FORTY YEARS IN SOUTH CHINA

The Life of Rev. John Van Nest Talmage, D. D. 

by

Rev. John Gerardus FaggMissionary of the American Reformed (Dutch) Church, at Amoy, China

1894

INTRODUCTION. 

BY REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D. D. 

Too near was I to the subject of this biography to write an impartialintroduction. When John Van Nest Talmage went, my last brother went. Stunned until I staggered through the corridors of the hotel in London, England, when the news came that John was dead. If I should say all that Ifelt I would declare that since Paul the great apostle to the Gentiles, amore faithful or consecrated man has not lifted his voice in the darkplaces of heathenism. I said it while he was alive, and might as well sayit now that he is dead. "He was the hero of our family. " He did not go toa far-off land to preach because people in America did not want to hear himpreach. At the time of his first going to China he had a call to succeedRev. Dr. Brodhead, of Brooklyn, the Chrysostom of the American pulpit, acall with a large salary, and there would not have been anything impossibleto him in the matters of religious work or Christian achievement had hetarried in his native land. But nothing could detain him from the work towhich God called him years before he became a Christian. My reason forwriting that anomalous statement is that when a boy in Sabbath-school atBoundbrook, New Jersey, he read a Library book, entitled "The Life of HenryMartyn, the Missionary, " and he said to our mother, "Mother! when I grow upI am going to be a missionary!" The remark made no especial impression atthe time. Years passed on before his conversion. But when the grace of Godappeared to him, and he had begun his study for the ministry, he said oneday, "Mother! Do you remember that many years ago I said, 'I am going to bea missionary'?" She replied, "Yes! I remember you said so. " "Well, " saidhe, "I am going to keep my promise. " And how well he kept it millions ofsouls on earth and in heaven have long since heard. But his chief work isyet to come. We get our chronology so twisted that we come to believe thatthe white marble of the tomb is the mile-stone at which a good man stops, when it is only a mile-stone on a journey, the most of the miles of whichare yet to be travelled. 

The Dictionary which my brother prepared with more than two decades ofstudy, the religious literature he transferred from English into Chinese, the hymns he wrote for others to sing, although himself could not sing atall, (he and I monopolizing the musical incapacity of a family in which allthe rest could sing well), the missionary stations he planted, the life helived, will widen out, and deepen and intensify through all time and alleternity. 

I am glad that those competent to tell of his magnificent work haveundertaken it. You could get nothing about it from him at all. Ask him aquestion trying to evoke what he had done for God and the church, and hislips were as tightly shut as though they had never been opened. He wasanimated enough when drawn out in discussion religious, educational, orpolitical, but he had great powers of silence. I once took him to seeGeneral Grant, our reticent President. On that occasion they both seemed todo their best in the art of quietude. The great military President with hisclosed lips on one side of me, and my brother with his closed lips on theother side of me, I felt there was more silence in the room than I everbefore knew to be crowded into the same space. It was the same kind ofreticence that always came upon John when you asked him about his work. Butthe story has been gloriously told in the heavens by those who through hisinstrumentality have already reached the City of Raptures. When the roll ofmartyrs is called before the Throne of God, the name of John Van NestTalmage will be called. He worked himself to death in the cause of theworld's evangelization. His heart, his brain, his lungs, his hands, hismuscles, his nerves, all wrought for others until heart and brain, andlungs and hands, and muscles and nerves could do no more. 

He sleeps in the cemetery near Somerville, New Jersey, so near father andmother that he will face them when he rises in the Resurrection of theJust, and amid a crowd of kindred now slumbering on the right of him, andon the left of him, he will feel the thrill of the Trumpet that wakes thedead. 

Allelujah! Amen!

BROOKLYN, June, 1894. 

PREFACE. 

The accompanying resolution of the Board of Foreign Missions of theReformed Church in America, November 16, 1892, explains the origin of thisvolume:

"Resolved, That the Board of Foreign Missions, being firmly convinced thata biography of the late John V. N. Talmage, D. D. , for over forty yearsidentified with the Mission at Amoy, would be of great service to the causeof Missions, heartily recommend to the family of Dr. Talmage the selectionof an appropriate person to prepare such a memoir, and in case this isdone, promise to render all the aid in their power in furnishing whateverfacts or records may be of service to the author of the book. "

The writer raised his pen to this task with hesitancy. He had known Dr. Talmage only little more than a year; long enough, indeed, to revere andlove him, but not long enough to tell the story of so rich and fruitful alife. 

Dr. Talmage was a man of unconscious greatness. If he could have beenconsulted it is doubtful whether a public record of him would have everseen the light. His life to him would have seemed too commonplace andunworthy. He was exceedingly careful in the use of language. He could notendure exaggeration. Nothing so commanded his admiration as honesty andaccuracy of statement. That ought to be sufficient to guard any one whospeaks of such a man against indiscriminate eulogy. 

We have endeavored as far as possible to make this memoir an autobiography. To carry out this purpose has not been without difficulties. 

Dr. Talmage did not keep a continuous diary. He did not preserve completefiles of his correspondence as if anticipating the needs of some possiblebiographer. 

The author's enforced retirement from the mission field in the midst ofcollecting and sifting material, has been no small drawback. 

It is hoped, however, that enough has been gleaned to justify publication. Sincerest thanks are due to those brethren who contributed to theconcluding chapter, "In Memoriam. "

If these pages may more fully acquaint the Church of Christ with a namewhich it should not willingly let die, and deepen interest in and hasten bythe least hair-breadth the redemption of "China's Millions, " the authorwill feel abundantly rewarded. 

JOHN G. FAGG. 

ARLINGTON, NEW JERSEYOctober 1, 1894. 

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Rev. John Van Nest TalmageChinese Clan HouseBuddhist Temple, AmoyPagoda near Lam-sinChinese Bride and GroomTraveling Equipment in South ChinaPastor Iap and FamilyThe Sio ke ValleyGlimpse of the Sio-ke RiverScene in the Hakka RegionGirl's School; The Talmage Manse; Woman's School. (Kolongsu, opposite Amoy)Pastor Iap

CONTENTS

I. The Ancestral HomeII. Call to China and Voyage HenceIII. The City of the "Elegant Gate" Description of Amoy and Amoy Island Ancestral Worship Infanticide Is China to be won, and how? Worship of the EmperorIV. Light and Shade The Chiang-chiu Valley Breaking and Burning of Idols The Chinese Boat Race and its Origin The Chinese Beggar System Two Noble Men Summoned HenceV. At the Foot of the Bamboos Opium Romanized Colloquial Chinese Sense of Sin Primitive Lamps Zealous Converts The Term Question What it Costs a Chinese to become a Christian Persecuted for Christ's Sake "He is only a Beggar" Printing under Difficulties Carrier PigeonsVI. The "Little Knife" Insurrection How the Chinese FightVII. The Blossoming Desert Si-boo's Zeal An Appeal for a MissionaryVIII. Church Union The Memorial of the Amoy MissionIX. Church Union (continued)X. The Anti-missionary AgitationXI. The Last Two Decades Forty continuous Years in Heathenism Chinese GrandiloquenceXII. In Memoriam Dr. Talmage--The Man and The Missionary By Rev. W. S. Swanson, D. D. Venerable Teacher Talmage By Pastor Iap Han Chiong Rev. John Van Nest Talmage, D. D. By Rev. S. L. Baldwin, D. D. The Rev. J. V. N. Talmage, D. D. By Rev. Talbot W. Chambers, D. D. , LL. D. Rev. John Van Nest Talmage, D. D. By Rev. John M. Ferris, D. D. APPENDIX

I. THE ANCESTRAL HOME

John Van Nest Talmage was born at Somerville, New Jersey, August 18, 1819He was the fourth son in a family of seven brothers and five sisters. 

The roots of the Talmage genealogical tree may be traced back to the year1630, when Enos and Thomas Talmage, the progenitors of the Talmage familyin North America, landed at Charlestown, Massachusetts, and afterwardssettled at East Hampton, Long Island. 

Dr. Lyman Beecher represents the first settlers of East Hampton as "menresolute, enterprising, acquainted with human nature, accustomed to dobusiness, well qualified by education, circumspect, careful in dealing, friends of civil liberty, jealous of their rights, vigilant to discover, and firm to resist encroachments; eminently pious. "

In 1725 we find Daniel Talmage at Elizabethtown, New Jersey. Daniel'sgrandson, Thomas, during the years between 1775 and 1834 shifts his tent toPiscataway, New Jersey, thence to New Brunswick, thence to Somerville, where the stakes are driven firmly on a farm "beautiful for situation. "Thomas Talmage was a builder by trade, and erected some of the mostimportant courthouses and public edifices in Somerset and MiddlesexCounties. He was active in the Revolutionary war, holding the rank ofmajor. It was said of him, "His name will be held in everlastingremembrance in the churches. " He was the father of seven sons and sixdaughters. 

The third son, David T. , the father of John Van Nest Talmage, was born atPiscataway, April 21, 1783. He was married to Catharine Van Nests Dec. 19, 1803. David T. Talmage was rather migratory in his instincts. The smokeof the Talmage home now curled out from a house at Mill stone, now from ahomestead near Somerville, then from Gateville; then the family ark restedfor many years on the outskirts of Somerville and finally it brought up atBound Brook, New Jersey. Though the family tent was folded several times, it was not folded for more than a day's wagon journey before it was pitchedagain. The places designated arc all within the range of a single NewJersey county. 

In 1836 David T. Talmage was elected a member of the State Legislature andwas returned three successive terms. In 1841, he was chosen high sheriffof Somerset County. Four of his sons entered the Christian ministry, JamesR. , John Van Nest, Goyn, and Thomas De Witt. James R. , the senior brother, rendered efficient service in pastorates at Pompton Plains and Blawenburgh, New Jersey, and in Brooklyn, Greenbush, and Chittenango, New York. Hereceived the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Rutgers College, New Jersey, in 1864. John Van Nest gave his life to China. Goyn, a most winsome man andeloquent preacher, ministered with marked success to the churches ofNiskayuna, Green Point, Rhinebeck, and Port Jervis, New York, and Paramus, New Jersey. He was for five years the Corresponding Secretary of the Boardof Domestic Missions of the Reformed Church. Rutgers College honoredherself and him by giving him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1876. 

Thomas De Witt, the youngest son, still ministers to the largest church inProtestant Christendom. What a river of blessing has flowed from thathumble, cottage well-spring. The wilderness and the parched land have beenmade glad by it. The desert has been made to rejoice and blossom as therose. The courses thereof have gone out into all the earth, and the tossingof its waves have been heard to the end of the world. 

In November, 1865, Dr. T. De Witt Talmage preached a sermon on "The Beautyof Old Age"[*] from the words in Eccles. Xii. 5, "The Almond Tree shallflourish. " It was commemorative of his father, David T. Talmage. He says:"I have stood, for the last few days, as under the power of an enchantment. Last Friday-a-week, at eighty-three years of age, my father exchanged earthfor heaven. The wheat was ripe, and it has been harvested. No painter'spencil or poet's rhythm could describe that magnificent sun setting. It wasno hurricane blast let loose; but a gale from heaven, that drove into thedust the blossoms of that almond tree. 

 [Footnote *: This sermon gives so graphic and tender a portrayal of the father of one of America's most distinguished ministerial families, that the author feels justified in making so lengthy an extract. ]

"There are lessons for me to learn, and also for you, for many of you knewhim. The child of his old age, I come to-night to pay an humble tribute tohim, who, in the hour of my birth, took me into his watchful care, andwhose parental faithfulness, combined with that of my mother, was the meansof bringing my erring feet to the cross, and kindling in my soulanticipations of immortal blessedness. If I failed to speak, methinks theold family Bible, that I brought home with me, would rebuke my silence, andthe very walls of my youthful home would tell the story of my ingratitude. I must speak, though it be with broken utterance, and in terms which seemtoo strong for those of you who never had an opportunity of gathering thefruit of this luxuriant almond tree. 

"First. In my father's old age was to be seen the beauty of a cheerfulspirit. I never remember to have heard him make a gloomy expression. Thiswas not because he had no conception of the pollutions of society. Heabhorred everything like impurity, or fraud, or double-dealing. He neverfailed to lift up his voice against sin, when he saw it. He was terrible inhis indignation against wrong, and had an iron grip for the throat of himwho trampled on the helpless. Better meet a lion robbed of her whelps thanhim, if you had been stealing the bread from the mouth of the fatherless. It required all the placidity of my mother's voice to calm him when oncethe mountain storm of his righteous wrath was in full blast; while as forhimself, he would submit to more imposition, and say nothing, than any manI ever knew. 

"But while sensitive to the evils of society, he felt confident that allwould be righted. When he prayed, you could hear in the very tones of hisvoice the expectation that Christ Jesus would utterly demolish alliniquity, and fill the earth with His glory. This Christian man was not amisanthrope, did not think that everything was going to ruin, consideredthe world a very good place to live in. He never sat moping or despondent, but took things as they were, knowing that God could and would make thembetter. When the heaviest surge of calamity came upon him, he met it withas cheerful a countenance as ever a bather at the beach met the incomingAtlantic, rising up on the other side of the wave stronger than when itsmote him. Without ever being charged with frivolity, he sang, andwhistled, and laughed. He knew about all the cheerful tunes that were everprinted in old 'New Brunswick Collection, ' and the 'Strum Way, ' and thesweetest melodies that Thomas Hastings ever composed. I think that everypillar in the Somerville and Bound Brook churches knew his happy voice. Hetook the pitch of sacred song on Sabbath morning, and lost it not throughall the week. I have heard him sing plowing amid the aggravations of a 'newground, ' serving writs, examining deeds, going to arrest criminals, in thehouse and by the way, at the barn and in the street. When the church choirwould break down, everybody looked around to see if he were not ready withWoodstock, Mount Pisgah, or Uxbridge. And when all his familiar tunesfailed to express the joy of his soul, he would take up his own pen, drawfive long lines across the sheet, put in the notes, and then to the tunethat he called 'Bound Brook' begin to sing:

 'As when the weary trav'ler gains The height of some o'erlooking hill, His heart revives if, 'cross the plains, He eyes his home, tho' distant still:

 Thus, when the Christian pilgrim views, By faith, his mansion in the skies; The sight his fainting strength renews, And wings his speed to reach the prize. 

 "'Tis there, " he says, "I am to dwell With Jesus in the realms of day: There I shall bid my cares farewell, And he will wipe my tears away. "

"But few families fell heir to so large a pile of well-studied note-books. He was ready, at proper times, for all kinds of innocent amusement. Heoften felt a merriment that not only touched the lips, but played uponevery fibre of the body, and rolled down into the very depths of his soul, with long reverberations. No one that I ever knew understood more fullythe science of a good laugh. He was not only quick to recognize hilaritywhen created by others, but was always ready to do his share toward makingit. Before extreme old age, he could outrun and outleap any of hischildren. He did not hide his satisfaction at having outwalked some onewho boasted of his pedestrianism, or at having been able to swing thescythe after all the rest of the harvesters had dropped from exhaustion, orat having, in legislative hall, tripped up some villainous scheme forrobbing the public treasury. We never had our ears boxed, as some childrenI wot of, for the sin of being happy. In long winter nights it was hard totell who enjoyed sportfulness the better, the children who romped thefloor, or the parents who, with lighted countenance, looked at them. Greatindulgence and leniency characterized his family rule, but the remembranceof at least one correction more emphatic than pleasing proves that he wasnot like Eli of old, who had wayward sons and restrained them not. In themultitude of his witticisms there were no flings at religion, nocaricatures of good men, no trifling with things of eternity. His laughterwas not the 'crackling of thorns under a pot, ' but the merry heart thatdoeth good like a medicine. For this all the children of the communityknew him; and to the last day of his walking out, when they saw him comingdown the lane, shouted, 'Here comes grandfather!' No gall, no acerbity, nohypercriticism. If there was a bright side to anything, he always saw it, and his name, in all the places where he dwelt, will long be a synonym forexhilaration of spirit. 

"But whence this cheerfulness? Some might ascribe it ail to naturaldisposition. No doubt there is such a thing as sunshine of temperament. God gives more brightness to the almond tree than to the cypress. Whilethe pool putrefies under the summer sun, God slips the rill off of therocks with a frolicsomeness that fills the mountain with echo. No doubtconstitutional structure had much to do with this cheerfulness. He had, bya life of sobriety, preserved his freshness and vigor. You know that goodhabits are better than speaking tubes to the ear; better than a staff tothe hand; better than lozenges to the throat; better than warm baths to thefeet; better than bitters for the stomach. His lips had not been polluted, nor his brain befogged, by the fumes of the noxious weed that has sappedthe life of whole generations, sending even ministers of the Gospel tountimely graves, over which the tombstone declared, 'Sacrificed by overworkin the Lord's vineyard, ' when if the marble had not lied, it would havesaid, 'Killed by villainous tobacco!' He abhorred anything that couldintoxicate, being among the first in this country to join the crusadeagainst alcoholic beverages. When urged, during a severe sickness, to takesome stimulus, he said, 'No! If I am to die, let me die sober!' The swillof the brewery had never been poured around the roots of this thriftyalmond. To the last week of his life his ear could catch a child'swhisper, and at fourscore years his eyes refused spectacles, although hewould sometimes have to hold the book off on the other side of the light, as octogenarians are wont to do. No trembling of the hands, no rheum inthe eyes, no knocking together of the knees, no hobbling on crutches withwhat polite society terms rheumatism in the feet, but what everybody knowsis nothing but gout. Death came, not to fell the gnarled trunk of a treeworm-eaten and lightning-blasted, but to hew down a Lebanon cedar, whosefall made the mountains tremble and the heavens ring. But physical healthcould not account for half of this sunshine. Sixty-four years ago a coalfrom the heavenly altar had kindled a light that shone brighter andbrighter to the perfect day. Let Almighty grace for nearly three-quartersof a century triumph in a man's soul, and do you wonder that he is happy?For twice the length of your life and mine he had sat in the bower of thepromises, plucking the round, ripe clusters of Eshcol. While others bittheir tongues for thirst, he stood at the wells of salvation, and put hislips to the bucket that came up dripping with the fresh, cool, sparklingwaters of eternal life. This joy was not that which breaks in the burstingbubble of the champagne glass, or that which is thrown out with theorange-peelings of a midnight bacchanalia, but the joy which, planted by aSaviour's pardoning grace, mounts up higher and higher, till it breaksforth in the acclaim of the hundred and forty and four thousand who havebroken their last chain and wept their last sorrow. Oh! mighty God! Howdeep, how wide, how high the joy Thou kindles" in the heart of thebeliever!

"Again: We behold in our father the beauty of a Christian faith. 

"Let not the account of this cheerfulness give you the idea that he neverhad any trouble. But few men have so serious and overwhelming a lifestruggle. He went out into the world without means, and with no educationalopportunity, save that which was afforded him in the winter months, in anold, dilapidated school-house, from instructors whose chief work was tocollect their own salary. Instead of postponing the marriage relation, asmodern society compels a young man to postpone it, until he can earn afortune, and be able, at commencement of the conjugal relation, to keep acompanion like the lilies of the field, that toil not nor spin, thoughSolomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these--he chose anearly alliance with one, who would not only be able to enjoy the success ofhis life, but who would with her own willing hands help achieve it. And sowhile father plowed the fields, and threshed the wheat, and broke the flax, and husked the corn, my mother stood for Solomon's portraiture, when hesaid, 'She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to herhousehold. She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold thedistaff. She is not afraid of the snow for her household, for all herhousehold are clothed with scarlet. Her children arise up and call herblessed, her husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have donevirtuously, but thou excellest them all. ' So that the limited estate ofthe New Jersey farmer never foundered on millinery establishments andconfectionery shops. And though we were some years of age before we heardthe trill of a piano, we knew well about the song of 'The Spinning-wheel. 'There were no lords, or baronets, or princes in our ancestral line. Nonewore stars, cockade, or crest. There was once a family coat of arms, butwe were none of us wise enough to tell its meaning. Do our best, we cannotfind anything about our forerunners, except that they behaved well, cameover from Wales or Holland a good while ago, and died when their time came. Some of them may have had fine equipage and caparisoned postillion, but themost of them were only footmen. My father started in life belonging to thearistocracy of hard knuckles and homespun, but had this high honor that noone could despise. He was the son of a father who loved God, and kept Hiscommandments. What is the House of Hapsburg or Stuarts, compared withbeing son of the Lord God Almighty? Two eyes, two hands, and two feet, were the capital my father started with. For fifteen years an invalid, hehad a fearful struggle to support his large family. Nothing but faith inGod upheld him. His recital of help afforded, and deliverances wrought, was more like a romance than a reality. He walked through many a desert, but every morning had its manna, and every night it's pillar of fire, andevery hard rock a rod that could shatter it into crystal fountains at hisfeet. More than once he came to his last dollar; but right behind thatlast dollar he found Him who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and outof the palm of whose hand all the fowls of heaven peck their food, and whohath given to each one of His disciples a warrantable deed for the wholeuniverse in the words, 'All are yours. '

"The path that led him through financial straits, prepared him also forsore bereavements. The infant of days was smitten, and he laid it into theriver of death with as much confidence as infant Moses was laid into theArk of the Nile, knowing that soon from the royal palace a shining Onewould come to fetch it. 

"In an island of the sea, among strangers, almost unattended, death came toa beloved son; and though I remember the darkness that dropped on thehousehold when the black-sealed letter was opened, I remember also theutterances of Christian submission. 

"Another bearing his own name, just on the threshold of manhood, his heartbeating high with hope, falls into the dust; but above the cries of earlywidowhood and the desolation of that dark day, I hear the patriarch'sprayer, commending children, and children's children, to the Divinesympathy. 

"But a deeper shadow fell across the old home-stead. The 'Golden Wedding'had been celebrated nine years before. My mother looked up, pushed backher spectacles, and said, 'Just think of it, father! We have been togetherfifty-nine years!' The twain stood together like two trees of the forestwith interlocked branches. Their affections had taken deep root togetherin many a kindred grave. Side by side in life's great battle, they hadfought the good fight and won the day. But death comes to unjoint thisalliance. God will not any longer let her suffer mortal ailments. Thereward of righteousness is ready, and it must be paid. But what a tearingapart! What rending up! What will the aged man do without this other tolean on? Who can so well understand how to sympathize and counsel? Whatvoice so cheering as hers, to conduct him down the steep of old age? 'Oh'said she in her last moments, 'father, if you and I could only be together, how pleasant it would be!' But the hush of death came down one autumnalafternoon, and for the first time in all my life, on my arrival at home, Ireceived no maternal greeting, no answer of the lips, no pressure of thehand. God had taken her. 

"In this overwhelming shock the patriarch stood confident, reciting thepromises and attesting the Divine goodness. O, sirs, that was faith, faith, faith! 'Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory!'

"Finally, I noticed that in my father's old age was to be seen the beautyof Christian activity. He had not retired from the field. He had beenbusy so long you could not expect him idle now. The faith I have describedwas not an idle expectation that sits with its hands in its pockets idlywaiting, but a feeling which gathers up all the resources of the soul, andhurls them upon one grand design. He was among the first who toiled inSabbath-schools, and never failed to speak the praise of theseinstitutions. No storm or darkness ever kept him away from prayer-meeting. In the neighborhood where he lived for years held a devotional meeting. Oftentimes the only praying man present, before a handful of attendants, hewould give out the hymn, read the lines, conduct the music, and pray. Thenread the Scriptures and pray again. Then lead forth in the Doxology withan enthusiasm as if there were a thousand people present, and all thechurch members had been doing their duty. He went forth visiting the sick, burying the dead, collecting alms for the poor, inviting the ministers ofreligion to his household, in which there was, as in the house of Shunem, alittle room over the wall, with bed and candlestick for any passing Elisha. He never shuddered at the sight of a subscription paper, and not a singlegreat cause of benevolence has arisen within the last half century which hedid not bless with his beneficence. Oh, this was not a barren almond treethat blossomed. His charity was not like the bursting of the bud of afamous tree in the South that fills the whole forest with its racket; norwas it a clumsy thing like the fruit, in some tropical clime, that crashesdown, almost knocking the life out of those who gather it; for in his casethe right hand knew not what the left hand did. The churches of God inwhose service he toiled, have arisen as one man to declare his faithfulnessand to mourn their loss. He stood in the front of the holy war, and thecourage which never trembled or winced in the presence of temporal dangerinduced him to dare all things for God. In church matters he was notafraid to be shot at. Ordained, not by the laying on of human hands, butby the imposition of a Saviour's love, he preached by his life, in officialposition, and legislative hall, and commercial circles, a practicalChristianity. He showed that there was such a thing as honesty inpolitics. He slandered no party, stuffed no ballot box, forged nonaturalization papers, intoxicated no voters, told no lies, surrendered noprinciple, countenanced no demagogism. He called things by their rightnames; and what others styled prevarication, exaggeration, misstatement orhyperbole, he called a lie. Though he was far from being undecided in hisviews, and never professed neutrality, or had any consort with thosemiserable men who boast how well they can walk on both sides of a dividingline and be on neither, yet even in the excitements of election canvass, when his name was hotly discussed in public journals, I do not think hisintegrity was ever assaulted. Starting every morning with a chapter of theBible, and his whole family around him on their knees, he forgot not, inthe excitements of the world, that he had a God to serve and a heaven towin. The morning prayer came up on one side of the day, and the eveningprayer on the other side, and joined each other in an arch above his head, under the shadow of which he walked all the day. The Sabbath worshipextended into Monday's conversation, and Tuesday's bargain, and Wednesday'smirthfulness, and Thursday's controversy, and Friday's sociality, andSaturday's calculation. 

"Through how many thrilling scenes had he passed! He stood, at Morristown, in the choir that chanted when George Washington was buried; talked withyoung men whose grandfathers he had held on his knee; watched the progressof John Adams' administration; denounced, at the time, Aaron Burr's infamy;heard the guns that celebrated the New Orleans victory; voted againstJackson, but lived long enough to wish we had one just like him; rememberedwhen the first steamer struck the North River with it's wheel buckets;flushed with excitement in the time of national banks and sub-treasury; wasstartled at the birth of telegraphy; saw the United States grow from aspeck on the world's map till all nations dip their flag at our passingmerchantmen, and our 'national airs' have been heard on the steeps of theHimalayas; was born while the Revolutionary cannon were coming home fromYorktown, and lived to hear the tramp of troops returning from the war ofthe great Rebellion; lived to speak the names of eighty children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Nearly all his contemporariesgone! Aged Wilberforce said that sailors drink to 'friends astern' untilhalfway over the sea, and then drink to 'friends ahead. ' So, also, with myfather. Long and varied pilgrimage! Nothing but sovereign grace couldhave kept him true, earnest, useful, and Christian through so many excitingscenes. 

"He worked unwearily from the sunrise of youth, to the sunset of old age, and then in the sweet nightfall of death, lighted by the starry promises, went home, taking his sheaves with him. Mounting from earthly to heavenlyservice, I doubt not there were a great multitude that thronged heaven'sgate to hail him into the skies, --those whose sorrows he had appeased, whose burdens he had lifted, whose guilty souls he had pointed to apardoning God, whose dying moments he had cheered, whose ascending spiritshe had helped up on the wings of sacred music. I should like to have heardthat long, loud, triumphant shout of heaven's welcome. I think that theharps throbbed with another thrill, and the hills quaked with a mightierhallelujah. Hail! ransomed soul! Thy race run, --thy toil ended! Hail tothe coronation!"

At the death of David T. Talmage the Christian Intelligencer of October 25, 1865, contained the following contribution from the pen of Dr. T. W. Chambers, for many years pastor of the Second Reformed Church, Somerville, New Jersey, now one of the pastors of the Collegiate Church, New York:

"In the latter part of the last century, Thomas Talmage, Sr. , a plain butintelligent farmer, moved into the neighborhood of Somerville, N. J. , andsettled upon a fertile tract of land, very favorably situated, andcommanding a view of the country for miles around. Here he spent theremainder of a long, godly, and useful life, and reared a large family ofchildren, twelve of whom were spared to reach adult years, and to make andadorn the same Christian profession of which their father was a shininglight. Two of these became ministers of the Gospel, of whom one, Jehiel, fell asleep several years since, while the other, the distinguished SamuelK. Talmage, D. D. , President of Oglethorpe University, Georgia, entered intohis rest only a few weeks since. Another son, Thomas, was for an entiregeneration the strongest pillar in the Second Church of Somerville. 

"One of the oldest of the twelve was the subject of this notice; a manwhose educational advantages were limited to the local schools of theneighborhood, but whose excellent natural abilities, sharpened by contactwith the world, gave him a weight in the community which richer and morecultivated men might have envied. In the prime of his years he was oftencalled to serve his fellow citizens in civil trusts. He spent some yearsin the popular branch of the Legislature, and was afterwards high sheriffof the County of Somerset for the usual period. In both cases he fulfilledthe expectations of his friends, and rendered faithful service. Thesterling integrity of his character manifested itself in every situation;and even in the turmoil of politics, at a time of much excitement, hemaintained a stainless name, and defied the tongue of calumny. But it waschiefly in the sphere of private and social relations that his work wasdone and his influence exerted. His father's piety was reproduced in himat an early period, and soon assumed a marked type of thoroughness, activity and decision, which it bore even to the end. His long life wasone of unblemished Christian consistency, which in no small measure was dueto the influence of his excellent wife, Catherine Van Nest, a niece of thelate Abraham Van Nest, of New York City, who a few years preceded him intoglory. She was the most godly woman the writer ever knew, a wonder untomany for the strength of her faith, the profoundness of her Christianexperience, and the uniform spirituality of her mind. The ebb and flowcommon to most believers did not appear in her; but her course was like ariver fed by constant streams, and running on wider and deeper till itreaches the sea. It might be said of this pair, as truly as of the parentsof John the Baptist, 'And they were both righteous before God, walking inall the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. ' Hand in handthey pursued their pilgrimage through this world, presenting an example ofintelligent piety such as is not often seen. 'Lovely and pleasant in theirlives, in their death they were not (long) divided. ' Exactly three yearsfrom the day of Mrs. Talmage's death her husband received the summons torejoin her on high. 

"These parents were unusually careful and diligent in discharging theirChristian obligations to their children. The promise of the covenant wasimportunately implored in their behalf from the moment of birth, its sealwas early applied, and the whole training was after the pattern of Abraham. The Divine faithfulness was equally manifest, for the whole eleven were indue time brought to the Saviour, and introduced into the full communion ofthe Church. Years ago two of them were removed by death. Of the rest, four, James, John, Goyn, and Thomas De Witt, are ministers of the Gospel, and one is the wife of a minister (the Rev. S. L. Mershon, of East Hampton, L. I. ). Without entering into details respecting these brethren, it issufficient to say that, with the exception of the late Dr. John Scudder's, no other single family has been the means of making such a valuablecontribution to the sons of Levi in the Dutch Church. 

"Mr. Talmage was not only exemplary in the ordinary duties of a Christian, but excellent as a church officer. Shrewd, patient, kind, generousaccording to his means, and full of quiet zeal, he was ready for every goodwork; one of those men--the delight of a pastor's heart--who can alwaysbe relied upon to do their share, if not a little more, and that in thingsboth temporal and spiritual. He was a wise counselor, a true friend, aself-sacrificing laborer for the Master. "

We find the following allusion to the life and death of his mother, in asermon by Dr. T. De Witt Talmage:

"In these remarks upon maternal faithfulness, I have found myselfunconsciously using as a model the character of one, who, last Wednesday, we put away for the resurrection. About sixty years ago, just before theday of their marriage, my father and mother stood up in the oldmeeting-house, at Somerville, to take the vows of a Christian. Through along life of vicissitude she lived blamelessly and usefully, and came toher end in peace. No child of want ever came to her door, and was turnedaway. No stricken soul ever appealed to her and was not comforted. Nosinner ever asked her the way to be saved, and was not pointed to Christ. 

