.
When the enthusiasm is so keenly aroused, a fine
opportunity is afforded to make known the primary
truths of Christianity. In the South, the mode of
travel is by boats, which become a temporary resi-
66 PREACHING IN SINIM.

dence. In the North, where they travel in carts,
on wheelbarrows, or on donkeys, they stop in the
inns, and these at times become Bethels. The soft
spring days and the beautiful autumns invite the
gospel farmer to go out into the country, and
through this instrumentality many thousands have
been brought into the kingdom. The Chinese
peasant prepares a plat, pumping on water, and
working up to the knees in mud, till not a lump
remains, and it is of the consistency of thin syrup;
then he walks along the bank and broadcasts the
grain, which springs up a beautiful carpet of
green, and these sprouts are transplanted into the
fields. ‘Cast thy bread upon the waters; for thou
shalt find it after many days.”

In the short discourse at Jacob’s well, which
Jesus delivered to his disciples, he bids them not
to tarry: “Say not ye, There are yet four months,
and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto
you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for
they are white already to harvest.” Our Master
would not say to those preaching in China, “I
sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no la-
bor; other men labored, and ye are entered into
their labors” ; for no prophets have gone before us
exhorting the people to worship Jehovah. The
Saviour tells us that one laborer follows another.
ITINERATIONS AND WoMAN’S Work. 67

He says: “And herein is that saying true, One
soweth, and another reapeth.” One of the keenest
joys known to the minister is the gathering in of
converts, but there is as much joy in sowing as in
reaping, “that both he that soweth and he that
reapeth may rejoice together.”

Woman’s Work ror WoMEN.

The hearts of godly women have been turned
to their benighted sisters in pagan lands, and
help has been sent. The object is not to bring
future generations to the knowledge of the truth,
but to labor for the salvation of those who now
live and move,—our contemporaries. It is a
beautiful inscription upon the flag the ladies fly
at the masthead, ““Woman’s Work for Women”;
not ‘“ Woman’s Work for Girls,” but what is tech-
nically called “The Zenana Work,” or talking to
adult females about Christ and his redemption.
When we consider the influence of a heathen
mother and the efforts she puts forth to teach
her children idolatry, we realize the transcendent
importance of this department of labor. When
mothers are brought to Christ, then we may
hope for the conversion of the children and
the establishment of a church. The work in
the cities in China is conducted by visiting
68 PREACHING IN SINIM.

from house to house, receiving visitors in the
“Home,” forming voluntary classes for religious
instruction, and by the Sabbath afternoon meet-
ings for women. As the lady passes along the
more retired streets, how many invitations to
come in, and how many esteem it a privilege to
have a foreign visitor! Some have been more
successful in connecting the medical work with
the spiritual, and ministering to the sick in their
houses, and whenever a dose of medicine was
given at the foreigner’s residence, to follow it up
by a visit at the natives home. It is wonderful
what an influence in a large field a lady in
active work may thus gain in a few years. Her
name a household word, her presence greeted
with a smile, her counsels listened to with plea-
sure, her inquiries after the sick, the aged and
the young, answered with respect, her labors
become the ideal of pastoral work, and she is
received by the people as a ministering angel.
The difficulties of laboring at the ports are
greater than in the interior, so it is quite de-
sirable for the ladies to be located in the inland
towns and villages, where they have free access
to the multitudes. In all central China, and in
many other sections of the empire, a lady may
itinerate with perfect freedom, travel from village
ITINERATIONS AND WomAN’s WORK. 69

to village, and visit from hamlet to hamlet. Work-
ing in a definite field is, perhaps, more effective.
How direct the work when the gospel is pre-
sented to them one by one, or a group eagerly
listening to the first message; when the heavy
mists of superstition are rolled away, and the
consolations of religion are offered to them in
their sorrow! The appeals are so pointed, the
opportunities to divert the conversation into spir-
itual channels so multiform, the receptions in the
parlor so homelike, the atmosphere of the wo-
man’s meeting so genial and sympathetic, such a
nearness and mutual attraction, that these become
precious seasons when the dews of gospel grace
are gently distilled. Instead of a few hundred,
we long for a host of holy women, who will seek
the millions wandering upon the mountains of
idolatry, and, like good shepherdesses, bring
them to the fold of Christ. The Chinese have a
proverb, “Good men and believing women,”
which shows that here, as throughout the world,
woman’s heart is more susceptible of religious
impressions than man’s; and, as this is a most
delightful form of evangelistic labor, the room
where the women meet often becomes like unto
the Mount of Transfiguration. The one who
tells the “old, old story,” is surprised to find
70 PREACHING IN SINIM.

“that the springs which awaken religious thought
are so easily touched; that an unseen hand has
gone before, and has already swept over those
chords and set them vibrating, which, in the re-
newed heart, produce immortal harmonies, like
those in the hearts of our first parents in Eden.”
The Psalmist says, “The Lord giveth the word:
the women that publish the tidings are a great
host.” (Zevised Version.) May there come to
this land “a great host” of godly women, who
will publish to those of their own sex “the
tidings,” teaching the adult women of China the
word of the Lord!
CHAPTER VI.
THE SprrirvuaL Kinapom.

T is common to speak of the various means used

for Christianizing the heathen as so many
branches of missionary labor, and to place them
side by side as of equal importance. There is
scarcely a phrase more likely to mislead than the
term ‘“‘missionary work,” as if it consisted of sev-
eral departments of evangelistic labor. The press,
the school, the hospital, and the chapel are con-
sidered the four pillars of a great edifice which the
people of God are erecting on a heathen shore.
This view is incorrect. Preaching is Tux TEMPLE,
and tracts, medicine, and education are as the
houses for the priests, the chambers built round
about, and the outer courts of the sacred place.
Preaching is the sum and substance of missionary
work. Other forms of labor are admissible, but
they are simply auxiliaries. They are secondary,
and not primary; assistants, and not the principal ;
supplementary, and not the chief work. The aux-
iliaries are worthy of all honor, if, first, in com-
parison with preaching, the sun of missions, they

are small planets; and second, that they revolve
71
72 PREACHING IN SINIM.

around the sun, and do not, like comets, fly off at
a tangent. What if Paul had had a mission press
to issue his letters by the million? Would he not
have used this mighty engine of modern civiliza-
tion? There is no land where labor and paper is
as cheap, so that the printed page is an effective
method of evangelization. Tracts are issued by
hundreds of thousands, and point out the way of
life to all who read. And is not the command of
our Lord, ‘‘Heal the sick”? Were not those three
happy years for Judea when “Jesus went about
all the cities and villages, . . . . healing every
sickness and every disease among the people”?
Does not the medical work represent Christianity
in its most attractive features to pagan nations?
And is there not a direct connection between heal-
ing the poor, sick body and the sin-sick soul? As
a matter of fact, the hospital is in a measure a
combination of the church and the street chapel.
There is daily preaching at the dispensary, and
regular services in the wards. Medical men like
the late Kenneth Mackenzie make a profound
spiritual impression upon the tens of thousands
whose diseases they heal.

The press, the hospital, and the school are the
three fair handmaidens attending the ministry, but
the greatest of these is the school. The resurrect-
THE SprritvuaL Kinepom. 73

ed Jesus, in his brief, but touching, discourse at
the “seaside” breakfast-table, said that the proof
of love was, “Feed my lambs.” Surely the little
multitude, which at evening time throng every
street, are not to be left alone, with no effort to do
them good. Surrounded as they are by heathen
influences, the Sunday-school is not enough to
stem the current of idolatry and superstition, but
they must be gathered into “seven-days Sab-
bath-schools,” which is the best definition of the
Bible-taught day-schools. Passing upwards, the
college, or school of high grade, is a necessity; for
the apostle, in speaking of the ministry, enjoined:
“The same commit thou to faithful men who shall
be able to teach others also.” A command em-
braces all that is necessary for its execution. It is
a reasonable hope, that from a number of thor-
oughly trained men, God shall call to the ministry
some who are “apt to teach.” The curriculum of
the native schools furnishes not one element of
practical knowledge, and, in addition, they are
idolatrous. The churches must look, in a large
measure, to the mission schools for their pastors.
It is most desirable that the societies should send.
out a corps of professional teachers, laymen, who
are called to teach, but not to preach, and who

can devote themselves wholly to the one work.
7
G4 PREACHING IN SINIM.

As to the diaconate, the apostles could say: “It is
not reason that we should leave the word of God
to serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out
from among you . . . men . . whom we may
appoint over this business.” And why? “We
will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the
ministry of the word,” the two greatest things
known in the church. Yet, from the ministerial
ranks in every nation rise distinguished educators,
who exercise a mighty influence upon morality
and religion It is also very difficult to obtain
teachers. Many men can preach, but only a few
combine the literary and executive ability neces-
sary to conduct a school. In the mission field,
these may be considered the most useful of men,
for they gather into their institutions of learning
the children of the converts of many missionaries,
train the pastors and teachers for the rising
churches, and thus have much direct fruit from
their labors. But, while this is true, education
must occupy a subordinate position in the world’s
evangelization; it must only be an incidental part
of the scheme. There must be a “proportion of
faith.” If the main body of evangelists—by far
the vast majority—give their time wholly to “‘hold-
ing forth the word of life,” then we may confi-
Tar SPIRITUAL KINGDOM. 15

dently expect that the spiritual kingdom of the
Redeemer will be established.

Except in a few instances, it cannot be said
that undue attention is paid to education in this
land at the present time. China sleeps, and it is
almost as hard to get the scholars to learn
geography as to study the Bible, but when she
awakes and the cry comes on every side, “Teach
me!” “Teach me!” there is danger that the
church will turn aside from her main calling. It
is the case in Japan, where only one-third of the
ministerial force is engaged in preaching. They
have listened to the siren voice of the native
press calling them from the pulpit to the profes-
sional chair. In India, we learn that some whole
missions give all their energy to reaching the
brain instead of the heart. There are breakers
ahead, and the China church should awake to
the danger!

The duty of the disciple is simply to obey the
parting instructions of his departing Lord, “Go,
go; go ye, go ye out, out into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature.” The Duke
of Wellington said, “Let the church obey her
marching orders.” Paul said to Agrippa, “I
was not disobedient, O king, unto the heavenly
vision.” A month before the surrender at Appo-
76 PREACHING IN SINIM.

mattox, in the third watch of the night, General
Lee summoned Lieutenant-General Gordon to
his headquarters, and, leaning upon the mantle,
told him sadly that his army was 46,000 against
160,000; that his supples were cut off, and sure
defeat awaited them. ‘Go, then,” said his Lieu-
tenant, “to Richmond, and urge Congress to
make peace on the best terms it can get.”
General Lee raised himself erect and _ said,
“General Gordon, I am a soldier.” May not
the preacher sometimes feel that legislative func-
tions pertain to his office, and forget that he is
simply a soldier? Senator Evarts, the son of
the great Missionary Secretary, is credited with
saying, “ Brethren of the ministry, stick to your
calling; preach the word; make full proof of
your ministry.” The distinction must be clearly
made between a philanthropist and a minister.
The one aims to do good, the other, to preach
the gospel; the one, to instruct; the other, to
regenerate; the one, what is useful; the other,
what is essential to salvation. Every active
Christian may lead an intensely useful life in
China and do a great deal of good, but the
church’s strength must not be frittered away in
its benevolent departments, whether relating to
the mind or the body. In this land missionary
Tur SprriruaL Kinepom. 7

work may be defined, “The time spent in im-
parting religious truth to the Chinese.”

The Saviour says, “My kingdom is not of this
world.” It is a spiritual kingdom, where, under
the guidance of the Holy Spirit, men worship
Jehovah, who is a Spirit, in spirit and in truth.
The term “spiritual kingdom” is commonly used
in juxtaposition to “political kingdom,” but is
equally the opposite of an educational kingdom,
though the school is an essential accompaniment
of the church. Tf education is apparently the
chief aim, as the Chinese have no true concep-
tion of the body of Christ, may they not mistake
the school with its sciences for the church where
the Bible is taught? As Rev. Griffeth John said,
May 10, 1877, “We are here not to develop the
resources of the country, not for the advance-
ment of commerce, not for the mere promotion
of civilization, but to do battle with the powers
of darkness, to save men from sin and conquer
China for Christ. Commerce and science are
good in their place. We do not underrate their
importance. They might develop in China a new
and higher form of civilization,—a civilization
that would bring with it abundant wealth, rich
stores of knowledge, and many contrivances to
lighten the burden of existence, and make life
78 PREACHING IN SINIM.

more happy than it is, but they cannot meet a
single spiritual want, still a single spiritual cray-
ing, or infuse the life of God into a single soul.
The gospel alone is the power of God unto salva-
tion; and salvation from the guilt and dominion
of sin—from moral and spiritual misery—is the
great need of the Chinese. Believing this, we
devote ourselves to the supreme work of making
known to them the truth as it is in Jesus, as far
as we can, and of commending it to their hearts
and consciences in every possible way.”

We come as spiritual men, taught by the Holy
Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit, sent by the Holy
Spirit, to minister in holy things. It is not enough
that we be spiritually minded, we must labor in a
spiritual calling; not enough that our affections be
set on things above, our voices must speak spirit-
ual truths. In the holy war, spiritual weapons are
to be used. Paul says, “For the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal, but mighty, through God,
to the pulling down of strongholds.” Geography,
arithmetic, astronomy, history, chemistry, are not
spiritual weapons, and, though they are good in
their proper sphere, they are not mighty to demol-
ish Satan’s kingdom. Our direct work is not to
reform the Chinese system of education, for in it
there is much that is excellent, but to overthrow
Tae SprriruaL Kinepom. 79

their religious systems, which are abominations.
It is important to lead the mind into the broad
fields of knowledge, but much more important to
guide souls into the happier fields of Eden. In
the touching parody, A Missionary Teacher's La-
ment, occurs this couplet (italics ours):

‘Hight clever native boys, being taught of heaven,
' By study of geography are soon reduced to seven.”

The missionary preacher often laments his apparent:
want of success, but in teaching about heaven he
uses The Revelation as his text-book.

Our Lord says: “For which of you, intending
to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and count-
eth the cost?” The Head of the church has com-
manded his disciples to preach the gospel to this.
nation; and, as he is omnipotent and omniscient,
we have faith that, if the church will perform her
duty, the work will be accomplished by divine
power. If, however, we attempt the gigantic task
of educating four hundred millions, are we assured
that some may not “begin to mock, and say, This
man began to build, and was not able to finish”?
Is it right for the church to attempt the double
Herculean task of christianizing and educating?
Let the school be used only as a means for con-
serving the interests of the kingdom. The heralds.
80 PREACHING IN SINIM.

upon the walls of Zion must not mistake material
progress for the coming of the kingdom of right-
eousness, neither are they to look for a harvest,
save as the seed is the word of God. The apostle
says: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh
reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us
not be weary in well-doing; for in due season we
shall reap, if we faint not.” The law of harvests
is universal. We cannot expect a religious crop
from scientific planting. The first preacher to the
Gentiles summed up his work of husbandry in
Corinth: “We have sown unto you spiritual
things.” We rejoice in the introduction of rail-
ways, telegraphs, steamships, scientific apparatus,
and all of which a European civilization boasts;
and if the gospel be vigorously preached, these
may prove aids to the introduction of Christianity ;
but, on the contrary, should the people accept
civilization and reject Christianity, it may be said:
“Tf the light that is in thee be darkness, how great
is that darkness!”

There is no lack of examples of the course to be
pursued. The designation of the prophets was
“men of God.” Their summons was, “Hear ye
Tue SprritvaL KiInapom. 81

the word of the Lord.” And is the glory of the
ministry under this dispensation less than that of
the old? The apostles preached Jesus and the
resurrection. In his address to the presbytery at
Ephesus, Paul said: ‘So that I might finish my
course with joy, and the ministry which I have re-
ceived of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of
the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that
ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the
kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.
Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I
am pure from the blood of all men. For I have
not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of
God.” We are ordered to “teach all nations,” but
Christ limited the text-books to sixty-six—“ teach-
ing them to observe all things whatsoever I com-
mand you.” We are not to accept Beecher’s defi-
nition of preaching “Christ and him crucified” as
including “geography, history, science, or what-
ever would elevate and benefit mankind.” It is
only the Scriptures that are inspired.

It is sometimes said that the great object of
the missionary is to train men for the ministry.
This is putting a part for the whole. A native
ministry is the ripe fruit of the rising church,
and not the original seed. Suppose all the doc-
tors should spend their whole time in training
82 PREACHING IN SINIM.

native physicians; where, then, would be the
sick, the lame, and the blind? And ghall the
physicians of souls say their mission is of less
importance than that of the medical profession?

In the evangelization of benighted nations it.
is important that the societies, boards, and com-
mittees be composed of men who not only have
a zeal for God’s glory, but who also have expe-
rienced the joys of a call to preach. As min-
isters’ wives have always been intimately con-
nected with the preaching of the cross, perhaps
they are best fitted for serving on ladies’ boards
and sending out holy women, who will enter “the
great door” which is opened to them of visiting
from house to house and bringing mothers to
Jesus. First win the mothers, and the sons will,
like Timothy, be “wise unto salvation.” The ob-
ject of Woman’s Work for Women is not female
education, but their salvation.

The work among the heathen demands men
who, like Paul, can say, “Yea, woe is me if I
preach not the gospel.” The two mottoes are,
“Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we
persuade men”; and, “The love of Christ con-
straineth us.” Jeremiah gives his experience:
“Then I said, I will not make mention of him,
nor speak any more in his name. But his word
THE Spreituan Kinepom. 83

was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in
my bones, and I was weary with forbearing and
I could not stay;” therefore, he did not continue
a silenced preacher. Missionary work also de-
mands men of strong faith, not only faith in God,
but faith in preaching as the power of God unto
salvation. He must put aside “the evzl heart of
unbelief” and believe that the spoken word will
not “return void.” This preaching on naked
faith, with few converts, tries the husbandman
who has need of long patience. It is not plea-
sant to walk along the streets of an idolatrous
city, amidst the darkness of superstition, and
“perpetually encounter the pride, indifference,
hypocrisy, absurdities, stolid ignorance, and in-
veterate prejudice” with which we meet, and so
we need foreheads “as an adamant harder than
flint.”

The apostle tells us of the certainties of the
gospel, “We having the same spirit of faith, ac-
cording as it is written, I believed, and there-
fore have I spoken; we also believe, and there-
fore speak.” If preaching is not the way by
which the world is to be converted, then we
must conclude that the risen Saviour made a
mistake. Is the Lord’s hand shortened that it
cannot save by preaching, and must it be length-
84 PREACHING IN SINIM.

ened by ways and means of man’s devising?
Says Christ, “If a man walk in the day,” 2. e.,
in the path of duty, “he stumbleth not.” Look
at the preaching history of Methodism and its
giant growth, and shall not the methods so suc-
cessful in the Occident work well in the Orient?

We are to rejoice in every effort for the ad-
vancement of the church of the living God. Let
the press issue her books and tracts by the mil-
lion, let the schools educate their thousands, and
the hospitals their ten thousands, but, above all,
let the pulpit maintain its prestige. Two per
cent. of the missionary body is quite enough for
all agencies. The number of physicians who ex-
ercise their divine gift of healing will not likely
exceed ten per cent., and if one in ten of the
whole force is engaged in teaching it is sufficient
to conserve the interests of Zion and to promote
those of science. What would the evangelist do
without Bibles and tracts for colportage, which
is the help-meet of oral preaching? Without
the physician to care for the sick, the missionary
ranks would be rapidly reduced, and_ besides,
how blessed to see the balm of Gilead ad-
ministered to the sick, to behold the lame man
leaping as an hart, and sight restored to the
blind! The ministry owe to laborious educators
THE SprrirvaL Kinepom. 85

a debt of gratitude for the efficient aid they ren-
der in preparing native preachers and teachers
for their assistants. Deducting those engaged in
the academy and the hospital, there will be
three-fourths of the missionaries left for spiritual
work. We are sure this is not an extreme view.
Fidelity to our Lord demands that we claim that
the large majority of those who are sent shall
minister at the altar, and be ever ready to
preach the gospel. When men, like the late
Norman McLeod, returning from a tour of mis-
sionary inspection in India, advocate the edu-
cational policy, or, like the sainted Alexander
Duff, who said, ‘‘Let me reach the brain,’ we
take issue and cry, Time to teach, when Christ
says preach! time to teach, when the Macedo-
nian cry is heard! time to teach, when the pesti-
lence is raging! time to teach, wher men are
perishing for the bread of life! time to teach,
when death is near! time to teach, when eternity
is at hand! We are to beware of taking the
broad view of missionary work, for it is like
walking in the broad road; the narrow way of
Christ’s commands is the safest. There is need
of caution from all, lest the river, clear as crys-
tal, which flows from underneath the throne, so

graphically described as deepening and widen-
8
86 PREACHING IN SINIM.

ing and bringing life and healing to the nations,
be like the Yellow River, “China’s sorrow,”
which, diverted from its natural course, finds its
way to the sea by a channel too narrow, and
proves so disastrious to Shantoong and Honan.
When there was no eye to pity and no arm to
save, then stepped forth the Son of God and
cried, “TI delight to do thy will, O my God; yea,
thy law is within my heart. I have preached
righteousness in the great. congregation; lo, I
have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou
knowest.”
CHAPTER VII.

THE AMBASSADOR To SINIM.

N a land of schools and scholars, it is hard to

imagine the prestige of a western teacher in
the Middle Kingdom. With the advantage of be-
ing accepted as a scholar, how ought the minister
of the New Testament to endeavor to show forth
the higher life of a disciple of Christ! The ideal
teacher of the Chinese is a holy man: “He is en-
tirely sincere, and perfect in love. He is magnani-
mous, generous, benign, and full of forbearance.
He is pure in heart, free from selfishness, and
never swerves from the path of duty in his con-
duct. He is deep and active, like a fountain,
sending forth his virtues in due season. He is
seen, and men revere him; he speaks, and men
believe him; he acts, and men are gladdened by
him. He possesses all heavenly virtues. He is
one with heaven.” Since the Bible unites religion
and morality, how much is required of the mis-
sionary in manifesting Jehoveh’s name unto those
to whom he is sent! They know not God, but
they study him as revealed by his servants. They

have not the Bible, but they read the lives and
87
88 PREACHING IN SINIM.

characters of those who profess to be guided by
its truths. If one asks, ‘“Who is sufficient for
these things?” it may be answered: “Like as a
father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth
them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame;
he remembereth that we are dust.”

It is of prime importance that the evangelist be
a holy man. Are not all the disciples called
saints? “Ye are witnesses, and God also, how
holily and justly and unblamably we behaved
ourselves among you,” said Paul, in his letter to
Thessalonica. The minister ‘must be blameless,”
“That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons
of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked
and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as
fights in the world.” The qualifications for the
teaching elder, given in the pastoral epistles, refer
mostly to the moral character, and very briefly to
intellectual endowments. It is not required that
the man of God profess holiness, but it is demand-
ed that he cultivate personal piety.

