Some of you, perhaps, will remember what I used to tell you of the children, and men, and women, who had no Bibles, and who were ignorant of the true God, and of Jesus Christ the Savior of sinners. I can remember very well what some of the little children used to say, and how they used to look, when I talked to them about being a missionary, and of going far away from home, perhaps never to return. I did not then think of going so far off; indeed, I did not know where I should go; had some thoughts of going to Greece, or to Armenia. We do not always know what is best, but God does, for He knows all things, and will direct all things for his own glory; and if we love and obey him. He will make all things work together for our good. I am very glad I came to China, and I wish a great many more missionaries would come here. Before I came among the heathen, I had no idea how much they are to be pitied, and how much they need the Bible. Now that I live among them, and see their poor dumb idols every day, I desire to tell you a great many things which, I hope, will make you more careful to improve your own privileges, and more anxious also that the same blessed privileges may be enjoyed by all other children every where. Now, children, if you will look on your maps, you will see that China is situated in that part of the earth, which is directly opposite to the United States: so that when it is noon in one place, it is midnight in the other. The two countries, you will see, occupy nearly the same extent of the earth's surface. They are, also, bounded on the north and south, by nearly the same degrees of latitude. (China is situated a little farther south than the United States.) This makes the seasons,‑‑summer and winters, spring and autumn,‑‑and also the climate of the two countries, quite alike. But in regard to population, religion, and almost every thing else, they are very different from each other. China is a very ancient nation; and has, at the present time, a vast population,‑‑probably twenty or thirty times as many people as there are in all the United States of America. If there are, then, _three millions_ in the United States to be gathered into the Sabbath schools, and there Sabbath after Sabbath, instructed in the Holy Scriptures; there are here in China more than _sixty millions_, of the same age, who know not even that there are any Sabbath, or any Sabbath day, or any Holy Bible.