Before this point is reached, providential circumstances, and personal tastes and proclivities, will probably have indicated clearly his department of labor. This, while it should not be desultory, should not be too much specialized. A variety of work promotes physical and intellectual health. Employments may be so arranged and affiliated that, instead of interfering with each other, they may be mutually helpful. This is specially true of study, teaching, preaching, itinerating and book-making. Each of these in the above order, is a preparation for that which follows; and the succeeding ones, by their reflex influence, stimulate and assist those that precede. Missionary life must begin with study, but it should not end there. All study or no study-too much study or too little-are extremes equally to be avoided. The results of study can only be assimilated and utilized by constant, familiar, and sympathetic intercourse with the people, and people of all sorts.

If I were asked, what in my opinion is the most important of all departments of mission work in China, I should not be able to answer categorically. All are important. The most important work for each man is undoubtedly that for which he is best fitted and to which he is specially called.

Book-making is the ripest and richest fruit of all. Its influence extends over nations and continents, and goes down to successive generations. To consider the different departments of missionary work in detail would far transcend the limits assigned to these papers. One branch, however, Itineration, claims our special attention, as particularly connected with the subject of the previous letters.

Itinerating. In engaging in this department of work we may certainly have the satisfaction of feeling that we are in complete accord with the great commission, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature," and also with the example of the great Apostle to the Gentiles.

While the active labors of this Apostle were largely made up of teaching, preaching, and writing, itinerating may perhaps be regarded as their distinguishing feature, and that to which he was specially set apart by the Holy Ghost. The great centres where he spent most of his time, were apparently not selected by him in accordance with a predetermined plan, but were providentially indicated to him in the ordinary course of his Apostolic tours. But most missionaries, however much they may itinerate, will require a fixed place of residence, that is, a home, in selecting which the chief consideration should be health, facilities for acquiring the language, and a place which is an influential centre in itself, aud affords easy access to the

unevangelized regions about it. Such a home the Apostle Paul had at Antioch, where he spent the intervals between his itinerating tours. When the time comes for practically answering the question, "How shall I make a beginning"? I should say as the Apostle did, "Go every where preaching the Gospel." You can not know where there may be some one waiting for you, and some one to whom you have been sent. Ask for direction. Christ's sheep will hear His voice. How shall we find them? Go every where, and wherever there are "Christ's sheep" they will respond to His call. Then you will have a beginning from which to work, and one of God's own choosing.

Assistants or Helpers. Our Saviour sent out his disciples on evangelistic tours two by two. There are many special advantages to be gained in a foreigner's being accompanied by a well-trained native helper, if such an one is to be had, the foreigner attracting an audience while the Chinese may possibly do most of the talking. Constant intercourse with a native is not only, as has been remarked before, the best way to acquire a familiar and practical knowledge of the language and native character, customs, and modes of thought, but it is also the best way for the foreigner to communicate to his assisant practical instruction, to develop his Christian character, and influence him for good. It is not easy, however, to find just such men as one would like, even in the older stations, and the young missionary may feel himself specially fortunate if he is able to obtain one. Still the work may be begun and prosecuted successfully without such a helper, and far better without one than with a person who is not a sincere and earnest Christian. Before the missionary is ready for itinerating he will probably have had in his employ for many months a personal servant who though he may not be a convert, if he is in sympathy with his employer, may be very serviceable on an itinerating tour. He will everywhere be the person applied to by the curious villagers to obtain all sorts of information about the character, mode of life, and aims and purposes of the foreign visitor. Indeed the fact that your attendant is not a professed Christian makes his countrymen all the more free in communicating with him, and gives additional weight to his testimony.

If your servant has been brought to Christ while in your employ, the fullness and warmth of his testimony will more than compensate for the want of credence consequent on being a coreligionist, and as such pledged to speak for you. In an early work in Ningpo, I had a Christian servant who was period of my to me invaluable. He was originally a servant of Dr. Martin. He was a tailor by trade, and learned to be a good washerman and cook. After becoming a Christian he accompanied me on

He was a tailor by trade, and learned to be a good washerman and cook. After becoming a Christian he accompanied me on my tours, attended to my washing, mending and cooking, and made himself generally useful, and at the same time was earnest and judicious in bearing witness to Christianity when opportunity offered. Most of those whom he met with were more easily reached by him than they could have been by a scholar, as they were nearer to him on the social scale and more in sympathy with him. I then felt with the other members of the Ningpo mission that he was too valuable a man to be employed as a servant, and he was induced to change his position in life, and was employed successively as chapel-keeper, colporteur, assistant, &c. I now think we made a mistake in not leaving him in the position of servant, and fear that he has never been as happy or useful since as he was in his original sphere of life.

