3. Another ground for encouragement is the character of the Chinese that are now in California. They have the mind and disposition of the mother country; nothing less, not much more. And what kind is that? We answer, it is that which created and still keeps the most ancient literature in existence. It is that which worked out for itself most of the inventions that made the fifteenth century remarkable in Europe, but more than a thousand years before. It is a mind and spirit that has obeyed, and does now obey, the fifth commandment more thoroughly than any nation upon the earth; that educates formally but more widely than any other people. It has had the tenacity and recuperative power to hold on to its ancient seats while Babylon was rising and falling; while Greece was coming to the zenith and sinking behind the Western horizon; while Rome was growing and dying; while mediæval Europe was going through its changes, and modern nations were being born and attaining their growth. All this time it has held on. What think you of the natural capacity of a soil that has produced such results, that has such staying power? It has lain long fallow, but let the process of breaking up their exclusiveness go forward; let the Gospel, not as a destructive force, illustrated by brick-bats and cannon-balls, but as a quickening power made beautiful to their eyes by the kindness and sympathy of those who profess its truths, be brought to bear upon them like the sun-light; and what harvests of righteousness shall not that great field bear for enriching the Redeemer’s kingdom! The soil here or at home has not lost its native force nor its receptive power. Yung Wing, picked up by a missionary in the streets of Canton, converted by the faithfulness of one of the mothers of New England, sent to Yale College, where he stood among the first in his class, especially in English composition, returning to his own land to reach one of the highest places in the government, and now leading one of the greatest educational enterprises in the world, and Jee Gam as a disciple and a preacher, are but illustrations of what this soil, found among the common ranks of the Chinese, is capable of producing. The twelve thousand dollars saved by the Chinese of California out of their hard-earned wages, and sent to the sufferers from the yellow fever in the South, proves that the common sentiments of our humanity are still surpassingly strong in them. The numbers and faithfulness of those who have joined the churches prove that they are susceptible to the influences of the Gospel, while the very tenacity with which they cling to their old faith but proves the toughness of the fibre that may some day be employed to conserve the interests of the Redeemer’s Kingdom.