which are presented on behalf of China, that the light of Christianity may speedily shine throughout it, and that the inestimable benefits of redeeming love may be realized, are only what we expected from the ministers and people of God. Nothing could be more natural, and, confessedly, nothing could be, as a development of attachment to the Saviour, and enlightened concern for the happiness of millions, and for the advancement of the empire of the Messiah

If China is to advance in the noblest sense; if her millions are to be elevated in the scale of social and moral being; if they are to be truly enriched and rendered happy, in the highest degree; if their practical and useful influence is to bear, extensively and efficiently, on the numerous islands and countries around them, the knowledge of the gospel must be acquired; the power of more proper-more important--more the gospel must be felt; the love of the necessary. If such solicitude had not gospel must be felt; the priceless bless- been felt, such a spirit not displayed, ings of the gospel must be enjoyed. It such petitions not been preferred, such is the religion of the Bible that will zeal and benevolence not been exhihumanize and ennoble China; that will bited, our utmost surprise would have dispel the moral darkness, and burst been excited, our deepest regret would asunder the moral fetters of her popula- have been induced. tion; that will tranquillize her teeming millions, and put them in possession of unalloyed happiness; that will make her "valleys to sing," and her "hills to rejoice;" that will induce her to throw her arms widely open, and benevolently to embrace the world, and make her the receptacle of all that is valuable, all that is holy, all that is divine.

And, when these things are contemplated, what majesty and grandeur, what undefinable importance, are attached to the Chinese Protestant Mission, carried forwards with simplicity, earnestness, and devotion; maintained under the influence of love to Christ, and zeal for his honour; and upheld by the liberality, the faith, the energy, the perseverance, and the combined prayers, of hundreds of thousands of British and American Christians! Such an enterprise is associated with the utmost moral sublimity, and the preciousness of those benefits it will be instrumental in conferring, during the next five-and-twenty years, no language can adequately unfold-no mind can adequately estimate. The profound and universal interest now felt by the followers of Christ in England, Scotland, Ireland, and America; the contributions which are poured in; the efforts which are made; and the prayers

British Christians, however, are now alive to the moral and spiritual welfare of China. The churches are aroused to a sense of the extent, the grandeur, the inexpressible value of the Chinese mission; and we are persuaded that this solicitude, earnestness, and effort, must be continually augmenting, until the multitudes of China hear the pure gospel of Christ; her children and youth be instructed in the principles of the religion of the Son of God; and her myriads be warned to "flee from the wrath to come," and at the same time be invited to repair to Calvary, for life, pardon, happiness, and salvation.

The London Missionary Society purposes sending out ten additional Missionaries to China. A noble project! But how do we desire that some Christians, of immense wealth, would enable the directors to multiply the ten by ten, and send forth during the current year, one hundred faithful heralds of the Cross; one hundred enlightened and devoted messengers of salvation to the people; and a hundred Bible and Tract Distributors, so that the principal cities, towns, and ports of China, might have the tidings of redeeming love and mercy proclaimed to them regularly, and in the amplest and most unfettered manner! Surely this might

We stand still and wonder. We can only say "The Lord has done it." "Truly, this is the finger of God!"

easily be done. A few large-hearted | triumphs, of the gospel of Christ. All Christians in this country, of abundant this excites our profound astonishment. pecuniary resources, might accomplish it without the slightest difficulty. And, we seriously and deliberately inquire, Ought it not to be effected? A million copies of the New Testament are to be transmitted as early as possible to the Chinese empire, and to be circulated quickly among the people, and, no doubt, they will be desired with avidity. This was a happy and magnificent idea, and honoured will be the name of him who suggested it. Would that the million projected for China could have another, and yet another million added to it; for, after all, a million copies of the New Testament for the Chinese, will not go very far. They will soon be swallowed up. They are scarcely more than ten or twenty thousand for Great Britain. Still, in these grants, in these efforts, so seasonable and so important, we rejoice. They are invaluable. The movement altogether among the British churches on behalf of China is delightful; the spirit displayed is large and noble; the object contemplated is most sublime; and the issues, under God, in which it must result, will be stupendous and glorious.