The minister to the Chinese must be a prayerful
man. There will be moments on the mount when,
like Moses, he holds communion with God. ‘If I
have grace in thy sight, show me now thy way.”
“And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and
I will give thee rest.” “TI beseech thee, show me
THE AMBASSADOR TO SINIM. 89:

thy glory.” “And he said, I will make all my
goodness pass before thee.” Did not the Great
Missionary, after busy days of preaching and
healing, spend whole nights in communion with
his Father, in order to obtain spiritual strength for
the work of the morrow? The apostle to the Gen-
tiles magnified his office in that he prayed for his
converts from heathenism. “Without ceasing I
make mention of you in my prayers.” I “do not
cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye be
filled with knowledge of his will in all wisdom and
spiritual understanding, that ye might walk worthy
of the Lord unto all pleasing, being faithful in
every good work, and increasing in the knowledge
of God; strengthened with all might, according to
his glorious power, unto all patience and long-
suffering with joyfulness.” I “cease not to give
thanks for you, making mention of you in my
prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
the eyes of your understanding being enlightened ;
that ye may know what is the hope of his calling,
and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to us-ward who believe, according to
the working of his mighty power.” “For this
‘90 PREACHING IN SINIM.

cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in
heaven and earth is named, that he would grant
you, according to the riches of his glory, to be
strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner
man: that Christ may dwell in your hearts by
faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be able to comprehend, with all saints, what
is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height:
and to know the love of Christ, which passeth
knowledge; that ye may be filled with all the ful-
ness of God.”

Faith is also a prime requisite in him that lays
the foundations of the future church. He must
have faith in God, faith in the Bible as the word
of God, faith in preaching as the appointed in-
strument for the conversion of men, faith in the
men who are converted, faith in the millennium
promises, faith in Christ as the King and Head of
the church. He walks by faith, and lives by faith.
His motto is: “The life which I now live in the
flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.”

The missionary’s vital energy comes from the
Holy Spirit. Paul forcibly puts it: “Be not drunk
with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the
Spirit,” wherein there can be no excess. The
“beloved physician” quotes his Master when he de-
Tur AMBASSADOR TO SINIM. 91

clares: “But ve shall receive power, after that the
Holy Ghost is come upon you,” and ye shall “be

”

endued with power from on high.” Not power in
this age to work miracles, or to convert men, but a
power to be “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day,” a
power to speak earnestly, a power to arrest the
attention of the audience, a power to be like a hot
stove, sending out heat to every quarter; a power
to convince men that we speak the experience of
our own hearts. The preacher, in all ages of the
church, has had power over vast assemblies, for
there is a magnetism in intellectual and spiritual
gifts. Stephen is described as a man “full of faith
and power.” As aman of power, the Bible places
before all laborers who contend against idolatry,
the giant character of Elijah. Of the forerunner of
the Messiah the prophetic description was given:
“And he shali go before him in the spirit and
power of Elias.” Though the extraordinary gifts
possessed by the early church may not be ours,
yet the ordinary gifts are bestowed upon the dis-
ciples abundantly at this time.

The herald of the cross must be entirely conse-
crated to the work. The apostle gives us a chap-
ter on consecration: ‘But what things were gain
to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubt-
less, and I count all things but loss for the excel-
92, PREACHING IN SINIM.

lency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord;
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,
and do count them but dung, that I may win
Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own
righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith; that I may know him,
and the power of his resurrection, and the fellow-
ship of his sufferings, being made conformable
unto his death; if by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though
I had already attained, either were already per-
fect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend
that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehend-
ed; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things
which are behind, and reaching forth unto those
things which are before, I press toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus.”

He must also be “all things to all men.” The
apostle stated his object in this ready adaptability
to the varied conditions of the peoples to whom
he ministered: “I am made all things to all men,
that I might by all means save some.” We do not
suppose that he specially referred to man milz-
nery, or Man commissary, or man ceremony, but to
Tur AMBASSADOR TO SINIM. 93

the higher and more important affairs of the mind
and heart. He was a true minister, and, as “the
Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister,” so Paul said, ‘I made myself servant unto
all, that I might gain the more.” With the Jews,
he drew his arguments from the Old Testament
Scriptures; preaching to the Gentiles, he appealed
to conscience. For fear of offending the weak
brethren, he ate not the food which had been of-
fered to idols or ancestors. If salary caused his
parishioners to say that he “‘ate the church’s rice,”
he labored at his old trade, though he taught that
the Lord ordained that the preacher “should live
of the gospel.” In his intercourse with men he
sought for that which is expedient, appropriate,
and seasonable. Those who follow the apostle in
his missionary journeys should study the deep
spiritual meaning of his words when he says,
“This I do for the gospel’s sake.”

The missionary must lead a life of self-denial.
It is not enough that “he go out, not knowing
whither he goeth,” but that he ever keep his body
in subjection. Among a people where existence is
reduced to the minimum, his style of living should
be as simple as is conducive to health and com-
fort, for af the lowest it seems extravagant to the
Chinese. On the other hand, he should avoid as-
94 PREACHING IN SINIM.

ceticism in all its forms. The Master associated
with all classes, and though he had not where to
lay his head, yet he joyfully accepted the invita-
tions to the feasts prepared in his honor. There
is a happy medium, which is left to the good sense
of each laborer.

Joy is one of the highest requisites in the
catagory of missionary graces. Amidst difficul-
ties, foes without and dissensions within, Nehe-
miah said to the returned captives at Jerusalem,
“The joy of the Lord is your strength.” The
minister is to “rejoice evermore.” Day by day
his spirits must soar upwards as the lark. There
is nothing more dangerous than depression. A
man cannot bear the burden of idolatry of a
great nation. He is simply to stand in his ap-
pointed place and testify against it. He is daily
to give thanks that among the Gentiles he may
declare the unsearchable riches of Christ. He is
to rejoice in his converts, and, like Paul, to ask,
“For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of re-
joicing?” and himself give the answer, ‘Ye are
our glory and joy.” He is to keep his eye fixed
on the future rewards of the faithful watchman.
He is to rejoice with joy unspeakable, and be
glad with exceeding joy. ‘A merry heart maketh
a cheerful countenance.” “A merry heart doeth
Tur AMBASSADOR TO SINIM. 95.

good like a medicine.” The pressure of study
and work is too great for any one to sustain
without the spring and buoyant influence of a.
hearty laugh. What incentives to joy? The
Saviour commanding, the church sending, prayers’
ascending, heaven awaiting, is this not joy?

Paul gives the advice to Timothy, and, through
him, to all who labor in distant lands, “Take heed
unto thyself.” Not to watch simply the methods:
and ways of work, or his diligence in performing
his duty, but to look well to his own personal con-
dition. Away from home, amidst heathen influ-.
ences, and with Christians recently reclaimed from
paganism, there is need to “watch and pray.”
Each one must say, “I keep under my body, and
bring it into subjection, lest that by any means,
when I preach to others, I myself should be a cast-.
away.”

Above all, he needs to possess a sympathetic
heart. He must be a Chinese of the Chinese, and
feel for the people in their poverty, ignorance, su-
perstition, and idolatry; ‘‘Who can have compas-
sion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of
the way, for that he himself also is compassed. with
infirmity.” ‘For we have not an high priest who.
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmi-
ties.” And this sympathy must ripen into love.
‘96 PREACHING IN SINIM.

Love to the sheep is a mark of the true Shepherd,
who, “having loved his own, loved them unto the
end.” No one is prepared for work among any
race without a love to the people. How the epis-
tles abound in testimonies of the ardent love of
the pastor for the flock! Hundreds of mission-
aries in Sinim can exclaim: “Oh, ye Chinese, our
mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.
Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened
in your own bowels.”

The crowning gift of the preacher is humility.
King David never forgot that God “took him from
the sheep-cote, . . . . and brought him to feed
Jacob, his people; and Israel, his inheritance.”
Paul said, “For I am the least of the apostles, that
am not meet to be called an apostle,” and termed
himself ‘the least of all saints,” yea, “the chief of
sinners.” No shadow of egotism must be suffered
to darken the heart or life of the laborer—“my
church,” “my work,” “my converts.” Day by day
God’s name is to be praised. “Not unto us, not
unto us, but unto thy name be the glory.” In one
word, the spiritual life of the disciple must be
summed up in the invitation of Christ: “Learn of
me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall
find rest for your souls.”
CHAPTER VIII.

Literary PREPARATION.

HEN the apostles were sent forth to establish

a new religion, prominent among their en-
dowments was the “gift of tongues.” At the de-
scent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, “There ap-
peared unto them cloven tongues as of fire, and it
sat upon each of them, . . . and they began to
speak with other tongues. . . . The multitude
came together, and were confounded, because that
every man heard them speak in his own language.”
Thus was ability given them to go from land to
land proclaiming the gospel. The great apostle
could say, “I spake with more tongues than ye
all” ;—he was the most distinguished linguist the
world has ever seen. This miraculous gift of
tongues must have produced a wonderful impres-
sion upon the nations of the earth, and attested
the divine origin of the religion the first preachers
came to establish. This heaven-bestowed endow-
ment of being able in a moment to speak in a for-
eign language has ceased, but we have no doubt
that, in answer to prayer, the gift of tongues is

9 97
98 PREACHING IN SINIM.

still bestowed upon those who diligently use the
means placed at their disposal.

The language-student has many advantages:
first and foremost, a dictionary of surpassing merit
in its perspicuity, and also the numerous primers,
vocabularies, and hand-books. He has, too, the
blessing of possessing a teacher who does not
know a word of English, for with an English-
speaking preceptor the task is almost hopeless.
During the first years the novice is in a most try-
ing position. He graduates at college, takes a
three-years course in a theological hall, is ordained
as an ambassador to the heathen, and, landing
upon a distant shore, finds himself as helpless as
an infant, without the infant’s privilege of making
its wants known by crying. A royal road to the
acquisition of the Chinese language has not yet
been discovered. There is not the slightest con-
nection between this tongue and European lan-
guages, and former studies into Latin and Greek
roots afford no aid. Also it is one thing to learn
to read a dead language, and quite another to be
able to speak a living tongue. The young mission-
ary’s whole time and energy should be devoted to
the arduous task. Till his lips are unsealed, and
he can speak with the tongues of men, he is sim-
ply an incubus upon the society that supports
LITERARY PREPARATION. 99

him. Were he at home, he could employ his time
in preaching, and thus try to do some good, but
now his lips are sealed. Surely he should make
every effort to shorten his probation. As Paul
says, “I had rather speak five words with my un-
derstanding”; and again, “Therefore, if I know
not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him
that speaketh a barbarian.” Much responsibility
rests upon the seniors in the field in pressing upon
the new arrival the absolute necessity of constant
and earnest effort to learn to talk, and at first giv-
ing them daily some aid. The young missionary
with an earnest desire to engage in work as soon
as he arrives upon the field, may imagine that he
can be useful by teaching English while he is at
the rudiments of the language. The policy of
English and Chinese, half-and-half, is suicidal in
respect to one’s future ministry. If English is de-
sirable, it should be taught either by those who
have learned the language, or by those who
never expect to study it. By six hours a day de-
voted to study, and constant association with the
people, any man of rather more than ordinary
ability may in three years learn to speak Chinese
moderately well. If, then, he teaches English three
hours, how long will it take him? It may be an-
swered that this is a simple sum in arithmetic. If,
100 PREACHING IN SINIM.

however, we appeal to mathematics, there is the
problem of the snail which crawled up the post
four feet during the day, and slipped back two feet
at night. If he studies Chinese in the forenoon,
and teaches English in the afternoon, his progress
will be that of the snail. The Chinese language is
too intricate and too difficult to allow of half-way
measures. The man must learn to think before he
is able to speak, and English must be banished by
the expulsive power of a new tongue. When one
sees a Chinaman, he must think in Chinese, if he
desires to speak with ease. Besides putting off the
day of preaching indefinitely, the semi-student will
likely become discouraged, and remit his sturdy
efforts. Among the China missionaries good speak-
ers are the rule, and only now and then do we meet
with an exception; but in the Sunrise Kingdom,
where they talk with English-speaking Japanese,
and teach English daily, many may truly say, ‘I
spake as a child.” The church allows three years
to the student-missionary to prepare for life’s war-
fare. Let him, as “a good soldier of Jesus Christ,”
not “entangle himself with the affairs of this life;
that he may please him who hath chosen him to
be a soldier.”

It is necessary for the preacher to the heathen
to speak fluently. We must preach so as to com-
LITERARY PREPARATION. L01

mend the gospel to the favorable consideration of
the people. As long as the audience is busy noting
grammatical errors, we can make little progress in
instilling religious truth. No one need say, “I
have no gift of language.” Let the young brother
become as a little child, and prattle everything he
hears, not waiting to comprehend the meaning. Let
him study for hours in his office, and then daily
throw himself among the people—in the tea-shops,
along the market-places, at the coolie-stands, on
the bridges—in his notebook carefully jotting down
every new expression, or with his teacher along
the streets, studying the ‘language as it is written
on the hanging signs, and soon he will find him-
self swimming in a sea of words. The streets are
full of boys and men who are ready to teach, and
who charge no fee; they are pedagogues just for
the fun. There are two great books, the book of
written characters and the book of living voices.
These are the two sides of the linguistic arch. If
the student pursues the indoor method, his Chinese
will sound to the ear just as Wickliffe’s Version ap-
pears to the eye; if, on the other hand, he neglects
his text-books, his vocabulary will be superficial;
but if he learns a sentence within, and tries to use
it on the street, the people ere long will say,
“Why, you talk just like we do.” We are not to
102 PREACHING IN SINIM.

daub the walls of Zion with mud, but, like Solo-
mon, to “build of stone made ready before it was
brought thither.” If we speak to the people “with
stammering lips and another tongue,” and our own
countrymen would not listen to us in a land where
Christianity is accepted, how can we expect to im-
press those who do not believe in our religion?
Just as a little urchin was asked, ‘What are you
going to be?” “Going to be a preacher.” ‘Where
are you going to preach?” “In China.” “Well,
what are you going to preach in China?” “I am
going to preach Chinese.” This was not the an-
swer desired, but it illustrates the point: a preacher
in China must preach Chinese. We must aim at a
high standard in the vernacular. A sinologue is
one who is a master in Chinese lore, but a colloquial
scholarship is of a much higher order than classical
learning, just as to preach a sermon requires more
skill than to write one. Each one must bring his
gifts to the altar. Missionary life does not consist
wholly in prayers and holy living, for a ready
tongue is a prime factor.

We come to a land rich in its mines of language.
There is nothing in the literature of China but lan-
guage. Nothing is taught in the schools but lan-
guage—merely the department of belle-lettres or
English literature in our colleges—and a diploma
LITERARY PREPARATION. 103

is granted to the elect few who can write pretty
essays; so the verbiage of China, like tropical foli-
age, is precociously developed. There is a wealth
of idiom, a variety of synonym, a diversity of
expression, an infinity of phraseology, that gives
every possible shade of meaning, and opens a
wide-extended field for the speaker. The materi-
als for oratory are all here, and the earth opens
her stores to those who seek for hid treasure. Let
all the studies bend to the one object of being a
workman who needeth not to be ashamed in the
pulpit. There is a very practical thought: A home
congregation will, out of respect for the sanctuary,
remain seated till the benediction is pronounced;
but here a man must enchain his audience by the
mode of presenting the truth. To preach to the
native Christians is easy, as we have only to ex-
pound the Bible, which they receive as a revela-
tion from God; but when we come to men who ac-
cept nothing, believe nothing, and hope for no-
thing, and when the only basis of our teachings is
conscience and the light of nature, we need all the
aid that thought and language can give. (
The question is often asked, ‘“ When shall I com-
mence preaching?” The answer is easy; “After
six months.” Start with a sermonette or baby ser-
mon; day by day add to it, and, if kept in motion,
104 PREACHING IN SINIM.

it will grow like a snowball rolled over the com-
mon. The best way of learning to preach is to
preach. The first sermon a man who is the oldest
Christian in the city heard was one which was
preached when the speaker was not able to talk
over five minutes. An old missionary said of juve-
nile efforts, “It will do no harm.” He might have
added, ‘It may do good.”

In some fields attempts have been made to
preach through an interpreter. The man who is
called to a heathen land at threescore has no al-
ternative, but not he who is half that age. Leav-
ing out of question the difficulty of translating at
the instant, the length of time required for a dis-
course twice spoken, and the difficulty of obtaining
a reliable interpreter, the very fact that the for-
-eigner lacks the ‘idiom of thought” stamps this
method of speaking as essentially defective. Un-
less there is a mental affinity between the minds of
the speaker and the hearer, to convey truth is a
difficult task. A minister, through an interpreter,
addressing an audience composed both of Chris-
tians and heathen, said: “A certain nobleman
asked, ‘What proof was there of the truth of Chris-
tianity?’ and was answered, ‘The Jews, my lord.’”
To rightly interpret the reply would require a sec-
tion of the world’s history, and would take about
LITERARY PREPARATION. 105:

two weeks. A Chinese Mandarin asked, “In
America how do you choose a President?” A
Consul answered, “We have two great political
parties, the Republicans and Democrats. Each
party puts up its candidate and the choice is
between them.” The interpreter said, “The coun-
try is divided into North and South; the North
puts up one candidate and the South another.”
The difficulty lay in trying to say Democrat or
Republican, or Whig and Tory, or Liberal and
Conservative in Chinese. A bishop, on a recent
visit to a neighboring kingdom, had for an inter-
preter the finest linguist in his mission. He was.
addressing the class for ordination and trying to
impress upon them the necessity of giving more
prominence to the sermon than to the exhorta-
tion. He said, “Strokes could be made with a
lash, but they were harder if the lash was fastened
to a stock—the sermon was the stock and the ex-
hortation the lash.” Our linguist could not think of
the word “stock,” or of a more suitable figure, so he
said the sermon was like a dog and the exhortation
as the tail, which, of course, carried as little mean-
ing as that of a dog wagging his caudal appendage.
It is better for a man to be his own interpreter.
Those, however, who are so situated that they
cannot do otherwise, let them use an interpreter.
106 PREACHING IN SINIM.

Some, like Moses, speak effectively through the
lips of another, and it may be a means of awaken-
ing attention, converting men, and building up the
church in faith and knowledge.

An extensive acquaintance with the literature of
the country is necessary for one who has a literary
profession. It brings us into association with the
brain of China. If we quote the authors the peo-
ple honor, it adds much weight to our address. We
must know something of Chinese philosophy and
the leading teachings of the sages. Especially
should ministers appreciate the high order of
moral excellence inculcated in their books, and
make this a basis for the higher truths of religion.
A “working knowledge” of the classics is almost
essential to our success as preachers. There is no
department more necessary than a familiarity with
the light literature of China. Very little of it will
bear a full translation, because of coarse expressions
in nearly every chapter, but it is easy to pass over
these parts for the great benefit of reading semi-
colloquial books. The collections of proverbs are
very useful to those who master them. The native
newspaper gives the current thought of the day,
and the English “leading journals” at the port
keep one in a Chinese atmosphere. There is a
field for research in the standard English works
Lirerary PREPARATION. 107

on China, and those missions are wise which put
them into the student’s curriculum. The Chinese
language is so constructed that it requires regular
study—if only a short time each day—for a score
of years, for if the one who uses the vernacular
does not go forward he is apt to fall behind.

By close observation we are to obtain an insight
into Chinese character. They are keen observers
and form their estimate of the man who stands
before them with surprising astuteness, and shall
we be behind them in the study of men? This
book of human nature in China is in many vol-
umes, printed in divers copies and bound in a
variety of styles; not all equally interesting, but
a knowledge of the whole is beneficial and instruc-
tive. We come as teachers of the Bible, but if
we follow the example of Jesus, we will preach
the word of God in the language of men. As we
are religious teachers we must, first of all, become
acquainted with the three great idolatrous systems,
as there is no finer field of illustrating the true
than by comparing it with the false. *

 

*For the elucidation of this part of the subject, the reader is
referred to the Dragon, Image and Demon; or Confuctanism,
Buddhism and Taoism and The Three Religions of China, pub-
lished by A. C, Armstrong & Son, New York; 8. W. Partridge &
Co., London.
108 PREACHING IN SINIM.

The Chinese do not exercise their minds on high
topics, but they do know many small things. We
must, like them, be intimately acquainted with the
three hundred and sixty trades, and especially the
prices of all commodities. When we are speaking,
the markets, fruit stands and vegetable stalls must
be on the tongue’s end for the sake of illustration.
A man must know how to build a house, row a
boat, plant rice, irrigate the fields, rear the silk
worm, weave silk and quarry stone! Weare, in our
linguistic attainments, to be scholars, merchants,
cobblers, cooks, coolies and washermen. We must
know what the people know, and prepare our ser-
mons in the language of their daily life. It is de-
sirable to be acquainted with the topography of
our section of country, and the names of localities.
A lady to reach the women must converse fluently
on all the details of home life and woman’s em-
ployments and avocations. What a vast field of
research there is in the government of China, and
how can we better show the eternal jurisdiction of
Jehovah than by delineating a human system
which has proved its stability by its centuries?
Each one is appalled by the magnitude of the task,
but daily strength comes by daily food, and our
ability to speak lies mostly in the effort to pre-
pare.
CHAPTER IX.

Tuer STYLE or PREACHING.

HIS topic can best be introduced by the ques-

tion, “ Where are we called to preach?” The
answer is immediately returned, ‘In the Orient.”
Then let the style of preaching be oriental. The
first thing that arrests the traveller’s attention in
the East is the oriental style of architecture—the
dragon comb to the roof, the ornamental cornices
and quaint-carvings. Or if in the stores we look at
the finer class of goods, how many pretty things
adorn the shelves, little cunning contrivances which
please the eye but seem to lack in utility. Note
the variety of fans which gentlemen carry in their
hands and delight to admire! How many multi-
colored silks there are in a silk and satin hong!
In China there are no factories on the gigantic
scale of the West, turning out their fabrics by the
bale, or car-load, or ship-load, but there is an
endless variety of minor goods and chattels. When
we come to the language we find that the whole
idea is to write a pretty composition in a florid,
high-flowing, ornamental style. As they are fond

of talking, and spend so much time in conversa-
10 109
110 PREACHING IN SINIM.

tion, their field of spoken language is so broad that
we can never hope to cultivate more than one
small corner.

The first thing that must be impressed upon our
minds is, that the style of preaching here must
be something distinct from the essays in English
monthlies, or the ordinary mode of sermonizing.
If the one thought is distinctly before the speaker,
of preaching differently from what he would do at
home, it is quite easy to find the right road. He
must first leave the “old ruts,’ then he will blaze
out anew route. In doctrine he is to “ask for the
old paths,” in the method of presentation he must
in China search for the new.