"When the Angel of Life came to a neighbor's dwelling, she was there torejoice at the incarnation; and when the Angel of Death came, she was thereto robe the departed one for burial. We had often heard her, whilekneeling among her children at family prayers, when father was absent, say:'I ask not for my children wealth, or honor; but I do ask that they may allbecome the subjects of Thy converting grace. ' She had seen all her elevenchildren gathered into the Church, and she had but one more wish, and thatwas that she might again see her missionary son. And when the ship fromChina anchored in New York harbor, and the long absent one crossed thethreshold of his paternal home, she said, 'Now, Lord, lettest Thou Thyservant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation. '

"We were gathered from afar to see only the house from which the soul hadfled forever. How calm she looked! Her folded hands appeared just as whenthey were employed in kindnesses for her children. And we could not helpbut say, as we stood and looked at her, 'Doesn't she look beautiful!' Itwas a cloudless day when, with heavy hearts, we carried her out to the lastresting-place. The withered leaves crumbled under wheel and hoof as wepassed, and the setting sun shone upon the river until it looked like fire. But more calm and bright was the setting sun of this aged pilgrim's life. No more toil. No more tears. No more sickness. No more death. Dearmother! Beautiful mother!

 "'Sweet is the slumber beneath the sod, While the pure soul is resting with God. '"

II. CALL TO CHINA AND VOYAGE HENCE

The known facts in regard to John Talmage's boyhood and youthful days arefew. Of the known facts some perhaps are too trivial, others too sacred tobear mention. The sapling grew. Of the inner and outer circles of growththere is but brief record. 

He spent his boyhood at a quiet country hamlet, Gateville, New Jersey. Onthe ridge swung the toll-gate, and a little beyond might be heard the humand rattle of the grist-mill. His father kept the toll-gate. John was afine horseman, and found great sport in jumping on his horse and chasingthe people who had "cheated the gate" by not paying their toll. John knewthe law and was not afraid to go for them. He went to a private schoolunder the care of a Mr. Morton at the village of Bound Brook, two milesfrom home, and generally stood at the head of his class. 

He early became the judge and counselor among his brothers and sisters. Inany little dispute which arose, John's verdict was usually accepted ascorrect and final. 

During all his missionary career in China, he was an adviser and arbitratorwhom foreigners and Chinese alike sought and from whose advice they werenot quick to turn away. 

In the midst of the tumult among the men of Medina when they met to elect achief to take the place of Mohammed, who had passed away, the voice ofHohab was heard crying out, "Attend to me, attend to me, for I am thewell-rubbed Palm-stem. " The figure Hobab used represented a palm-trunkleft for the beasts to come and rub themselves upon. It was a metaphor fora person much resorted to for counsel. John Talmage never called attentionto himself, but the Arab chief must have counseled many, and well, to havetaken a higher place than did this messenger of Christ at Amoy. 

By the time John Talmage's school days at Bound Brook were completed he haddetermined to prepare for college. Preparatory schools then were few andfar away. They were expensive. John made an arrangement with his seniorbrother, Rev. James R. Talmage, then pastor at Blawenburgh, New Jersey, toput him through the required course. Here he joined the Church at the ageof seventeen. From Blawenburgh his brother Goyn and he went to NewBrunswick, New Jersey, joining the Sophomore class in Rutgers College. Johnand Goyn roomed together, swept and garnished their own quarters and didtheir own cooking. Father Talmage would come down every week or two withprovisions from the farm, to replenish the ever-recipient larder. Both Johnand Goyn were diligent students and graduated with honorable recognitionfrom Rutgers College in 1842, and from New Brunswick Theological Seminaryin 1845. 

John Talmage had made such substantial attainments in Hebrew and Greek, that when some years afterward the distinguished Dr. McClelland resigned asprofessor of these languages in the Theological Seminary at New Brunswick, he was talked of as Dr. McClelland's successor, and but for the convictionthat he ought not to be removed from the Amoy Mission, his appointmentwould have been earnestly advocated by the General Synod. 

John Talmage had read missionary biographies when a boy in theSunday-school at Bound Brook. He had been specially touched by the life ofHenry Martyn. While at college he kept himself supplied with missionaryliterature. His parents were already interested in foreign missions. Insecret before God his mother had devoted John to this very work. John didnot know it. The determining word for him was that spoken in a missionaryaddress, by Rev. Elihu Doty, one of the pioneers of the Amoy Mission. Itwas plain that he must go to the "regions beyond. " He must break the newsto his mother. John's love of missionary literature and his eagerattendance upon missionary meetings had filled the family with a secretfear that he thought of going. One day he invited his younger sister, Catharine, to take a walk with him across the fields. He began to talkabout missions to foreign lands. Finally he said, "Catharine, you musthelp me prepare the way to tell mother that I want to go to China. " Tooovercome with emotion was the sister to reply. They walked home insilence. John sought opportunity when he could quietly tell his mother. Said he, "Mother, I am going to China. " In the intensity of a mother'slove she replied, "Oh, John, it will kill me. " But the grace of Godtriumphed and again she said, "I prayed to God for this, how can I object?"

In October, 1845, he applied to the American Board of Commissioners forForeign Missions, through Dr. Thomas De Witt, the Secretary for theReformed Church. The letter is still in possession. An extract from itreads:

"I was twenty-five years of age last August, reside at Somerville, NewJersey, have been blessed with Christian parents and enjoyed an earlyreligious education. By the assistance of friends and the Church, I havebeen enabled to pursue the usual course of study preparatory in our Churchto entering upon the duties of the Gospel ministry. I graduated at RutgersCollege in the summer of 1842, pursued my theological studies in ourseminary at New Brunswick, and received from the Classis of Philadelphia, July last, 'license' to preach the Gospel. 

"Owing doubtless in great measure to the religious advantages I haveenjoyed, my mind has been more or less under religious impressions from myearliest recollection. About eight years ago I united on confession offaith with the Church (Reformed Dutch) at Blawenburgh, New Jersey, of whichmy brother, Rev. James R. Talmage, was then and still is pastor. Wasliving in his family at the time, and studying with him preparatory toentering college. I am unable to decide when I met with a change of heart. My reason for believing that I have experienced such a change are theevidences within me that I love my Saviour, love His cause, and love thesouls of men. 

"My reason for desiring the missionary work is a desire for the salvationof the heathen. My mind has been directed to the subject for a long time, yet I have not felt at liberty to decide the question where duty called meto labor until the last month. In accordance with this decision I nowoffer my services to the Board to labor in my Master's service among theheathen. As a field of labor I prefer China. "

Owing to deficiency in funds the Board could not send him that year. Heaccepted an invitation to assist Dr. Brodhead, then pastor of the CentralReformed Church of Brooklyn. Dr. Brodhead was one of the great preachersof his day. In Philadelphia, an earlier pastorate, "he preached to greatcongregations of eager listeners, and with a success unparalleled in thehistory of that city and rare in modern times. " John Van Nest Talmagemight have been his successor. But no sooner was the Board ready to sendhim than he was prepared to go. The day for leaving home came. FatherTalmage and the older brothers accompanied John. They left the house inthree carriages. A younger sister (Mrs. Cone) recently said: "When we sawthe three carriages driving down the lane it seemed more like a funeralthan anything else. " Silent were those who drove away. Silent, silent asthey could constrain themselves to be, were mother and sisters as theystood by the windows and got their last look of the procession as it wounddown the road. To go to a foreign land in those days signified to thosewho went, lifelong exile, --to those who tarried, lifelong separation. Theonly highways to the far East were by way of the Cape of Good Hope or CapeHorn. The voyages were always long and often perilous. 

When on board the ship Roman, bound for Canton, David Abeel wrote: "To themissionary perhaps exclusively, is the separation from friends like thefarewell of death. Though ignorant of the future he expects no furtherintercourse on earth. To him the next meeting is generally beyond thegrave. "

The hour of departure was not only saddened by parting from parents andbrothers and sisters, but the young woman in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, towhom he had given his affection, could not join him. Once it had beendecided that they were to go together, but during the last days theenfeebled widowed mother's courage failed her. She could not relinquishher daughter to what seemed to her separation for life. Mr. Talmage had tochoose between the call of duty to China and going alone, or tarrying athome and realizing his heart's hopes. He went to China. By a specialProvidence it was not much more than two years after he set sail that hewas again in the United States. The mother of Miss Abby Woodruff had died, and the union was consummated. 

Mr. Talmage kept a diary of the voyage. A few extracts will proveinteresting. 

"Left Somerville April 10, 1847, via New York to Boston. Sailed fromBoston in ship Heber, April 15th. Farewell services on board conducted byBishop Janes, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Heber is a ship of436 tons, 136 feet long, 27 wide. Among the passengers are Rev. E. Dotyand wife, and Rev. Moses C White and wife, and Rev. I. D. Collins. Thethree latter are Methodist missionaries bound for Foochow (China). " Theywere the pioneers of Methodist missions in China. 

On Thursday evening, the cay of sailing, he writes: "I am now upon thebosom of the mighty deep. But I cannot as yet feel any fear. I am in thehands of the Being 'whose I am and whom I serve. ' In His hands there issafety. I will not fear though the earth be removed. Besides, there areChristian friends praying for me. Oh, the consolation in the assurancethat at the throne of grace I am remembered by near and dear friends! Willnot their prayers be heard? They will. I know they will. The effectualfervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much! When I took leave of myfriends, one, and another, and another, assured me that they would rememberme in their prayers. Yes, and I will remember them. "

April 17th. Speaking of Mr. Collins, he says: "I think we shall much enjoyourselves. We shall study, read, sing, and pray together, talk and walktogether. From present appearances we shall feel towards each other asDavid and Jonathan did. " Mr. Collins was a man of intense missionaryconvictions, who declared if there were no means to send him to China hewould find his way before the mast, and work his way there. 

"April 22. We have now been one week on our voyage. We commenced ourstudies today. Mr. Doty, Collins, and myself have organized ourselves intoa Hebrew class. We expect to have a daily recitation in Hebrew, another inGreek, and another in Chinese. "

"May 8th. Saturday evening. We have been out 23 days. We have had ourworship as usual in the cabin. Since then we have spent some time insinging hymns. Have been led to think of home. Wonder where and how mymany friends are? Are they happy? Are they well? Are they all alive? Isit strange that sadness sometimes steals over my mind, when I think ofthose whom I love, and remember their weeping eyes and sorrowfulcountenances at the time of bidding them farewell, perhaps never again tosee them in this world. "

He had decided to take a text of Scripture for daily meditation, followingthe order in a little book published by the American Tract Society entitled"Dew Drops. "

"The text for today is 1 Pet. Ii. 21. 'Christ suffered for us, leaving usan example, that we should follow his steps. '

"Why should the Christian tremble at the prospect of suffering, or beimpatient under its existence? 'The servant is not greater than his Lord. 'The 'King of Glory' suffered, and shall a sinful man complain? Besides, the Christian should be willing to suffer for the welfare of others. If hecan benefit his fellow-men by running the risk of losing his own life, shall he hesitate to run that risk?"

"May 11. Since Sunday noon have made little progress. "

On examining the record of the voyage which Mr. Talmage kept faithfullyevery day, we find that the ship had made only twenty seven knots in twodays. 

"June 18. For the last month we have not made rapid progress. We haveexperienced much detention from head-winds and calms. About a week ago wewere put on an allowance of water, one gallon a day to each one on board. This includes all that is used for cooking, drinking and washing. "

"Have had quite a severe storm this afternoon and evening. The waves havebeen very high, and the wind--severe almost as a hurricane. This eveningabout 8 o'clock, after a very severe blow and heavy dash of rain, 'fireballs, ' as the sailors termed them, were seen upon the tops of the masts, and also on the ends of the spars, which cross the masts. They presented avery beautiful appearance. 

"Brother Collins and myself have this week commenced the study of Pitman'sSystem of Phonography. " That Mr. Talmage became proficient in the use ofit is evident from the fact that much of his journal was written inshorthand. 

"On the Sabbath Brother Collins and myself spend two hours in theforecastle instructing the sailors. Many of them seem perfectly willing, some of them anxious to receive instruction. "

"July 17. Saturday evening. Today passed to the eastward of ChristmasIsland (an island in the Indian Ocean). It is a small island about tenmiles square. This is the first land seen since we left Boston. Ofcourse, we gazed with much interest. "

"July 22. About nine o'clock Tuesday evening we anchored off Angier. Thisis a village off the island of Java, bordering on the Straits of Sunda. Remained at Angier until Wednesday afternoon. Capt. Patterson laid in agood supply of pigs, geese, ducks, chickens, yams, turtles, water, twogoats, and fruits of various kinds in abundance. "

"Aug. 6. Friday. Wednesday evening arrived at Macao. This morning setsail for Whampoa, twelve miles below Canton. "

After a few days at Canton and Hongkong, Mr. And Mrs. Doty and Mr. Talmageembarked for Amoy on the schooner Caroline. 

"Aug 21. The Caroline is a small vessel of about one hundred and fiftytons burthen. She was built, I suppose, for the opium trade. Our passagefrom Hongkong was not very pleasant. Our quarters were close and ourcaptain was far from being an agreeable companion. He drank freely and wasvery profane. "

"We left Brother Collins and Brother White and wife at Hongkong. We hadbeen so long in company with these brethren, that it was trying to partwith them. On Thursday, the day before yesterday, we arrived safely atAmoy. The brethren gave us a very hearty welcome. The missionary companyat this place consists of Brother Pohlman, of the A. B. C. F. M. ; Mr. AlexanderStronach and wife, and Brown, of the Presbyterian Board. Mr. John Stronachalso belongs to this station. He is at present at Shanghai. "

III. THE CITY OF THE "ELEGANT GATE"[*]

[Footnote *: the meaning of the two Chinese characters composing the nameAmoy. ]

In a letter to the Sabbath-school of the Central Reformed Church, Brooklyn, Mr. Talmage thus describes the southern emporium of the province of Fukien:

"Amoy is situated on an island of the same name. The city proper orcitadel is about one mile in circumference. Its form is nearly that of arhomboid or diamond. It is surrounded by a wall about twenty feet inheight, and eight or ten feet in thickness, built of large blocks of coarsegranite. It has four gates. The outer city, or city outside of the walls, is much more extensive. Its circumference, I suppose, is about six miles. 

"The streets are not so wide as the sidewalks in Brooklyn. Some of themare so narrow that, when two persons, walking in opposite directions, meeteach other, it is necessary for the one to stop, in order that the othermay pass on. The most of the streets are paved with coarse granite blocks, yet on account of the narrowness of the streets, and the want ofcleanliness by the great mass of the inhabitants, the streets are usuallyvery filthy. 

"This part of Amoy island is rugged and mountainous, and interspersed withlarge granite rocks. Some of them are of immense size. It is in such aplace that the city has been built. Many of these rocks are left in theirnatural position, and overhang the houses which have been built among them. The ground has not been leveled as in Brooklyn, consequently the greaterpart of the streets are uneven. Some of them are conducted over the hillsby stone steps. Near our residences, one of the public streets ascends ahill by a flight of thirty-six steps. On account of this unevenness of thestreets as well as their narrowness a carriage cannot pass through the cityof Amoy. Instead of carriages the more wealthy inhabitants use sedanchairs, which are usually borne by two bearers. The higher officers ofgovernment, called 'Mandarins, ' have four bearers to carry them. Thegreater part of the inhabitants always travel on foot. The place of cartsis supplied by men called 'coolies, ' whose employment is to carry burdens. The houses, except along the wharves and a few pawn-shops farther up in thecity, are one story. 

"There are no churches here, but there are far more temples for the worshipof false gods, and the souls of deceased ancestors, than there are churchesin Brooklyn. 

"Besides these, almost every family has its shrine and idols and ancestraltablets, which last are worshipped with more devotion than the idols. Inconsequence of their religion the people are degraded and immoral. One-third of all female children born in the city of Amoy are slain. Inthe villages throughout this whole region, it is supposed that aboutone-half are destroyed. They do not exhibit sympathy for each other andfor those in distress, which is enjoined by the Bible, and which, notwithstanding all its defects, is the glory of Christian communities. Ihave seen a man dying on the pavement on a street, almost as denselythronged as Broadway, New York, and no one of the passers-by, or of theinhabitants of that part of the street, seemed to notice him or care forhim more than if he had been a dog. "

DESCRIPTION OF AMOY AND AMOY ISLAND

Another letter to the same congregation a few months later reads:

"The first impression on the mind of an individual in approaching theshores of China from the south, and sailing along the coast, as far northas Amoy, is anything but favorable. So great is the contrast between thelovely scenery and dense vegetation of many of the islands of the IndianArchipelago, and the barren and worn-out hills which line the southern partof the coast of China, that in the whole range of human language it wouldseem scarcely possible to find a more inappropriate term than the term'Celestial' whereby to designate this great empire. Neither is thisunfavorable opinion removed immediately on landing. The style of buildingis so inferior, the streets are so narrow and filthy, the countenances ofthe great mass of the people, at least to a newcomer, are so destitute ofintelligent expression, and the bodies and clothing, and habits of themultitudes are so uncleanly, that one is compelled to exclaim in surprise, 'Are these the people who stand at the top of pagan civilization, and wholook upon all men as barbarous, except themselves?' Besides, everythinglooks old. Buildings, temples, even the rocks and the hills have apeculiar appearance of age and seem to be falling into decay. I am happyto say, however, that as we become better acquainted with the country andthe people, many of these unfavorable impressions are removed. Afterpassing a little to the north of Amoy, the appearance of the coast entirelychanges. Even in this mountainous region we have valleys and plains, whichwould suffer but little by comparison with any other country for beauty andfertility. I also love the scenery around the city of Amoy very much. Thecity is situated on the western side of an island of the same name. Thispart of the island in its general appearance is very similar to the coastof which I have spoken. It is rocky and mountainous and barren. Thereare, however, among these barren hills many small fertile spots, situatedin the ravines and along the watercourses, which on account of their highstate of cultivation form a lovely contrast with the surroundingbarrenness. Wherever the Chinese, at least in this part of the Empire, canfind a watercourse, by cultivation they will turn the most barren soil intoa garden. The sides of the ravines are leveled by digging down, andwalling up, if necessary, forming terraces or small fields, the one abovethe other. These small fields are surrounded by a border of imperviousclay. The water is conducted into the higher of these terraces, and fromthem conducted into those which are lower, as the state of the crops maydemand. Often a field of paddy may be seen inundated, while the next fieldbelow, in which perhaps the sweet potato is growing, is kept perfectly dry. Among the hills there is much of picturesque scenery, and some that istruly sublime. The Buddhists have exhibited an exquisite taste for naturalscenery, in selecting such places for the situation of many of theirtemples. "

ANCESTRAL WORSHIP

"Their respect for ancestors is very great, so much so that the species ofidolatry which has by far the strongest hold upon their minds is ancestralworship. This is the stronghold by which Satan maintains his supremacyover the minds of the people, and this we may expect will be the last togive way to the power of the Gospel of Christ. One may hold up their godsto ridicule and they will laugh at his remarks, but they do not love tohear the worship of their ancestors spoken against. This worship, afterthe period of mourning is over, consists chiefly in offering at statedtimes various articles of food to the spirits of the deceased, and inburning various kinds of paper, as a substitute for money, by which thesespirits are supplied with that most convenient article. Natural affectionand selfishness unite to strengthen their attachment to this worship. Itis as necessary for the happiness of the souls of the dead, in the opinionof the Chinese, as is the saying of the mass in the opinion of a RomanCatholic. Without these attentions the souls of the deceased are in a sortof purgatory; wandering about in want and wretchedness. But if the desireof rendering their ancestors happy be not sufficient to secure attention tothese rites, a still more powerful motive addresses itself to their minds. These wandering spirits are supposed capable of bringing misfortune andinflicting injuries on their ungrateful and impious descendants. Thus if afamily meet with reverses, the cause is often attributed to the want ofattention to the souls of the deceased ancestors, or to the fact that thesites of their graves have not been judiciously selected, and thedissatisfied spirits are taking vengeance for these neglects or mistakes. Another consideration which seems to exert much influence, is that if theyneglect the spirits of their ancestors, their descendants may neglect them. 

"For the present life they can think of no higher happiness than success inacquiring wealth, and the highest happiness after death consists in havingsons to supply the wants of their spirits. These are the two objects thatengross the highest aspirations of a Chinaman. "

INFANTICIDE

"This will account in part for the barbarous custom of infanticide whichprevails to so lamentable an extent among these heathen. Only femaleinfants are destroyed. While the parents are living the son may be ofpecuniary advantage to them, and after their death, he can attend to therites of their souls, and even after his death, through him the parents mayhave descendants to perform the ancestral rites. A daughter on thecontrary, it is supposed, will only prove a burden in a pecuniary point ofview, and after she is married she is reckoned to the family of herhusband. Her children, also, except her husband otherwise order, are onlyexpected to attend to the spirits of their paternal ancestors. "

"Some have denied the existence of the practice of infanticide among theChinese, or, they have asserted that if it does exist, the practice of itis very unusual. Every village which we visit in this region givesevidence that such persons are not acquainted with this part of the empire. A few days ago a company of us visited the village of Kokia. It issituated on the northern extremity of Amoy Island, and contains, perhaps, two thousand inhabitants. After walking through the village we sat downfor a short time under the shade of a large banyan tree. A large concourseof people soon gathered around us to see the foreigners and hear what theyhad to say. In this crowd we found by counting nearly a hundred boys, andbut two or three girls. Also when walking through the village very fewgirls were to be seen. The custom of binding the feet of the girls, whichgreatly affects their power of locomotion, would account for more boysbeing seen than girls, but will not account for the disparity noticed. Wetherefore inquired the cause of this disparity. They answered withlaughter that female children are killed. The same question has been askedagain and again at the various villages we have visited and the same answerobtained. This answer is given freely and apparently without any idea thatthe practice is wicked, until they are taught so by us. The result of thisone practice on the morals of the people may readily be imagined. Itaccustoms the mind to acts of cruelty and it prepares the way for impurityand wickedness in forms that are never dreamed of in Christian countries. "

In this connection an extract from Dr. David Abeel's[*] diary may be ofvalue. 

[Footnote *: David Abeel was the founder of the American Reformed Missionat Amoy in 1842. ]

"Today had a conversation with one of the merchants who come to Kolongsufor trade, on the subject of female infanticide. Assuming a countenance ofas much indifference as possible, I asked him how many of his own childrenhe had destroyed: he instantly replied, 'Two. ' I asked him whether he hadspared any. He said, 'One I have saved. ' I then inquired how manybrothers he had. 'Eight, ' was the answer. I asked him how many childrenhis eldest brother had destroyed. 'Five or six. ' I inquired of thesecond, third and all the rest; some had killed four or five, some two orthree, and others had none to destroy. I then asked how many girls wereleft among them all. 'Three, ' was the answer. And how many do you thinkhave been strangled at birth? 'Probably from twelve to seventeen. ' Iwished to know the standing and employment of his brothers. One, he said, had attained a literary degree at the public examinations; the second was ateacher; one was a sailor; and the rest were petty merchants like himself. Thus, it was evidently not necessity but a cold inhuman calculation of thegains and losses of keeping them, which must have led these men to take thelives of their own offspring. 

"Mr. Boone's teacher's sister with her own hand destroyed her first threechildren successively. The fourth was also a girl, but the mother wasafraid to lay violent hands on it, believing it to be one of the previousones reappearing in a new body. "

"The names of the five districts in the Chinchew prefecture are Tong-an, An-khoe, Chin-kiang, Hui-an and Lam-an. Amoy is situated in the Chin-chewprefect. 

"From a comparison with many other parts of the country, there is reason tobelieve that a greater number of children are destroyed at birth in theTong-an district than in any other of this department, probably more thanin any other of this department, probably more than in any other part ofthe province of equal extent and populousness. In the Tong-an district Ihave inquired of persons from forty different towns and villages. Thenumber destroyed varies exceedingly in different places, the extremesextending from seventy and eighty percent to ten percent. The averageproportion destroyed in all these places amounting to nearly four-tenths orexactly thirty-nine percent. 

"In seventeen of these forty towns and villages, my informants declare thatone-half or more are deprived of existence at birth. 

"From the inhabitants of six places in Chin-kiang, and of four places inHui-an, if I am correctly informed, the victims of infanticide do notexceed sixteen percent. 

"In the seven districts of the Chiang-chiu prefecture the number is rathermore than one-fourth or less than three-tenths. 

"There is reason to fear that scarcely less than twenty-five percent aresuffocated almost at the first breath. "

It is altogether probable that this vice is just as prevalent now. Thescarcity of girls in nearly all the towns and villages and the exorbitantrates demanded for marriageable daughters in some districts, only rendersad confirmation to what Drs. Abeel and Talmage wrote two score and moreyears ago. 

IS CHINA TO BE WON, AND HOW?

Mr. Talmage continues:

"I cannot close this letter without saying a word in reference to ourprospects of success. The moral condition of this people, their spiritualapathy, their attachment to the superstitious rites of their ancestors, together with the natural depravity of the human heart, and at the sametime their language being one of the most difficult, perhaps the mostdifficult of acquisition of any spoken language, all combine to forbid, itwould seem, all hope of ever Christianizing this empire. But that which isimpossible with men is possible with God. He who has commanded us topreach the Gospel to every creature, has connected with it a promise thatHe will be always with us to the end of the world. The stone cut outwithout hands, we are told by the prophet, became a great mountain andfilled the whole earth. The kingdom which the God of heaven has set up'shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall standfor ever. ' Thus, whatever may be the prospect before us, according tohuman reasoning, we have 'a more sure word of prophecy. ' Resting upon thiswe can have no doubt in reference to the complete triumph of the cause ofChrist, even over the land of Sinim. In connection with such propheciesand promises we have many facts to encourage us. The people are accessibleand friendly, and willing to listen to our doctrines. The superiority ofChristianity to their systems of religion, sometimes from conviction andsometimes perhaps only from politeness, they often admit. 

"Already a few converts have been gathered into the visible Church, andthere are others who are seeking to know the way of life more perfectly. Those who have been received into the Church are letting their light shine. The conduct of some who have heard the truth, reminds us forcibly of theconduct of the woman at the well of Samaria, and of the conduct of Andrewand Philip when they first found the Messias. 

"It is thus that this empire and most other heathen countries must beevangelized. The work must be done by the natives. The Church inChristian lands, by her missionaries, can only lay the foundation andrender some little assistance in rearing the superstructure. She can nevercarry forward the work to completion. She can never furnish the heathennations with missionaries of the cross in sufficient numbers to supply themwith pastors, neither is it necessary that she should. The Christian is alight shining in a dark place. Especially is it true among the heathen, that every disciple of Christ is as 'a city set on a hill which cannot behid. ' His neighbors and acquaintances must observe the change in hisconduct. He no longer worships their gods. He no longer observes any oftheir superstitious rites. He is no longer a slave to their immoralities. His example must tell. But many of the converts will have gifts to makeknown the Gospel, and will eagerly embrace these gifts in order to rescuetheir dying countrymen. Already have we examples of this. Such converts, also, in some respects, may be more efficient than the missionary. Theycan go where we cannot, and reach those who are entirely beyond ourinfluence. They are better acquainted with the language. They understandthe customs of the people more thoroughly. They remember what were thegreatest difficulties and objections which proved the greatest obstacles totheir reception of the Gospel, and they know how these difficulties wereremoved and these objections answered. Besides, they have all theadvantages which a native must be expected to possess over a foreignerarising from the prejudices of the people. 

"Perhaps it may be necessary to guard against a wrong inference, whichmight be hastily deduced from the facts just stated. The fact that thenatives are to be the principal laborers in evangelizing this empire, doesnot in the least remove the obligation of the Church to quicken andredouble all her efforts, or supersede the necessity for such efforts. Itwill be many years before this necessity will cease to exist. The Churchesin Christian lands, in resolving to undertake the evangelization of thisempire, have engaged in great work. In obedience to the command of theirMaster they have undertaken to rear a vast superstructure, the foundationof which is to be laid entirely by themselves, and on the erection of whichthey must bestow their care and assistance. This work has been commencedunder favorable auspices, but the foundation cannot yet be said to be laid. More laborers must be sent forth. They should be sent out in multitudes ifthey can be found. They must acquire the language so that they cancommunicate freely with the people. They must proclaim the message of theGospel from house to house, in the highways and market-places, whereverthey can find an audience, -until converts are multiplied. Schools must beestablished, and the doctrines of the Gospel be instilled into the minds ofthe children and youth. We must have a native ministry instructed andtrained up from their childhood according to the doctrines of the Gospelbefore they will be capable of taking the sole charge of this work. Untilall this has taken place the churches may not slacken any of their efforts;nay, to accomplish this there must be an increase of effort beyond all thatthe churches have ever yet put forth. "

During the year 1848 he sent a letter to the Society of Inquiry of theTheological Seminary, New Brunswick, New Jersey. 

"It is yet a 'day of small things' with us. Our work thus far has beenchiefly of a preparatory nature. This will probably be the case for sometime to come. There have been just enough conversions to teach us that Godis with us and will own the instrumentality which He Himself has appointedfor the salvation of men, and to encourage us not to faint in our work. Wehave a vast amount of prejudice and superstition to remove--prejudice andsuperstition which has been growing and consolidating for forty centuries, and has become an essential ingredient in the character of the people andpart of almost every emotion and conception of their minds. At presentboth officials and people are very friendly, and we are permitted to preachthe Gospel without hindrance. But we cannot tell how long this state ofthings will continue. When the operation of the leaven has becomemanifest, we must expect opposition. We cannot expect that the greatadversary of God and men will relinquish this the strongest hold of hisempire on earth, without a mighty struggle. We must yet contend with'principalities and, powers and spiritual wickedness in high places. '

WORSHIP OF THE EMPEROR. 

"The system of idolatry is as closely connected with the civil governmentof China, I suppose, as ever it was with ancient Rome. The emperor may becalled the great High-priest of the nation. He and he only is permitted tooffer sacrifice and direct worship to the Supreme Being. The descriptionwhich Paul has given of the 'man of sin, ' with but little variation may beapplied to him. 

"'He exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, sothat he as God, sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he isGod. ' He has arrogated to himself the title which expresses the highestthought of divinity known to the conceptions of the Chinese mind. He issuperior to all gods, except the great Supreme. All others he appoints, designates their business and dethrones them at his pleasure. In the cityof Amoy is a temple dedicated to the worship of the emperor and containinga tablet as representative of his person. On certain days of the year theofficers of government are required to repair to this temple, and offerthat religious homage which is due to God alone. Now to remove theseprejudices and superstitions and to carry to the final triumph thiswarfare, which we must wage with those in 'high places, ' will not be thework of a few years. We might well despair of ever possessing the land, where such 'sons of Anak' dwell, were it not that the ark of God is with usand His command has been given, 'Go up and possess it. ' But we look toyou, my brethren, for assistance and reinforcement in this the cause of ourcommon Lord, not only to fill the places of those who fall at their post orare disabled in the conflict, but also that we may extend our lines andconduct the siege with more effect. If you desire a field where you mayfind scope and employment for every variety of talent, and where you mayprove yourselves faithful soldiers of Jesus Christ, I know of no placewhence can come to you a more urgent call than from this vast empire. "

IV. LIGHT AND SHADE. 

THE CHIANG-CHIU VALLEY. 

Among the jottings in Mr. Talmage's diary for 1847-1848 we find mention ofa tour to Chiang-chiu on September 23, 1847, in company with Messrs. Pohlman, Doty and Lloyd. 

Chiang-chiu is a large city of 200, 000 inhabitants, situated on a wideriver, 30 miles west of Amoy. He writes: "Wherever we went we wereaccompanied by an immense throng of people. The most of them I suppose hadnever seen a white face. But few Europeans have visited the city. Thecity has an extensive wall, wider and I think more cleanly streets, and islarger than Amoy. In the rear of the city there are three watch towers. They are situated on very elevated ground. From these we had a verydelightful view of the city and surrounding country. The scenery, itseemed to me, was the most beautiful I had ever witnessed. Within thecircle of our vision lay that immense city with its extensive walls, itstemples and pagoda, its river, bridges and boats, its gardens, its treesand shrubbery, and its densely crowded streets. Surrounding the city wasspread out an extensive valley of some ten or fifteen miles in width andsome twenty or twenty-five in length, covered with luxuriant vegetation. Through the midst of the valley might be marked the meandering track of theChiang-chiu river, the whole region beautifully variegated with fruittrees, shade trees, and villages. Still further on, in every direction, our view was bounded by lofty hills whose cloud capped tops seemed aspillars on which the heavens rested. Nature had done her best to make thisregion a terrestrial paradise. "

On a subsequent trip to Chiang-chiu, Mr. Talmage writes: "The valley of theChiang-chiu river is one of the most beautiful regions I ever saw. It isdensely populated. In every direction are villages, I might almost saywithout number, rendered most beautiful by their plentiful supply of largebanyans and various other trees of luxuriant foliage. The intermediatespaces between the villages are fields covered with vegetation most denseand beautiful. Through the centre of this scene may be traced the courseof the river with its numberless canals, like the Nile of Egypt, givingfertility wherever nature or the art of man conducts its waters. "

BREAKING AND BURNING OF IDOLS. 

