an gllllg Wif e

I love her with a love a s sti ll ’ As a broad ri er s e a cefu l mi h v p g t , hi h b hi h tower and ow mi W c , y g l ly ll ,

o s wanderin at its own i G e g w ll ,

And et doth e er flo w a ri ht y v g .

And on its fu dee bre a st serene ll , p , m duties lie Lik e quiet isles y ,

It flow s arou nd them a nd between ,

i n r And ma k es them fre s h and fa r a d g een , i i ” Sweet ho mes wherein to l ve and d e .

Low ell .

P REFATO RY NOTE .

The substance of the f ollowing pages was given to the students of the Theological School of Boston University in a series of addresses in 1 November, 9 04 . The students and others ex pressed a desire to have them in more permanent

and fuller form than their notes . They were not t e delivered from manuscript . The task of one writing has been a slow , not only, nor , perhaps , chiefly because of lack of time from the life of a a busy missionary, but because the changes in Chin have been so rapid and sweeping during the last three years that any utterance except prophecy is almost sure to be o u t of date by the time it reaches the American public , unless it is telegraphed and S published in a daily newspaper. o that there is no intention to make this little volume a vehicle of news . The periodical and daily press must be at relied upon for that . There is , however, an tempt to discuss the trend of events , and to indi cate the direction of the Eastern breezes by a f ew straws here and there . Y PREFATOR N OTE .

The Evolution o f New China seems like a more pretentious title than so small and inc om p l et e a discu ssion deserves : but to discover the laws o f evolution it is not necessary to investi gate

every species , and that in every stage of develop o ment . It takes only three p ints to determine the center and the circumference of any circle ; and upon that principle the Evolution of New China may be indicated without making the discussion

an encyclopedia . This evolution must be upon

: four distinct lines political , industrial , intellectual ,

and ethical . These are all dwelt upon as fully ’ ’ as the author s space and time , and the reader s patience , seemed to permit . The political evolution has been so rapid and so fluctuating of late that the question uppermost in the minds of most of the students of the China “ ? " situation is , Will it be Evolution or Revolution That a great political crisis is approaching be comes more and more manifest every day . The conservative forces among the highest ofii cia ls have been very active and successful of late . Charges and counter charges or impeachments of high officers are pouring in upon the aged Dowager and the weak young Emperor in most bewildering pro

fusion . The last high mandarin who has secured “ an audience is the man of the hour, and it is r fi “ ” often a ve y literal , not a g urative , hour. The counter charge that usually follows is quite as i l kely to be believed . The various cliques of pro 2 P F Y RE ATOR NOTE . g ressives and conservatives are still further divided by the deeper chasm that yawns between Manchu and Chinese . With almost universal suspicion and t ffi widespread enmi y among the highest o cials , and with the alien dynasty held nominally by a weak and childless prince , but actually by a woman past f seventy years of age , both o whom are frequently r r rep orted ill , it is plain to the most casual obse ve that a political revolution o f some kind is not far distant . Let all friends of China and of humanity pray that it may be a bloodless one . But however s it may come , ultimately it will make for progres in modern civilization ; it will open wider the doors o f Christian opportunity , and add heavily to the responsibilities of Christendom speedily to bring the personality and power of humanity’s only Hope within reach of every one of China ’s four hundred and thirty millions . Since the chapter entitled Centenary Cur ” r rents was written , the great Centena y Confer S ence has met in hanghai . The most interesting debate of the Conference was upon the proposi tion to call upon all Christendom to unite in found ing a great Christian University f or the highest post- graduate work in all lines of modern pro S f essiona l and technical training . ome of the strongest speeches of the whole session were made upon both sides of this great question . The final decision , after prolonged discussion in Conference E a nd committee , was that the permanent duca 3 PREFAT ORY NOTE . t ional Committee appointed by the Conference be left uninstructed upon the subj ect , to act as it E sees fit . The ducational Committee , consisting o f nearly fifty o f the most representative men of the whole missionary body , having an executive committee organized with Shanghai as hea dqua r c ol ters , is commissioned to strengthen the existing ofli ce red leges and secondary s chools , and is by several of the strongest advocates o f the University scheme . Now let a group of the great philan throp ists come forward with the cost o f a Dread ” naught, to mold the New China into a Christian civilization by means o f the highest Christian leadership in every line o f useful endeavor . But the keynote o f the great gathering was

Christian unity . And this did not mean merely

o f i a nebulous harmony spirit , but a def nite look ing towards organic union in one Church of Christ E in China . arly in the session the Conference

o f - one appointed a group eight sub committees , o f for each the various large Church families , as P Baptist , resbyterian , Congregational , M ethodist , a nd o - so n . These sub committees were to seek to

bring about organic union in their own group . P As a matter of fact , the resbyterians have a l ready formed one P resbyterian Church in China , and others are following hard after . Then fol lowed the most significant and dramatic event of

s . that memorable twelve day Doctor Gibson , one 4 P RE FAT ORY NOTE .

of of the two presidents , the Conference , who was also chairman of the committee on the “ Chinese ” Church , proposed Resolution VII ' While the appointment o f these committees contemplates the form ation of six or more Church organizations for the Chinese

Church in the first instance , it is the earnest hope o f this Conference that these Chinese bodies , with the assistance and advice o f the foreign mission aries , may from the first prepare to unite with each other in the closest practicable bonds o f

Christian fellowship , either in organic ecclesiastical

or union , in a free federation , as they may be led by their own interpretation of the mind of Christ, and by the guidance given them in the providence o f o f God , and through the teaching the Holy ” Spirit . Amidst quiet but intense excitement this far- reaching and indeed most ra dical resolution was put to “ this great representative and con servative body of nearly five hundred missionaries and carried without a dissentient vote . It was not sprung upon the Conference ; the printed reso lutions had been in the hands of the members for three days ; the discussions had been deliberate and P in thorough . The Divine resence was so real that Martyrs ’ Memorial Hall that it could scarcely have caused surprise had the visible person o f the Master Himself appeared in the midst of His disciples , and they had heard His voice as He 5 P A Y REF TOR NOTE .

i breathed upon them , saying , Rece ve ye the Holy ” S ’ Ghost . urely in China , at least, the M aster s prayer that the disciples “ all may be one ” is in the process o f speedy fulfillment . The evolution o f one Christian Church from the many, i f real i z e d E , will be the supreme factor in the volution o f h New C ina .

I IAM REWSTER . W LL N . B Hi n hua China uf ooc o 1 ia F h w 0 . g , , , June 4 , 9 7 C TE T ON N S .

CHAPTE R P AGE

1 . THE GREATNEss or NA CHI ,

THE P T A P ARADox II . OLI IC L ,

III E E AT . HIGH R DUC ION,

IV. G A E AT ENER L DUC ION ,

THE I ST A P M V . NDU RI L ROBLE ,

’ C A S T R O HIN RIUNE ELIGI N ,

VII THE EA Y M S S S OF C A . RL I ION HIN ,

I I . A TYP A M S S F L V I IC L I ION IE D ,

. S P R T A FO ES IX I I U L RC ,

. THE IND N S C X IGE OU HURCH,

. CE TE A Y C NTS XI N N R URRE ,

! II . CENTE A CA LS N RY L ,

U IL L STRATI ONS .

— racing Page ANNIVE RSARY OF THE ANTI - FOOT BINDING SO

CI ETV,

A CHINES E P LEAS URE GARDEN

THE EMP EROR KWANGS U AND THE EMP RES S WA DO GER,

HIS E! Y A C A E! T BY CELLENCY U N H NG , ECU ED P A O ERI L RDER ,

A F ASS S P H LL O CL IC , EKING ,

A T MP CONFUCI N E LE ,

A - C S H S NGLO HINE E IGH CHOOL,

A S ST T P BU Y REE IN EKING,

A TA TO A P L R HE VEN, EKING,

S T T MP P BUDDHI E LE, EKING,

P STS AT A B ST M AST RIE UDDHI ON ERY,

AST M A O S AT P RONO IC L B ERV ORY, EKING ,

HU Po - MI THE F S T CH S P A F HK E , IR INE E RE CHER, U I N M S S I ION,

SUMMER COTTAGES ON MOUNTAIN NEAR HINGHUA C T I Y,

No H NG- AU HIS M T AND Two S . o B S , O HER , ON ,

W AM NAST M M A C A ILLI E ORI L HURCH , HINGHU ,

CHAPTER I .

THE GREATNESS OF CHINA.

THE average man of this generati on has been

a ccust omed t o look upon the Chinese as a joke . “ ” John Chinaman the washerman , with stolid sub e c face , almo nd eyes , and Manchu badge of j

tion hangin g down his back , is not a figure to

command respect . We have laughed at him , and t oo Often despised him , when we have taken

the trouble to think of him at all . We can have little interest in the work of Christianization and ’ civilization o f the world s most populous empire until there is in our hearts a profound respect

for and appreciation of this mighty nation . We ’ must recognize China s potential greatn ess . We must be able to distinguish between causes that make for temporary weakness and the properties that insure ultimate strength . Our proposition is that The qua lities inhere nt in the la nd a nd i ts i n ha bita nts will pr oba bly pla c e Chi na a mong the ’ g rea test of the world s e mpires befor e this new c entur ha s rea e s y ch d it meridia n.

- I . CHI NA Is GREAT IN MATERIAL RESOU RCES A great people ought to have a great country in which to grow . If they do not , they must get 1 1 THE EVOL UTION O F NEW CHINA.

possession Of on e away from home . Greece was

small and poor , except in brains ; but nothing more

was needed f o r the Greek to dominate all lands . He colonized and conquered his whole known L “ world . ater , Rome sat upon her seven hills , ” ’ littl e isl and E , and ruled the world . ngland s is

not much to boast of . Her meager resources have been used marvelously well ; but to make the

mother country what she is , it was necessary to U create a greater Britain across all s eas . pon the

s other hand , America is va t in extent and has

latent wealth unlimited . The land is great enough S in itself to be the home of a great people . uch For o f F r is China . thousands years the lowe y Kingdom supplied the wants o f a highly civilized

and numerous people , without any foreign com m erce whatever . A rapid inventory of the re sources Of the Middle Kingdom reveals astonish in f or g possibilities the future , as well as amazing

present development .

The question is Often asked , What is the climate Of China ? As well make a S imilar in La 'fmdfl uir q y concerning North America . That depends or F upon whether you are in Alaska in lorida . o f China , inclusive Mongolia , extends all the way from the fif ty- fourth parallel to the eighteenth , or - d o f through thirty six egrees latitude . That is forty-five per cent wider than the United States of America , exclusive of Alaska . The American

i - Republ c stretches only from the forty ninth par. 1 2

THE EVOL UT ION O F NEW CHINA.

conquests Of American deserts are prophetic for

the future of these Central Asian wastes . In the “ twenty- on e provinces of China P roper and s M anchuria we find one million , even hundred and

twelve thousand square miles of territory , nearly O f all o f which is richly productive . This part the empire covers more than half the extent Of o f the United States America , with its three million square miles spread out under God ’s sun

s light and stars . I f Jo eph Cook was right when he declared in his famous lecture entitled “ Ulti

mate America , that his native country embraces “ the largest contiguous body of arable land in the ” world , then it is equally true that , while Russia

must be given second place , yet China stands ’ third o f the world s empires in this important

feature of national greatness . M any Americans think of the Chinese as a

o f . nation laundrymen The fact is , they are the ’ Pr od u t - c world s most painstaking agriculturists . The i v' enet t amazement O f the Observing foreigner at the patient industry and S kill of the Chinese farmer

never ceases . There are farms in Ohio , after less — than a century Of cultivation and that o f only — one crop a year which are so deteriorated that they will not sell for half thei r value o f a gen c E ration ago . New ngland is so covered with abandoned farms that it has become a fad for

city people to buy them for summer cottages . But China is made up largely o f fields that have 1 4 THE GREATNESS OF CHINA.

produced never less than two , generally three , and sometimes even four crops a year for a mil l ennium past , and they are as productive now as they ever were . This is not so much due to the ’ soil s extraordinary fertility , as to the skill and

o f industry the cultivators . They know the value , and they constantly use as fertilizers , not only

- night soil and the manures universally in use , but

- also ashes , bone dust , lime , sulphur, and even

~ nitrogen in the form o f bean and peanut pulp . They go to great expense in order to fertilize their fields thoroughly for every crop . They do all this without any knowledge o f agricu ltural chemistry . They literally put back upon the soil off everything that is taken . It has no chance to deteriorate . As there is every phase of the tem perate and tropical zones , except the central tropics, so have they every variety of product . We are prone to think of China as a great tea plantation . In truth , this best known product is ’ but a small fraction of China s agricultural out

. t put Though rice is their greates cereal , yet wheat and millet are everywhere ; cotton is grown in vast quantities ; sweet potatoes cover millions

- of acres ; beans , peanuts , sugar cane abound ; in

, digo tobacco , and hemp are plentiful ; while , alas ! the beautiful but deadly poppy flourishes increa s in l g y over all the central and southern provinces . of Most the fruits that Western nations prize , the Chinese have long enjoyed in abundance . We 1 5 THE EV OL UT ION O F NEW CHINA.

n s , invite our vi s itors to ba ana , pomelo , peaches

E , plums , pears , grapes , loquats . xcept the berries fl ou r most o f the fruits grown in America have

s ishe d in China f or centurie , and they have sev eral very delicious varieties that are as yet almost

unkn own t o Western countries . While the greater part of the surface Of China has been worked to the outside limit by these

bsoil s be su p a tient and skilful hu bandmen , the wealth Re’oum ’ ne a th the surface has remained almost untouched . i . s now However , the treasure is there It gen e ra lly admitted that the coal deposits Of China is are probably the riche st in the world . It known

to exist in every province . L ike many other

things , the Chinese discovered and used coal long E E before uropeans knew its value . ight centuries

s ' P ago , that famou Venetian traveler , M arco olo , wrote : It is a fact that all over the country Of Cathay there is a kind of black stone exist t ing in beds in the moun ains , which they dig out

and burn like firewood . It is true that they have

do no t plenty Of wood also , but they burn it , ” s 1 becau e these stones burn better and cost less . It is established beyond question that the Chines e s f or u ed coal fuel long before the Christian era .

S O But their mining methods are primitive , their m o f o so eans transp rtation are expensive , and their e sup rstitious fear Of fu ng s hui and the dragon ha s

. ' 1 o te rom e s M r P o o ' o vol . I Q d , . i n W , m u f Yul a c l p 3 95, illia s Middlfl m l I n o vo . . 0 . Ki gd , , p 3 4 1 6

THE GREATNESS OF CHINA.

- been so deep seated , that the vast deposits are still practically untouched . The latest and highest authority upon the ” topography of Eastern Asia is The Fa r E ast

( Oxford , by Archibald Little , for over

" o forty years resident , traveler , and student f the

' re a t oa l Orient . In describing the g c and iron beds o f S the province of hansi , in North China , lying

o f P P just west the Chihli rovince , in which eking L “ S is located, Mr . ittle says ( page hansi S P is , in hort , a second ennsylvania ; its vast coal measures spread over twenty- five degrees o f the meridian . These coal and iron strata are said to belong to the Old carboniferous forma tions ; the deposits are inexhaustible ; the c oa l s ea ms r ea c h a s muc h a s or t ee t in thic kness f y f , s n and lie mo tly u disturbed , and are easily worked , resting as they do on a horizontal limestone ” foundation . One of the first results of an awak ened China will be the opening of these extensive coal deposits . Iron is also found in abundance and very

. widely distributed In many places , as in Shansi , it is found in close proximity to coal . Gold was produced in fif ty- two localities a quarter of a cen

, - tury ago and silver in sixty three places . Silver

and copper are the basis of Chinese currency . r Gold has neve been utilized , except in the arts . ore Copper exists in every province , and in sev a eral pl ces is found practically pure . The prov 1 7 THE EV OL UTION O F NEW CHINA. especially ince of Yunnan , in the far southwest , is L rich in this valuable metal . ead , zinc , and tin o f are also abundant . Many deposits all these

o ores are , r have been , worked by primitive not methods , and the time is certainly distant when modern skill in mining , and improved means o f transportation , with the cheapest labor on earth in great abundance , will place these vast deposits among the greatest wealth- producing mineral beds in the world . In the far western province of ’ S z h e - - c u n, the celebrated Tze lin ching artesian wells , from fifteen to eighteen hundred feet deep , have been bored f or salt . When they have not struck the salt water they have generally found natural gas . By crude bamboo pipes they have s utilized thi gas to boil the brine—, thus securing salt by evaporation . Think of that centuries before

Andrew Carnegie was born , or P ittsburg was 2 founded . S o here we have a people living in a home stretching through the best parts o f the temperate and tropical zones . They have a soil fully as no productive , a climate less salubrious than

America . There is potential wealth beneath the a s is soil as abundant found in any land . It is a goodly heritage . The heir to such an estate must needs be indeed a foolish and wasteful . no t prodigal , . if he does develop into one of the o f richest among the family nations .

2 T e se t s re r n m n e r l s a r e ’ h fac ga di g i a cull e d chi e fl y from Williams Mi e in om ol I - v . . 0 1 2 ddl K gd , , pp 3 4 3

THE EVOL UT ION O F NEW CHINA.

s t o lation . This race solidarity is ure be a power ful element in making of China a mighty factor ’ in the world s future .

The Chinese physique is remarkable . What other country can produce men by the scores o f Gr vm illions who are able t o pick up a load o f from HZ yu mzy one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty

r pounds , and car y it twenty or even thirty miles f o r ? in a day , and keep that up almost daily weeks The average American who walks empty- handed twenty-five miles in a day wants the remainder

o f the week to get over it . For strength and

no . endurance , the Chinese coolie has equal But sheer physical force is n ot the most unique quali ty Of the Chinese laborer : rather is it his adapta bilit a ll y to zones inhabited by civili zed man . We N have him in orthern M anchuria , in the latitude o f North Dakota , and there he seems to be in his normal climate as much a s the Cossacks them s P selve . In the eking region he swarms Over that

Chihli plain , and he flourishes along the fortieth w ell parallel as as the Buckeye or the Hoos ier . Then we find nearly tw o hundred million Chinese

in - the great Yang tse Valley . Here they are in ou r S the latitude Of Gulf tates , and they are as much at home in their rice and cotton fields as

are the negroes in Dixie . But even that is not

the most amazing fact illustrati ng this feature o f

Chinese physique . Nearly one thousand miles

Y - south of the mouth of the ang tse , in the Kwang 2 0 THE SS O F GREATNE CHINA.