We are to preach in a bright, lively style. The
people are merry talkers, full of wit and quick at
repartee, so our addresses must be in a happy
strain. The poetic faculty must be cultivated so
that illustration becomes second nature. The
Chinese show great skill in the use of figures of
speech in their ordinary conversation. They de-
light in the picturesque, and in all that adorns and
beautifies. A graphic description arrests their
attention, and we should guide them through the
picture galleries of Scripture narrative, and sketch
sacred scenes with the pencil of language. They
appreciate the flowers of rhetoric and the polished
Tur STYLE oF PREACHING. 111

gems of oratory. The native preachers are fond
of analogy, and their gifts lie so decidedly in that
line that it is difficult to keep their metaphors
within just bounds. Dr. Guthrie, visiting a gal-
lery on the continent, asked one who was present
“What was his profession?” “An artist.” “I
too am an artist.” “Ah!” quoth the stranger, in
surprise. “I paint with words,” said the gifted.
preacher. But some may reply, “Did not the
apostle declare, ‘And my speech and my preach-
ing was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom ?’”
True, but he did not mean that the ministry should
make no effort at adornment in style, but that
pretty language should not be the end and object
of discourse. Paul would disclaim against collect-
ing Chinese apothegms, striking proverbs, and
classic quotations simply for the purpose of tick-
ling the ears of those who hear. We are not to
adorn the body of the sermon so that men will
forget that there is a living soul within the form of
words. We are not to preach rhetoric, but we
may use rhetoric in preaching. If our style leads
men to forget the cross and think only of the flow-
ers in the pulpit, then our work is a failure, but if
we can attract men to Christ by the choice use of
words, then we have fulfilled our mission. Speak-
ing in language too elegant is not a snare into
112 PREACHING IN SINIM.

which the European who talks Chinese is likely to
fall.

We must preach simply. One of the greatest
difficulties is to appreciate the profound ignorance
of those whom we address, especially in the domain
of religion. “ Darkness shall cover the earth and
gross darkness the people.” If we inquire into
their attainments in geography, an educated man
is quite satisfied if he knows that America. has a
city called New York, a region denominated “The
Golden Mountains,” and formerly a great man
named Washington. The first question in the
infant catechism, “Who made you?” puzzles
philosophers and sages. We make a speciality
in the high and low sounds of this “great tonal
tongue,” of the monosyllabic idioms and of the
rhythm of language, but no less should we aim at
perspicuity in thought, and lucidity in the form of
its presentation. It is the highest mark of the
ability of a teacher to state profound truths in a
simple way. We once saw a specialist in Natural
History teach orally a number of children at the
table the difficult nomenclature of the science, by
giving some felicitous handle by which they might
grasp each term. Compare the literary efforts of
one who has been on the field five or ten years, in
his translations of western theological works, and
Tur STYLE of PREACHING. 113

the simple primers in Christian truth the same
missionary gives to the church after an experience
of five and twenty years.

We are to preach appropriately. Our Saviour
said, “Therefore every scribe which is instructed
unto the kingdom of heaven, is like unto a
man that is a householder which bringeth forth
out of his treasure things new and old.” The
preparation for the home pulpit is made in the
study, though many bright thoughts come to the
extempore speaker during the time of delivery. The
very motionlessness of the audience requires him
to draw on his own resources, but with an ever vary-
ing congregation it is easy to find a fulcrum for
the lever, or a pin on which to hang an illustra-
tion. There are so many sights and sounds which
suggest thoughts that are “as goads and as nails
fastened by the masters of assemblies.” The
preacher must be ever ready to take advantage of
every felicitous event to turn it to good account.
The springing rice, an emblem of the first blades
of grace in the heart; the golden grain, ripe for the
sickle, a symbol of “gathering in the sheaves”;
the setting sun suggests a sermon to the old; the
postman, who comes in the chapel, reminds the
hearers of the gospel messenger with a letter from
the Heavenly Father; the burden-bearer of the
114 PREACHING IN SINIM.

words of him who said, “Come unto me all ye that
are weary and heavy laden”; the merchant col-
lecting bills, of our settlement at the day of final
accounts; the clanking chains of the passing pri-
soner tell us that we are all criminals. Starting on
a direct line the speaker must be ready to vary his
discourse so as to adapt it to every passing occa-
sion, just as the boatman shifts his sails with the
changing breeze or curving canal, or as he guides
so skillfully his little barque as it shoots around
the sharp angles in the rapids. He leaves his first
topic just as a party of us in the Mammoth Cave,
arriving at the river and finding it rising so rapidly
that, did we cross, a safe return could not be in-
sured, left the main course and turned into a side
passage to behold some of the greatest wonders
which are hidden beneath the surface of the
ground. Our sermons must at times be like the
shifting, varying reflections of the kaleidoscope,
but, like this simple instrument, they must always
reflect a beautiful picture.

Again, in preaching, it is important for our
thoughts to run in native channels. Here must be
undone much of the systematic teaching of our
western schools, or rather we must adapt our learn-
ing and our logic to the circumstances by which
we are surrounded, so that instead of the railway
THE STYLE OF PREACHING. 115

or steamer, we must travel by native boat in the
native waters. There are Chinese channels of
thought, and in these our discourse must run;
there are intellectual pathways, and on these our
minds must travel. We are not to despise the
ditch-bank and compare it with the turnpike, for
on this narrow causeway, water on one side and
mire on the other, millions of men have trod.
The idiom of thought is a most difficult acquisition,
but by constant mental intercourse with men and
books, we may obtain it. This is the key to the
lock of their understanding. Revolve in their
orbits and there is no friction. Note in the
Dream of the Red Chamber the description of a
rich man’s house, not the green sward, royal oaks,
and stately mansion, but horses at the door, sedans
in an adjoining apartment, the side entrance for
the servants, the multitude of ahmahs, the vege-
tables for the kitchen, and all the incidentals of a
well-ordered household. Why tell of the prodi-
gal in Judea, when hundreds of fathers in this
city long for the return of spendthrift sons from
Shanghai? Why talk of Grecian games within
sight of the examination hall where the candidates
seek for the “corruptible crown”? In what land
can we better explain the “wicked husbandmen”
than here, where many try to evade paying the
116 PREACHING IN SINIM.

“vent rice”? We must study our illustrations and
jot down in a pocket note-book every new line of
thought. We are not to bring our illustrations
from a western land. It is not necessary to import
our rice from Charleston or our sugar from New
Orleans. To patronize the native market is bet-
ter.

In preaching, the illustrations must be exact, or
the Chinese will never catch the idea. They are
bright enough if you tell it their way, but their
imaginations will not follow us beyond the sea to
the scenes of our childhood. It is easy, by the
blank expression on their faces, to tell that the
speaker has failed to convey the idea. To illus-
trate how Christ suffered in our stead, I often spoke
of the two brothers in school, the elder diligent,
the younger lazy, and when the latter was about
to be punished by the teacher, the elder brother
took his place and stood in a corner of the room
for an hour. It never seemed to me the hearers
appreciated the truth which I desired to present.
One day, in a native school, I saw a boy kneeling
at a bench. By changing “standing” to “ kneel-
ing” it fit like the lead ina mold. We must hit
the target or the winged arrow fails in its flight.
Some years ago I had my teacher write about the
young Huguenot taking his father’s place at the
Tue STYLE OF PREACHING. 117

galleys for six years. He said, ““I see your mean-
ing; you wish to illustrate substitution, but the
people will never catch your idea; they will say,
‘Oh! yes, how filial he was.’” It is well to test the
gtin before taking it to the scene of action.

We must preach slowly; not talk slowly, but
restrain our imagination and not let it fly at the
speed of a lightning-express. The Chinese are
not accustomed to the western style of public
speaking as is heard in the pulpit and in politi-
cal meetings, they cannot follow a rapid train of
thought. As the natives say, “Slowly, slowly, go.”
The story-teller in the tea-shop alone carries on
the several parts of a dialogue, and with his voice
delineates the scenes which in the occident re-
quire several actors. He does not narrate his
story in an unbroken strain, but asks a question
and answers it himself. This double method of
conversation, like the double-entry method in
book-keeping, secures absolute accuracy,—the rule
is to say everything twice, first in the form of
interrogation and then in reply. This idiom is
manifest in all Old Testament narratives, where
the writers take twice as long to detail an event as
in our modern writings. The biblical style is the
model for preachers in Asia; study it, imitate it.
The original is a pattern perfect in its conception
118 PREACHING IN SINIM.

and literary execution. The Jewish writers living
before the time of Confucius, furnish us with the
fashion plates of the modern Chinese vernacu-
lar.

Again, the truth must be preached clearly and
distinctly. The Chinese are not accustomed to
our methods of reasoning, or our logical processes.
They move in a circle, as the buffalo at the water-
pump, and we must patiently instil the truth into
their minds and allow them to get one idea clearly
before we present another. “For precept must be
upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon
line, line upon line; here a little and there a little.”
Foreigners often get irritated with servants for their
apparent stupidity, whereas it is the fault of the one
who gives the orders. We are to give our instruc-
tions minutely: ‘Go down the street. At the first
corner turn to the left. You will come to a bridge.
Do not cross the bridge. Go to the right till you
come toa Zamen with two flag-posts. Then at the
cross-street go southwards. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” “You will come to an open space with
some trees. That is not where I send you. Go
further on till you come to a tea-shop; it is a very
large one with a tiger furnace facing the west. Just
opposite is the chapel I want you to go to.” “Oh!
yes, I know, I can find it,” and the man will not
Tur STYLE oF PREACHING. 119

miss your instructions. Our directions to the trav-
eller journeying to the gates of the Celestial city
must be equally explicit.

Another important point is not in the first in-
stance to state abstract truths, but to approach the
subject in the natural line of thought. Ask an old
woman, “Have you a soul?” and ten to one she
will reply, “No.” Mention that the people all say
they have “three souls and six spirits,” and inquire
if this is the case. “Oh, yes, every one has three
souls and six spirits.’ Then you may point out
the error, and instil the truth. \

In preaching, we must occasionally let the minds
of the audience rest. Stop and talk on any com-
mon point, and the faces before us will immedi-
ately brighten. “Yesterday I went to the country.
I took a boat. We passed down the canal, and
through a bridge. The rice-fields looked green
and beautiful. On the right bank were piles of
water-jars. Soon to the left the hills were in sight.
Then we came to Mohdoh. ‘Old man, have you
ever been to Mohdoh?’ ‘Yes, yes.’ ‘Well, then,
you know all about it.’ I met a man, and asked
him the way up the mountain. We walked along
the road together, and passed a grave. I said,
‘My friend, do you know that the dead shall
rise?’” This whole preamble, or verbal ramble,
120 PREACHING IN SINIM.

is totally irrelevant, but the hearers are on the guz
vive to know what is coming.

In addressing those whom we meet, we are not
to rush on them too suddenly. Accosting a stran-
ger, we are not to shout, “There is one God and
one Mediator!” We occasionally speak to stran-
gers who say they cannot understand; so fully are
they convinced that we are speaking in a European
language, that they cannot understand their mo-
ther tongue. “My friend, where is your honora-
ble residence?” ‘Waseih.” “In the city or the
country?” “Country.” “How far from Waseih?”
“Twenty lee.” ‘What is your high longevity?”
“Very little.” “Well, how many years?” “Sixty-
four.” “How many sons have you?” “Two.”
“What are their ages?” “Twenty-six and
eighteen.” “The eldest is married, I suppose;
you have a daughter-in-law, have you not?”
“Yes.” “Any grandchildren?” “A grandson.”
“T congratulate you.” “I am unworthy.” “Are
you staying now at an inn, or with a friend?”
“With a friend.” “Near your home are there any
temples?” “Oh, yes, many.” ‘What are they?”
“The god of agriculture and the goddess of
mercy.” “Any gods of the district?” “Plenty
of them.” “Do the people burn incense?”
“Every first and fifteenth of the moon.” “My
THE STYLE oF PREACHING. 121

aged friend, do you know that idolatry is a great
sin?” “What!” You have this old man caught
in the meshes of the gospel net, and his mind is.
prepared to hear the first truths of theology. Take
the last chapter of John as the model of oriental
discourse. Jesus waited till their hunger was
satisfied, then conversed about love. Study the
details as they are so simply given, and see how
circumstantial the historian is. The whole of the
fourth Gospel is a beautiful specimen of eastern
literature, and the missionary is wise to imitate
the Johannine style.

The first great essential is to wake them from
the slumbers of four thousand years, and to sound
the gospel alarm, “Awake, thou that sleepest,
and arise from the dead, and Christ will give thee
light.” The people must be aroused from their
lethargy and death-torpor. We come with the
message that there are three great roads—the
heavenly road, the human road, and the road of
devils; that they have the two last, but not the
first, and we beseech them to leave the third, and
to walk in the way of heaven. They are accus-
tomed to exhortations to virtue, and conceive of
us only as teachers of morality. A resident at the
port, speaking with me about preaching, said, “Of

course you never say anything to offend them.”
11
122 PREACHING IN SINIM.

“Well, sir,” was the reply, “if we did not, we
would never get an idea into their heads.” It will
ever remain, “the offence of the cross.” They
listen, and say, “Oh, yes, honor father and mo-
ther; worship heaven and earth.” Not that the
message has not been pointedly delivered, but be-
cause they are preoccupied with the idea that
there is nothing else besides father and mother,
heaven and earth. It requires a shock from an
electric battery to convince them that we have a
higher message. I used to be troubled by hearing
men who had listened to a discourse walk com-
placently out of the chapel, saying, “Oh, yes, all
the same, worship heaven and earth”; but very
seldom these last years, for whenever heaven and
earth are mentioned I act, so to speak, like Paul
and Barnabas at Lystra, when “they rent their
clothes, and ran in among the people”; and so
I shout, ““Wickedness! Wickedness!! Wicked-
ness!!!” They are dead to spiritual things, and
will through a sermon mentally sleep with their
eyes open, unless they are awakened as it were
“with the voice of the archangel, and with the
trump of God.” Satan has administered opiates,
and the case requires heroic treatment. They lie
softly upon their beds while the flames roll around.
‘Our preaching must be as if the earth were quak-
Tuer STYLE OF PREACHING. 123

ing beneath their feet. We must cry, yea, cry
aloud, ‘‘ Hear,” oh, China! “The Lord our God is
one Lord!”

Yet at the same time we are to be courteous,
and to use every felicitous method of address that
will enlist their sympathy. The Chinese excel in
politeness, and shall we neglect to be gentle and
affable, and by our courtesy try to win them? A
short time since, a native preacher from a neigh-
boring chapel said, “All on the streets are busy
collecting their debts, but I would infer from the
happy expression on the faces of the audience that
you have all settled your accounts at the close of
the year.” We can always remark, “Do not get
angry if I say something to you.” ‘Certainly not,

>

speak; I will be only too happy to listen ;” and
we can then talk with impunity about their most
sacred institutions.

We note that the Chinese in conversation, from
politeness, always “take the lowest seat.” If then,
in illustration, one of the parties is bad and the
other good, one rich and the other poor, one the
judge and the other the prisoner, should it be de-
sirable to use “I” and “you,” always let the
speaker be the inferior and the hearer the su-
perior. In this way the good-will of an audience

may be secured and nothing lost in the effect the
124 PREACHING IN SINIM.

sermon will produce. Another method of preach-
ing is “to tell how we do.” How we daily pray ;
our family prayers; our Sunday services; how the
Sabbath is kept in Christian lands, and everything
in connection with the church. This is an unfail-
ing source of interest, and to preaching in this
style they cannot possibly take exceptions.

We are to unfailingly insist upon our creden-
tials, that we are sent, not as they foolishly think,
by a foreign emperor, but by the King of kings.
Though we have no apostolic signs and wonders,
we can testify what Christianity has done for the
nations which have accepted its teachings. In
this city, residing on High Market street, is a ven-
erable Confucian preacher, now fourscore, who
preaches two or three times a month in the
temples or open courts. A table with a red cover
hanging in front is mounted on two chairs, and on
this lie his manuscripts. Dressed in satin robe
and boots, and standing on another chair, he
speaks to the forty or fifty who gather around.
The gist of his orations is that certain who com-
mitted crimes or were guilty of great wrongs re-
ceived the due reward for their evil deeds from
heaven. Some of these incidents, or rather most
of them, would be too coarse for a European audi-
ence. He speaks with much deliberation, and
Tue STYLE oF PREACHING. 125

always begins by giving the name of the party, the
place in which and the year when he lived. This
particularization in the details and presenting
proofs for the statements are evidently sugges-
tions for preachers of the gospel.

Another mode of oral address, and the most
effective one is talking versus haranguing,; to
adopt the “conversational, catechetical or Socratic
method.” ‘This requires long and careful training
and much practice, but opportunities must be
sought for and improved. Some missionaries can
deliver a whole discourse by questioning the audi-
ence and securing suitable replies. Sitting on the
back of a bench and talking on spiritual subjects
to thirty or forty who are gathered near, ten times
as much truth will be conveyed as by an ordinary
discourse. The difficulty is to find a good ques-
tioner. Again, they will start on religion and wish
to pass to other topics and ask irrelevant ques-
tions about foreign civilization or the price of
articles of dress, but when they ask about religion
this method of preaching secures fixedness of
attention and receptivity of the truth. When a
number are fully interested, we may step upon the
platform and speak with power. Truly we are to
be all things to all men and all occasions, and
always to do the best we can, and when talking in
126 PREACHING In SINIM.

the chapel or on the street, momentarily seek for
divine guidance. We are not invariably to follow
the rule, ‘To speak to a scholar as to a scholar,
and to a peasant as to a peasant,” for we must
remember that in theology the one is as ignorant
as the other, and what suits the one will be
adapted to the other, and from experience I can
say that the scholars at the examinations listen to
the most elementary truths with much interest.
The philosopher and the coolie must alike sit at
the feet of Jesus.

We notice that the Chinese in talking, when
they are speaking on a topic which, fhey judge,
might be unpleasant, state the converse, and leave
the hearer to make the application. This is a fine
way to state truth, and, if done with skill, no peo-
ple are more ready to see the point and to apply it
personally to themselves. They leave unsaid what
we wish specially to say. It is beautifully illus-
trated in the tender reply of Cushi to David, when
he asked, “Is the young man Absalom safe?”
“The enemies of my lord the king, and all that
rise against thee to do thee hurt, be as that young
man is.”

We have not only to learn the language, but our
voices must be trained. Elocution must be a pro-
minent department in missionary culture. Many
Tur STYLE oF PREACHING. 127

of the story-tellers along the streets would be
awarded medals for the naturalness with which
they imitate all classes. So much accustomed are
the Chinese to their historical plays and tea-shop
recitations, that it comes almost second nature
with most of them to change the tones of their
voices as they repeat what others say. The voice
is given us to attract men to Christ. The cry of a
beggar wakes up a congregation. The hawkers on
the street arouse their attention. The cry of the
drowning sailor, “Save life! Save life!” brings
them face to face with the grave. On my desk lay
a manuscript about the riot at Ephesus. A Yamen
secretary in the study picked it up, and read the
speech of the town clerk, or wet-ywen, imitating to.
perfection a mandarin as he speaks to his runners.
This almost every Chinaman can do. I heard a
senior missionary, in relating an anecdote, imitate
the pompous official, and in the next sentence the
obsequiousness of the servant. This may be done
in the pulpit so as to be ridiculous; again, the in-
flections of the voice may carry conviction to
many a heart. We must speak with pathos, look-
ing unto the rock whence we are hewn, and the
hole of the pit whence we are digged. Never once
excite a laugh, or the spiritual effect is lost.

At times truth is best conveyed by the eye, and.
128 PREACHING IN SINIM.

~

0 the blackboard, the whiteboard, or scrolls may
be successfully introduced. The text or topic with
the principal thoughts written, and the comments
spoken, may be ‘“‘sharper than a two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and
spirit.” The Chinese use their characters so much
for ornament, as on their sign-boards, or for wall-
pictures, that this effective method may be well
utilized.

We may go back three thousand years, and
listen to the words of the wise man: “Because
the preacher was wise, he still taught the people
knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought
out and set in order many proverbs. The preacher
sought to find out acceptable words.” The mis-
sionary must seek for acceptable words—‘ illustra-
tion, proverb, quotation, interrogation, classical
sayings.” It is not to offer unto the Lord that
which costs nothing mentally. As long as we live,
each day special efforts must be put forth to pre-
sent the truth so as to constrain men to accept the
gospel. “With such a theme, let every power of
the imagination, every facility of expression, every
gift of utterance, be enlisted and employed.” To
show how the man of God, to the end of his days,
must exercise himself in preparing for a heathen
audience, the venerable Rev. William Muirhead,
Tur STYLE oF PREACHING. 129

the preaching apostle of mid-China, the “‘old man
eloquent,” who for nearly a half-century has so
fervently delivered his message daily, and usually
many times a day, recently said: “I have been
astonished beyond measure at the wonderful num-
ber of hearers with which I have been favored in
the old Union Chapel. It is well situated, and
especially at night crowds are passing to and fro,
who are easily attracted. Altogether, it is a mag-
nificent sphere for missionary work, and the bur-
den on my soul is that of souls and how most
suitably to address the multitudes,”
CHAPTER X.
Natural THEOLOGY.

E now pass from the how to the what, from

the manner to the matter of discourse. The
preparation for the work and the style of preach-
ing are very insignificant compared with the
subject-matter. Again comes the question, “ Where
do we find ourselves?” The answer is returned,
“ Amidst one of the most idolatrous nations in the
world.” The great theme for the missionary is
theology. It may be asked, “Did not the apostle
to the Gentiles say, ‘We preach Christ crucified,’
and shall we not simply preach of Jesus and his
love?” <A glance at the fourteen epistles of Paul
and the range of topics discussed within shows
that he uses the term “Christ crucified” as the
formula for the whole of revelation, giving special
prominence to the doctrines of the blood. To the
countries where the apostle travelled, the Jews
had already gone and built synagogues, and it was
known throughout the Roman Empire that there
was a strange sect which held to theism in the
midst of abounding polytheism. In China we
have had no forerunners. The fundamental doc-

trine in reference to Christ is that he is the Son of
130
NatTurRAL THEOLOGY. 131

God. If a Mongolian, like the Ethiopian, con-
fesses that Jesus is the Son of God, he is immedi-
ately baptized. Before we can preach about the
Son of God we must let the people know who God
is. To set forth the divinity of Christ we must
first declare the “I Am.” The beginning of
religious knowledge is to know God. We cannot
progress one step till we have settled the first,
chief and great problem in divine science. The
Gospels of Moses and John begin respectively,
“Tn the beginning was God,” “In the beginning
was the Word.” The devoted William Burns
criticized the preaching of some missionaries that
it was too evangelical, that is, they did not dwell
sufficiently at first upon the evidences of Christi-
anity. After this they were to go forward with
the great truths of salvation and make every dis-
course point to Christ as the spokes to the axle.
Our task in answering the question, “What is
God?” so that a heathen may comprehend that
“God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchange-
able in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice,
goodness and truth,” is a gigantic one. Take the
Princeton theologian as he stood upon the mount
of illumination, and his work was as nothing to
ours. There sat in his lecture-room men who had
college diplomas, were masters of several lan-
182 PREACHING IN SINIM.

guages, and who accepted the Revelation, so the
teacher could draw from wells older than Jacob’s
and from the newly discovered springs of know-
ledge, a school of young philosophers with the
gates of faith and intellect all open. What have
we? Ignorant idolaters. There are only a few
narrow passes by which we can approach the
ancient citidel of superstition. Shall we come first
with the Bible as a witness and state its teachings
about God? The people know not the Scriptures
and accept not their testimony. What then is the
basis of religious teaching in a heathen land?
The apostle says, “For when the Gentiles, which
have not the law, do by nature the things con-
tained in the law, these having not the law are a
law unto themselves: which shew the work of the
law written in their hearts, their conscience also
bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile
accusing or else excusing one another.” The light
of nature and the teachings of conscience are not
obscure, for Paul says, “The invisible things of
him from the creation of the world are clearly
seen, being understood by the things that are
made, even his eternal power and godhead.”

