IV. The results and advantages already gained by Christian missionary effort in China, notwithstanding all difficulties, have been very great.

1. This is strikingly shown by the tables of STATISTICS given at the end of the volume under review. A few of the grand totals are here subjoined. To show the significance of some of them, it may be mentioned that in 1840 there were in all China only three native Christians in connection with Protestant missions. In 1877 there were 13,515 communicants in 318 Protestant Churches, of which 18 were wholly self-supporting, and 264 partially self-supporting; the native Christians having given during the preceding year an aggregate of nearly $10,000 for Christian purposes. It was only in 1842 that the five ports, Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai, were opened to foreign residents. In 1877 missionaries were residing in 92 different stations, most of them great central cities, from which 532 out-stations were reached. In the stations and out-stations referred to were 246 church buildings for Christian worship, and 457 chapels and other preaching-places. In connection with the various stations there were 31 boarding-schools for boys, and 39 for girls, together with 177 day-schools for boys and 82 for girls; in all, enrolling 5,739 pupils. There were also 21 theological schools, with 236 students; also, 115 Sunday-schools, with 2,605 scholars. The various missions also employed 73 native ordained preachers and pastors, and 519 assistant preachers, 77 colporteurs, and 92 Bible women, in addition to a total of foreign missionaries, male and female, of 473. Besides the above, there were 18 hospitals and 24 medical dispensaries, in connection with which were treated during the previous year 135,381 patients of all descriptions.

2. PRINTED LITERATURE. A great work, not easily reducible to statistics, has been done toward giving a Christian literature to China. This subject was ably presented to the conference by the Rev. S. L. Baldwin, D.D., of our own mission at Foochow, and others. Dr. Baldwin estimated that of Scriptures, religious books, and tracts, not less than one thousand millions of pages had been put in circulation by Protestant missionaries.

A classification of the various publications groups their topics and numbers as follows: Sacred Scriptures, 126; Commentaries and Notes, 43; Theology and Narrative, 521; Sa

cred Biography, 29; Catechisms, 82; Prayer Books, Rituals, etc., 54; Hymn Books, 63; Periodicals, 7; Sheet Tracts, 111; forming an aggregate of 1,036. As to the influence of this literature, Dr. Baldwin says:

Its effectiveness appears in two ways: 1. While we assume that few of our books have done no good, we are sure that many of them have done much good. We have positive evidence of the fact. And among these works are some which seem to be of sterling and permanent value, as proved by the testimony of our native preachers and others, who seek for and very highly prize them. 2. Our books are intimately associated with all our other agencies in the line of their greatest influence, and contribute powerfully to such influence. It is the books which have helped to advance our work to its present stage. Our converts are brought in by the truth of the books. The native Christians are spiritually fed on them. The schools are trained by them. The Churches are founded and disciplined by them. The religious work of hospitals and dispensaries is conducted through them. And the general enlightenment of the people and the undermining of idolatry are promoted by the same agency.

If so much can be affirmed of the Christian literature prepared for the Chinese during its first period, it seems quite safe to expect that still greater, if not better, influences may be secured hereafter, by means of a more perfect use of the language, and greatly improved facilities in printing.

3. The enlistment of NATIVE EVANGELISTS. In the statistics given above, it was shown that not less that seven hundred and sixty-one native helpers were, at the date of the conference, employed in the various forms of missionary work in China. All the missions concur in the policy not only of enlisting native co-operation as fast as practicable, but of ultimately transferring the great work of evangelizing China to Chinese Christians themselves. But, as said by one of the essayists, a native ministry is the ripened fruit of years of labor, of patience, and of growth, and is a living witness to the success of missions. The same writer, the Rev. John Butler, of Ningpo, also says:

A native pastorate implies a native membership, or organized Churches, and an advanced state of mission work. Perhaps no more suggestive method could be adopted of showing the progress made in mission work in China, than by comparing the disorderly crowd who listen to the missionary for the first time preaching the Gospel of salvation, with the quiet and orderly company of believers who assemble in the same place to worship

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God, and are ministered to by one of their own number. tween these two extremes there is a vast amount of work done which will never come to light.

A native Church, self-governed, self-supporting, and with her own native pastors, is the best proof we can have that Christianity has taken root in China; and that it is able to maintain its own existence and propagate itself without aid from abroad.

It is true that there are not in China at the present time a great many Churches that are entirely self-supporting; yet there are enough to place the future of Christianity in this empire beyond a doubt, and to justify all the time and labor that have been expended by mission societies. And when we take into account the good number of Churches that are partly self-supporting, and are rapidly approaching the standard of self-help, the future of Christianity in China presents a most cheering prospect to every friend of missions.

