From a Chinese standpoint by its classi must a nation be justified, and by its classics must it be condemned. The Confucian classics they regard, as we all know, as the greatest treasure of the Middle Kingdom snd cupreine as literature among all nations under heaven. What reck they that the haughty barbarian from beyond the ocean has skill in mechanical contrivances, locomotives, steamboats, cotton looms and the like, so long as the Chinaman can rest complacently in the assurance that " wherever ships and carriages reach wherever the heavens overshadow and the earth sustaiius," there the works of thole great Sage are known nnd revered as ti product of the mind of him who is the equal of heaven EXPLANATIONS NEEDED, For many years now it has been evident that the missionaries, as a body, have ben of opinion that no mere translation of the Scriptures however elegant, however lucid, can suffice to convey to the average heathen reader an intelligent knowledge of the history and doctrine of Revelation, References to Jewish customs and men of ancient days, theological terms, and geographical names abound, and all these of necessity must either remain insoluble mysteries to the reader or be made to bear meaning far indeed removed from that of the original writer. To circulate even Gospela without note or comment, without accotapanying tractor introduction, is therefore to circulate bucks that cannot be under-otood and that are not calculated to win the respect of those into whose hands they fall,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.