The first inquiry that presents itself is, Is there
a God? Gather in one mighty assembly all the
gentry of China—the scholars, the philosophers,
NatTurAL THEOLOGY. 1383

the sages, the wise men—and propound the ques-
tion, Is there a God? and there will be the silence
of the grave. Examine the tomes of antiquity,
search the volumes which fill imperial libraries
and we obtain no answer. Let the three religious
systems, which have existed from two thousand to
four thousand years, marshal their votaries, and
what answer is given? Confucianism does not
consider the question of the origin of the universe,
Buddhism says boldly and decidedly there was no
Creator, while Taoism is too busy with spirits and
demons even to consider the question. To appeal
to these cults is like addressing an audience of the
deaf, dumb, and blind. There is, however, a fee-
ble response when we appeal to individual hearts
and consciences. We bid them look at their own
souls; with the soul there is life; without it, they
say, a man is dead. They are conscious of the
domain of spirit over their own bodies; why
should they not search for the Great Spirit that
rules the universe? The soul of man reflects the
image of the Creator, just as a glass of water the
shining sun. If there be not the great “Father of
spirits,” whence come our spirits? Or consider
the immortal mind, which in imagination can
travel so far, in reasoning can climb to such

heights, in breadth can feel such extremes of joy
12
134 PREACHING IN SINIM.

and sorrow—may we not think there is an infinite
mind which controls heaven and earth? Or
memory, so surprisingly developed by the Chinese
system of education, the storehouse in which are
laid up the treasures of knowledge; where is the
source of this wonderful faculty ? Whence cometh
man’s moral nature? Does not conscience, the
invisible monitor that tells of right and wrong,
point upward to an infinite source of moral ac-
tion? An unanswerable argument is man’s re-
ligious nature. Travelling over the earth, no mat-
ter to what clime we go, or what the condition of
the race, men engage in the worship of a Being or
of beings higher than themselves. Our religious
nature demands an object of love and reverence,
who can hear our confessions, praises, and pray-
ers, and supply all our wants. Again, why do
men look to God, or the gods, when they are sick?
Why this visiting the temples, and supplicating
the favor of the gods for those who are racked
with pain? Does not the cry of helpless human-
ity point to One who can help? The seventh ar-
gument is drawn from the existence of the false.
What is the counterfeit but an imitation of the
true? Are not the tin-foil dollars, selling at three
cents per one hundred dollars, to be burnt for the
dead, fac-similes of the silver dollars? Are not
Natura THEOLOGY. 135

the million false deities a witness of the One living
and true God? Looking at man’s moral, intellect-
ual, and spiritual nature, the conclusion is irresist-
ible, that it is only the fool that “hath said in his
heart, There is no God.”

From this the erring “offspring of God” may be
led to read the book of nature, and to consider
the relations of the great God to the universe
about us. The important study for the mission-
ary is, by careful analysis, to find out what the
Chinese know, and to make this the basis for
argument. To go beyond these, data may be in-
structive to the hearers, but the spiritual train of
thought is lost, and what was designed for a theo-
logical discourse becomes a lecture on science.
As they consider the pupil of the eye simply color,
it would utterly bewilder their minds to tell them
it is a window to let in the light. If we preach on
Jesus, “the Light of the world,” it is not neces-
sary to tell of light coming in waves, or the rapid-
ity of its travel, for the Chinese know as much
about the subject as the Jews did when they heard
of the “true light, which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world.”

Has, then, the universe a Creator? We stand
upon the bounds of a mighty ocean; as far as the
eye can reach there is the expanse of water; but
136 PREACHING IN SINIM.

this sea, which appears so boundless, has a shore
which says, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no
further; and here shall thy proud waves be
stayed”; so there must be a power which controls
these worlds upon worlds. We see a hanging
rope; it must be suspended on something, and
may we not think that all things are upheld by the
word of Jehovah’s power? Everything we use has
a maker: The house we live in, the table we write
on, the chair we sit in, the bed we sleep on, were
all made by some one. Look at a watch! Sup-
pose it were found on an uninhabited island; I
heard the tick, tick; I looked within, and beheld
‘wheel upon wheel, each influencing the other,
and all influenced by the main-spring, and regu-
lated by the balance-wheel. The evident design
of all this is to make the hands move, and mark
time upon the graduated dial-plate.” ‘The irre-
sistible conclusion is, that some one made the
watch.” If it takes me days or weeks “to under-
stand the mechanism of the watch, it must have
been contrived by a still greater intellect than
mine.” The watch had a maker, and an intelli-
gent maker. Such a watch is the solar system,
and if we compare the movements of the sun with
the watch, we find it “marking time with the ut-
most exactness upon the dial-plate of heaven.”
NATURAL THEOLOGY. 1387

And shall we not say the sun, moon, and stars—
the “three lights,” as the Chinese call them—must.
have a Creator?

If we come to a house, the reception-hall with
handsome chairs and marble tables, the bed-rooms
with finely-carved furniture, the study with its
cases of books at the side, and pens and ink on the
table, the kitchen with the viands all prepared—
though we see no one, we conclude that the house
has a master. Along the main street is a store
with a golden sign, its entire front open, the goods
lying upon the shelves, the clerks busy serving
customers—though a stranger, I feel assured there
is some one who owns the store. In the spring,
on the commons, we see flocks of eagles and swal-
lows flying in the sky, for the kites are exact imi-
tations of the originals. If it is a proof of intelli-
gence to make the kite, how much more to make
the bird? Go to the weaver’s and see the bro-
caded satin coming from the loom. First comes.
a practical artist, and lays out the warp. He ar-
ranges perpendicular threads, each in its place,
and then his work is finished. Then the weaver
uses his shuttle, and a little boy perched above
pulls at the threads, and out comes the most beau-
tiful embroidered silk. The pattern is a trophy of
the designer’s genius. Let us walk into a pleas-
138 PREACHING IN SINIM.

ure-garden, with its pavilions, and tea-houses, and
bamboo groves, and flowering trees, and lakes, and
labyrinthian rockeries. If these ‘false hills” were
made by man, can we not think that the moun-
tains show the Creator’s power? We are to ask
the people, Whence came the rice you eat for din-
ner? Last year’s planting. And whence last
year’s rice? And from where the first grains of
rice? If we ask where our bodies came from, the
people answer, “From father and mother.” And
pray, from whence came father and mother?
From ancestors, one generation above another.
Then, how about the first father and mother?
How naturally comes in the Scripture narrative.

While unfolding the true we have to combat the
false philosophy of the Chinese as to the origin of
the universe: That all things are self-produced ;
that heaven and earth, the great father and mo-
ther, originated all things; that the Great Monad
was the primordial germ; that from the yin and
yang, the male and female principles of nature, all
things come; that the prime agent was the “lee,”
or ‘“‘the principle of organization by which matter
is preserved, or the power that inheres to direct
it”; and that Pankoo divided the heavens and the
earth. It is quite easy to show the absurdity of
these vagaries.
NatTuRAL THEOLOGY. 139

The Chinese, like ourselves, are impressed with
the glory of the celestial spheres, and an astro-
nomical discourse is exceedingly appropriate. We
are to point to the sun as the source of light and
heat, and impress upon them how much they owe
to the possession of these two blessings. We are
to enlarge upon the beauties of the queen of night
as she rides through the heavens. The stars, as
diamonds in the sky, shine as brightly to the pa-
gan as to the Christian. The pole-star, fixed in
the north, here guides the mariner. While they
wonder and admire, it is for us to show them that
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the
firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day
uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth
knowledge. There is no speech nor language
where their voice is not heard.” The Chinese are
so utilitarian in their views, and so much “of the
earth, earthy,” that they bow down, and worship
“Mother Earth.” The four seasons native artists
love to paint, and of their beauty native poets de-
light to sing. The variety of fruits in the markets
is a witness of the benevolence of Deity. The
flowers the people love so, adorning the houses,
courts, roofs, boats, and which the florist arranges
so artistically in a mammoth bouquet, tell them
that God has made a beautiful world for man to
140 PREACHING IN SINIM.

dwellin. The argument for use and the argument
for beauty are both to be insisted on. The rain-
bow spanning the arch of heaven; the succession
of hills and valleys; the diamonds, pearls, and pre-
cious stones; the goldfish in the artificial lakes;
the little birds in the cages, which send forth joy-
ful notes—these all tell how the Heavenly Father
delights to please his earthly children.

The world is not thrown together at random, but.
order is the law of nature. The distribution of
land and water; the deposition of dew which falls
so gently with life-giving power on the thirsty
earth ; the fall of rain and “‘the snow from heaven,”
which “returneth not thither, but watereth the
earth, and maketh it to bring forth and bud, that
it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the
eater,” tell of an all-wise Providence. Is it a mark
of prudent foresight to store away fuel for the
winter? Then, what of the mountains of coal laid
up for the ages! “If a father who, when he pro-
vides a home for his children, fits it up with all
the necessaries and luxuries which they can possi-
bly need, gives indisputable evidence of intelli-
gence and love, then are those attributes to be
ascribed to him who fitted up this world to be the
home of his creatures.”

The Chinese speak of the ‘five elements”—the
NaturAL THEOLOGY. 141

metals, wood, water, heat, and earth. What an
amount of metallic substances in the Middle King-
dom! The mines of gold, the quantities of silver
for commerce and ornaments, brass with its mani-
fold uses, and iron in the mountains, lying just be-
side the coal. The forests supply materials to con-
struct houses, boats, and furniture. How much
water is used! For tea, cooking, bathing, wash-
ing, irrigating, and travelling! How many lakes,
rivers, canals, and springs! Were the sea a half-
mile higher, it would deluge the dry land. Ice
expands in freezing, and so floats on top, and the
fish are preserved underneath. Were water, like
other substances, to contract by cold, it would
sink, the canal become an iceberg, and all the fish
die. How necessary to our existence is heat! We
must also tell of the goodness of the Lord in pro-
viding the “five grains”: God protects, farmers
plant, boats transport, merchants sell, and men
and beasts eat.

The physiological argument is one the people
appreciate, for, though they know little of the
muscles, they are acquainted with the bones and
the important organs of the human system. So-
crates called attention to the works of God, and
pointed to the statue, so cold and immovable, as
the highest display of man’s art, and compared
142 PREACHING IN SINIM.

this with the figure, all warm with life, that can
move, breathe, speak, and act, the handiwork of
Jehovah. Let us visit a temple and see the idols
sitting on their pedestals, big at the bottom and
sloping upwards, and then see man, with the body
large and tapering to the feet, his “four limbs and
hundred parts” so supple and movable to turn, or
stand, or sit, or recline. The thick head bones so
assiduously guarding the brain, like the arch at
the city gate; the beautiful curving column of the
spine, giving flexibility to the body; the heart and
lungs, enclosed by the ribs like the hoops around
a bucket; the sockets of the joints, working so
smoothly and not wearing out like the wooden
hinges of a door, tell of wisdom in design. If the
arms were as large as the legs, the weight would be
oppressive ; and if the legs were as small as the arms,
man would be a monstrosity. The hand! Beasts
have none; cats and dogs use their mouths ; squir-
rels and monkeys their feet. Its skin fits like a
glove. It has such a large number of bones and
flexible joints, and turns at the wrist and at every
joint! For writing, drawing, cutting, digging, the
hand is used. Some machines are for coarse work,
some for fine; but here is a machine which can
build a house and mend a watch, pull a hempen
rope and a silken thread, has a firm grasp and a
NaTuRAL THEOLOGY. 143.

delicate touch. How beautiful the human foot,
with so many bones uniting to form an arch; and
when the coolie carries a load, the weight it sus-
tains is doubled!

Or take the eye. Is the camera a mark of skill
and intelligence? It is made after the pattern of
the organ of vision. The eye is protected by pro-
jecting bones, as Jerusalem was encircled by
mountains. It has “the hedge of the eyebrows,
the curtain of the eyelids, and the fence of the
eyelashes.” “The eye is not repaired; it repairs.
itself. Itis not adjusted; it adjusts itself.” It is
moistened with tears, closed while we sleep, and open
when we wake. “God has given to every man so.
high a value for his eye, and so quick an appre-
hension of danger, that no member of the body is.
more faithfully cared for than the organ of sight.”
The ear hears the loud peals of distant thunder,
and the soft notes of music near at hand. The
nose catches the sweet perfume of flowers, and
also tells of decay, the removal of which prevents
sickness. What a blessing is the gift of speech!
The throat has “the windpipe” and “the food-
pipe,” with a trap-door over the former, which
shuts when the food passes. We cut with our
front teeth as with a knife, and grind with our
back teeth as ina mill. The saliva is to moisten
144 PREACHING IN SINIM.

the food, and prepare it for assimilation. In a
fever, the mouth is dry, because the heat, like the
sun in a drought, dries it up. How wonderful the
process of digestion! When we are weak, a bowl
of rice gives strength, and prepares us for work.
The lungs are the bellows, or ‘wind-boxes,” and
in them the blood meets with the air, and is puri-
fied. The most important organ is the heart,
which acts like the system of water-works in
Shanghai, playing the part of both the engine and
the tower. How all the members of the body,
framed together, form one complete whole! The
eyes are not on the back, the ears on the breast,
or the nose on the feet; nor are the important or-
gans to be measured by their size, but “‘God hath
tempered the body together.” “If the whole body
were an eye, where were the hearing? If the
whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
But now God hath set the members, every one of
them, in the body as it hath pleased him.”
Natural history presents its line of argument.
How many varieties of birds in China, and in how
many houses is there a cage with a pet songster,
whose little room is kept clean, even though their
own homes may not bein order. See the pheasant
roaming wild in the fields around the city! Can
the scholars along the streets, arrayed in silk,
NatTuRAL THEOLOGY. 145

satin, and fur, be compared with one of these?
God made the fowls of the air, with bodies small
and bones light, a tiny bird carrying an immense
wing. With what ease they sail aloft till we see
but a small speck in the sky! Did man have
wings, they must be as large as the side of the
room, and he could not walk with such a load.
What diversity there is in the bills of birds!
The same is seen in their feet. Those of the
woodpecker are like claws, and the duck’s are
web-footed. Watch the ease with which they
swim! So the Chinese have taken the duck as
the model for a boat.

The forests of the earth are a great zodlogical
garden, and so extensive is the fauna that it is
designated the “animal kingdom.” Furs come
from the snow-clad regions of the north, where
beasts are provided with thick clothing. Dogs
and tigers have sharp teeth to eat flesh, horses
and cows broad ones to feed on grass. Man’s
throat is smooth, so that food slips down; the
horse’s throat is rough, so he can draw food up-
wards. As the elephant’s neck is short, he is
provided with a trunk, which is a weapon of im-
mense power, and so delicate at the end that it
can pick up a needle. In Central Asia they do
not cross the sandy deserts in boats as in South
146 PREACHING IN SINIM.

China, or in carts, as in North China, but on
camels. Within the camel are fourteen bags, in
which he stores water for the “dry and thirsty
land where no water is.” These facts lead the
minds of the hearer to nature’s God.

As we pass through the country we are struck
with the quantities of fish. Along the coasts we
see lights from the fishing boats; the rivers, lakes,
and canals are full of them; fish nets and traps
are everywhere to be seen. Perhaps millions
obtain a livelihood from the waters. There are
fish-hongs, and fish-stands, and fish-mongers.
To raise sheep, hogs, and fowls takes money, but
here is a costless provision of meat for the multi-
tudes in this “hive of nations.” There is no
more patent fact than this of God’s care for men.
Then what a wonderful organism the fish is! Let
a man be put under the water, and it fills his eyes
and mouth, and soon he drowns; but the fish
lives and moves. With his tail he skulls his own
boat, just as the boatman uses the oar at the
stern. His bones are fine and elastic, his fins are
like the side wheels to a steamer, and his blood,
colder than man’s, is just the temperature of the
water. What a sermon the fish is! How God
has made all things so fitted for their special
state! Were the horse the size of the dog, man
Narurat THEOLOGY. 147

could not ride; were the cow as huge as the ele-
phant, it would not be suitable for the dairy; if
the cat were as large as the hog, when wild it
would be formidable; were the eagle of the dimen-
sions of the mule, it could carry off men to its
nest. See how the feet of horses, monkeys, and
ducks are suited respectively for walking, climb-
ing, and swimming! Fish are in the water,
beasts on the earth, and birds in the air. Fish
are not on the land, beasts are not in the air, nor
birds in the water. Fish have seales, beasts
hoofs, and birds wings. Beasts have not wings,
nor fish hoofs, nor birds scales. The beasts of
the field, the fowls of the air, and the fish of the
sea are a happy triad that wait upon their Maker.
“He causeth grass to grow for the cattle.” ‘The
cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted, where
the birds make their nests.” ‘This great and
wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumera-
ble.” “O Lord! how manifold are thy works! in
wisdom hast thou made them all.”

If natural theology teaches the existence of God,
it may be asked does it tell of his unity, or is this
a doctrine of Revelation as when God’s chosen
people learned their great lesson that Jehovah
was one? Here are millions of gods. How are
we to demonstrate to the Chinese that God is
148 PREACHING IN SINIM.

one? In answering this. question Mencius may
be quoted, “Heaven has not two suns, ‘nor the
people two rulers.” If itis necessary for a coun-
try to have only one ruler, how much more for
the universe to have one king? During the
Taipine rebellion, with two emperors, mid-China
became a desolation and a ruin. As we behold
how heaven and earth move in peace and union,
we may know there is only one power that directs.
‘Were there two gods, one might desire cold and
the other heat, one winter and the other summer,
one rain and the other sunshine. The four sea-
sons would be in confusion, and heaven and earth
overturned! Were there two, they must divide
jurisdiction and so have limits to their power,
but the essential idea of God is that he is illimi-
table. Were we to see a steamship built in dif-
ferent shops, the various parts when put together
making one complete whole, would we not say
that the models were designed by one architect?
‘When the wooden frame-work of a Chinese house,
built in the shop, is erected, and it is found that
mortise and tenon, joint and socket fit the one to
the other, is it not evident that the draught was
made by one carpenter? Wesee everything made
with some special design: the clock to keep time,
the loom to weave, the boat to travel. Through-
NATURAL THEOLOGY. 149

out creation it is also evident that one thing is
designed for another. If air was heavier or lighter,
birds could not fly; so he who created the birds
created also the air. If water were more or less
dense, fish could not live. He who made the fish
made also the water. If all nations were governed
by the same laws we would consider that theré
was one emperor. Does not the uniformity of
the laws of nature point to the unity of God?
The sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
The moon and stars shine by night. The four
seasons come in regular succession. A day and
a night are twenty-four hours long. Were night
to continue for three days it would be an Egyp-
tian plague. If one was hot and the next cold,
no constitution could stand it. A family, a boat,
a house, a hong, each has its head, why should
the universe be headless? The county has a
district magistrate, the department a prefect, the
province a governor, two provinces a viceroy, the
eighteen provinces an emperor, and who above
him? Men answer, “heaven.” And who rules
heaven? “O! Lord, our Lord, how excellent is
thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory
above the heavens.”

The Bible teaches the Christian that “God is
love”; the book of nature also tells the heathen
150 PREACHING IN SINIM.

the blessed truth of the Fatherhood of God. If
there are seventy or eighty to eat from one
kitchen, as in the large families in China, how
much care to its head to provide? Then think of
the race of men living on God’s bounty! He sup-
plies his children with furs for the winter, cotton
for the spring, hemp for the summer, and silk for
the fall. He gives them brass and iron, gold and
silver. They have horses, cows, sheep, and hogs.
On a bright spring day how happy creation is—the
birds sing, the lambs sport, calves and colts play,
and all living things seem happy! If all flowers
had the same color, all birds the same feathers, all
scenery the same appearance, all food the same
taste, how monotonous! Man with his eyes sees
pretty colors, with his ears hears delightful har-
monies, with his palate enjoys pleasant tastes.
Famines are the exceptions and years of plenty
the rule, sick days only now and then and days of
health continuous, days of sorrow few and our
happy days many. Were the heavens paper, and
the sea ink, and all the trees and woods pens, if we
attempted to write of the goodness of God, the
forests would be felled, the oceans dry, and the
scrolls finished, and still we could sing “God is
Love.”

Day after day, during the epochs of creation, it
NATURAL THEOLOGY. 151

was recorded, “And God saw that it was good.”
Nature tells also of the perfection of God’s works.
Nearly everything done by man has some defect,
but not so with the works of Jehovah. The sun is
one, not two. Were there two the light would
blind our eyes, and the heat would make the earth
a furnace. In the early morn when the shadows
roll down the mountain sides, and the rising sun
gilds the east, and peak and headland are lit up,
the dew sparkling upon the green leaves, and the
birds with their first notes are heard, does not
nature sing its Maker’s praise! Men love to gaze
at the moon, but were it brighter they could not
enjoy its soft beams. If the light of the stars were
more brilliant we could not rest at night. “Lo,
these are parts of his ways; but how little a por-
tion is heard of him!” Natural Theology tells us
that there is a God, that he is one, that he is
good, and he is almighty. This is the first out-
line of thought we present, and it is the door by
which we may lead the pagan into the glorious
temple of revealed theology and unfold the seif-
existence, eternity, omnipotence, omniscience,
omnipresence, justice, goodness, truth and holi-
ness of Jehovah. When we attempt to tell a poor
heathen of the glory of God, we must, like the
Seraphim, ery, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of
152 PREACHING IN SINIM.

hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.” Where
can we better speak of “God is a Spirit” than in
China amidst the hosts of images and image wor-
shippers? Or of him as the Living God than
where it is the worship of dead men, and where in
the temples “Death reigns?” To the Gentiles we
present the internal evidences of our holy religion,
and show them how the heart’s desire to wor-
ship, and the truth that God is the object of
worship fit the one to the other, as the two halves
of a Chinese cheque, one of which is sent to the
bank and the other to the party that collects.
The sinner’s wants are made known in prayer;
God hears prayer. Here is the lock and its key.
There are sins which I confess; God forgives sin.
Does not one match the other, as the page of a
book the stereotype plate from which it was
printed? So we, as wise master-builders, use
gold, silver, and precious stones, and to establish
the truth of our holy religion draw our arguments
from the heaven above, the earth beneath, and the
consciousness of man. Thus with David we may
sing the first part of the nineteenth Psalm, as the
Gentiles ascend unto the hill of the Lord to study
his word, and discover that “The law of the Lord
is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of
the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.” If the
NatTuRAL THEOLOGY. 153

witness nature bears to the existence of God is
so full, what must the Bible be which he has
written to reveal his glorious attributes! If natu-
ral religion is such a grand field of research, what

a wide domain for the preacher to the heathen is
revealed theology}
CHAPTER XI.

