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THE CHINESE WORK.

BY REV. M. McG. DANA, D.D., LOWELL, MASS.

I never read any report of this, without feeling both humiliated and
inspired. Humiliated, because I have regarded the field so unpromising;
inspired, because such glimpses of gracious possibilities and
achievements are caught. We have been so incredulous as to certain alien
races, that we have only partially and feebly brought to bear upon them
the saving influences of the Gospel. We are not, indeed, responsible for
the presence of these Orientals in our land. Ours is a different
responsibility; it is for their evangelization, now that they have been
led to our shores. This work is laid upon us, and never was it more
urgent or hopeful than at this hour. It was one of the methods of our
Lord to arouse men to noblest service by reminding them of the
obligations imposed upon them by their circumstances and opportunities.

Whether the call came to them from a promising or unpromising field, on
them rested the duty of responding. In the great Sermon on the Mount,
our Lord, after finishing with his gentle and sweet benedictions,
abruptly turned and, with changed tone and impressive words, said to his
disciples, "Ye are the salt of the earth." On you rests the obligation
of becoming the conservative element in society. Confronting as they did
a decadent civilization and a vanishing religious faith and a general
heart-despair, they were to be the saviors of men. Pungent and
preservative as salt, are ye to be in the midst of a putrid age. Few,
too, as they were in numbers, and without honor as well, yet they were