"Feb. 27, 1848. Today an old lady and her two sons declared themselves tobe worshipers of Jesus by presenting their idols to Bro. Pohlman. On theevening of the last day of their last year they had burnt their ancestraltablets. It was an interesting sight, said Bro. Pohlman, to see the oldlady, supported by one of her sons, breaking her idols and making avoluntary and public surrender of them at the chapel. 

"March 1st. When the old lady returned from the chapel on Sunday eveningshe was full of zeal, and began preaching to her neighbors on the folly ofidolatry. She was so successful that another old lady living in the samehouse with her has made a bonfire and burned all her idols except one. This, being made of clay, was not combustible. This she presented toPohlman today. He asked her whether she gave it up willingly. She saidshe rejoiced to do it. She said she had not yet destroyed her ancestraltablets. Pohlman told her he did not wish her to do it rashly. She mustreflect on the subject, and when she became convinced that the worship ofthem was a sin against God she must give them up immediately. 

"March 29th. This afternoon Bro. Hickok and wife and Bro. Maclay arrivedat Amoy on their way to Foochow. They had a long passage from Hongkong, having been out twenty-nine days. " The distance from Hongkong to Amoy isless than three hundred miles, and is made in twenty-four hours by anordinary coast steamer. 

THE CHINESE BOAT RACE AND ITS ORIGIN. 

"June 5th. Monday. To-day being the fifth day of the fifth month (Chinese), was the festival of dragon boat-racing. Several dragon boats filled withrowers, rather paddlers, were contesting this afternoon in the harbor. Thewater was thronged with boats filled with Chinese to see the sport. Manyof these boats, and almost all the junks in the neighborhood, were deckedwith green branches, also with streamers flying. The origin of thisfestival is said to be as follows: In very ancient times one of the firstofficers, perhaps Prime Minister of government, gave offense to theemperor. The emperor banished him. He was so downcast on account of theemperor's displeasure that he went and drowned himself. The emperorafterwards repented of his act, and on inquiry after the man learned thathe had drowned himself. He sent out boats in every direction to search forhis body, and also to make offerings to his spirit. His body was notfound. But from that time to this his body is thus searched for every yearand his spirit thus appeased. This celebration is universal throughout theempire and wherever there are colonies of Chinese, throughout the islandsof the (East Indian) Archipelago. 

"The same good feeling continues to exist at Amoy as formerly. We are onthe best of terms, so far as we can judge, with all classes, the officialsand people. The mandarins receive our calls and return their cards. Allof them but one have visited us at our houses. Some of them call on usquite frequently. This places us on a high vantage ground. The peoplewill not fear to listen to us, attend our meetings, and visit us at ourhouses, as they would if the mandarins kept aloof from us. The same goodfeeling towards foreigners seems to extend far into the interior. At leastwe go from, village to village wherever we please without hindrance, andare always treated with kindness. "

THE CHINESE BEGGAR SYSTEM. 

"I have to-day been making some inquiries of my teacher concerning thesystem by which the beggars of Amoy are governed. The truth seems asfollows: There are very many beggars in the city. In each ward there is ahead-man or chief called 'Chief of the Beggars. ' He derives his officefrom the 'Hai-hong, ' or the superior local magistrate. Sometimes theoffice is conferred as an act of benevolence on an individual, who fromsickness or other causes has met with reverses of fortune. Sometimes it ispurchased. There being eighteen wards in the city of Amoy, of course thereare eighteen such head-men. Their office is not honorable, but there isconsiderable profit connected with it. The head-men hold their office forlife, or until removed for bad behavior. They get certificates of officefrom the 'Hai-hong, ' and on the change of that functionary it is necessaryto get the stamp of his successor attached to their certificates. Theirincome is derived from various sources. Monthly they call on the merchantsand shopkeepers, who by paying down a sufficient amount are freed from theannoyance of beggars during the month. If a beggar enters one of theseestablishments he is pointed to a card which is posted up in someconspicuous place, and is a certificate from the 'chief of the beggars' ofthat ward that a sufficient amount of beggar money has been paid down forthe month. The 'chiefs of the beggars' also receive money from a man orhis family when he is about to marry, also from the family of the bride. They also receive money after the death and burial of the parents or anyold member of a family; also from men who are advanced to literary honors, or who receive official promotion In any of the above cases, if anyindividual fail to agree with the 'chief of the beggars' of his ward andpay what is considered a sufficient amount of money (the amount varies withthe importance of the occasion and the wealth of the parties), he mayexpect a visit from a posse of beggars, who will give him much annoyance bytheir continual demands. The 'chiefs of the beggars' give a part of themoney which they receive to the beggars under them. My teacher thinksthere are about two thousand beggars in the city of Amoy. There is a smalldistrict belonging to the city of Amoy called 'The Beggars' Camp. ' Themost of the inhabitants of this place are beggars. These beggars go aboutthe city seeking a living, clothed in rags and covered with filth andsores, the most disgusting and pitiable objects I ever saw. "

TWO NOBLE MEN SUMMONED HENCE. 

On the 6th of December Rev. John Lloyd, of the American Presbyterianmission, died of typhus fever after an illness of two weeks. Mr. Talmagemakes this record of him:

"Dec. 8, 1848. Rev. John Lloyd was born in the State of Pennsylvania on thefirst of Oct. , 1813, which made him thirty-five years, two months, and fivedays at the time of his death. He was a man of fine abilities. His mindwas well stored with useful knowledge and was well disciplined. He wasmost laborious in study, very careful to improve his time. He wasmastering the language with rapidity. His vocabulary was not so large asthat of some of the other brethren, but he had a very large number of wordsand phrases at his command, and was pronounced by the Chinese to speak thelanguage more accurately than any other foreigner in the place. They evensaid of him that it could not be inferred simply from his voice, unless hisface was seen, that he was a foreigner. He was a man of warm heart, verystrong in his friendship, very kind in his disposition, and a universalfavorite among the Chinese. I never knew a man that improved more by closeintimacy. His modesty, which may be called his great fault, was such thatit was necessary to become well acquainted with him before he could beproperly appreciated. But it has pleased the Master of the harvest to callhim from the field just as he became fully qualified to be an efficientlaborer. What a lesson this, that we must not overestimate our importancein the work to which God has called us. He can do without us. It seemsnecessary that He should give the Church lesson upon lesson that she maynot forget her dependence upon Him. "

Early in 1849 the brethren were called to mourn the loss of one of the mostdevoted pioneers of the Amoy mission, the Rev. William J. Pohlman. 

Mr. Talmage writes: "Feb. 8th. On Monday night at twelve o'clock I wascalled up to receive the sad intelligence that our worst fears in referenceto Pohlman were confirmed. He perished on the morning of the 5th or 6thult. He embarked on the 2d ult. From Hongkong in the schooner Omega. On themorning of probably the 5th, at about two o'clock, she struck near BreakerPoint, one hundred and twenty miles from Hongkong. A strong wind wasblowing at the time, so that every effort to get the ship off wasunavailing. She was driven farther on the sand and fell over on her side. Her long boat and one quarter boat were carried away, and her cabin filledwith water. The men on board clung to the vessel until morning. Theremaining boat was then lowered. Those of the crew who were able to swimwere directed to swim to the shore. The captain, first and secondofficers, and Pohlman entered the boat end those of the crew who could notswim also received permission to enter. But a general rush was made forthe boat, by which it was overturned, and those who could not swim, Pohlmanamong the number, perished. The captain attempted to reach the shore byswimming, and would have succeeded, but was met by the natives. They wereeager for plunder, and seized the captain to plunder him of his clothes. While they were stripping him of his clothes they dragged him through thewater with his head under, by which he was drowned. About twenty-five ofthe crew succeeded in reaching the shore in safety. After being strippedof their clothes, they were permitted to escape. Afterwards, on arrivingat a village they were furnished with some rags. After suffering much fromfatigue and hunger they arrived at Canton, overland, on the 17th ult. Thisevent has cast gloom again over our small circle. But one month previousto his death, Pohlman with myself had closed the eyes of dear Lloyd. Oh, how deeply we do feel, and shall for a long time feel this loss. "

"Feb. 11th. On Sunday afternoon our new church was consecrated to theworship of the only true God, the first building built for this purpose inAmoy. Mr. Young preached the sermon. It was also a funeral sermon for Mr. Pohlman. The house was crowded with people. Very many could not get intothe building. There was some noise and confusion. I think the majority, however, were desirous to hear. "

In a letter to Drs. Anderson (Dr. Anderson was one of the early Secretariesof the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. ) and De Witt, speaking of Pohlman's death, he says:

"Our hearts bleed. God has seen fit to send upon us stroke after stroke. Oh, when will He stay His hand? But we will not murmur. It is God whohath done this. His ways are inscrutable. We gaze upon them in muteastonishment. We may quote as peculiarly applicable to our presentcircumstances the remarks which this brother made at the grave of him whowas called away a month previous. 'Death, ' said he, 'is always a sadevent, and is often peculiarly distressing. It is so in the instance beforeus. There is a sad breach in our little circle at this station. Situatedas we are here, every member of our small society tells upon the happinessof the whole. Our number is limited and less than a score. We have fewbosom friends, few to cheer and encourage us, few to whom to tell oursorrows and our joys. Here we are far away from those we love, away fromdear friends and kindred and those tender associations which make societyso delightful at home. Hence we feel deeply any breach made in our littlecircle. In proportion as our number is diminished in the same proportion isthere a decrease in the endearments of friendship and love. Moreespecially is this the case when the departed was possessed of socialvirtues and qualified to make all around him agreeable and happy. We mournalso for these poor deluded heathen. They have sustained an incalculableloss. I feel it impossible to give an adequate description of hischaracter. He felt that in laboring for the heathen he was engaged in awork of the highest moment. Thereto he bent every energy of mind and body. That which, by receiving the word of God, we are made theoretically toacknowledge, by the dispensations of His Providence-we are made practicallyto feel, that man is nothing-that God is All in All. '

"God's dealings with this mission would seem to be enough to arouse ourChurch. Heretofore He has given success to His servants. He has given usfavor with the authorities and with the people. The Church has seemed tobe satisfied with this. She has thanked God for His smiles, but has madelittle effort to increase the number of her laborers as fast as the demandfor them increased. Now God is trying another plan. Her laborers aredying off and the question comes to her, not merely whether she willadvance or not, but, whether she will retain that which she has alreadygained. She has volunteered in a glorious warfare. Will she hold thepositions she has won, and make further conquests, or will she permit hersoldiers to die at their posts without being replaced, and thus retire fromthe field? Important interests are at stake. The honor of our Church isat stake. The salvation of souls is at stake. It is a crisis with ourmission. We cannot endure the thought that the labors of those faithfulservants who have been called home shall be in a great measure lost byneglect. We have received lately impressive lessons of the uncertainty ofhuman life. The thought steals over us that we, too, are liable at anymoment to be cut down in the midst of our labors. This liability isincreased by the amount of labor which necessarily devolves upon us. Nowwe are only two in number. As for myself I am only beginning to stammer inthis difficult language. This, too, in a field where there is labor enoughto be done to employ all the men you can send us. You will not think itstrange then that we plead earnestly. 

"Our new church edifice was completed soon after Brother Pohlman left forHongkong. As he had done so much of the work in gathering the congregationand had originated the idea of the building and had watched its erectionwith so much interest, we were desirous that he should be present at itsconsecration. We therefore delayed opening the building for worship untilwe received the definite news of his death. "

In an address on "Reminiscences of Missionaries and Mission Work, "delivered by Dr. Talmage during his later years, he refers to the earlymissionaries at Amoy in these words:

"The men God gave the Church were just the men needed to awaken hermissionary spirit and shape her mission work. So for laying the foundationand shaping the plan of the structure He would have us erect at Amoy Hegave us three men, just the men needed for the work, -David Abeel, WilliamJ. Pohlman and Elihu Doty. The more I meditate on what they said and wroteand did and suffered in the early days of that work, and see whereunto itis growing, the more am I impressed with the fact that they were wonderfulmen, just the men for the time, place, and circumstances, and thereforeevidently God's gift. 

"Dr. Abeel was the pioneer of the Amoy Mission. During the greater part ofthe years of his manhood, he struggled with disease, and his whole life onearth was comparatively short, yet the Lord enabled him to accomplish morework than most men accomplish during a much longer life. His last field oflabor was Amoy, entering it in January, 1842, when the port had just beenthrown open and while the British army was still there, and leaving it inJanuary, 1845. In that short time, notwithstanding interruptions fromsickness and of voyages in search of health, or rather to stave off deathtill others were ready to take his place, he laid a good foundation, doinga work that told and was lasting. I met him only once. It was at hisfather's house in New Brunswick, after his work at Amoy-after all hispublic work was done and he was only waiting to be summoned home. When Iafterwards went to Amoy, I found his name very fragrant, not only amongEuropeans and Americans, but also among the Chinese. He had baptized none, but a goodly number of those afterwards baptized had received their firstimpressions concerning Christianity and their first instructions thereinfrom him. "

"Messrs. Doty and Pohlman with their families came from Borneo to Amoy, arriving in June, 1844, about six months before Dr. Abeel was compelled toleave. We have heard of places so healthy, that it is said there wasdifficulty to find material wherewith to start cemeteries. Amoy, ratherKolongsu, where all the Europeans then resided, in those days was not sucha place. It is said that of all the foreign residents only one escaped theprevailing fever. The mortality was very great. In a year and a half fromthe time of their arrival at Amoy, Mr. Doty was on his way to the UnitedStates with two of his own and two of Mr. Pohlman's little ones. The othermembers of their families--the mothers and the children, all that wasmortal of them--were Iying in the Mission cemetery on Kolongsu; and to'hold the fort, ' so far as our Mission was concerned, Pohlman was leftalone, and well he held it. He had a new dialect to acquire, yet whenhealth allowed, he daily visited his little mission chapel, and twice onthe Sabbath, to preach the Gospel of Christ. He was a man of work, ofgreat activity. When I arrived at Amoy in 1847, he was suffering fromophthalmia. Much of his reading and writing had to be done for him byothers. I was accustomed to read to him an hour in the morning from six toseven. Another read to him an hour at noon from twelve to one. He wasstill subject to occasional attacks of the old malarial fever. Besides allthis he was now alone in the world, his whole family gone, two of hislittle ones in his native land, then very much farther away from China thannow, and the others, mother and children, sleeping their last sleep. 

"Yet he was the life of our little mission company. Do you ask why? Helived very close to God, and therefore was enabled to bow to the Divinewill, to use his own language, 'with sweet submission. ' Pohlman's term ofservice, too, was short. He was called away in his thirty-seventh year. His work at Amoy was less than five years. It, too, much of it, wasfoundation work, though he was permitted to see the walls just beginning torise. Two of the first converts were baptized by him, and many othersreceived from him their early Christian instruction. The first, and stillby far the best church-building at Amoy, which is also the first churchbuilding erected in China expressly for Chinese Protestant Christianworship, may be called his monument. It was specially in answer to hisappeal that the money, $3, 000, was contributed. It was under hissupervision that the building was erected. To it he gave very much toiland care. The house was nearly ready when he took his last voyage toHongkong, and he was hastening back to dedicate it when God took him. Hisreal monument, however is more precious and lasting than church-buildings, as precious and lasting as the souls he was instrumental in saving, and thespiritual temple whose foundation he helped to lay. There were many whoremembered him with very warm affection long after he was gone. Among themI remember one, an old junk captain, who in his later years, speaking ofheaven, was wont to say, 'I shall see Teacher Pohlman there; I shall seeTeacher Pohlman there. '"

V. AT THE FOOT OF THE BAMBOOS

The sad and sudden departure of Mr. Pohlman so affected a maiden sister, Miss Pohlman, then at Amoy, as to unsettle her mind and necessitate animmediate return to the United States. No lady friend could accompany her. It was decided that Mr. Talmage take passage on the same ship and act asguardian and render what assistance he could. The ship arrived at New YorkAugust 23, 1849. 

Mr. Talmage made an extensive tour on behalf of Missions in China among theReformed churches in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. 

"Jan. 15, 1850. Was married at twelve M. In First Presbyterian Church atElizabeth, New Jersey, by Dr. N. Murray, to Miss Abby F. Woodruff. Startedimmediately with my wife on a trip to Seneca County, New York. "

"March 16, 1850. In the forenoon accompanied by many dear friends weembarked on board the ship Tartar from New York bound for China. "

"July 16th. Arrived safely at Amoy, for which our hearts are full ofgratitude to Him who has watched over us on the deep and conducted ussafely through every danger. "

Though the entire Reformed Mission at Amoy then consisted of only threemembers, Mr. Doty and Mr. And Mrs. Talmage, still they believed incolonizing. Mr. Talmage secured a Chinese house and shop a mile or moreaway from the original headquarters and this became the missionary's homeand preaching place. It was on the north side of the city in a denselypopulated neighborhood known as "Tek-chhiu-Kha, " or "At the Foot of theBamboos. "

It fronted one of the main thoroughfares of the city. It was near thewater's edge at the mooring-place of junks from the many-peopled districtsof Tong-an and Lam-an. The house and shop were renovated and capped withanother story. Here Mr. Talmage prayed and studied and preached andplanned for nearly twenty years. On this spot to-day stands a flourishingChinese church. 

In a letter to Drs. Anderson and De Witt, dated Dec. 17, 1850, Mr. Talmagethus describes their new home:

"Our house is pleasantly situated, having a good view of the inner part ofthe harbor, and of several small islands in the harbor. We also have apleasant view of the mainland beyond the harbor. From our house we cancount a number of villages on the mainland, beautifully situated amonglarge banyans. We hope the situation will prove a healthy one. I like thesituation most of all because I think it well adapted to our work. We arenear the northern extreme of the city along the water's edge, while theother missionaries are near the southern extreme. Thus on entering theharbor from Quemoy and other islands, near the mouth of the harbor or fromthe cities and villages on the seacoast, the first foreign residence atAmoy, which meets the eye, is the residence of missionaries. On coming toAmoy from the cities and villages which are inland, again the first foreignresidence which meets the eye is the residence of missionaries. We are ina part of the city where the Gospel has not yet been preached. "

In the same letter he refers to the Opium habit--and to the initiatorysteps toward the formation of a Romanized alphabet for the Amoy Vernacular. The Chinese character is learned with great difficulty. It requires yearsof close application. In Southern Fukien not more than one man in ahundred can read intelligently. It is doubtful whether one woman in tenthousand can. 

Protestant Christianity wants men to be able to give a reason for the hopethat is in them. It urges our Lord's command, "Search the Scriptures. " Itdemands not only the hearing ear, but the reading eye. 

Hence this early effort on the part of the missionaries to prepare aversion of the Scriptures and a Christian literature in a form more readilylearned by the people. Those early efforts were doubtful experiments evento some of the missionaries. The Chinese converts at first looked quiteaskance at what appeared to them an effort to supersede their highlyvenerated Chinese character. 

The Romanized system was gradually perfected. The Chinese were graduallydisabused of their prejudices. To-day the most ardent advocates of thesystem are Chinese pastors and elders. The whole Bible has been translatedinto Amoy Romanized colloquial. An extensive literature adapted toChristian homes and Christian schools has grown up through the years and iscontributing to the strength and progress of the Chinese Church to-day. 

OPIUM. 

"Independent of the reproach which the opium traffic casts on the Christianreligion, we find it a great barrier in the way of evangelizing thispeople. We cannot put confidence in an opium smoker. A man who smokes itin even the smallest degree we should not dare to admit into the Christianchurch. More than one-half of the men at Amoy are more or less addicted tothe habit. Of this half of the population the missionary can havecomparatively but little hope. We know the grace of God can deliver fromevery vice and there have been examples of reformation even from this. Yetfrom experience when talking to an opium smoker we always feel discouraged. Although this be a discouraging feature in our operations here, it shouldonly be a stimulus to the Church to send more laborers and put forthgreater efforts to stem the tide of destruction which the Christian worldis pouring in upon the heathen. Independent of the principles ofbenevolence, justice demands of Christendom that the evil be stayed, andreparation if possible be made for the injury already done. If nothingmore, let there be an equivalent for whet has been received from China. Itis a startling fact, that the money which Christian nations have receivedfrom China for this one article, an article which has done to the Chinesenothing but incalculable injury, far, far exceeds all the money which hasbeen expended by all Protestant churches on all Protestant missions in allparts of the heathen world since the days of the Reformation. 

ROMANIZED COLLOQUIAL. 

"The question whether there is any way by which this people can be made areading people, especially by which the Christians may be put in possessionof the Word of God, and be able to read it intelligently for themselves, has occupied much thought of the missionaries here. At present most of thechurch members have no reading for the Sabbath and for private meditation. They may have family worship, but they cannot at their worship read theHoly Scriptures. Some of us are now trying an experiment whether by meansof the Roman alphabet the Sacred Scriptures and other religious books maynot be given to the Christians and to any others who cannot read, but whotake enough of an interest in Christianity to desire to read the Scripturesfor themselves. By the use of seventeen of these letters we can expressevery consonant and vowel sound in the Amoy dialect, and by the use of afew additional marks we can designate all the tones. Dr. James Young, anEnglish Presbyterian missionary physician, has commenced teaching thecolloquial, as written with the Roman alphabet, in his school, a schoolformerly under the care of Mr. Doty. From his present experience he is ofopinion that boys who are at all apt in acquiring instruction, in less thanthree months may be prepared for reading the Scriptures, withunderstanding. I have a class of three or four adults an hour an eveningfour evenings in the week, receiving instruction in the colloquial. Theyhave taken some half dozen lessons and are making good progress. Atpresent we have no printed primers or spelling-books, and are compelled toteach principally by blackboard. We are of opinion that almost everymember of the church can soon learn to read by this system. Arrangementshave been made to print part of the history of Joseph in colloquial. Theseare but experiments. If they succeed according to our present hope, it maybe worth while to have the whole Bible and other religious books printed inthis manner. A little more experience will enable us to speak with moreconfidence for or against the plan. "

"Dec. 23. Yesterday morning my chapel was opened, according toappointment. I preached to the people my first regular sermon from thetext, 'There is one God and one Mediator, ' etc. The room was crowded. Itwill seat about one hundred comfortably. "

CHINESE SENSE OF SIN. 

March 17, 1851. To his brother, Goyn. 

"I think the Chinese are very different in their religious feelings frommany other (perhaps from the most of other) heathen people. We have oftenheard of the great sacrifices which the heathen of India will make and thegreat sufferings they will impose on themselves in order to make atonementfor their sins and appease the anger of the gods. There may occasionallybe something of the kind among the Buddhists of China. But I rathersuppose that where there are any self-mortifications imposed (which is veryrare in this part of China), they are imposed to secure merit, not to atonefor sin. I do not remember ever to have met with an individual among theChinese who had any sense of sinfulness of heart, or even any remorse forsinfulness of conduct except he was first taught it by the Gospel. It isone of the most difficult truths to convey to their minds that they aresinners against God. We have had a few inquirers who have expressed a deepsense of sinfulness. But this sense of sinfulness has come from hearingthe Gospel. The way the most of those, whom we doubt not are trueChristians, have been led on seems to be as follows: They hear the Gospel, presently they become convinced of its truth. Their first impulses thenseem to be those of joy and gratitude. They are like men who were bornblind, and had never mourned over their blindness, because they had nonotion of the blessing of sight. Presently their eyes begin to be openedand they begin to see. They only think of the new blessings which they arereceiving, not of the imperfections which still remain in their vision. Asense of these comes afterwards. Was not this sometimes the case in thedays of the apostles? It was not so on the day of Pentecost. Themultitude were 'pricked in their hearts' because the moment they wereconvinced that Jesus was the Christ they were filled with a sense of theirwickedness in crucifying Him. So it is with persons in Christian landswhen their minds become interested in the truth; they are made to feeltheir wickedness in so long resisting its influences. But the case seemsto have been different when Philip first carried the Gospel to Samaria. Thefirst effect there seems to have been that of 'great joy. '

"It seems to be thus in Amoy. The conviction of deep sinfulness comes bymeditating on the Gospel, the work of Christ, etc. 

"It is the doctrine of the cross of Christ, after all, which should be thetheme of our discourses. "

March 18, 1851. To his brother, Goyn. 

"They say in regard to preaching, that when a man has nothing more to sayhe had better stop. If this rule were carried out in conversation andletter-writing, there would be much less said and written in the world, than is now the case. 

"You seem to think that we missionaries can sit down at any time and writeletters, always having enough matter that will be interesting to you athome. This is a good theory enough, but facts do not always bear it out. 

"Our missionary work moves on usually in the same steady manner withoutmany ups and downs or interesting episodes (rather a mixture of figures youwill say), which we think worthy of note. I wish you folks at home couldsend us more men to drive on the work a little faster. The door of accessat Amoy still continues as wide open as ever, and now seems to be the timefor the Church to send her men and occupy the post, which the Master offersto her. But the Church at home cannot, it seems, look at this matter as wewho are on the ground. . . . 

PRIMITIVE LAMPS

"We have no good lamps yet for the church, consequently cannot open it inthe evening. But I have prepared some lamps for my chapel. I think youwould laugh to see them. They are four in number. Two of them are merelysmall tumblers hung up by wires and cords. By means of another wire a wickis suspended in each tumbler and the tumbler filled with oil. The othertwo are on the same principle, but the tumblers are hung in a kind of glassglobe which is suspended by brass chains. These look considerably moreornamental than the first two. Whether you laugh at them or not, theyanswer a very good purpose. They do not make the room as light as would berequired in a church, in as large a city as Amoy is, in the United States, but by means of them my chapel is open on Sunday evenings and on everyother evening in the week except one. The church and chapel are both openalmost every afternoon in the week, and sometimes in the mornings. One, two, three, or more of the converts are always ready to hold forth almostevery afternoon and evening. Besides this, they go to other thoroughfaresfrequently and preach the Gospel as well as they are able. For much of thework these converts are perhaps better adapted than ourselves. Theyunderstand the superstitions of the people in their practical working, better than we probably will ever be able to learn them. "

ZEALOUS CONVERTS. 

"April 14, 1851. There are now in connection with our church thirteenconverts. In connection with the church of the London brethren there areeight. Two of our members, although compelled to labor with their handsfor the sustenance of themselves and their families, yet devote theafternoons and evenings of almost every day in the week, in making knownthe way of salvation to their countrymen. They spend the Sabbath also, only omitting their labors long enough to listen to the preaching of themissionary and to partake of their noonday meal, from early in the morninguntil bedtime, in the same way, publishing the Gospel to their countrymen. "

THE TERM QUESTION. 

It was at this time that the translation of the Bible into the ClassicChinese Version, or "Delegates' Version" as it was afterwards called, wasgoing on. A long and heated controversy had arisen as to the proper termsin the Chinese language to be used in translation of the words "God" and"Spirit. " Missionaries in different parts of the empire took most oppositeviews and held them with the greatest tenacity. The Missionary Boards andBible Societies in Great Britain and America were deeply interestedspectators. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions andthe American Bible Society became participators. On what they consideredsatisfactory evidence they declared in favor of certain Chinese words andcharacters to be used in preaching the Gospel and in translating theScriptures. They advised their missionaries and Bible distributors oftheir decision. 

The missionaries at Amoy, Messrs. John and Alexander Stronach, LondonMission, and Messrs. Doty and Talmage, had very strong convictions on thissubject. Their views agreed. Rev. John Stronach was one of the Committeewho prepared the "Delegates' Version. " The views of the brethren at Amoywere diametrically opposed to the decisions of the American Board andAmerican Bible Society. In a long letter of eighty four pages, addressedto Drs. Anderson and De Witt, Oct. 31, 1851, Mr. Talmage sets forth theirside of the question. No man can read that document, weighty with learningand charged with moral earnestness, but must feel the profoundest respectfor the writer, however he may dissent from his arguments. He concludes asfollows:

"Such are our views concerning the use of the words 'Shin' and 'Ling' astranslations of the words 'God' and 'Spirit. ' While we hold ourselves opento conviction, if it can be proved that we are wrong, we at present holdthese views firmly. We may not have succeeded in convincing the PrudentialCommittee that our views are correct, yet we trust we have convinced themthat we have given due attention to the subject. We now ask, Can thePrudential Committee expect of us, while we hold such views, to conform totheir decision? Would they respect us if we did? We could not respectourselves. If we could thus trifle with conscientious views on subjects ofsuch importance, we certainly should regard ourselves as being unworthy tobe called missionaries of the A. B. C. F. M. Or any other Protestantassociation, and we think the Prudential Committee would also loseconfidence in us. We now feel called upon to state our views in referenceto the propriety of the various missionary societies and Bible societiesand other institutions deciding for us what terms we shall use and whatterms we shall not use in preaching the Gospel to the heathen. We shallstate our views with the utmost kindness and with all due deference tothose from whom we differ. We cannot doubt that the Prudential Committeeare willing also and desire us to state our views with the utmostfrankness. If our views are incorrect, we desire that others use the samefreedom in pointing out our errors. Our views are these:--The societiesin the United States and England are not called upon, at least at thepresent time, to decide this question for us. Those societies which havemade such decision have acted prematurely. In deciding this questionauthoritatively, they are assuming a responsibility which we think they arenot called upon to assume. This responsibility belongs properly to themissionaries, and they, we say it with all due respect, are much betterqualified to bear this responsibility; for they are better qualified tojudge of the evidence and discover the truth in the case. If they are not, then they are not qualified to be missionaries. But whether betterqualified or not, they are accountable to a higher power than that of anysociety under whose patronage they may labor. Whatever be the decision ofsuch society, they are still bound, in preaching the Gospel, to conform totheir conscientious views of truth. The only way to produce agreementamong Protestant missionaries is not by authoritative decisions or even bycompromise, but by producing evidence sufficient to convince the judgment. We must have evidence. In selecting men for China or any other heathenfield, missionary societies should first examine whether they have mentalability to acquire the language of the people to whom they are going. Ifthey are deficient in this respect they should not be sent, and ifmissionaries on the ground are found deficient in this respect they shouldbe recalled. "

The "term question" has not been settled to this day. 

Jan. 22, 1852. To Dr. Anderson. 

"I made another effort to extend our influence by going out towards eveninginto the streets and selecting eligible situations from which to preach tothose who would assemble. In this manner I often had opportunity topublish the glad tidings more widely than we can do in our houses ofworship. I found much encouragement in this work. If we had the physicalstrength we might thus preach day after day, from morning to night, andfind multitudes ready to listen. "

WHAT IT COSTS A CHINESE TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN. 

