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Connexional Department.

OUR CHINESE MISSION.

OUR Missionary Committee have just published a narrative of the origin and early progress of the wonderful work of God in Laou Ling, in China. The tract extends to forty-eight pages, and is published at the trifling charge of twopence. Twenty thousand copies ought to be purchased at once by our circuits. Any number of them can be had from our ministers, or direct from the Book-room. We have read every word, and we must say that, of all the missionary enterprises we have read, we never found, within the same compass, a work so marvellous in its origin, so exciting in its facts, and so profoundly interesting in its character. It is God's own work, and it has his impress on its beginning and its marvellous progress. In some cases, before the people hear the truth they are mysteriously yearning for it; in others they are divinely directed, or providentially led, to the spot where they may learn it; and in scores of instances the truth is no sooner heard but it is welcomed and embraced by faith; faith is followed by peace, joy, and love, and all the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Idols are broken or burned, heathen festivals and superstitions are abandoned, and Christian ordinances are crowded by eager inquirers and ardent converts, who come five, ten, and twenty miles to worship God, and who, in the freshness of their new-born joys, sing and pray with the fervour and simplicity of the early Methodists, and who declare with tears of gratitude and tones of holy exultation their happy transformation from heathen darkness and bondage to the marvellous light and liberty of salvation. Talk of religious people losing their relish for class-meetings and fellowship-meetings! Shame on

us.

These converted heathens turn all their seasons of intercourse, and almost all their religious services virtually into experience meetings. They seem as if they could never talk enough nor hear enough of Jesus and experimental religion. These, indeed, are their constant themes. We dull Methodists in England, we cold-hearted formalists who have lost our love for class-meetings, and almost all our power to say "Amen," may learn much from these lively, happy, earnest-hearted Chinese, glowing with the ardours of their first love. Beloved friends, read these papers, and you will have a picture of fresh, new-born, pure Christianity. Read these papers, and you will see what a rich recompense God is giving us for the trifling sacrifices we have made in the support of the Chinese mission. Read these papers, and you will see how God is preparing that mighty empire for a glorious future; and you will see, too, our obligations to gratitude, and the mighty, overwhelming claim which God is presenting to augmented liberality in the support of our missions. We have prayed for success, and we have it richly, far more richly than the most sanguine could have expected. God has rewarded us a hundredfold already, and he thereby challenges our faith and liberality for the future. The present remarkable success claims and demands

enlarged benevolence. Brethren, we cannot ignore these obligations, coming as they do direct from God, and urged by facts created by his providence and his Spirit. It is as if a voice from heaven called us to our duty, and the call must be obeyed. We ought to augment our mission fund at least £1,000 during the present year. Let special thank-offerings come in, and let our public collections everywhere be increased in amount, and let our standard of giving be universally raised to a level with our means. If we be thus faithful in the use of God's property, the Giver of all good will both bless our secular means with further increase, and he will yet more abundantly reward us with spiritual success. We are glad to see these views so ably advocated by a correspondent in our present number. Read the following article on this subject, and prayerfully ponder its important statements, its solemn truths, its weighty arguments, and its resistless appeals.

Our friends will find that all is not sunshine, even in our Chinese Mission. Satan was not likely to see his kingdom successfully assailed without raising a storm of opposition. Persecution is already begun. The mob in one case have greatly maltreated one of our devoted members in the public market-place, and on his appealing to a magistrate for redress, he is not only denied protection, but outrageously persecuted by the magistrate himself. But the Heavens do rule, and God will, as he ever has done, make persecution subservient to his own glory and the spread of Gospel truth. Meanwhile, let prayers throughout the Connexion daily ascend to God that our Chinese brethren and sisters may have grace, like the converts in Madagascar, to be faithful and honour their Saviour in the day of trial. We wish them to know that they have our sympathy and our prayers, as they will have of the whole Church of God. (See Missionary Chronicle, page 681.)