Provinces , largely within the tropics , you find forty millions of Cantonese , which many consider the best type of the whole race . When the Anglo

Saxon arrives in that latitude , he Wilts . In Hong kong most Englishmen limit their ofli c e hours to E S from four to five a day . xposure to the outh China sun without a thick hat will prostrate the average Caucasian ; the Mongolian is indiff erent whether his head is protected or not . But let S us take another flight . ail twelve hundred miles S farther south ; we are at ingapore , within one f degree o the equator . In this great B ritish colony the Chinese do nearly all the really pro ductive work . The native Malay has little talent and less industry . The great silver and tin mines o f the Malay peninsula are worked by Chinese labor . And these yellow miners adapt themselves as readily to that changeless summer as though l they were b acks from Central Africa . So , we have the hardy Celestial all the way from the latitude Of Manitoba to that Of the mouth of the

Amazon , and he seems to flourish equally well everywhere . The Mongolian is the only race which com bines energy , brains , and business talent in a high degree , with a physique that flourishes in the ’ tropics . This fact means much for the world s

. future development There is Borneo , with an area of two hundred and eighty- four thousand square miles ; equal to the great States of M ichi 2 1 THE EVOL UT ION OF NEW CHINA.

gan , Indiana , Illinois , Wisconsin , and M innesota o f combined . Here is one the richest countries in natural resources and fertility on this planet o f a continent , with great rivers and vast forests

precious timber . It is now a wilderness . But

the Chinese have discovered it . Only five or six — — years a g o in the year I g O I a shipload of

Chinese families , mostly Christians , went from F New oochow to found a colony in Borneo , called

F . oochow They have done well , and more have

followed . That one island is capable of sustain

ing one hundred million Chinese , and then average only three hundred and fifty to the square mile about the present figure for the whole Yang- tse

Valley, and a less density than is found in many

- parts of China to day . And these myriads will be living there and flourishing a few centuries

f or s hence , the Chinese alone , of all the race , can furnish both the physique and the brains to develop e s th e vast tropical wastes . It seems probable that a very important fea ture o f the future influence Of the Chinese race

Conquest upon the peoples of the E astern tropics will be o f 22 32 1 3; the improvement the native stock by amal

g am a tion . It is conceded by the best Observers that wherever the Chinese intermarry with the women of these tropical tribes the result is a

marked improvement in the racial type . Doctor S f or Doremus cudder, many years superintendent Of the American Board of Missions in Hawa i i , 2 2 THE GREATNESS O F CHINA.

recently told the writer : O f the many races

- found at that cross roads of the P acific highways , the best type was the Offspring o f the marriages ' ” Of Chinese men with Hawaiian women . Bishop F W . . Oldham has made a S imilar declaration , in the Northwestern Christian Advocate , regard ing the people o f the new American island em F pire , and the ilipino women . The same is true o f Burma and M alaysia . It is in a high degree probable that a few centuries hence many Of these weaker tribes in the E ast Indian Archipelago and P eninsula will have been merged into a new and

. better race, Of men which is predominantly Chinese

Fo r in the issue of these alliances , it is invariably the Chinese that preponderates . This is true even “ Old o f Chinese Eurasians . The Chinese type is extraordinarily persistent , and this is seen in the

f E to- mixed Of spring of uropeans and Chinese day , in which the Chinese type persists even to the ” quadroon o f the second generation . It is seldom that Chinese women go to these foreign countries . Fe P rejudice against it is very strong . w , ex cept occasionally native Christians , take their families with them ; while the m en go to M alaysia by shiploads from the ports Of South China .

ne 1 0 During the O month of August , 9 5 , from the single port of Amoy , five steamers carried two S thousand , six hundred and ten coolies to the traits Settlements ; and this was not an unusually large

“ " 3 The Fa r st Ar it t e x or x o . 2 1 . Ea , by chibald L l , O f d, g s, p 2 3 THE EVOL UTION OF NEW CH INA.

s S monthly number . The port Of watow and o f Canton furnish a s many more . Many these s never return to China , and those who pro per , and

s stay there , mu t make alliances with native women , o f re i f they marry at all . This kind conquest

f o r quires generations its accomplishment , but its results are more permanent than the victories of

o r . an Alexander , a Napoleon , even Of a Dewey But the most magnificent physical development

s will make only a big booby, unle s that strong

ea t Gr bo d . o f y is the home a clear, vigorous mind . I ntell e ' E ur o ea ns s na ffy p and American generally regard the l ot is n o Chinese as a stupid . It t unnatural that S I n they hould . America we judge them by the

average specimens we see , and they look dull

enough . But if they are so very unintelligent , a s O compared with other riental races , when did they become so ? During the past half century ? Be fore that time the Chinese were the intellectual Of leaders all their known world . E ven brilliant

Japan sat at the feet Of Chines e Gamaliels f o r

tw o s more than thou and years . Japan g ot her

classical literature from China . Chinese literature

i s ff n ot s e ete , though u eles s . It ha s elements of

real greatness . But it is written in the most laborious and difficult mode o f expres s ing thought s O f ever devi ed by the mind man . The written

language never was spoken . It consi sts Of about twenty- f our thousand distinct hieroglyphic charac

ters , made by from one to forty strokes of the 2 4 T HE GREAT NESS O F CHINA.

s five little brush pen . A scholar mu t know or six thousand of these so perfectly that he recognizes . them as automatically as the Western student does the letters o f his alphabet . And yet the written language resembles the spoken as little as French is like L atin . The foreign missionary wishes to send a letter to a native preacher . He dictates it to his Chinese amanuensis almost as rapidly as

s he would an Engli h letter to a stenographer, and it is taken down in this laborious character . There are tens o f thousands of literary men in China who can do that . The nation that can cultivate ff literature as a passion , using such a di i cult mode o f expression , must have extraordinary mental vigor . But has not their devotion to this pedantic style of learning really u nfitt e d the literary Chinese for practical modern studies ? No doubt the ma orit j y of this g eneration of literati , who are already past middle life , never will enthusiastically take up “ ” what they call Western learning . Our hope with the Chinese , as with all other backward peoples , lies with the younger men and youth of the nation . But when young China undertakes to master the learning of the Occident , he shows the same brain power that made his ancestors the schoolmasters of the Orient for thousands of years .

f o r Doctor George B . Smyth , nearly twenty years the e fli c ient president of the large Anglo- Chinese college at Foochow , is authority for the following 2 5 THE EVOL UTION O F NEW CHINA.

’ one o f S instance . A few years ago Doctor myth s

s F former pupil , after. graduation at oochow , went t o Ann Arbor for a medical course . He stood very high in his classes there . Having concluded that it would be to his advantage to take a diploma

s a s t o from a British chool , he expected practice S t o in the Engli sh colony at ingapore , he went one Toronto t o complete his course . In year he graduated from the Toronto Medical College at ’ s S the head o f his clas , taking the Q ueen s cholar it s ship , which carries with a sub tantial reward of

e fiv hundred dollars , and is the highest honor that

can be w on by a medical student in Canada . He was off ered a position on the teaching staff o f Ann

U s . Arbor niver ity, which he declined It would be ea sy t o multiply example s illu st ra t ing the intellectual power o f Chines e in Western E s schools as compared with uropean student , but

it might weary the reader , and add only unneeded

proof to a generally admitted fact : that . many Chinese young men and a few young women have

E e been educated in American and urop an schools , and it ha s beenthe exception when they have not

s acquitted themselve creditably , and Often they off have carried high honors . The number o f these young people who are going abroad f or study ha s l greatly multip ied of late . Mr . D . Willard L ’ yon , editorial secretary of the Young Men s s o f Christian A sociation China , after a very care o f ful investigation the subject , reported that at 2 6

THE EVOL UTION O F NEW CH INA. the Chinaman has an aptitude for sharp finance not equaled by any other money- changer in the ” World . Mr . Beveridge does not even except not Yankees or Jews . The fact is , the Jew does

You . flourish in China . seldom see one there ’ After General Grant s tour around the world , he told Senator Stewart that the mo st astonishing thing which he had seen was that wherever the

Chinese had come into competition with the Jew , ” 5 the Chinese had driven out the Jew . An ancient

Jewish colony in the province Of Honan , at Kai

- P . f u w a s . . fung , visited by Doctor W A M artin 1 in the year 8 66 . He tells us that he could not — find even the ruins o f the synagogue only the cornerstone o f the foundation marked the S ite . Doctor Martin a sked if there were any o f the s o f I raelite race in the crowd curious onlookers . Several men with the universal Jewish features came forward and sadly confessed the low state to which they had fallen ; all knowledge o f their S criptures gone , their synagogue torn down , its 6 s f o r very beam and stones sold food . In what country except China would the Jew , Without per secut ion , reach such a state of poverty as that ? You will find the Chinese assistant in all the Fa r E banks in the ast , even in Yokohama and

Kobe , in Manila and Singapore . The reason for this is because o f both their e fli c iency and their

“ 5 Ne w or e s in n A . . row n F c Old Chi a, by , e e om n 1 0 J B R v ll C pa y , 9 4, page 41 . 6 ' “ M r t n s e of t e e om n 1 8 2 a i Cycl Ca hay, R v ll C pa y , 97 , p . 7 5 . 2 8 H SS T E GREATNE O F CHINA.

trustworthiness . The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation is one of the strongest fina n c ia l houses in the world . They have branches in nearly every important trade center in the Orient . When a prominent Englishman retired from the management about ten years ago , at a great fare in S well banquet given his honor at hanghai , in response to a toast , he paid this high compliment “ to the Chinese employees Of the bank : This corporation has been , doing business in the Orient for a generation , and has employed hundreds of Chinese assistants in places o f responsibility ; but we have neve r yet lost one dollar by the defalca tion of a Chinese employee . Unfortunately this t oo speech was made a little soon , for not long o f after , quite a serious case default was disc ov

ered , committed by a Chinese compradore in

S . one hanghai But only case in a generation , ’ among hundreds , is a record that the world s his o f ffi t tory banking would find it di cult o parallel . The same business capacity is shown in gen eral commerce that is manifested in finance .

Again , to quote Mr . Beveridge : Your China man is the world ’s . most careful and persistent — t oo small merchant and large merchant , , for that ou r matter , as y will soon lea n i f you take pains to investigate into the heavier commercial t ra nsa c f tions of China . In short , the inhabitant o the F lowery Kingdom , who is disgracefully negligent ff o f government and o f all civil a airs , is the most 3 2 9 THE EVOL UTION O F NEW CHINA.

industrious and careful toiler , the most ingenious and persistent merchant , and the most alert and

‘ advantageous dealer in money now o n the face o f

r“ the globe . The writer would not put it quite so sweepingly as M r . Beveridge , but applies that statement to the nations o f the Orient without any s reserve . An American , resident for many year

ho - a nd in Nagasaki , w has been deputy consul , also

- how acting consul at that port , described the

Chinese shoemaker , right there in Japan , would take the trade from his Japanese competitor . “ John makes shoes in his shop , but he has a boy on the jetty watching f or the the war- ships coming W in . Nagasaki is the popular inter harbor for all

P . bo the European acific fleets The y sees , far

in- down the Narrows , the smoke of an coming

- — of . man war , and runs back to tell his master ’ John s apron is o ff and hat on in less than a minute . He is on board that S hip as soon as it has cast

anchor . He goes from forecastle to cabin with ‘ s s ? his ample and the laconic question , Makee shoe ?’ makee shoe In an hour he has a dozen orders . His Japanese rival sits in his shop and waits for

no customers who do t come . Soon the Chinese

has the Japanese shoemaker in his shop , working ” by the day, while John is getting rich . At Kobe “ a prominent educator was asked , Why do you , a s mis ionary to the Japanese , patronize a Chinese

7 “ Th e s s n A n e r e r rot ers S e na tor A e r t Ru ia dva c , Ha p B h , by lb J .

e e r e 1 0 . 2 . B v idg , 9 4, p 3 3 THE GREATNESS OF CH INA.

” r grocer ? His reply was , A Chinese t adesman e knows how to treat a custom r, and a Japanese ” does not . The world has just awakened to the great

Christendom by their valor and generals hip . Their statesmanship in peace is not inferior to their

us skill in war . But it will give more correct q u alities of the Japanese . They have astonished views of the whole Oriental situation if , at the same time , we get some knowledge of the less admirable points of the Japanese character ; and it is agreed with practical unanimity among the for e ig n merchants o f E astern Asia that Japanese

s merchants , as a class , are less tru tworthy and less L capable than the Chinese . est this important ’ item in the argument f or China s ultimate su p rem a cy in the Fa r East seem to be supported only by general statements o f possibly prejudiced not persons , below is quoted the opinion , of an “ o f outside critic , but one of the foremost of n S Japanese merchants and fi anciers , Baron hibu ” sawa . This prominent Japanese nobleman , in an “ article in the June - July number o f Japan and ” 1 0 America , 9 3 , gives the following analysis of “ the business defects of his countrymen : There

‘ e are , however , four p eculiariti s in the Japanese character which make it hard for the people to

: F im achieve business success . These are irstly ,

l e s p u siv ne s , which causes them to be enthusiastic during successful business , and progressive , even to 3 1 THE EVOL UTION O F NEW CHINA.

rashness , when filled with enthusiasm ; secondly ,

lack o f patience , which causes easy discouragement s disin when business is not so succe sful ; thirdly , the d o no t clina t ion f or union ; and fourthly , y

h o nor cr e dit a s the s ho uld c n y , whi h is so importa t

a factor in financial success . These four peculi a rit ies are to be met wi th in Japanese business “ or men in a more less marked degree . ( Italics

ours . ) The comparatively low rank in the social scale traditionally given to the tradesman in Japan is doubtless an important reason for this anomalous

s o f characteri tic high political probity , coupled

so c ons ic u with the opposite in commercial li fe , p ous in the Japanese national character . Trade

s having been socially di creditable , it has n ot a t

s tracted the best mind of the nation . These have s t o devoted themselve politics and war , the two

ss s profe ions held in highest e teem . It is claimed that thi s social stigma upon trade is being rapidly

done away with in the new Japan , and that with its removal will come higher standards of com m ercia l honor . One o f the latest and highest authorities upon the subject of the commercial ability and probity o f s the Chine e is the Honorable T . R . Jernigan , “ ” L aw in his new book , China In and Commerce .

( Macmillan , Mr . Jernigan was for many

U S - S years nited tates Consul General at hanghai ,

' 8 h o e d Q t i n ement s n oo of Mo ern a an Cl Ha db k d J p , 9 . 3 9, Mc c lur g 8:

Co . 1 0 , 9 3 . THE A SS O F GRE TNE CHINA. and has S ince occupied a leading position before

o f the bar in that metropolis the Orient . Mr . “ 2 2 6 Jernigan says ( p . ) The foreign merchant is generally sure that as soon as the Chinese mer chant takes delivery of the goods shipped on his account , so soon will the equivalent therefor be placed in the hands of the trader or S hipper .

When a bargain is concluded , the Chinese thor oughly appreciate the necessity for the fulfillment o f their obligations ; and this is one of the chief ‘ reasons why the commerce o f China , and open ’ doors thereto , has been made a ruling diplomatic ” subject .

It is important , however, for us to understand that the Chinese are no more conscientious , in the ethical sense , than their commercial rivals .

Oriental peoples , as a rule , are great liars , and the

Chinese are no exception . Witness the duplicity of Chinese diplomacy ! Conscience about telling the tru th is purely a product o f Christian civiliza tion . Moreover , the petty shopkeeper in China cheats his customer , especially if he is a stranger, at every possible opportunity . But Chinese mer chants in the ports have learned that the man from the West will continue to trade with the one who the meets his obligations most promptly . Being best business man in the Orient , he is the most “ ” honest purely for revenue only . He has found that he can make more money in that way . When we consider the immeasurable a dvan 3 3 THE EVOL UTION OF NEW CH INA.

’ s tages o f the Chinese , because of their country great natural resources as compared with all their

t o o f our rivals , and then add that the results study o f the still more important factor o f the

personal equation o f the problem , we are driven to the conclusion that the commerce of the Orient will be largely in Chinese hands before the middle of O this century . thers will share richly in the r E vast commercial development of the Fa ast, but

the Chinese will control it . It seems scarcely ’ necessary to conclude o u r argument for China s potential greatness with the truism that : I n a c om

mercia l a e like this w her e tra de s u re ma c li es g , p y , there we ma be s ur e s o oner or la ter a ll other ma , y , e teria l fruits of c iviliz a ti o n will na tura lly g ra v i ta t . We shall have ample time to consider the sins o f the Chinese . We might paint the picture with out not a ray of light , and tell the truth , but the M333; You whole truth . look into a great cave in the

earth from its mouth , and you see only inky dark d ness . Go insi e a hundred yards and turn towards

. no the opening The light is dim , but t totally

gone . There are ugly shapes in the twilight and

huge black shadows , but there are glistening stars

as well . Better see the dark cavern of heathenism

from the interior , rather than take a hasty , shud ’ dering glance from the cave s mouth . It is dark

enough at best , but here and there is a ray of

light , and stars are shining in the gloom . The

s lofty conception of virtue , as taught by their 3 4

THE EVOL UTI ON O F NEW CHINA.

L et us come to the study of the problem of the evangelization o f this mighty people with nu

You covered head . can make no progress in wmm ng even one soul to Christ unless you re spect him . He may have fallen to the level of

ou see t he the beasts , but y man in him still , and you take o ff your ha t in the presence o f that man h U f or ood . ntil you have this attitude even the

s n s m . i ner in his ins , you can never w him No m o ore can y u help a community o r a nation . Here

o f . is a great country , the home a great people With reverent respect let us come to the study

problem its conquest Christ . CH P T R A E II .

THE P OLITICAL ARAD P O! .