In the same letter, speaking of ten converts received, he says: "One ofthem was gaining a mere living from the profits of a small shop, in whichhe sold paper and candles to be used in idolatrous worship. As he becameacquainted with the Gospel, he soon found that his business was opposed tothe doctrines of Christianity. A hard contest ensued, but the power of theGospel finally triumphed. He gave up his business and with it his onlyprospect of making a livelihood and for some months had no other prospectbefore him and his family but beggary or starvation, except such a hope asGod afforded. Another held a small office of government, the requirementsof which were inconsistent with obedience to the Gospel, but theperquisites of which were his only means of sustaining his family, including an aged father. In his case the conflict seemed yet more fearfuland lasted a much longer time. We hoped that the truth had taken a deephold on him, but we began to tremble for the result. The love of Christ, as we trust, finally gained the victory. He gave up his office, gave uphis living, gave up the world, that he might find the salvation of his souland confess Christ before men. So also with the most of the others. Theywere called to sacrifice their worldly prospects, in order to embrace theGospel. Christians in our beloved land hardly know what it is to take upthe cross and follow Christ. The ridicule and obloquy with which theymeet, if indeed they meet with any, is not a tithe of that to which thenative convert here is exposed. Besides, they are seldom called to suffermuch temporal loss for the sake of Christ, but it is very different withhim. If he belong to the literary class, he must give up all hope ofpreferment. If he be in the employ of the government, he may expect to bedeprived of his employment, if indeed he be not compelled to give it upfrom conscientious motives. If he be a shopkeeper, his observance of theLord's day will probably deprive him of many of his customers, and if he bein the employ of others the same reason will render it very difficult forhim to retain his situation. "

PERSECUTED FOR CHRIST'S SAKE. 

April 6, 1852. To his brother, Goyn. 

"I promised to give some account of the young man who was baptized on theSabbath before the last. His name is Khi (pronounced like the letter 'X'of the Greek alphabet). Early last year I noticed a young man who began tobe quite regular in attending service at my chapel. I inquired of himwhere he lived and why he came. He said he was employed in burning lime ata lime-kiln not far off from my house. That I had met him in the streetand invited him to come to the chapel. Of this I remembered nothing, but Ioften thus invite persons to come and hear the Gospel. He said he came inconsequence of that invitation. But having heard the doctrine, he found itto be good, and had embraced it. This man has since been baptized. I soonlearned that he had been persuading his fellow-workmen to come along withhim. One of these workmen was Khi. He soon determined to obey thedoctrines of the Scriptures. One of these doctrines brought him intoimmediate collision with his employer. This doctrine was, 'Remember theSabbath day to keep it holy. ' He refused to work on the Sabbath day. Hisemployer told him if he did not work he would discharge him. Khi was notto be moved from his determination and was finally dismissed. After a fewineffectual efforts to get employment, he returned to visit his father'sfamily; They reside a day's journey from Amoy. While home he was takenill. It was two or three months before he returned again to Amoy. When hecame back I conversed with him concerning his conduct while away. He hadas yet but little knowledge of the doctrines of the Bible. But I was muchgratified at the simplicity of piety which his narration manifested. Hehad not only endeavored to serve God himself, but had endeavored topersuade others also to turn unto God. After his return, all his effortsto get employment failed. I spoke to a mason who has done much work forus, and who employs many workmen, and requested him to employ Khi for thecarrying of bricks and mortar and such work, if he had an opening for him. He consented to do so and employed him for a short time. But Khi's fellowworkmen did not like his religion and succeeded in getting him discharged. In consequence of the dampness of the climate, it is not safe forforeigners to live on the first floor. We always live above stairs. Therefore I have rooms in the lower part of my house unoccupied. Khi askedme if he might sleep in one of these rooms. I of course consented. He hadno bed or bedding. I had some empty boxes in the room. He put thesetogether, and laid some straw and a straw mat on them for his bed. Afterhe was discharged by the mason, he endeavored to make a living by carryingpotatoes about the street for sale. His profits were from two to fourcents a day. He made no complaint. He lived on potatoes. Winter came on;he had no means of buying clothing, or better food. The consequence wasthat he became ill. The room in which he slept was directly under mystudy. Almost every night I would hear his voice engaged in prayer, beforehe retired to his straw. Sometimes he would pray for a long, long time. The first thing in the morning again I would hear his voice in prayer. Iknew that he was destitute, but as he never complained, I knew not howgreat his destitution was, and did not dare to help him lest it would throwout inducements for others to profess Christianity. We are continuallycompelled to guard against this danger. Many of these poor people wouldprofess Christianity for the sake of a living. One Sabbath evening I heardhis voice in prayer, much earlier than usual, and therefore it attractedparticular attention. Presently word came to me that Khi was ill. I wentdown to see him. It made my heart bleed to see a fellow-creature in suchdestitution, one, moreover, who I hoped was a brother in Christ Jesus. Ihad had no idea that his destitution was so great. He seemed to besuffering under a severe attack of colic. On inquiry as to how he usuallyfared, I did not wonder that he was ill. I gave him a little medicine, took means to get him warm and he was soon relieved. 

"I then had some good food prepared for him. I was peculiarly struck withthe meekness and patience wherewith he bore his sufferings. There was nota murmuring word from his lips, but many words of an opposite character. The next day I called him into my study to give him a little money withwhich to buy clothing and food. But I had great difficulty in persuadinghim to take it. He said his sufferings were of no consequence. They weremuch less than he deserved. The sufferings of this world were all only fora short time. They were sent upon us to teach us not to love the world. Much more he said to this effect. I had to call upon one of the nativeconverts to intercede with him, before he would take the money. But I mustnot dwell on this subject longer. From what I have said about ourmissionary work, you will understand why the missionary loves his work andwhy he would not leave it for any other work, unless duty compels him. "

"HE IS ONLY A BEGGAR. "

Nov. 27, 1852. To the Sunday-school of the Reformed Church at Bound Brook, New Jersey. 

"There is very much poverty and misery among the heathen. They do not pityeach other and love each other as some Christians do. Those who have thecomforts of life seem to have very little pity for those who are destitute. Therefore they have no poorhouses where the poor may be taken care of. Consequently very many steal, very many beg, and very many starve to death. In going from my house to church on the Sabbath I have counted more thanthirty beggars on the streets. The most of them were such pitiable lookingobjects as you never saw. I have seen persons who are called beggars inthe United States, but I never saw a real beggar till I came to Amoy. Someof them are covered with filth and a few filthy rags. Some of them arewithout eyes, some without noses, some without hands, and some withoutfeet. Some crawl upon their hands and feet, some sit down in the streetsand shove themselves along, and some lie down end can only move along byrolling over and over. On Sunday before last, while I was preaching, ablind girl came into the chapel. She was led by a string attached to a boygoing before her. He could see, but could not walk. He crept along on hishands and knees. A month or two ago, during a cold storm, late in theevening, just as I was going to bed, I heard some one groaning by my frontdoor. I went out to see what was the matter. I found an old man withwhite beard Iying in the mud and water, and with very little clothing. Hewas shivering from cold. He was unable to speak. I had him carried intomy house, and covered over with some mats. We prepared some warm drink andfood for him, as speedily as possible, hoping that thus we might save hislife. But before we could get it ready he died. He had probably beencarried by some persons and laid at my door to die, that they might be freefrom the trouble and expense of burying him. 

"A week or two ago when walking through the streets I saw a beggar Iying alittle distance off. I inquired whether he was already dead. Some men, who stood near, said 'Yes. ' I then asked why they did not bury him. 'Oh, he is of no use. ' I inquired, 'Is he not a man ?' 'No, ' they said, 'he isonly a beggar. ' 'But, ' I asked again, 'is he not still a man?' Theylaughed and answered, 'Yes. ' A few days after, walking with Mrs. Talmageby the same place, we saw another beggar Iying nearly in the same spot. Iinquired of the persons who were near whether he was dead. They answered, 'Yes. ' Close by sat a beggar who was still alive. He was scarcely grownup. But his face was so deformed from suffering that we could not guesshis age. He held out his hands for alms. We gave him a few cash and wenton. The next day we passed that way again. We saw two beggars lyingtogether, both dead. We went to them. One was the lad to whom we gave thecash the day previous. On Sunday in coming from church we again passed bythat sad spot, and there was still another beggar lying dead directly inthe road. This gives you, in part, a picture of what heathenism is. "

Parts of two letters written in 1852 to his sister Catharine will proveinteresting. 

PRINTING UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 

"Our work here is continually growing on our hands. Besides our usualmissionary work, I do a little teaching, a little book-making, and a littleprinting. You did not know, perhaps, that I am a printer. We are teachinga few persons to read the colloquial (or spoken) language of Amoy. But inorder to teach this, it is necessary that this spoken language be committedto writing. It is necessary to have books printed in it. We have noprinting press at Amoy. I have had some types cut on bone or horn. Withthese I print a copy. This is handed to the carver. He pastes it upsidedown on a block and carves the words on the block. This block is theninked and is made to print other copies. It is a slow process, but theonly one we have at Amoy at present. I have thus prepared a spelling-bookin the Amoy colloquial. It is not all completed yet. The carver is busywith the last two or three sheets. A few of the first sheets were struckoff some weeks ago and made up into small books, which we have been usingto teach those who are learning to read, until the whole book is complete. Our printing is not very pretty. When the caners get more experienced intheir work, they will be able to do their part better. Our plan ofteaching is as follows: On Monday afternoon we have a meeting for women atour house. Before and after the service we teach them (those of them whowish to learn) to spell. On Tuesday afternoon, Mrs. Doty meets those whowish to learn, in a room connected with the church. On Wednesday, Mrs. Doty has a meeting for women at her house. She also spends a little timethen in teaching them. On Friday, Abby and I go to the church and spendabout an hour in teaching. We cannot expect them to make very rapidprogress in this manner of teaching, but it is the best we can do for themat present. There are two little girls who have been coming to our houseevery day for more than a month. They are beginning to read. "

"I must tell you a little of what I have been doing to-day. This forenoon, among other things, I doctored a Yankee clock. I bought it in Amoy nearlya year ago for three dollars. Sometimes it goes, and sometimes it standsstill. But it stands still much more than it goes. This morning I took itall apart, every wheel out, rubbed each wheel off, and put the clocktogether again. It has been running ever since, but how long it willcontinue to run, I cannot tell. 

CARRIER PIGEONS. 

"Our cook, 'Lo, ' takes care of our pigeons. Some have died and a few havebeen stolen, but they have continued gradually to increase. They nownumber twenty. They are very pretty, and very tame. They spend much of thetime on the open veranda in front of our house. Some of them are of a darkbrown color, some are perfectly white, some are black and white. We shallsoon have enough to begin eating pigeon pies, but I suppose we shall beloth to kill the pretty birds. Some of them are of the Carrier pigeonspecies. We might take them to a good distance from Amoy and they woulddoubtless find their way home again. The Chinese have a small whistlewhich they sometimes fasten on the back of the pigeons near the tail. 'Lo'has some attached to some of our pigeons. When they fly swiftly throughthe air, you can hear the whistle at a great distance. The noise oftenreminds us of the whistle of a locomotive. 

"The gold-fish in the lamp continue much as when I wrote before. We havemade some additions to our flower-pots and flowers this spring. Our openveranda is being turned into a sort of open garden. We now have from sixtyto seventy pots, from the size of a barrel down to the size of a two-quartmeasure. Some of them are empty and some of them are not. Besidesflowers, we have parsley, onions, peppers, mint, etc. , etc. Our gardendoes not flourish as well as it would, if I had time to attend to it. Besides this, the pigeons are very fond of picking off the young sprouts. Lest you should think us too extravagant, I ought to tell you the cost ofthe flower-pots. Those which were presented to us, did not cost usanything. Those we bought, cost from a cent apiece to sixpence. Some twoor three cost as high as fifteen or twenty cents apiece. But you will neverunderstand how nice and how odd we have it, unless you step in some day tolook for yourself. "

VI. THE "LITTLE KNIFE" INSURRECTION

China has maintained her integrity as an empire for hundreds of years. Butnot without struggle. There have been rebellions and dynastic overthrowsthat threatened to cleave the empire to its foundations. Indeed rebellionhas often had the sanction of religion in China. Let a government beunsuccessful; let a dynasty see the gaunt hand of famine, or the poisonhand of pestilence laid on the land, that is the mute voice of Heavenspeaking against those who rule. And what nobler than to be self-chosenexecutors of Heaven's vengeance. Green-eyed envy in imperial pavilion andcourtrooms has often stood sponsor to the wildest lawlessness. A base andextortionate government has often driven men in sheer self-defence totearing down yamens and hunting down the "tiger" mandarin. 

The present Manchu dynasty seized the Dragon throne in 1644. For onehundred and fifty years China enjoyed comparative peace and prosperity. The emperor Kang-hi and his grandson Keenlung, each reigned sixty years, tothe Chinese a manifest token of Heaven's favor. The past one hundred yearshave been troublous. There has been internal strife. There have beenmomentous issues to settle in the opening of China's gates to the outsideworld. When she needed Emperors of the broadest statesmanship, she has hadto blunder along with mediocre men or bend an unwilling neck under the swayof puppets. Had it not been for her great Prime Ministers, such as PrinceKung and Li Hung Chang, the days would have been fuller of dark-presagingomens and their disastrous fulfillment. 

The beginning of this century found a secret society in existence known asthe "Triads, " whose avowed object was the expulsion of the Manchus and therestoration of the Mings. In 1803 the emperor Kiaking was attacked in openday while being carried in a chair of state through the streets of Peking. He was saved by his attendants, several of whom lost their lives. 

In 1851 the Tai-ping Rebellion began. The fuel that fed the flame wasvarious. It was reaction against oppressive government. It was iconoclasminspired by a spurious Christianity. It was pride of race that would nottolerate a Manchu on the throne. For fourteen years China staggered underthis awful scourge. Whole provinces were devastated and almostdepopulated. For a long time the issue was uncertain. At length theunited strength of foreigners and Chinese battered the serpent's head anddestroyed its vitals. 

While the boa of rebellion was stretching itself across the heart of theempire a whole brood of little serpents were poisoning and devouring otheroutlying provinces. An insurrection was organized in the neighborhood ofAmoy early in 1853. Mr. Talmage writes fully concerning it. 

THE "LITTLE KNIFE" INSURRECTION. 

Jan. 25, 1853. To the Sunday-school, Flushing, New York. 

"The streets of Amoy are very narrow. The widest are only a few yardswide. At very short distances apart, there are gates across the streets. The object of these gates, and the principal cause of the streets being sonarrow, are to protect the inhabitants from gangs of thieves. In thewinter season, when men have more leisure and more temptation to plunder, these gates are closed every night. During the present winter the peopleseem to have had more fear of robbers than usual. Old gates have beenrepaired and many new gates have been built. The inhabitants of aChristian land, like America, do not fear to live alone in the countrywithout any near neighbors. But in this region a house standing alone inthe country is scarcely ever seen. The people always collect together invillages or towns or cities. The villages are usually provided with smallwatchtowers, built of stone or brick, in which a few men may sleep assentinels to give notice of the approach of robbers, and to fire on them. Even in the towns and cities you seldom see a dwelling-house with anoutside window. If there be such a window, it is usually guarded by slabsof granite, or by mason-work with only small openings, like the windows ofa prison, so that a person cannot pass through. "

June 3, 1853. To Dr. Anderson. 

"In March last one of the members of our church, Chheng-choan, requestedthat he might be sent in company with the colporteur on a trip to the cityof Chiangchiu to preach the Gospel and distribute tracts. He said that hisheart was very ardent to go and make known the Gospel. He was willing togive the time and bear his own expenses. He is a native of the city ofChiangchiu. "

"They made two visits, one in company with Rev. W. C. Burns. Many of thepeople requested them to establish a permanent place. Houses were offeredthem for rent. A few days after their return to Amoy two men who had beenmuch interested in their preaching came down and spent several days with usin order that they might learn the way of the Lord more perfectly. "

"On the 3d of May we called a meeting of the male members of our church, totake into consideration the subject of immediately sending two of theirnumber to Chiangchiu, to commence permanent operations. The members wereunanimous in the opinion that the Master had opened the way before us, andwas calling us to go forward. It was decided that if two men qualified forthe work would volunteer, they should immediately be sent. It was thensuggested that if two more men were ready perhaps it would be well toappoint them for the region north of us, to carry the Gospel to thevillages and towns between Amoy and Chinchew and see whether the way mightnot be open to begin operations in that city. Chinchew is an importantcity near the seacoast, about one-third of the way from Amoy to Foochow. The suggestion concerning the appointment of men for Chinchew was new tous. Everything seemed favorable for adopting the new suggestion. Four menimmediately offered themselves for the work, two for Chiangchiu, and twofor the region of Chinchew. They were men whom we thought well qualifiedfor the work, probably just the men we would have chosen. 

"The evangelist U, and the colporteur Lotia, left Amoy on their mission toChiangchiu, May 12th. A few days after their arrival, about midnight onthe 17th of May, the insurrection broke at Chiangchiu, which interruptedtheir labors. The evangelist thought that quiet would soon be restored andtherefore resolved to remain a few days. The people rushed upon theinsurgents, wrested their arms from them, and slew many of them. Theinsurgents finding themselves overpowered attempted to flee. The gates ofthe streets were closed against them. The people along the streetsattacked them by throwing missiles from the tops of the houses. Allstrangers in the city were in great danger of being suspected and treatedas insurgents. The evangelist in leaving the city was seized by some ofthe mob. Some said he was one of the insurgents, others said he was not. He succeeded in making his escape to the house of a friend outside of thecity walls. The colporteur made his escape over the wall of the city andfled to the house of some friends in the suburbs near the river-side. Bymy letter of May 19th, it will be seen that Amoy was attacked by theinsurgents on the morning (May 18th), after they entered the city ofChiangchiu. The insurgents are members of a secret society. For very manyyears there has existed in this region a society by the name of'Thian-te-hoe, ' Heaven and Earth Society. This is the name by which themembers designate their society. But as the members are generally providedwith knives or small swords, the society is designated by the people as'Sio-to-hoe, ' Small Sword Society. The professed object of this societyhas been the overthrow of the present Tartar dynasty. Between this andChiangchiu the members of this society are very numerous. After thebreaking out of the insurrection at Hai-teng, and Chioh-be (cities fifteenand eighteen miles from Amoy, half way to Chiangchiu), the whole populaceappeared to sympathize with the movement. Large bodies of the insurgentsmoved up the river to Chiangchiu, others came down the river to Amoy. Atthe same time there was a rising of the insurgents at Tong-an and An-khoe, districts to the north of Amoy. At the first outbreak the officials andsoldiers fled. The people of Amoy have been in continual excitement andfear. They are afraid to engage in business. On Sabbath morning we wentto our chapels as usual. Shortly after commencing services, news came thata fleet of war junks under the command of the Admiral was anchoring a shortdistance from the city. Soon the whole city was in commotion. About noon adetachment of a thousand soldiers was landed from the junks. They marchedwith very little opposition through the town to the gates of the city. They were attacked simultaneously by the insurgents from within, and bythose in ambush without. The insurgents were victorious. 

"By three o'clock in the afternoon the city was comparatively quiet, and werepaired to our church. Most of the church members were assembled. Ourchurch edifice is situated on the great thoroughfare which had been theprincipal scene of excitement. It was thought best to suspend the usualexercises, to close the street doors, and hold if possible a quietprayer-meeting. It was a solemn time. The 'confused noise' of war hadjust been heard, human blood had been flowing, the angry passions of menwere not yet calmed, and we knew not what the end would be. We felt it asuitable time to draw near to God and make Him our refuge. This afternoonwe received tidings from Chiangchiu. The evangelist was arrested by twelvemen, delivered to an official and beheaded. "

"June 10, 1853. The state of affairs through the whole of this regionremains very unsettled. The insurgents are endeavoring to regainpossession of the city of Chiangchiu. They have command of the wholeregion, between this place and that city. They still are in possession ofAmoy. We are almost daily expecting an attack by the governmentauthorities. 

"Amoy is cut off from all trade with the large towns around. Theinsurgents probably would not permit goods to be carried to Chiangchiu andother places with which they are at war. Besides, this whole region isinfested with pirates. It is only at great risk that any merchant junk canat present come to or depart from Amoy. We cannot yet form any definiteopinion as to the final result of this movement. The forces of theinsurgents are none of them drilled soldiers. Their appearance is that ofan armed mob. Their weapons are mostly spears, and knives and matchlocks. 

"At the time the insurrection broke out in our neighborhood and while wewere expecting an attack on our city by the insurgents, we felt someanxiety. We had no means of deciding how they would feel towardsforeigners. We supposed they would feel it to be for their own interestnot to meddle with foreigners. They knew that they would have enough to doto contend with their own government, without at the same time involvingthemselves with foreign powers. More than all this, we had the doctrinesand promises of God's word on which to rely. These we feel at all timesgive us the only unfailing security. They are worth more than armies andnavies. It is only when God uses armies and navies for the fulfillment ofHis own promises that they are worth anything to us. "

HOW THE CHINESE FIGHT. 

July 28, 1853. To his brother, Daniel. 

"I suppose you will feel more desirous to learn about the state of politicsand war at Amoy. At present everything is quiet. Three weeks ago anotherattempt was made by the Mandarins to retake Amoy. They landed a body oftroops on the opposite side of the island. These were to march across theisland (about ten miles) and attack the city by land. Simultaneously anattack was to be made on the city from the water side by the Mandarinfleet. It is said that the land forces amounted to about 10, 000. Thefleet consisted of about forty sail. On Wednesday morning (July 6th), about daybreak, the troops were put in motion. They were met with about anequal number of rebel troops. They fought until the Mandarin soldiersbecame hungry (about eight or nine o'clock). Not being relieved at thattime, as they expected, they withdrew to cook their rice. The Mandarin incommand considering that his life was much more important than that of thesoldiers, kept himself at a safe distance from the scene of action. Atabout breakfast-time he started to go down in his sedan chair nearer thescene of action. When he saw that his troops were retiring to cook theirbreakfast, he supposed that they were giving way before the enemy. Prudence being the better part of valor, he ordered his chair-bearers toface about and carry him in the other direction. The soldiers, findingthat their chief officer had fled, thought there was no further need ofrisking their lives, so they all retired. I cannot vouch for the truth ofthe whole of the above statement. Such, however, is the story soberlyrelated by some of the Chinese. We could see the smoke and hear thereports of the guns from the top of our house. The fighting commenced veryearly. We thought that the Mandarin troops were gradually approaching thecity, until about Chinese breakfast-time (eight to nine o'clock), when thefiring ceased. We know not how many lives were lost in the engagement. The rebels brought into the city some seventeen or eighteen heads whichthey had decapitated. I know not whether these were all killed in thefight or whether they were the heads of some villagers on whom the rebelstook vengeance for assisting the Mandarins. "

"Now for the engagement on the water. The rebel forces on the water weremuch inferior to the Mandarin forces, but the Chinese say they fought moredesperately. The engagement opened on Wednesday about noon and lasteduntil nearly evening. Towards evening the Mandarin fleet withdrew a fewmiles and came to anchor. On Thursday at high-tide (about noon) theengagement was renewed. Towards evening the Mandarin fleet again withdrewas before. On Friday the engagement was again renewed with similarresults. On Saturday the Mandarin fleet withdrew entirely and left theharbor. 

"During the three days of the fight, as you would expect, there was muchexcitement in Amoy. The tops of the houses and the hills around about, atthe time of the engagement, were thronged with people, and there was acontinual discharge of cannon. But I have not given the number of thekilled and wounded in the three days' naval action. Reports, you know, areoften much exaggerated on such occasions. According to the most reliablestatements (and I have not yet heard of any other statement), the liststands thus:

 "Killed-None! "Wounded-None! "Prisoners-None!

"It is said that one ball from a Mandarin junk did strike a rebel junk, butdid not hurt any one. During the fighting the vessels kept so far apartthat the balls almost always fell into the water between them. On thesecond day of the fight, a boat from the city in which were three men, whowere not engaged in the fight, was captured by the Mandarin fleet, and thethree men were beheaded. War is too serious a matter to be laughed at, butthe kind of war we have thus far seen at Amoy is only like children'splay. "

Nov. 1, 1853. To his brother, Daniel. 

"Our war still continues, fighting almost every day. The day I sent off mylast package to you, two more balls struck our house. One came through theroof of an unoccupied part of the premises. I did not weigh it, butsuppose it was about a six-pounder. The other struck against a pillar inthe outside wall and fell down and was picked up by some one outside of thehouse, so that I do not know the size of it. It was a merciful Providencethat it struck the pillar. If it had struck on either side of the pillar, it would have come into a room in which many Chinese were collected. OnSunday last there was much fighting again. A small ball came into ourveranda. A small ball entered Mr. Doty's house, one entered Mr. AlexanderStronach's house, several entered Dr. Hirschberg's house; other houses alsowere struck. Dr. Hirschberg's house has been the most exposed. We haveall been preserved from harm thus far. He, who has thus far preserved us, I trust will continue to preserve us. The fighting is more serious than atfirst. A little more courage is manifested and more execution is done. But I do not see any prospect of either party being victorious. The partywhose funds are completely used up first, will doubtless have to yield tothe other. I cannot tell which that will be. I shall be heartily gladwhen one of the armies withdraws from Amoy. The country around Amoy isbecoming desolated. Houses and whole villages are plundered and burned. InAmoy suffering abounds, and I suppose is increasing. When I go out intothe street I usually put a handful of cash into my pocket to distribute tothe beggars. "

In November, 1853, Imperial authority asserted itself. 

"The Imperial forces having collected from the neighboring garrisons, appeared in such overwhelming strength that the insurgents hastily put offto sea. Many succeeded in escaping to Formosa and Singapore. The leaderwas accidentally shot off Macao. The restoration of Imperial authority wasfollowed, however, by terrible scenes of official cruelty andbloodthirstiness. The guilty had escaped, but the Emperor Hienfung'sofficials wreaked their rage on the helpless and unoffending townspeople. Hundreds of both sexes were slain in cold blood, and on more than oneoccasion English officers and seamen interfered to protect the weak and toarrest the progress of an undiscriminating and insensate massacre. "

VII. THE BLOSSOMING DESERT. 

"In tropical lands, when the rain comes, what was barren baked earth, in aday or two is rich meadow, all ablaze with flowers, and the dry torrentbeds, where the stones lay white and glistening ghastly in the hotsunshine, are foaming with rushing streams and fringed with buddingoleanders. " Such a spiritual transformation it was the glad privilege ofour missionaries to witness in the region of Amoy during the years 1854 and1855. Until then, to the eye of man only an occasional seed had burst itsway through the stone-crusted earth and given a shadow of harvest hope. The first four years of prayer and testimony from 1842-1846 were definitelyand visibly rewarded with only two converts. 

When Mr. Talmage arrived at Amoy in 1847 the total church membership wasthree. By 1850 it had grown to five. By the end of 1851 the seed hadbrought forth nearly fourfold. There were nineteen converts. This was theharbinger of brighter days. Even during the troublous times of 1853 signsof awakening appeared. In the midst of war and rumors of war the nativebrethren had proposed to enter the "regions beyond" Chiangchiu andChinchew. The faithful preaching of Doty and Talmage in the chapels and onthe streets of Amoy city, among the towns and villages of Amoy Island andthe mainland; the apostolic labors of William Burns, whose joy it was tosow beside all waters, -these had found acceptance with God and with thepeople. Inquirers multiplied at the chapels. They came from among theshopkeepers and boatmen of Amoy, from cities and towns along the arms ofthe sea and up the inland rivers, from remote country hamlets beyond themountains. 

Mr. Talmage's letters during 1854 and 1855 tell of the great awakening. 

"This year (1854), thus far, has been one of unusual blessing, a year 'ofthe right hand of the Most High. ' Early in January, knowing that there werea few individuals desirous of receiving Christian baptism, we appointed ameeting for the examination of such, and also for personal conversationwith all others who might feel an especial interest in Christianity. Wewere agreeably surprised to find the number of inquirers and candidates forbaptism much greater than we had supposed. We also found among theinquirers an unusual tenderness of conscience, and sense of sinfulness, andanxiety for the salvation of the soul. Seeing such evidence that the HolySpirit was shedding abroad His quickening influences among this people, weappointed a similar interview for the week following. 

"These meetings for the examination and instruction of inquirers we havecontinued almost every week, and occasionally twice a week, till thepresent time. Sometimes the inquirers present have numbered thirty orforty, perhaps more. At times, moreover, the depth of feeling manifestedhas been such that the eyes of every one present have been suffused withtears. These meetings, we trust, have been very profitable, as well asinteresting. "

"On Sabbath, March 26th, we were permitted to receive into the fellowshipof the Christian Church ten individuals, eight men and two women, theeldest a widow woman aged sixty-eight, the youngest a young man agedtwenty. " "On the last Sabbath in May, we again received nine persons, sixmen and three women, the eldest an old man aged seventy-four, the youngesta young man aged twenty-three. "

"On the thirtieth of July (Sabbath), we again baptized nine others, fourmen and five women, the eldest a widow aged fifty-one, the youngest a girlaged sixteen. Thus the whole number of adults baptized by us at Amoyduring the present year, thus far, is twenty-eight. "

He cites individual cases. Speaking of an aged widow he says:

"She lives at a village some fifteen miles or more from Amoy. Boats comingfrom that place to this place land at a wharf near my house. On oneoccasion, when she arrived here a few months ago, she resolved to come tomy house, and see how the foreigners lived. On entering, she was met bythe Christian who has charge of the chapel. He asked her business. Shesaid that she only came for amusement. He replied, 'This is not a place tovisit for amusement, but to hear the doctrine. ' 'Well, ' says she, 'then Iwill hear the doctrine. ' He explained to her something of the truths ofChristianity. He told her also that after breakfast I should be in thechapel for morning worship. She went back to the neighbor's house whenceshe had come, to wait until after breakfast. But the new doctrine whichshe had heard, took so deep a hold on her mind, that she desired nobreakfast for herself. Soon she again came to hear more. She was deeplyimpressed with the truth and importance of the things which she heard. Shereasoned with herself thus: 'The myriads of people I meet with do not knowwhat is in my heart, but these people tell me what is in my heart and in mybones. This doctrine cannot be of man. It must be the great power ofGod. ' She was poor and lived at a distance from Amoy. She learned thatthe Christian who had charge of the chapel was of the same surname withherself. She inquired whether she might not come down next Saturday, andlodge with his family. She said she would bring with her some driedpotatoes for her food. Of course her request was readily granted. Fromthat time to the present, she has come the whole distance from her villageto Amoy almost every week, in order to hear the Gospel. She has two sonsand one daughter. She has brought both her sons with her, desiring thatthey also may become Christians. The eldest, aged seventeen, is among ourinquirers. She has also brought some of her neighbors with her to hear theWord. She has met with much opposition and persecution; but so far as wecan learn, she has borne all with the meekness of a true disciple ofChrist. Since her baptism, she has rented a room in Amoy, that she maylive within sound of the Gospel. When she told me of this, I asked her howshe expected to maintain herself, and whether she thought she should beable to earn a living at Amoy. She replied that she trusted in God. Ifshe could not get as good food as others, she would eat coarser food. 

"There is still a goodly number of inquirers at Amoy. In our meeting forconversation with them to-day; we met with two very affecting cases. Theyare lads, the elder being in his seventeenth year, and the younger in histhirteenth. Their parents and friends bitterly oppose them in theirdetermination to follow Christ. 

"They have been severely beaten. The elder was severely scourgedyesterday. This morning he was again tied up in a very painful manner, andbeaten by his cruel father. He carried the marks of his sufferings on hisarms, which we saw. We were told that he had scars also on other parts ofhis body. We trust that they are 'the marks of the Lord Jesus. ' Abrother, still younger than themselves, we are told, also worships Jesus. If they are, indeed, lambs of Christ's flock, the blessed Saviour will takecare of them; but their severe afflictions should call forth much sympathyand prayer in their behalf. 

"The conduct of our church members continues to give us much comfort. Theyare not free from faults. They need much careful oversight and exhortationand instruction. In consequence of this, our cares, anxieties, and laborsmust necessarily increase as the converts increase. But if allowance bemade for their limited knowledge, only a short time having elapsed sincethe most of them first heard the Gospel, there are probably but fewchurches, even in our own beloved country, compared with which theChristian character of this little flock would suffer. Were it not for theChristian activity of our members, so many of them abounding in good works, our operations here would necessarily be confined within much narrowerlimits. Almost every one seems to be impressed with the truth, that he orshe is to improve every opportunity to speak a word for Christ. Many ofthem are quite effective speakers. The heathen are often astonished tohear men from the lower walks of life, who previously had not had thebenefit of any education, and are yet perhaps unable to read, speak withsuch fluency, and reason with such power concerning the things of God, asto silence all their adversaries, even though they be men of education. "

Speaking of the awakening at Peh-chui-ia, a market-town once under ourcare, now under the care of the English Presbyterians, Mr. Talmagecontinues:

"We have been specially interested in their lively faith, their prayingspirit, their earnestness in the study of the Holy Scriptures, and, as aconsequence of all this, their joy in the Holy Ghost. 

