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A WORD SET UPON WHEELS.

We remember being much struck by a little story, shewing that a word fitly spoken," or, to use the expressive Hebrew reading given in the margin, a "word spoken upon wheels," even by the weakest and youngest, is precious as gold and silver. One day, a boy was tormenting a kitten, when his little sister said to him, with tearful eyes: "O Philip! don't do that; it is God's kitten!" The word of the little one was not lost-it was set upon wheels. Philip left off tormenting the kitten; but many serious thoughts were awakened regarding the creature that he had be fore considered his own property. "God's kitten-God's creature; for He made it." It was a new idea. The next day, on his way to school, he met one of his companions, who was beating unmercifully a poor starved-looking dog. Philip ran up to him, and, almost unconsciously using his sister's words, he said: "Don't, don't-it is God's creature!" The boy looked abashed, and explained that the dog had stolen his breakfast. "Never mind that," said Philip; "I will give you mine, which I have in my basket;" and, sitting down together, the little boy's anger was soon forgotten. Agair. had a word been unconsciously set upon wheels. Two persons bye heard Philip's words,-one a young man in prosperous business in the neighbouring town-the other, a dirty ragged being, who, in consequence of his intemperate habits, had that morning been dismissed by his employer, and was now going home sullen and despairing. "God's creature!" said the poor, forlorn one-and it was a new idea to him also-"if I, too, belong to God, He will take care of me, though no one else will.” Just then he came to a public-house, where he had been in the habit of drowning his miseries, and then staggering home to inflict new ones on his wife and children. He stopped-the temptation was strong, but the new idea was stronger: "I am God's creature!"—and he passed on. His wife was astonished to see him sober, and, still more, when he burst into tears, declaring that he was a ruined man, but that he was determined to give up drinking, and to trust in God. At that moment a knock was heard at the door, and the gentleman came in to whom we have before al luded. He, too, had been rebuked by the boy's words for the scorn and loathing which he had felt to the miserable object before him." God's creature! therefore entitled to help and pity!" We need not detail the words of hope and comfort

-the promise and the performance of active assistance which, in a short time, lifted up the poor man's head, and made him one of God's thankful and joyful "creatures." It would be well for us all, old and young, to remember that our words and actions, aye, and our thoughts also, are set upon never-stopping wheels, rolling on and on, into the pathway of eternity.*

CHINA.

CHINA has become a name of transcendent and absorbing interest. After thousands of years of ignorant superstitious, jealous, barbarous idolatry, it is now to be restored to the fellowship of nations, and, we hope, to the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have heard a great deal lately-not too much, for all has interested us-of the discoveries which have been made at Babylon and Nineveh. The tombs of these ancient empires have been discovered, entered, and their mouldering relics brought out to adorn our museums, and, what is still better, to verify the great facts of Scripture history. I yield to none in the interest which I take in these matters; but what are Nineveh and Babylon now to China? With Nineveh and Babylon are associated the holy recollections of the past-with China the glowing anticipations of the future. The entrance to the tombs of Nineveh and Babylon was to bring out the relics of a dead man, as it were; but the revolution of China is opening the prisondoors, and bringing out a living one to light and liberty, to action and enjoyment. The inhabitants of Nineveh and Babylon have gone to their eternal destiny, and we cannot extend to them the benevolence of a missionary, a Bible, or a prayer; but to the 360,000,000 of the inhabitants of China we can send missionaries and Bibles, and invoke the blessing of God upon our exertions. Nineveh and Babylon will not now, as they once did, add to the domain of the Redeemer; but China will be-and think me not a prophet in thus speaking-the largest ruby that is to blaze, the most precious diamond that is to sparkle, in the diadem of Immanuel. That diamond is at present, I admit, surrounded with its earthy incrustations and impure admixtures; but if there be any truth in prophecy, if there be any meaning in Providence, the process of grinding is going on; and when its faces are polished, and it is placed in its

Work; or, Plenty to do, and how to do it. By Margaret Ma Brewster.

intended receptacle, its hues shall flash with the rays of the Sun of Righteousness, delighting every beholder, and exciting the gratitude of every Christian who has prayed for the conversion of that vast empire. God is in history, my lord; for my part I hear His voice calling, I see His finger beckoning, I feel His hand drawing, I mark His footsteps leading-to China!