I N striking contrast with the great qualities of the Chinese people is the political imbecility For of the empire . the past half century no nation has been so feeble as the Chinese . Whatever E uropean powers have demanded , China has been compelled t o yield . Russia was for a time the a most r pacious , and took all she wanted . That ’ the Bear disgorged is due to China s good fortune , not her credit . It required the m a g nifi c ent harbor of Kia ochou and special mining and railroad privileges in Shantung to comfort the

o f - sorrowing heart the Kaiser, grief stricken at the murder of two German priests . The International Settlement at Shanghai controls the gateway to the E empire . very good harbor and strategic point ’ on China s coast is practically in the hands of for e ign powers . It is not strange that the world has received the impression that China is a weak c ountry, inhabited by a feeble race . It is no easy task to explain this astonishing anomaly : A g rea t c ountr a nd a still rea ter e o le—et olitica ll y, g p p y p y a c ipher . THE EV OL UT ION O F NEW CHINA.

In marked contra st with the commercial

probity o f the Chinese is their political corruption . I t is difli c u lt to exaggerate the extent to which ” Gr a f t graft controls the entire system o f government um w m l ffi s in China . The lowest o ce a Chine e can hold “

. is that of policeman . He is called a runner

He is unive r sally despi sed and hated . The fact that a man was a policeman shut him ou t of the

s s civil service examination , until that ystem was a s abolished . It is a stigma upon his family , well Ye out o f . t a s himself . They are society this

ffi S o f s is O ce , in pite its di abilities , rewarded by

Not n o salary . only that , but the runner actually buys his place ! In Hinghua the usual price paid t o the magi strate f o r a position on the police force is about what an unskilled laborer would be able

t o earn during an entire year and board himself . f s ffi O course , the magi trate who sells such an O ce expects the purcha ser to get back his capital with

intere st in any way he sees fit . When ordered to

s s make an arre t , except in rare instances , a Chine e

policeman is no t expected t o do it . He takes his

o f ha be a s c or us writ p and threatens to arrest . He gets as much as he can from the family o f the

s not accu ed for doing it . He reports to the magis trate whatever seems t o him most convenient and

profitable . He declares that the writ was issued

o r against the wrong man , that the defendant has s di appeared . The magistrate knows that he can no put dependence upon what these men say . He 3 8 THE P L L P O ITICA ARADOX .

has licensed them to lie i f they want to . Another writ is issued , and the runner bleeds somebody else . At last , i f some one must be arrested , he seizes the most convenient person , whether guilty o r innocent . In j ail the prisoner must p a y these fellows so much a day to keep from being tortured n by them . A Chinese prison is a veritable hell o earth . Very recently the uni formed and salaried gendarme has appeared in the neighborhood o f the

s capital , and near certain of the mo t progressive o f the viceroys ; but over the greater part o f the empire the ancient system is still in full force .

If s o fli c ia l that describes the lowe t , what must be the extent o f bribery and corruption in the higher offi ces , where wealth , honor , and fame are a part o f the perquisites ? All government posi o f no tions are a matter appointment , such thing as an election being known . The appointing

o fli c e s t o power habitually sells the , and usually the ffi highest bidder . An o cial may be appointed for

f or S a term o years , he may be imply an acting offi cer , liable to removal at any time . With the o f o fli ces exception of a few the highest , appoint “ ” ments are usually made as acting magistrate , and thus the frequent removals enrich the appoint ing powers . M any millions of dollars change hands in this way eve ry year . It is taken as a S matter o f course . uch political corruption as the “ - so so called postal frauds , of which much was made in America , and rightly , during the year THE EVOL UT ION O F NEW CHINA.

1 0 not 9 3 , would be classed as graft at all in

. China . That would be perfectly legitimate The idea o f letting a contract f or postal boxes without receiving a commi ssion on the sales would n o t enter into the mind o f a Chinese Ofli c ia l . It is taken f or granted that he gets his profit , other wise how could he secure an offi ce in the first h place , and ow could he keep it after it is once his ? Even funds f or the relief o f famine and Y distress are not exempt . The ellow River is ’ called China s Sorrow . It is the sorrow not only of the people who live along the banks of

s that eccentric tream , but the whole population o f the empire is made t o s hare in the calamity . The Yellow is the most u seless river f or its size upon the face o f the earth . It flows swiftly

s f or through a loose oil many hundreds of miles , and then reaches a great plain which ha s a fall E so slight that the sediment is deposited . mbank

s f o r . ments only make it wor e , it fills up again

is ha s s When there a flood , it been cu tomary for the imperial government t o issue a proclamation ordering a subscription throughout all the prov ince s t o s relieve the distres and to mend the banks . O i l Then the fli c a s reap a harvest . These villainous runners are the collectors : A district o r ward is s t o a signed each squad of policemen , and every well- to- do family is held up f o r a subscription toward this philanthropic enterprise . After the funds pass through the hands of these policemen 40 THE P L L P O ITICA ARADOX . and the various ofli c ial s to the highest in { he five province , not one dollar in ever reaches the o f banks the Yellow River, and what is used there is largely wasted . One of the last appointments Li Hung Chang his P Com ever held , before final work as eace “ Li Hu n missioner after the Boxer Uprising, was that of g “ ” 5 Commissioner of Repairs for the Yellow River . £53 “ o A shrewd Chinese liter ary man was asked , H w L i does it happen that old Viceroy , past seventy ? years of age , is appointed to that work I did ” not know he was a civil engineer ! He replied : “ 0 , Li Hung Chang will never go near the river . one of He will just handle the money . That is the most lucrative posts in China . With the greatest man in the empire and the richest at that a d va nced age still wallowing in the mire o f political corruption like that , what can be expected of the common run o f Offi cials ? It is not necessary to look further for the secret o f the astonishing political weakness o f China . This system of graft has been as universal in the army and navy as in S fle e ed the civil administration . oldiers have been c o f their pay ; torpedoes have been filled with coal i dust instead of powder . Without radical f nancial reform there is no hope of China attaining polit ical independence . The paradox is here : How can we harmonize these two pictures of Chinese character ? The 41 T HE EVO L UTI ON OF NEW CHINA.

commercial probity and the political corrupti on o f

the same people seem t o be utterly irreconcilable . “ Tbe These pictures are as unlike as the before P a ra d o x “ ” taking and after ta king so familiar t o us in

f a the advertising columns o newspapers . There re those who would cut the Gordian knot by simply

of referring it to the peculiar nature the Chinese . It reminds one of the advice that a shrewd old lecturer o f fifty years ago in the Cincinnati Medical College used to give his students “ Y oung gentlemen , when you get into the practice o f medicine , you will find that your patients will ask you many questions which you will not be s able to answer sati factorily to yourself . When ‘ s O cornered in thi way , just say , , that is the ’ - fif nature o f the disea se . Four ths of your patients ” . so will be satisfied with the reply . And our phys ician s attendant upon the Sick M an o f the “ Fa r E ast t ell us : That is the nature o f the

. Chinaman He is a paradoxical creature any way . We no t must expect to reconcile him with himself .

o f s s He is full surprise and oppo ite extremes . But such a begging o f the question will not Satisfy

thoughtful people . Then there is the explanation given by Senator not Beveridge ; original with him , but a common Séi’i ii' f w a y o f accounting f o r political corruption every

M r . Beveridge says in substance that “ l t is because th Chine se are absorbed in com i2 6537; e me rcia l pursuits to such an extent that they are 42

THE EV OL UTION O F NEW CHINA.

Chinese are a nation o f shopkeepers . They dis

like anything that interrupts trade . Nothing does

- i Un wa r this so seriously as war . They hate war because b“ . there is no money in it f or them . The soldier is Chi m e low down in the social scale . The military rank

is below the civil . China never can be a powerful

State , because no people with such an unmilitary spirit can ever make their country powerful f or ” off ense or defense . It would be useless to main

tain that there is no truth in these statements. o f Fortunately for the rest the world , the Chinese

are not thirsting for military glory . Adam ’ “ ” Smith s description o f man as a trading animal

- - applies pre eminently to the almond eyed Celestial . These trading instincts form one of the most e f f ective replies to the hysterical cry against the “ “ ” Yellow P eril . But the absence of the j ingo spirit does not prove that the present weakness of

China is constitutional and incurable . The two strongest military powers tod ay are the greatest

commercial peoples , America and Great Britain ;

both hate war , and one prime factor in this love for peace in the English- speaking countries is the

loss to commerce caused by war . That the Chinese

will make good soldiers when properly equipped ,

honestly paid and skillfully led , was abundantly

proven over forty years ago , in the work of

General Gordon , who transformed the beaten , dis o r e c u ag d, and disorganized imperial army into the “ ” Ever-Victorious Force that quickly quelled the 44 THE P L L P O ITICA ARADOX .

Th Taiping Rebellion . e Southern Chinese are more pugnacious than those of the central and n orthern provinces . Chinese pirates have infested F this coast from oochow to Canton f or centuries . S ometimes they have controlled the commerce , and trading vessels paid the pirate chief regular tribute , buying immunity from attack . These maritime provinces o f the south were the last to yield to the Manchu invaders . Fighting is by no means confined to the sea . In part o f this Hinghua region it is common t o estimate the size Of a or village a clan , not by the number o f its families “ ” or ranges , but by the guns it can put into the

field against its rivals . Every man has his — old- - weapon generally an fashioned , single bar rel e d shotgun ; and these little civil wars are so constant and so bloody , that we who travel these regions , need no argument to convince us that the

Chinese can fight when necessary . The unpatriotic spirit of the Chinese as a nation is the root from which flourishes its h political corruption and national senility . It is a T e Ear f f ' . O a c double root ne is as loose and transient as ffvifffl ’ child s first teeth ; the other is deep as the heart of the nation itself . The explanation of the singular lack of patriotism among the Chinese , that lies right upon t o the surface , and must be apparent any thought ful observer who knows anything about the his 4 45 THE EV OL UTION OF NEW CHINA.

tory o f modern China may be summed up in THE E EN OF one sentence , GOV RNM T T“ CHINA IS NOT A CHINESE GOVE RN l i f o r D fcziij M ENT . The Manchus have ruled China y ‘

- more than tw o and one half centuries . In the early half of the seventeenth century the famous

Ming ( Bright) dynasty , which ruled China for

- two hundred and seventy six years , was tottering

to its fall . The people were groaning under the corruption that had become universal through the

s court favorites of the weak emperor . Rebellion

were springing up in many pa rts of the country . The most powerful was under a Viceroy named ’ - L i Ts z ching . He was j oined by several other P viceroys , and they actually captured eking in the

year 1 643 . The last o f the M ing emperors com i d m tt e suicide . The eastern provinces submitted L i who to the usurper , seemed to be about to

found a new Chinese dynasty . The partisans of

' o l the Mings , seeing that they c u d not cope with s the rebel , invited a great Manchu c hie f t a n from

Mukden , the capital made famous in the recent

s - n Ru so Japa ese war , to come over with his army to

help put down this rebellion . This M anchu chief

o r - emperor , Tsung teh , had long foreseen the a p roa chin p g political crisis in China , and had pre pared his army to g o in and take possession of

. t o the land He did not expect be asked to come , he but accepted the invitation with alacrity . L i

s and his a sociates were soon conquered . The 46 THE P L L P O ITICA ARADOX . hl a nchu s P troop marched into eking . The Troj an — horse entered the city , and it is there yet . Then followed one o f the most remarkable

Fo r series of events in all history . two hundred and S ix years this M anchu dynasty consisted Of A Rema r/e l f but six dif erent emperors , or an average of fi firfiff,

- thirty four years to each reign ; and of these six , at least five o f them would have ranked a s great rulers , great statesmen , and most of them as great soldiers in any age and in any land . That ex plains the marvelous and long- continued hold this alien dynasty has had over such a vast empire .

o f s - The last the e great emperors was Tau kuang, who died in the year 1 8 54 . He died broken hearted because he had staked his very throne upon

ou t o f . keeping opium his empire , and he lost Three of his sons are said to have been Victims o f f o r the opium habit , and he saw ruin in it his people , as it had been for his own family . The forcing o f opium upon China by England is the blackest stain upon the fair name o f that great

Christian nation . All good men rej oice that the new L iberal government has strongly intimated that it stands ready to recti fy this great wrong , in so far as such things can be righted . Tau

- his . kuang was succeeded by weak son , Hien fung He had not been on the throne more than two — years when a great rebellion broke o u t showing that it was the strong personality of the M anchu rulers that had kept down the anti - Manchu spirit 47 THE EVO L UT ION O F NEW CH INA.

- among the people . The Tai ping rebellion spread s all over South and Central China . It la ted for

s it s eleven years . It e tablished capital at Nan

t o S king , within w hundred miles of hanghai , and its emperor ruled there for six years . Its armies nearly reached P eking at one time , and were turned back not so much by the imperial forces as by lack of supplies . Indeed , that rebellion almost certainly would have overthrown the M anchu house but for the timely aid o f that Christian o f knight the nineteenth century, the great Gen ’ ic eral Gordon . Shortly before Gordon s final v

- tory, Hien fung, the weak emperor , died . He left h a son seven years of age , w o became emperor

- under the name Tung chi . Of course a regency o f was necessary . The empress and the mother ’ f o r the emperor were made joint regents , the lad s not mother was the real empress , but the second

- wife of the late emperor Hien fung . Being the o f f mother the heir , and the stronger character o tw o the , the real power of the regency soon fell o f into the hands the associate regent . That

regent was the famous empress dowager who , a fter E forty years , still rules China . leven years

o f passed , and the boy became a man eighteen . He was about to assume the rein s of power when

s . s he uddenly died A new heir mu t be appointed , so they choose a child of less than three years of not age from the imperial clan , but in the direct

his . 1 line He began reign in January , 8 7 5 . 48 THE P L L P A O ITICA AR DOX .

- Thirty one years have passed away , but that em p eror has little more real authority in his empire

- to day than when he was in swaddling clothes . The complex character of the dowager empress need not be discussed here . That she has several Of the qualities of real greatness there can be no She doubt . seems to be progressive or conserva tive largely as S he chances to be under the influ o f o r s e ence enlightened bigoted advisers . That h was in full sympathy with the Boxer Uprising” at the time , there can be no doubt . That she has long since fully. realized the folly of it , is e qually certain . But that has little to do with our present o f problem ; namely , the political weakness the on numerically largest nation earth . The above brief historical sketch makes plain one prime reason f o r the lack of patriotic spirit in China as shown in the well- nigh universal political cor E ruption . The reigning dynasty is alien . very one understands why the Finns and P oles are dis En loyal to the Czar . The Irish attitude toward g land is no mystery . The M anchus have degen e r a te d through the coddling o f the reigning house .

They are despised by the ofli c ia l s o f Chinese blood . They are generally inferior in education and in

out t ellig ence . Gradually they are being crowded of the positions of power all over the empire . Until very recently the military has been under

M anchu Offi cials , while the civil authorities have file been Chinese . Yet the rank and of the sol 49 THE EVOLUT ION O F NEW CH INA.

not ffi diers have been mostly Chinese . It is di cult

to see why Chinese soldiers , led by M anchu gen n o f or eral s, would t be thirsting the glory of dying in on the field o f battle . With pay in arrears ,

f erior weapons in their hands , and training of the

most incompetent kind , it is no wonder that the no Chinese soldier has t distinguished himself . Nor is it strange that , when Chinese armies were beaten so badly and with such c a se by the

o f f Japanese , the bulk the country was indi ferent

so of to the humiliation , long as the seat war was

confined to Manchuria . The maj ority of the people who knew what w a s going on looked upon

it as a quarrel of the M anchus , and they did not

care particularly how it came out . The most superficial observer can hardly fail to see that the present régime can not continue

a indefinitely . The fact is that dynastic changes in Liz; China have been very frequent since the collapse

o f . . 2 . of the famous house Chau , in the year B C 55 During the last twenty- one hundred and sixty

years , including the present Manchus , there have

- been twenty two dynasties , or an average reign of

less than a century each . The longest , the Tangs ,

two - reigned but hundred and eighty seven years . The M ings continued t wo hundred and seventy- six

. now 1 0 years The Manchus are , in the year 9 7 ,

- in their two hundred and sixty third year . But

age is no argument , i f there is still the vigor of

mature manhood . What are the fa cts ? The 50

THE EVOL UTION OF NEW CHINA.

Constitu throne by the leading viceroys , that a tiona l Com mi ssion has been sent abroad to Vi s i t Confl i Japan and the leading countries of Europe as tutzona l

Gof ver n- Well as America . That commission has already ment 1 72 re orted favorably ; and the imperial decree was Sight p S 1 0 6 promulgated in eptember, 9 , announcing the purpose of the throne to grant constitutional g ov

e rnment at the earliest possible moment . The chief duty of all offi cials now is to prepare the

people f or these new responsibilities . It is given out that the great reform will be consummated im during or before the year 1 9 2 0 . It is not probable that the consent and even active co - opera tion of the aged dowager in this most radical of proposed reforms is consciously o r unconsciously influenced by the fact that she knows her reign can not be prolonged many years ; in her opinion at exe r least , the young emperor is not equal to the

s er cise of such great re ponsibilities , and bett a re constitutional government , yes , better even a

public , than that the Manchu dynasty be driven

from the throne by a national uprising . In any event it is plain that the political indifference of

the Chinese , caused by the tyranny and misrule o f a decadent alien line , is certain soon to pass

a way . When the Chinese people get a chance to have a real share in the making and in the exe

cution of their own laws , they will take as keen

an interest in politics as any nation . Their almost total absence of a landed aristocracy and hereditary 52 T HE E MP E ROR K WANG S A ND T HE U ,

E MP RE S S DOWAG E R .

THE P L L P O ITICA ARADOX . titles makes o f China a very rich soil f or the growth o f democratic ideas ; far more so than o f S o Japan , with its centuries feudalism . that, whether the revolution comes in a great upheaval which overthrows one dynasty to establish another ; or better , i f the imperial power is largely trans

ferred to the people themselves , we may confidently expect during the next decade a great revival of national spirit in China that will make for the strengthening of the empire and the purification o f its political li fe . But China ’s political corruption and consequent national weakness ha s a deeper and more ancient The origin than the alien dynasty . It is the most all Deeper i z pervad ng feature of Chi nese c i vi lI a tIon . In Ga m e many respects it is the most commendable prin i le O f c p of Chinese ethics . Yet because the dis ’ proportionate emphasis of China s sages upon thi s o f one virtue , it has become the father their most

destructive political Vice . This is no other than their

- lia l ie t - much praised fi p y, the key note of Chinese en civilization . Mr . Jernigan begins his chapter titled “ Family Law” with the following para graph “ The subj ect of this chapter is the most important in the legal code of China . It would be impossible to understand or appreciate the customs and laws of the Chinese without some knowledge o f their family life . In China the family is the center about which everything t e 53 THE EV OL UTION OF NEW CHINA.

