Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/98

 turning. He hath said, "I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear." And hath he said, and shall he not do it? hath he spoken, and shall he not bring it to pass? He can cause a nation to be born in a day, and even the conversion of so great and populous a nation as China, is not beyond the compass of Almighty Power; for, is anything too hard for the Lord?

But God does not need to be at the expense of a miracle, or to step out of the way of his ordinary providence to accomplish such an event. The plain preaching of the Gospel, by humble unassuming individuals, accompanied and blessed by the powerful energy of his Holy Spirit, will accomplish, in due time, the desired end; but, in such a way that the power will, after all, appear to be of God, and not of men. The character of the Gospel is diffusion; it is compared to a little leaven that gradually spreads itself, till it leavens the whole lump. The very instinct of Christianity is propagation; and no sooner does one obtain a knowledge of divine things himself, but he is anxious to make it known to others. Thus an individual converted under the reaching of the word, on the shores of China, like Andrew, on the coast of Galilee, first finds out his own brother Simon, and tells liim of Jesus of Nazareth. In this wav, one may be the means of awakening ten, and ten of communicating the same blessing to a hundred; and so they may go on, without any miracle, except that of grace, spreading and increasing in a tenfold ratio, till a district—a county—a province—and the whole empire