elsewhere. In China there is no caste enslaving and chaining the minds of men, as in Hindostan. There is no priesthood like the Brahmins, for the Bonzes of China are as much despised as the Brahmins are revered. In China there is no long chain of miracles-lying miracles, it is true, but believed by millions-which have every where met the statements of the Christian Missionary in India, respecting the genuine miracles which establish the Gospel of Christ. In China there is no reverence for prescriptive faith-a faith handed down from the remotest ages. The time at which Buddhism was introduced is well known. It is a comparatively modern faith; and all they can oppose to us from remote antiquity, is the cold, heartless scepticism of Confucius, which cannot retain its hold, even upon a small minority of that people. It is therefore apparent, that the circumstances under which we are called to enter this novel field of Missions are most inviting, and those eight Missionaries, it may be presumed, by their long acquaintance, not with the Chinese language only, but with the Chinese character and habits, are now, at last, standing as once the army of Israel stood on the banks of Jordan, and are looking to the land of promise, to the ultimate attainment of which they have devoted their hopes and their lives. It is not for those who sent them forth with this prospect, telling them to devote their energies to the accomplishment of this design, now to tell them, in this hour of auspicious hope, that they must restrict their energies, and turn back from those distant fields of labour, where hitherto they have wrestled in faith and patience with such varied obstacles.

Something, then, it is obvious, ought to be done, to improve the advantages which circumstances have placed in your hands. But, it may be asked whether the time is come; whether the resources which Christian zeal has placed in the hands of the Directors are such as warrant them to engage in any new undertaking, however momentous, or to turn their attention to new fields of enterprise, however ripe the harvest seems to be for the sickle. When we remember the resources of this great nation, and think how large a portion of that nation is interested in Christian Missions, it seems impossible to doubt, that with an adequate knowledge, and with a due conviction, of the character of the emergency, these resources must be placed in the hands of the Directors. It was only last year, that upon the mere mention of the Missionary wants of the church, the Sunday schools connected with the Wesleyans raised for their Missionary Institution 4,8007., the mere savings of those little sums of money which

the tenderness of parents put into their hands for their childish purposes. The mere infantile contribution of young hearts, opening for the first time to the wants of their sable fellow-creatures, gave 4,8007. to aid the Society in its need. And is it conceivable, that the thousands, the hundreds of thousands, that are interested in the progress of your Missions, are not able, if a good cause is proved to them, to do far more than this? Why even this would justify and enable you at once to enter upon the important Mission. But they can surely do far more than this. If I were asked what it was that would justify your Directors in this undertaking, I find the complete answer in this assembly-in your conviction of duty-in your resolution to accomplish what duty dictates. There is answer enough here to satisfy the Directors as to whether or not they ought to proceed in this undertaking. With the advantage which cheap postage affords, you can make the news circulate every day to every part of the empire; this meeting may fill the whole country with a knowledge of the claims of China, and you may make every Christian pulse beat in unison with your own, while you resolve in this hall that your Directors shall not want the means of proceeding in this benevolent and sacred work. Here, then, alone is the answer, as it seems to me, to the question, whether you may, with resources inadequate to the present Missions, yet enter upon a new and costly one without the charge of imprudence? If this be established in the affirmative, then I am prepared to move the resolution which your Directors have intrusted to me, and which I will now therefore read :

"That this meeting deliberately and heartily approves of the measures adopted by the Directors, for the removal of the Anglo-Chinese College from Malacca to Hongkong, and for transferring the labours of the Missionary brethren hitherto prosecuted in European settlements far distant from China to the island now ceded to Great Britain, and to such of the Chinese cities opened for commerce by the treaty of peace as may appear most eligible for Missionary efforts; and that this meeting, deeply sensible of the inadequacy of the present amount of agency, warmly approves and conimends the resolution of the Directors to increase the number of labourers already in the field."