” 2 volves . This universally admitted fact , rightly

understood , S heds much light upon the mysterious Com paradox which is ou r pre sent study ; namely, m e rc ia l probity combined with political corruption

in the Chinese character . We have seen that this

commercial honesty is not conscientiousness , but

simply business S hrewdness . This loyalty to S family , rather than to tate , makes the father dili

gent t o provide for his sons while they are young , and the sons t o nourish the father when they f or grow up . The family estate is cared and added E to with the utmost diligence . ven the pirate , while he plies his nefarious vocation upon the high ” s eas , is pious in that he is destroying other men ’s lives and property that he may take proper

s care o f his aged parents . Thi focusing Of the life purpose of every Chinese man in his own

s o f family mu t , in the very nature things , weaken

en e f the national spirit , undermine the s s o loyalty t o the government , and make rare the regarding “ ” o f public office as a public tru st . The natural consequence o f making family good the all- per vading aim o f life seems to have had much to do with forming in the mind o f the nation the

idea , which is almost universal , that t o secure a lucrative offi ce is for the sole purpo se o f enriching ’ one s family estate as much as possible during the s o fli ce hort tenure of , and then , when retirement

“ 2 i n a n n L w a d omm er e T . R . e r n n Th e M mi Chi a C c , J iga , ac llan Com Ne n w or I I I . pa y ( Y k, p . THE L L P P O ITICA ARADOX .

one o f becomes necessary , li fe will be luxurious leisure in the neighborhood where his ancestors

s have lived for centuries . His descendant will have an ample fortune for many generations ; the no family name has become established . Let one get the impression that the Chinese sages did not inculcate the virtues of loyalty and faithfulness in political service . They emphasized these qualities very strongly . But they so completely put the family as the central unit that the effect ha s been to subordinate the claims o f the State to filial duties . At this point Chinese and Japanese national

- life are in most striking contrast . The key note

S Chi na a nd to the Japanese national religion , hintoism , is in emperor worship , or patriotism as embodied o loyalty t the Mikado and the State . To quote “ from a Japanese authority : The tenets o f Shintoism cover the two predominating features — o f the emotional life of our race patriotism and ” 3 " - loyalty . We have seen that the key note o f the Chinese national religion is ancestral worship or

filial piety . These two forces have worked out in the two great Mongolian nations the most marked contrasts in their national character and political life . The Japanese gladly gives his life f o r his country ; the Chinese sacrifices all f o r his family . o fli c ia l The Japanese cheats in business , but as an

“ 3 r N t b A n oo of Mo e r D . i o e i n h i s oo s o o t e i n n b k Bu hid , q u d Ha db k d " W nd o m n 1 0 . 2 . a n E . . eme nt M c n a J pa , by Cl , c lu g C pa y, 9 3 , p 39 THE EVOLUTION O F NEW CH INA.

he is faithful to his trust , especially in time of of national danger . The center his life is the nation : he is loyal t o it . The Chinese conducts his own business with infinite pains and skill ; but he treats a government trust as a private em olu

o f own ment . The center his life is his family ’ not he is loyal to it . It is the writer s intention to give the impression that there is no patriotism i n China , any more than he would wish to be understood that filial piety is not found in Japan .

Japanese ethics give great emphasis to filial piety . Confucian literature was carried to Japan in the beginning of the Christian era , and is classic there “ ‘ ’ as well as in China . The five relations , around w hich clustered the Confucian ethical code were F a nd Son those of ather , Ruler and Ruled , Hus band and Wi fe , Elder and Younger Brothers , and ‘ ’

F . riends In China filial piety , the great virtue

“ : of the first relation , was the foundation of the w hole system ; but in Japanese Confucianism , this ‘ ’ w a s to relegated the second place , and loyalty ,

the great virtue of the second relation , was put ” 4 first . Thus the central thought of the two ff nations is fundamentally di erent , and it ha s worked out in each the wide contrasts which have m ade such momentous history of late .

f r Is , then , the case o China hopeless ? Will t his self- centered attitude of the Chinese render impossible the securing o f honest administrators

4 n oo of Mo ern n 9 ° Ha db k d J apa . P 5

W THE EVO L UT ION O F NE CH INA.

No r S science and military tactics . is hintoism a

religious propaganda . It is national , and only

S national in spirit and aims . It is imply the ex

pression o f the Japanese national S pirit . It can

n o t be transplanted t o China or anywhere else . The bearing that these important facts will probably have in the development of Chris tianity

The in China is one o f the deepest o f the problems to be

- s f . R52 3 tudied by the world leaders o this generation No force in the world t o- day will so surely and quickly shift the center o f gravity o f the Chinese national spirit from self to country as the rapid

s f s pread o the Chri tianity of Christ . In no other way can the deepest evils be eradicated and points o f national weakness be strengthened . This fact will become more and more apparent t o the best leaders o f the New China as they endeavor to grapple with the enormous difficulties o f govern m ent reconstruction . The ablest and most potent

m a n - is Y - S - in China to day uan hih kai , Viceroy of P P the Chihli rovince , in which eking is located . One o f his closest confidential advisers , a gifted

s s ha s Chine e phy ician , recently declared upon a “ public platform , The only hope for China is in

the Christian religion . This sentiment was not expressed with regard to the personal salvation of

, the individual but national salvation here and now .

Christianity , and only Christianity, can supply the element that Chinese ethics and philosophy have

conspicuously failed to impart . 58 THE P L T L P A O I ICA AR B O ! . Recently there has appeared a very significant article upon this same subj ect in the first issue O f the “ Journal of the World ’s Chinese Students ’ ” “ ” F non Federation . This ederation is strictly religious . It is designed to be a common plat form f or all Chinese students of the modern type . ” office red o f It is very ably , and its Journal is E the highest grade , being printed half in nglish and half in Chinese . It is edited entirely by

Chinese . The organization and its Journal are sure to be very powerful factors in the making “ S of the New China . In an article entitled ome ” Requirements of the Hour , the writer quotes ’ ’ George Kennan s five reasons f o r China s weak “ ” i : L ness , as g ven in the Outlook ( a ) ack of national unity ; (b ) Almost universal prevalence o f ofli cia l dishonesty ; ( c ) A moral deficiency , which may be imperfectly described as lack o f civic virtue ; ( d) Lack o f uniformity in her o f standards value ; ( e) L ack of fighting ability . The writer urges all Chinese patriots t o ponder

well these indictments from a well- wisher of

China ; especially ( c ) , which accounts for ( b ) and L e perhaps also for ( a ) . t the Chinese writer speak for himself “ Herein lies the need Of a religion . The amount of unselfishness displayed becomes the ’ measure of a nation s strength . No nation can

ff f o r a ord to be without a religion , the vital reason that its very existence depends upon having one ; 59 THE EVO L UTION O F NEW CH INA.

and to be strong , a nation must have a religion that demands the greatest amount o f unselfishness and fills the individual with the purest kind o f enthusiasm The main strength of the great nations o f to- day lies in the kind of religion they possess : a religion calling for the highest measure

- e of self sa crific . ‘ ’ ‘ But , you say, look at Japan ; she has no ’ such religion , and yet she is strong . It is true that Japan has not the same religion , but she has a substitute f or it . The Mikado occupies the place that other nations have given to a God . A human is the recipient of a devotion that other n ations

( give to a Superhuman ; and this is the weak point ’ l in Japan s national life . The standard is too ow ; the object of their devotion is too brittle . The time will come when , like Dagon , he will fall from his pedestal and bring ruin upon his worshipers . ‘But why accept a religion that makes ’ ’ so many demands upon one s faith ? you say . ‘ There are a great many people , profound schol ’ ars , who refuse to believe it ; why should I ? Be cause of its practical results ; because there is no other religion in existence that is such a powerful

factor in making individuals and nations strong . We judge our business methods by results ; why not our religion ? The question is too important

s a one to be lightly turned a ide . Every thinking man owes it as a duty to his country to face the E question squarely . very brave man will come to 60 THE P L L P A O ITICA RADOX .

some decision about it before he stops . The lack o f civic righteousness is essentially a religious lack .

It must , then , be a lack in the prevalent religion ? o f China . What religion best meets this lack

That is the requirement , the Vital requirement of ” 5 the hour .

L et this truth , so clearly and forcibly stated in the leading magazine of the New China once become apparent to the body o f progressive

Chinese , and the religion of the once despised Nazarene will sweep over the nation like a great tidal wave . The writer would much regret i f this chapter gives the impression that there is no unselfish devo

Ma nda ri n tion to country and duty among Offi cials in China . Mm ’m While it is t oo rare to give character to the a d-

ministration as a whole , yet enough of the precious metal is found in the black dirt t o satisfy the diligent a ssayist that there is plenty of good ore

below , awaiting the pick and the furnace . The writer would be an ingrate indeed not to remem ber that the preservation of the lives o f his wife

and children , and of scores o f other families in the interior of Central and South China during 1 0 0 the memorable summer of 9 , was probably due in large measure to the courageous martyrdom

two ffi a s of Chinese O cials . It w in the early “ ” stages of the Boxer madness that P rince Tuan ,

“ ' ’ 5 o rn f h e en ts e er tion 1 06 J u al o t World s Chine se S tud F d a , July, 9 ,

. 2 2 S n . pp 4, 5, ha ghai 5 W THE EVOL UTION OF NE CHINA.

presumably with the authority o f the dowager

empress , issued the order to all the magistrates “ of the empire : The foreigners must be killed . ” The foreigners retiring must still be killed . The decree was sent to the near- by districts o f the

north , and in many places it was carried out with ff awful e ect . But the sending of the order by telegram to the more distant parts o f the empire

was providentially put into the hands . of two officers who had had experience in diplomatic

legations abroad . They knew that the execution of that command would mean the dismemberment t o of China . They agreed that change it would cost them at least their own lives ; but that would be cheap to purchase the redemption of their native land and the innocent lives o f hundreds of

foreign guests . They also knew full well that the slaughter Of the missionaries would be followed o f o f by the murder tens of thousands Christians ,

The e ter mine to their fellow countrymen . y d d c ha ng e o ne wor d of tha t teleg ra m. The order received by the distant offi cials read : The f or e t eigners must be pro t c ed . The foreigners retir ing must still be p r o tec ted . The bloodthirsty Tuan awaited impatiently the reports o f the slaughter . None coming , he wired for informa tion . The ruse was speedily detected , but too late to correct it . The viceroys of the southern and central provinces had consulted together by wire and agreed to disregard all decrees from P eking 62 HI S E! CE ENC Y Y AN HA N LL U C G .

( One o f t he t w o m a rtyre d Offi cia ls exe c uted fo r ch a ngi ng t he Impe ri a l T e le g ra m fro m K i ll to

N T B - T s t o r w a s s h h O . hi ph o g aph p re e nt e d t o t e au t h o r by t e s o n o f H E n n n Th e t r h a s . . i S i n S e te m e r 1 0 6 . e Yua , ha ghai p b , 9 daugh r e ce ntl y be e n bap t iz e d a nd r e ce ive d i n t o t h e Met ho di s t Epis co pal

r S o t . Th e so n is a n s so t e m e m e r o f t h e o n Chu ch , u h a cia b Y u g ' Me n s Ch r i s tian A sso cia ti o n Th e s o n t o ld t h e au t ho r t ha t hi s fat h e r o w ne a nd r h e w e s m e n d e ad a c opy o f t e N T ta t .

W THE EV OL UTION OF NE CHINA.

able horror since the mas sac re of Saint Bartholo great China ! in spite o f all thy weakness and P E CHA T R III .

H HER EDU A IG C TION.

S EP TEMB ER 2 d 1 0 , in the year 9 5 , will go down i n history as the birthday o f the New

China . On that day the imperial government at P eking issued a decree abolishing forever the time Aboliti on “ o f - honored system civil service literary examina gagz, i t Br a mi u t ons . This was not the firs imperial decree of m om

. S 2 d o f the kind even years before , on the 3 June , I 8 8 E 9 , the young mperor Kwangsu , who was then under the influence o f the now famous group of

Y - s reformers led by Kang u wei , is ued a decree ordering that the old methods of examinations be f changed enti rely or a new course o f competition . But the re a ctionaries were too strong f o r the re m for ers , and the emperor was soon a prisoner in

o r the pala ce , the reformers were headless fugi on 1 tive , and the following November 3 th a de cree was issued by the dowager empress rescinding o the edict f the previous June , and restoring the Ho old style examinations . w near this folly came to destroying the empire is now known t o all the world . But the new order has come to stay . History has been making fast during these seven 65 THE EVOL UTI ON O F NEW CHINA.

years . The battle of Manila Bay has brought America into world politics ; the L egation siege in P eking has taught its lessons ; P ort Arthur ha s fallen ; Mukden has been taken ; and the Baltic P o f fleet has found its watery grave . The eace P ortsmouth opened a new era t o the Mongolian S S race . carcely had the protocols been igned , when the government o f China issued this epoch s making order . While the decree wa from the

s emperor , sanctioned , of course , by the empre s d o f owager, yet it was really the united work the most powerful men in the empire . It simply

s executed the demand of the six leading viceroys , put in the usual form o f a memorial t o the throne . These memoriali sts have immortalized themselves

s o f in Chinese hi tory . This is but one the many reforms that these really great and progressive L et statesmen are working out for their country . not the li st o f strange names discourage the reader .

six Y S - These viceroys were uan hih kai , located at

Tientsin , and the real prime minister of the em

E rh- o f pire ; Chao sen , Mukden ; Chang Chih ’ o f tung, Hankow fame , author of China s Only ” s dbri e S . . Woo Hope , tran lated by I g , and pub lishe d Eu o f u by Revell ; Chou , Nanking ; and Tse

- hsu en o f . Chiun , then Canton The sixth was F Tuan ang , then governor of Hunan , soon after F promoted to the viceroyalty at oochow , and a c t ua ll ffi y, though not o cially , the head of the Com mi ssion which only three months later started 66 HIGHER EDUCATION . abroad to st udy modern governments with the purpose of drafting a constitution f or China . This S list , with the positions they occupy , hows that ’ - China s fa ce is turned toward the sun ri sing . No request which these men unite upon can be refused by the imperial authority ; and nothing which they ’ t o f 8 Oppose can be carried ou . The reforms 9 were abortive because they were not backed by o f E a d any the leading viceroys . very step in no vance w taken will be permanent . The recon u o f str ction China is already begun . No future contingency is more certain than that two decades hence will find it a modern State . But the new will be an outgrowth of the Old , and to understand it the past must be carefully studied . It is in their literature and their ancient method of civil service examinations that China has been most favorably known to the Outside world . With the possible exception o f ancient Egyptian no hieroglyphics , Chinese literature has analogy r o f in histo y, while their system examinations is o f absolutely unique . The peculiarities their hieroglyphics and their bearing upon mission work th e will be discussed in a later chapter . While old method o f conferring degrees is now only a f o r matter of history, yet that which the old sys tem stood in principle is as strong as ever . Degrees are no less important , education is no less rever ence d than o f yore . The change is in the cur

l nd o f . ricu um , a in the method conferring degrees 67 A T HE EVOL UT ION O F NEW C HIN .

The new is grafted on to the Old stock : to know

the fruit we must study it s origin . It was about the year / 6 0 0 o f our era that E Ta itsun the famous mperor g , of the Great Tang

The Old s s s o f exa m i dynasty , in tituted the y tem literary P f or ffi . of 2 2 n nations the selection of civil o cers revious i nfl fi om t o that time the literature o f the ancient sages

had been reverenced and diligently studied , but it had not been the sole basis upon which offi cers S So s of tate were selected . that this sy tem was

in full force all over China f or thirteen centuries . It became a part of the warp and woof o f U Chinese civilization . nder the Old system , de grees were never given for having taken a certain course o f study and passed creditable examinations C s no t in a college . hinese colleges or school did

s confer degrees . This privilege the State re erved

f or itself alone . Three degrees were attainable . The first was given to the succe ssful competitors in the examinations held every eighteen months .

in the prefectural cities . The second was won at the triennial provincial examinations held at the capital o f each province ; while the third was only

s granted, al o triennially, at the imperial capital . P China roper is divided into eighteen provinces . These are subdivided into from half a dozen to

o f a score prefectures , each Of which is made up

of two o r more districts or counties . Twice in three years the undergraduate literati o f a county a ssembled at the county city f or a preliminary ex 68

THE EVOL UTION O F NEW CH INA.

two million inhabitants . Of these , only about five

hundred hold even the first degree . That is , the graduate is one among four thousand o f the

Why people . In a Western country the one college D‘EZ ;graduate in a town of four thousand inhabitants Pri z ed w ou ld be quite distinguished , particularly if all the people of the town reverenced letters whether

o f or they were educated or not . S that hundreds Of years three or four thous and men were accu s t om ed to appear for the semi - triennial preliminary

s examinations in Hinghua city . They pent their f or lives in preparing these contests , and as the

s S expense was con iderable , many of them also pent

all the money they could save or borrow . It is a common thing f o r families to own certain fields that their wealthy ancestors left entailed for the purpose of defraying the examination expenses of

the literary men among their descendants . In the provincial and imperial capitals each student was

his put into a little cell alone . He had food with

him ou t , and could not come until his essay was

o r finished the allotted time expired . But in the

f or s examinations the fir t degree , generally a large

open hall was used . Rigid search was supposed to be made f or books or borrowed essays con ce a le d about the person o f the candidate . The

s examination , from first to last , extended over

s f or everal days , there were always at least three f trials , each time the number o contestants being

reduced . During the time of the examinations , 7 0 HIGHER EDUCATION . crowds of students and their attendants o r friends would fill the city ; and it was the all- absorbing topic of conversation . That was a gala day when the successful names were published . The gradu ates were carried about the streets , with bands

s marching before them , and red cloth over the top o f their sedan chairs . A great reception was given each when he reached home ; feasts were prepared , and presents were given by relatives and friends . Everything possible was done t o make o f it a great event and to flatter the vanity of the graduate . — He might never rise any higher , few ever did but the honors already attained gave him dis tinction in his neighborhood , and it was made a source o f revenue in local politics as well . The graduate could now go t o the triennial examinations at the provincial capital . He there had a much severer test . Among the from four The S “ . ” t o o f eight thousand candidates the province , $33 3 made up solely of those who had already secured Deere :I ffi n the first degree , it was exceedingly di cult to gai the second . Among the two million inhabitants

f P ochen o the g County in Hinghua , and the more than five hundred first degree men , there are only