Tuer Licut or ETuHics AND THE DARKNESS OF SIN.’
'{\HE apostle says of the Gentiles, “Which shew

the work of the law written in their hearts,
their conscience also bearing witness.” As ethical
teachers we are to study the moral code of the
people to whom we come. One reason of the
nation’s longevity is the most excellent system of
moral philosophy, known as Confucian, which is
studied by every little boy who enters school.
The silver rule of the sage, enunciated twice in
different words, is the golden rule in a negative
form, and with the same meaning. The exhor-
tation of the philosopher Yientsze, whose temple
stands in Soochow, “Love men,” ‘Learn the
doctrine,” is an approach on the human side to
the fulfilling of the law in the one word, “Love.”
The people speak constantly of “faithfulness, rev-
erence, chastity, and morality” as the four pillars
of the temple of Morality, and of the “five vir-
tues,” “benevolence, righteousness, propriety,
knowledge, and faith,” as the guiding principles
of national integrity. In the doctrine of the

man “the standard of excellence is placed so
154
Tue Licht oF ETHIcs. 155

high as to be absolutely unattainable by unaided
human nature.” The author “probably intended
to elevate the character of his grandfather to this
height, and thus hand him down to future ages as
the perfect and holy man. He has, in the pro-
vidence of God, done his countrymen great ser-
vice in setting before them such a character.”
“Compared with the precepts of Grecian and
Roman sages, the general tendency of the writings
of Confucius is good, while in adaptation to the
society in which he lived, and their eminently
practical character, they exceed those of western
philosophers. He did not deal much in sublime
and unattainable descriptions of virtue, but rather
taught how the common intercourse of life was to
be maintained.”

Mencius speaks of “the heart which approves
and disapproves,” 7. ¢., conscience. He also says,
“Without a heart to approve and disapprove, one
cannot be aman.” There are scores of proverbs
about conscience, and in ordinary conversation
the people appeal to their consciences. A com-
mon topic is the “heart.” Without a “pious
heart” worship is in vain; we are to “rectify the
heart”; “the heart must be placed in the centre,”
2. é., control all our actions. The teachings of
the sages have been handed down through the
156 PREACHING IN SINIM.

ages, and have become part of their moral warp
and woof. They boast of their ethical teachings,
and we may change the words of Paul about the
Jews so as to read, “Behold, thou art called a
Chinese, and resteth in the law, and makest thy
boast of Confucius, and art confident that thou.
thyself art a guide to the blind, a light to them
which art in darkness, an instructor of the foolish,
a teacher of babes.” Some of the Parisees asked
Jesus, “Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them,
If ye were blind, ye should have no sin; but now
ye say, we see; therefore your sin remaineth.”
It is the claim of the Chinese to high moral cul-
ture which makes them “without excuse.” They
say that western nations excel in arts and sciences,
but that we have the literature and moral teach-
ings. Often in the chapels, when we are speaking
of duty, some stranger takes up the thread of dis-
course and talks both eloquently and pointedly.
They converse with a glib readiness on these
topics, and their words indicate a surprising know-
ledge of the true and the good. We are to recog-
nize all that we find praiseworthy in the Confucian
economy, but at the same time show the supe-
riority of Christianity as a moral code, besides the
glorious teachings on religion, on which topic the
sage was silent.
THe LIGHT or Eraics. 157

Throughout the Bible, prominent doctrines are
taught by contrast. So in China we may put their
theoretical knowledge of morality over against
their practical ignorance of sin. We do not come
to a barbarous people to teach them the first prin-
ciples of right and wrong, but to a nation highly
cultivated in literature and the arts. We come to
instruct them in the matter of salvation. By what
avenue shall we approach them? How shall we
tell them of Jesus, the Saviour of the world? It
is evident they must feel their need of salvation
before they can accept the mediation of Christ.
To hear of religion as it is written in the books
pleases them; it is redemption applied to their in-
dividual consciences which is so difficult. Our
Master says, ‘The whole need not a physician.”
The Chinese, in their own estimation, are whole;
even the prisoners in the gaols claim to be good
men. Christ said, “I came not to call the right-
eous.” The Chinese are righteous. The land is
full of Laodiceans, who say, “I am rich, and in-
creased with goods, and have need of nothing;
and know not that they are wretched, and misera-
ble, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Shall we
tell them of the love of God? They are delighted
with the doctrine, and consider themselves the

worthy recipients. We speak of the goodness of
14
158 PREACHING IN SINIM.

God in providing food for his creatures. “Yes,
the rice I eat is my due; I ought to have it; I am
entitled to it; itis my own.” We tell of the death
of the Son of God. It is a panorama, a pretty
picture, a wonderful spectacle of divine mercy.
We say that Christ died for sinners, and they ac-
cept the statement as a general truth which has no
application in the premises. The preacher asks,
“Do you know what sin is?” “Oh, yes: murder,
arson, robbery.” ‘Have you any sin?” “Yes,
everybody has sin.” “Have you any personal
sin?” “No, I have never done anything wrong.”
“Have you never had a bad thought?” ‘How
could I? My heart is pure.” ‘Has no profane
word ever passed your lips?” ‘Never; I do not
curse.” “But in your early years did you never
commit sin?” If I did, I have forgotten it; it
makes no difference now.” To hear them tell it,
the Chinese are a sinless people. Day by day we
converse with old men and old women who con-
sider themselves immaculate. Others deem it such
a small matter, that it is not worth talking about.
Many are insulted by the question; the possibility
of thinking I have sin!

This estate of Confucian perfection is almost in-
comprehensible to us. We speak of conviction of
sin as it is felt sometimes during a powerful revival
Tue Licut or Eratics. 159

of religion, and perhaps in our own souls we have
experienced the terrors of sins unforgiven; but
from our childhood we have never been without a
sense of sin; we have always had tender consci-
ences, and, in a greater or less degree, have felt
that sin is evil in God’s sight. In Christian lands
this is almost universal. Men who remain with-
out the pale of the Christian church confess them-
selves to be sinners, and acknowledge that they
personally have been guilty of sin. Those at home
who deny that they have sin are just as scarce as
men here who confess that they are sinners. Peo-
ple speak to us about praying to our Heavenly
Father: “TI suppose you kneel and say, ‘Oh, Lord,
here I am; I have a good conscience; I have

299

never done anything wrong. The Saviour puts
it exactly: “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus
with himself” (all about ego), “God, I thank thee
that I am not as other men are.” They wipe their
mouth, and say, “I have done no wickedness.”
There are several causes of this self-satisfaction.
In Zechariah’s vision of the myrtle trees, those
who rode upon the horses, answered the angel of
the Lord and said, “We have walked to and fro
through the earth, and behold, all the earth sit-
teth still and is at rest.” “Thus saith the Lord
of hosts..... I am very sore displeased with
160 PREACHING IN SINIM.

the heathen that are at ease.” The Chinese are
the most contented people on the face of the
earth, and they carry complete serenity (heart-
ease) into the domain of religion. Another cause
is their excessive worldly-mindedness. They
“love the world and the things of the world.”
The love of gain is the one absorbing interest of
their lives; so, with their thoughts fixed on this,
they never look within. A third reason is their
belief in the essential goodness of human nature.
Their philosophy inculcates it, their teachers teach
it, their scholars believe it, and the people accept
it; so the doctrine that “all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God” is a strange
dogma. Again, the systems of merit have had a
deadening effect upon the hearts and consciences
of the people. Burning incense is not so much
an act of worship to the gods as a method of
gaining merit for man. Benevolent actions, fasts,
vegetable diet, pilgrimages, are all meritorious ;
so a Chinaman is not “poor in spirit” ; he is rich
in merit. In the fifth place, their political
preaching tends to make them have comfortable
views of their own condition. The ministers of
Confucianism speak only of the great crimes, and
men who are guilty of these are publicly pun-
ished by heaven. The Yamen runners and hard-
Tuer Licut or Eruics. 161

hearted publicans at the barriers are bad peo-
ple; but the merchant of tolerable honesty; the
teacher who is regular in his instructions; the
lady who enjoys the money and fees the priests ;
the servant, who performs the simple chores—
what wrong thing do they do?

Last year there was a proclamation posted
throughout the city, naming 176 men who have
formerly been before the police court, and telling
them if they are again found guilty, they will be
branded on the cheeks. The people have atten-
tively read this document, and conclude that
there are thus 176 bad men in Soochow, and
499,824 good people.

Again, Satan has murdered these people. Soul-
less gods have made soulless worshippers. They
are dead, dead, dead! We astonish them when
we affirm that the Pearly Emperor is not in
heaven ; when we say that the worship of heaven
and earth is an abomination; when we assert
that Jesus is the Lord of lords. These are small
surprises. The startling fact is when they find
themselves guilty sinners before the bar of an
offended God.

A seventh reason is presented. Though they
speak so fluently about moral responsibility, they
have “their conscience seared with a hot iron.”
162 PREACHING IN SINIM.

Their sensibilities are deadened to eternal things.
An illustration is seen in the back and legs of a
peasant, the one uncovered to the suns of forty
summers, and immersed, as the other has been, in
the mud of the paddy-fields, the skin has become
hardened by exposure; and so, in a measure, the
sense of feeling is blunted.

It is evident the case needs heroic treatment.
The love theory will not suffice. The minister is
to preach the law. Paul gives us a section of his
experience, “ Nay, I had not known sin, but by
the law. . . . For without the law sin was
dead. For I was alive without the law once; but
when the commandment came, sin revived and I
died.” His death, however, was to live again.
“The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to
Christ.” It may be asked, Did not the Moravians
pursue this policy, preaching about sin and the
judgment, with no converts, but when one told the
story of God’s love many believed? True, but
would the gospel have been accepted by the Ice-
landers had they not first heard the law? We
are to lead the Chinese into the desert of Arabia,
“to the mount that might not be touched, and
that burned with fire.”

‘‘Awaked by Sinai’s awful sound,
My soul in bonds of guilt I found.”
Tus Licut or Eruics. 163

Upon this citadel the preacher must level his
heaviest batteries. It is not simply to drive a
Chinese out of idolatry, that refuge of lies, but to
drive him out of his self-righteousness, to make
him know that robes of silk are the vestments of
one who, “from the sole of the foot even unto the
head there is no soundness in it; but wounds and
bruises and putrifying sores.’ The people are
surrounded by walis as high as heaven, and no
Jonathan with his armor-bearer can scale them.
We must not only make a breach, the fort must
be leveled to the ground. To the human eye these
bulwarks are impregnable, but the Holy Spirit
will come as a “rushing mighty wind,” a cyclone,
and demolish the strongholds of Satan. The
Comforter ‘will reprove the world of sin, and of
righteousness, and of judgment.” Then will they
be “pricked in their heart.” And what mourning!
“And I will pour out upon the house of David,
and. upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit
of grace and of supplications; and they shall look
upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall
mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son,
and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is
in bitterness for his first born.” ‘In that day”
of mourning and prayer “there shall be a fountain
opened to the house of David and to the inhabi-
164 PREACHING IN SINIM.

tants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness.” If
any experience has been gained during a ministry
of some years, I would say, Preach on sin. Con-
viction of sin is the rugged path that leads to the -
“fountain filled with blood.” The people stay
away from Christ because—
‘The only fitness he requireth
Is to feel your need of him.”
Let us lead them to the garden of Eden, that

earthly paradise, where our first parents were
placed on probation, and let them in contrast

behold the sad picture of the fall and all its dire-
ful consequences. They are to know the ways of
sin. ‘Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin; and so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned.’ The
enumeration must be minute; sins of thought,
word, and deed—‘ body, mouth, and heart,” as
they express it—sins great and small, accidental
and besetting, secret and open, omission and com-
mission ; that we sin yearly, monthly, daily, hourly,
momentarily; and of the wrath of God “revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unright-
eousness of men who hold the truth in unright-
eousness.”

A few years’ experience will enable one to illus-
trate the dishonesty that pervades the social
Tue Licut or Eruaics. 165

fabric; the divers weights and measures; the
“squeezes” in making purchases for others; the
extortion in the government offices, and the want
of rectitude in financial transactions. To enlarge
upon the sins of speech, of their facility in un-
blushing lies, and also of the fearful amount of
profanity that proceeds from the lips of men,
women, and prattling children. “their throat is
an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have
used deceit; the poison of asps is under their
lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitter-
ness.”

Sin is to be compared with debt; and where is
the Chinaman without debt? The magnitude of
the debt is like the servant who owed 10,000
piculs of silver, or like the late banker Ho, of
Hangchow, who, at the time of his death, was due
the government sixteen million taels. Sin is to be
presented as a disease, which affects the whole
body, is universal, is handed down from our
parents, and which the physicians cannot cure.
The dreadful character of one single sin must be
spoken of. One link broken, and the chain is
broken ; with one crack the mirror is ruined; one
wheel out of order and the wheel stops; the pirate
one robbery, and the murderer one victim, and
the death warrant is signed; so every sin deserves
166 PREACHING IN SINIM.

God’s wrath and curse. Men are “dead in tres-
passes of sins”; hands unable to perform a right
action, feet that cannot walk the heavenly road,
ears deaf to the message of salvation, eyes that
cannot see the truth, hearts which are unable to
believe, just as the paralytic brought by four men
to Jesus. Here in China is the valley in which
Ezekiel saw the bones, “and behold! there were
very many in the open valley; and lo! they were
very dry.” Six times are the words of Isaiah,
which were quoted by Christ to explain the para-
ble of the sower, used in Scripture. “By hearing
ye shall hear, and shall not understand ; and see-
ing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: for this
people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are
dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed ;
lest at any time they shall see with their eyes and
hear with their ears, and should understand with
their heart, and should be converted, and I should
heal them.” Jesus said-to the Jews, ‘Ye are of
your father the devil, and the lusts of your father
ye will do. He was a murderer from the begin-
ning, and abode not in the truth, because there is
no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he
speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the
father of it.’ As a matter of observation, I never
have such fixed and earnest attention from a
THE Licut or Eruics. 167

heathen audience as when the topics are “dead
in sin” and “ children of the devil.”

He, “the prince of the power of the air,” seems
to hold special control over the hearts and minds
of the Chinese, and the nation is peculiarly under
his dominion. Where upon the face of the earth
has devil-worship assumed such multiform and
divers kinds of homage? The very intellectual
ability of the people seems keenly alive in consid-
ering the relations of spirits to men, and their in-
genuity is taxed to the utmost in devising ways
and means to ward off the attacks of the legions
of devils. The gospel preacher is to study the
scores of chapters of Holy Writ which denounce
the fearful sin of idolatry. Though taught by
patriarch and prophet, Israel would not learn the
great lesson of her national life till after the cap-
tivity. How often were the chosen people pun-
ished and their cities laid waste just for this one
sin! By what figures of speech did the writers
of old, inspired by the Holy Ghost, describe leav-
ing the ordinances of Jehovah and following after
false gods? There is danger that men, from
sympathy for the unfortunate pagan, lose their
jealousy for the glory of Jehovah, and forget the
fearfulness of the crime and the guilt of the per-
petrators. God, in the moral law, describes idol-
168. PREACHING IN SINIM.

aters as “those that hate me.” Ezekiel tells of
the ‘ images of their abominations,” and Peter
speaks of the “abominable idolatries.” What a
fearful picture the former gives us of the ‘“ wicked
abominations” “portrayed upon the wall” “in
the chambers of his imagery”! The condition of
Peking is just as abhorrent in the eyes of the
Most High as was that of heathen Rome as it
was described by the apostle to the Gentiles.
“ Professing themselves to be wise, they became
fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible
God into an image made like to corruptible
man... . Who changed the truth of God into a
he, and worshipped and served the creature more
than the Creator. .. . And even as they did not
like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave
them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things
which are not convenient.” As heathenism is the
ancestor of vice, the aggravated guilt of the idola-
ter must be fearfully set forth. The axe must be
laid at the root of the tree if the way is to be
prepared for the glorious advent of the Messenger
of the Covenant.
CHAPTER XII.
PREACHING CHRIST.

FTER the death of the proto-martyr the perse-
cution waxed hot, and the disciples fled from
Jerusalem. “Therefore they that were scattered
abroad went everywhere preaching the word.
Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria,
and preached Christ unto them. And the people
with one accord gave heed unto those things
which Philip spake.” The servants of the Most
High follow the example of the evangelist and
preach Christ, his person and glory. Protestants
are denominated in China the ‘Jesus’ Church,”
and as this sign is over our chapel doors the people
ask, ‘‘ Who is this whom you preach?” We give
an account of the life and character of our Lord,
telling how he preached the gospel, gathered dis-
ciples, performed miracles, and blessed mankind.
The inquiry comes, must our teachings be drawn
entirely from the gospel narrative, or are there.
intuitions in the Chinese mind and factors in their
, national economy by which we can illustrate the
prominent features in the history of the Man of

Galilee? We can answer in the affirmative that.
15 169
170 PREACHING IN SINIM.

there are facts in their patriarchal institutions
which stand as pulpit-rocks for the preachers of
the new religion. Amidst the fearful array of
difficulties which confront the advancing pickets it
is a matter of devout thankfulness that in the gov-
ernment and social customs of this nation, which
has survived the march of centuries and the
wrecks of kingdoms, there are fundamental princi-
ples on which we may base our expositions. In
going to any pagan country we expect to find false
gods and to tell the people of the true God, but in
Sinim we may tell there is “One God,” and also
find a basis for our teachings concerning the “One
Mediator between God and man.”

CHRIST THE MEDIATOR.

It is a privilege to set forth the mediatorial
character of Christ in thought and language that
the people daily use. The whole structure of the
Chinese social and political economy is based
upon the use of the “middle-man.” No one
thinks of employing a servant unless there is
some one to recommend him, and the party re-
commending is held responsible for any misde-
meanors of the underling. A stranger with no
one to stand his security would not be able to
get a position in any respectable family. A clerk
PREACHING CHRIST. 171

would not apply for a situation in person—he
would be rejected if he did—but requests a friend
who is an acquaintance of the merchant to inter-
cede in his behalf. Often the friend cannot do
this directly, but speaks to a third party who has
influence with the employer. No youth is allowed
to enter the examination hall without having a
former graduate—an alumnus of the college of
letters—to act as security for his good behavior.
In the important business of marriage the con-
tracting parties have no voice in the matter, and
their future destiny is in the hands of go-betweens.
In renting a house a tenant does not seek the land-
lord, but the whole transaction is conducted by
trusty intermediaries. The title-deeds to real
estate have the names of the negotiators and of
the one who stands security written upon them.
Business in the government offices is transacted
by influential friends who have the ear of the
official. There is a graduated scale of fees for all
of these services.

In the department of religion there are ex-
amples of mediatorship. The kitchen-god at the
old year is supposed to ascend to heaven and tell
the Pearly Emperor of all that the family has done
during the twelve months; and they, by sweeten-
ing his lips as he starts upon his journey, hope to
172 PREACHING IN SINIM.

secure a favorable report of their deeds. Near
the temple of the Pearly Emperor is a smaller
one for the mediator of hades. The worshipper
first goes to the shrine, burns incense, and re-
quests him to intercede above and obtain permis-
sion for him to worship the god of gods. Even
when the smaller gods come to pay their respects
to the highest in the pantheon, they first go
before the mediator and ask him to obtain for
them an audience before Jupiter Optimus Maxi-
mus.

So common is the employment of middlemen,
and so simple is the thought, that the Chinese
accept it as a first-truth. We are often asked, “If
we join your church must we have some one to act
as surety?” and the direct answer includes the
great fundamental principles of salvation. That
Christ would stand as bondsman for a stranger or
for a sinner fills them with surprise. Nearly the
whole of the Redeemer’s work can be presented
under this—to the Chinese—simple concept. His
standing between God and man, his pleading our
cause, his acting as the mediator of the new cove-
nant, his offering up our prayers, his opening the
gate of heaven, his pledge of eternal rest, can all
be expressed in such simple terms that a little
Chinese child comprehends the meaning.
PREACHING CHRIST. 173

Tue FeprraL HEADSHIP.

In no country can the doctrine of Christ the
Head of his redeemed be so fully illustrated as in
China. Many reasons have been assigned for the
stability of Chinese institutions and of the govern-
ment that has stood for forty centuries, but of these,
second to none is the federal relation between
prince and subjects, or the legal responsibility of
the one for the other. When Christ became the
shepherd of his sheep—for whom he died—he
assumed all their obligations and stood before God
as their sponsor. The race of believers were
grouped under a federal head and representative.
It was a responsible undertaking, but in the accep-
tance and performance of this responsible trust lies
the hope of the redeemed. The civic code of the
middle kingdom abundantly illustrates the princi-
ple of representation, this prominent doctrine of
revelation.

In China there is a legal unity between the gov-
ernor and the governed. The Mandarin is held
responsible for all that occurs within his territory.
Tf there is a murder, the alternative is to find the
murderer or lose his office. Blood is required
where blood is shed, and till the man-slayer is
produced, the official is not held guiltless. The
rulers are the fathers and mothers of the people,
174. PREACHING IN SINIM.

and are accountable to the Emperor, not only for
the faithful discharge of their personal duties, but
for the peace and quiet of their subjects. If there
is a disturbance or an insurrection, the theory and
practice is that his rule should have been so wise
and watchful as to prevent these demonstrations
of violence. The fact that he is amenable for the
acts of those within his jurisdiction makes the Man-
darin doubly guarded in his administration. They
are not forced to take office, but voluntarily assume
these responsibilities. If there is a theft, in case
the stolen property is not recovered, the ¢ipao, or
constable, is bambooed. This holding the police-
man, or protector of the peace responsible for all
that occurs in his ward, tends much to maintain
good order.

