than
in any other of this department, probably more than in any other part of
the province of equal extent and populousness. In the Tong-an district I
have inquired of persons from forty different towns and villages. The
number destroyed varies exceedingly in different places, the extremes
extending from seventy and eighty percent to ten percent. The average
proportion destroyed in all these places amounting to nearly four-tenths or
exactly thirty-nine percent.

"In seventeen of these forty towns and villages, my informants declare that
one-half or more are deprived of existence at birth.

"From the inhabitants of six places in Chin-kiang, and of four places in
Hui-an, if I am correctly informed, the victims of infanticide do not
exceed sixteen percent.

"In the seven districts of the Chiang-chiu prefecture the number is rather
more than one-fourth or less than three-tenths.

"There is reason to fear that scarcely less than twenty-five percent are
suffocated almost at the first breath."

It is altogether probable that this vice is just as prevalent now. The
scarcity of girls in nearly all the towns and villages and the exorbitant
rates demanded for marriageable daughters in some districts, only render
sad confirmation to what Drs. Abeel and Talmage wrote two score and more
years ago.

IS CHINA TO BE WON, AND HOW?

Mr. Talmage continues:

"I cannot close this letter without saying a word in reference to our
prospects of success. The moral condition of this people, their spiritual
apathy, their attachment to the superstitious rites of their ancestors,
together with the natural depravity of the human heart, and at the same
time their language being one of the most difficult, perhaps the most
difficult of acquisition of any spoken language, all combine to forbid, it
would seem, all hope of ever Christianizing this empire. But that which is
impossible with men is possible with God. He who has commanded us to
preach the Gospel to every creature, has connected with it a promise that
He will be always with us to the end of the world. The stone cut out
without hands, we are told by the prophet, became a great mountain and
filled the whole earth. The kingdom which the God of heaven has set up
'shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand
for ever.' Thus, whatever may be the prospect before us, according to
human reasoning, we have 'a more sure word of prophecy.' Resting upon this
we can hav