- thirty six graduates of the second degree , or one f or every fifty thousand people . These men have very great influence in their local neighborhoods , ffi h o f and are eligible to civil o ce , althoug most nu them pass their days in awaiting appointment , less they have friends at court” or wealth to 7 1 A THE EVOL UTI ON OF NEW CHIN .

o f purchase a position . Last all , there was the triennial examination at P eking for the third de

gree , where the famous ten thousand cells were

Often insuffi cient f or the candidates . None but

the second degree graduates could compete . The trip t o P eking from distance parts of the empire

is s s a very expen ive one , and only a mall propor

o f tion the eligible candidates attended . These

examinations , theoretically at least , were conducted c on with great care and secrecy . The successful t est a nts received their degrees from the emperor himself ; and the graduate was almos t sure to be

appointed t o a lucrative offi ce o f some sort . He w a s ranked as a great man wherever he went ;

honors and wealth were his t o the end Of his days . “ s Doctor Williams as ures us that : On the whole , it may be safely asserted that these examination s have done more t o maintain the stability and ex plain the continuance o f the Chinese government ” 1 S than any other ingle cause . With a system of government examinations like this ever stimulating the ambitious youth o f

Bea ri n g China to literary endeavor , it is not strange that of These Fa cts u pon the whole nation should be imbued with the most Mi ssion f o r profound reverence for literary talent , and the Work

literature o f which they are so proud . The very paper upon which their characters are printed is

s s acred . Along the streets are little hrines , where the loose bits o f soiled paper with characters upon

1 Th e M e n om vol . I . 6 . iddl Ki gd , , p 5 5 7 2 HI G HER EDUCATI ON .

them are gathered and burned as incense . They will not suffer it to be trodden under foot of men . The work of teaching commands universal respect . The great Confucius is remembered , not S as a high minister of tate , but as the teacher of a remarkable company of disciples . These facts throw light upon the kind of Chinese preachers we must have , i f we succeed in commanding the

o f a respect the people . Of course , first and alw ys , we must have men o f unselfish devotion and high integrity . But they must be more than that . The Chinese are accustomed to look up to their teachers as scholars . A preacher is a teacher . They give t o both exactly the same title . Their whole sys tem o f civilization calls f o r preachers who can preach and teachers who can teach . To mission work in China the college is no le ss essential than the chapel . What kind o f missionaries can suc c ee d with such people ? Of course they must be not spiritual and devoted . But that is the sole qualification . They must be students , thinkers to and scholars . China is the last field which to send missionaries o f in ferior education . They will not be able t o command the attention and re spect of either the literate o r the illiterate Chinese . A nation drilled f o r thirteen centuries under the above described system can not be led into the truth by uneducated teachers from Christian lands . It was in the curriculum that the whole system o f broke down . The vast labor preparation for 7 3 THE EVOLUTI ON OF NEW CHINA.

these severe examinations was not expended in a c quiring what may be regarded as useful knowl

edge . No attention was paid either to math

T/ze Cur em a tics or to natural science , neither foreign his icul um r tory nor mechanics had any place in the course of study o f the vastest college the world has ever

seen . The efforts of the students were expended in writing jejune essays upon mysterious sayings o f found in the classics . They should be full apt

quotations from the ancient authors . The style had to be after the exact pattern shown to them

in their standards . They must be strictly orthodox a ccor i t o ffi o f l l ng the o cial commentator the c assics , Chi é who wrote about seven hundred years a g o . Whoever dared t o offer an opinion contrary to

that of Chi - hi had no chance whatever of securing e his degree , and might be severely d alt with by the government f o r his monstrous heresy ! Until o very recently, nothing like modern kn wledge has been a requirement f or attaining the highest

literary honors in China . Moreover , the candidate was expected t o be able t o reel o ff rhymes almost

as fast as he could write , and upon any subj ects S given to him by the examiner . ometimes these

verses were very clever and witty , but scarcely any

of it was poetry .

All this accounts for the dense ignorance , until

o f very recent years , the best educated men of or China regarding the simplest facts of science ,

even of geography . We are told of a scholar of

- 7 4 H IGHER EDUCATI ON .

Fooc how , who flourished during the middle of the nineteenth century , who undertook to write a for e i n g geography for his countrymen . He w a s Ed uca ted Ig m m m puzzled , and put down all foreign authorities as incorrect because they placed Rhode Island and the Island of Rhodes four thousand miles apart , when they were evidently one and the same place ! The writer has talked with learned magistrates who did not know the direction of America from

China , nor how near Japan is to their native land . 1 8 As late as the year 99 , four years after the

- o f Chinese Japanese war , the magistrate a very ’ rich district , in the writer s hearing , delivered him “ self o n this wise : Japan used to be just like us in China ; but about twenty- five or thirty years ago she began going the wrong road , and she has been getting yvorse and worse ever since . Of course , such dense ignorance in high places is now so rapidly disappearing, but that it existed gen era lly as late as the close of the last century shows how little Chinese old- style education had to do with knowledge . The Chinese themselves always regarded these essays as simply a means to an end , the way to secure the coveted honors . They had a saying “ that : The graduate treats his essay writing like a man serves the brickbat with which he knocks at a door ; the door being opened , he throws the brick away . Once an official , and essay writing wa s discarded as useless But of late years a vast , T HE EV OL UT ION O F NEW CHINA.

though almost silent change , was noted in the lit

c rary class . It was observed that since the year 1 9 0 0 the examination s were very mu ch more S thinly attended than formerly . In outh China

e - the falling off was fully on half . This was a sure evidence that in their estimation the value of

degrees had greatly diminished . But the most significant change was in the attitude of the gov

e rn ent o f m itself . While most the Manchus were

- ultra conservative , and the Chinese whom they

o f favored were the same mind, yet the pressure o f the progressive was so great that very radical old changes were made in the curriculum . The ,

stilted essay was given a back seat , and later was abolished altogether ; while mathematical prob

lems , questions on international law , natural sci

ence , and geography were substituted . All this

was a preparation for the final catastrophe , when the venerable but obsolete system fell under the

S 2 1 0 . imperial edict of eptember , 9 5 God seems t o have prepared this situation in order to give His to people the greatest opp or

- t unit s C/iri x y ince the tragedy upon Calvary to win one C “ Sf/jg:quarter of the race unto Himself . The younger tu fl if y men among these literati , both graduates and

undergraduates , are thirsting for the new knowl

edge . No doubt the source of this desire is largely

commercial . The old system o f inane essays has a s p sed away . The new learning is the road to

preferment . But who are so well prepared to give 7 6

T H I GHER EDUCA I ON . to them what they need and want as the mis siona ries o f the Cross ? Even the students of our High School in Hinghua were drafted in by lit c rary men to help them prepare for the new style of questions in their examinations ; and it is highly significant that candidates who were tutored by these Christian young men were remarkably suc a c essf ul . On the day we were leaving Hinghu 1 0 for America , in October , 9 3 , a number of students accompanied us on foot for more than e a dozen miles . About ten mil s out we saw com ing toward us a company o f soldiers in bright fi uni forms , led by a band , and followed by a ne

- new sedan chair , covered with red cloth . Inside the

one chair , we learned , was of the new second F w degree graduates , returning from oocho , ” Bearing his blushing honors thick upon him . Among our students was a bright young man who s is a mathematical genius . He had tutored thi “ ” great man in the modern studies for his ex a amination . There is a beauti ful custom in Chin that new graduates must hunt up all their former

teachers , pay each a visit, give presents , and in every way show their gratitude and reverence . Had this second- degree graduate seen his teacher of mathematics among our students , etiquette would have required him to stop his procession , alight from his chair, and pay his respects to the youth who had helped him climb the ladder of fame . Our modest young scholar was so fright 7 7 THE L EVO UTION O F NEW CH INA.

s ened at the po sibility of such a scene , that he hid behind his companions so that his distinguished

pupil could not spy him . This kind of leaven

working all over China will not , of course , in itself convert these Chinese scholars to Chris tia nit y, but it will make it impossible f or them

o f not to respect the messenger the Cross , and doubtless many o f them will also accept his mes

sage . This influence is already seen in the schools

being started by private subscription , as well as 1 by government funds , to meet the new conditions . :2 )a U S pon a recent unday afternoon , as a missionary was returning from his usual open - air preaching o f tour, one of the young men the party asked him to step in to see the rooms occupied by one

of these schools , located in part of his family im property . The missionary had often been pressed with the refined intelligence of this young ’ man s face . He had been very regular in his attendance upon all the Church services f o r several

months . He wished to enter the Biblical school

- next term as a self supporting student . The mis siona ry was led to a great house that was built a bout a century a g o by a Hinghua man who was

- a Viceroy . This young man was a great grandson

of this Viceroy L in . The school was in charge

of his older brother, who occasionally attended An Christian services with a sister mission , the

g licans . The little lecture hall had no sign of 7 8 H HI G ER EDUCATION .

idolatry in it . Only a picture of Confucius was hung upon the wall , but no incense table w a s there , and they were careful to explain that the customary idolatrous rites were never practiced . S The school has no session on unday , except to come together for roll- call and a half- hour o f writing . Half a dozen of the best literary men

a ' of the city give , almost without compensation , o f part each day to teaching in this school . The missionary talked to tw o of these teachers about Christ as the P ower they needed to do the work they were so nobly attempting for their people . They listened and replied in a spirt that showed not r that they were far f om the kingdom of God .

It would cause no surprise to see that school , with o f at least a part the teachers , attending divine service on Sunday in a body . Such schools are now scattered everywhere in the interior of China . They are glad to have the missionaries and

Chinese teachers in mission schools visit them . They recognize the fact that the foreigners can help them . They are like children taking their

first steps , and will grasp at any outstretched hand .

This stage will not continue many years , but while it lasts the Christian educator ’s opportunity is supreme .

The advantages to the missionary , through the passing away of this unique and ancient system o f examinations , are manifold . It is impossible f or the new system of education to be instituted 7 9 TH E EV OL UTION OF NEW CHINA.

- by the government without text books . At first ,

they must be o f the simplest kind . The elements

o f natural science , mathematics , political science , books and other branches of useful knowledge have all “ been put into Chinese in the form o f science

primers . This has been largely the labor o f the

missionaries , or of men who began as missionaries , and have thought they found a broader o r more

congenial field in this special kind o f literary work . Not infrequently these men have gone into g ov e n e r m nt educational institutions , as Doctors

F F . Martin , ryer , erguson , and Tenney Then there is the general literature that supplements the

- text books . The histories , ancient and modern ,

s the biographies , and book upon law , medicine , and o political econ my , as well as the extensive litera s ture upon Biblical subjects , are thu far almost entirely the work of the missionaries or of their o f of pupils . This has been true the history modern mi ssions from the times o f William Carey

a nd Robert Morrison until now . The reason why the books of the new learning in China have been chiefly the work of missionaries is that they have been the only class o f foreigners who have had the knowledge and the patience to create such a too literature in the Chinese hieroglyphics . It is laborious a task for men to undertake f or recre

ation o r amusement . Hitherto there has been little re or no money in it , and the fame has seemed

mote to the man who is not building f or eternity . 8 0 HI GHER EDUCATION .

Here is a field for labor , however, that has in it U rich rewards . ntil recent years the missionary in educational work in China could hardly avoid

r . autho ship He is teaching , say a class of young

- e . he preach rs in homiletics Having no text book , must prepare his own outlines . In two or three a nd years these expand into lectures . He dictates , the students take notes . That is slow and labori one ou s . He prints a small edition of or two hundred for class use . A neighboring missionary o f hears this , and asks for a dozen copies for his students . In a little while there is call for it in other schools , and a revised edition is issued f o r o f general circulation . That is the history the ’ - no P origin of many text books w in use . ilcher s ’ ’

M a t e er s . P Astronomy , M athematics , M rs arker s F ’ S P ’ Geography , ryer s cience rimers , M artin s P E o f olitical conomy , and scores others are the

- bibli standard text books all over China . A full og ra phy here is out o f the question ; it would fill many pages . For men and women whose vision and faith

o ut and patience stretch into the centuries , what field of literature furnishes half the attractions ? One- fourth of the race for a possible audience !

Then , it is virgin soil . In Western countries the l new books and the o d are innumerable . They so crowd each other out . In China they are few that every worthy book is sure to be used and use E r ful . ven though the books p epared twenty years 8 1 THE L O F EVO UTION NEW CHINA.

diS l a ce hence will p these of to day, the new o auth rs will never eclipse the pioneers . Elias Howe ’s sewing machine would not find any buyers

to - in the market day, save among the collectors o f who antiques ; but , except the manufacturer, knows the inventor of these improvements ?

Howe labored , and other men have entered into

his labors , but not into his honors . Half a century hence the pioneers in Chinese modern literature

will occupy a position no less unique .

Of course , the foreign authors of Chinese

not do n books do their own writing . They i

Metl odi g v a ria bly employ Chinese scholars to put their d z; thought into the exceedingly diffi cult hieroglyphic Po‘i’i o” character . There are many foreigners in China who have a good knowledge of the character for

f or . re reading , but few writing it The labor

quired to learn t o compose as a Chinese , would consume so much time and strength that the for

] eigner would have little time left to prepare his

thought , and his books would be as jejune as the

literature they are intended to supersede . They have a saying in the Columbia River region that A white man can learn to spear a salmon as

well as an Indian ; but by the time he has learned, ” f r So he is a s good o nothing as the Indian . the foreigner might become as fine a Chinese scholar

as his amanuensis , but in most cases he would

then know as little else . The foreigner must learn the spoken language so well that he can express 8 2

THE L O F EV O UTION NEW CHINA.

s the need o f the nation . It is needless to add that the Chinese teachers who are qualifi ed to organize and carry out these vast plans f or educating four hundred millions of people , are wholly inadequate . The few who might do it are largely occupied in

in lucrative commercial pursuits the treaty ports , f or and are not available educational work . Who are taking advantage o f this helpless condition of China to supply her needs ? The Christian na tions , with their countless wealth in money and men ? Would that we could say so ! Much is

o being done , for which we can n t be too grateful ; but , compared with the possibilities and needs , it i is insignif cant . It is Japan that is seizing this opportunity to make herself indispensable to her big , weak neighbor . Japanese schools are being started in many o f the ports . Chinese government colleges are already employing scores of Japanese

- teachers . Recently , text books have been prepared by them . They are establishing printing presses . It is superfluous to say that this new element in China does not make directly for the progress of

Christianity, but the opposite . Agnosticism has swept over the Japanese student class until a Chris tian in a Japanese government college is a very rare specimen indeed . Those who come to China are almost certainly not Christians , and are likely

- to be anti Christian . We have seen how Chinese students are flocking to Japan . Early in the year 1 0 6 9 , when there were over ten thousand Chinese 8 4 HI GHER EDUCATION .

young men studying at Tokio , there were in

America only one hundred and five , or one per cent of the number in Japan .

The re i s a tide in the a f airs of me n

Whi h t a en at the flood le ads on to fort n c k u e .

Such a flood- tide is now flowing in upon the

Christians of all nation with respect to China . No w , NOW is the time to seize the most amazing and unique opportunity since P aul preached on ’ f or n Mars Hill , turning the most numerous natio the world has ever seen into the channel that flows

Godward . M ission colleges are the parents of all the in stitu tions o f higher modern education in China .

‘ : The early missionaries gathered in boys orphans , Mim m c oll ege’ sons of native preachers and other workers , and taught them , beginning with the primary grades . S o f ome these schools were called colleges , and r even universities , a good while before the e was anything visible o f that nature except to the eye o f faith . A Methodist bishop went to China twenty years ago , and seeing the great possibilities

- before a university in the Yang tse Valley , con c eived the idea of founding there a school of the highest education . It was then a small school for little boys . The infant having been christened U niversity, of course a suitable nurse must be found to nourish it into manhood . One of the now veteran missionaries was appointed president, 85 H T E EVOL UTION OF NEW CHINA.

while still in America . He tells a pathetically h humorous story of ow , when he went to visit his Alma M ater before starting for his new field, dear old Doctor M iner Raymond took the new

f o r on president by the arm a walk the campus , ’ and asked him t o promise that Raymond s Sys t em a tic Theology would be the only text- book upon that subj ect used in the new university of

s the Orient . The president entered into olemn covenant to do as the aged theologian wishe d l

U - of — pon reaching Japan , the matter fact mission

s aries oon undeceived the embryo president, ex plaining that the university was one of the Chris

thou ht tian Science kind , it was g into existence , ht L and existed only in thoug . ike the faith which “ created it , the university was but the substance o f d not things hoped for , the evi ence of things ro seen With mixed emotions , the missionary p e e c ded on his j ourney . That primitive stage is now long past in Central China and elsewhere . Mission colleges in almost all cases had small be i g nnings , but the outcome is justifying the faith of their founders . One o f the largest mission colleges o f its kind

F . is at oochow , and it is among the oldest It had a very unique origin . Mr . Ah Hok , a wealthy

o f F Christian Chinese merchant oochow , gave ten thousand dollars to found the school . He bought a fine property that was for sale cheap and gave it to the college . The M issionary Society of the 8 6

HE T EVO L UTION O F NEW CHINA.

S h lege at hanghai , connected wit the American P ff f rotestant Episcopal Mission . With its sta o ten carefully selected foreign professors , and its fi fine museum , laboratory , and other scienti c equip

t o ment , it is prepared give to the two hundred and seventy- five Chinese young men boarding at

fir - the college a st class Western education . The S U oochow niversity, at the capital o f the Kiangsu P S rovince , in which hanghai is located , is under

s s o f E the au pice the Methodist piscopal Church , S ’ S S . outh While newer than aint John s , oochow U t niversi y, with its seven foreign professors , its i magnif cent building costing ( gold) , and its large endowment in Shanghai property , bids

fair soon to equal any school o f its class in China . l a s These three eading institutions are given , not

a s an exhaustive list , but only representatives of o f this type of mission college . Institutions this s ort are located in nearly all the large treaty ports , and they are doing much to break down prejudice

s influ again t Christianity , win the favor of the e ntia l o classes , and , ab ve all , to spread enlighten ment amongst the people who will ha ve most to Ne do with making the w China .