How wondrous is the fact, that Protestant and Christian missionaries can gain free and full access to China at all! This we did not anticipate. On such an event we could scarcely calculate. Who could have supposed, five-andtwenty years ago, that the gates of the Chinese empire would be thrown widely open to our missionaries, our catechists, our school-masters, our printers for the mission? Who could have expected that the immense wall of separation would be removed that intercourse with the people, for Christian objects, would be permitted-and that interposing barriers would be removed out of the way? Such, however, is the fact, and the revolution now advancing is continually diminishing the impediments which existed, and creating additional facilities for the wide introduction, and also for the progress and

The Chinese mission, and especially as its enlargement is seriously contemplated, must strike every intelligent and reflective mind as being associated with pre-eminent grandeur and moment, from the extreme vastness of the population-from the large numbers of converts on whom we may eventually calculate. What a field is before us! What territory is to be explored, cultured, and gained, for Christ! What anticipations may we not cherish! On what victories may we not calculate! Let the population of China be estimated, in round numbers, either at 300 millions, as some aver, or at 350 millions, as others estimate, what a world of immortal beings is it among whom to labour, and for whose spiritual illumination and salvation we are continually to strive! Why, almost every other missionary scene of effort and enterprise, with the exception of India, is comparatively little. To have access to two or three hundred millions of Chinese, ready to receive the New Testament from our hands, and to listen to the joyous tidings of redemption through Christ the Lord, from the lips of our educators and missionaries, is a fact of inexpressible moment. In the course of a few years, if funds are supplied—if efforts are wise and unremitting - if prayer, fervid and united, be poured forth-and, above all, if the Spirit of God be communicated, what changes will be witnessed! what glorious moral transformations will be realized! what dense clouds of ignorance will be dispelled! what light will Christian education shed! what pernicious and souldestroying errors will be annihilated! what congregations will be collected! what Christian Churches will be formed! what impressions of the most valuable and hallowed kind will be made! how will the gospel advance and conquer ! how will divine principles renovate the

moral nature of the Chinese-divine | exhaustless blessings. What territory

privileges be participated by them divine blessings and enjoyments be experienced and divine hopes, full of a glorious immortality, be awakened! How many thousands-why should we limit the omnipotent Spirit?- how many tens, ay, even hundreds of thousands in China, may be brought to God -drawn to the Saviour-made meet for heaven! Is not the thought indescribably sublime? Is not the bare anticipation inexpressibly joyous, majestic, and momentous ? We conceive that nothing can be more so. Go forward, then, British Christians, to the work; prosecute the noble, the magnificent enterprise, with all the faith you can exercise with all the energy you can command-with all the simplicity of aim by which you should be marked— with all the benevolence you should exemplify-with all the devotion you should breathe-with all the hope and confidence, as to the issues of your labours, you are bound to cultivate.

We ask you, Can you be too earnest in such an undertaking? Can you culture too wisely, too promptly, too carefully, such a wide-ranging and almost unlimited field? Can you present prayers too frequent, too fervid, too importunate, for a large, a growing, an effectual blessing? It is, obviously, impossible. And especially when you❘ reflect, that if China receive the truth, and multitudes be brought under its benign power, how neighbouring countries, and the numerous islands adjacent to that empire will be benefited! what light will be imparted to them! what a blessed influence will be brought to bear directly upon them! The enlightened and converted Chinese will be missionaries to their idolatrous brethren around. They will become the spontaneous and earnest agents of divine mercy to the inhabitants of contiguous lands; and thus districts which we cannot penetrate, and which are now in the most benighted and deplorable condition, will be put in possession of the gospel of peace, and of its rich, its

