Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/24

2 field spreads itself out before the mind, as one of vast extent and interest; the importance of cultivating this field appears to be of incalculable magnitude; the difficulties which threaten to impede the progress of Divine truth in those regions ought not to be overlooked; while the existing facilities for conducting a series of operations for the benefit of that interesting people should be allowed to animate and encourage us. An allusion to what has been done, to what is doing, and to what remains to be done, may not be unsuitable; and a prospective view of the contemplated results, when these designs shall have been fully carried out, may properly conclude the whole.

China demands the attention of Christian philanthropists, with regard to the antiquity of its origin, the extent of its territory, the amount of its population, and the advance of its civilization. In nearly all these respects we shall find that it rises superior to every other unevangelized country, and stands forward with a prominence, which bespeaks it the greatest of pagan nations.

Commencing with the early history of China, we may be allowed to correct an error into which many have fallen, relative to the assumption of an extravagant chronology by the Chinese. It has been generally supposed that the Chinese maintain an antiquity of myriads of years, and that their historical records, stretching far back into the vista of more than a thousand ages, are at such variance with the comparatively recent account of Moses, as to oblige us either to question the one or the other. This was, at one time, gladly caught at by the sceptics of Europe, and they thought that they had discovered, in the high antiquity