issions among the Chinese
in our own country?

2. If so, of how much importance is it?

3. Who should do it?

4. If anything is to be done by us, how much should be done?

5. And is there any case of urgency about it?

To the first question we answer: Yes, verily! It is worth while.
There is no form of Christian missions within the circuits of the
earth more worthy of being done, and of being done with all possible
alacrity and vigor, than this. The American Missionary Association is
exactly the Society to do it. It is the glory of this Society to
hasten to the rescue of the despised and the exceptional races and
classes in our own land. It has already done grand things toward the
evangelization of the Chinese among us. It has set an example, most
conspicuous in the eyes of all the people, of definitely planning to
make known to this peculiar people the Gospel of Redemption; a Gospel
whose supreme peculiarity it is, that it is fitted to meet the inmost
necessities of all men, of all men alike.

The success in winning the disciples of Confucius to the cross and
the grace of Christ has been signal enough to show how completely
practicable the undertaking is.

If it were not worth while to press our missionary effort among the
Chinese right here in America, it would be absurd to talk of
missionary effort among the Chinese in China. The importance of this
work cannot be measured by its bulk. Nor is it to be estimated by any
census of countable immediate results. It is a kind of work, which,
according as it is done, or left undone; or as it is done with slack
and nerveless hand or with vim and vigor, will test the very
character of our churches; will touch the conscience and well-being
of the nation; and will, without a doubt, have vital and decisive
connection with the future of that most populous empire on the globe.

There is China, with its four hundred million souls, subject to a
single sovereign--a heathen empire. Here is America, Christian
America; the foremost republic among the nations, and soon to be the
leading power among the Governments of the earth. It holds already
the position of moral leadership in the far East. What shall be done
with this leadership? Right here in our midst are some two hundred
thousand representatives of that empire, every one of whom with
hardly an exception hopes some time to return to his native Orient.
What will the Christianity of America do for them?

There is an unmista