In every mission field the native pastor is regarded as an essential factor in setting up a fully organized Church. And the selection and training of men for this office is made an important part of the work of every mission society.

Every consideration that can be adduced in favor of the pastoral office in Christian lands will apply to China, and there are to be added to these, new reasons, growing out of the nature of the field, some of which I will point out.

1. The heathens get their impressions of Christianity largely from the men who are at the head of Christian congregations. When they hear of the doctrine of Jesus, they naturally look to those who are its teachers as the best exponents of the system. The pastor of a company of Christians in a heathen city is a conspicuous object, and his teachings and conduct are closely observed by those whose attention has been drawn to the subject of Christianity.

2. The native Christians look upon the pastor as the exponent of Christianity and the model of Christian living much more than do Christians in western lands.

Taking the progress made during the last fifteen years for our guide, the next fifteen years will show not only a few tens, but many hundreds, of Churches, and a goodly number of these will be self-supporting. The late Dr. Knowlton, of Ningpo, taking the ratio of increase between the years 1853 and 1868 as a standard, computed that in the year 1900 there would be more than two inillions of Christians in China. But supposing that this estimate is far too high, and taking a much lower rate of progress for our guide, the next twenty-three years in China will show a membership of many tens of thousands of native Christians.

Corresponding to the importance of the native pastorate, no inconsiderable part of the discussions of the conference was devoted to it, and to topics such as the following: "The best

means of elevating the moral and spiritual tone of the native Church;" "How shall the native Church be stimulated to more aggressive Christian work?" "The training of a native agency; ;""Itineration, far and near." The essays on the latter theme by the Rev. B. Helm, of the American Southern Presbyterian Mission, and the Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, M.D., of the China Inland Mission, are full of peculiar interest.

The concurrent testimony of both essays, and of the comments on them, was that China is wonderfully open to itinerant work, and that such work has been proved to be greatly useful as an agency for preparing the way of the Gospel, and of securing some of its best results.

The first essayist said: "Of all lands China presents one of the finest fields for itineration, and by no other means, I fear, is it possible to evangelize this nation for many generations." The second said: "My own firm belief is that as great effects would now be seen in China from similar (itinerant apostolic) labors as were seen eighteen hundred years ago in Asia Minor and in Europe; and that our difficulty lies, and lies only, in the obstacles which exist to our doing similar work.”

These views seem to have an equal application to foreign and native evangelists in China, and a most interesting comment upon them is to be seen in the list of conference appointments made of recent years in connection with our mission at Foochow.

The list of advantages thus far attained as steps toward the evangelization of China might be very much extended. It is to be counted as no small matter that the country has been so extensively explored, the customs of the people so generally comprehended, and its language and dialects so thoroughly mastered; also that so many different Churches, both of America and Europe, have become actively enlisted in co-operative work for its evangelization.

All this, accomplished as it were in a single generation of work, in obedience to the Saviour's great command, "Go, teach all nations," may at least serve as a pledge of the multiplied successes to be looked for as a result of similar work in the generations to come.

ART. III.-SANCTIFICATION.

THE recognized signification of the word sanctification in the Bible embraces three results: separation, consecration, and cleansing. Four words are employed to express, respectively, the action, the process, the condition, and the name of the result; they are: sanctify, sanctifieth, sanctified, sanctification. Originating with the ritual of the Jewish Church, and mainly physical and external in their primary application, they are accepted and used in the New Testament to express that which is wholly spiritual and interior of personal experience.

Special attention is given by the writers of the Christian Scriptures to sanctification. They name it as something pertaining to the system of redemption, and also as an advanced stage of spiritual life, for which they pray in behalf of those who were already Christians. Jesus says, "For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified. Sanctify them through thy truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word." And Paul prays, "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly -spirit, soul, and body."

What is that condition of being, or experience, which the Bible designates sanctification? An indirect answer is given by Paul thus, "Furthermore, then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you, by the Lord Jesus, that, as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. For ye know what commandments we gave you, by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification." This retrospect of the experience already attained by the brethren whose walk pleased God; this exhortation to abound therein more and more; this reminder of commandments already known, whose compass and climax was "even their sanctification," all indicate that it was an experience beyond the spiritual condition of those addressed.

A further exhibition of this sanctified condition is given in the following words: "The Lord make you to increase and abound in love, to the end he may stablish your hearts unblamable in holiness." And, also, in the assurance which Paul appends to his prayer for sanctification: "Faithful is he that