"The house first rented was found too small and uncomfortable for our work. The adjoining house, of about the same size, and the upper part of the nexthouse, have since been rented, and doors opened through the walls. Thus wehave several rooms for lodging and conversation, and also for holding moreprivate meetings than we could in the chapel. The members and inquirersspend the greater part of the Sabbath at the mission premises studying theScriptures, listening to the preaching of the Word, and in religiousconversation and prayer. They go home only for their meals, and some noteven for that. A part of them spend much of their time there in similaremployments on other days of the week. When we have been with them, wehave been much gratified by seeing their earnestness in the study of theScriptures. They are continually coming to us for explanation of passageswhich they cannot understand. Often the voice of prayer will be heard fromall parts of the house at once. They are but babes in Christ; yet theirknowledge of the Scriptures is remarkable. We feel it good for our ownsouls to be among them. "

This market-town owed much to the earnest labors of Rev. W. C. Burns, whosewords and manner of life are still a fragrant memory among the brethrenthere. He was the first English Presbyterian missionary to China. Hearrived in 1847. For the first four years he carried on evangelistic workat Hongkong and Canton. He came to Amoy in 1851. 

Mr. Talmage alludes to a family at Peh-chui-ia who had endured much forChrist's sake. 

"This family have been twice plundered. Once their house was set on fireby a band of robbers, and everything was destroyed, themselves onlyescaping with their lives by a remarkable providence. " (So intense is thehatred of some of the officials against Christianity that bold robberieswill take place with their connivance, sometimes at their instigation. )"These afflictions seem to have been employed by the Spirit of God inpreparing their hearts for the reception of the Gospel. On the firstannouncement of the Word, they were deeply impressed with its truth. Thefather, however, had a hard struggle; and the opposition from his neighborswas too much for him at the first. At one time, he resolved to run awayfrom the place altogether. At another time he meditated drowning himself. While in this state of mind, he derived much benefit from the counsel andearnest entreaties of his wife. She exhorted and besought him to exhibitthe meekness and endurance taught by the meek and suffering Saviour. Hewho never suffers His people to be tempted above that they are able tobear, at length raised him above the fear of man, and established hisgoings. On one occasion, when we were conversing with him, it wassuggested that he might again be robbed. He replied that he did notbelieve he should be, for he now trusted in God. We suggested, 'Perhapsthe very fact that you have turned from idols to the service of the trueGod, may lead the enemies of the Gospel to band together and plunder you. 'He answered, 'I do not believe that they will. They will not, except it bethe will of God. If it be His will, I also am willing. ' On one occasionit was suggested that he might even be brought before magistrates becauseof the Gospel. He answered that he had no anxiety on that subject. Whenthe time came the Holy Ghost would teach him what to speak. He has sincehad his faith put to the test, but his confidence was not disappointed. The enemies of the Gospel banded together to demand of him money as hisshare of the expenses of some idolatrous celebration, resolving, if herefused to pay the money, to plunder his establishment. A crowd collectedat his door to carry the resolution into effect. They made their demandfor the money. But he was enabled to speak to them with such power thatthey trembled in his presence, it is said, and were glad to leave himalone. "

Mr. Talmage writes of the great change in a man notoriously wicked, who atfifty-one years of age yielded to Christ. 

"For thirty-one years he was addicted to the smoking of opium. When thebrethren first saw him, he seemed just ready to fall into the grave. Healso had a bad reputation throughout the town, being accustomed to meddlingwith other people's business. He was a man of good natural abilities, andthe people feared him. He has given up his opium and his other vilepractices. His whole character seems to have undergone a change. He alsohas been called, as have all the others in that town, to experiencepersecution. His enemies are those of his own house. His opium-smoking, and all his other wickedness, they could endure; but they cannot endure hisChristianity, his temperance, his meek and quiet spirit. One of my visitsto Peh-chui-ia was on the day after his friends had been manifesting, especial opposition to him. I found him greatly rejoicing that he had beencalled to suffer persecution for Christ's sake, and that he had beenenabled to bear it so meekly. He said the Holy Scriptures had beenverified, referring to Matthew v. 11, 12. He said that he had been enabledto preach the Gospel to those who had met to oppose him for two hours, until his voice failed him. He was still quite hoarse from his muchspeaking. He had told them of the change which he had experienced throughthe power of the Holy Spirit on his heart; but he also said he knew theycould not understand his meaning, when he spoke of the work of the HolySpirit in the heart. If they would worship Jesus, however, and pray to theHoly Spirit to change their hearts, as his had been changed, then theywould understand him. "

SI-BOO'S ZEAL. 

An interesting case narrated in the life of W. C. Burns is that of Si-boo, who afterwards went as an evangelist among his own countrymen at Singapore. 

"On Mr. Burns' first visit to Pechuia, he found amongst the foremost andmost interesting of his hearers, a youth of about eighteen or twenty, called Si-boo. 

"Of stature rather under the average of his countrymen, with an eye andcountenance more open than usual, and a free and confiding manner, he soonattracted the attention of the missionary. His position in life was abovethe class of common mechanics, and his education rather good for hisposition. His occupation was to carve small idols in wood for the housesof his idolatrous countrymen, of every variety of style and workmanship, some plain and cheap, and some of the most elaborate and costlydescription. Had Si-boo been of the spirit of Demetrius, he would haveopposed and persecuted Mr. Burns for bringing his craft into danger. Butinstead of that, he manifested a spirit of earnest, truthful inquiry, although that inquiry was one in which all the prepossessions, andprejudices, and passions of mind and heart were against the truth--aninquiry in which all the influence of friends, and all his prospects inlife, were cast into the wrong balance. By the grace of God he made thatsolemn inquiry with such simplicity and sincerity, that it soon led to anentire conviction of the truth of our religion, and that to a decidedprofession of faith at all hazards; and these hazards, in such a place asPechuia, were neither few nor small-far greater than at Amoy, where thepresence of a large body of converts, and a considerable English community, and a British flag, might seem to hold out a prospect of both protectionand support in time of need, though such protection and temporal aid havenever been relied on by even our Amoy converts, still less encouraged. 

"One of the first sacrifices to which Si-boo was called was a great one. His trade of idol-carver must be given up, and with that his only means ofsupport; and that means both respectable and lucrative to a skillful handlike his. But to his credit he did not hesitate. He at once threw it upand cast himself on the providence of God, and neither asked nor receivedany assistance from the missionary, but at once set himself to turn hisskill as a carver in a new and legitimate direction. He became a carver ofbeads for bracelets and other ornaments, and was soon able to supporthimself and assist his mother in this way. One advantage of this new tradewas, that it was portable. With a few small knives, and a handful ofolive-stones, he could prosecute his work wherever he liked to take hisseat, and he frequently took advantage of this to prosecute his Master'swork, while he was diligent in his own. Sometimes he would take his seaton the 'Gospel Boat' when away on some evangelistic enterprise; and whilewe were slowly rowing up some river or creek, or scudding away before afavorable wind to some distant port, Si-boo would be busy at work on hisbeads; but as soon as we reached our destination, the beads and tools werethrust into his pouch, and with his Bible and a few tracts in his hand, hewas off to read or talk to the people, and leave his silent messengersbehind him. "

During the same year (1854), Mr. Doty wrote a letter to Mr. Burns while inScotland, in regard to the awakening at Chioh-be, a large town of 30, 000inhabitants, eight miles northwest of Peh-chui-ia. An extract reads asfollows:

"But what shall I tell you of the Lord's visitation of mercy at Chioh-be?Again, truly, are we as those that dream. The general features of the workare very similar to what you witnessed at Pechui-ia. The instrumentalityhas been native brethren almost entirely. Attention was first awakened inone or two by I-ju and Tick-jam, who went to Chioh-be together. 

"This was two or three months ago. This was followed up by repeated visitsof other brethren from Pechui-ia and Amoy. Shortly the desire to hear theWord was so intense, that there would be scarcely any stop day or night;the brethren in turns going, and breaking down from much speaking in thecourse of three or four days, and coming back to us almost voiceless. "

AN APPEAL FOR A MISSIONARY. 

On the 30th of August, 1854, Mr. Talmage wrote, enclosing the subjoinedappeal of the church at Peh-chui-ia for a missionary. It is addressed tothe American Board, which these brethren call "the Public Society. " Aduplicate letter was sent at the same time to Mr. Burns to be presented tothe Board of Foreign Missions of the English Presbyterian Church. "Theytell us, " says Mr. Talmage, "that every sentence has been prayed over. According to their own statement, they would write a sentence, and thenpray, and then write another sentence, and then pray again. "

"By the mercy and grace of God, called to be little children of the SaviourJesus, we send this letter to the Public Society, desiring that God ourFather, and the Lord Jesus Christ, may bestow grace and peace on all thesaints connected with the Public Society. We desire you to know theboundless grace and favor of God towards us, and in behalf of us, littlechildren, heartily to thank God because that the announcement of God'sgrace has been conveyed by your nation to our nation, and to our province, even to Amoy, and to our market-town Peh-chui-ia. We desire the PublicSociety to be thoroughly informed, so that they may very heartily thank Godand the Lord Jesus Christ; for we at Peh-chui-ia originally dwelt in theregion of death and gloomy darkness, a place under the curse of God, andwere exposed to God's righteous punishment. But many thanks to God'scompassion and mercy, the Holy Spirit influenced the pastors of your nationto send holy brethren (Amoy native Christians), in company with the Englishpastor, the teacher, William Burns, unto our market town, to unfold theholy announcement of grace, and preach the Gospel. Many thanks to God, whose grace called several brethren, by day and by night, to listen to thepreaching of the Gospel, for the space of four months. Many thanks to theHoly Spirit, who opened our darkened hearts, and led us unto the SaviourJesus, whose precious blood delivers from sin. By the grace of God fivepersons were received into the Church and baptized. Again, two monthsafterwards four persons were received into the Church and baptized. Thereare still some ten persons and more, from different quarters, not yetbaptized, who have been operated on, so that they listen to the preachingwith gladness of heart. 

"By the will of God, the English pastor has been called to return to hisown nation. Our place is distant from Amoy by water, several tens of'lis, ' [One li is about one-third of a mile] so that it is difficult tocome and go. The two pastors of your nation at Amoy (Messrs. Doty andTalmage) have not a moment to spare from labor, for the holy brethren thereare many; and it is difficult for them to leave home. 

"We, the brethren of the church at our market town, with united heart pray, earnestly beseeching God again graciously to compassionate us, and send apastor from the Public Society of your nation, that he may quickly come, and instruct us plainly in the Gospel. 

"It is to be deplored-the brethren having heard the teacher William Burnspreach the Word for a few months, their spiritual nature only just bornagain, not yet having obtained firmness in the faith, that just at thistime, in the seventh month, the pastor should be separated from us. 

"Day and night our tears flow; and with united heart we pray, earnestlybeseeching God graciously to grant that of the disciples of the Lord Jesusa pastor hastily come, and preach to us the Gospel, this food of grace withits savoriness of grace, in order to strengthen the faith of us, littlechildren. Moreover, we pray God to influence the saints of your nationthat they may always keep us little children in remembrance. Therefore, onthe 28th day of the seventh month (August 21, 1854) the brethren withunited heart have prayed earnestly beseeching God that this our generalletter may be conveyed to the great Public Society, that you may certainlyknow these our affairs, and pray God, in behalf of us, that this ourrequest may be granted. Please give our salutation to the brethren. 

 KONG-BIAU, TEK-IAM, TEK-EIAN, U-JU, SI_BU, JIT-SOM, KI-AN, LAM-SAN, KIM KOA, "The disciples of Jesus at Peh-chui-ia. 

"Presented to the Public Society that all the disciples may read it. "

Mr. Talmage concludes a letter speaking of the "times of refreshing" inthese words:

"This remarkable work may well fill our hearts with gratitude andencouragement. Heretofore, we have always been obliged to wait a long timebefore we were permitted to see much fruit of our labor; and we were almostled to the conclusion that such must always be the case, in carrying theGospel to a heathen people. Now we see that such need not be the course ofevents. We should preach the Gospel with larger expectations, and in thehope of more immediate fruit. He who commanded the light to shine out ofdarkness, can shine into the darkest minds, 'to give the light of theknowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus' on the firstannouncement of the truth as it is in Jesus. When the proper time comes, and His Church is made ready for the great accession, it will be an easything for Him to accomplish the expectation that a nation shall be born atonce. "

VIII. CHURCH UNION. 

Missionary work in its initial stage has only to do with first principles. 

Given shelter, food, power of utterance in a foreign tongue, a preachingspot, a company of hearers, and you have bounded the horizon for thepresent. 

No sooner, however, is a goodly company of believers gathered, butproblems, numerous and weighty, confront the missionary. 

How shall the company of believers be organized and governed? Shall it beexactly on the model of the church which the missionary represents? Ifnot, what modifications shall be made? Shall the seedling ten thousandmiles away be roped to the mother tree or shall it be encouraged to standalone? What advantages in independence? What perils? What shall be thestatus of the foreign missionary before the native church just organizing?What relation shall he sustain to the home church?

The answers to these questions have been as various as the denominationsrepresented in Oriental lands. The answers of missionaries representingthe same denomination have not even tallied. 

After the gracious awakening and ingathering at Amoy and in the regionabout, had taken place, the question of church organization becameforemost. The missionaries gave the subject earnest thought. Men likeElihu Doty and John Van Nest Talmage and Carstairs Douglas, were not likelyto come to conclusions hastily. 

But they were born pioneers. Conservative enough never to lose theirequilibrium, they had adaptability to new circumstances. 

Quite willing to follow the beaten path so long as there was promise ofharvest returns, they were prepared nevertheless to blaze a new road intothe trackless forest if they were sure some of God's treasure-trove couldbe brought back on it. There was no divergence of view as to what thefoundation of the new church-structure must be. 'For other foundation canno man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. ' So long, however, as the general proportions were the same, there was no fear thatthe new edifice would topple over if it did not conform exactly in heightand length and breadth, in column and pilaster and facade, to the veneratedmodel in the mother countries. The brethren expressed their views to thechurches in the home land. They did more. They plead their cause andhoped for endorsement. The following is part of a lengthy but veryinteresting communication written by Mr. Talmage and sent to the Synod ofthe Reformed Church in 1856:

"Amoy, China, Sept. 17, 1856. 

"To the General Synod of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church. 

"Fathers and Brethren: We your missionaries at Amoy, China, have, by theblessing of the Head of the Church on our labors, arrived at a stage ofprogress in our work which imposes on us weighty responsibilities, and wefeel the need of counsel and advice. It will be proper for us to give abrief account of our Mission, of our work, of the blessing of God on ourlabors, of our peculiar circumstances, and of the principles on which wehave acted hitherto, and which we think should still guide us in ourefforts to establish the Kingdom of Christ in this land, that you maypraise God in our behalf and in behalf of this people, and assist us byyour sympathies, prayers, and counsels. Our Mission was commenced at Amoyby the late Rev. David Abeel, D. D. Mr. Abeel arrived at Amoy in companywith the Rev. (now Bishop) Boone, on the 24th of February, 1842. On the22d of June, 1844, Rev. E. Doty and Rev. Wm. J. Pohlman arrived at Amoyfrom Borneo. In Dec. , 1844, Mr. Abeel in consequence of continued andincreasing ill health left Amoy on his return to the United States. Mrs. Pohlman and Mrs. Doty having been removed by death, Mr. Doty left Amoy forthe United States, Nov. 12, 1845, with his own and Mr. Pohlman's children. Rev. J. V. N. Talmage accompanied Mr. Doty on his return to Amoy, arrivingAug. 19, 1847. Mr. Pohlman was lost at sea Jan. 5, or 6, 1849. Mr. Talmage was away from Amoy from March 24, 1849 to July 16, 1850. Rev. J. Joralmon arrived at Amoy, April 21, 1856. 

"Mr. Boone, of the Episcopal Church of the United States, was at Amoy but ashort time. After him there have been no missionaries of that church atAmoy. The mission of the American Presbyterian Board at Amoy was commencedby the arrival of Rev. T. L. McBryde, in June, 1842. He left Amoy inJanuary, 1843. James C. Hepburn, M. D. , arrived in 1843, and retired in1845. Rev. John Lloyd arrived in Dec. , 1844. Rev. H. A. Brown arrived in1845 and left Amoy for the United States in Dec. , 1847. Mr. Lloyd died inDec. , 1848. Since then that mission has not been continued at Amoy. 

"W. H. Cumming, M. D. , a medical missionary, but not connected with anymissionary society, arrived at Amoy, June, 1842, and left Amoy in the earlypart of 1847. The London Missionary Society's Mission at Amoy wascommenced by the arrival of Rev. Messrs. J. Stronach and William Young, inJuly, 1844. Since then other agents of that society have arrived, some ofwhom have again left and some still remain. They now number threeministers of the Gospel and one physician. 

"The Mission of the English Presbyterian Church at Amoy was commenced bythe arrival of James H. Young, M. D. , in May, 1850. Rev. W. C. Burnsarrived in July, 1851. Rev. James Johnston arrived in Dec. , 1853. Dr. Young and Mr. Burns left Amoy in August, 1854. Mr. Johnston left Amoy inMay, 1855. Rev. C. Douglas arrived at Amoy in July, 1855. He is now theonly member of that Mission at Amoy. All the members of this Mission, although sent out by the English Presbyterian Church, were originallymembers of the Free Church of Scotland. 

"The present missionary force at Amoy are three ministers and one physicianof the London Missionary Society (in their ecclesiastical relations theyare Independents), one minister of the English Presbyterian Church, andourselves, three ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church. 

"The first converts received into the Christian Church at Amoy were two oldmen, baptized by Mr. Pohlman in April, 1846. The next converts receivedwere two men baptized by Mr. A. Stronach, of the London Missionary Society, in March, 1848. A few months later Mr. Stronach baptized one more. Sincethen every year has witnessed additions to the church. We received intoour church by baptism in 1849 three persons; in 1850 five; in 1851 eight;in 1852 two; in 1853 six; in 1854 including those baptized at Peh-chui-ia, fifty-three; in 1855 including Peh-chui-ia and Chioh-be, seventy-two;during the present year thus far, also including Pehchui-ia and Chioh-be, fifty. The whole number now connected with our church at Amoy is onehundred and twenty-one. The number at Peh-chui-ia is forty-two. Thenumber at Chioh-be is thirty-one. In all, the number is one hundred andninety-four. The London Mission has also been greatly blessed. They nowhave in connection with their church at Amoy and in vicinity one hundredand fifty-one members. After acquiring the language of this people, wehave felt that our great work is to preach the Gospel. Every otherdepartment of labor must be entirely secondary to this. The Scriptures areclearly in favor of these views, and our own experience has confirmed theseviews until they have become very decided. We have already mentioned thename of Mr. Burns as uniting in labors with our church members. Thebrethren of the English Presbyterian Church, in the providence of God, havebeen brought very near to us. We have rendered each other much assistanceand often have labored together almost as one Mission. 

"When Mr. Burns arrived at Amoy, providentially he found and secured a roomnot far from our church edifice, and near to the residences of several ofour church members. As soon as he was able to use the dialect of Amoy, many of our church members and inquirers were glad of the privilege ofmeeting with him daily for the study of the Scriptures and for prayer. Mr. Burns came to Amoy for the simple purpose of preaching the Gospel. He didnot wish to take the responsibility of organizing a separate church. Hewas ready to co-operate with us or with the London brethren. He oftenrendered them assistance likewise. When he became able to use the languagewith freedom, he often preached in our church. When he went out for streetpreaching, or went out to visit the towns and villages around, he alwaystook with him native Christians, usually the members of our church, havingbeen providentially placed among them. Early in the year 1854, Mr. Burnswith some of our church members visited the region of Peh-chui-ia. Muchinterest was awakened in that region in the subject of Christianity. Agoodly number, we trust, were born of the Spirit. Mr. Burns did not wishto take the responsibility of a pastor, desiring to keep himself free forevangelistic labors wherever a door might be opened before him. Herequested us to examine the candidates for baptism and receive those whomwe deemed worthy, and take the pastoral care of them. We yielded to thedesires of Mr. Burns and took charge of Pehchui-ia. 

"Mr. Burns continued to spend much of his time in that place and vicinityuntil he was called to leave Amoy. Shortly after the departure of Mr. Burns, learning that the English Presbyterians would have been glad toretain Peh-chui-ia, and Mr. Johnston (E. P. ) being willing to take chargethere as far as he was able, we very willingly relinquished it to them. Hewas still unable to use the language with freedom, so we continued to visitthe place as often as we could. Before Mr. Johnston's knowledge wassufficient to relieve us of the pastoral care of that interesting church, his ill-health compelled him to return to his native land. His place wassoon supplied by the arrival of Mr. Douglas. We have continued the samepastoral care of that church. Lately our visits to the place have becomeless frequent, as Mr. Douglas has become better acquainted with thelanguage. 

"In the latter half of the year 1851, some of the Christians fromPeh-chui-ia went to the large town of Chioh-be on business and preached theGospel as they had opportunity. They found a few persons who listened totheir message with interest and manifested a desire to hear more. Whenthis fact, on their return, was reported to the churches of Peh-chui-ia andAmoy, other Christians went to Chioh-be. A great interest was awakened. Asmall house was rented for a chapel. This house was thronged every daythroughout the day and evening. Soon as we had opportunity we visited theplace to converse with inquirers and examine candidates for baptism. InJanuary, 1855, the first converts at that place were baptized. Theinterest continued to increase. We found the premises we had rentedentirely too small. As soon as a larger and more suitable place could befound it was secured. Soon after this a violent persecution broke out. The immediate effect was greatly to hinder the work. Only those who weresufficiently interested in the Gospel to raise them above the fear of mandared attend the place of worship. Still there has been constant progress. 

"If the churches gathered by us are to be organized simply with respect tothe glory of God and their own welfare, there is a fact in ourcircumstances which should have great weight in forming this organization. This fact is the intimate relation and hitherto oneness of the churchesunder our care and under the care of the missionaries of the EnglishPresbyterian Church. In the foregoing short history of our work it will beseen that we have been and are closely connected with the missionaries ofthat Church. From the first we have had the pastoral care of their churchgathered at Peh-chui-ia and in the surrounding region. They have notattempted the organization of any church at Amoy. By far the greaterproportion of their influence and labors at Amoy has been in the directionof assisting us in our work. They have acted as though they thought it wasof no importance whatever whether converts were received into churchfellowship by us or them. Doubtless the church members, although perfectlyaware that we and our English Presbyterian brethren are of differentChurches and different countries, suppose that they form but one Church. When the time had arrived for a regular organization of our church in Amoy, the question presented itself: Shall we invite Mr. Douglas, then and stillthe only English Presbyterian missionary at Amoy, to unite with us in ourdeliberations? By the providence of God our missions had been broughtclosely together. We had been laboring together in the work of the Lord, were one in sympathy, held the same views in theology, and did not differin regard to church polity. But one answer could be given to thisquestion. We cordially invited him. He as cordially accepted of ourinvitation, and heartily engaged with us in our church meetings, held inreference to the election of church officers. He voted with us and ourchurch members. He united with us in setting apart the officers-elect totheir respective offices, and since then has usually united with us in ourdeliberations in our consistorial meetings. Surely in this matter we haveacted according to the leadings of Providence and the spirit andinstructions of the Gospel of Christ; for in Christ Jesus there is nodistinction of nationalities. Our labors having thus far been sointermingled and our churches so intimately related and united together, wecan see no sufficient reason for separation. If there be any advantage inthe association of churches by the organization of Classes or Presbyteries, why should we deprive these churches in their infancy and weakness of thisadvantage? We have always taught our people to study the Word of God andmake it their rule. Can we give them a sufficient reason for suchseparation? Doubtless if we were to tell them, that the churches by whichwe are sent out and sustained desire separate organizations, and thereforeshould recommend such organizations to them, they would acquiesce. Theyknow that they cannot stand alone. Gratitude, also, and ardent affectionfor those churches by whose liberality they have been made acquainted withthe Gospel, would lead them to do all in their power to please thosechurches. We can hardly suppose, however, that such separation wouldaccord with their judgment, or with those Christian feelings which theyhave always exercised towards each other as members of the same Church. But we do not suppose that either our Church or the English PresbyterianChurch will recommend such a separation. The Dutch Church in North Americahas always manifested an enlarged Christian spirit, and therefore we cannotdoubt but that she will approve of an organization by which the churcheshere, which are one in doctrine and one in spirit, may also be one inecclesiastical matters. Neither do we doubt but that the EnglishPresbyterian Church will also approve of the same course. We do not knowas much of that Church as we hope to know in the future. Yet we knowenough of her already to love her. But if separation must come, let notour Church bear the responsibility. 

"Another question of importance may arise. What shall be our relation asindividuals to the Dutch Church in America? We see no reason and desirenot to change the relation we have always sustained. We were set apart bythat Church to do the work of evangelists. This is the work in which westill wish to be engaged. We must preach the Gospel. As God gives successto our labors we must organize churches, and take oversight of them as longas they need that oversight. When we find suitable men, we must 'ordainelders in every city. ' Such is the commission we hold from our Church, andfrom the great Head of the Church. Theoretically, difficulties may besuggested. Practically, with the principles on which we have thus faracted, we see no serious difficulties in our way. We must seek for Divineguidance, take the Scriptures for our rule, and follow the leadings ofProvidence. We are all liable to err. But with these principles, assistedby your counsels, and especially by your prayers, we have reason tobelieve, and do believe, that the Spirit of truth will guide us in the wayof truth. "

Dr. Talmage also sent a communication to Dr. Thomas De Witt, thenCorresponding Secretary for the Reformed Church in co-operation with theAmerican Board. It reads:

"Oct. 1, 1856. There are some other facts arising out of the circumstancesof this people, and of the nature of the Chinese language, which have acertain importance and perhaps should be laid before the Church. No partof the name of our Church, peculiar to our denomination, can be translatedand applied to the church in Chinese without inconvenience or greatdetriment. The words, Protestant and Reformed, would be to the Chineseunintelligible, consequently inconvenient. The only translation we cangive to the name Dutch Church, would be Church of Holland. This, besidesconveying in part an incorrect idea, would be very detrimental to theinterests of the Church among the Chinese. The Chinese know but little offoreign nations and have for ages looked upon them all as barbarians. Ofcourse the views of the native Christians are entirely changed on thissubject. But our great work is to gather converts from the heathen. Weshould be very careful not to use any terms by which they would beunnecessarily prejudiced against the Gospel. It is constantly charged uponthe native Christians, both as a reproach and as an objection toChristianity, that they are following foreigners or have become foreigners. The reproach is not a light one, but the objection is easily answered. Theanswer would not be so easy if we were to fasten on the Christians aforeign name. "

At the meeting of the General Synod, held in the village of Ithaca, NewYork, June, 1857, the following resolutions recommended by the Committee onForeign Missions, Talbot W. Chambers, D. D. , Chairman, were adopted:

THE MEMORIAL OF THE AMOY MISSION. 

"Among the papers submitted to the Synod is an elaborate document from thebrethren at Amoy, giving the history of their work there, of its gradualprogress, of their intimate connection with missionaries from other bodies, of the formation of the Church now existing there, and expressing theirviews as to the propriety and feasibility of forming a Classis at thatstation. In reply to so much of this paper as respects the establishmentof individual churches, we must say that while we appreciate the peculiarcircumstances of our brethren, and sympathize with their perplexities, yetit has always been considered a matter of course that ministers, receivingtheir commission through our Church, and sent forth under the auspices ofour Board, would, when they formed converts from the heathen in anecclesiastical body, mould the organization into a form approaching, asnearly as possible, that of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Churches in ourown land. Seeing that the converted heathen, when associated together, must have some form of government, and seeing that our form is, in ourview, entirely consistent with, if not required by the Scriptures, weexpect that it will in all cases be adopted by our missionaries, subject, of course, to such modifications as their peculiar circumstances may forthe time render necessary. The converts at Amoy, as at Arcot andelsewhere, are to be regarded as 'an integral part of our Church, ' and assuch are entitled to all the rights and privileges which we possess. Andso in regard to the formation of a Classis. The Church at home willundoubtedly expect the brethren to associate themselves into a regularecclesiastical organization, just as soon as enough materials are obtainedto warrant such measure, with the hope that it will be permanent. We donot desire churches to be prematurely formed in order to get materials fora Classis, nor any other exercise of violent haste, but we equallydeprecate unnecessary delay, believing that a regular organization will bealike useful to our brethren themselves and to those who, under them, arein training for the first office-bearers in the Christian Church on heathenground. As to the difficulties suggested in the memorial, respecting thedifferent Particular Synods to which the brethren belong, and the delays ofcarrying out a system of appellate jurisdiction covering America and China, it is enough to say:

"1. That the Presbyterian Church (Old School) finds no insuperabledifficulties in carrying into operation her system, which comprehendsPresbyteries and Synods in India as well as here; and, 2. That whateverhindrances may at anytime arise, this body will, in humble reliance uponthe Divine aid and blessing, undertake to meet and remove them as far aspossible. The Church at home assumes the entire responsibility of thismatter, and only ask the brethren abroad to carry out the policy heldsteadily in view from the first moment when our Missions began. 

"The following resolutions are recommended:

"Resolved, 1. That the Synod view with great pleasure the formation ofchurches among the converts from heathenism, organized according to theestablished usages of our branch of Zion. 

"2. That the brethren at Amoy be directed to apply to the Particular Synodof Albany to organize them into a Classis, so soon as they shall haveformed churches enough to render the permanency of such organizationreasonably certain. "

IX. CHURCH UNION (CONTINUED). 

This utterance of the General Synod, while made with the best intentions, fell with exceedingly painful echo on the ears of the missionaries at Amoy. Was the flock they had gathered with so much prayer and effort, and rearedwith such sedulous care, to be thus summarily divided and perhaps inconsequence scattered? The missionaries felt persuaded that their brethrenin the United States could not fully appreciate the situation or therewould be no such action. 

Mr. Talmage again took up his pen in behalf of his Chinese flock. If ithad been dipped in his own blood his utterances could not have been moreforceful-could not have palpitated with a heartier affection for hisChinese brethren's sake. 

On Dec. 23, 1857, he wrote to Dr. Isaac Ferris, who, since the separationfrom the A. B. C. F. M. At the last Synod, had become the CorrespondingSecretary for the Board of Foreign Missions of tile Reformed Church. 

"So far as we can judge from the report of the proceedings of General Synodas given in the Christian Intelligencer, one of the most importantconsiderations, perhaps altogether the most important mentioned, why thechurch gathered by us here should not be an integral part of the Church inAmerica, was entirely overlooked. That consideration relates to the unityof Christ's Church. Will our Church require of us, will she desire thatthose here who are altogether one, -one in doctrine, one in their views ofchurch order, and one in mutual love, -be violently separated into twodenominations? We cannot believe it. Suppose the case of two churchesoriginally distinct, by coming into contact and becoming better acquaintedwith each other, they find that they hold to the same doctrinal standards, and they explain them in the same manner; they have the same form of churchgovernment and their officers are chosen and set apart in the same way;they have the same order of worship and of administering the sacraments;all their customs, civil, social, and religious, are precisely alike, andthey love each other dearly; should not such churches unite and form butone denomination? Yet such a supposition does not and cannot represent thecircumstances of the churches gathered by us and by our Scotch brethren ofthe English Presbyterian Church. Our churches originally were one, andstill are one, and the question is not whether those churches shall beunited, but shall they be separated? Possibly the question will be asked, why were these churches allowed originally to become one? We answer, Godmade them so, and that without any plan or forethought on our part, and nowwe thank Him for His blessing that He has made them one, and that He hasblessed them because they are one. 