However , few Christian workers , especially not s many Chine e preachers , come ou t of schools For of this kind . a mission to depend entirely upon this type o f school f o r its ministerial train

ing is to court failure . The cost is so great that the graduates from Christian homes almost in 8 8 HI GHER EDUCATION .

o variably come out in debt . Their educati n has a high commercial value . Naturally , they take the off position that pays the best , in order to clear e these school debts . Not infrequently th y purpose to go into business only temporarily , and as soon

o f in as freed from the embarrassment debt , they tend t o go into the far less remunerative Christian d service . But experience teaches that these goo intentions are seldom carried out . There is another type of mission college which is more distinctively mi ssionary . It gives much

Free the same education as above described , though fi Tuiti on generally the scienti c instruction is in the a nd Boa rd E Chinese language , and nglish is taught , if at n F all , as a language , as Germa and rench are

taught in American and English schools . The ff radical di erence is that no tuition , or very little ,

is charged , and the students are given free board

a d by the mission or it is in part free . The vantages o f this system are that the management

c a n can choose its students , and unpromising ones not be dismissed . This method makes it only

possible but easy for Christian parents , no matter

ho . w poor , to educate their sons As a rule , nearly

s all the students in such schools are Chri tians . A large proportion o f them become Christian ff workers . Such schools have proven very e ective

- is in training a well qualified ministry . This the method that has been in vogue in the P eking U niversity of the Methodist Episcopal Church , 8 9 THE EVOL UTION O F NEW CH INA.

with very marked success in raising up a highly e ducated and deeply consecrated Chinese ministry .

Many of the famous schools , such as Doctor ’ M a teer s S , at Tengchow , in hantung ; Doctor ’ ’ P he fli eld s arker s , at Soochow ; and Doctor S , at

- P Tung cho , near eking , have used this system with

excellent results . Deeply convinced that free education is by no means an unmixed blessing to giver or

I ndunria l rec eiver fi a , and thoroughly satis ed that the v M‘tbo‘“ erage Hinghua Christian can not afford to pay for the cost of the education o f his s o boys , we of the Hinghua Methodist Ep i c s in 1 t o pal Mis ion began , 8 9 5 , endeavo r t o give work for part o f each day to students whom we t oo knew were poor to pay their way entirely . This is by no means the highest motive or aim in

industrial education . The ideal is t o give the

student a trained body as well as mind . That is

always expensive . But we were striving to solve

the problem immediately before us . Our ideal

had to wait upon opportunity . We believed it

better to have the beneficiary boys work , even

though they earned nothing in cash . But profitless

labor is not stimulating , or even interesting . We found that it was necessary to make a fair business

s t o uccess in order get the best work from the boys .

For seven or eight years we have had all ou r

work done in the printing press by students , under o f the direct supervision a Chinese foreman . We 90

HIGHER EDUCATION . have been hampered by lack of suitable quarters and capital , but from twenty to thirty students have earned their way by working about four hours daily in the various departments of our small Romanized colloquial printing press . They are paid by piece work , and earn all they get . It is not di fficult to make a financial success where there is no competition . It is another proposition to go into the Chinese market and compete with native producers . I f any American or European missionary friend is contemplating such a move , take the advice of one who has bought his wisdom , ’ ” who tells you , Do n t The guilds in China control almost all the business , and there is no chance f or the foreigner unless he is in with them or has something which they have not and badly n want . Moreover , the Chinese dealer sells upo not the closest margin . We can compete with him at all . But there is a more excellent way . We have hit upon a plan of loaning capital , upon

first - class mortgage security , to competent native workmen , who give work to four or five boys for each one hundred dollars capital . We furnish the house and the tools . They manage the business .

The gain or loss is theirs . They teach the trade and pay by the piece at market rates . There is a t reference committee , o whom appeal may be made in case of a difference between students and em l s p oyers as to rates of pay . This plan is mo t economical of the time of the foreigner . It is 91 " T HE EVOL UT ION O F NEW CH INA.

s o f in safe . The mo t successful these native

tr ies ha s t o du s proven be weaving cotton cloth . T o w Christian men , brothers , experienced weavers

s and good busines men , have worked this depart

s ment up until it is supporting about ixty boys .

After the first year , any boy over fifteen years o f age can earn his school expenses in this department

by working four hours a day . The cloth is sold

in winter as fast as it can be woven . In summer f or the market closes several months , but all the accumulated product is disposed o f in a few days

Fo - in October . r twenty five dollars ( gold) per s student , exclusive of cost of hou e room , this de a rtm ent p can be enlarged indefinitely . We feared that the time taken f or the indus trial work would affect unfavorably the scholarship

o f ou r ou r co E/fia pupils , but practical experience has “ incided with that of other lands . Government 1 11 i? examinations in India and South Africa show that pupils in schools with industrial courses are on a level in literary attainments with their competitors t o from purely literary schools , the time given work being compensated f o r by the greater alert o f ness and application the industrial pupil . The s ame testimony comes from the schools for the ” 2 American negro . Though not more than two thirds of our students are in the industrial de

a rtm ents p , yet the honors are nearly always car

' 2 n o e of M ss ions n a nd Wa n a l l s Ne w , or 1 0 . 2 8 . E cycl p dia i Fu k g , Y k, 9 3 , p 3

THE EV OL UTION O F NEW CH INA.

o f tw o - hundred and seventy eight , as against

- fi e eighty three v years before . In summarizing the above facts of the Edu ’ c a tiona l Directory in an editorial in St . John s E ” 1 0 6 . . F L . cho , for M ay , 9 , Dr Hawks P ott , ’

St . the president of John s College , the first school in China whose degrees have received recognition

by the American government , calls attention to the significant fact that of the fourteen in stitutions

which may be properly classed as colleges , twelve were founded and are being conducted by Ameri

can missionaries . It is a full decade since Mr . John R . Mott made his famou s tour of the world in the interest ’ A: a n I n of the World s Student Christian Federation . Mr . ” Hm ”, ’ Mott s opportunities f or the careful and thorough study o f world- wide missions have been u nsur

passed by any living authority upon this subject . f In summing u p the results o that world tour , he gives his deliberate judgment in the folowing sen “ tence : After vi s iting nearly all the mission col

leges in China , and studying them with care , we were convinced that no money is being expended on the mission field which is yielding larger re one turns , when views the mission problem in its ” 4 entirety . Let the stewards of their L ord ’s goods ponder well this pregnant utterance from one who knows

4 ' S tr t e P o nt s i n t h e Wor s on est 1 0 1 . 1 6 . a gic i ld C q u , 9 , p 5 H HIG ER EDUCATION .

an d whereof he speaks , make their investments with the wisdom so characteristic of “ the children ” o f this world . — Nor m Reco rd of three cla sse s in the Hinghu a Middle Schoo l and four cla sse s in the Co mmo n Schoo l fo r the first term of 1 906

Tota umber o f students 93 wo r i n at ind s i l n , ; k g u tr es , 50; not

Ho no rs wor in a t i dustries 43 . were t a en s f ll k g n , k a o ows

rst 2 d 3 d 4th 5 th 6 th 7 th 8 th H ono r Ho n o r H on or Hon o r Ho n or H onor H onor H onor Wor in k g , 6 3 6 7 5 5 5 5 ot w r in 1 4 1 2 N o k g , 0 2 2 2

i dents t Wor in st ude nts 54 70 of to ta l . Wor n st u oo 7 5 k g , k g k o f ll hon n a l b u t se ond honors wor in students fa r ou t a ors . I l c k g numbered those who did not wo rk ; a nd in the second the propor f tion was as three to fo u r i n favor o those who did not work . H P E C A T R IV.

E ERAL E UC G N D ATION.

THE preceding chapter may have given the reader the impression that the Chinese as a nation

are highly educated . Casual visitors to these shores who hear about the extravagant reverence of the Celestials for their sacred books, and the

s high honor paid by all cla ses to literary talent, sometimes write magazine articles and even books in which they extol the Chinese as the most literary S people in the world . uch statements are as far from the truth as are the howlings of the sand lot orator , who denounces the whole empire as

P . ignorant and barbarous . Dr . W . A . M artin , whose experience in educational work in China is equaled by few and surpassed by none , in his most “ recent work has declared : Of those who read understandingly ( and nothing else ought to be c alled reading) , the proportion is greater in towns than in rural districts . But striking an average , it does not , according to my observation , exceed o ne ne in twenty for the male sex , and o in ten ” 1 f or . thousand the female Q uite recently, Doctor “ has : Martin said In point of illiteracy, there is

“ 1 h Dr M r t 1 T e ore of th . n e e om n 0 1 . 00. L Ca ay, by a i , R v ll C pa y, 9 , p 3 96

T HE L O F EVO UTION NEW CHINA.

are formed by more o r less arbitrary or fanciful n combi ations of these radicals . There is enough association o f ideas in perhaps half o f these com bina tions to aid memory ; while imagination helps

in part . But the strain of sheer memory to retain even the six thousand so- called common characters i s prodigious ; and when you add the eighteen o f thousand others , exclusive the thirty thousand

o r ou more scientific terms , y have a task beyond

the reach of even the extraordinary mind , much not less the average . Of course it is necessary to know more than about four thousand characters in order to read most of the books readily ; but even that is a task that taxes the mind f or many years . But the most serious difficulty in mastering a s Chinese literature so to read it correctly , to say

nothing of composition , lies in the fact that the

classical language is not the one spoken . It is or even more diffi cult than the L atin Greek classics ,

f or these were once living languages . The Chinese literary language is not even a dead ! f or . language , it never was alive This fact ex

n plains , i part , why the Chinese teacher has been accustomed to compel the young pupil to commit to memory volume after volume without the boy knowing anything whatever of the idea s contained s in the books . He only learns the name of these

characters , not the ideas they represent in the spoken language . The boy thus gets the rhythm 98 L GENERA EDUCATION .

and form of the literary language . Then , after about three years , the teacher takes his pupil back over these same books and teaches him to “ ” translate the characters into his mother tongue . L ike the bee , he first makes the honeycomb , and o f then fills it . The reform methods teaching, now h coming into vogue , propose to do away wit this mechanical memorizing , and substitute the more rational proce ss o f teaching the meaning along with the characters . This will , without

s t o doubt , greatly reduce the ta k of learning read, but it seems probable that the next genera tion of Chinese scholars will have lost the highly ornate and much - admired literary style of compo s it ion to which the old civil service examinations gave its highest awards . This will be no serious to t o loss China or the world , but the ability to compose in the unspoken classical language will become more and more rare as the emphasis in education is put upon ideas rather than upon lit e ra ry style . There is already a marked change of style in the modern books and periodical litera ture . It is becoming simpler and more colloquial . That this process will continue as the modern edu c a tiona l movement advances , there can be no

- manner o f doubt . There are also colloquial char — acter literatures that is , Chinese characters that have been adapted to the speech of the people .

The Foochow region has such a colloquial , used chiefly by the missionaries . It is much easier to 99 THE L OF EVO UTION NEW CHINA.

learn to read this than the classical ; but the p rej u dice o f the Chinese literary man against this p ro fane use o f his sacred characters is naturally very

strong . The M andarin colloquial character is

widely used and has a large literature . Another serious complication in popularizing

education in China is the multiplicity of dialects . / “ ” What is known as the Mandarin language o r Did i i i di alect i s spoken over the entire country north of

- the Yang tse River , and in that great basin , except ’ near the river s mouth . This is also the court l anguage everywhere . But south of this there are m any local dialects that differ from each other a s much as the various European languages of ff Latin origin di er among themselves . Between Shanghai and Canton on the coast there are more

than ten distinct languages of this kind . They are spoken by from one to ten or fifteen million

people each . All business and social intercourse , on Whether of scholar or coolie , is carried among

the people in their local colloquial . These dialects ’ are very tenacious . The writer s first experience o f traveling in China was with that veteran mis

o r . si na y, the late Doctor Nathan Sites , of Foochow Stopping by the roadside under the shade of a

clump of trees , we were soon surrounded by a group of men who had been working in the fields F near by . We were in a region where the oochow

dialect was spoken , but Doctor Sites observed that they conversed with each other in the dialect of 1 00

TH T O F H E EVOL U ION NEW C INA .

its undeveloped resources , vast populations crowded into the smallest possible space , such a task is altogether prohibitive . Another diffi culty that is equally insurmountable is the impossibility o f the average person keeping up the education

To t o acquired in childhood . gain the ability read and write in hieroglyphics is a huge task , but to retain what has been attained experience proves that it is necessary t o keep up the studies c on ta n l s t y. This has developed a literary class in

China . They make literature their business . If poor , they teach school . If they have private to means , they have been accustomed spend their days in preparing t o secure the next literary de a o gree . Twenty years g , Doctor Gibson , in a pamphlet entitled “ L earning to Read in South ” t o histor China , called attention the indisputable “ ical fact that : Wherever a hieroglyphic litera ture has prevailed , education has been confined to a distinct literary class , and the common people ” - have been kept in ignorance . This is pre emi n nently true o f China . With a reverence for lear un ing among all classes that is unsurpassed , if not equaled , and with the stimulus of government rewards f or learning such as no other country has

ou t s ever held to its people , among all nation

China shows the largest per cent of illiteracy . The

u s o r a task of making ed cation univer al , even p proximately so , with the old system , would seem ff to be hopeless , no matter how earnest the e ort 1 02 L GENERA EDUCATION .

made by government and private philanthropy . The solution of this stupendous problem is o ne o f the most diffi cult of the many now confronting o f the statesmen China . Material prosperity and

For education are close allies in this day . a nation to attain wealth without the general education of the masses is impossible . It is idle to talk about “ ’ ” education for culture s own sake t o a people o f half whom are underfed . Utility is first ; and a people hampered by such a cumbrous and labori ou s vehicle o f knowledge can not possibly compete in the race with nations so clogged . Illiterate labor must be o f necessity more or less inefli c ient ;

s and all history , as well as common sense , confirm the proposition that Chinese labor will be illit c rate as long as its present system o f literature is its only method of education . The fact is that f or s s h the idea of universal education all cla ses , uc as is sought for by the educators and statesmen of s We tern countries , has scarcely yet dawned upon For the minds o f the leaders of China . more than four thousand years Chinese scholars have been accustomed to look upon education as the close monopoly of M andarin , Literati , and Company , “ ”

L imited . s n To the mandarin , univer al educatio means that all the people who are in any ocen p a t ion requiring a knowledge o f books should be

- ableto read them . But why does the chair coolie need to read ? He would soon quit his work , and want to ride in the chair himself . Then who 1 03 THE EVOL UTION OF NEW CHINA.

would be the beasts of burden for the lordly man darin ? The truth is that the old civilization o f

China is consistent with itself . In the New China

all things must be made new . Intelligence must

s pervade the whole population , and mu t be applied

to every task . Men must cease to be beasts of

burden , and mind must master matter . How can China escape from this intellectual thraldom ? All experience bearing upon this sub

ect . The Wa y j points one way Words are many, sounds of EM " ? Use are few . characters to represent sounds , not

words , and combine these few characters to ex

press all words . That is the method that all na tions have used who have attained to anything

like general literacy among the masses . Here ,

as in nearly all lines of intellectual improvement ,

t he missionary has been the pioneer . One of the e arlie st of t he many systems of Romani z ation is

not that of the Ningpo dialect , located far south S of hanghai . Doctor Martin gives the following graphic account of its genesis more than half a

century ago , which is so characteristic of the pioneer work of missionaries that the passage is “ here quoted almost in full : The Ningpo dialect o f being unwritten , and incapable expression by

Chinese characters , which , being ideographic in

their nature , have a very uncertain phonetic value , we were reduced to the necessity of representing it as best we might by some application of the

- n ever accommodating Roman a lphabet . With o 1 04

T HE EVOL UTION OF NEW CHIN A.

characters . Old women of threescore and ten , and on illiterate servants and laborers , their conversion found by this means their eyes opened to read in their own tongue the wonderful works of During the half century following that “ mem ” ’ l e f a o ra b day in Doctor Martin s li e , the v rious

dialects have been nearly all reduced to writing . The work o f producing a literature in this simple

form has been done entirely by the missionaries . a l It has been a stupendous labor , but one that

an d ready has brought rich rewards , the results

are only beginning t o be realized . A brief account of our experience in Hinghua will illustrate what has been and will be done in

Persona l many parts o f China in popularizing education , ’ Ex pm m “ so that the “ common man” can share it while

he toils with his hands f or his daily sustenance . This Hinghua dialect is probably spoken by not

more than three million people , crowded into a fertile region seventy- five miles east and west by

Fuhkien be forty north and south , on the coast Foocho tween w and Amoy . When the first for

eigners moved here to live permanently, in the o f 1 8 0 autumn 9 , we found a Christian community o f one less than thousand . They had no literature

except the classical character . The colloquial

character, made by the early missionaries of Foo

chow , was not used in Hinghua , and we found it t t o imprac icable introduce it . Having been con

“ 4 A e f t - o e e 1 8 . 6 Cycl Ca hay , R v ll , 97 , pp 54 5 . 1 06 L GENERA EDUCATION .

vinced by the reading of the above mentioned

pamphlet by Doctor Gibson , that the use of the Roman alphabet phonetically is essential to raising up an intelligent sp 1 r1 tu a l Chinese Christian

Church, we went to work at once to create such

t o a literature . While beginning learn the spoken one language , we reduced it to writing . Only Chinese was found who could give us the eight f diffi tones . Here was one o our most serious cult ies , for the same word might have at least

ff the i . seven di erent meanings , in var ous tones Tone marks had t o be made for each—of the vowels . The small number o f missionaries f or the first nine years never numbering more than five or six

at any one time , including wives of missionaries — and unmarried ladies and the large and ever c expanding work , both educational and evangelisti , made the diffi culties o f creating an entirely new

literature very great . Without a copious litera

ture t o reward the student of the new system , we ‘ could not off er inducements suffi cient to stimulate to the people to take up the task in earnest , or ffi continue it after fairly begun . The di culty of printing what had been prepared was one of our it most serious drawbacks . At first was done in “ ” F o oochow , but we found that t send proof ’ a two days journey overland was utterly imp ra c l n fi ticab e , i f we expected to get anythi g nished in one this generation . Later a press with printer was detailed from the Foochow plant to work in 1 07 THE L T O F EVO U ION NEW CHINA.

. F Hinghua The our Gospels and the Acts ,

primers , and the Catechism , were published slowly .

