that a change has come over the people; and that a foreign lady of tact, of polite manners, and with ability to conduct a conversation fluently in the Chinese language, would find access to almost any family, especially in North China. But how few such there are! Exclusive of the wives of missionaries occupied with domestic duties are there fifty? And what are these for China? Who then is the exaggerator? You or I?

It has been the fashion during the few months past for you and others to talk about my dealing in exaggerations. Is this one of them? I hope I have a due sense of the responsibility of speech; and I never write a sentence without careful consideration. I know what I say and I look upon exaggeration as lying.

Chefoo, 13th July, 1886.

A. WILLIAMSON.

[Had the above communications come from almost any one but Dr. Williamson, we would have declined to print them without modifications. Missionaries may differ widely, while still recognizing the purity of others' motives, and rejoicing in others' successes; and much good may result from discussions thus conducted. EDITOR]

MR. EDITOR:

SANITARY SALVATION.

"That they may have life, and may have it that they more abundantly," Christ is now made known to the Chinese people. The word life has a wondrous breadth and depth of meaning. It involves ultimately the health, the salvation, the well-being of the whole man, body, soul and spirit. It implies neatness, order, cleanliness, physical comfort. Spiritual salvation is of course the germ out of which all physical and social well-being sooner or later develops. But the process may be hastened by judicious and frequent instruction. It is to be feared that very few of the Chinese Christians understand the precept: "Glorify God therefore in your body." The teaching of this and similar commands we may not relegate to the busy medical missionary, as being more in his line. We also should hammer away at the native helpers till they learn the rudiments of sanitary salvation, and through them the rank and file of the members may be taught. This aspect of Christianity, though of subordinate importance, ought at times to be the subject in the sermon or in the Sunday school.

It is admitted that the native Christians, as a rule, have better health than their non-Christian neighbors under similar conditions. This is owing probably to temperance, Sunday rest from toil, and the influence of faith and hope. But the difference would be more marked, if we took more pains to teach the Christians sanitary laws

and penalties. Cleanliness of the house and person ought to be the sign of spiritual purity and order. Too often this outward and visible sign is wanting. Ague and typhoid fevers are in the puddle at the door, where from sheer laziness all slops are poured. Death lurks in the dish-rag. When itinerating, and prompted by kind feeling as well as hunger, you have accepted the hospitality of a native Christian, have you never eaten a bowl of steaming rice perceptibly flavored with the odor of the ancient rag with which the bowl had just been wiped? Oh the nastiness implied by the character! In our region it is "ka" in colloquial, a potent word of manifold use. It atones for all non-use of soap, water, and muscle in cleansing. It suggests a dingy rag which may be used to swab off the greasy table, to mop Ah-sin's reeking brow, and then to polish the rice bowls. Think too of the horrors of the narrow, overcrowded sleeping-rooms, dark, damp and filthy, the bedding very rarely washed or even aired, and standing as near the bed as possible the pestilential wooden,, removed perhaps once a week and brought immediately back having had no contact with sunlight or hot water. Let us not be too squeamish to speak of these things. They will not regulate themselves. As to the mass of the people we can effect little. He that is filthy let him be filthy still. But surely the Christians can be taught to cleanse themselves "from all defilement of flesh and spirit." Medical missionaries might do good service by preparing concise and pointed tracts containing sanitary advice. The tracts would better be in sheet form for free, though not indiscriminate, distribution. We often waste breath in trying to prove the claims of Christianity. But whatever helps to make a Christian Chinaman a cleaner, decenter, healthier, more comfortable man, is a valuable help. Brethren, let us, in a spirit of love, voice our ceaseless protest against all that mars the health of our people, against footbinding, against the gulping of food unchewed, against (literal) hydrophobia, and against all nastiness abstract or concrete, teaching the Christians the meaning, scope, and potency of the great word SALVATION. M.

1

Echoes from Other Lands.

The Wesleyan Missionary says of its Mission in Central China:"Every branch of activity is increasing, both in intensity of work, and in the number of agents, and there never were more candidates for Church membership, nor more interested hearers of the Word."

The Rev. C. B. Henry writes to the New York Evangelist of a recent visit to the aborigines of Hainan. "A few weeks among these aborigines, called savages by their Chinese neighbors, impressed us favorably as to their character and readiness to receive Christian instruction. We visited about fifty villages, some of them large and populous, and were every where received with friendliness and treated with hospitality. There are probably fifteen different tribes, whose customs and language vary, and their number is very great. They inhabit several large plains, beside the whole mountain region of the interior, and everywhere show the same friendliness and accessibility. They were greatly pleased with the proposition we made to open schools, and send Christian teachers among them. And I feel sure that when once work is begun, they will quickly respond to the call of truth, and come in large numbers to receive instruction."