will thus be rescued from the grasp of Satan! what numbers will thus be drawn into the fold of the good Shepherd! When Christianity exerts its mighty power in China, it will not stop there. Its precious fruits will be reaped extensively elsewhere. The numerous islands not far distant, so populous, and, unhappily, so dark, will be enlightened with the light of life: Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and very many more, will rejoice in the sunshine and happiness of the gospel. Large towns on the Malayan coast will be visited by those who have received the word of God, and they will become illuminated themselves. The countries of Siam, Burmah, and other extensive and thicklypeopled lands, will be taught the way | of salvation by the converted Chinese

and even the empire of Japan, of which we still know so little, and which is proverbially so dark and heathen, will have the beams of the Sun of Righteousness penetrating it, and the vast benefits of Christianity communicated to the inhabitants of its cities, its villages, its remote shores. These are some of the glorious results which will emanate from the triumphs of Christian missions, on a large scale, in China; and, we ask, Are they not, when contemplated aright, inconceivably important and sublime? Who, indeed, knows what may issue from China receiving the religion of Christ? It may be the means, divinely projected, for the moral illumination and evangelization of the world.

Can we, then, attach too much significance and grandeur to the Chinese mission? Can we be too anxious for its enlargement? Can we be too solicitous that it may be prosecuted on a scale in some degree correspondent with its magnitude and importance? We trust, therefore, that some splendid examples of Christian benevolence, on behalf of China and its missions, will be furnished during the current, and every succeeding year. We hope the disciples of Christ among us, of large

wealth, will now "devise liberal things" for China. How many could each support a missionary in China, with perfect ease, and the burden not be felt! Let it be done; and, instead of ten, fifty, ay, and a hundred, additional missionaries for that vast country would soon be gained, and the triumphs of the gospel in its swarming cities, in its ports, on its rivers, and along its coasts, would be grand beyond description. We are assured of this, that the conversion of

LEAVES OF HEALING.
I.

THE DYING MAN AND THE PUSEYITE PRIEST.

SOME little time ago, a young man, the son of a farmer and miller, was gradually reduced by consumption to a dying state. His parents were not professing Christians, though they were both strictly moral characters. The mother, however, had more than once been concerned about her soul. The son, though not an only child, was an only son. Both parents loved him ardently; and now that they were about to lose him, their sorrow was unbounded. The grief of the father was simply sorrow for his loss; the anxiety of the mother became especially directed to his eternal condition. "O! that it may be all well with my dear boy for ever!" was her almost constant exclamation.

The parish clergyman was called in, and his visits became frequent. The young man was exhorted to confess his sins and repent of them; the absolution prayer was read, and the service of the sick; and he was told that all was safe. This was the course pursued during every visit. One day, when the young man was drawing near his end, the clergyman called to see him. He was shown up-stairs into his bedroom. Exhausted, the dying youth was reclining on his pillow, half asleep, with the Bible,

which he had been reading, lying open at the 3rd chapter of the Gospel according to John, on the bed-clothes before him. The clergyman spoke to him; he instantly awoke, and raised himself up in bed, when, as nearly as possible, the following conversation ensued :-" I am glad to see you, Sir, for I have been reading in the Bible a remarkable passage, and, O Sir, I wish you to explain it to me." "What is the passage, my friend ?" "It is in the 3rd chapter of John, where our Lord says to Nicodemus, 'Ye must be born again;' and this he repeats three distinct times. O, Sir, what does it mean, when it speaks of the need of being 'born again,' in order

to enter the kingdom of heaven?" "As to that, my young friend," said the clergyman, "keep your mind quite easy; for you were born again when you were baptized." The dying youth fixed his eyes upon the clergyman, and raising his now weak and withered arm and hand, and shaking it with deep emotion, said, "Ah! Sir, it means more than that!" The clergyman almost immediately afterwards left him, and in a day or two the young man died.

The writer had occasion, shortly after, to visit the neighbourhood where this scene occurred, and was asked by

a pious friend, to call and condole with | have in the 3rd chapter of St. John's