1 8 our In 97 a small plant of own was established . Fooc how printers proved expensive and unsa tis

factory . We finally settled upon the policy o f us ing student printers under the supervision of a

competent foreman . Those who have passed through an experience o f this kind will give their sympathy una sked to a fellow mortal who treads

. the initial stages of, this thorny path While the phonetic method is immeasurably

ne easier than the ideographic , let no o get the im pression that it is easy to convince a Chinese o f community that fact by a concrete illustration .

Besides those things which were without , there w a s the struggle that came upon us daily becau se o f the utter indifference of the great mass o f ou r Chinese Christians and even a majority o f our

workers as well . We were fortunate in not having

to encounter open opposition from any quarter , but that educated Chinese teachers and preachers ff should be indi erent is to be expected , until the

experimental stage is passed . They had spent the best years of their lives in learning t o read the

classical character . They possessed in it the key that unlocks all the stores o f Chinese learn

ing , ancient and modern . Why should they spend time in acquiring a new system , however easy , since it would not open to them any new store house o f knowledge ? As to teaching illiterates 1 08

THE EVOL UTION O F NEW CHINA.

r ~ as those that watch f o the morning . Many be a n g learning to read in order to get the news . Non - Christian neighbors also found out that the

Christians received reliable news , instead of idle rumor from mouth to mouth , and they came to “ ” readers o f the Revivalist to test the truth o f

f or the reports they heard, at that time practically no Chinese newspapers were circulated in the in t erior . Undoubtedly this was a strong element in keeping the peace which Hinghua enjoyed during t tha terrible summer . At the large seaport town ’ o f Antau , a lay preacher s daughter , a little girl t o nine years old , had learned read the Romanized

fluently . A group of the literary graduates of the

- o f in neighborhood , non Christians , course , would “ ” quire o f the pastor when the Revivalist had arrived ; and these proud Confucianists were a c customed to . assemble at the church and gather to around this little girl , while she read her eager

- audience the all important news from the North . Has not the prophet long ago told us o f a time coming when “ A little child shall lead them ?” Even indi ff erence could not withstand such demon

o f col stra tion utility , and the progress of our l o qu ia l was very rapid for the next three years . o f 1 0 Since the autumn 9 3 , the advance in this respect has been somewhat checked because o f temporary reduction of the force o f missionaries on the field by furlough and other causes ; but lit large reinforcements having arrived , the new 1 1 0 L GENERA EDUCATION . era ture will soon be moving on more rapidly than ever . The progress of the Christian community in intelligence and spirituality has been very largely in direct proportion as the new method o f reading ha s prevailed . The writer remembers examining a class of new inquirers at a station that had been opened

i ht only eight weeks . The y oung people had been E g very diligent in learning , assembling every even

F a Da rf m’w ing at the chapel . ive young men stood in to Li ght - row and each read , with only occasional hesita “ o f Re tion , a passage from the latest issue the vi a list v , which he could not possibly have seen o f before . A dozen young women read any part s o f the Catechi m at sight , and more than a score others , children and adults , had mastered the

to primer , only needing practice be able to read anything . L earning t o read by this method is

f or E o u r far easier them than nglish for children , do n t because all is phonetic , and they o have to

two- - learn to spell . This group of months old

o ur o u r babes in Christ sang songs , read books , and told in simple language the story o f their k passage from dar ness to light . Three months before that had been a raw heathen community , scarcely a person in the little village able to read , fighting among themselves t o settle all their numerous quarrels , living a life of the flesh only as dark a spot as even pagan China could produce . While listening to this company of young Chinese 1 1 1 T HE EVOL UTION O F NEW CHINA.

reading Christian books , and watching the new light shining in faces that had been so recently as

dull and hopeless as the multitudes about them ,

that missionary saw the sage- brush of the wilder

ness burst out with oleanders , Chrysanthemums ,

and orchids , the glistening sand changed to soft , t green urf , and the air was vibrant with the song

of birds . One such moment is worth ten years

of toil .

o f However , the language China is not these

so- southern dialects , but the called Mandarin lan ff Ma nda ri n guage , which is spoken with minor di erences

not by less than three hundred million people , or

- nearly three fourths of the Chinese race . This is at lea st double the number o f the people who is speak English as their mother tongue . This fi s the speech that must be simpli ed , if the mas es E of China are ever to be educated . The duca

t iona l Association; composed of the foreigners who

are engaged in educational work in China , at its triennial m eeting in 1 9 0 1 took very strong ground

upon this question , and appointed a representative committee to devise the best possible system o f

Romanization for the M andarin . This committee

did its work remarkably well , and the new system

is meeting with general favor . The literature is

being created , and will rapidly increase . Here c omes in an apparent solution f o r the complicated problem caused by the multiplicity of languages

in the southern provinces . We have taught the 1 1 2

THE EVOL UTION OF NEW CHINA. new educational leaders will naturally adopt this

method when its practicability is proven . In

time , is it visionary to expect that the local patois o f the South will be absorbed and disappear as the tide of universal education in one common tongue sweeps over the land ? Whatever may be

the fate of the spoken dialects , the literature of to the Mandarin is sure become universal , unless

history reverses, instead o f repeats itself . Ger one many has many colloquials , but literature . So E has ngland . Reasoning from analogy, we may conclude that the Mandarin Romanization will gradually take the place of the classical char

o r so- - acter literature , called wen li , among the

ma sses o f the people . Classics will still be useful

- E to the learned, as they are to day in urope and E was America . But when all literature in urope

in cl a ssc a l language the Dark Ages prevailed . To make classical characters the sole medium o f

literature is to perpetuate the Dark Ages in China . An interesting account was recently published P in the North China Daily News , from its eking

Phonetic correspondent , of a movement that had sprung up

spontaneously at the capital . Some one had in vented a system o f phonetic characters and had

reduced the P ekinese to writing . Several wealthy Chinese ladies had been greatly impressed with o f the simplicity the method , and had given money to open schools for girls and women where they could be taught to read in a few weeks by 1 1 4 AL AT GENER EDUC ION .

this system . At the time the correspondent wrote , there were twenty such schools at the capital .

Hundreds of women and girls had learned to read .

A newspaper had been started . There was great enthusiasm . A few weeks a fter the publication

. S o f this account , Dr . Arthur H mith , the best known living writer concerning things Chinese , was ou r guest in Hinghua for several days . He told us that the government had begun to have the soldiers taught this new system of phonetic character . The characteristic reason given was that “ The leaders of the New China had learned that one chief element in the amazing effi ciency o f the Japanese soldier lies in the fact that he can

read . The Chinese soldier is generally illiterate , and with the hieroglyphics only he will be so

always . The organizers of the new army thought they saw in this simple phonetic method a way to ” emulate Japan . All this goes to show how thin is the ice that has been supposed to be frozen

solid clear to the bottom of this human stream . In an astonishingly short time it may break up

our before eyes , and become the swiftest flood on

earth , rolling on toward the sea of universal edu

cation and the highest civilization . For we must constantly keep in mind the probability o f con stitutiona l government being launched in China

in the near future . Already the imperial decree

has gone forth ; the time is uncertain , but the fact the is indubitable . It will come as soon as people 1 1 5 THE EV OL UT ION OF NEW CHINA.

are prepared for it . But constitutional govern

ment means franchise . To give political power ’ to China s illiterate millions would be suicidal ;

to confine it to the literati , as that class has ex

ist e d f or centuries , would be unjust to the tax

payers , for most of the landowners are illiterate . The nation would not long submit to such in

justice . The natural and apparently inevitable solution o f the di ffi culty will be f or the govern

ment to insist upon an educational qualification , but make the path to the minimum requirement en as easy as possible . The reported government c oura g em ent o f this phonetic colloquial in the a rmy is a significant straw . When the alternative is squarely faced o f a franchise in the hands o f

s r en millions of illiterate , o of recognizing and

c ou ra g ing colloquial phonetic literature , there is little doubt that even Chinese scholastic c onserv

a t ism ultimately will give way . With govern ment sanction it is probable that the now despi sed colloquial literature will spread throughout the

ma sses with extraordinary rapidity . That many o f the educated Chinese realize the thraldom o f their present literature is seen from the fact that soon after the return o f the Constitutional Com 1 0 6 misson from abroad in the summer of 9 ,

s they were presented with a monster. petition , igned by ninety thousand literati and students o f the one o f P echili P rovince , and the requests of this great body of Chinese scholars was that the Com 1 1 6

P E CHA T R V .

THE INDUS RIAL PR BLEM T O .

TWENTY years ago a young theologue was student- pastor f o r a year of a small village c on re a t ion g g on Cape Cod . The neighborhood was

- saturated with infidelity , and intensely anti mis siona ry . Several retired skippers of the sailing

ships that used to make tw o and three - year v oy “ ” ages around the Horn , and come back laden o il s o f O with whale and poils the rient , were the

s o f s oracle the community . He oon found that time spent in argument with them was worse tha n — wasted . It was best to listen and then change “ ” - do the subject . One day an old sea g was telling ho h e what a failure missions were , and w had

seen it with his own eyes in the South Sea Islands . “ The youth ventured to remark : How does it happen that yo u vi sited those islands ? I thought

the people there were all savage cannibals , and no white man could set foot on their shores with ” safety . A sheepish look came into those foxy “ old out — eyes as he stammered , They they were , u s ntil the mis ionaries went there before us traders ,

and civilized them up a bit . That Christian mis s iona ries have been the advance ag ents of civili 1 1 8 T E H INDUSTRIAL P ROBL E M . z ation and commerce from the first centuries of our no s era till w, i so generally admitted by all that it is needless more than to state the propo sitiou here . Wherever missionaries have gone among the Christless nations they have made it a “ ” t part of their business o civilize them up a bit . The preceding chapt ers have not given the im pression that in the mind of the writer China is o f - an uncivilized country . It has a civilization its ”aw n 4 1 c omm a“ own , and in many respects it is a high civiliza to of tion . The Chinese have a right be proud one f the it : as most certainly they are . But o tests of the qua lity of a system o f ethics and laws is the results achieved by it in the temporal Ho conditions of the masses of the people . w does the Confucian system measure up to this criterion ? The poverty of the masses of China f or is indescribable . It is impossible any pen pic ture to do the case justice . The value of food consumption is a fair index o - f temporal conditions . A school boarding club in Hinghua which the students manage them Cort of ” selves and pay all costs except wages of the cook , 2 2 2 2 has averaged three cents , American currency, per day for each member . They have lived better than the village people generally do . They have eaten rice , while multitudes in certain regions of

Hinghua can only aff ord sweet potatoes , which they slice up and dry in the sun and use as their chief staple food the year round . Those who live 1 1 9 THE EVO L UTION O F NEW CHINA. on this coarser and cheaper diet need not spend more than two cents a day . But multitudes of the peasantry along this South China coast can ff not a ord more than two meals a day , even of the cheapest food . This further reduces the expense , we might estimate , half of one cent , leaving one and one- half cents a day to keep soul and body together . A peasant family of five would re a t quire , even this lowest rate , food for man and o f wife , three cents , and say one cent for each n the three children ; total , six cents . We get u skilled labor, outside of harvest and planting seasons , at from six to eight cents a day , even

S a o in Hinghua City . everal years g it was five f f or . o cents It is plain that , counting loss time illness , rainy days , and holidays , both husband and wife must work constantly t o secure even this bare pittance for so small a f—amily , and that the chil dren must be put to work gathering fuel , manure ,

- or carrying loads a t the earliest possible age .

Fo r ho own people w no fields and have no capital , even for those in good health , life must be simply a continuous desperate struggle f or a bare animal sustenance . The margin for clothing is very small indeed , and for other things absolutely nil . The blessings even o f Chinese civilization are as far out of the reach of these landless peasants as though they lived in Central Africa . Under such conditions what wonder that in the poorest , sandy s regions along this coa t , it has been customary 1 2 0

THE EVOL UTION OF NEW CHINA.

superficial observer . Thus the plethora of work men f or the work t o be done has been reduced .

Second , a still more potent and less distressing factor has been the enormous emigration t o the

s Straits Settlements . Ten of thousands have gone annually from this Hinghua region alone , while further south the movement has been even greater . This exodus is confined t o the young men be tween twenty and forty years o f age who are strong enough for severe coolie labor . This has had a marked eff ect upon the labor supply f o r chair and burden carrying especially , and upon

s d wages in harve t fields , almost oubling prices ; the ordinary unskilled labor , done in part by

ha s ff s . peasant women , been a ected much le s o f ss However , the cost nearly all the nece aries of life has advanced in much the same proportion , s o that the indu strial condition of the masses is not materially improved . This chronic distress o f the people is often

- attributed t o over population . Undoubtedly the

s not country is very den ely inhabited , but more so than many other countries . Great Britain has one and tw o - thirds times the population of China per square mile . China Proper has tw o hundred and eighty per square mile . Japan has exactly the same . China , without its dependencies in e Central and North Asia , is just eight and on third times as large as Japan , and , according to latest accepted estimates , China has eight and one 1 2 2 THE S AL P L INDU TRI ROB EM . third times the population o f the little giant o f ” the P acific . But the latent natural resources of the big continental empire are much greater, in o f F proportion to its size , than those Japan . or “ example : In Japan barely one - eighth o f the area

1 8 cultivated . With the exception of the small o f river deltas , the whole country consists moun

to tains , amongst which tillage is confined narrow valleys and small hollows and to a few larger

elevated valley basins , where a rich soil , mainly “

ha s . of volcanic origin , collected On the other

ir hand , S Robert Hart , the veteran head of the

Chinese Maritime Customs service , estimates that at least half of the surface of the eighteen prov “ ” in e P now c s of China roper is cultivated land ,

or four times the proportion of Japan . More

over, China still has much land to be possessed , ’ while Japan s cultivation can scarcely be extended . If the proportionate advantages of China over

Japan are , even now as four to one when we com o pare the superficial resources available , the p tential wealth below the surface is even greater . In contrast with the inexhaustible and widely dis

o f tributed , though undeveloped , mineral wealth

re the Middle Kingdom , the Japanese mining

- sources are insignificant . Of the all important “ ” black diamonds , we read : Outside of the coal hi district in Northern Kius u , little coal is found in

b " ° Th e Fa r st Arc ln ba l d i ttl e Oxf or 1 0 . 1 8 . Ea , by L , d , 9 5, p 6 ”id 2 80 , p . 1 T HE EVO L UTION OF NEW CHINA.

the Japanese Islands ( apart from Formosa ) . “ And o f the metals we are told : Valuable min

e a l r s in paying quantities , excepting copper ,

o re antimony, and in some places , magnetic , are ” 8 generally conspicuous by their absence . Yet Japan is able to come out of a war against huge

Russia with unimpaired financial credit , while China can not pay necessary expenses in time o f peace ! Japanese skilled workmen command two

and three times the wages of Chinese artisans . ’ China s balance o f trade is steadily against her ; while Japan ’s moved forward even while the E o f great war was in progress . vidently the root ’ - China s industrial poverty is not over population .

No r is idleness a factor . The Chinese are the

most laboriou s of n ations . The peasantry go to e a s w i lltheir fi lds as soon they can see to work , and i they qu t at dark , often taking only a cold lunch

without going home f or dinner . In times of drought we hear the foot- pumps creaking all night

long ; and where the irrigation depends upon wells , they catch what sleep they can beside the well

while a few more buckets of water accumulate , out and then draw it for the parched ground .

In South China , where there are no wheeled ve e hi les , everything must be carried upon the

shoulders of men and women , unless there happens o r to be a convenient canal stream . The farmer

“ 7 Th e F a r st Ar t t e x or 1 0 2 Ea , by chibald Li l , O f d, 9 5 , p . 95 . 8 1 1 3 . 2 6 . p 97 . 1 2

THE EVOL UTION O F NEW CHINA.

seldom , and as a rule his sons or grandsons gamble So and smoke it away in opium . that the large o f landed estate , with hundreds renters who are f o . practically serfs the soil , is unknown in China This accounts in part f o r the painstaking and successful cultivation of the land for which China fi is famous . Moreover , tenants either pay a xed C or ash rent , , more frequently, a share of the crop ,

- to usually one half , and it is to their interest get as much out of the soil as possible . This feature ’ of industrial conditions will be greatly in China s favor when modern appliances open the country. The whole population will share in the national prosperity , not merely a few rich merchants and gentry . Since the poverty of the masses of China can

- u n not be fairly attributed to over population , productive soil , laziness , or intellectual incapacity ;

r - o f no is it due to semi serfdom the agriculturists , as in Russia and India ; where are we to look for the root o f the diffi culty ? That the idolatrous superstition of the people is a potent factor , there can be no doubt . Also , the moral corruption of

- the governing classes , resulting in all pervading “ ” graft , has done much to impoverish the country .

However, these are but the accessory trunks , not the main stock , of this huge banyan tree that darkens half a continent and ensha dows one quarter o f the human race . M odern industrial development has taug ht all 1 2 6 H T T E INDU S RIAL PROBL EM. students of political economy and sociology that intelligence is as essential to the production o f food old f or body as it is to food for mind . The artificial and vicious distinction between secular 1 71 . Rm and religious affairs has been relegated to the anti u a ria n q junk shop . So the claim that purely lit c rary intelligence is the only education , and that mechanics is f or the vulgar and uneducated is fast pa!sing away . Modern industrial progress , especially in America , has awakened us to the fact that a skilled hand must be directed by a culti va ted mind ; that the highest success in mechanical production is in proportion to the amount of trained brain power brought into action , just as

o f . truly as , in the composition an epic poem We have seen that the Chinese have the Brawn , and that they use it without stint . They can beat the world in p rofitless perspiration . And they have

difli cu l : the Bra in Brains . The ty is right here m en a nd Brown a re no t united . The educated are one class and the laboring men are another.

They do not mix any more than oil and water .