"Our position is a somewhat painful one. We desire to give offense to noone, and we do not wish to appear before the Church as disputants. We haveno controversy with any one. We have neither the time nor inclination forcontroversy. We are 'doing a great work, ' and cannot 'come down. ' Yet ourduty to these churches here and to the Church at home and to our Masterdemands of us imperatively that we state fully and frankly our views. Wehave the utmost confidence in our church. We have proved this byendeavoring to get our views fully known. "

The subject did not come up again for discussion before the General Synoduntil 1863. 

Meanwhile the churches grew and multiplied. The Amoy church, which in 1856had been organized by "the setting apart of elders and deacons, " wasseparated into two organizations in 1860, "preparatory to the calling ofpastors. "

Two men were chosen by the churches in 1861. In 1862 an organization wasformed called the "Tai-hoey, " or "Great Elders' Meeting, " consisting of themissionaries of both the English Presbyterian and Reformed Churches and thedelegated elders from all the organized congregations under their unitedoversight. The two men chosen as pastors were examined, ordained, andinstalled by this body. 

During that year Mr. Talmage was called to stand by the "first gash lifehad cut in the churchyard turf" for him. His beloved wife, Mrs. AbbyWoodruff Talmage, was called to her reward, leaving Mr. Talmage with fourmotherless little ones. He was compelled to go to the United States tosecure proper care for his children. He came in time to attend the GeneralSynod of 1863. There he advocated most earnestly the course which thebrethren at Amoy had taken. 

Dr. Isaac Ferris brought the subject before the Synod in these words:

"In 1857 the Synod met at Ithaca, and a most remarkable Synod it was. According to the testimony of all who were present the Spirit of Godunusually manifested His gracious presence. A venerable minister on hisreturn remarked, 'It was like heaven upon earth. ' That Synod, under thisextraordinary sense of the Divine presence and unction, judged that thetime had arrived for the Church to take the responsibility of supportingits foreign missionary work upon itself, and, accordingly, in very properresolutions, asked of the American Board to have the compact which had beenin operation since 1832 revoked, and the Mission transferred to our ForeignBoard. 

"It was at that meeting that a memorial of our brethren at Amoy on thesubject of organization, very ably drawn, and presenting fully their viewsand reasonings, was read and deliberated on. Their work had beenwonderfully blessed, and the whole Church was called to thanksgiving, andthe time seemed at hand to realize the expectations of years. The brethrenasked advice, and the Synod adopted the carefully-drawn report of acommittee of which the President was chairman, advising the organization ofa Classis at as early a day as was practicable. Our brethren at Amoy werenot satisfied with this advice, and considered the subject as not havinghad a sufficient hearing. 

"In the progress of their work they have deemed it proper to form adifferent organization from what the Synod advised, and which was inharmony with the constant aim of our Church on the subject. The Board ofForeign Missions, when the matter came before them, could only kindlyprotest and urge upon the brethren the action of the Synod of 1857. Nothaving ecclesiastical power, they could only argue and advise. They wouldhave it remembered that all has been done in the kindest spirit. They havediffered in judgment from the Mission, but not a ripple of unkind feelinghas arisen. 

"The question now before the Synod is, whether this body will recede fromthe whole policy of the Church and its action in 1857 or reaffirm the same. This Synod, in its action on this case, will decide for all its missions, and in all time, on what principles their missionaries shall act, and hencethis becomes probably the most important question of this session. It isin the highest degree desirable that the Synod should give the subject thefullest the most patient and impartial examination, and that our brother, who represents the Amoy Mission, be fully heard. "

Mr. Talmage next addressed the Synod and offered the following resolution:

"Resolved, That the Synod hear with gratitude to God of the great progressof the work of the Lord at Amoy, and in the region around, so that alreadywe hear of six organized churches with their Consistories, and othersgrowing up not yet organized, two native pastors who were to have beenordained on the 29th of March last, and the whole under the care of aClassis composed of the missionaries of our Church and of the EnglishPresbyterian Church, the native pastors, and representative elders of theseveral churches. It calls for our hearty gratitude to the great Head ofthe Church that the missionaries of different Churches and differentcountries have been enabled, through Divine grace, to work together in suchharmony. It is also gratifying to us that these churches and this Classishave been organized according to the polity of our Church, inasmuch as theSynod of the English Presbyterian Church has approved of the course oftheir missionaries in uniting for the organizing of a church after ourorder; therefore, this Synod would direct its Board of Foreign Missions toallow our missionaries to continue their present relations with themissionaries of the English Presbyterian Church, so long as the presentharmony shall continue, and no departure shall be made from the doctrinesand essential policy of our Church, or until the Synod shall otherwisedirect. "

There were speeches for and against, by distinguished men in the Church. Dr. T. W. Chambers, President of the Synod, made the concluding address, asfollows:

"If there be any one here who has a deep and tender sympathy with ourbrother Talmage and his senior missionary colleague (Mr. Doty), I claim tobe the man. 

"Mr. Doty was my first room-mate at college thirty-one years ago, and eversince we have been fast friends. As to the other, his parents-themselvesamong the most eminent and devoted Christians ever known-were long membersof the church in New Jersey, of which I was formerly in charge. Forseveral years I was his pastor. I signed the testimonials of characterrequired by the American Board before they commissioned him. I pronouncedthe farewell address when he left this country in 1850. I have watchedwith intense interest his entire career since, and no one welcomed him morewarmly when he returned last year, bearing in his face and form the scarswhich time and toil had wrought upon his constitution. It is needless tosay, then, that I love him dearly for his own sake, for his parents' sake, for his numerous friends' sake, but, more than all, for that Master's sakewhom he has so successfully served. Nor is there anything within reasonwhich I would not have the Church do for him. He shall have our money, oursympathy, our prayers, our confidence-the largest liberty in shaping theoperations of the Mission he belongs to. 

"But when we come to the matter now at issue, I pause. Much as I love ourbrother, I love Christ more. Nor can I surrender, out of deference to ourmissionaries, the constitution, the policy, the interests of ourChurch, --all of which are involved in this matter. Nay, even their ownwelfare, and that of the mission they are so tenderly attached to, demandthat we should deny their request. What is this request? That we shouldallow our brethren at Amoy, together with the English Presbyterianmissionaries there, to form with the native pastors and the delegates fromthe native churches, an independent Classis or Presbytery, over whoseproceedings this body should have no control whatever, by way of appeal, orreview, or in any other form. Now, the first objection to this is, that itis flatly in the face of our constitution and order. A 'self-regulatingClassis' is a thing which has never been heard of in the Dutch Church sincethat Church had a beginning. It is against every law, principle, canon, example, and precedent in our books. Perhaps the most marked feature ofour polity is the subordination of all parts of our body, large or small, to the review and control of the whole as expressed in the decisions of itshighest ecclesiastical assembly. I submit that this Synod has no right toform or to authorize any such self regulating ecclesiastical body, or toconsent that any ministers of our Church should hold seats in such a body. If we do it, we transcend the most liberal construction which has ever beenknown to be given to the powers of General Synod. How, then, can we dothis thing? Whatever our sympathies, how can we violate our own order, ourfundamental principles, the polity to which we are bound by our profession, by our subscription, by every tie which can bind religious and honorablemen?

"Moreover, the thing we are asked to do contravenes our missionary policyfrom the beginning. As far back as 1832, when we made a compact with theAmerican Board, one essential feature of the plan was that we should have'an ecclesiastical organization' of our own. Without this feature thatplan would never have been adopted; and the apprehension that there mightbe some interference with this cherished principle was at least one of thereasons why the plan, after working successfully for a quarter of acentury, was at length abrogated. And so when, in 1857, we instituted amissionary board of our own, this view was distinctly announced. 

"It was my privilege to draw up the report on the subject which has been sooften referred to. That report did not express merely my view, or that ofthe committee, but the view of the entire Synod. Nor from that day to thishas there been heard anywhere within our bounds even a whisper of objectionfrom minister, elder, or layman in regard to the positions then taken. Itis our settled, irreversible policy. Deep down in the heart of the Churchlies the conviction that our missionaries, who carry to the heathen thedoctrine of Christ as we have received it, must also carry the order ofChrist as we have received it. Certain unessential peculiarities may, fromthe force of circumstances, be left in abeyance for a time, or evenpermanently, but the dominant features must be retained. It is not enoughto have genuine Consistories, we must have genuine Classes. And, underwhatever modifications, the substantive elements of our polity must bereproduced in the mission churches established by the blessing of God uponthe men and means furnished by our Zion. 

"Further, Mr. President, it is to be remembered that we are acting for alltime. It is not this one case that is before us. We are settling aprecedent which is to last for generations. Relax your constitutions andlaws for this irregularity and you open a gap through which a coach andfour may be driven. Every other mission, under the least pretext, willcome and claim the same or a similar modification in their case, and youcannot consistently deny them. The result will be an ecclesiastical chaosthroughout our entire missionary field. Let us begin as we mean to holdout. Let us settle this question now and settle it aright. We direct ourmissionaries what Gospel to preach, what sacraments to administer, whatinternal organization to give to single churches. Let us, in the samemanner and for the same reasons, say what sort of bonds shall unite thesechurches to each other and govern their mutual relations and commoninterests. 

"I know we are told that the hybrid organization which now exists is everyway sufficient and satisfactory; that it is the fruit of Christian love, and that to disturb it would be rending the body of Christ. Here one mightask how it came to exist at all, seeing that this Synod spoke so plainlyand unambiguously in 1857. And I for one cordially concur in the remark ofthe Elder Schieffelin, that the brethren there 'deserve censure. ' We donot censure them, nor do we propose to do so, but that they deserve it isundeniable. But the point is, how can our disapproval of the mongrelClassis mar the peace of the Amoy brethren? There is already a divisionamong their churches. Some are supported by our funds, others by the fundsof the English Presbyterians. Would it alter matters much to say, and tomake it a fact, that some of those churches belong to a Classis and othersto a Presbytery? Some have an American connection and others an English. But this would break Christian unity! Would it, indeed? You observed, Mr. President, the affectionate confidence, blended with reverence, with whichI addressed from the chair the venerable Dr. Skinner. The reason was thatwe both belong to an association of ministers in New York which meetsweekly for mutual fellowship, enjoyment, and edification in all thingsbearing on ministerial character and duties. Ecclesiastically we have noconnection whatever. I never saw his Presbytery in session, and I doubt ifhe ever saw our Classis; yet our brotherly, Christian, and even ministerialcommunion is as tender, and sacred, and profitable as if we had beencopresbyters for twenty years. Now, who dare say that this shall not existat Amoy? Our brethren there can maintain precisely the same love, andconfidence, and co-operation as they do now, in all respects save the oneof regular, formal, ecclesiastical organization. 

"But I will not detain the Synod longer. I would not have left the chairto speak, but for the overwhelming importance of the subject. It ispainful to deny the eager and earnest wishes of our missionary brethren, but I believe we are doing them a real kindness by this course. Unionchurches here have always in the end worked disunion, confusion, and everyevil work. There is no reason to believe that the result would be at alldifferent abroad. A division would necessarily come at some period, andthe longer it was delayed, the more trying and sorrowful it would be. I amopposed, therefore, to the substitute offered by Brother Chapman, and alsoto that of Brother Talmage, and trust that the original resolutions, withthe report, will be adopted. That report contains not a single harsh orunpleasant word. It treats the whole case with the greatest delicacy aswell as thoroughness, but it reaffirms the action of 1857 in a way not tobe mistaken. And that is the ground on which the Church will take itsstand. Whatever time, indulgence, or forbearance can be allowed to ourbrethren, will cheerfully be granted. Only let them set their faces in thedirection of a distinct organization, classical as well as consistorial, and we shall be satisfied. Only let them recognize the principle and thedetails shall be left to themselves, under the leadings of God's graciousprovidence. "

The report of the Committee on Foreign Missions, E. S. Porter, D. D. , chairman, was adopted. Part of it reads as follows:

"The missionaries there have endeared their names to the whole Christianworld, and especially to that household of faith of which they are lovedand honored members. "

. . . . "No words at our command can tell what fond and flaming sympathieshave overleaped broad oceans, and bound them and us together. 

 "'Words, like nature, half reveal, And half conceal the soul within. '

. . . . "Your committee are unable to see how it will be possible to carry thesympathies and the liberalities of the Church with an increasing tide oflove and sacrifice in support of our missionary work, if it once beadmitted as a precedent, or established as a rule, that our missionariesmay be allowed to form abroad whatever combinations they may choose, andaid in creating ecclesiastical authorities, which supersede the authoritieswhich commissioned them and now sustain them. "

"The committee are not prepared to recommend that any violent and coerciveresolutions should be adopted for the purpose of constraining our brethrenin Amoy to a course of procedure which would rudely sunder the brotherlyties that unite them with the missionaries of the English PresbyterianChurch. But a Christian discretion will enable them, on the receipt of thedecision of the present Synod, in this matter now under consideration, totake such initial steps as are necessary to the speedy formation of aClassis. 

"Much must be left to their discretion, prudence and judgment. But of thewish and expectation of this Synod to have their action conform as soon asmay be to the resolutions of 1857, your committee think the brethren atAmoy should be distinctly informed. They therefore offer the following:

"'I. Resolved, That the General Synod, having adopted and tested its planof conducting foreign missions, can see no reason for abolishing it; but, on the contrary, believe it to be adapted to the promotion of the bestinterests of foreign missionary churches, and of the denominationsupporting them. 

"'II. That the Board of Foreign Missions be, and hereby is, instructed tosend to our missionaries at Amoy a copy or copies of this report, ascontaining the well-considered deliverance of the Synod respecting theirpresent relations and future duty. 

"'III. That the Secretary of the Foreign Board be, and hereby is, directedto send to the Rev. Dr. Hamilton, of London, Convener of the PresbyterianCommittee, a copy of this report, with a copy of the action of 1857, andthat he inform him by letter of the wishes and expectations of the Synodrespecting the ecclesiastical relations which this body desires itschurches in Amoy to sustain to it. '"

In the report of the Foreign Committee of the English Presbyterian Churchfor 1863, the following language is used in reference to the Union ChineseChurch of Amoy:

"We are hopeful, however, that on further consideration our brethren inAmerica may allow their missionaries in China to continue the presentarrangement, at least until such time as it is found that actualdifficulties arise in the way of carrying it out. 'Behold, how good andpleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unify, ' and there are fewbrethren towards whom we feel closer affinity than the members of thatChurch, which was represented of old by Gomarus and Witsius, by Voet andMarck, and Bernard de Moore, and whose Synod of Dort preceded in time andpioneered in doctrine our own Westminster Assembly. Like them, we lovethat Presbyterianism and that Calvinism which we hold in common, and wewish to carry them wherever we go; but we fear that it would not be doingjustice to either, and that it might compromise that name which is aboveevery other, if, on the shores of China, we were to unfurl a separatestandard. We would, therefore, not only respectfully recommend to theSynod to allow its missionaries to unite presbyterially as well aspractically with the brethren of the Reformed Dutch Church; but we wouldexpress the earnest hope that the Synod of the sister Church in America mayfind itself at liberty to extend to its missionaries a similar freedom. "

These sentiments were unanimously adopted by the Synod of the EnglishPresbyterian Church. 

The cause which Mr. Talmage was advocating was too near his heart, and hisconvictions were too strong to permit silence. He prepared a pamphlet, setting forth more clearly the position of the Mission at Amoy, as well asanswering objections made to it. [The exact standing of missionaries inthe Union Chinese Church of Amoy was also explained by Dr. Talmage in alater pamphlet, for the contents of which see Appendix. ] A few quotationsread:

"In reference to it, i. E. , the report of the Committee on Foreign Missions, we would make three remarks: (1) It (Resolution III. ) seems rather acavalier answer to the fraternal wish of the Synod of the EnglishPresbyterian Church, as expressed in their action. (2) The action of Synodis made to rest (Res. I. ) on the fact that Synod had 'tested' this 'plan ofconducting foreign missions. ' If this be so, and the plan had been foundby experiment unobjectionable, the argument is not without force. But howand where has this test been applied and found so satisfactory? Our Churchhas three Missions among the heathen-one in India, one in China, and one inJapan. Has it been tested in Japan? No. They have not yet a singlenative church. Has it been tested in China? If so, the missionaries werenot aware of it. The test applied there has been of an opposite characterand has been wonderfully successful. The test has only been applied inIndia, and has only begun to be applied even there. There, as yet, thereis but one native pastor. Their Classis is more American than Indian. Wemust wait until they have a native Classis before the test can bepronounced at all satisfactory. (3) No consideration is had for thefeelings, wishes or opinions of the native churches. The inalienablerights of the native churches, their relation to each other, their absoluteunity-things of the utmost consequence-are not at all regarded, areentirely ignored. "

In reply to the advantages claimed to flow from the plan advocated byGeneral Synod, Mr. Talmage says:

"1. The most important advantage is, or is supposed to be, that there willthus be higher courts of jurisdiction to which appeals may be made, and bywhich orthodoxy and good order may be the better secured to the Church atAmoy. 

"Such advantages, if they can be thus secured, we would by no meansunderrate. There sometimes are cases of appeal for which we need thehighest court practicable-the collective wisdom of the Church, so far as itcan be obtained; and the preservation of orthodoxy and good order is of thefirst importance. Now, let us see whether the plan proposed will securethese advantages. Let us suppose that one of the brethren feels himselfaggrieved by the decision of the Classis of Amoy and appeals to theParticular Synod of Albany, and thence to General Synod. He will not bedenied the right to such appeal. But, in order that the appeal may beproperly prosecuted and disposed of, the appellant and the representativeof Classis should be present in these higher courts. Can this be secured?Is the waste of time, of a year or more, nothing? And where shall thethousands of dollars of necessary expense come from? Now, suppose thisappellant to be a Chinese brother. He, also, has rights; but how, on thisplan, can he possibly obtain them? Suppose that the money be raised forhim and he is permitted to stand on the floor of Synod. He cannot speak, read, or write a word of English. Not a member of Synod can speak, read, or write a word of his language, except it be the brother prosecuting him. I ask, is it possible for him thus to obtain justice? But, waiving allthese disadvantages, the only point on which there is the least probabilitythat an appeal of a Chinese brother would come up before the higher courts, are points on which these higher courts would not be qualified to decide. They would doubtless grow out of the peculiar customs and laws of theChinese, points on which the missionary, after he has been on the ground adozen years, often feels unwilling to decide, and takes the opinion of thenative elders in preference to his own. Is it right to impose a yoke likethis on that little Church which God is gathering, by your instrumentality, in that far-off land of China? But it is said that these cases of appealwill very rarely or never happen. Be it so; then this supposed advantagewill seldom or never occur, and, if it should occur, it would prove adisadvantage. "

In regard to keeping the Church pure in doctrine:

"Sure I am that the Church in China cannot be kept pure by legislation onthis, the opposite side of the globe. But we expect Christ to reign overand the Holy Spirit to be given to the Churches, and the properecclesiastical bodies formed of them in China, as well as in this land. Whynot? Such are the promises of God. The way to secure these things is byprayer and the preaching of the pure Gospel, not by legislation. Let theChurch be careful in her selection of missionaries. Send only such as shehas confidence in-men of God, sound in faith, apt to teach-and then trustthem, or recall them. Don't attempt to control them contrary to theirjudgment. Strange if this, which is so much insisted on as the policy ofour Church, be right, that she cannot get a single man, of all she sendsout to China, to think so. Can it be that the missionary work is sosubversive of right reason, or of correct judgment, or ofconscientiousness, that all become perverted by engaging in it?

"2. Another supposed advantage is the effect it will have in enlisting thesympathies of the Church in behalf of the Mission at Amoy. Our people donot first ask whether it be building ourselves up, before they sympathizewith a benevolent object. We believe the contrary is the exact truth. Itrequires a liberal policy to call forth liberal views and actions. Asregards the enlisting of men, look at the facts. Every man who has goneout from among you to engage in this missionary work begs of you not toadopt a narrow policy. So in regard to obtaining of funds. Usually themen who are most liberal in giving are most liberal in feeling. 

. . . . "However powerful the motive addressed to the desire to build up ourown Church, there are motives infinitely more powerful. Such are themotives to be depended upon in endeavoring to elevate the standard ofliberality among our people. If our people have not yet learned, theyshould be taught to engage in the work of evangelizing the world, not forthe sake of our Church in America, but for the sake of Christ and HisChurch, and when the Church thus built up is like our own they should befully satisfied. We believe they will be satisfied with this. 

"Now let us consider the real or supposed evils of carrying out thedecision of Synod. 

"1. It will not be for the credit of our Church. She now has a name, withother Churches, for putting forth efforts to evangelize the world. Shallshe mar this good name and acquire one for sectarianism, by putting forthefforts to extend herself, not her doctrines and order-they are notsectarian, and her missionaries esteem them as highly as do their brethrenat home-but herself, even at the cost of dividing churches which the graceof God has made one? The decision of the last Synod may not be the resultof sectarianism among the people of our Church. We do not think it is. But it will be difficult to convince our Presbyterian brethren and othersthat it is not so. By way of illustration I will suppose a case. A. Isengaged in a very excellent work. B. Comes to him, and the followingdialogue ensues:

"B. 'Friend A. , I am glad to see you engaged in so excellent a work. Ialso have concluded to engage in it. I should be glad to work with you. You know the proverbs, 'Union is strength, ' and 'Two are better than one. '

"A. 'Yes, yes, friend B. , I know these proverbs and believe them asthoroughly as you do. But I have a few peculiarities about my way ofworking. They are not many, and they are not essential, but I think theyare very useful, and wish to work according to them. Therefore, I preferworking alone. '

"B. 'Yes, friend A. , we all have our peculiarities, and, if they be notcarried too far, they may all be made useful. I have been making inquiriesabout yours, and I am glad to find they are not nearly so many, or sodifferent from mine, as you suppose, and as I once supposed. The fact is, I rather like some of them, and though I may not esteem them all as highlyas you do, still I am willing to conform to them; for I am fully persuadedthat, in work of this kind, two working together can do vastly more thantwo working separately, and the work will be much better done. Besidesthis, the social intercourse will be delightful. '

"A. 'I appreciate, friend B. , your politeness, and am well aware that allyou say about the greater efficiency and excellence of united work and thedelights of social intercourse is perfectly true. But--but--well, I preferto work alone. '

"2. It will injure the efficiency of the Church at Amoy. Besides theobjection furnished by the increase of denominations, which the heathenwill thus, as readily as the irreligious in this country, be able to urgeagainst Christianity, it will deprive the churches of the benefit of theunited wisdom and strength of the whole of them for self-cultivation andfor Christian enterprise, and will introduce a spirit of jealous rivalryamong them. We know it is said that there need be no such result, and thatthe native churches may remain just as united in spirit after theorganization of two denominations as before. Such a sentiment takes forgranted, either that ecclesiastical organization has in fact no efficiency, or that the Chinese churches have arrived at a far higher state ofsanctification than the churches have attained to in this land. Do notdifferent denominations exhibit jealous rivalry in this land? Is Chinesehuman nature different from American?

"In consequence of such division the native Churches will not be so able tosupport the Gospel among themselves. Look at the condition of our Westerntowns in this respect. Why strive to entail like evils on our missionarychurches? . . . . 

"But may not the Church change or improve her decisions? Here is one ofthe good things we hope to see come out of this mistake of the Church. Jesus rules, and He is ordering all things for the welfare of His Churchand the advancement of His cause. Sometimes, the better to accomplish thisend, He permits the Church to make mistakes. When we failed in former daysto get our views made public, it gave us no anxiety, for we believed thedoctrine that Jesus reigns. So we now feel, notwithstanding this mistake. The Master will overrule it for good. We do not certainly know how, but wecan imagine one way. By means of this mistake the matter may be broughtbefore our Church, and before other Churches, more clearly than it wouldotherwise have been for many years to come, and in consequence of this weexpect, in due time, that our Church, instead of coming up merely to thestandard of liberality for which we have been contending, will rise farabove anything we have asked for or even imagined, and other Churches willalso raise their standard higher. Hereafter we expect to contend for stillhigher principles. This is the doctrine. Let all the branches of thegreat Presbyterian family in the same region in any heathen country, whichare sound in the faith, organize themselves, if convenient, into oneorganic whole, allowing liberty to the different parts in thingsnon-essential. Let those who adopt Dutch customs, as at Amoy, continue, ifthey see fit, their peculiarities, and those who adopt other Presbyteriancustoms, as at Ningpo and other places, continue their peculiarities, andyet all unite as one Church. This subject does not relate simply to theinterests of the Church at Amoy. It relates to the interests of all themissionary work of all the churches of the Presbyterian order in all partsof the world. Oh, that our Church might take the lead in this catholicityof spirit, instead of falling back in the opposite direction-that no onemay take her crown! But if she do not, then we trust some other of thesacramental hosts will take the lead and receive, too, the honor, for it isfor the glory of the great Captain of our salvation and for the interestsof His kingdom. We need the united strength of all these branches of Zionfor the great work which the Master has set before us in calling on us toevangelize the world. In expecting to obtain this union, will it be saidthat we are looking for a chimera? It ought to be so, ought it not? Thenit is no chimera. It may take time for the Churches to come up to thisstandard, but within a few years we have seen tendencies to union amongdifferent branches of the Presbyterian family in Australia. In Canada, inour own country, and in England and Scotland. In many places thesetendencies are stronger now than they have ever before been since the daysof the Reformation. 

"True, human nature is still compassed with infirmities even in the Churchof Christ. But the day of the world's regeneration is approaching, and asit approaches nearer to us, doubtless the different branches of thePresbyterian family will approach still nearer to each other. God hastenthe time, and keep us also from doing anything to retard, but everything tohelp it forward, and to His name be the praise forever. Amen. "

So strong was the feeling of the entire Amoy Mission, that in September, 1863, the following communication was sent to the Board of ForeignMissions:

"Dear Brethren: We received from you on the 22d ultimo the action taken bythe General Synod at its recent session at Newburgh with regard to theproposed organization of a Classis at Amoy. Did we view this step in thelight in which Synod appears to have regarded it, we should need in thiscommunication to do no more than signify our intention to carry outpromptly the requirements of Synod; but we regret to say that such is notthe case, and that Synod, in requiring this of us, has asked us to do thatwhich we cannot perform. We feel that Synod must have mistaken ourposition on this question. It is not that we regard the proposed action asmerely inexpedient and unwise; if this were all, we would gladly carry outthe commands of Synod, transferring to it the responsibility which itoffers to assume. But the light in which we regard it admits of notransfer of responsibility. It is not a matter of judgment only, but alsoof conscience. 

"We conscientiously feel that in confirming such an organization we shouldbe doing a positive injury and wrong to the churches of Christ establishedat Amoy, and that our duty to the Master and His people here forbids this. Therefore, our answer to the action of General Synod must be and is that wecannot be made the instruments of carrying out the wishes of Synod in thisreport; and further, if Synod is determined that such an organization mustbe effected, we can see no other way than to recall us and send hither menwho see clearly their way to do that which to us seems wrong. 

"We regret the reasons which have led us to this conclusion. We havethought it best that each member of the Mission should forward to you hisindividual views on this subject, rather than embody them in the presentcommunication. 

"We accordingly refer you to these separate statements which will be sentto you as soon as prepared. 

"Commending you, dear brethren, to our common Lord, whose servants we allare, and praying that He will guide us into all truth, we are as ever, "Your brethren in Christ

 E. DOTY, A. OSTROM, D. RAPALJE, LEONARD W. KIP, AUG. BLAUVELT. 

 "AMOY, Sept. 16, 1863. "

The last action taken by the General Synod was in June, 1864, and reads asfollows:

"Resolved, That while the General Synod does not deem it necessary orproper to change the missionary policy defined and adopted in 1857, yet, inconsideration of the peculiar circumstances of the Mission of Amoy, thebrethren there are allowed to defer the formation of a Classis of Amoyuntil, in their judgment, such a measure is required by the wants anddesires of the Churches gathered by them from among the heathen. "

At the Centenary Conference on the Protestant Missions of the World, heldin Exeter Hall, London, 1888, Rev. W. J. K. Taylor, D. D. , for many years amost efficient member of the Board of Foreign Missions of the ReformedChurch in America, read a paper on "Union and Cooperation in ForeignMissions, " in which he said:

"Actual union has been happily maintained at Amoy, China, for more than aquarter of a century between the missionaries of the Reformed (Dutch)Church in America and those of the Presbyterian Church of England. Havinglabored together in the faith of the Gospel, gathering converts into thefold of Christ, and founding native churches, these brethren could not andwould not spoil the unity of those infant churches by making twodenominations out of one company of believers nor would they sow in thatvirgin soil the seeds of sectarian divisions which have long sundered theProtestant Churches in Europe and America. The result was the organizationof the Tai-Hoey, or Great Council of Elders, which is neither an EnglishPresbytery nor a Reformed Church Classis, but is like them both. It is notan appendage of either of these foreign Churches, but is a genuineindependent Chinese Christian Church holding the standards and governed bythe polity of the twin-sister Churches that sent them the Gospel by theirown messengers. The missionaries retain their relations with their ownhome Churches and act under commissions of their own Church Board ofMissions. They are not settled pastors, but are more like the ApostolicEvangelists of New Testament times, --preachers, teachers, founders ofChurches, educators of the native ministry, and superintendents of thegeneral work of evangelization. 

"This Tai-Hoey is a child of God, which was 'born, not of blood, nor of thewill of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. ' It is believed tobe the first ecclesiastical organization for actual union and co-operationin mission lands by the representatives of churches holding the Reformedfaith and Presbyterial polity. Its history has already been long enough togive the greatest value to its experience. "

For seven years, by tongue and pen, Mr. Talmage advocated the establishmentof an independent Chinese Union Church of the Presbyterian order. Eventhen the Reformed Church was not fully persuaded and did not give herhearty assent. The resolution of 1864 was only tentative. It was a pleafor toleration. This was not strange. It was one of the earliest efforts, if not the earliest, for church union and separate autonomy on heathensoil. It was a new departure. But the battle was really won. Thequestion was never broached again. The strongest opponents then are thewarmest friends of union and autonomy now. Thirty years of happiestexperience, of hearty endorsement by native pastors and foreignmissionaries are sufficient testimony to the wisdom of the steps thentaken. 

In November, 1864, Mr. Talmage married Miss Mary E. Van Deventer, andforthwith proceeded to China, where he arrived early in 1865. 

In 1867, Rutgers College, New Jersey, recognized Mr. Talmage's successfuland scholarly labors in China for a period of full twenty years, by givinghim the degree of Doctor of Divinity. 

X. THE ANTI-MISSIONARY AGITATION. 

Prince Kung, at Sir Rutherford Alcock's parting interview with him in 1869, said: "Yes, we have had a great many discussions, but we know that you havealways endeavored to do justice, and if you could only relieve us ofmissionaries and opium, there need be no more trouble in China. "

He spoke the mind of the officials, literati, and the great masses of thepeople. Heathenism is incarnate selfishness. How can a Chinese understandthat men will turn their backs on the ancestral home, travel ten thousandmiles with no other object but to do his countrymen good? The naturalChinaman cannot receive it. He suspects us. And he has enough to pillowhis suspicion on. Let him turn the points of the compass. He sees thegreat North-land in the hands of Russia. He sees the Spaniard tyrannizingover the Philippine Islanders. He sees Holland dominating the East Indies. He sees India's millions at the feet of the British lion. "What are thesebenevolent-looking barbarians tramping up and down the country for? Whyare they establishing churches and schools and hospitals? They are tryingto buy our hearts by their feigned kindness, and hand us over to someWestern monarch ere long. " So reasons our unsophisticated Chinese. He isheartily satisfied with his own religion or utterly indifferent to anyreligion. He has no ear for any new doctrine except as a curiosity, togive momentary amusement, and then to be thrown to the ground like achild's toy. 

The missionary appears on the scene in dead earnest. "Agitation is ourprofession. " We are among those "who are trying to turn the world upsidedown. "

The Spirit of God touches and dissolves the apathy, melts the ice, breaksthe stone, and we see men alive unto God; "old things are passed away, behold all things are become new. " What a change in the recipient of God'sgrace. 