While thus calling attention to our Chinese Mission, we would also bespeak the interest of our friends on behalf of the Chapel Fund. This important institution, which has rendered so much help to our trust estates in years past, is at present in a state of dilapidation. But its foundation is good, and its materials sound; it only needs repairing and strengthening to render it as useful in the future as it has been in the past. Let our friends read and act upon the valuable suggestions thrown out by a correspondent in our present number, and we shall soon see the Chapel Fund in a satisfactory state.

OUR MISSIONS: THEIR PROGRESS AND CLAIMS.

OUR Missionary Society has now acquired a character which has exalted the reputation of the Denomination amongst evangelical churches. Its fields of operation are both varied and important, and we rejoice in the fact that the blessing of God has descended upon all of them during the past year. No missionary society has received

more distinct and numerous tokens of God's favour than our own, hence our encouragement to persevere, even with an ever-increasing devotedness. The facts contained in the Report of the present year

indicate a degree of progress which the most sanguine must regard as an ample reward for our labours and our money. Whether we look at home, Australia, Canada, or China, we find a numerical increase in the membership; and though Ireland returns a decrease, it is mainly owing to the special, we might say, the inscrutable condition of that afflicted country. The blessing of God has been vouchsafed to us in so remarkable a manner in China, as to have drawn forth the congratulations of the universal Church, all the branches of which join us in thanksgiving and praise.

We learn from the Report that we have now seven missionaries in Ireland, ten in England, ninety-one in active service in Canada, two in Australia, and four in China; and we have 9,424 church members, besides probationers. Here is a very important institution -important, not merely as a part of our community, but as an agency for the dissemination of Christianity in the world. During the last seven years its growth has been rapid and extensive, both at home and abroad. But it is with missionary societies as with tradesmen and merchants, increasing business requires increasing capital. If we examine the Reports of the last few years, we shall find that there has been a very gratifying increase in our income; but we shall also find that, if enterprises upon which we have entered are to be sustained and made successful, our income must be raised to a still higher amount.

The Report states that chapels are urgently wanted at Hartlepool and Birmingham, not to mention Peckham; and though the societies and congregations at these places are ready to give to their utmost ability, yet, if suitable chapels are to be erected, grants must be made from the Mission Fund. At Melbourne, the infant cause is growing, and a grant is requested in aid of the building of a chapel, on a very eligible site, which is held by us on the condition that we build upon it at an early period. The cause has expanded in China with a rapidity which has far exceeded our prayers and even our hopes. The sending out of two additional men to that country was very clearly providential; as it met the demand for increased preaching and pastoral service, without which the wonderful work in Laou Ling must have suffered yet this expansion of the Mission, with the addition of two missionaries, will very much increase our Chinese expenditure.

The greatest honour which God bestows upon a church is to open to it fields of usefulness, and to raise up men to occupy them, God is thus honouring our community at this juncture of our missionary operations. If we slacken our hands, rest satisfied with what has been done, and refuse to go forward into those wider regions into which God is leading us, then the "fiery pillar," the symbol of his guidance, and protection, and blessing, will depart from us; then the clouds which are now pouring copious blessings upon our labours, will pass to other fields, and impart their blessing to other labourers more faithful than we. But thousands of Christian hearts, glowing with the love of Christ, and tenderly responsive to the wants of a perishing world, deprecate such an event as the greatest of all calamities-greater to them than the loss of health, friends, riches, comforts, nay, than life itself, for their highest wish and prayer is

that the Connexion may be useful; and to survive that usefulness would be felt by them to be a greater grief and dishonour than the patriot feels who survives the prosperity and honour of his country.

How, then, are the growing responsibilities of our Mission to be met? The full answer is, by cultivating the missionary spirit in our own heart and in the heart of our churches. If we are to give, and pray, and work more for God, we must feel more-more love to Christ, and more love to the world, which he has redeemed with his most precious blood. We are prone to stagnate into selfishness and worldliness; to counteract which tendency we should often meditate on the work of Christ as the Saviour of the whole world, and often look beyond ourselves, and family, and country, living under the blessed influence of the Gospel, to the unconverted myriads of our fellow-men who are perishing in their sins. The Bible, which reveals the gracious purpose of God concerning our race, must be read, and other books read which contain faithful accounts of the moral and spiritual condition of heathen, Mahometan, and Popish countries. If our hearts have been made tender and holy by the renewing grace of God, they will glow with jealousy for the honour of God, and melt with pity for perishing men, and we shall be ready to say with Paul, "I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh :" and with Moses, "Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin—; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written :" and with a greater than either, even with Christ, “But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!" Here we have the missionary spirit expressed and exemplified, and we may add, that it is the proper spirit of the

Christian life.

