following in the train of carnal warfare, tumult, and bloodshed. This is a time of all others, when the Church must look above and beyond the immediate actors to the great Almighty and all-wise Director of events.

Now, mark this, which I am going to quote from our Christian bishop-this strong and emphatic condemnation of the rulers of the land. And nothing can exceed the horrors-no, not the treatment of the poor peasantry of Wallachia by the Russians-the horrors perpetrated by the imperial army in the neighbourhood of Shanghai. There is no order amongst them; they pay for nothing; they pillage everything; they commit every act of violence that can be conceived: whilst the insurgents are orderly, pay for everything they require, and present a striking contrast to the conduct of the imperialists.

Such changes are impending over this land, as cast every previous period of its history into the shade. Every thing is ripe for the advent of better days. The cup of the ruler's iniquity is full; and in the glorious light and liberty of the Gospel, this people will become happy and free.

We wait and wonder, especially watching the extent to which these events will be deemed a call to missionary self-devotion by the Christian youth of Britain.

The last accounts that arrived from Shanghai tell us, that the city was still, in spite of many attacks made by the imperialists and by pirates brought in junks to aid them, in the hands of the insurgents, who had entered into communication with Tae-ping-wang's army near Pekin. This seems to be the last account that we have of the success that has attended this remarkable movement in China; and the conclusion, I think, to which we must inevitably come is this: first of all, that this movement is national. Not only has there existed the Christion Union to which I have referred, founded by Dr. Gutzlaff, but there have existed, so long as the Tartars have ruled in China, Triad and other societies-political combinations against the foreigner. The movement, then, is national. The people feel that they have been ill-treated, that they have been misgoverned, that they have been cheated of their rights, that those who have

been set over them have no claim to their respect or their affection, and they have therefore welcomed this attempt to overthrow a system of government in which they have no confidence, and for which they entertain no respect.

But the movement is also religious. I have said enough, I think, to prove that it is indeed religiousthat there are deep convictions at work; and when you think of the distance at which the patriot army now is from the base of their operations, and you hear of no counter-movement, it shows that not only do they feel that they are acting in sympathy with the national feelings of the country, but also that they are acting in unison with the sentiments they have put forth, and that they are meeting wants which have long been felt in the heart of the poor Chinese. It was when the Roman Empire had reached the zenith of its fame and power, but the greatest depth of moral degradation, that a voice was heard issuing from Galilee, which sounded forth and echoed on, until it brought peace and comfort to many a desolate heart-" Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest; and I believe that the leaders of this movement in China feel that the religion of Christ can alone give rest and peace to many a weary heart throughout that vast empire. The movement, therefore, is not only national, but also religious.

And there is one more characteristic of it, and it is this: it is eminently anti-idolatrous. It is against idolatry in every form and shape, whether it be the idolatry of Budhism or the idolatry of Rome. "They have," says one who informed Dr. Medhurst of what he had seen going on, "they have not only in many places exterminated the Tartars, to whom they have been opposed, but ́ they have smashed to pieces the idols, wherever they could lay their hands upon them, and have cast them into the river." But if you bear in mind that, before Protestants went to China, Romanists went there, and recollect the figures I have quoted as to the number of missionaries, and clergy, and bishops, and churches that the Romanists have there, and their zeal and earnest

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ness, and the vantage-ground they have occupied in the interior of China, and then ponder upon the fact that in this movement the people feel no sympathy with the Romanists, do not look to them for counsel or support, but, on the contrary, have manifested a most determined intention or desire to oust them from the land, and in some places have treated them with a cruelty which we could not sanction or approve of; then I do think that, in the history of Christianity, in the annals of Popery, a more stern or solemn rebuke was never administered to it than this, that in the great crisis of China's fate, in the hour of China's opportunity, there seems to be an intimation given to Rome, that she is to have no part and no hand in the blessed work of China's regeneration. A disciple of Confucius once asked him this question,— "How is a sage to obtain renown ?" "What," replied the philosopher, "is renown?" “To be known," answered the disciple, "by nations, and at home." "That," said