I must now offer a few remarks on the three topics which this resolution embraces. I have to recommend to you, on the part of the Directors, to remove the Anglo-Chinese College from Malacca to Hongkong. Nothing can be more important than this; and I am persuaded that those I have the honour to address know well the importance of training up that Missionary agency to which Mr. Lacroix has directed our attention. It is not by European agents only that we can hope to line both banks of the mighty inlets to China with villagers be

lieving on Christ, and worshipping God in spirit and in truth. But it is by multiplying Chinese labourers that this great work, if effected at ali-and the word of God permits us not to doubt it-must be at last accomplished. If so, nothing can be wiser than, at the present moment, when we have the opportunity, to enter on the work, and establish a broad and deep foundation for Missionary success, by beginning at once to train young men in the Anglo-Chinese College for Missionary service in China. But it is obvious, that our position at Hongkong will be incomparably superior to that at Malacca, which is 1,500 miles distant from Hongkong.

The second point which I am instructed to recommend to you this evening is, that your Missionaries shall be removed from the posts they now occupy at a distance from China, and placed at Hongkong, and those cities opened to European enterprise. And here a thought has occurred to me, mingled with a feeling of regret, which I cannot help expressing. As Mr. Lacroix naturally feels for India, lest some of your resources should be diverted from that interesting land, it is natural to ask ourselves, What do the Directors mean to do with Penang, Malacca, Singapore, and Macao, where Christ has been honoured and preached for so many years by such faithful labourers? Are all these stations to be swept away like a dream? Is nothing to be done for them? I would say, the Society must not think of relinquishing its efforts there, so long as the religious community at home places in their hands resources adequate to the expense. But at the same time, if a sacrifice must be made, no one can question that when one-third of the human race, scarcely known to us but by their crimes and their follies, asks for the humane interposition of England,-if one sacrifice or other must be made, Ningpo, Shanghai, Amoy, Foo-chow-foo, and Canton, must not be left while these more distant places are regarded with greater interest. Here the tide of commerce is setting in; here European population is to be guided; here you are to exercise a sanctifying influence on the European community; here you are to set an example which a whole empire may see. I might almost use the powerful language of Napoleon. If he could say, as his army marched over the plains of Egypt, "Centuries are looking down upon us from the Pyramids;" so may we exclaim to the first Missionaries that shall enter China,

ors have (it appears to me most wisely) offered to your notice.

There remains a third, which is yet more adventurous, and therefore seems to demand still more consideration; it is, that within two years, ten or twelve men shall be added to the list. But think a moment, and I am persuaded that you will feel that you must not shrink even from this responsibility. Do you send your Missionaries to labour in a tropical climate, to toil in the acquisition of the most difficult of languages; and do you send them there to labour and die alone? Are they to have no respite? Is a brother's face never to be seen by them? Are they never to unite in social prayer? Are they never to mingle their counsels in the most arduous undertaking that can be set before a body of men? Should there be no division of labour amongst them? These Missionaries have to translate books into a difficult language, to become expert and fluent in tongues not their own, to stand before mandarins and emperors; and they must be in Pekin what Morrison was in Canton, when it was said in vain to the Governors, "Send him home," because they said, "We want him here." You must have men in China, who, when our ambassador visits the metropolis of that country, can go with him, and stand before a monarch, in some respects the mightiest on earth, and implore him, as he values his own salvation, not to interpose his mighty power between his subjects and their salvation. You want men who will do what Verbeest and other Missionaries have boldly donepenetrate the interior, and tell the mandarins and great council of state, and the emperor of three hundred millions, that there is a God, to whom they are responsible, and a Saviour who may yet rescue them from condemnation, beseeching them, by the mercy of Christ, as St. Paul, when in chains, be sought Agrippa, to believe, and turn to the Redeemer and live. For all this, it is most apparent, that there must be not the same force which is now occupied in China, but a much larger one. You want some to translate books into the language of the Chinese; you want others to conduct the education of their youth, and form a native ministry; you want others who can conduct the labours of the press; and still another class must be occupied in evangelizing those around them; and as God blesses their labours, some must be engaged in forming and cherishing the Christian churches that have been gathered, in the midst of this population, from heathenism. Nor can we conceal from ourselves that men, the noblest and the best, are wanted. You must not take Lacroix from Bengal, you must not take