Benevolent feelings, when produced in the heart, should be quickly translated into action. A barren impulse is a worthless thing; but when feelings pass into deeds they are exalted into principles and habits, which mature our excellences and make us strong to work for God. If our hearts thus beat in harmony with the world's Saviour and his working Church, we shall be found among the worshippers at the missionary prayer-meeting, where more than any other place we are identified with the missionaries we have sent out, in their labours and trials, and where by our intercessions we draw down upon them the sustaining grace and the prospering blessing of God. Modern missionaries like the Apostle Paul-attac the highest value to the prayers of the Church. The assurance that we pray for them is calculated to soothe them in their separation from us, and to nerve them for both work and suffering. If, there fore, we have undervalued these meetings, or have entirely neglecte them, or been remiss in our attendance, let us resolve to do better is

the future.

The anniversaries of our Mission are important in their moral and financial relations. In the sermons and speeches delivered o these occasions, the work of Christ is exhibited, in its reference to the

actual condition of the nations and tribes of the earth, with a clearness of statement and fulness of detail which surpass our ordinary pulpit exercises; and appeals are made calculated to quicken into energetic action all that is humane, patriotic, and Christian in our hearts, and to lead us forth as one mighty phalanx to fight the battles of the Lord, resolved not to rest till on the head of Him once crowned with thorns shall be put the crown of universal dominion, amid the plaudits of a renewed and happy world. Our anniversaries are festivals of spiritual culture and joy, which, apart from their direct bearing upon the conversion of the world, cannot fail to expand the understanding of the Church with the loftiest ideas, and to fill its heart with the noblest aspirations. We do not attach sufficient importance to these meetings. We should anticipate them, talk of them in our homes. and social gatherings; preliminary sermons should be preached and prayers offered for them on several preceding Sabbaths. Nor should plans be neglected to keep up the collections, though these seldom fail when the hearts of the people are rightly affected. In thus preparing for these services we shall find a blessing, while every retrospect will be like a returning wave of grateful joy.

Looking over the list of annual subscriptions which appears in the Report, two circumstances strike us. First, the great difference between one circuit and another. Some have a large list of liberal gifts, while others, of equal numbers and ability, have only a small list of small subscriptions. Second, the stationariness of the subscriptions. A brother increases in riches, and shows it in his residence, style of living, and extension of his business, but his subscription to the Mission remains the same. This should not be. Increased means should be followed by increased gifts to the cause of that God and Saviour who gives success in business, and who has made our wealth, whether little or much, a trust to be faithfully used to the promotion of his glory. When the Chinese Mission was instituted, we had a very large augmentation of contributions, in new subscriptions and in the increase of old ones. Many changes have occurred since that time; some, who were then comparatively poor, have become rich, and those who were rich have become more wealthy. Is it not the duty of both these classes to evince their gratitude by increasing their gifts to the Mission? That which God has given you in abundance the Mission needs; and he who has given it to you, and in giving it has constituted you his stewards, condescends to ask a portion of it in behalf of his own and our Saviour's cause; and in giving it with a willing mind you will find in it a happiness, which mere possession, though it included the wealth of the world, cannot yield you. Having this great work at heart in common with you, let us ask ourselves, What more ought I to give, seeing that God has so abundantly blessed me? The committee state that if our present operations are to be sustained, the income from the English circuits should be raised to £7,000 per annum. How much more then ought I to give towards that amount? He who gives quickly gives twice. In this case, if I decide quickly and liberally, my example will influence others, and thus my gift, like germinant seed, will be followed by a harvest of similar gifts. O Lord, help me, and help my brethren, to keep our hearts tender and our hands liberal toward thy cause!