Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/118

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
93
THE FIELD FOR EXERTION.

or standing in each other's way. Piety the most exalted,—talents the most splendid,—may there find ample room for display; the greatest trophies of Divine grace will there be obtained, and the Gospel is destined to achieve more in China than has ever been witnessed elsewhere, mainly on account of the number of individuals to be brought under its influence. This then is the field for missionary exertions; the sphere where the most influential societies should direct their chief efforts, for until some impression is made upon China, it will matter little what is achieved in other more confined and thinly peopled regions. The conversion of a few islands to Christ, and the introduction of the Gospel to the extremities of a continent, resemble an investing of the outworks of heathenism; but the strong hold remains still untouched, and until China is evangelized, the greatest half of our work remains to be begun.