The Secretary of the China Inland Mission, Mr. B. Broomhall, has, as we learn by English papers, issued a volume entitled The Missionary Band: A Record and an Appeal. The first part is a record of the farewell meetings, voyage to China, and early experiences in China, of the five Cambridge graduates and two military men who came out in February, 1885, in connection with the China Inland Mission. The second part, consists of extracts from various sermons, speeches, and articles upon missionary topics. The Church Missionary Intelligencer says of this second half of the volume: "It is one of the most powerful appeals for Foreign Missions issued in our time, and altogether perhaps the best handbook that exists for preachers and speakers in their behalf. There is little or no original matter in these eighty quarto pages. Mr. Broomhall has effaced himself. But, as a piece of editing, this half of the book is a master-piece; and its contents of the most varied kind and gathered from all quarters, have been selected with rare discrimination."

The Missionary (Presbyterian, South) has a letter from Rev. Mr. Johnson of Hangchow, in which he says regarding preaching in the street: "I was impressed by the remarks of numbers of passers-by, who did not join our audience. The remarks gave me to understand that it is well known we preach about the God of heaven, and about Jesus, and to feel that some knowledge of Christianity is already disseminated among this people more widely than we sometimes suppose."

Our Book Table.

* Ling-Nam, or Interior views of Southern China, including Explorations in the hitherto untraversed Island of Hainan, by B. C. Henry, A. M., Author of "The Cross and The Dragon." London: S. W. Partridge and Co., 9, Paternoster Row; 1886.

consequently a very appropriate | Hall Chamberlain suggests in an

title for Mr. Henry's new book of travels in Southern China. The volume consists largely of narratives of journeys already published in the China Review, and the Chinese Recorder, and the author is warranted in hoping for a favorable reception of this volume. The portion of special interest is that which relates to the Island of Hainan, "which is here laid open for the first time to the reading world." Mr. Henry made good use of his recent vacation to the home lands in the publication of his two interesting and valuable works on China and the Chinese.

The China Review for May and June is laden as usual with learning. Dr. Edkins discusses The Yi King; Messrs Chalmers, Edkins, and Parker express their views about the Tau Teh King, and Mr. Giles replies with characteristic spirit; Mr. E. H. Parker tells of Chinese Relations with Tartars ;" and there are the usual number of Notes and Queries, all but one of which are from the indefatigable pen of Mr. Parker.

66

article on the "Past Participle or Gerund?" that the former term be dropped by foreign grammarians of Japanese, and that they adopt the term Gerund for the verbal forms in te.

Dr. Eitel's Educational Report for 1885, reflects great credit, both on himself and on the Government of Hongkong. Would that the Foreign Community of Shanghai exhibited a tithe of the interest in educational matters. There were 90 schools under Government inspection in 1885, in connection with which 5,833 children were enrolled, and the total expenditure was $36,092.03, or $6.18 a pupil. The Central School had 412 pupils; the Government Schools, outside the Central School, had 790 pupils, costing Schools had 406 scholars, costing $3,570.80; the Aided Government $1,707.68; while the Grant-in-Aid Schools (denominational mission schools) had 4,041 scholars, and cost the Government $14,593.38. The total number of children in the colony, between 6 and 16 years of age, is estimated at 18,000; of whom 5,833 are in the 90 schools under Government supervision, some 1,800 in about 100 private schools, leaving 11,367 uneducated children in the colony. Dr. Eitel remarks that, "The Government Schools, while abstaining from religious teaching in the Christian sense of the word, provide the moral-religious teaching of Confucianism, because it is inseparable from the teaching of the Chinese classical language, and in the case of six schools, add to it purely secular English teaching.... The educational policy of the Government, whilst abstaining from all interference with religious teaching, has, during the last twelve years, practically had the effect of encouraging distinctly religions education," a result effected through

Part 1 of Volume XIV of the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, is before us. Rev. James Summers and James Troup have articles on Buddhism; the first on "Traditions concerning its introduction into Japan," and the other on the "Tenets of the Shinshiu or True sect' of Buddhists." The latter article gives facts gathered from a native publication issued in 1876, by the sect itself. A learned article on the "Abacus," by Cargill G. Knott, treats of its Historical and Scientific Aspects, and maintains that its origin is foreign to China and Japan. Its home historically is in India, but Aryan Indians probably borrowed it from Semitic peoples who were the traders of the ancient world; and these may have received it from the Accadians. Mr. Basil the Grant-in-aid Scheme.