Confucius, "is not renown; that is only notoriety: true renown consists in a straightforward, honest sincerity, in a love of justice, in a knowledge of mankind, and in humility." When I read these words of the great Chinese sage, I was reminded of some other words spoken by a Christian sage, when, with great truth, he exclaims,"Some there be who desire to know merely for the sake of knowing-a mean curiosity. Some wish to know that they themselves may be known-a mean vanity. Some seek for knowledge, causa lucri-an avaricious baseness. Some desire to know, so as to edify their neighbours—a noble charity. Others, again, that they may themselves be edified, which is wisdom;" and I will add, that there are some who seek the highest wisdom of all, even a wisdom which cometh from above, in order that they may win souls to Christ; and that is the highest and noblest ambition that can fire the human breast. "You go," said Ignatius Loyola to Francis Xavier, when he was going to the East,-"you go, not to occupy only a mere province; a whole world demands your efforts. Go, kindle," he said, "those dark regions with the fire that glows in your own breast." O Christian friends, shall we not seek to kindle in the cities of China,

Shall we

and amongst the Chinese, the love of Christ? not seek to give to them that which silver and gold cannot buy, that which philosophy cannot teach, the knowledge of the love of Christ, and the hope of heaven? We have lived in days when we have seen how rapidiy events pass. How change seems to be stamped upon everything! How kingdoms are convulsed! And this movement in China itself is stamping instability upon the most ancient human institutions and governments. Oh! should not all this lead us to look to One who changes not, who is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever; and, though the darkness that has long brooded alike over barbarous Africa and civilised China, and the struggles that we feel in our own breasts, and the many, many evils that we see humanity suffering from, all over the earth, though all this at times impresses upon us the conviction, that clouds and darkness are round about the throne of the Eternal; yet may we lift our eye to the bright superscription which the finger of God himself hath written, "Unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom." For this has an overruling Providence ordered everything in the days of the past; for this great consummation, the establishment of the Redeemer's kingdom, is God ordering everything now. The glory of that kingdom will ever be the cross of its King. This, in the ages that have gone, has been the hope of the believer; the cross of Christ is the only hope of the believer now; the cross of Christ will be the wonder of angels, and the theme of the redeemed throughout eternity; and if we have a good hope for China at the present time in this day of her visitation, it is, that over the surging waters of anarchy and confusion there shall be carried, far and wide, the cross of Christ. May we, then, Christian friends, by our lives at home, by our efforts abroad, show that we enter fully into the spirit, and adopt the language of that missionary of old, who said, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Christ, by which the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."

LECTURE XIII.

A RETROSPECT.

BY THE REV. WM. CADMAN, M.A.,

RECTOR OF ST. GEORGE THE MARTYR, SOUTHWARK, AND PRESIDENT OF

THE AUXILIARY.

I CERTAINLY do not stand before you to-night, my Christian friends, under any nervous apprehension that I shall have nothing to say, and not know how to spin out the time. The subject is "a retrospect," and it is expressed so generally, that one might make it a retrospect of almost anything; but what the Young Men's Society intended by the expression was, that there should be a sort of summary given of the various lectures to which your attention has been directed in this place for the last three months. Now, when you think that each speaker occupied an hour, and some speakers more, and that I have to bring the matter into the compass of an hour myself, you will, perhaps, sympathize with me in having a little apprehension, although of a different kind to that to which I have referred. Still, I shall endeavour to put the subject before you in as interesting a light as I can. I certainly am reminded, when I think of the variety of the subjects, of what an Irish clergyman calls a poor man's pie." He was once speaking on a platform, and he turned to an English clergyman, and said, "Do you know what a poor man's pie is?" No," he said, "I don't." "Well," said the Irish clergyman, "it is a pie made of all sorts of scraps of meat, and some potatoes, done up together; and it is just like the English language. The Irish language is all pure and genuine; but the English language is made up of a bit of Saxon, a bit of Latin, a bit of French, and a bit of Greek,

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