I shall be thought, perhaps, a little enthusiastic; but if enthusiasm mean ardour beyond what the cause justifies, imagination prevailing over judgment, I maintain, my lord, that there can be no enthusiasm in our views, feelings, and actions, with respect to an empire that has onethird of the population of the globe within its compass. I know very well that China is not yet converted to God, and I am quite conscious that we do not allow any mere visionary schemes and proposals to take possession of our minds. My own views, my lord, are these,-that before China is converted to God great convulsions must take place. The deposits of superstition and moral corruption have been going on through so many ages, and have formed such tremendous strata there, that there can be no breaking them up till there have been most terrible disruptions. The stagnancy that has held up that empire so long can never be purified but by awful storms. Therefore let us stand prepared for some considerable time to elapse before China will yield to the missionary and the Bible, and be converted to Christ; and we must not be astonished if, after all, considerable defeats arise to puzzle and perplex our faith; but what a scene was that which the gentlemen on board Her Majesty's ship Hermes, off Silver Island, beheld, when one of the broad rivers of China was covered with the remains of idols and buddhas, twenty feet high, floating onwards to the ocean, perches for the sea-birds, or seeming monsters to affright the credulous and ignorant mariner! This, as one has observed, was not to cast the idols to the moles and to the bats, but, at any rate, to the gulls and the fishes. Here, my lord, is much to encourage us. We are not the abettors of the cruelty, fanaticism, and intolerance of the insurgent army; we do not stand by, exulting spectators in witnessing their distempered and destructive zeal, which, rolling onward like lava bursting from a burning volcano, consumes everything in its course; but we do know, that the insurgent army has adopted, in a mutilated and partial form, our holy religion; and it would be criminal indifference to the interests of China, to our own obligations, and

to the honour of Christ, if we did not take advantage of the opportunity that is thus afforded us of pouring in the Scriptures and missionaries to that empire. My lord, let me tell you, that if you neglect China, there are those that will not. For ages upon ages the conversion of China has been a cherished object in the Vatican of that corrupt Church which quails not before the mightiest, nor despises the meanest object of its zeal-which will not contemn the conversion of a beggar, nor shrink from attempting the conversion of an empire.

At one time, thirty young priests sent a request to the Propaganda Society, with their names signed with blood drawn from their own veins, and requesting to be sent as missionaries to China; so that we must be upon the alert, or the Church of Rome will outstrip us in zeal. Whoever gets possession first, is most likely to be successful. Now, Protestants, I say to you: Fill China with Bibles, and they will keep out the priests; for if you let China be filled with priests, they will keep out the Bible. Therefore, let there be an effort to the uttermost, as we are making it, to send the Scriptures to that vast empire. And, my lord, there is another event in Providence coincident, in a very extraordinary manner, with the present opening in China, which is akin to it in its moral bearing, in its locality, and in the time of its occurrence,-I mean the opening of Japan to intercourse with the world. Russia, my lord, with the remorseless cupidity of a vulture, has pounced upon Turkey, has fixed her talons upon the provinces, and is whetting her beak for Constantinople; but, by an act more worthy of a great nation than this atrocious aggression, she has persuaded Japan to open her ports to the world. Now, it is well known that the educated classes in Japan speak the Chinese language as generally as French is spoken by the educated classes in this country; and, though the two spoken languages are different, the written language is the same. The Chinese character is used by the Japanese; so that the very Scriptures you are sending to China may find their way to Japan, and thus the whole of these mighty empires may be thrown open to the operations of Christian missionaries, and to this Society, and other societies of a kindred nature. All this, my lord, shews the importance of the exertions that have been made to send the Holy Scriptures to China. Oh! what a thought was that of Thomas Thompson, Esq., when he put out the idea of a million Testaments for China! My lord, we ought to be very

careful of our thoughts,—a great and good thought sometimes does wonders. Why, it was a single thought out of which this institution sprung-the thought of Joseph Hughes, that a little more exertion than was necessary to found a society for furnishing the Welsh with Bibles, would do to found a society that should furnish the world with Bibles. Let us take care, when a good thought visits our imagination, what we do with that thought-let us not destroy it, for a blessing may be in it. Now, this thought of Mr. Thompson has led to what we have heard this morning; and never was a thought more cordially, generally, promptly, and efficiently carried out than this. The expression has been echoed from the mountains of Wales: A million copies of New Testaments for China! -it has reverberated from Scotland-it has risen from every city, town, and hamlet in Great Britain; and even poor Ireland, weeping from the banks of the Shannon, has taken down her harp, and, amidst all her sorrows, has struck a note of joy in a thought of sending a million copies of the New Testament to China! It has come back to us from the Continent, returned in verberation from America, and from almost every other part of the world; and here, today, we have it announced, that not only have the million Testaments been subscribed for, but nearly, if not quite two millions! and who can tell what it may reach?

Now, my lord, may I tell you, just for a moment, what we did in Birmingham,-because it may, perhaps, furnish instruction as to how a similar thing may be done elsewhere? I said to my good people one morning, after a sermon that was, of course, a little intended to get up the feeling for the occasion, that, as their pastor had taken some part in the movement, the world would ask what his people had done for it. "Now," said I, "go home, think over the subject, and after dinner gather round your tables, and let there be a family subscription; the husband first; the wife, as she ought to be, by the side of her husband, next; the children following; let the servants have a part too; and then bring the papers in the evening, and we will collect your promises"-for we had but lately remitted nearly L.500 as our subscription to the London Missionary Society, so that I could not ask for the money just then. I said: "If you will give me your promises, I will trust you till Christmas. See how much you can subscribe, and then at Christmas we will have the money." The congregation broke up, and met, of course, again in the evening. When the second hymn

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