CO129-018 - Others - 1846 — Page 297

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I cannot yet come to a decided opinion, whether an ordained Missionary, knowing something of surgery and medicine, which he could dispense at his private house, and in his preaching excursions, is preferable, or a pious physician associated with the Mission, and having a regular hospital-establishment for patients, at which he is to give regular daily attendance.

I cannot but think that the Society would adopt a measure which they would never have reason to regret, in sending out at once four Missionaries in the Spring of 1846; and the same number in the following year. In the present capabilities of this Mission, the expense of ten Missionaries would not be great, in the necessary absence of educational machinery, till the Missionaries are qualified by their knowledge of the written language to form Schools.

The Committee may perhaps be disposed to wait for more definite and detailed information after personal survey, which I allow is reasonable; and it shall, as soon as possible, be forwarded to them. I should be sorry, however, to hear that 1846 is to pass away without some of our Brethren arriving among us.

As Native houses or lodgings can, we hope, be obtained, there need not be at first any precipitate outlay for building, till we have felt our way for a time. The Mis- sionaries must divest themselves of many or most of the preconceived ideas of European life, or the state of things in British Colonies. Houses more or less confined in narrow close streets, will be, in all probability, their residences, if they wish to live apart from the mercantile community, and to increase their prospect of usefulness among the Natives. comforts of Hong Kong are not to be found in the heart of Chinese cities, nor are they necessary to a Missionary's happiness or usefulness.

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The more airy and spacious their rooms, the less will be the demands on their stamina and strength. But I am not sanguine, in the present state of things, that these will be immediately procurable. Such is the field on which we are entering; such the kind of Missionary work, to which we pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers. I have formed my opinion after so much deliberation, and intercourse with every class of informants, that, while I am fully alive to the responsibility of giving advice on so important a question, in which I trust

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I have sought and obtained guidance from above, I never- theless cherish not the smallest apprehension of incurring the disapproval of my views by the Committee when the future shall have tested their soundness. It will be borne in mind, that I have not made an actual survey of the different localities; and therefore this communication is to be considered rather as preparing the Committee, by the statement of the present bias of my opinions and views, for what will most probably be ere long my fixed and final recommendation.

When I have completed the exploratory tour, it will be seen how far, after personal observation of the several localities, my future communications may confirm, modify, or expand the principles and plan of operations laid down in this Letter. By the end of the present year, or the beginning of the next, I hope the Committee will have heard from me more in detail. I have scarcely a particle of doubt, that if one Station only is sanctioned by the Committee, the choice lies between Shanghai and Ningpo; and entertain as little doubt, that if the Society will enter on two Stations, as every other Mis- sionary Society has done, at least, Shanghai and Ningpo, considered collectively, offer the most inviting field in the whole of China.

I cannot close this lengthened communication, without respectfully impressing on the Committee the importance of entering the China Mission with something like an adequate force. It is my earnest prayer and hope, that our Mission here may, with God's blessing, ever be characterised, less by its numerical strength than by the elevated tone of piety, spirituality, zeal, patience, and love to the brethren, which should ever distinguish its members, as the surest earnest of China wants the blessing of God resting on their work. Missionaries of a peculiar order. Piety, however genuine, and zeal however fervent, unless tempered by practical judg- ment, and accompanied by vigorous activity of mind and body, will be only a partial qualification for a labourer entering on The difficulties, a field abounding with gigantic difficulties. however, are intermingled with many encouragements. Chinese are a hopeful race, and need only the transforming in- fluence of Christianity to raise them almost immeasurably above the rest of Asiatic nations. They are a quiet, kind, and inquir-

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