A change, too, takes place in him who resists. Icy apathy becomes burning, bitter hatred. The whole enginery of iniquity is set in motion to sweepoff this strange foreign propaganda. Malicious placards are posted beforeevery yamen and temple. Basest stories are retailed. "The barbarians digout men's eyes and cut out men's hearts to make medicine of them. " Thethirst for revenge is engendered, until, like an unleashed tiger, the mobsprings upon the missionary's home, and returns not till its thirst hasbeen slaked with the blood of the righteous. That is the dark shadowhanging over missionary life in nearly every part of the Chinese Empire. 

We have had no name to add to the foreign missionary martyr list, from theregion of Amoy. 

Chinese martyrs there may have been. Men who have endured the lifelonglaceration of taunt and sneer and suffered the loss of well nigh allthings, there have been not a few. Though the fires of persecution haveburned with fiercer intensity in other parts of China, yet we have notescaped having our garments singed in some of their folds. 

Perhaps the most widespread anti-missionary uprising in China occurredduring the years 1870 and 1871. 

It was during the summer of 1870 that Dr. Talmage was compelled to go toChefoo, North China, for much-needed rest and change. 

On August 8th he wrote to Dr. J. M. Ferris:

"The next day after my arrival at Chefoo the news was received of theterrible massacre at Tientsin on June 21st. (Tientsin is the port ofPeking, and has a population of upwards of one million. ) Nine Sisters ofCharity, one foreign priest, the French consul and other French officialsand subjects, and three Russians--in all, twenty-one Europeans--weremassacred. Many of them were horribly mutilated. Especially is this trueof all the Sisters. Their private residences and public establishments, aswell as all the Protestant chapels within the city, were destroyed. "

Not long after, the American Presbyterian Mission at Tung chow, ShantungProvince, North China, was broken up, for fear of an intended massacre. The missionaries were helped to Chefoo by two vessels sent by the BritishAdmiral, Sir Henry Kellet. 

At Canton, vile stories about foreigners distributing poisonous pills weregotten up, and such was the seriousness of the crisis that two Germanmissionaries had to flee for their lives, one having his mission premisesutterly destroyed. A people whose credulity is most amazingly developed byfeeding on fairy tales and demon adventures from their childhood, areprepared to believe anything about the "ocean barbarians" whose name isnever spoken without mingled fear and hatred and suspicion. 

The ferment, started at Canton, spread along the coast. The people of Amoywere inoculated with the virus. 

On the 22d of September, 1871, Dr. Talmage addressed a letter to General LeGendre, U. S. Consul at Amoy, informing him of the state of affairs in andabout Amoy. The missionary knowing the language and having constantdealings with the people would be more likely to know the extent andgravity of any conspiracy against foreigners than the Consul. A part ofthe letter reads:

"In July last inflammatory placards were extensively posted throughout theregion about Canton, stating that foreigners had imported a large quantityof poison and had hired vagabond Chinese to distribute it among the people;that only foreigners had the antidote to this poison and that they refusedto administer it, except for large sums of money or to such persons asembraced the foreigner's religion. In the latter part of July some ofthese placards and letters accompanying them were received by Chinese atAmoy from their Canton friends. They were copied, with changes to suitthis region, and extensively circulated. The man who seems to have beenmost active in their circulation was the Cham-hu, the highest militaryofficial at Amoy under the Admiral. He united with the Hai-hong, a highcivil official, in issuing a proclamation, warning the people to be ontheir guard against poison, which wicked people were circulating. Thisproclamation was not only circulated in the city of Amoy, but also in thecountry around. 

"It did not mention foreigners, but the people by some other means weremade to understand that foreigners were meant. The district Magistrate ofthe city of Chiang-chiu issued a proclamation informing the people of thedanger of poison, especially against poison in their wells. Two days laterhe issued another proclamation, reiterating his warnings, and informing thepeople that he had arrested and examined a man who confessed that he, withthree others, had been employed by foreigners to engage in this work ofpoisoning the people. 

"Their especial business was to poison all the wells. This so-calledcriminal was speedily executed. 

"A few days afterwards a military official at Chiang-chiu also issued aproclamation to warn the people against poison, and giving the confessionof the above-mentioned criminal with great particularity. The criminal ismade to say that a few months ago he had been decoyed and sold toforeigners. In company with more than fifty others--he was conveyed byship to Macao. There they were distributed among the foreign hongs, one toeach hong. (Hong is pigeon English for business house. )

"That afterwards he with three others was sent home, being furnished withpoison for distribution, and with special direction to poison all the wellson their way. They were to refer all those on whom the poison took effectto a certain individual at Amoy, who would heal them gratuitously, onlyrequiring of them their names. This, doubtless, is an allusion to thehospital for the Chinese at Amoy, where the names of the patients are ofcourse recorded and they receive medicine and medical attendancegratuitously. 

"In this confession foreigners are designated by the opprobrious epithet of'little'--that is, contemptible--'demons. ' This, by the way, is a phrasenever used to designate foreigners in this region except by those in themandarin offices. Besides the absurdity of charging foreigners withdistributing poison, the whole confession bears the evidence not only offalsehood, but, if ever made, of having been put into the man's mouth bythose inside the mandarin offices and forced from him by torture, for theexpress purpose of exciting the intensest hatred against foreigners. 

"In consequence, excitement and terror and hatred to foreigners, andconsequently to native Christians, became most intense, and extended fromthe cities far into the country around. Wells were fenced in and put underlock and cover. People were called together by the beating of gongs todraw water. The buckets were covered in carrying water to guard againstthe throwing in of poison along the streets. At the entrances of somevillages notices were posted warning strangers not to enter lest they bearrested as poisoners. In various places men were arrested and severelybeaten on suspicion, merely because they were strangers. The nativeChristians everywhere were subjected to much obloquy and sometimes toimminent danger, charged with being under the influence of foreigners andemployed by them to distribute poison. 

"Even at the Amoy hospital, which has been in existence nearly thirtyyears, the number of patients greatly decreased; some days there werealmost none. "

In the large cities of Tong-an and Chinchew placards were posted in greatnumbers. They averred that black and red pills were being sold by theagents of foreigners under presence of curing disease and saving the world. 

Instead they were causes of terrible diseases which none but the foreigndogs or their agents could cure. And to get cured, one must join theforeign religion or else give great sums. It was asserted that all thispoison emanated from the foreign chapels, was often thrown into wells, andsecretly put into fish or other food in the markets. 

A preacher, sixty miles from Foochow, one hundred and fifty miles north ofAmoy, barely escaped with his life. He was pounded with stones while thebystanders called out, "Kill the poisoner, the foreign devils' poisoner!"

The whole object of this diabolical calumniating was to kindle the peopleinto a frenzy against foreigners, especially missionaries, and to makeforeign powers believe that the people are so anti-foreign that theauthorities cannot secure a foreigner's safety outside of the treaty ports. 

Even when these reports were traveling like wildfire there were those amongthe Chinese who knew better, and it was often said, "It cannot be themissionaries and native Christians, for have they not been going in and outamong us all these years and they never did us any harm?"

Speaking of the "Political State of the Country, " Dr. Talmage says:

"With the atrocities committed at Tientsin the world is acquainted, thoughmany seem still to be under the grievous error that these atrocities weredesigned only against Romanism and the French nation. 

"If this were the fact, it would be no justification. Others are under anerror equally grievous, that the Chinese Government has given reasonableredress. It has given no proper redress at all. Instead of reprobatingthe massacre, it has almost, and doubtless to the ideas of the Chinese, fully sanctioned it. The leaders in the massacre have not been brought tojustice. The Government has readily given life for life--a very easymatter in China--but it has so highly rewarded the families of the victimsthus sacrificed to placate the barbarians, and put so much honor on thecorpses of these martyrs to foreign demands, that it has encouraged similaratrocities whenever a suitable time shall arrive for their perpetration. The Imperial proclamation stating even this unsatisfactory redress, whichthe Government solemnly promised should be published throughout the land, has not been published except in a few instances where foreigners havecompelled it. The massacre at Tientsin is known throughout the empire, butit is not known generally that any redress at all has been given. 

"Instead of the publication of this proclamation the vilest calumnies--toovile to be even mentioned in Christian ears--have been circulated secretly, but widely throughout the land. Throughout the coast provinces of thissouthern half of the empire the people have been warned of a grandpoisoning scheme gotten up by foreigners for the destruction of theChinese. 

"Because the foreign residents in China report the truth in regard to thefeeling of hatred to foreigners, and warn the nations of the West of thecoming war and designed extirpation of all foreigners, for which China isassuredly preparing with all its might, we are charged as being desirous ofbringing on war. We know that the Church will not impute such motives toher missionaries. But the testimony of missionaries agrees in this respectwith that of other foreign residents. We see the evidence, as we walk thestreets, in the countenances and demeanor of the literati and officials, and somewhat in the countenances and demeanor of the masses. 

"We see it in the changed policy of the local magistrates toward theChristians; we learn it from rumors which are circulated from time to timeamong the people; we see it in the activity manifested in forming a propernavy and in preparing the army. 

"We learn it from the secret communications, some of which have reached thelight, passing to and fro between the Imperial Government and the higherlocal authorities, and we fear that we have another proof in the barbaroustreatment of a shipwrecked crew some two weeks ago along the coast a littleto the north of Amoy. 

"A British mercantile steamer ran ashore in a fog. She was unarmed. Thenatives soon gathered in force and attacked the vessel. The people onboard attempted to escape in their boats. These boats were afterwardsattacked by a large fleet of fishing-boats and separated. 

"One boat's company were taken ashore, stripped naked, wounded, and robbedof everything. They finally made their way overland to Amoy. The otherthree boats, after the crew and passengers had been stripped and robbed, were let go to sea. They providentially fell in with a steamer which tookthem to Foochow. Such atrocities were once common here. 

"We do not believe that any large proportion of the foreign residents inChina wish war. We do wish, however, the rights secured to us by treaty. These, with a proper policy, can be secured without war. We wish mostheartily to avoid war. Besides all its other evils it would be a sad thingfor our work and our churches. We still hope that God in His providencewill ward it off. He will do it in answer to our prayers if so it be bestfor His cause. This is our only hope, and it is sufficient. "

The threatening war cloud did blow over, and a restraint, at leasttemporary, was laid upon the officials and the people in their treatment offoreigners. 

XI. THE LAST TWO DECADES. 

Dr. Talmage was a man of strong convictions, at the same time possessed ofa spirit of genuine catholicity. The brethren connected with the Londonand English Presbyterian Missions recognized him as a true friend. In hislater years he became the Nestor of the three Missions, the veneratedpatriarch, the trusted counselor. 

It will not be inappropriate to give two letters expressive of hisgood-will toward his fellow laborers. The one was written on the occasionof Rev. John Stronach's return to England:

FORTY CONTINUOUS YEARS IN HEATHENISM. 

"March 16, 1876. Today we said farewell to the veteran missionary, Rev. John Stronach. 

"He has been laboring many years at this place in connection with theLondon Missionary Society. This morning he left us for his native land bya new route. 

"Each of the three Missions has one or more boats employed exclusively incarrying missionaries and native preachers on their trips to and from thevarious outstations accessible by water. These boats are called by thenative Christians 'hok-im-chun, ' which means 'Gospel boat. ' Mr. Stronachembarked on one of these 'Gospel boats. ' He expected to land at one of theMission stations on the mainland northeast from Amoy, and then traveloverland on foot or by sedan-chair to Foochow. He will spend the remainingnights of this week and the Sabbath at various stations under the care ofthe Missions at Amoy, and say some parting words to the native Christians. 

"He expects early next week to meet one of the Methodist missionaries ofFoochow, and in company with him to pass on to that city, spending thenights at stations under the care of the Foochow Missions. We may nowtravel overland from Amoy to Foochow (a distance of one hundred and fiftymiles) and spend every night, sometimes take our noonday meals, at aChristian chapel. Does this look as if missions were a failure in thisregion? At Foochow Mr. Stronach will take steamer for Shanghai, thence toYokohama and San Francisco. 

"All the missionaries of Amoy and many Chinese Christians accompanied Mr. Stronach to the boat. It is very sad to say farewell to those with whom wehave been long and pleasantly associated. 

"Mr. Stronach left England in 1837, thirty-nine years ago, to labor as amissionary in the East Indies. 

"He came to Amoy in 1844, shortly after this port was opened to foreigncommerce and missionary labor. He was soon sent to Shanghai as one of theCommittee of Delegates on the translation of the Scriptures into theChinese language. If he had done nothing more for China than his share inthis great work, the benefit would have been incalculable. After thecompletion of this work in 1853, he returned to Amoy, where he has laboredcontinuously, with the exception of a short visit a few years ago toHongkong and Canton, and a shorter one last year to Foochow. Very rarelyhas he been interrupted in his work by illness. In the history of modernmissions few instances can be found of missionaries who have been permittedto labor uninterruptedly for nearly forty years, not even taking onefurlough home. 

"In the case of Mr. Stronach the language concerning Moses may be literallyapplied, 'His eye is not dim, nor his natural force abated. ' He does notyet have occasion to use spectacles, and the route he has taken proves himstill full of mental and physical vigor. Think of the discoveries andinventions during the last forty years! Will Mr. Stronach recognize hisnative land? The good hand of the Lord be with him and make his remainingyears as happy as his past ones have been useful. "

The other letter, to Rev. John M. Ferris, D. D. , was written on the occasionof the death of the Rev. Carstairs Douglas, LL. D. , one of the mostaccomplished and scholarly men ever sent to any mission field:

"AUGUST 8, 1877. 

"By this mail we have sad news to send. It relates to the death of Rev. Carstairs Douglas, LL. D. , of the English Presbyterian Mission at Amoy. Hewas the senior member of that Mission, having arrived at Amoy, July, 1855, twenty-two years ago. 

"Dr. Douglas, two weeks ago to-day, was in apparent good health. On thatday he made calls on several members of the foreign community. To some ofthem he remarked, concerning his health, that he had never felt better. That evening he was in his usual place in our weekly prayer-meeting. Thenext morning at four o'clock he began to feel unwell, but did not wish todisturb others, so called no one until about half past six. Then somemedicine was given him and he sat down at his study-table for the morningreading of his Hebrew Bible. About an hour after this he became much worseand the doctor was sent for. On his arrival the physician pronounced hisdisease to be cholera of the most virulent type, and the case to be almostwithout hope of recovery. 

"In consequence of our long and close intimacy word was soon sent to me. Ihastened to see him. He was already very weak and could not conversewithout great effort. Everything was done for him that could be done. Buthe continued failing until about a quarter before six in the afternoon, July 26th, when he breathed his last. He knew what his disease was andwhat would probably be its termination, but evidently the King of Terrorshad no terror for him. His end was peace. He retained his consciousnessnearly to the last. 

"He was to have preached in our English chapel to the foreign community onthe following Sabbath morning. He told us his text was Romans vi. 23, 'Thewages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through JesusChrist our Lord. ' The text was so suitable to the occasion that I took it, and in his place on the next Sabbath morning preached his funeral sermonfrom his own text. 

"By overwork he had worn himself out, and made himself an old man while hewas yet comparatively young in years. He came to China quite young and atthe time of his death was only about forty-six years of age, and yet menwho had recently become acquainted with him thought him over sixty. Is anyone inclined to blame him too much for this, as though he wore himself outand sacrificed his life before the time? If so, he did it in a good causeand for a good Master. Besides this, he did more work during thetwenty-two years of his missionary life than the most of men accomplish intwice that time. And then, he reminds us of One, who when only a littleover thirty years of age, from similar causes, seems to have acquired theappearance of nearly fifty (John viii. 57). 

"Recently, especially during the last year, it was manifest, at least toothers, that his physical strength was fast giving way. Yet he could notbe prevailed upon to leave his field for a season for temporary rest, oreven to lessen the amount of his work. 

"I never knew a more incessant worker. He was a man of most extensivegeneral information. I think I have never met with his equal in thisrespect. He was acquainted with several modern European languages and was athorough student of the original languages of Holy Scripture, as witnessthe fact of his study of the Hebrew Bible, even after his last sickness hadcommenced. As regards the Chinese language, he was already taking hisplace among the first sinologues of the land. We were indebted more tohim, perhaps, than to any other one man for the success of the recentGeneral Missionary Conference (at Shanghai). 

[At this first General Conference of the Protestant missionaries of China, held at Shanghai in May, 1877, Dr. Talmage preached the opening sermon andread a paper, the title of which was, "Should the native churches in Chinabe united ecclesiastically and independent of foreign churches andsocieties?"]

"As a member of the Committee of Arrangements he labored indefatigably bywriting Ietters and in other ways to make it a success, and thoughcomparatively so young, he well deserved the honor bestowed on him inmaking him one of the presidents of that body. 'Know ye not that there isa prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?'

"This is a great blow to the English Presbyterian Mission in this place. It is also, because of the intimate relations of the two missions and theoneness of the churches under our care, a great blow to us. It is a greatblow to the whole mission work in China--greater, perhaps, than the lossof any other man. You will not wonder that I, from my long intimacy withhim, feel the loss deeply, more and more deeply every day and week, as thedays and weeks pass away without him. "

CHINESE GRANDILOQUENCE. 

An episode in connection with the visit to China in 1878 of Dr. JacobChamberlain, of the Arcot Mission, is described in a letter to Dr. GoynTalmage, as follows:

"Dear Goyn: I suppose I told you about the pleasant visit we had from Dr. Chamberlain and family. The Doctor went with me to Chiang-chiu. Whilethere his carpet-bag was stolen out of the boat. We reported the case to amilitary officer, and told him that we wanted the bag very much, and if hecould get it for us, we should make no trouble about having the thiefpunished. In a few days after our return to Amoy the bag was sent to uswith all its contents complete. We bought an umbrella--a nice silkone--and sent it up to the officer as a present. Perhaps you would like tosee a translation of the letter he sent in reply. It will illustrateChinese politeness. The letter reads as follows:

"'When the flocks of wild geese make their orderly flight, --the gloriousautumnal season deserving of laudation, --my thoughts wander far away toyou, Teacher Talmage, whose noble presence is worthy to be saluted with bowprofound, and whose dignified manners invite to close intimacy. Alas, thatour acquaintance should have been formed at this late day!--and that, too, when, by wafting and by the plying of oars, having arrived at 'the streamof the fragrant grain fields' (poetic name for the region of Chiang-chiu), you met with the mishap of doggish thieves taking advantage of your want ofwatchfulness! Truly, the blame of this rests on me. How, then, can I havethe hardihood to receive from you a present of value! A reward of demerit, how can I endure it! During the three stages of life, (youth, middle age, and old age, ) I shall not be able to repay. It is only by inheritance (notby my own merit) that I obtained the imperial favor of office. Thus, mydeficiency in the knowledge of official laws and governmental regulationshas subjected you to fear and anxiety. Shame on me in the extreme! shamein the extreme! Only by the greatest stretch could I hope to meet withforbearance, how then could you take trouble and manifest kindness bysending a present. Writing cannot exhaust my words, and words can notexhaust my meaning. It will be necessary to come and express my thanks inperson. Such are my supplications and such is my sense of obligation. Maythere be golden peace to you, Teacher Talmage, and will your excellencyplease bestow your brilliant glance on what I have written!'

"Is not that a specimen of humility? The stealing was because of hisneglect of duty, and his neglect of duty was because of inability, havingobtained his office through the merit of his father or grandfather. Ofcourse he kept the umbrella. "

August 18, 1887, marked the fortieth anniversary of Dr. Talmage's arrivalin China. He said so little about it, however, that it was not known bythe friends of the other missions until the very day dawned. 

The members of the English Presbyterian Mission--ladies andgentlemen--immediately concluded to secure some suitable memento expressiveof their regard for Dr. Talmage and his work. A set of Macaulay's Historyof England, bound in tree calf, and a finely bound copy of the latestedition of the Royal Atlas, were sent for. In connection with thepresentation the following letter from Rev. W. McGregor was read:

"Amoy, April 3, 1888. 

"Dear Dr. Talmage:

"When on the 18th of last August we learned that that day was the fortiethanniversary of your arrival in China, the news came upon us unexpectedly. We wished we had had more forethought and kept better count of the years, so that we might have made more of the occasion. Each of us felt a desireto present you with some token of our regard, and it seemed to us for manyreasons best that we should do so unitedly as members of the EnglishPresbyterian Mission in Amoy. We had at the time nothing suitable to offeryou, but we agreed on certain books to be sent for, --not as having anyspecial relations to the work in which you have been engaged, but as beingeach a standard work of its kind. The books have now arrived, and I havemuch pleasure in sending them to you as something that may be kept in yourfamily as a memorial of the day and a small token of our high esteem foryourself personally and of the great value we attach to the work you havedone in the service of our common Lord. 

"I am, yours truly, "Wm. McGregor. 

"On behalf of the members of the English Presbyterian Mission, Amoy. "

Dr. Talmage was blessed with a most vigorous physical constitution, butyears of struggle with one of the complaints peculiar to the tropics, finally compelled his retirement from the Mission field. 

In the summer of 1889, Dr. And Mrs. Talmage embarked on the steamshipArabia for the United States. Dr. Talmage turned his face to the oldhome-village, Bound Brook, New Jersey, all the time cherishing the hope ofone more return to China and his laying down the shepherd's crook and robeamong the flock he had gathered from among the heathen. That hope was notto be realized. Though he had left Amoy, yet he ceased not to do what hecould for the work there. Though compelled to lie on his back much of thetime, making writing difficult, he sent letters to the Chinese MonthlyMagazine and to not a few of the pastors, encouraging them in their labors. Chiefly did he devote himself to the completion of a Character ColloquialDictionary in the Amoy language, intended to be of special service to theChinese Christian Church. It was intended to facilitate the study of theChinese Character, especially those Characters used in the Chinese Bible. It was also calculated to promote the study of the Romanized ColloquialVersion of the Scriptures as well as other Romanized Colloquial literature. 

In the midst of multiplied duties and many distractions he had wrought onit for upwards of a score of years. He was eager to make it thoroughlyreliable. He spared no pains to that end. He always felt very much out ofpatience with any one who would give to the public an inaccurate book; andit was the desire to make his dictionary as accurate as possible that kepthim from having it published some years since. 

He consulted Chinese literary men. He pored over Chinese dictionaries. Hebrought it home with him, requiring, as he thought, still further revision, and his last labors were the completion of it with the valued assistance ofthe Rev. Daniel Rapalje, of the Amoy Mission. It is now going through thepress and will soon be at the service of missionaries and native brethrenwho have eagerly awaited its appearance for many years. 

His strength gradually failed and on August 19, 1892, in his seventy-thirdyear, he quietly breathed his last at Bound Brook, New Jersey. 

The mortal tent loosened down and folded was laid away in the family plotnear Somerville, New Jersey. Most of his living, working years he hadspent far away from the ancestral home. It was God's will that his dustshould find a place next to the kindred dust of father and mother, sisterand brother, in the peaceful God's acre but a few miles from the oldhomestead. 

Dr. Talmage left a wife, two daughters and three sons, and a goodly circleof relatives and friends to mourn his departure. Mrs. Talmage has sincereturned to the Talmage Manse at Amoy and taken up afresh her chosen workin educating the ill-privileged and ignorant women of China. The twodaughters, Miss Katharine and Miss Mary, are rendering most faithful andefficient service, too, among China's mothers and daughters. Rev. David M. Talmage fills a pastorate with the Reformed Church of Westwood, New Jersey. Mr. John Talmage is a rice merchant at New Orleans, Louisiana. Rev. GeorgeE. Talmage ministers to the Lord's people at Mott Haven, New York. 

When the sun of Dr. Talmage's life set, it was to the Chinese brethren atAmoy, like the setting of a great hope. The venerable teacher had leftthem two years before, but he had not spoken a final farewell. They and helooked for one more meeting on earth. He was known to the whole ChineseChurch in and about Amoy for a circuit of a hundred miles. He sat at itscradle. He watched its growth until within two years of the day when itwent forth two bands united in one Synod with twenty organized, self-supporting churches, nineteen native pastors, upwards of two thousandcommunicants and six thousand adherents. 

In the many breaks that occur in the missionary constituency, his life wasthe one chain of continuity. The Churches had come to feel that whoeverfailed them, they had Teacher Talmage still. His departure was like thefalling down of a venerable cathedral, leaving the broken and bleeding ivyamong the dust and debris. The Chinese Christians had leaned hard uponhim. They loved and revered him as a father. Since he passed away hisname has seldom been mentioned in any public assembly of the Church by anyof the Chinese brethren without the broken and trembling utterance that hascalled forth from a listening congregation the silent, sympathetic tear. 

Great and good man, fervent preacher, inspiring teacher, wise andsympathetic counselor, generous friend, affectionate father, --farewell, till the morning breaks and we meet in the City of Light. "And behold theseshall come from far, and lo, these from the north, and from the west, andthese from the land of Sinim. "

 "Oh then what raptured greetings, What knitting severed friendships up, Where partings are no more. "

XII. IN MEMORIAM. 

DR. TALMAGE-THE MAN. 

BY REV. W. S. SWANSON, D. D. 

[Dr. Swanson was for twenty years a valued member of the EnglishPresbyterian Mission at Amoy, and subsequently Secretary of the Board ofForeign Missions of the Presbyterian Church of England until his death, November 24, 1893]

My first meeting with Dr. Talmage took place in the early days of July, 1860, and from that day till the day of his death he was regarded as notonly one of the best and most valued friends, but I looked up to him as afather beloved and respected. 

One cannot help recalling now the impressions of those early days. Therewas a marked individuality about this man that made you regard him whetheryou would or not. You felt that he was a man bound to lead and to take theforemost place amongst his brethren and all with whom he came in touch. There was a firmness of tread, and the brave courage of conviction, unitedwith a womanly tenderness, that were unmistakable. 

You saw he had made up his mind before he spoke, and that when he did speakhe spoke with a fullness of knowledge that few men possessed. He was everyinch of him a man. 

And what touched us very much, who were young men, was the tenderforbearance with which he always treated us. We saw this more clearly asthe years passed on, and learned how much, perhaps, he had to bear fromsome of us whose assertiveness in some matters was in the inverse ratio ofour knowledge. The reference here is to matters and methods regarding ourwork as missionaries to the Chinese. He bore with us, and knew well theday would come when, with increasing knowledge, there would come increasinghesitation in pronouncing too hastily on the problems we had to face; andhe knew well that day would come if there was anything in us at all. 

In my own study of the Chinese language he and another who also has gone tothe "better land"--the Rev. Dr. Douglas--assisted in every possible way;and to both in this line am I indebted for what was the most importantfurnishing in the first instance for every missionary to China. I can wellremember the plane upon which Dr. Talmage placed this study of thelanguage. 

It was our work for Christ, at this stage a far more important one than anyother. He encouraged us to use whatever vocables we had got, no matterwhether we were met with the wondering smile of the Chinaman in his vainendeavor to understand us, or to keep from misunderstanding us. 

"Use whatever you have got, be glad when you are corrected, but use yourwords. " To some of us the advice was invaluable. 

And in other ways the same spirit was manifest. He did all he could to getus to attend every Christian gathering, to sit and listen to the businessof the Sessions, and to show the Chinese as soon as possible that we wereone with them, and he succeeded. There was an enthusiasm and warmthdistinguishing these early days of the Amoy church that were formative in avery high degree, and that are now a precious memory. 

Then Dr. Talmage was a scholar, with a very wide range of scholarship. Welooked up to him and we respected him, with an esteem few men have everwon. And in conjunction with his scholarly furnishing there was anabsorbing, consuming zeal for Christ and His kingdom, and an intense lovefor the Chinese people. If he had not this latter, he could not have beenthe unmistakably influential and successful missionary he was. These, coupled with a Christian walk and devotion, formed the furnishing of thisman of God. 

He was also a true gentleman, a Christian gentleman in every sense of theword. The best proof of this was that we loved him, and if the foreignladies in Amoy who knew him were asked what they thought of him--many ofthem have gone to rest--they would hardly get words to tell out all theirrespect and love for him. His visits in our houses were most welcome, andwhen he spent an evening with us there was always sunshine where he was. He was essentially a happy man, and nothing pleased him more than to seeall happy around him. 

There is still one point to which reference must here be made. Missionaries were not the only foreign residents in Amoy. There was also aconsiderable number of American and European merchants. Unfortunately themissionaries and the merchants did not always see eye to eye. Dr. Talmagewas a favorite with every one of them. They esteemed him, they would havedone anything to serve him; and at no cost of principle or testimony he wonthis place with them. 

And to those who know the conditions of life in China, it will be at onceunderstood what a man he must have been to win such a position. 

It may not be generally known that in Amoy we have a "Union EnglishChurch, " with regular Sabbath services in English. These services wereconducted by the missionaries in turn. And we fear it may also not beknown what Dr Talmage's powers as a preacher were. He was a very princeamong English preachers; and if he had remained in America this would verysoon have been acknowledged. There were no tricks or devices of manner orwords employed by him for winning the popular ear. He never seemed toforget the solemnity and responsibility of his position in the pulpit. Hehesitated not "to declare the whole counsel of God. " He stands before menow as I listen with bated breath to the fire of his eloquence, denouncingwhere denunciation was needed, contending with a burning earnestness thatnever failed to carry us with him, for "the faith once delivered to thesaints, " and then with exquisite tenderness seeking to draw his hearers toHim who is Saviour and Brother. He never failed to think and speak as muchabout temptation as about sin. It was a real feast to attend the Englishservice when it was conducted by him. And during all my time in Amoy, there was always a large congregation when Dr. Talmage was the preacher. 

He was not all tenderness. He would only have been a one-sided man if thiswere all. He was as strong as he was tender; a keen and powerful opponentin discussion. And we often had very warm and keen discussions; keener andwarmer than I had ever seen before I went to Amoy, or have ever seen since. We had to discuss principles and methods of translation, hymnology, Churchwork, Church discipline, and many other subjects. And there was no mincingof matters at these discussions. Foremost amongst us was Dr. Talmage, tenaciously and persistently advocating the view he happened to have takenon any question. There were men of very strong individuality among us, andthese gave as good as they got. I can recall these scenes, but I cannotrecall a single word he said that involved a personal wound or left a barb. When it was all over he was the same loving brother, and not an atom ofbitterness was left behind. By us, the brethren of the EnglishPresbyterian Mission, he was looked up to as a revered father, just as muchas he was by the brethren of his own Mission. This will be seen more fullyfurther on, and a simple statement of the fact is all that is necessaryhere. 

There is another and most sacred relation--his position as the head of afamily, --the veil of which it seems almost sacrilege to uplift. But itmust be said, and it is only a well-known fact, that few happier homesexist than his home was. He was there what he was elsewhere, the man ofGod. 

Dr. Talmage was not perfect. He was essentially a humble man, and he wouldbe the first to tell us that of every sinner saved by grace, he was themost unworthy. And when he said it, he felt it. And he had not the verymost distant idea how great a man he was. Sometimes one fears that thisvery modesty pushed to an extreme prevented others who did not know hislife and his work from accurately gauging his real work. Better perhaps, he would say, that it should be so; better to think of the work than of theworkers. To hold up Christ and to be hidden behind Him is the highestprivilege of those engaged in the service of this King. And this, hisuniform bearing, made him all the greater. 

DR. TALMAGE-THE MISSIONARY. 

It would be useless speculation to lay down here what should be the specialqualifications of a missionary to the Chinese. The better way is to findthem in the concrete, so far as you can do so in an individual, and set Himforth as an example for others. The friend of whom we write woulddeprecate this, but it is the only way in which we can see him as he wasand account for the singularly prominent place he occupied amongst us. 

I do not need to say here that he was a man of faith and prayer, earnestand zealous for the spread of Christ's Kingdom; in the face of difficultiesand dangers, of disappointments and failures, maintaining an unwaveringfaith that the Kingdom must come and would yet rule over all. 

