EXTRACTS FROM THE JOURNAL OF A MISSIONARY IN CHINA, WITH A SHORT LETTER TO CHILDREN.

The Rev. M. Fearnley has been but a short time in China. He is stationed at the large Chinese free port of Fuh-chau. The first extract which we give refers to his earliest attempts to preach in Chinese.

"Dec. 19,1856—The first four days of this week I have been down preaching in the streets ; and I trust now, if God gives me grace and strength, to continue in the same. Of course I still speak with a stammering tongue, but I am able to do somewhat, and come really into contact with the people, and hear their questions, and see their manners. My first effort was in the main street, the most thronged of all the city; not by my design, but by a man at a shopcounter asking me for a book, and my subsequent getting into conversation with him, and gathering a crowd about me, excited by their curiosity to see a foreigner. After I had spoken some time on the threshold of the shop, a barber, who was pursuing his avocation close by, suggested that I should mount on a stone breast-work, which he pointed out on the other side of the way. I followed his advice, and all the people came along after me, and others besides added themselves to the number, as a larger space gave standing-room for many more. Here I stood by the space of more than an hour, endeavouring, according to my knowledge of the language, to preach among these Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Of course I went down with earnest prayer that God would be with me, that He would look with mercy on my effort, and bless, if it might be, my weak words to some good that day. Oh, that is a blessed sentence for a poor helpless Missionary— 'My strength is made perfect in weakness.' In that promise I go gently and quietly down, for it is God's work, and I endeavour to feel that I am nothing in myself, but merely an instrument which God will use, when, and where, and how He pleases; that He will guide me where to open my mouth, and how to employ it when opened; as well as that He will open the hearts of the hearers to receive the precious seed of this His own word. 'We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord;' and, remembering Him whose great name alone we would exalt, we use great boldness of speech.

"Jan. 7, 1857—The other day three Chinese gentlemen came in to visit me, and see my house—scribes and elders of their land. We had partaken of their hospitality a few days previously, having been invited to tea at their own home—an opportunity wo had of course embraced for giving them, and their many well-educated guests, a summary of the gospel; and as this was their first introduction to my teacher, with whom I was studying at the time of their entrance, I left the conversation, after the first preliminaries, to him, myself merely listening. I could hear them first inquiring as to my food, my dress, my country; and then to what class of men in China I could be compared as of the same kind, as they knew I did not trade, buy or sell, neither was I an officer of Government. He told them that I had come over the sea to talk a book, which I called a sacred book, that spoke only of one God, a great, almighty, all-good God, and Jesus Christ, His co-eternal Son ; and that I esteemed this Son, this Jesus, at once man and God, as higher than their holiest men— Confucins, Mencins, and whoever of them had instructed their fellow-men. 'Ah!' ' Oh!' was their' slight, cold, civil answer. And so it is: when I tell them that God speaks in this book, that the words it contains are not of man but of God, they smile in my face, and think I am some arrogant boaster, who wishes to set up his own country's goods above all the rest of the world. But he that plougheth must plough in hope. The Master is ever at hand to keep and sustain the weary labourer. 'Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts;' and none who has been privileged to enter on the Missionary field but would gladly and thankfully add his testimony that Christ's service there is no hard one. If his sufferings abound, his consolations likewise abound; and while, in faith and in patience, we scatter the seed, we are cheered ever onwards by the allsustaining promise, 'My name shall be great among tho heathen.'

"But now I dare say you will all be wanting to hear something about the Chinese—what they are like, and how their talk sounds. There are little girls and boys here, much like yourselves, with eyes just as black, and cheeks just as smooth, but with no Bible to tell them of the graoious, loving Saviour, who said, ' Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not;' and took them,up in His arms, and laid His hands upon them, and blessed