Two years ago, as the manacles were removed
from the prisoners at China New Year, by over-
powering the wardens, ten robbers—two of them
noted ones—escaped from the prefectural gaol.
The only notice the provincial governor took of
the case was to take away the Prefect’s button.
The alternative was to catch the fugitives or leave
his office in disgrace. The matter touched the
hearts, the pockets, and the positions of two hun-
dred men in the Yamen, and there was great ex-
citement. The Prefect offered $10,000—$1,000 a
PREACHING CHRIST. 175

head—for their arrest. The whole energy of the
Yamen was directed to catching the convicts, and
messengers were dispatched to their respective
homes. The soldiers and the police were active,
and in a short time nine out of the ten were cap-
tured. The Prefect’s insignia of rank were imme-
diately restored. In Chinese law the jailer was
not the responsible party in the first degree, but
his chief, who is the governor of ten counties.

in the Northwest a private soldier during a long
period stole, a little at a time, a quantity of lard
which was entrusted to his charge, to the value of
ten or fifteen dollars. It was afterwards discov-
ered and brought to the notice of the Board of War.
The soldier was beaten, his captain cashiered, the
colonel removed, and the general censured. Why?
There was clear proof of a lack of discipline in the
army.

Some years ago a leading American house sent
forty-four shoes of sycee into the Chehkiang pro-
vince to buy tea, and they were stolen on the road.
The firm informed the Consul, the Consul dis-
patched the Taotai, the Taotai informed the Futai
at Hangchow, and he simply arrested the presi-
dents of two boat hongs. Their families made
inquiries on what boats the silver was carried, sent
runners to the homes of the boatmen and found
176 PREACHING IN SINIM.

forty-two pieces buried beneath their beds. The
heads of the boat companies were responsible for
the acts of the sailors.

A year ago the son of the compradore of the
French Bank in Shanghai tried to get Taels (200)
from his father to pay an indebtedness. On his
refusal the son invited the party to whom he owed
the money to a tea-shop and asked for an indefi-
nite time in which to pay it, and when the latter
declined the lad shot him dead, and then blew out
his own brains with the same pistol. After allow-
ing the father due time to recover from the shock,
the Taotai and District Magistrate, in view of this
bloodshed, made him financial overtures. As his
property was in danger he, under advice from the
manager of the bank, offered by telegraph to
Ti Hung Chang a subscription of Taels (10,000)
for famine relief, if he would secure him against
the squeezes of these two Mandarins. The offer
was accepted, and the officials were chagrined to
find themselves powerless to fleece such a fat
sheep. Their indictment was, “You, as a father,
failed in training your son, and so are responsible
for his misdemeanors.”

The subject may be indefinitely illustrated.
When we speak of Jesus as the representative
of his people, of his standing for them in the
PREACHING CHRIST. 177

covenant of grace, of the whole responsibility of
their salvation being centered in his person, and of
the legal unity of the head and members, the Chi-
nese understand the scheme as having its founda-
tion in law and its superstructure in equity.

CHRIST, THE SACRIFICE.

“The idea of expiation is found in the earlier
and later history of China.” It is a solemn event
when the Emperor, the vicegerent of heaven, the
high-priest of the nation, in his vicarious character
decends from his throne, robes himself in sack-
cloth, makes public confession, becomes the sub-
stitute for his people and appears as the sin-bearer.
During seven years of famine, B. C. 1766, the
Emperor Tang “fasted, cut off his hair and nails,
and in a plain cart drawn by white horses, clad in
rushes, the guise of a sacrificial victim, he pro-
ceeded to a forest of mulberry trees and there
prayed.” He said, “When guilt is found any-
where in you who occupy the myriad regions, let
it rest on me, the One Man. When guilt is found
in me, the One Max, it shall not attach to you.”
Thirty-six centuries after, July 24, 1832, in the
time of severe drought, the Emperor Taokwang
offered the following prayer: “Oh! alas! Imperial
Heaven! ... this year the drought is most un-
178 PREACHING IN SINIM.

usual, Summer is past, and no rain has fallen. . .
I, the minister of heaven, am placed over mankind,
and am responsible for keeping the world in order

and for tranquilizing the people. . . . I examine
myself and consider my errors, looking up and
hoping that I may obtain pardon. . . . Prostrate

I beg Imperial Heaven to pardon my ignorance and
stupidity, and to grant me self-renovation, for my-
riads of people are involved by me, the One Man.”

There was a noted case in this city when the
Literary Chancellor, who was condemned for sell-
ing degrees, was spared because his son took the
father’s place at the execution ground and lost his
head. Often in country riots and insurrections
where blood has been shed, one man, whose family
has been liberally provided for by the survivors,
steps forward, announces himself as the man-
slayer, and receives capital punishment. There
is no difficulty in getting a heathen audience to
understand the account of Christ’s sufferings as
given by Isaiah in the fifty-third chapter of his
prophecies. As the beloved disciple wrote, “And
he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for
ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
From this topic itis easy to pass to

CHRIST’s HUMANITY
as a suitable subject on which to address a heathen
PREACHING CHRIST. 179

audience. That God is a Spirit, the great eternal
I Am, is too infinite a thought for poor worms of
the dust. The pagan seeks communion with beings
in bodily shape, not far removed from his mortal
sphere, who can understand his necessities. Thus
Buddhism, with her myriads of gods, appeals to
the feebleness of man. How completely the Man
of Judea is adapted to the wants of the Jew and
Gentile. He is “in the likeness of sinful flesh.’
“And the word was made flesh and dwelt among
us.” “No man hath seen God at any time; the
only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the
Father, he hath declared him.” Come to Jesus.
He was born a babe, grew in childhood years,
walked on earth, talked with men, worked in his
shop, ate, slept and was weary, held intercourse
with friends, was joyous, was sorrowful, he lived,
he died and was buried, and we, like him, shall
rise again. ‘Wherefore it behooved him to be
made like unto his brethren.” Is man tempted?
“For in that he himself hath suffered, be-
ing tempted, he is able to succor them that are
tempted.” Is he in want of sympathy? “For we
have not an high priest which cannot be touched
with the feeling of our infirmities.” Is he unlet-
tered? ‘‘ Who can have compassion on the igno-
rant, and on them that are out of the way.” Does
180 PREACHING IN SINIM.

he wish to pray? ‘Let us, therefore, come boldly
unto the throne of grace.” Jesus was the Son of

Man.
Tar Divinity oF Our Lorp.

The Chinese are willing to acknowledge Jesus as
the great sage of the west, the peer of Confucius,
but to recognize Jesus the Saviour and Confucius
the teacher, Jesus the Lord and Confucius the
subject, Jesus the creator and Confucius the crea-
ture, Jesus as divine and Confucius as human, isa
doctrine they utterly repudiate. It is just here
that Christianity and Confucianism stand at the
opposite poles. One of the four subjects upon
which Confucius said he did not discourse was
concerning the gods. He knew nothing about
religion and believed less, so he taught nothing.
Jesus came to teach divinity; he declared that he
himself was God. This is the battle-field, and
here the soldiers of Christ must expect a bloody
conflict.

Simon Peter was the first to declare fully and
forcibly this fundamental doctrine when he said
to his Lord, ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
living God.” Jesus said upon this confession
(petra) he would build his church. From the way
the Master spoke to his disciple we may infer that
this is a very practical tenet of theology: “ Blessed
PREACHING CHRIST. 181

art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath
not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is
in heaven.” It is necessary to salvation that men
accept Jesus as divine, for he himself says: “If ye
believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.”
As we go forth among the heathen we can proclaim
this truth as the door to fellowship with God’s peo-
ple. When the eunuch confessed, ‘I believe that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God,’ he was imme-
diately baptized.

In this brief section we will not consider the
testimony of the four evangelists which fill the
pages of the Gospels, nor the glorious pans of
the Pauline epistles. The miracles of Christ as
witnesses for his divinity, and the transcendent
testimony of his resurrection from the dead as
when he said, “Tlay down my life that I might take
it again. . . . I have power to lay it down
and I have power to take it again,” will not be
mentioned. Only one witness is presented, and
that is Christ himself.

To all the attributes of God he lays a personal
claim. Is God eternal? Jesus said, “Before
Abraham was, I am,” using the self-existent title
by which Jehovah announced himself on the
Mount of God. Is God omnipresent? Christ said,

“Where two or three are gathered together in my
16
182 PREACHING IN SINIM.

name, there am I in the midst of them.” Is God
omnipotent? “All power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth,” says the Master. Is God
omniscient? ‘As the Father knoweth me, even so
know I the Father,” thus laying claim to a know-
ledge of the infinite. He says, “I and my Father
are one.” He reveals God to men. How expres-
sive are the pronouns in these words of our Jesus:
“Tf a man love me he will keep my words, and my
Father will love him, and we will come unto him
and make our abode with him.”

He speaks of himself as the light of the world,
the shepherd of a countless flock, the vine. from
which the branches obtain nourishment, the way,
truth and life, the door of heaven, the living bread,
the water of life, the resurrection and the life.
He was before Abraham ; of him Moses wrote, and
David called him Lord. He was greater than
Solomon and the temple, and declared himself
Lord of the Sabbath. He requires faith and love
and obedience, and while upon earth was the
constant object of worship. His invitations were
to all the weary and heavy laden; to the widow,
the orphan, the tempted, the persecuted and the
sin-burdened to come to him and find rest. He
is the mediator in prayer, has ability to forgive
sin, and is the architect of heaven. His dying
PREACHING CHRIST. 183

testimony at Pilate’s tribunal was to his divinity.
Jesus is the resurrection. It was a stupendous
act of power to restore Lazarus to life, but the
same voice is to be heard by millions upon mil-
lions who sleep in their graves. He is to judge
all men, all actions, all words, all thoughts, and to
impartially bestow rewards. He foretells his glory

when men “

shall see heaven open and the angels
of God ascending and descending upon the Son
of man.” The questions, then, that the missionary
is to press upon the heart and conscience of a
heathen congregation are, “What think ye of
Christ?” ‘Whom say ye that lam?” When we
behold the calmness of his assertions when he
offers to forgive sin, renew the heart, save from
sin and hell and bestow immortality and eternal
life, we may exclaim, Christus, st non Deus, non
bonus.
The minister must also preach Christ as

THE MAGNET OF THE CHURCH.

Jesus said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the
earth, will draw all men unto me.” This he said
signifying what death he should die, and foretell-
ing the power of the cross to attract the nations.
The apostle, in his message to the Gentiles, said,
“We preach Christ crucified”; that is, in pro-
184 PREACHING IN SINIM.

claiming the gospel he gave prominence to the
doctrine of the blood. ‘Christ died for the un-
godly,” ‘it is Christ that died,” ‘Jesus died.”
This was the foundation of the whole scheme of
salvation. Let one note how often “cross,”

” ce

“blood,” “sacrifice, offering,” “satisfaction,”
“propitiation,” “priesthood,” ‘ lamb,” “ Re-
deemer,” ‘salvation,’ and kindred words are
used in reference to the death of Christ. Paul
went further and declared, “God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ.” It was his chief joy and honor to tell of
the cross, and so with all the messengers of salva-
tion, as they go to the remotest ends of the earth.
All the attributes of Jesus circle round the cross.
His name pointed to Calvary, and there did he
save his people from their sins. Was Christ
meek and lowly in heart? ‘He was oppressed,
and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his
mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he
openeth not his mouth.” Did he impress upon
his disciples the duty of forgiving enemies? But
what were his words compared with his example,
as he hung upon the tree, “Father, forgive
them; they know not what they do!” Was he
subject to his parents in his youth? On the
PREACHING CHRIST. 185

cross, when in the agony of a cruel death he
made provision for his mother, there was a tri-
umphant manifestation of filial duty. Did Christ
say, “The Son of man is come to seek and save
the lost”? What greater proof that when he
bade the robber accompany him to Paradise!
Did he love his own and love them to the end ?
“The good Shepherd giveth his life for the
sheep.” If one preaches Christ, he must of ne-
cessity preach the cross.

All the attributes of Jehovah are beautifully
harmonized in the cross of our Redeemer:
“Mercy and truth are met together; righteous-
ness and peace have kissed each other. Truth
shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness
shall look down from heaven.” Justice claimed
the sinner’s death; mercy pleaded for his life.
The truth of Jehovah demanded the punishment
of the guilty ; love offered a substitute in his room
and stead. Hatred of sin and affection for the
sinner were both wondrously displayed.

There is no place in sacred story where the
prophets so unite in a grand chorus as at the
cross, and even the heathen may understand how
holy men of old told of the death of the Son of
God. The Saviour, whose sufferings with the
eye of prescience they beheld, now hung upon the
186 PREACHING IN SINIM.

tree. His ancestor, the great King of Israel,
there tuned his harp, and the evangelical pro-
phet, who so eloquently preached of the dying
Messiah, now knew how accurate was his descrip-
tion.

Gethsemane, with its “bloody sweat,’ and the
mocking, scourging, and. crowning with thorns
at Pilate’s tribunal, are scenes which impress a
Chinese audience. The high priestly office in
the solemn temple services may be distinctly set
forth as prefiguring the great High Priest who
was to make atonement for the sins of his people.
The quickness of a Chinese execution, when the
head is severed from the neck with one stroke of
the knife, places in contrast the lingering, tor-
turing death by crucifixion. No wonder the
apostle wrote to the Gentiles about the “accursed
death of the cross.” He could say, “Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being
made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is
every one that hangeth on a tree.”

The bloodless character of Buddhism, with its
horror of animal sacrifices and its scheme of salva-
tion by meritorious deeds, stands in contrast
with the cross. With them it is “every man his
own Saviour,” and they know not the righteous-
ness of another imputed to them and received by
PREACHING CHRIST. 187

faith alone. The peoples of the earth must have
looked upon Judea as a bloody nation. The
daily sacrifices, the multitude of victims offered
on the day of atonement, and the great occasions,
as when King Solomon “offered a sacrifice of
peace-offerings, which he offered unto the Lord,
two and twenty thousand oxen and an hundred
and twenty thousand sheep,” and blood ran down
the sides of Mount Moriah, must have impressed
all who beheld the august worship. In the cross
all the types and shadows of the ceremonial law
were fulfilled. By one sacrifice never to be re-
peated Christ made an all-sufficient atonement
for the sins of his people. “But now once in the
end of.the world hath he appeared to put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is ap-
pointed unto men once to die, but after this the
judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins
of many.” In this onceness that the sacred writer
insists upon Christianity is totally unlike Confu-
cianism. Offerings are made to their ancestors
at every feast, and in the 1,500 “Temples of Lit-
erature,” at the spring and autumn sacrifices
135,000 animals—bulls, sheep, and hogs—are
placed before the tablets of Confucius and his
company of wise men, besides the animals offered
in sacrifice to the gods of war, of literature, of the
188 PREACHING IN SINIM.

wind, sun, stars, etc. The stream so pure and
clear which flowed from the foot of Ararat has
been diverted into the channels of literature, and
the muddy currents bring devastation to the reli-
gious aspirations of the nation. “For the law...
can never with those sacrifices which they offered
year by year make the comers thereunto perfect.”
The Confucian sacrifices are powerless to effect a
moral reformation. The Chinese, as a nation,
have not yet learned that the shedding of blood
must cease. ‘Christ was once offered.”

The Gentiles are to be taught the infinite value
of Jesus’ blood, ‘the precious blood”; or, as Paul
charged the Ephesian elders, “Feed the church
of God, which he hath purchased with his own
blood.” They are to be told that ‘‘ Without shed-
ding of blood there is no remission”; and that
“The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all
sin.” It is Jesus, “the Lamb slain before the
foundation of the world,” the Lamb of God upon
Calvary, and “the Lamb that was slain,” but now
in heaven is worthy “‘to receive power, and riches,
and wisdom, and strength, and glory, and bless-
ing,” of whom we speak. .

Above all, preaching the cross proves to the
Gentiles the amazing love of God to sinful man.
“God so loved the world, that he sent his only
PREACHING CHRIST. 189

begotten son.” “He that spared not his own Son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also give us all things?” “In this was
manifested the love of God toward us, because
that God sent his only begotten Son into the
world, that we might live through him. Herein
is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved
us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our
sins.” This is the strongest appeal that can be
made to the children of men. If men at Calvary
resist the offer of divine mercy, there is no further
room for appeal. The picture of the Redeemer’s
sufferings does draw the nations, and the preach-
ing of Christ crucified is made “the power of God
and the wisdom of God,” to the salvation of the
Gentiles.
CHAPTER XIII.

JESUS, THE MopEL PREACHER TO THE HEATHEN.

EVENTEEN hundred years before the coming

-of our Lord, his ancestor, Jacob, said, “‘ Unto
him shall the gathering of the people be.” The
evangelists say, “And Jesus went into all Galilee,
teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the
gospel of the kingdom . . . and his fame
went throughout all Syria. . . . And there
followed him great multitudes of people from
Galilee, and from Decapolis (2. e., the ten cities),
and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from
beyond Jordan.” “And they came to him from
every quarter.” And why came they? It was to
hear the prophet of Nazareth preach, “and all
bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious
words which proceeded out of his mouth.” His
disciples said to him, ‘Thou hast the words of
eternal life.” Grace was poured into his lips. As
Jesus taught in the temple a band of officers was
despatched by the Pharisees and the chief priests
to take him. They stopped on the borders of the
vast assembly, and heard Jesus ery, his clarion

notes ringing throughout the sacred portals, “If
190
JESUS, THE MopEL PREACHER. 191

any man thirst let him come unto me and drink.”
Directly the officers returned to the Sanhedrim
sitting in their council of state, they demanded,
“Why have ye not brought him?” The answer
was, ‘‘Never man spake like this man.”

Never did orator in Athens or Rome, London
or Washington, equal the Man of Galilee in hold-
ing spell-bound, from early morn till dewy eve, the
thousands who waited on his ministry. His voice,
so clear, so majestic, and so sweet, could be heard
throughout the vast concourse, high above the
wind in the trees on the mountain-side, or the
dashing of the breakers on the seashore; and the
wilderness and the solitary place rejoiced because.
of the words of wisdom, power, truth, and love.
The eloquence of Jesus is a theme worthy of clas-
sic hall and sacred tabernacle, and demands the
special attention of the heralds of the cross in dis-
tant lands. Judea had been asleep for centuries.
amidst the splendors of the temple ritual, the doc-
tors expounding the bare letter of the law—Oh, so
cold and cheerless!—much as the Confucianists
lecture in the temples on morality, when suddenly
a great teacher arose, and awoke the slumbering
people of God as he unfolded the spiritual life of
the kingdom of righteousness; and no journey
was too long, or road too rough, that their ears
192 PREACHING IN SINIM.

might once hear the joyful notes of salvation from
his lips. Before Jesus commanded his disciples,
“Go, preach,” he set before them the perfect mo-
del of missionary preaching, or the evangelization
of the multitudes, while to his apostles was as-
signed in part the work of mnzsterial preaching,
or building up the church in faith and knowledge.

The life of our Saviour on earth was essentially
a teaching ministry. He wrought great miracles,
but it is a matter of surprise how little time these
occupied. In “the twinkling of an eye” the divine
power would flash forth, and wonders of iove and
mercy would be accomplished. Of an hour’s work
it is recorded: “And at even, when the sun did
set, they brought unto him all that were diseased,
and them that were possessed with devils. And
all the city was gathered together at the door.
And he healed many that were sick of divers dis-
eases, and cast out many devils.” Probably only
a limited portion of the three years was taken up
exclusively in miracles; for, as he healed the sick
and raised the dead, he taught his disciples, and
preached to the multitudes. He instructed his
followers, answered questions, engaged in disputa-
tions, explained doubts, revealed the thoughts of
his hearers, taught the people and preached as he
journeyed, or wherever men might come, in the
JESUS, THE MoDEL PREACHER. 193

synagogues, in the wilderness, on the mountains,
and beside the sea. The upper classes of the
Jews—the high-priestly families, the doctors of
the law, the scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees—
possessing the learning of the sacred books, had
by degrees become the aristocracy of the nation ;
but when our Lord appeared, he broke down this
caste, and pronounced it one of the proofs of his
divine mission, that “the poor have the gospel
preached to them.”

How suited the teachings of Jesus to the minds
of heathen audiences! While much that prophets
and apostles wrote is too deep for the elementary
instruction of an idolatrous people, the words of
Christ, at once so profound and so simple; so
easy to be understood, yet with such far-reaching
depths, are perfectly adapted to a heathen congre-
gation, so that expository discourses on the Gos-
pels may be perfectly understood by the untutored
pagan. A few of the discourses of our Lord, as
the sermois on the mount and at the last supper,
are recorded, but generally they are only the frag-
ments of his sermons. No doubt the Master, like
all missionaries to the people of Asia, often re-
peated the great truths he wished to impress upon
the minds of men, weaving the same lessons to-

gether into the garments of salvation, as suited the
17
194 PREACHING IN SINIM.

various times and circumstances. It seems thus,
that a harmony of the Gospels, except in an ap-
proximate degree, is an impossibility.

Wonderful is the testimony about Christ: “And
without a parable spake he not unto them.” “Be-
hold,” says the Master, as he drew pictures which
for nineteen centuries have been admired by all
nations and people. He awakened thought by
his suggestive parables. There was not a formal
division of the subject under a succession of
heads, but a series of stereoscopic views, by the
combination of which we have a complete survey
of the whole. Taking no text, he found his text
in the conditions of men—the rich man, the beg-
gar, the judge, the widow, the merchant, the
farmer—or took for his subject nature in her ever
varying aspects—the fields and vineyards, the
trees and flowers, the birds and fish—or selected
his topic from the passing events of his ministry—
the young man, the children, the blind, the lost.

In these parables the Master of ‘assemblies
grasped the leading truths which he wished to
impress upon his disciples. What an array of
glorious doctrines in the thirteenth chapter of
Matthew: The sower and the seed, and his varied
success; the devil with his tares, and his utter
ruin; the mustard seed and the leaven, to prefig-
JESUS, THE MoDEL PREACHER. 195

ure the growth of the kingdom; the hid treasure
and the pearls, to tell how precious the gospel is;
and the separation of the fish, as a type of the
coming judgment! These were not loosely thrown
together, for at the close of the discourse the Mas-
ter said, ‘‘Therefore, every scribe which is in-
structed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto
a man that is an householder, which bringeth
forth out of his treasures things new and old.” In
what book of sermons do we find such a single
logical train of thought as in the three parables of
the lost—the lost sheep, the lost money, the lost
son; the earnestness in seeking, the longing to
find, the rejoicings in both the earthly and the
heavenly homes? Or take the discourse on the
shepherd and the sheep, and what a multitude of
thoughts the preacher groups around his text!
So wondrous are his words, that it requires pati-
ent study, holy meditation, earnest prayer, and
the enlightening power of the Holy Ghost to en-
able one to appreciate their beauty and sublimity.