He had both an intense love for his work and enthusiasm in carrying it on. He came with a definite message to the people to whom the Master had senthim. There was no apologizing for it, no watering it down, no uncertainsound about it with him. Christ and Christ alone can meet the wants andwoes of humanity, --Chinese or American or British. He had no doubt aboutit whatever; and hereby some of us learned that if we had not this messageit would have been far better for us to have stayed at home. And thisfeature marked him all over his course. You felt as you listened to hispleadings that sin and salvation were terms brimful of meaning to him. Hehad traveled this road, and all his pleadings seemed to be summed up in theone yearning cry, "Come with us and we will do thee good. " "This is afaithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came intothe world to save sinners. " And he would have gone to the end, "of whom Iam chief. "

Then he had a great love for the people. He made himself acquainted withthe family and social conditions of the people. He had not come toAmericanize but to Christianize the Chinese. And for this he equippedhimself. I never saw him so happy as when he was surrounded by them. Hewas then in his real element, answering their questions, solving theirdifficulties, opening up to them the Scriptures, and meeting them whereverhe thought they needed to be met. And go to his study when you liked, youalmost always found some Chinese Christians there. He was the greatreferee, to whom they carried home difficulties and family trials, assuredthat his sympathy and advice would never be denied them. This endeared himto them in an extraordinary manner. We never on such occasions found atrace of impatience with him. What would have annoyed others did not seemto annoy him, and the consequence was that the whole church loved him. There was an inexhaustible well of tenderness in the man's nature, and itwas sweetened by the grace of God in his heart. 

We sometimes thought he erred by excess in this particular. He wasunwilling to think anything but good of them, and was thus apt to beinfluenced too much by designing and astute Chinamen. Often we have heardit said, "Well, if you won't listen to us, Dr. Talmage will. " But, lookingback to-day over it all, if it was a fault, it was one that leant tovirtue's side. He was wonderfully unsuspicious: and so far as his fellowmen were concerned, Chinese or Westerns, the mental process which he almostinvariably employed was to try to find out what good there was in a man. And now one loves him all the more for such a Christlike spirit. 

Dr. Talmage was thoroughly acquainted with the spoken language of Amoy. Few men, if any, had a more extensive knowledge of its vocables. He spokeidiomatically and beautifully as the Chinese themselves spoke, and not ashe thought they should speak. There was no slipshod work with him in thisparticular. Here was the indispensable furnishing and he must get it. Andhe did get it in no average measure. This was the prime requisite, andthrough no other avenue could he get really and honestly to work. There isno royal road to the acquisition of the Chinese language. It is only bydint of hard, plodding, and persevering study one can acquire an adequateacquaintance with it. 

And till the last he never gave up his study of it. He was not satisfied, and no true missionary ever will be satisfied with such a smattering ofknowledge as may enable him to proclaim a few Christian doctrines. Suchsuperficiality was not his aim or end. And when he first acquired Chinese, it was more difficult to do so. There were no aids in the way ofdictionaries or vocabularies. 

It may be his knowledge of the language was all the more accurate on thisaccount. He got it from the fountain-head, and not through foreignsources. He was thus qualified to take a prominent place in all thevaried work of a mission--in translation, in revision, and inhymnology--departments as important and as influential for attaining theend in view as any other possible department in the Mission. 

As a preacher to the Chinese he was unrivaled. The people hung on his lipsand never seemed to lose a word. He was in this respect a model to everyone of us younger men. 

The ideal of the church in China which he had set before him, the goal hedesired to reach, was a native, self-governing, self-supporting, andself-propagating church. This is now axiomatic. 

It was not so in those early days. The men in Amoy then were men for whomwe have to thank God--men ahead of their time, with generous andfar-reaching ideas; not working only for their own present, but laying thefoundation for a great future. Side by side with him were the brethren ofthe English Presbyterian Mission, with whom he had the fullest sympathy, and they had the fullest sympathy with him. It is difficult to say whowere foremost in pressing the idea of an organized native church. All wereequally convinced and strove together for the one great end. After manyyears of waiting the church grew. Congregations were formed and organizedwith their own elders and deacons, and in this he took the first steps. Hewas a born organizer. And then came the next great step, the creation of aPresbytery and the ordination in an orderly manner of native pastors. Somecongregations were ready to call and support such pastors, and the men werethere, for the careful training of native agents had always been a markedfeature of the Amoy Mission. But how was it to be done? Common sense ledto only one conclusion. This church must not be an exotic; it must benative, independent of the home churches. And there must be kept in viewwhat was a fact already--the union between the Missions of the "ReformedChurch" and of the "English Presbyterian Church. " It must be done, and donein this way, and so it was done. 

The Presbytery was created with no native pastor in the first instance, butwith native elders and the missionaries of both Missions. Then came astruggle that would have tried the stoutest hearts. 

The "Reformed Church" in America declined to recognize this newly-createdPresbytery. Dr. Talmage went home and fought the battle and won the day. 

To its great honor be it said, the General Synod of the "Reformed Church"rescinded its resolution of the previous year, and allowed their honoredbrethren, the missionaries, to take their own way. So convinced were themissionaries of the wisdom, yea, the necessity, of the course they hadtaken, that they were prepared to resign rather than retrace their steps. 

But that painful step was not necessary. The Synod of the EnglishPresbyterian Church gave their missionaries a free hand. There is this, however, to be said for the General Synod of the "Reformed Church. " It wasonly love for their agents and deep interest in this Mission that promptedtheir original action. They feared that by the creation of this native andindependent church court, the tie that bound them to the men and the workmight be loosened; and when they saw there was no risk of that, they atonce acquiesced. But it was Dr. Talmage's irresistible pleadings that wontheir hearts. 

The native church has grown. About twenty native pastors have beenordained, settled, and entirely supported by their own congregations. ThePresbytery has grown so large that it has to be divided into twopresbyteries; and these, with the Presbytery of Swatow, where brethren ofthe "English Presbyterian Church" are working, will form the Synod of thenative Presbyterian Church in those regions of China. 

In connection with all this we must mention another name--the name of onevery dear to Dr. Talmage, and of one to whom he was very dear. They wereone in heart and soul about this. We refer to the Rev. Dr. Douglas, of theEnglish Presbyterian Mission. They stood side by side during all theirwork in Amoy. 

Dr. Talmage was by a good many years the predecessor in the field. Theywere both great men, men of very different temperament, and yet united. Not on this point, but on many another, they failed to see eye to eye, butthey were always united in heart and aim. True and lasting union can onlyexist where free play is given to distinct individualities. 

And so it has always been with this union, the first, I believe, betweenPresbyterian Churches in any mission field. And when the history of theAmoy Mission comes to be written, these two men will have a leading placein it; for to them more than to any others do we owe almost all that isdistinctive there in union and in methods of work. 

And when our beloved father Talmage passed from earth to heaven, whatthankfulness must have filled his heart. In the night of his first yearsin China there were labor and toil, but there was no fruit for him. Thedawn came and the first converts of his own Mission were gathered in. Whenhe went to rest, there was a native church; there were native pastors;orderly church courts; a well equipped theological college, the commonproperty of the two Missions; successful medical missionary work, woman'swork in all its branches, and a native church covering a more extensiveregion than he had in the early days dreamt of. And there was anotherhonored Mission in Amoy--that of the London Missionary Society, whoseoperations have been followed by abundant and singular success. To thisMission he was warmly attached; and he never, so far as we can remember, ceased to show the deepest interest in its work, and the heartiestrejoicing at its success. 

And now he has gone, the last, we may say, of the men who began the work ofthe Presbyterian Mission of Christ in China; but ere he passed away, heknew that men of God were still there with the old enthusiasm and the oldappetite for solid and substantial work. 

We cannot part with him now without one fond and lingering look behind. Burns, Sandeman, Doty, Douglas, and Talmage; what a galaxy these earlypioneers in Amoy were. Few churches have had such gifts from God, fewfields more devoted, whole-hearted missionaries. It was a privilege toknow them, to work with them, to learn at their feet, unworthy though someof us may be as their successors. 

May the Lord of the Harvest rouse His own Church by their memories togreater energy and self denial in the spread of His Kingdom. 

Their memories will never die in China. Those who have lately visited Amoytell us that they who knew them among the Chinese Christians speak lovinglyand fondly of those early heroes. And they will tell their children whatthey were and what they did, and so generation after generation will hearthe story, and find how true it is that workers die, but their work neverdies. "Their works do follow them. "

VENERABLE TEACHER TALMAGE. 

TRIBUTE OF PASTOR IAP HAN CHIONG. 

[Pastor Iap was the first pastor of the Chinese Church]

Teacher Talmage was very gentle. He wished ever to be at peace with men. If he saw a man in error he used words of meekness in convincing andconverting the man from his error. Whether he exhorted, encouraged orinstructed, his words were words of prudence, seasoned with salt, so thatmen were glad to receive and obey. 

Teacher Talmage was a lover of men. When he saw a man in distress and itwas right for him to help, he helped. In peril, he exerted himself todeliver the man; in weakness, in danger of falling, he tried to uphold;suffering oppression, he arose to the defense, fearing no power, butcontending earnestly for the right. 

Teacher Talmage was very gracious in receiving men, whether men of positionor the common people. He treated all alike. If they wished to discuss anymatter with him and get his advice, he would patiently listen to theirtale. If he had any counsel to give, he gave it. If he felt he could notconscientiously have anything to do with the affair, he told the menforthwith. 

He could pierce through words, and see through men's countenances and judgewhat the man was, who was addressing him. 

Teacher Talmage had great eloquence and possessed great intelligence. Hisutterance was clear, his voice powerful, his exposition of doctrine verythorough. Men listened and the truth entered their ears and their heartsunderstood. 

Teacher Talmage was grave in manner. He commanded the respect and praiseof men. His was a truly ministerial bearing. Men within and without theChurch venerated him. 

Sometimes differences between brethren arose. Teacher Talmage earnestlyexhorted to harmony. Even serious differences, which looked beyondhealing, were removed, because men felt constrained to listen to hiscounsel. 

Teacher Talmage was exceedingly diligent. When not otherwise engaged, morning and afternoon found him in his study reading, writing, preparingsermons, translating books. 

He preached every Sabbath. He conducted classes of catechumens. Hefounded the Girls' School at the Church "Under the Bamboos. " He foundedthe Theological Seminary. Others taught with him, but he was the masterspirit. He was ten points careful that everything relating to theorganization and administration of the Church should be in accordance withthe Holy Book. 

Only at the urgent request of two physicians did he finally leave China. He was prepared to die and to be buried at Amoy. And this was not becausehe was not honored in his ancestral country, or could find no home. No, hehad sons, he had a brother, he had nephews and nieces, he had manyrelatives and friends who greatly reverenced and loved him. 

But Teacher Talmage could not bear to be separated from the Church inChina. Surely this was imitating the heart of Christ. Surely this wasloving the people of China to the utmost. 

REV. JOHN VAN NEST TALMAGE, D. D. 

BY REV. S. L. BALDWIN, D. D. , [Recording Secretary of the Missionary Society of the Methodist EpiscopalChurch. ]

My memory of Dr. Talmage dates back to the year 1846. I was then buteleven years old, but I remember distinctly the earnestness of his manner, as he preached early in that year in the Second Reformed Church ofSomerville, New Jersey. His missionary zeal was of the most intensecharacter. 

I was present at the Missionary Convention, at Millstone, New Jersey, August 26, 1846, and saw him ordained. The Rev. Gabriel Ludlow preachedfrom 2 Timothy ii. I, and the charge to the candidate was given by the Rev. Elihu Doty, of Amoy. Mr. Doty, at a children's meeting in the afternoon, asked us whether we would come to help in the missionary work, and asked usto write down the question and think and pray about it, and when we hadmade up our minds to write an answer underneath the question. I did "thinkand pray about it, " and some weeks afterward, under a sense of duty, wrote"Yes" under it. From that time on, it was not a strange thought to me, togo to China as a missionary; and when the call came in 1858, I was ready. In 1860, on my first visit to Amoy, I renewed old acquaintanceship, andduring my twenty-two years in China was several times a guest in Dr. Talmage's family. 

He was in the very front rank of missionaries. For ability, for fidelity, for usefulness, he had few equals. As a preacher, he was clear, forceful, fearless. As a translator, his work was marked by carefulness andaccuracy. In social life, old-fashioned hospitality made every one feel athome, and one would have to travel far to find a more animated andinteresting conversationalist. He held his convictions with greattenacity, and was a powerful debater, but always courteous to hisopponents. 

Many missionaries fell by his side, or were obliged to leave the field; andin the providence of God he remained until he was the oldest of all theAmerican missionaries in China. His was a most pure and honorable record, and his death was universally lamented. From little beginnings, he wasprivileged to see one of the most flourishing of the native communions ofChina arise and attain large numbers and great influence among theChristian churches of the empire. 

Such a history and such a record are to be coveted. May the Head of theChurch raise up many worthy successors to this true and noble man!

THE REV. J. V. N. TALMAGE, D. D. . 

BY REV. TALBOT W. CHAMBERS, D. D. , LL. D. , [Pastor of the Collegiate Reformed Church, New York City. ]

My acquaintance with Dr. Talmage began at a very early period. During theyears 1842-5 his father was Sheriff of Somerset Co. , N. J. , and resided atSomerville. While there he and his wife were members in communion of theSecond Reformed Dutch Church, of which I was pastor; and from them I heardfrequently of their son John, who was then a student in New Brunswick. 

He prosecuted his studies in the College and Theological Seminary with zealand success, and was duly licensed, and then, while awaiting the arrival ofthe period when he would be sent to join the mission in China, he acceptedthe position of assistant to the Rev. Dr. Brodhead, who at that time wasminister of the Central Church of Brooklyn. Here his services were veryacceptable, and the training under such an experienced man of God was ofgreat value to him. His course was what might have been expected of onereared in a peculiarly pious household. His father was a cheerful andexemplary Christian, and his mother was the godliest woman I ever knew. Her religion pervaded her whole being, and seemed to govern every thought, word, and deed, yet never was morbid or overstrained. The robust commonsense which characterized her and her husband descended in full measureupon their son John. His consecration to the mission work was complete, and his interest in the cause was very deep, but it never manifested itselfin unseemly or extravagant ways. 

So far as I can recall, there was nothing particularly brilliant ororiginal in the early sermons or addresses of the young missionary--nothingof those wondrous displays of word-painting, imagination, and dramaticpower which have made his brother, Dr. T. De Witt Talmage, famous. Butthere was a mental grasp, a force and a fire which often induced the remarkthat he was too good to be sent to the heathen, there being many at thattime who labored under the mistake that a missionary did not require to bea man of unusual ability, that gifts and acquirements were thrown away on alife spent among idolaters. Still, while this was the case, none of hisfriends expected that he would develop such marked and varied power as wasseen in his entire course at Amoy. I remember the surprise with which Iheard the late Dr. Swanson, of London, say from his own observation duringten years of the closest intercourse at Amoy, that Dr. Talmage was equallydistinguished and efficient in every part of the missionary's work, whetherin preaching the Word, or translating the Scriptures, or creating aChristian literature, or training native workers. Nothing seemed to comeamiss to him; everywhere he was facile princeps. I suppose that theexplanation is found in his thorough and unreserved consecration. He wasgiven heart and soul to the work. Whatever he did was done with his wholemind. There was no vacillation or indecision, but a deliberateconcentration of all his faculties upon the task set before him. Nor didhe work by spurts or through temporary enthusiasm, but with a steady, unyielding determination. So he went on through life without haste andwithout rest, doing his best at all times and in every species of service, and thus earning the brilliant reputation he acquired. The same qualitiesrendered him as wise in counsel as he was efficient in working. He wasable to look on both sides of a given problem, was not inclined to snapjudgments, but preferred to discriminate, to weigh, and, if need be, towait. Yet, when the time came, the decision was ready. 

He perceived earlier than his brethren at home the true policy as tochurches in heathen lands, that is, that they should not be merecontinuations of the denomination whose missionaries had been the means offounding them, but should have an independent existence and grow upon thesoil where they were planted, taking such form and order as Providencemight suggest. When the proposal was made in accordance with these viewsto build up a native Chinese Church strictly autonomous, there was animmediate revulsion. The General Synod in 1863 emphatically declined toconsent, not, however, from denominational bigotry, but on the ground thatthe new converts must have some standards of faith and order, and, if so, why not ours, which had been tested by centuries? And, moreover, if theywere to be regarded as an integral part of the Church at home, that factwould prove to be a powerful incitement to prayer and liberality on the partof our people. But the rebuff did not dishearten Dr. Talmage. He renewedthe appeal the next year, and had the satisfaction of seeing it succeed. Full consent was given to the aim to build up a strong, self-governing, and, as soon as might be, self-supporting body of native churches in China, who should leave behind the prejudices of the past, and form themselvesunder the teaching of God's Spirit and Providence in such way as would bestmeet the demands of the time and be most efficient in advancing the Kingdomof God upon the earth. The consequences have been most happy. Themissionaries of the Presbyterian Church have cordially co-operated inrenouncing all denominational interests and giving all diligence to theforming of what might be called a Chinese Christian Church, freed from anyexternal bond and at liberty to shape its own character and course underthe guidance of the Divine Spirit. The experiment has been entirelysuccessful, and stands conspicuous as a testimony to the true policy ofcarrying on missionary work in countries where there is already an antiquecivilization and certain social habits which need to be taken account of. 

Dr. Talmage always kept himself in touch with the Church at home bycorrespondence or by personal intercourse. His visits to America were inevery case utilized to the fullest extent, save when hindered by impairedhealth. 

It is matter of joyful congratulation that he was permitted to finish theusual term of man's years in the missionary field. Others of our eminentmen, such as Abeel, Thompson, Doty, and Pohlman, were cut off in the midstof their days. But he spent a full lifetime, dying not by violence oraccident, but only when the bodily frame had been worn out in the naturalcourse of events. Our Church has been signally favored of God in the giftsand character and work of the men she has sent into the foreign field--andthis not merely in the partial judgment of their denominational brethren, but in the deliberate opinion of such competent and experienced observersas the late Dr. Anderson, of the American Board, and the late S. WellsWilliams, the famous Chinese scholar; [One remark of Dr. S. Wells Williamsis worth reproducing: "I think, myself, after more than forty years'personal acquaintance with hundreds of missionaries in China, that DavidAbeel was facile princeps among them all. "--Presb. Review, II. 49. ] but Ithink that none of them, neither Abeel nor Thompson, surpassed Dr. Talmagein any of the qualities, natural or acquired, which go to make anaccomplished missionary of the cross. I enjoyed the personal acquaintanceof them all, having been familiar with the progress of the work from thetime when (October, 1832) our Board of Foreign Missions was established, and therefore am able to form an intelligent opinion. Our departed brothercan no more raise his voice, either at home or abroad, but his workremains, and his memory will never die. For long years to come his namewill be fragrant in the hearts of our people; and his lifelong consecrationto the enterprise of the world's conversion will prove an example and astimulus to this and the coming generation. The equipoise of his mind, thesolidity of his character, the strength of his faith, the brightness of hishope, the simple, steadfast fidelity of his devotion to the Master, willspeak trumpet-tongued to multitudes who never saw his face in the flesh. The unadorned story of his life, what he was and what he did by the graceof God, will cheer the hearts of all the friends of foreign missions, andwin others to a just esteem of the cause which could attract such a man toits service and animate him to such a conspicuous and blessed career. 

REV. JOHN VAN NEST TALMAGE, D. D. 

BY REV. JOHN M. FERRIS, D. D. , [Editor of the "Christian Intelligencer" and ex-Secretary of the Board ofForeign Missions of the American Reformed Church. ]

Circumstances which tested character, ability, and attainments brought meinto intimate relations with Rev. Dr. John V. N. Talmage. The impressionsI received are these: He was eminently of a sunny disposition. A smile wason his face and laughter in his eyes almost all day long. He wasconspicuously cheerful and hopeful. The strength of his character wasunusual and would bear victoriously very severe tests. Mental and moralability of a very high order marked his participation in public exercisesand his demeanor in social life. It seemed to me that in mind and heartthere were in him the elements of greatness. Greatness he never sought, but avoided. Still, from the time succeeding the opening years of hisministry, he was a leader among men until seized with the long illnesswhich terminated his useful life. Those who knew him appointed him one oftheir chief counselors and guides, and in any assembly where he wascomparatively unknown he was accepted as a leading mind as soon as he hadtaken part in its discussions. A wide range of knowledge was his. It wassurprising how he had maintained an acquaintance with the research anddiscovery of his day while secluded in China from the life of the Westernnations. With all this his intercourse with men was marked by modesty andthe absence of ostentatious display. The deference with which he treatedthe opinions of others and of his manner in presenting his knowledge andconvictions to an audience was extraordinary. He was courteouslyinquisitive, seeking from others what they knew and thought, and thisoftentimes, perhaps habitually, with men much his inferiors. Such a manwould be expected to be tolerant of the opinions of others, and this he waseminently, although his own convictions were clear, strongly held, earnestly presented and advocated. How often we heard him say, "So Ithink, " or "So it seems to me, but I may be wrong. "

Accuracy in statement was sought for by him constantly, sometimes to thedetriment of his public addresses. When we who were familiar with him werehumorous at his expense, it was almost invariably in relation to thisconstant endeavor to be accurate, which led now and then to qualificationsof his words that were decidedly amusing. He was animated, earnest, andstrong in public addresses. His mind was active; apt to take anindependent, original view, and vigorous. His sermons were often veryimpressive and powerful. Few who heard in whole or in part his discourseon the words, "The world by wisdom knew not God"--an extemporaneoussermon--will forget the terse, vigorous sentences which came from his lips. It was, I believe, the last sermon he prepared in outline to be deliveredto our churches in this country. It was full of power and life. 

Dr. Talmage was a Christian and a Christian gentleman everywhere andalways. It seemed as natural to him to be a Christian as to breathe. Conscientious piety marked his daily life. 

He was a delightful companion through his gentleness, sympathy, wide rangeof knowledge, cheerfulness, animated and earnest speech, vigor of thoughtand expression, deference for the opinions and rights of others, andunselfishness. He asked nothing, demanded nothing for himself, but wasalert to contribute to the enjoyment of those around him. The work of hislife was of inestimable value. He was abundant in labors. Only the lifeto come will reveal how much he accomplished which in the highest sense wasworthy of accomplishment. Those who knew him best, esteemed, loved, andtrusted him the most. 

APPENDIX. 

Ecclesiastical Relations of Presbyterian Missionaries, especially of thePresbyterian Missionaries at Amoy, China. 

BY REV. J. V. N. TALMAGE, D. D. 

We have recently received letters making inquiries concerning the Relationsof the Missionaries of the English Presbyterian Church, and of the AmericanReformed Church to the Tai-hoey [Presbytery, or Classis, ] of Amoy; statingviews on certain points connected with the general subject of theorganization of ecclesiastical Judicatories on Mission ground; and askingour views on the same. We have thought it best to state our answer so asto cover the whole subject of these several suggestions and inquiries, as(though they are from different sources) they form but one subject. 

Our views are not hasty. They are the result of much thought, experienceand observation. But we are now compelled to throw them together in muchmore haste than we could wish, for which, we trust, allowance will be made. 

As preliminary we remark that we have actual and practical relations bothto the home churches, and to the churches gathered here, and ourEcclesiastical relations should correspond thereto. 

1. Our Relation to the Home Churches. We are their agents, sent by them todo a certain work, and supported by them in the doing of that work. Therefore so long as this relation continues, in all matters affecting ourqualifications for that work, --of course including "matters affectingministerial character, "--we should remain subject to their jurisdiction. In accordance with this we retain our connection with our respective homePresbyteries or Classes. 

2. Our Relation to the Church here. We are the actual pastors of thechurches growing up under our care, until they are far enough advanced tohave native pastors set over them. The first native pastors here wereordained by the missionaries to the office of "Minister of the Word, " thesame office that we ourselves hold. In all subsequent ordinations, andother ecclesiastical matters, the native pastors have been associated withthe missionaries. The Tai-hoey at Amoy, in this manner, gradually grew upwith perfect parity between the native and foreign members. 

With these preliminary statements we proceed to notice the suggestions madeand questions propounded. "To extend to the native churches on missionground the lines of separation which exist among Presbyterian bodies" inhome lands is acknowledged to be a great evil. To avoid this evil and to"bring all the native Presbyterians, " in the same locality, "into oneorganization, " two plans are suggested to us. 

The first plan suggested (perhaps we should say mentioned for it is notadvocated), we take to be that the missionaries become not only members ofthe ecclesiastical judicatories formed on mission ground, but also amenableto those judicatories in the same way, and in every respect, as theirnative members, their ecclesiastical relation to their home churches beingentirely severed. This plan ignores the actual relation of missionaries totheir home churches, as spoken of above. Surely the home churches cannotafford this. 

Perhaps we should notice another plan sometimes acted on, but not mentionedin the letters we have now received. It is that the missionaries becomemembers of the Mission Church Judicatories as above; but that theseJudicatories be organized as parts of the home churches, so that themissionaries will still be under the jurisdiction of the home churchesthrough the subjection of the Mission Judicatories to the higher at home. This plan can only work during the infancy of the mission churches, whilethe Mission Church Judicatories are still essentially foreign in theirconstituents. Soon the jurisdiction will be very imperfect. Thisimperfection will increase as fast as the mission churches increase. Moreover this plan will extend to the native churches the evil deprecatedabove. 

The second plan suggested we take to be that the missionaries, while theyremain the agents of the home churches, should retain their relationrespectively to their home churches, and have only an advisory relation tothe Presbytery on mission ground. This is greatly to be preferred to thefirst plan suggested. It corresponds to the relation of missionaries totheir respective home churches. It takes into consideration also, but doesnot fully correspond to the relation of the missionaries to the churches onmission ground, at least does not fully correspond to the relation of themissionaries to the native churches at Amoy. Our actual relation to thesechurches seems to us to demand that as yet we take part with the nativepastors in their government. 

The peculiar relationship of the missionaries to Tai-hoey, viz. , havingfull membership, without being subject to discipline by that body, --istemporary, arising from the circumstances of this infant church, and restson the will of Tai-hoey. This relationship has never been discussed, oreven suggested for discussion in that body, so that our view of what is, orwould be, the opinion of Tai-hoey on the subject we gather from the wholecharacter of the working of that body from its first formation, and fromthe whole spirit manifested by the native members. Never till last yearhas there been a case of discipline even of a native member of Tai-hoey. We do not know that the thought that occasion may also arise for thediscipline of missionaries, has ever suggested itself to any of the nativemembers. If it has, we have no doubt they have taken for granted that thediscipline of missionaries belongs to the churches which have sent themhere. But we also have no doubt that Tai-hoey would exercise the right ofrefusing membership to any missionary if necessary. 

It is suggested as an objection to the plan that has been adopted by themissionaries at Amoy, that "where two Presbyteries have jurisdiction overone man, it may not be always easy to define the line where thejurisdiction of the one ends and the other begins; and for the foreignPresbyter to have a control over the native Presbyter which the nativecannot reciprocate, would be anomalous, and contrary to that view of theparity of Presbyters which the Scriptures present. "

From our last paragraph above it will be seen that the "line" ofdemarcation alluded to in the first half of the above objection hascertainly never yet been defined by Tai-hoey, but it will be seen likewisethat we have no apprehension of any practical difficulty in the matter. The last half of the objection looks more serious, for if our plan reallyinvolves a violation of the doctrine of the parity of the ministry, this isa very serious objection--fatal, indeed, unless perhaps the temporarycharacter of the arrangement might give some sufferance to it in adeveloping church. It does not, however in our opinion, involve any suchdoctrine. It does not touch that doctrine at all. 

The reason why Tai-hoey does not claim the right of discipline over themissionaries is not because these are of a higher order than the othermembers, but because the missionaries have a most important relation to thehome churches which the other members have not. The Tai-hoey respects therights of those churches which have sent and are still sending the Gospelhere, and has fullest confidence that they will exercise proper disciplineover their missionaries. Whether they do this or not, the power of theTai-hoey to cut off from its membership, or refuse to admit thereto, anymissionary who might prove himself unworthy, gives ample security to thatbody and secures likewise the benefits of discipline. If time allowed usto give a full description of our Church work here it would be seen thatthe doctrine of the parity of all who hold the ministerial office sothoroughly permeates the whole, that it would seem impossible for mistaketo arise on that point. 

In connection with this subject it is also remarked "that where two racesare combined in a Presbytery, there is a tendency to divide on questionsaccording to the line of race. "

With gratitude to God we are able to bear testimony that at Amoy we havenot as yet seen the first sign of such tendency. We have heard of suchtendency in some other mission fields. Possibly it may yet be manifestedhere. This, however, does not now seem probable. The native members ofTai-hoey, almost from the first, have outnumbered the foreign. Thedisproportion now is as three or four to one, and must continue toincrease. It would seem, therefore, that there will now be no occasion forjealousy of the missionaries' influence to grow up on the part of thenative members. 

But, it may be asked, if the native members so far outnumber the foreign, of what avail is it that missionaries be more than advisory members? Weanswer: If we are in Tai-hoey as a foreign party, in opposition to thenative members, even advisory membership will be of no avail. But if weare there in our true character, as we always have been, viz. , asPresbyters and acting pastors of churches, part and parcel of the churchJudicatories, on perfect equality and in full sympathy with the nativePresbyters, our membership may be of much benefit to Tai-hoey. It must beof benefit if our theory of Church Government be correct. 

Of the benefit of such membership we give one illustration, equallyapplicable also to other forms of government. It will be remembered thatassemblies conducted on parliamentary principles were unknown in China. Byour full and equal membership of Tai-hoey, being associated with the nativemembers in the various offices, and in all kinds of committees, the nativemembers have been more efficiently instructed in the manner of conductingbusiness in such assemblies, than they could have been if we had only giventhem advice. At the first, almost the whole business was necessarilymanaged by the missionaries. Not so now. The missionaries still take anactive part even in the routine of business, not so much to guard againsterror or mistake, as for the purpose of saving time and inculcating theimportance of regularity and promptitude. Even the earnestness with whichthe missionaries differ from each other, so contrary to the duplicitysupposed necessary by the rules of Chinese politeness, has not been withoutgreat benefit to the native members. Instead of there being any jealousyof the position occupied by the missionaries on the part of the nativemembers, the missionaries withdraw themselves from prominent positions, andthrow the responsibility on the native members, as fast as duty to Tai-hoeyseems to allow, faster than the native members wish. 

We now proceed to give answers to the definite questions propounded to us, though answers to some of them have been implied in the preceding remarks. We combine the questions from different sources, and slightly change thewording of them to suit the form of this paper, and for convenience wenumber them. 

1. "Are the missionaries members of Tai-hoey in full and on a perfectequality with the native members?"

Answer. Yes; with the exception (if it be an exception) implied in theanswer to the next question. 

2. "Are missionaries subject to discipline by the Tai-hoey?"

Answer. No; except that their relation to Tai-hoey may be severed by thatbody. 

3. "Is it not likely that the sooner the native churches becomeself-governing, the sooner they will be self-supporting andself-propagating?"

Answer. Yes. It would be a great misfortune for the native churches to begoverned by the missionaries, or by the home churches. We think also itwould be a great misfortune for the missionary to refuse all connectionwith the government of the mission churches while they are in whole or inpart dependent on him for instruction, administration of the ordinances, and pastoral oversight. Self-support, self-government, andself-propagation are intimately related, acting and reacting on each other, and the native Church should be framed in them from the beginning of itsexistence. 

4. "Is it the opinion of missionaries at Amoy that the native Presbytersare competent to manage the affairs of Presbytery, and could they safely beleft to do so?"

Answer. Yes; the native Presbyters seem to us to be fully competent tomanage the affairs of Presbytery, and we suppose it would be safe to leavethem to do this entirely by themselves, if the providence of God should sodirect. We think it much better, however, unless the providence of Goddirect otherwise, that the missionaries continue their present relation tothe Tai-hoey until the native Church is farther developed. 

5. "Is it likely that there can be but one Presbyterian Church in China?or are differences of dialect, etc. , such as to make differentorganizations necessary and inevitable?"

Answer. All Presbyterians in China, as far as circumstances will allow, should unite in one Church organization. By all means avoid a plurality ofPresbyterian denominations in the same locality. But differences ofdialect and distance of separation seem at present to forbid the formationof one Presbyterian organization for the whole of China. Even though inprocess of time these difficulties be greatly overcome, It would seem thatthe vast number of the people will continue to render such formationimpracticable, except on some such principle as that on which is formed thePan-Presbyterian Council. One Presbyterian Church for China would be very