Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/11

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INTRODUCTION.
v

described; and the attempts to carry the Gospel by means of Scriptures and tracts along the coast of China are delineated. This review is concluded by appeals for more agents and increased facilities for the vigorous prosecution of the work, as it is only when we use the appointed means that we can consistently look for the Divine blessing on our labours.

The short time that could be spared for preparing this work for publication must necessarily have occasioned many defects in point of style and arrangement. Sent forth when very young on this important mission, occupied during his whole stay abroad in studying foreign and difficult languages, and accustomed to write and speak for the benefit of Mahomedans and heathens, it can hardly be expected that the author should be skilled in European composition. Public engagements, for the first year after his return to England, called him incessantly from home; and it was only during the retirement of the last winter that he has had the least opportunity for arranging his thoughts on the subject now discussed. Being about to quit his native country during the present summer, to revisit the scene of his former labours, it was necessary that he should begin to print almost as soon as he began to write, in order to have the book published before his departure. He must cast himself, therefore, on the indulgence of the public, hoping that the circumstances under which the information contained in this volume has been collected and communicated, will