The teaching of Jesus illustrates the progressive
method of instruction. He, the great Fisher of
men, a8 anxious to catch a single fish as a great
multitude, sat beside Jacob’s well, when a poor
woman appeared as an auditor. He could have
stated at once that he was the hope of Israel; but,
196 PREACHING IN SINIM.

hinting at his divine power, he simply asked for a
cup of cold water. The woman, in her second re-
ply, began, like the Chinese, to talk about her an-
cestors; but the Saviour answered by preaching
on one of the most profound doctrines of inspira-
tion, the water of life. When she, like the friends
to whom we come, asked for temporal benefits, he
did not upbraid her for her stupidity, but dealt
tenderly with her weakness. He startled her with
the conviction of sin, revealing her character in all
its awful deformity. ‘Sir, I perceive that thou art
a prophet,’ was her reply; but she immediately
turned the subject on sacred mountains, while
Jesus showed her that, though “salvation was of
the Jews,” that God, who is a Spirit, seeketh for
true worshippers who shall worship him in spirit
and in truth. Such preaching stirred up thoughts
of the coming of Messias; and when the Master
said unto her, “I that speak unto thee am he,”
she, the first messenger to the heathen, went her
way, and said, “Is not this the Christ?” Thus
was our Lord the model practical teacher in com-
mencing a most spiritual discourse in a most natu-
ral way, and rising from physical wants to the
necessities of the soul.

A marked characteristic of the ministry of the
Son of man was that “The common people heard
JESUS, THE MoDEL PREACHER. 197

him gladly.” Not so with Confucius, whose fol-
lowers were the literatz. To preach to a company
of intelligent hearers, accustomed to read and to
think, is comparatively an easy task, but to reach
the multitude a speaker must be both perspicuous
and attractive. Jesus knew how to touch the
springs of the mind and heart. Among the most
precious recorded discourses of our Lord are those
he delivered at the tables of the rich, when feasts
were specially given in his honor. The company
reclining on their couches hung on the lips of
him who gave them meat to eat which they knew
not of. His methods of interrogation were very
suggestive, as when he said unto the man who was
blind, but now saw, “ Dost thou believe on the Son
of God?” The natural reply of an inquirer was,
“Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?”
The Master constantly preached doctrine. He
presented to his disciples a glorious array of the
fundamental doctrines of Scripture, and connected
all these heavenly truths with himself, thus making
them fresh and attractive. Throughout he appears
as the living, loving, dying, rising, descending
Christ. His teaching is most impressive in that
he weaves the warp of doctrine and the woof of
practice into the garment of a holy Christian life.
The pathos of Christ’s teaching melted the hearts
198 PREACHING IN SINIM.

of his hearers. He sounded the key-note of his
mission, when he sat on the Mount, and his disci-
ples came unto him, and his lips pronounced,
“Blessed.” Wondrous are the objects of these
blessings and the fruition bestowed on each. His
themes were, for the most part, of the gentler kind,
and appealed to the tenderest emotions of human
nature. It had been foretold, “He shall not ery,
nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the
streets. A bruised reed shall he not break, and
the smoking flax shall he not quench.” He de-
clared what his ministry was in the passage he
selected in the pulpit of Nazareth: “The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent
me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliver-
ance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the
blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to
preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” The
son of David set the example of a tender, loving
style of preaching which proves what he said, “I
am meek and lowly in heart.”

He set before his people the Fatherhood of God.
The chosen nation had known the God of Israel
by the uncommunicable name of Jehovah, who
“was glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, do-
ing wonders.” They delighted to reverence his
JESUS, THE MODEL PREACHER. 199

majesty, and stand in awe before his awful throne.
Christ taught “God is Love,” and spoke to them
of his Father, and taught his disciples to pray,
“Our Father.” It was a mighty step in the reve-
lation when men were taught the filial spirit as
they approached the Most High. In this land,
where the promise of long life to those who honor
their parents has been so signally fulfilled to the
nation, the missionary can show that religion is
simply filial piety extended towards the great
Father of us all. The many and oft-repeated ex-
hortations of their sacred books may illustrate the
words of Scripture, “A son honoreth a father,

if [then be a father, where is mine honor?” They
have the five relations, the goverment, the filial,
the conjugal, the fraternal and the friendly, as the
five fingers, but they lack the religious or the rela-
tion between God and man, which, as the palm
of the hand, is the centre from which all human
relations diverge. May the Chinese soon learn
of Christ, and say, “Now, O Lord, thou art our
father.”

Jesus also unfolded the Sinaic code, and thun-
dered Sinai’s anathemas against those who re-
belled against the offers of merey. When, in
Matthew xxiii. 23, he cried repeatedly, ““Woe unto
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” he de-
200 PREACHING IN SINIM.

nounced in fearful terms the consequences of an
outward observance of the forms of worship, and
at the same time a hidden opposition to the spirit
of Christianity.

In his preaching he insisted on his credentials,
that he came from the Father, and was sent by the
Father. “I seek not mine own will, but the will of
the Father which hath sent me.” “He that re-
ceiveth me receiveth him that sent me.” It was
the lofty claims he made to divine honors that
awoke the bitter opposition which led at last to
his crucifixion.

At the very beginning of his ministry, he de-
clared, ‘‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” How
startling the announcement! They mistook it for
the kingdom of Israel; but he came to establish
the kingdom of heaven on this earth, just as he
taught men to pray, ‘Thy kingdom come,” and
sent out his disciples to establish the kingdom
among the nations. They were not to say, “Who
shall ascend into heaven?” for he declared, “The
kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye, and believe
the gospel.” He continued the message of his
forerunner, “the voice in the wilderness,” and
preached “‘repentance unto God.” In every form
of expression he insisted upon faith as the funda-
mental doctrine of the society that he established:
JESUS, THE MopEL PREACHER. 201

“Have faith in God.” “Ye believe in God, believe
also in me.” Before a miracle was performed, he
required a living faith in the recipient of his bless-
ing. “That whosoever believeth on him should
not perish, . . . He that believeth on him is
not condemned; but he that believeth not is con-
demned already, because he hath not believed in
the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

There is no point on which Christianity and
Confucianism are more divergent than on the
treatment of enemies, and there is no place where
it is more important to insist upon the doctrine of
forgiveness than in China. How appropriate the
words of Jesus, “Ye have heard that it hath been
said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine
enemy; but I say unto you, Love your enemies,
bless them that curse you, do good to them that
hate you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you; that ye may be the
children of your Father which is in heaven.”

When our Master called his disciples, ordained
them to be with him, commissioned them, and sent
them forth, he placed before them in distinct terms
how they must endure hardness as good soldiers
of Jesus Christ. Missionaries in this land, in view
of the many local and general persecutions which
overtake native converts, must repeat what Jesus
202 PREACHING IN SINIM.

said to those about to bear his yoke: “And ye
shall be brought before governors and kings for
my sake, for a testimony against them and the
Gentiles. . . . And the brother shall deliver
up the brother to death, and the father, the child.

And ye shall be hated of all men for my
name’s sake.” It is not an easy thing for a man
to be a Christian in China. Petty troubles from
family divisions, from refusing to join in the wor-
ship of ancestors, and for declining to contribute
to idol processions and worship, arise on every
hand.

The messenger of salvation stands appalled be-
fore the gigantic array of idolatry and superstition.
The promise of Christ comes a solace to his heart,
and there is scarcely a text more appreciated by
the native Christian than, “Ye shall know the
truth, and the truth shall make you free.” We
fight not the darkness, we turn on the light. “The
truth as it is in Jesus,” taught to believers, sets
them free from the chains of sin and Satan. “God
hath from the beginning chosen them to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of
the truth.” They obey the truth, and walk in the
‘truth.

There is no class to whom the gospel comes
more with the rainbow of promise than to the
JESUS, THE MopEL PREACHER. 208

women of China. Did Jesus love Mary and Mar-
tha? Did Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, the wife
of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and
many others, minister unto him of their sub-
stance? Was there a group of women standing
beside the cross, witnessing his accursed death ?
As soon as the holy Sabbath was passed, did they
repair to the sepulchre? And what religion on
earth, save Christianity, says, “Suffer little chil-
dren to come unto me,” and “Out of the mouths
of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise”?

The philosophers of the Middle Kingdom treat
of political economy, ethics, and filial piety ; our
Lord and Master, of eternal themes. The value
of the soul is a theme he treats as of transcendent
importance. The good young man, the rick fool,
and Dives being in Hades in torment, illustrated
the folly of setting the affections upon the things
of earth, and neglecting the soul. He sets before
this class the problem of profit and loss, and then
asks, “And what shall a man give in exchange for
his soul?” In this land, by the doctrines of the
divisibility of the soul and its frequent transmigra-
tions, men lose sight of its importance, and let the
subject lapse into utter forgetfulness. The value
of the soul, and its future of happiness or woe, is
the missionary’s great theme.
204 PREACHING IN SINIM.

How the Chinese, like the Jews, love to “lay up
treasure on earth”! How their robes of silk, satin,
and fur are ruined by the rainy and mouldy sea-
son! And how high the walls must be, and the
gates so strongly barred, to keep out the thieves!
And the poverty! poverty!! As the millions
scarcely exist, how much “anxious thought” for
the bare food necessary ‘“‘to keep soul and body
together”! How appropriate to troubled hearts
are the words, ‘‘Therefore, take no thought, say-
ing, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink?
or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after
all these things do the Gentiles seek); for your
heavenly Father knoweth ye have need of all
these things.”

The most impressive feature of Chinese civiliza-
tion that strikes the new arrival is the number
of burden-bearers. Men are beasts of burden.
Horses are not used on the well-watered plains
of China, because the food must be garnered to
sustain the life of man. They may hear the voice
of the Son of man, “Come unto me, all ye that are
weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
How precious the invitations of Jesus! How the
Chinaman, in this land of feasts, can understand
the parables of the wedding feast and of the great
supper!
JESUS, THE MoDEL PREACHER. 205

The teachings of Jesus were eminently practical!
He did not give men the theory of prayer, but sim-
ply told them, “Ask, and ye shall receive.” He did
not try to prove what he affirmed, but, instead, made
a personal application of the truth to the hearts of
the objectors, as when in regard to works of mercy
on the Sabbath he inquired, ‘‘How much then is a
man better than a sheep?” In China the Man-
darins are given office away from home, in a dis-
tant province, just as kingdoms were distributed
in the Roman empire. How forcible, then, are
Christ’s oft-repeated teachings about his future
coming: “A certain nobleman went into a far
country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to
return.” Alas! how many say in their heart, “My
lord delayeth his coming.”

The above is but a faint outline of the way
Jesus taught, afew shells picked up from the shore
of the gospel ocean. Jesus is our pattern and
our guide, but nowhere more so than in preach-
ing to the Gentiles. Let the missionary of the
cross catch the spirit of Christ, emulate his exam-
ple, explain his words, and strive to preach as the
Master preached. The extraordinary gift-of mira-
cles does not pertain to this dispensation, but the
ordinary gift of preaching is the glory of the pre-

sent age.
18
206 PREACHING IN SINIM.

In preaching the mind and words of Jesus we
have an entirely new field in China. There is lit-
tle in Confucianism or Buddhism to furnish texts
or subjects or illustrations for public speaking, but
the Bible affords an illimitable supply. There is a
glory about the pulpit with its thousands and tens
of thousands of mighty orators, who have striven
to hold up before the people the pictures of religion
Jesus bequeathed to mankind. Following in his
footsteps there is an exceeding great army who
stand upon Mount Zion, and bring the message of
great joy to all people. We are to seek in our
preaching that there may be wider, fuller, and
richer provision ; that in the language of the Good
Shepherd the sheep “shall go in and out and find
pasture.” “Follow me,” says Jesus as he preached
the gospel of the kingdom, and the future of the
pulpit in Sinim depends on how closely the disci-
ples imitate their great Exemplar. ,
CHAPTER XIV.
PavL, THE PREACHER.

HE missionary in heathen lands constantly

studies the life and character of the great
apostle to the Gentiles, who was the first ex-
ponent of evangelistic theology. The Divinity
Hall which he attended was the same as that
where Moses received his long training, the
sandy plain of Arabia. The “eleven” listened
to the Master while he spake to them on earth;
Paul, to the voice from the excellent glory. His
three years’ curriculum left an indelible impres-
sion upon his mind. Writes he: ‘I will come to
visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a
man in Christ above fourteen years ago. . . How
that he was caught up into Paradise and heard
unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for
a man to utter.’ Things of earth faded from
view after he beheld the great multitude, which
no man could number, of all nations, and kin-
dreds, and people, and tongues, which stood
before the throne and before the Lamb. No won-
der that ever afterwards he was “willing rather

to be absent from the body and to be present with
207
208 PREACHING IN SINIM.

the Lord.” He could exclaim, “For me to live is
Christ.” “TI am crucified with Christ; neverthe-
less I live; yet not I but Christ liveth in me: and
the life which I now live in the flesh I live by
the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and
gave himself for me.”

Paul did not, however, sit and_dream of heaven,
his aim was that he might finish his course with
joy, and the ministry which he had received of
the Lord Jesus. He asserts and repeats his asser-
tion, “I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle,
a teacher of the Gentiles.” “That I should be
the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles.” The
Lord said, “He is a chosen vessel unto me, to
bear my name before the Gentiles.” His motto
was, “Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gen-
tiles, I magnify my office, and in his humility he
could exclaim, “Unto me, who am less than the
least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should
preach amongst the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ.”

No mere man has ever lived who made such a
sensation by preaching as Paul did. His first
question: Is Jehovah “the God of the Jews only?
Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gen-
tiles also,” astonished the nations, for the Romans
spoke to the Jews of “ Your Jehovah,” just as the
PavL, THE PREACHER. 209

Chinese do to us of “Your Jesus.” The gifted
preacher went from land to land, and all heard
him speak in their own tongues the wonderful
works of God. The philosophers of Greece in-
vited him to the Areopagus to speak before
assembled Athens, for said they, ‘Thou bringest
certain strange things to our ears.” Demetrius
declared, ‘‘ Moreover ye see and hear, that not
alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia,
this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much
people, saying that they be no gods which are
made with hands.” At Thessalonica the unbe-
lieving Jews drew Paul’s host before the rulers,
crying, “These that have turned the world upside
down have come hither also.”

Among the gifts bestowed so abundantly upon
him was that of the eloquent tongue. We have
only epitomes of his great discourses left us, but
they have served as models for pulpit orators since
the Christian era. The grace with which he intro-
duced himself to the audience, the adaptability of
his speech, the hanging his theme on some felicit-
ous circumstance, the pointed use of appropriate
quotations, his masterly tact in presenting his
arguments, the logic of his reasoning, the cogency
of his appeals, the soul-earnestness of his manner,
and, more than all, the transcendent claims of the
210 PREACHING IN SINIM.

truths he proclaimed, placed him in the rank above
Cicero and Demosthenes. With his companion,
Barnabas, he came to Iconium, and went into the
synagogue, and they “so spake that a great multi-
tude, both of the Jews and also of the Greeks, be-
lieved.” The historian uses the simple description
“so spake.” A great ingathering was the re-
sult.

Paul was an itinerant, and, with Jerusalem as a
focus, he made his three great missionary jour-
neys. He loved the Holy City, and, whether to
attend the feast, or to bear alms to the believing
poor, thither he was bound in the Spirit. From
city to city, and from country to country, in
journeys by land and by sea, he went, pro-
claiming salvation; sometimes remaining three
weeks; again, three months; perhaps a year and
a half, or at other places, two or three years. It
was by these labors, scattered over Europe and
Asia Minor, that he was enabled to plant the gos-
pel in so many places. ‘Thrice I suffered ship-
wreck, 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 painful-
PavL, THE PREACHER. 211

ness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in
fastings often, in cold and nakedness.”

At Corinth, rather than suffer the reproach of
“eating the church’s rice” by remaining in a
wealthy city instead of preaching to the poor in
the country, he abode with Priscilla and Aquila,
and wrought, “because he was of the same craft.”
He could point to his broad and hard hands,
which had toiled at the coarse tent-cloth, and say
to the elders, “Yea, ye yourselves know that these
hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to
them that were with me.” With what a touch of
sarcasm he could write, ‘‘For what is it wherein
ye were inferior to other churches, except it be
that I myself was not burdensome to you? For-
give me this wrong.”

The apostle was his own forerunner. The dis-
ciples were gathered at Jerusalem, to the number
of many thousands, and probably of tens of thou-
sands, and spending their time in receiving the
gifts of the Holy Spirit, and enjoying Christian
fellowship and community of goods, when sud-
denly Saul of Tarsus made great havoc among
them, haling men and women, and committing
them to prison; and thus scattered abroad, they
dwelt in all the cities of the Roman Empire. In
after years they, forgetting the things that wero
212 PREACHING IN SINIM.

passed, were ready to welcome the former blas-
phemer and persecutor, and opened their houses
for preaching. During the centuries preceding the
Christian era, the Jews, afraid to dwell in Pales-
tine, and being, like the Chinese, men of commer-
cial enterprise, spread themselves throughout the
adjacent countries, and by their wealth command-
ed great influence. They remembered the God of
Abraham, and built houses of worship. In these
Paul was privileged to hold divine service, and to
reason with those who objected to his teachings.
The missionaries of the present day have no such
advantages.

Often he stood face to face with heathenism,
with no pious Jew or humble Christian to aid him
in his work. What a picture he gives of the con-
dition and state of the Gentile world! It wasa
faithful description of the city sitting upon seven
hills, and of the nations dwelling on the plains, a
portrait which for accuracy in detail and faithful-
ness in delineation has never been equaled; so
he knew what was before him. When he con-
cludes, ‘‘There is none righteous, no, not one;
there is none that understandeth, there is none
that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way, they are together become unprofitable ;
there is none that doeth good, no, not one,” it is
PavL, THE PREACHER. 213

to pave the way for preaching justification by faith
in the blood of Jesus Christ, and the impartation
of his righteousness.

The signs and wonders which Paul wrought
made a powerful impression upon the apostolic
church. At Lystra, the cripple, “impotent in his
feet,” but potent in his faith, hobbled to preach-
ing; and the man of God shouted. “Stand upright
upon thy feet,” and so surprised was the crowd,
that they “lifted up their voices, saying, The gods
are come down to us in the likeness of men.” The
news spread rapidly, and the populace flocked to
the campus. The preacher, seeing his audience
rapidly increasing, and listening with awe and
reverence, warmed in his theme, and his ringing -
voice was heard by the great assembly, when, lo!
a company of priests, with sacrificial oxen and
floral crowns, appeared. Worship was to be of-
fered to these divine beings. Nothing could re-
strain the assembly till, with garments rent in
twain, they rushed amidst the worshippers and
cried, “Sirs, why do ye these things? We also
are men of like passions with you, and preach
unto you that ye should turn from these vanities
unto the living God.” He then delivered a brief
discourse on natural theology, showing that an
abundant harvest is a proof of the existence of
214 PREACHING IN SINIM.

God. “He left not himself without witness, in
that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven,
and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food
and gladness.”

The apostle was not an independent evangelist,
going when and where he chose, but his labors
were directed by a power above! He wished to
preach in Asia; he was “forbidden of the Holy
Ghost.” He then “assayed to go into Bythinia,
but the Spirit suffered him not.” There was work
for him at another place, but he knew not where.
When he came to Troy it was revealed to him in
a night vision. On the opposite shore there stood
a man “and prayed him, saying, Come over into
Macedonia and help us.” What a series of events
followed this special call: The pious women by
the river-side, the open heart of Lydia, the little
soothsayer, the arrest, the scourging, the songs in
the night, the conversion of the jailer, and the ser-
mon,—perhaps the simplest exposition of the plan
of salvation to be found in the Bible.

From Philippi he went to Thessalonica. This
is one of the most remarkable passages in the life
of Paul. The epistle to these Christians tells of
the effect of his preaching: The number of con-
verts, the power of the gospel, the full assurance
of the believers, the reception of the message as
PavuL, THE PREACHER. 215

the word of God, their becoming followers of the
apostle, their joy in the Holy Ghost, the fame of
their faith, the turning from dumb idols, and the
constant expectation of the Lord’s coming; and all
this from three weeks’ missionary labor!

Driven by persecution, he arrived at Athens,
and there his spirit waxed hot against the super-
abounding idolatries. His preaching was unre-
mitting, both in the churches and on the streets,
and his labors reached their acme when he stood
on Mars’ Hill and preached the grandest mission-
ary sermon, perhaps, ever delivered. It is one of
the most familiar passages to the church, and one
which has proved an inspiration to thousands of
faithful ministers during all these centuries. These
words will continue to ring throughout the nations
till “the kingdoms of this world become the king-
doms of the Lord and of his Christ.”

The Master to this servant verified his promise,
“Qo! I am with you alway.” At the great heathen
city of Corinth the work seemed appalling in its
magnitude. ‘Then spake the Lord to Paul in the
night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and
hold not thy peace: for I am with thee, and no
man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have
much people in this city.” This assurance has
cheered many a weary toiler.
216 PREACHING IN SINIM.

When his labors at Corinth were ended we have
a proof at Ephesus how “mightily grew the word
of God and prevailed.” This city, like Soochow,
was filled with hordes of astrologers, geomancers,
magicians, diviners, soothsayers, exorcists, and all
that class who plied their lucrative avocations in
the temples, markets and public places. Paul
preached and “wrought special miracles,” ‘and
fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord
Jesus was magnified. . . . Many of them also
which used curious arts brought their books
together, and burned them before all men: and
they counted the price of them, and found it
fifty thousand pieces of silver.”

At Jerusalem, arrested on a false charge, he
was brought before the council. “The night fol-
lowing the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of
good cheer, Paul; for as thou hast testified of me
in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at
Rome.” Before this, at his conversion, it was said,
“He is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name
before the Gentiles and kings.” He stood before
Felix. He touched not on minor points of gov-
ernmental policy or educational interests, but
“reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judg-
ment to come.” The governor trembled. After
two long years of imprisonment, Festus succeeded
PaAvL, THE PREACHER. 217

Felix, and when King Agrippa came to Caesarea
Paul was brought before him. It was a majestic
assembly, for the king came “with great pomp and
entered into the place of hearing, with the chief
captains and principal men of the city.” After a
most graceful exordium, “TI think myself happy,
King Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself
this day before thee,” he based his defence on the
facts of his conversion, his call to preach and
the resurrection of our Lord. What an example
to those who witness for Christ before rulers!
Agrippa cried out, “Almost thou persuadest me
to be a Christian.” The aged prisoner, raising
aloft his arms, bound with the felon’s chain, ex-
claimed, “I would to God, that not only thou, but
also all that hear me this day, were both almost,
and altogether such as I am, except these bonds.”
No wonder this touching spectacle moved the king
and the governor, and their judgment was, that
were it not for his appeal he might be set at
liberty.