Boatmen, cartmen, muleteers, aud wheel-barrow men in our employ, and inn-keepers with whom we stop, though not Christians, may be of great service to us, if their relations and dispositions towards us are such as to incline them to throw their influence in

our favor. On the other hand if they are prejudiced against Christianity or cherishing a feeling of resentment on account of real or fancied injuries, they may do us much harm. In fact, by their fault finding, exaggerating real wrongs, and repeating idle rumors, they may neutralize all our preaching. I once employed a muleteer who was an ill-tempered man and strongly prejudiced against Christianity. He, as I afterwards learned, reported wherever I went that the Chinese helper accompanying me was a cheat and a deceiver; and that morever most of those who entered our religion soon became insane! That this trip was not a very satisfactory one in its results need not be a matter of surprise. I am glad to be able to say that my experiences have not always been of this kind.

About six years ago, I was detained in a small country inn by a severe case of persecution which was exciting a great deal of interest in the neighborhood. At the close of a busy day one of my wheel-barrow men came to me and said, "There is a man here who lives near my home about twenty miles away, whom you would better have a good talk with. He stopped here for lunch at noon, became interested in what is going on, and has questioned me the whole afternoon about you and what you are doing. He has remained so long that he cannot reach home to-day, and will stay in the inn over night." In less than two years from that time this new acquaintance made a public profession of his faith in Christ. All the members of his family, which is a large one, are now

Christians; his home has become an important Christian centre, and eight or ten stations have sprung up near his native town, mainly through his influence. These two wheel-barrow men are persons constantly in my employ whether at home or on country tours. They are not as yet baptized, and at that time were not specially inclined. to become Christians; I often obtain from them important information respecting the villages through which I travel, and also hear from them faults and irregularities in my stations; some of which even the native helper has failed to discover.

JAMES CHAPTER V, VERSE 5.

(See page 148.)

BY HERBERT, A. GILES.

I beg leave to join the Rev. W. W. Royall in protesting against the mistranslation of a part of the above cited verse as given in the Delegates', in the Mandarin, and in Mr. Griffith John's versions.

I go farther than Mr. Royall. He says that the "turn" given by these three versions "may pass as a good commentary." I venture to think it is a wholly inaccurate, and therefore very bad, commentary.

The Greek text has undoubtedly been rendered correctly in the Revised version, as opposed to the incorrectness of the version of 1611. That is to say, the Revisers have ignored the misplaced ws, and have followed the Vulgate with their, Ye have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.

The meaning of this is simple enough, when read with the context. Yet the following "turns" have been given to it in Chinese :

Delegates' Bible. "You have given way to wanton pleasure in order to delight your hearts, as do sacrificial oxen and fat pigs while awaiting slaughter."

Mandarin. (Blends the two clauses which make up the whole verse into one.) "You, in this life, think only of extravagance and feasting, like animals which when the time comes for their slaughter are still gratifying their hearts."

Mr. John's. (Is identical with the last, except that the style is

faulty. Will any Chinese scholar justify

"like animals on the day of slaughter.)" A change of to would give the reader a better chance.

for

No wonder Mr. Royall asked, with unnecessary modesty, "Is this a translation of what the Apostle said?"

On the other hand, I think Mr. Royall himself has quite missed the point of the half verse under note. He says "As a day of · sacrifice, and consequently of slaughter, was generally a feast, it seems only fair to presume that the Apostle considers wicked men here, not as oxen awaiting the slaughter, but as men feasting to repletion and caring for naught else."

ye

Surely what St. James meant was this:- "Go to :rich men. Ye have been oppressing the poor and battening upon the good things of this earth etc. You have nourished your hearts, i.e. you have taken care of yourselves, in a day of slaughter, i.e. when others were perishing around you." The insertion of " would being out the meaning better:-"You have nourished your own hearts in a day of slaughter (for others)."

own

PICTORIAL REPRESENTATIONS OF CHRIST OF QUESTIONABLE PROPRIETY.

BY REV. JAS. H. JOHNSON.

IT T is a matter of surprise and sorrow to some, that many of the books, tracts, and papers printed for general distribution among the Chinese are illustrated in such a way as all evangelical Christians cannot approve. Judging from recent circulars, we may now expect illustrations to be employed more than ever before in China. But while the products of the Fine Arts are in the main admirable and useful, still their sphere is not unlimited; and it may be well to consider a few objections against pictorial or other representations of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are those who reason on the subject as follows:

The Second Commandment forbids us to represent God by any image; Jesus Christ is God; therefore the Second Commandment forbids us to represent Jesus Christ by any image.

This view is not new, nor without the support of high authority. For instance; Kurtz (a Lutheran) tells us, that Eusebius of Cæsarea seriously reproved Constantia, the Emperor Constantine's sister, for expressing a desire to possess a likeness of Christ, and called her attention to the Second Commandment. See Church History vol. 1, sect. 57. In John Allen's English translation of Calvin's Institutes, Book 2, chapter 8, we read; "This precept consists of