The American Missionary Association takes hold of the matter in the right way. It says: Let the Chinese come and be treated as men. Let them have the gospel preached to them, and be lifted into a civilization that is level with your own. Communism has not succeeded, so far. The politician has not succeeded. The American Missionary Association has shown itself able to grapple with the question. They have got hold of the right end of the rope. If they are encouraged by the churches of America, they will solve this problem. There appeared in the _Congregationalist_, some weeks ago, an editorial of great merit, in which this radical mistake was made: it was a sort of apology for the Chinese, because they were so few in numbers. It said they were decreasing instead of increasing. Why, Mr. Chairman, look across the ocean and see that great nation, covering one-tenth of the globe, and holding one-third its population. So crowded is it that millions (even more than our entire population) who never have a home upon land, are born, live and die floating upon rivers and canals. A more industrious race is not; neither can agriculture, which still ranks far above any other employment, be found anywhere else carried to such perfection of thoroughness. There is no idleness among these millions. The monstrous human ant-heap is astir. They are also an educated people, nimble in figures, as well as in all kinds of labor. There is but one written language for all the population, which has been transmitted, with even no dialectic changes, for at least 2,500 years. It is a nation industrious and frugal. We talk about the heathen Chinese, but we had better talk about the heathen Anglo-Saxon. What useful art is practised to-day that China has not had for centuries? What we count the great discoveries of modern science, may turn out not to be so modern after all. I saw a statement made within ten days, that it has been discovered that Edison’s phonograph was known in China two hundred years before Edison was born. China has a history--a record which cannot be ignored. We do vastly ill when we talk about the “heathen Chinee.” Their religion is something against which we set our faces; but their character is worth commendation. I was talking, the other day, with a gentleman who had passed the greater part of his life in China. He said there was not an element in the Japanese character that was not in the Chinese, and of the two, he considers the Chinese the more hopeful. In dealing with the Chinese, we are not dealing with refuse material. China is a great nation. It has its place among the foremost of the earth. It is a sad thing for this great nation of ours, if it cannot endure the little leaven on the Pacific Coast. Do you suppose it will affect the great mass of Christianity unfavorably?