His latter years, while under a guard of soldiers,
were busily employed in speaking to the numbers
who came to visit him and in writing letters, which
are the means of the conversion of thousands and
tens of thousands of the Gentiles. “Paul, the
prisoner of the Lord,” still preaches in three hun-

19
218 PREACHING IN SINIM.

dred tongues. The cords were drawn tighter and
tighter. around him, and from the cold vault of
the Mamertine dungeon he could write in lines of
light, ‘I am now ready to be offered, and the time
of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good
fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the
faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown
of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give me at that day.”
CHAPTER XV.
Tur Work oF THE Hoty SPIRIT.

HEN the minister of the gospel goes to pagan
lands he tries by research and inquiry to find
out what basis there is for religious instruction, and
what latent truths there are in the heathen mind
upon which he may build his argument. In teach-
ing theology there is the vast structure of the three
religions supplying thought and language for
teaching the true by the contrast with idolatry
and superstition. When, however, the preacher
begins to set forth the character of the third per-
son of the Trinity there is absolutely nothing in
natural religion to indicate his existence and
work. Itis purely a doctrine of revelation.

The importance to the Gentiles of the gift of
the Holy Spirit cannot be overrated. The gift of
tongues by which men began to speak in foreign
languages was the first public manifestation of his
presence in the church. The ordination at An-
tioch of the two first evangelists to the heathen
was at the instance of the Holy Ghost, who said,
“Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work

whereunto I have called them.” ‘So they, being
219
220 PREACHING IN SINIM.

sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed.” Great
ingatherings into the church followed the outpour-
ing of the Spirit. While Peter was preaching,
“the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard
the word. And they of the circumcision which
believed were astonished . . . because that on
the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the
Holy Ghost.” The Book of Acts is not so much
the acts of the apostles as the acts of the Holy
Spirit, which he wrought through their instru-
mentality. As the great work of missions began
with the procession of the Spirit and is continued
by his presence and power, the person, character
and glory of the Holy Ghost must be distinctly set
before the church in a heathen land.

The Spirit is not to be preached simply as an
influence or a breath, but as a distinct person, who
is a sovereign, to whom prayer isto be offered and
from whom blessings are to descend. His essen-
tial divinity must be insisted upon in distinct terms,
and he be acknowledged as the third person in the
adorable Trinity, co-equal with the Father and
with the Son. The awful guards that have been
placed around his sacred person and majesty may
well make the sons of men fear to offend against
him: “All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be
forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the
Tue Work OF THE Hoty SPIRIT. 221

Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And
whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of
man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever
speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be
forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the
world to come.” Men are to pray ‘‘to be filled
with the Holy Ghost,” but they are to realize the
terrible nature of this petition, for he is the Spirit
of judgment, and there is, as it were, a permanent
judgment-day set up in the soul of man.

The Saviour promised that the Spirit should
convince the world of sin. The heathen seek not
God, because they do not feel that they are guilty
at his bar, rebels who refuse his authority, and
neglect to worship him who is their Lord and God.
When the Spirit is poured out, then the heathen,
who now “sit at ease,” shall look upon him “whom
they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him,
as one mourneth for his only son.” Then will they
come to the “fountain opened to the house of Da-
vid and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and
for uncleanness,” just as, on the day of Pentecost,
the great congregation “were pricked in their heart.”

He is to convince the world of righteousness: of
the want of original righteousness, the vanity of
human righteousness, and the inability of those
“who, being ignorant of God’s righteousness,” go
222 PREACHING IN SINIM.

“about to establish their own righteousness.” It
is only the Holy Spirit which can lead a dying
heathen to behold the beauty of the seamless robe
of Christ’s righteousness, the “wedding garment,”
in which arrayed he may be a welcome guest at
the marriage supper of the Lamb.

The Spirit is to convince the world of judgment,
and make men know that “‘God shall bring every
work into judgment, with every secret thing, whe-
ther it be good, or whether it be evil.” Natural
religion gives many intimations of coming judg-
ment, but these are written simply on the stone
tablets of the temples, and are read “in the letter,”
without the thought of a personal judgment. The
Spirit makes the fearful realities of the great day
of final accounts to pass before the view of those
who are hastening to this great tribunal.

The Holy Spirit will lead men to true repent-
ance. The language of China is rich in its terms
for repentance, and a volley of synonyms can be
poured into the ears of an audience; yet they pro-
duce no effect, save the general admission that
these things ought to be so. There is no topic
where illustration is so easy, and which may be
enforced with more power; yet, unless the Holy
Spirit cements the word, the gospel architect la-
boreth but in vain.
THE WoRK OF THE Hoty Spirit. 223.

The great hope of the Gentiles is in the regen-
erating power of the Spirit. The philosophers of
China deal boldly with human nature, and their
systems of ethics are studied in every school in
the land. The ‘‘Three-character Classic,” the first
primer placed in the hands of a boy, begins,
“Man’s nature is originally good.” Mencius
speaks very beautifully of the “child’s heart.” In
his discussions about man’s nature, while acknow-
ledging the existence of evil, he declares that men
are naturally inclined to good. The people con-
stantly talk of “the heart,” and purity of motive
is spoken of as “ Buddha’s heart.” The essential
goodness of human nature is a tenet in Chinese
philosophy to which the high and the low, the
learned and the unlearned, tenaciously cling. Men
may preach against it as they will, they make no
impression till the Spirit descends, and seals the
truth on the conscience.

The Chinese need conversion. How touching the
scene when “Jesus called a little child unto him,
and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily
I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and be-
come as little children, ye shall not enter into the
kingdom of heaven.” There is a glorious promise,
“Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and
ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness and
224 PREACHING IN SINIM.

from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new
heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I
put within you: and I will take the stony heart
out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of
flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you.” It
is for them to know in their personal experience,
“Tf any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:
old things are passed away; behold, all things are
become new.” The necessity of the new birth
must be pressed upon them. “Verily, verily I say
unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of
God. . . . Marvel not that I say unto thee, Ye
must be born again.” We rejoice in this dispensa-
tion of the Holy Spirit, and that he can pro-
duce this glorious change in the hearts of a mighty
people. It is altogether beyond the resources
of man, and is an act of sovereign, almighty
power.

The messenger of salvation goes not forth in his
own strength, for Jesus commanded his disciples,
“Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be en-
dued with power from on high,” and his last re-
corded words were, “Ye shall receive power, after
that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” Many
centuries before, the angel said to Jacob, “As a
prince hast thou power with God and with man.”
Tur WoRK OF THE Hoty Spirit. 225

The promise, not of temporal, but of spiritual,
power to those who should be witnesses for Christ
unto the uttermost part of the earth is a wonder-
ful factor in the evangelization of the nations.
The words of the Master are true, for the Holy
Ghost did come, and is now abiding with the
church; and the minister must see to it that his
own heart is prepared as an inn for the reception
of the heavenly guest. Though the extraordinary
gifts of miracles and tongues are not now given to
the church, yet the ordinary and permanent gifts
abound, and remain as its legacy. Among these
may be mentioned persuasive eloquence, or the
power of attracting men to the cross by the skil-
ful use of reasoning, rhetoric, and elocution. There
is a mighty power in the pulpit, and when men
speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and
at the same time have a burning desire to save
souls, the Spirit of truth will guide the hearers to
embrace the truth in the love of it. Another gift
of the Spirit is the power of endurance amidst dis-
couragements and difficulties, trials and perplexi-
ties. It is the “long patience” of which James
speaks, the “perseverance of the saints.” Another
power is joy in the Holy Ghost, which joy gives
vigor and elasticity to the laborer. It was said of
the Master, ‘Who, for the joy that was set before
226 PREACHING IN SINIM.

him, endured the cross.” Power in prayer is a
gift of the Holy Ghost. “The effectual fervent
prayer of a righteous man availeth much,’—even
of men “subject to like passions as we are.” The
power of “rightly dividing the word of truth” is a
special gift to those who “speak as the oracles of
God.”

The question comes, How then is this power
to be obtained? Sometimes great gifts are
bestowed suddenly upon the minister in holy
things, but, as a general rule, the good soldier
of Christ obtains his strength gradually by the
use of the means given him. When Israel took
possession of the promised land the heathen na-
tions were not conquered in one decisive battle,
they were put out “little by little” before the
chosen people. It is thus “little by little” the
promised power is obtained. The law of nature
and grace here holds good. Just as the athlete
obtains physical power by long and tedious prepa-
ration, so also the ripe fruits of the Christian life do
not come to maturity in a day, but through a series
of years, under the disciplining hand of divine
Providence. We are to increase in power as well
as to grow in grace. To be “wise unto salvation”
in understanding the Scriptures is power; to have
a tender compassion for dying men and an earnest
Tue Work oF THE Hoty Spirit. 227

desire to win souls is power; to be diligent in the
sacred businesss of preaching the gospel is a
power in convincing men of the truth of the mes-
sage; and to pray without ceasing supplies one
with a full suit of armor from the upper chamber
in Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit takes the natural
gifts, refines and developes them, and by his
quickening influence makes these to be a power
in the church. This power is not a permanent
gift, for as food must be taken daily to obtain
bodily strength, so this blessing of the Spirit must
be sought hourly by communion with God. ‘Be
thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a
crown of life,” says Jesus. “To him that over-
cometh” are the seven promises given. The one
great petition missionaries offer at a throne of
divine grace is that the Holy Spirit may be poured
out. The blessing on the preached word, the
quickening of the dead bones on Asia’s plains, the
sanctification of the church, all comes from his
divine power. He, the Sovereign Spirit, acts
directly on the sinner’s heart, and his influence
does not pass through the minister to the object,
so it is the power of the Holy Ghost, and not
man’s power, that brings men to the Saviour,
yet he graciously uses men as instruments, and
bestows his gifts upon them that they may lead
228 PREACHING IN SINIM.

others to embrace Jesus Christ, who is so freely
offered in the gospel.

O Spirit of the living God,
In all thy plenitude of grace,
Where’er the foot of man hath trod,
Descend on our apostate race.

Baptize the nations; far and nigh
The triumph of the cross record;
The name of Jesus glorify,
Till every kindred call him Lord.
CHAPTER XVI.
Tar WoNDERS OF THE Last Days.

HE Chinese views of religion are surprisingly

materialistic. The missionary must not only
teach the people their duties to God and their
fellow-men ; he must carry them beyond the con-
fines of the grave to the great events which may
be near at hand. One prominent topic must be

THE SEcoND ComING oF OuR Lorp.

Jesus taught the doctrine of the second coming
so repeatedly that it becomes a prominent fea-
ture of the New Testament theology. ‘Watch,
therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord
doth come.” “Watch, therefore, for ye know
neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of
man cometh.” ‘And what I say unto you I say
unto all, Watch.” Just as ancient Israel’s greatest
hope was “when Messiah cometh,” so the pole
star of the Christian is “looking for that blessed
hope and the glorious appearing of the great
God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” As the
apostles went among the heathen they bade them
turn ‘to God from idols, to serve the living and

true God, and to await for his Son from heaven.”
20 229
230 PREACHING IN SINIM.

Especially the disciples at Thessalonica con-
tinued in “the patient waiting for Christ,’ and
this fact gave them great joy and rejoicing.

The Chinese often ask us, “Have you ever seen
Jesus?” and we reply, “No; but these eyes shall
behold him.” “For I know that my Redeemer
liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day
upon the earth.” Preaching his second coming
presents the living Jesus particularly and spe-
cially before the minds of men. The hearers
look upon what is preached as a doctrine which
is good, as a creed which may be accepted or
rejected, or as a system with which they have
no special concern. In presenting his future ad-
vent, we have the living Christ, ‘which was
dead and is alive,” the reigning Christ, ‘who
hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name
written, King of kings and Lord of lords,” and
the personal Christ, who will appear in our
sight. The words of the Master, so oft re-
peated about the coming of the Son of man,
must be oft repeated in the ears of the men of
China.

The way he will come is easily understood. As
the prophet at Babylon said, “I saw in the night
visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came
with the clouds of heaven,’ so when on Olive’s
THE WONDERS OF THE Last Days. 231

brow “a cloud received him out of the sight” of
his adoring disciples, the two angelic messengers
said, “This same Jesus, which is taken up from
you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as
ye have seen him go into heaven.”

The quickness of his appearing Jesus himself
describes, “ As the lightning cometh out of the east
and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the
coming of the Son of man be.” It will be pre-
ceded by a time of great wickedness, when “that
wicked shall be revealed, whom the Lord shall con-
sume with the Spirit of his mouth, and shall de-
stroy with the brightness of his coming,” a time of
sin, even as the period preceding the flood, and like
unto the days of the cities of the plain. Nothing
could be more graphic than Christ’s own words,
“And then shall appear the sign of the Son of
man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of
the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of
man coming in the clouds of heaven with power
and great glory,” “when he cometh in the glory
of his Father with the holy angels.” The mis-
sionary is to say to the heathen, “Jesus is coming!
Prepare to meet thy God.” The apostle could
preach so tenderly, “If any man love not the
Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema. The
Lord cometh.” To the pagan must be explained
232 PREACHING IN SINIM.

how joyful the hope that fills the heart of the
believer in view of this glorious event.

THE RESURRECTION.

In the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians, the
apostle treats of the resurrection of Christ and the
resurrection of believers in the same passage.
There is not a more enchanting picture to present
to the heathen than the rising of our Lord from
the dead. The night scene of the sepulchre in the
rocky mount: the body laid carefully away, the
heavy stone, the governor’s seal, the military
guard, the sad Sabbath; the morning scene: the
earthquake, the stone rolled away, the pious wo-
men with their sacred gifts, the appearance of the
angel, the words “He is risen,” the weeping of
Mary, the meeting with her Lord, the message to
the disciples, the joy of the believers, the wild ex-
citement at Jerusalem. What more dramatic de-
scriptions than those of the meetings with the dis-
ciples, the walk to Emmaus, the benediction of
-peace, the assurance to Thomas, the seaside love-
feast, and the five hundred assembled upon a
Galilean mount? When the apostles stood before
kings, their testimony was that Christ rose from
the dead. In the presence of heathen congrega-
tions they preached Jesus and the resurrection.
Tur WoNDERS OF THE Last Days. 233.

They had known “the power of his resurrection,”
and they made it a power in all their ministry. If
missionaries become a power in China, it will be
because they preach that Jesus is risen, in a land
of idols who once were living men, but now sleep
in the silence of the tomb. We can point to the
empty sepulchre and ery, ‘Behold where they laid
him.”

Jesus “became the first fruits of them that
slept.” When Paul preached his powerful sermon
at Athens, men listened with rapt attention while
he discoursed upon idols and the worship of the.
Creator; but when “they heard of the resurrection
from the dead, some mocked.” There is a similar
experience with the Chinese, for, no matter how
solemn is the appeal, when this subject is men-
tioned the people invariably laugh. To them the
idea is so weird and romantic that it sounds like
the most extravagant fairy story. So dense is the
population, changing every thirty years, the grave
mounds leveled by the hand of time to become the
resting-places of another retiring generation, the
hillsides and the plains filled with graves, that
China has been termed “one vast graveyard.” It
is a city of the dead. That all who sleep in the
graves shall arise, and that the sea shall give up
the dead who are in it, seems impossible! It is a.
234 PREACHING IN SINIM.

wonderful doctrine to the pagan; there is nothing
like it in heathen literature. It cuts away the
flimsy hopes of transmigration, and makes void,
even to this ancestor-adoring people, the idola-
trous ceremonies after death.

In the Apostles’ Creed this is placed as a funda-
mental truth which must be accepted by every one
who professes faith in Christ. It must be fre-
quently and fearlessly proclaimed. It awakes the
nation from the dread sleep of superstition and
death to hear the voice of the archangel and the
trump of God, and to realize that there shall be
“a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and
the unjust”; “they that have done good, unto the
resurrection of life; and they that have done evil,
unto the resurrection of damnation.” Oh! the sor-
row of those who “awake to shame and everlast-
ing contempt,” and the blessedness of the right-
eous who put on incorruption and immortality!

The Scriptures (Matt. xxiv. 8, 29-31; 1 Thess. iv.
15-17; 2 Thess. i. 7-10; Rev. xx. 11-13, and other
places) seem to connect with the two great events
mentioned above

Tur JUDGMENT Day.

The types of the judgment in natural religion
are abundant, for here the Gentiles “shew the
THE WONDERS OF THE Last Days. 235

work of the law written in their hearts.” They
consider that all men go before the king of Tarta-

oa

rus to receive their just reward, so there is
fearful looking for of judgment.” The ancient
custom of settling accounts on the last night of
the year, and the pursuit of the luckless debtor till
the day dawns, tells of a day of final accounts.
The large abacus in the temple reminds the people
that good and evil are to be summed up at last.
No human tongue can depict the scenes of the last
day, when the great assembly of men of all ages,
all nations, all races, all conditions, all tongues,
meet and stand before the Son of man, to whom is
committed all judgment; for “we must all appear
before the judgment-seat of Christ.” The particu-
larity of the day of assizes, when each individual
shall appear, the universality of the tribunal, when
every act shall be judged, the transparency of the
decisions, when secret things shall be made mani-
fest, the separation of the sheep from the goats,
make the heathen tremble as they view the day
for which all other days were made. They havea
symbol of its terrors in the Great Bore in Hang-
chow Bay on the 18th of the eighth moon, when
the white line in the dim distance is soon seen to
be an advancing wall of water, maddened in its
wild fury as it rushes impetuously forward, roaring
236 PREACHING IN SINIM.

as if the elements were dissolved, gurgling and
foaming in whirlpools and eddies as it comes
thundering along, when, lo! a mountain billow,
driven by the opposing shore, comes rolling
athwart the advancing wave, and the two, uniting,
rush by the spectator, who stands in awe at the
magnificent spectacle! But what is this to the
truths revealed to us concerning the Judgment
Day, when men shall cry “‘to the mountains and
rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of
him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath
of the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath is
come”? Then men shall see “a new heaven and
a new earth, for the first heaven and the first
earth,’ which idolatrous China so long wor-
shipped, will have “passed away.”
CHAPTER XVII.

THE REAPER AND His REWARDS.

HERE is no doctrine so incomprehensible to
the Christian as that of rewards; it is one of
the mysteries of redemption. The believer feels
that the pardon of sin and admittance to heaven is
enough, and that it is wondrous grace bestowed.
upon sinful man which secures to him such bene-
fits as these. But that the Master will reward each
act performed in his name and for his sake is
what the believer cannot understand. Christ tells
of the surprise of the righteous: ‘Lord, when saw
we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and
gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger,
and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee ?
. Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came
unto thee?” Though it seems too good to be true,
yet it is a fact, that those on the right hand shall
hear the King saying, ‘Come, ye blessed of my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world.”
In the parable, to the one whose pound gained
ten, the nobleman said, ‘Well, thou good servant,

because thou hast been faithful in a very little,
237
238 PREACHING IN SINIM.

have thou authority over ten cities”; and in the
parable of the talents, “His lord said unto him,
Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou
hast been faithful over a few things, I will make
thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the
joy of thy lord.” The rule of awards is, “‘For unto
every one that hath shall be given, and he shall
have abundance.” In another parable it is said,
“So, when even was come, the lord of the vineyard
saith unto his steward, Call the laborers, and give
them their hire.”

Christ gives a special promise of temporal bless-
ings, and there is no one who has obeyed his part-
ing command who cannot testify, “He is faithful
that promised.” “And Jesus answered and said,
Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath
left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or
mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake
and the gospel’s, but he shall receive an hundred-
fold now in this time” (a special enumeration in
the plural number), “houses, and brethren, and
sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with
persecutions, and in the world to come eternal life.”

After the Saviour had preached to the Samari-
tan woman, his disciples returned with the pur-
chased food, and he, sitting beside the well, in
view of Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, said to
Tur REAPER AND H1s REWARDS. 939

them, “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and
then cometh harvest?” (a long time before China
is converted), “behold, I say unto you, Lift up
your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are
white already to harvest. And he that reapeth
receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eter-
nal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth
may rejoice togethe: ;” that is, there is as much
joy in sowing as in reaping. The Master contin-
ued his discourse: “And herein is that saying true,
One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to
reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor: other
men labored, and ye are entered into their labors.”
Prophets and kings had labored with the Jews.
These words were not spoken to missionaries to
the heathen, for those who perform the work of
preparation, as David did for Solomon’s temple,
have not gone before them.

Isaiah said, “Blessed are ye that sow beside all
waters.” David sang, “They that sow in tears
shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weep-
eth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come
again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with
him.” Paul wrote, “He which soweth bounti-
fully shall reap also bountifully”; ‘He that sow-
eth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life ever-
lasting. And let us not be weary in well-doing :

?
‘240 PREACHING IN SINIM.

for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”
In a fruitful year the Chinese plant one grain of
rice, and at the harvest there are on the one head
one hundred grains; so the spiritual harvest will
be thirty, sixty, and one hundred-fold.

The sower is the preacher: ‘And I saw another
angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the ever-
lasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on
the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and
tongue, and people.” ‘And this gospel of the
kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a
witness unto all nations.” And with what result?
“Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall
be increased.” “And they shall teach no more
every man his neighbor, and every man his bro-
ther, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all
know me, from the least of them unto the greatest
of them, saith the Lord.” ‘For the earth shall be
‘full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as
the waters cover the sea.” Besides the many pro-
phecies about the kingdom to cheer the church, in
her arduous labors in China a special promise is
given: “Behold, these shall come from far: and,
lo! these from the north and from the west; and
these from the land of Sinim.”

In view of the advent of Messiah, the prophet
exclaimed, ‘‘ Behold, his reward is with him”; and
THe REAPER AND His REewarps. 241

from heaven his own voice was heard, ‘Behold, I
come quickly, and my reward is with me.” If
Christ does not forget the handing of a cup of cold
water to a disciple, and will in no wise let the
giver lose his reward, how much more will he re-
member those who bring the water of life to the
multitudes who perish with thirst! The Master
told his disciples of the great value of one soul.
The apostle to the Gentiles said, “I am made all
things to all men, that I might by all means save
some.” James closes his epistle with this cheering
exhortation: “Let him know, that he which con-
verteth the sinner from the error of his way shall
save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude
of sins.” Ministers are stars in the right hand of
him who walks in the midst of the golden candle-
sticks; and in the resurrection “one star differeth
from another star in glory,” but all shine brightly.
The prophet said, “They that be wise shall shine
as the brightness of the firmament; and they-that
turn many to righteousness, as the stars, for ever
and ever.” Therefore, the laborer may -feel as-
sured of the “crown of righteousness” laid up for
him in heaven, and at ‘‘that day” to be placed on
his head; and that it will be granted to him to sit
with Jesus on his throne, even as he also over-
came, and is set down with his Father on his throne.
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