The literary man cultivates long coats , long sleeves , fi and long nger nails , to advertise the fact to all that he never soils his hands with physical labor of any kind . His heaviest implements are chop He sticks , pen and fan . The laborer is illiterate . knows only to use his physical strength and that in the most primitive way . This is the reason why China surpasses all nations in the pedantry 1 2 7 THE EVOL UTION o r NEW CHINA.

of its scholarship and in the p rofitl essness of its

labor . This accounts f o r the stationary or even ’ retrogressive character o f many o f China s indus

tries . In ancient times this chasm between the

scholar and the laborer was less marked , and sev

s eral industries , as pottery and ilk weaving , reached o f a high degree cultivation . But the succeeding generations have retrograded becau se the laborers

have simply sought to imitate the past artisans , h not but ave had their intelligence . “ We hear much about Chinese cheap labor . The truth is that from the very countries where

n ec es wages are highest , China is importing such

a s s . sities flour, cotton cloth and kero ene Hing hua is less than seventy miles from the nearest

F . s treaty port , oochow Before the small teamers

t o ou r began ply between there and port , we had to have all our foreign supplies carried overland ’ a two days j ourney on the shoulders o f men . We occasionally ordered goods from a Chicago mail order house ; and we noted that the expense of transportation by rail and water via New York F to the Anchorage , ten miles below oochow , was frequently less than the cost of transportation from the steamer by lighter to Foochow and thence

to Hinghua . The j ourney half way round the world by land and sea was made by a combination o f Brain and Brawn : the last stage was by un

assisted Brawn . In a small town in Missouri , half a dozen men were pushing an empty box 1 2 8

THE L OF EVO UTION NEW CHINA.

to buy one hundred and fifty pounds of that dried a n grass in Hinghua City, and for equal amount of good wood a week’s wage would leave little

margin . The entire cost of that fuel is in the transportation by “ Chinese cheap labor for less than twenty miles ! The simple fact is that un i t ntelligen labor is never cheap . That labor is the he cheapest which is the most efficient, whatever

the price . The apparent exceptions , such as in

domestic service in the Orient, are only temporary

local eddies in the great stress of human endeavor . The mighty current of this universal and benefi cent law is the divine protection given to toiling m ff ff ankind , more e ective than any protective tari

or exclusion law devised by statesmen .

Having found the origin , the remedy is a — ou simple matter, remove the cause , and y have ’ Rem of The the cure . We have found the cause China s ‘i overt . gaini f p y in the divorce of Brain and Brawn To ‘ P ov m r r - t e- e establish a happy family, wed the divorced f o r parties . Here is work the missionary, as well

as for the statesman , the diplomat, the manu E facturer and the merchant . When dison , watch

ing a storm from the deck of an Atlantic liner,

was asked what he was thinking about , he replied, “ ” I was thinking of this enormous waste of power . The modern seer looks out upon this vast sea of a s Chinese humanity, expending physical strength

no other nation under heaven , yet with it all scarcely able to keep from bankruptcy and sta rva 1 3 0

T HE L T O F EVO U ION NEW CHINA.

proposed an objection which all admitted wa s in

ou surmountable . Reader , would y ever guess what it was ? Said the village oracle : That will never do : f or i f the thieuf es should get hold one of of those long knives , they would harvest ” ou r ! all crops in a night Clearly , the place to grapple with these industrial conditions is not in E t the villages . These phraims are j oined o their

s : idol let them alone . The woman in the parable

s hid her leaven in three mea ures of meal , not in

three baked loaves . The industrial leaven must

be put into the youth of the land . The great educational awakening that is now going on in China is a hopeful sign that indu s

I nd u stri a l trial regeneration is not far distant ; but the modern Ed uca ti on i o f i o Na m ” , educat on young Ch na must g further than ’ - o f mere book learning , if the tap root the nation s

poverty is cut by it . Lord Charles Beresford tells o f how he astonished the workmen in a Chinese gun factory by showing them how to use their “ : ou r tools . They said Why, superintendents

are all scholars . They know nothing about the ” management o f machinery . That is why the Chinese must have an expensive foreigner to man o r age every industrial enterprise , else make a still ffi not more expensive failure . The di culty is only that the educated man in China can not use his not For hands , but he does want to . more than two thousand years it has been drilled into his mind that physical labor and scholarship are in 1 3 2 THE INDU STRIAL P ROBL EM .

o f compatible , that manual toil any kind is dis graceful to him . To eradicate this real root of

difli cult the whole y, there is no available force more potent than the industrial school : and the religion of the Carpenter of Nazareth must be the inspiration , rather than purely commercial motives , if the highest results are obtained either in mechanics or in ethics . It is not enough simply to preach the theory o f the dignity of labor as taught in the New Testament and illustrated in ’ ou r L e ord s life . w must put it into the concrete as He did . In one of the largest and most thor oughly Christian of our mission colleges in China , in which all the students pay their own way, the president frequently had requests for financial aid from needy students . They were invariably Christian boys who claimed that without a few ’ dollars aid it would be impossible f or them to o f continue through the term . The gateman the off compound went duty at dusk, and the night ’ watchman did not begin until ten o clock . The president wished to engage a student to sit in the

- neat little gate house for four hours , doing his f For evening studying there instead o his room . this the president was willing to furnish board . But not one o f those needy students would accept the job . Do not blame those foolish boys too much . They feared that he who accepted that post would be jeere' d at by one hundred others “ ” - as Gate keeper . It is the system that is at fault. 1 3 3 THE L EVO UTION OF NEW CHINA.

Had there been an industrial department in con nection with that school , where needy students were earning their way in whole or in part while

pursuing their studies , that easy post at the gate would have been the most popular work in the

. f or s school I f no other than the ethical rea on , it would well repay both government and mission authorities to establish indu strial departments in

connection with the schools and colleges of China .

s not At first , the son of wealthy parents need work t o in them unless they choose , but when the man darin ’s proud scion discovers that the boy with the marks of toil upon his hands surpasses him

in scholarship , he will soon find growing up in his heart a respect f or the toiler which he never

had before . Remove the social disgrace from me

chanica l f or labor , and you open the way the best minds to be turned into this channel o f study

and effort . Until the stigma is removed, only those who can not make a living in more honored ways will be willing to devote themselves to the

mechanical arts . Few modern philanthropists question the de

sirability of industrial education . Missionaries 1 5 f g enera lly admit that it would be beneficial ; but the éifgli é average missionary and member of mission boards doubts its practicability ; so that ends the discus in sion . But the fact that a thing is desirable ,

deed essential to the highest success , is strong pre

sumptive evidence that it is also practicable . The 1 3 4

THE L T O F EVO U ION NEW CHINA.

The Basel Industrial Missions in India are the best existing models . They have a half century of experience behind them . They have long passed o f the stage experiment . In the valuable paper

L . . r hn r . F o me e by M r J y , of that mission , sent E to the cumenical Missionary Conference , held in Y 1 00 New ork in the year 9 , we are informed “ that : The first attempt in this direction was F in made by the ordained missionaries . rom an dust ria l point of view these attempts must have

o f o f proved failures . Want funds , absence tech nic a l or mercantile training with most of the mis siona ries o f o , want experience and f continuity as long as the matter is left t o the occa sioria l taste

o r aptitude o f an ordained missiona rLy will easily ” 9

f . F a or . ccount such failures Again , M r rohn “ : n meyer declares It has been our experie ce ,

proved by many experiments , that we have never succeeded in any trade without a qualified man ” 1 0 ager sent out from Europe . This is sound

philosophy as well as business sense . The stream Yet m can not rise above its source . it is not eces sary t o m aintain an expensive European manager for all time in order to continued success in a trade

once thoroughly established , for upon the next

“ ' page we read : As to the question o f self d o f ependence , our carpentry is in the hands a

native Christian who , in addition , may serve as a testimony to the educational eff ect of these es

9 e ort of th e on e r e n e vol I I . . 1 . 1 0Ibi d . 1 60 . R p C f c , , p 57 p , 1 3 6 THE ST L P L M INDU RIA ROB E .

l ta b ishm ents . He is no t only a very able and painstaking carpenter ; he is a man guided by

Her e we ha v e a missi o n r Christian principles . a y i ndus try whic h ha s r ea c hed its a im . ( Italics ours . ) These Basel Industrial M issions start a new industry by sending out a European missionary mechanic , and in time this man incarnates him self into Indian mechanics and the exotic becomes ? “ indigenous . Are they successful By the last f report o the Basel Industrial Missions , a fter pay

five on ing per cent the capital invested , and various donations to funds f or the support o f in va lids , widows , and orphans , was turned over to the evangelistic work of the Basel S o ” 1 1 “ ” c iet . five y Here is philanthropy at per cent , and a wide margin for donations . The Basel M issions have answered completely the whole o f question practicability . What these painstaking do Germans can , can be done by all who will learn and practice their methods .

But such results were not attained in a year, or even in a decade . The general principles , o t 4 “ however , having been worked u , progress should 363 be far more rapid and satisfactory during this S ol uti on generation than the last . Clearly the sine qua no n o f the whole problem o f industrial education is in the skilled and otherwise qualified mechanic or artist . At first he must come from Europe or

America . But such m en are too rare and too ex

1 1 n o e i of Mi ssions W , n a nd a na ll s New or 1 0 E cycl p d a Fu k g , Y k , 9 3 , p . 3 2 9 . 1 3 7 THE L F EVO UTION O NEW CHINA. pensive to be brought in anything like large num bers . With nearly three hundred mission board

- - ing schools in China , to supply even one fourth of them with such missionaries is impracticable .

Moreover , it is doubtful i f it is even desirable . The Chinese are better financial managers o f their ff own a airs than foreigners can hope to become . The natural solution of the di ffi culty is simple enough . A few men and women o f the very

s one in ti u highest qualification in large , central s t tion could train Chine se indu strial instructors f or the schools of the whole empire . No one mis siona ry society could afford to become responsible f o r s nor such a great enterpri e , would it be fair t o ask it o f any . But all the leading societies uniting could do so without seriously burdening any ; and in a few years competent native inst ruc tors could be supplied to all . School faculties in the provinces might pick ou t suitable persons and send them to the central technological school under contract to return and take charge of in dustria l departments in the schools sending them . The very existence of such an institution would stimulate the industrial idea in all mission schools , and in government schools as well . A competent faculty , giving its whole attention to these prob lems , would work out practical methods in detail , and make it possible f or the ordinary provincial school to begin industrial work without expensive of ffi experiments . Most the di culties in industrial 1 3 8

THE EV OL UT ION OF NEW CH INA.

. For Jew and Gentile , Christian and pagan it would be impossible to confine the work o f a great school of Technology in China exclusively to train ing instructors for industrial schools . Inevitably the whole range o f modern mechanical arts would develop in its curriculum . How could electricity be ignored in this “ electric age ? ” China will have electrical appliances when she has electricians , and

. o f not until then The training engineers , civil and mining , would be an inevitable development . Who doubts that China will build more miles of railroad and open more new mines during the next forty years than any other country, or any two countries combined ? Who will furnish the skill ? Has Christianity nothing to do with all this ? This material expansion may be for the Chinese people spiritually a savor of life unto life or o f or death unto death . If materialistic philosophy, no philosophy at all except the minding of the old things of the flesh , takes the place of the a o f superstitions , then will the l st state China be even worse than the first . But if the spiritual forces o f Christendom will recognize that these material things too are holy , hallowed in the Car ’ p enter s shop at Nazareth ; i f modern apostles will “ s ee the vision and hear the voice , What God hath cleansed , make not thou common it is more than probable that the very forces that tend to be a savor of spiritual death may be made a mighty savor of life unto life . 1 THE S L P L M INDU TRIA ROB E .

But is this legitimate work for the Christian missionary ? A good man reminds us that “ The

first missionary to the heathen determined , when

“ he went to Corinth , that he would know nothing Gi cve ” ‘ ‘W among them save Jesus Christ and Him crucified . Z EZ

So should every missionary . That is his message , ffi and his only message . But the di culty with our good friend is that he mi sreads that passage into I determined to know nothing among you save “

e . P J esus Chris t c rucifi d aul said , Jesus Christ ” a nd Him crucified . Before the tragedy upon Calvary the world’s Redeemer lived among men “ f or more than thirty years , going about doing ” ” a nd good . Jesus Christ Him crucified takes

in all the toil and all the service , all the love

and all the sacrifice , from Bethlehem to Calvary, P from the M anger to the Cross . aul preached

the boy Jesus , the M odel for childhood in all

: ages and climes . Jesus the carpenter He spent at least five times as many years at the bench as

He did in the pulpit . What a workman He must ! have been Jesus , the elder brother , the bread o f winner a family, laboriously providing f o r the necessities of His widowed mother and younger

brothers and sisters . Jesus the physician , going about among the people relieving pain and restor

. P ing health and life aul preached Jesus Christ , who upon tw o occasions fed a multitude who “ : could not otherwise obtain food . He said I

have compassion upon the multitude , for they 1 0 1 41 THE EV OL UTION O F NEW CHINA.

have been with me now three days , and they have ” nothing to eat . The disciples would have sent Not them away . so the M aster . He fed them . Experienced evangelists like General Booth and others agree that it is a waste of time to preach the

Gospel to a hungry man . Jesus knew that from the beginning . Ninteen centuries have rolled into n t the eter i y of the past , and again the Master stands in the midst of His disci—ples . He looks out over the hungry multitudes not five thou s and, but four hundred millions of the Chinese

o f - race , at least half whom are under fed from the cradle to the grave . We hear again those tender words , I have compassion upon the multi ” tude . Give ye them to eat . Have not all these centuries taught us the lesson ? Do we still say “ with the twelve : Send them away . Let them our g o buy for themselves . It is not business to ” We ust rea c h t o them! 0 f eed them . j p Master forgive us that we learn o f Thee so slowly ! Or t shall we take the little or much hat we have, a nd with His blessing divide it among them all ? The nations where “ Jesus Christ and Him cruci fied, is most preached and sincerely followed have the most of the mechanical skill, the knowledge , which are the loaves and fishes put into the hands ’ : of us , His disciples enough , with Christ s bless ’ ing , to enable China s millions all to eat and be

filled .

THE L T O F EV O U ION NEW CHINA. various offerings of silk and gems as well as meats S S had been lai d before hang Ti , the upreme God, with suitable ceremony , the emperor prayed

The service of song is completed , but our poor sincerity can not be fully expressed . Thy sovereign goodness is infinite . As a potter, hast

Thou made all living things . Great and small are curtained round by Thee from harm . As graven on the heart o f Thy poor servant is the n e o f n se s Thy goodness , but my feeling can ot be fully displayed . With great kindness Thou dost

o ur bear with us , and , notwithstanding demerits , dost grant us life and prosperity . Spirits and

m en L . rejoice together, praising Ti , the ord

What limit , what measure can there be , while we celebrate His great name ? Forever He setteth s fast the high heavens , and e tablisheth the solid earth . His government is everlasting . His poor a serv nt , I bow my head , and lay it in the dust , bathed in His grace and glory . All the ends of the earth look up t o Him . All human beings , all things on the earth rejoice together in the Great ” 1 Name . Can any Christian listen to this voice from the t o Chinese Altar Heaven , and not believe that such a prayer was well - pleasing to God ? Doctor L eg ge fi af rms , and with elaborate and convincing argu m ent from philology and history , proves that “ Five thousand years ago the Chinese were mono

' ' - Th e e ions of n me s e e S ri ne r s 1 88 1 . 1 . R lig Chi a , by Ja L gg , c b , , pp 49 5 1 44

T HE L T O F EV O U ION NEW CH INA.

HE HR I . T T EE RE LIGIONS

“ ” There are three religions , but not three rival sects , among the orthodox Chinese . Confucian ism , Taoism , and Buddhism are all state religions of China . While there are many who emphasize o ne o f form doctrine more than another, yet

to E every orthodox Chinese holds all three . ven the Buddhist priests are also Confucianists and

Taoists . Doctor Gibson has aptly compared this anomaly to three serpents . Serpent number one ,

Confucianism , swallowed number two , Taoism ; but not completely , so that the Taoist head pro t r de S u d from the Confucian mouth . erpent num ber two was thus able to swallow number three ,

Buddhism , which in turn protrudes from the So mouth o f number two . we have a triple headed monster , each retaining a certain amount o f his own personality, and yet all three are a

— is to unit a triune religion . It impossible under stand thi s anomalous condition without a brief his t orica l résumé . The so - called founders o f these three systems of religious philosophy were all contemporaries

o f . for eight years their lives Confucius , the 1 youngest , was born in the year B . C . , or eight m 5 5 years before Gota a , the Buddha , died at the age o f eighty . Of course they lived the one in India and the other in China , and never knew anything Not about each other . so with the two Chinese 1 ’ S L CH INA TRIUNE RE I GION .

sages . Laotze , or Old Master , the reputed f o . . 0 founder Taoism , was probably born B C 6 4 , and was fif ty- three years o f age at the birth of his more famous contemporary . Tradition that seems well authenticated asserts that these two sages had at least one interview , when Confucius

- five was thirty years of age , and L aotze was in

- his eighty eighth year . The profound metaphysics of the elder transcendentalist was t oo deep for the practical Confucius , who went away dazzled E o f but mystified . ach these men had his distinct t o work , and each attempted supply what the other

: lacked while Buddhism endeavored , at least , to give to mankind what neither o f the Chinese sages sought to provide . To put it in a nutshell Confucianism deals with the vr isibl e p rese nt

Taoism concerns itself chiefly with the invisibl e pr ese nt life ; invisible utur e Buddhism dwells upon the f li fe . Confucius concerned himself only with the

Con a material things of this present world . When f m ” asked to tell what he knew or thought of the “ m future life , he replied , Not knowing even life , ” how can we know death ? He was a consistent agnostic regarding the invisible world both present and future . Doctor Legge declares that Con “ f uc ia nism teaches the existence of the soul a fter death , but nothing o f the character of that exist 1 47 T HE L OF EVO UTI ON NEW CHINA.

ence . Confucius w a s not an originator of doc trines . He sought out the best o f the custom s and teachings of the ancients , and claiming that these could not be improved upon , he crystallized the past into a system , and has molded the thought and civilization of his people for two thousand four hundred years . No adequate conception o f Chinese religiou s thought can be formed without understanding something of their ancestral worship . This is the one point upon which they all agree . It was a cardinal doctrine of Confucius . But , like nearly

n t . all his teaching, it did o originate with him The ancestor is worshiped in the form o f a small wooden tablet about ten , by two inches in size , with the name o f the deceased painted upon it . The Chine se believe that the spirit of the departed ancestor enters into this bit o f wood when the

is worship begins , and departs after the ceremony S ff s over . acrifices or o erings are made to the pirit of the ancestor temporarily occupying this tablet .

Food is placed before it . The savory odors pro vide the feast f or the departed spirit ; and then the material viands are eaten in the most matter

- o f fact way by the devout worshipers . These off erings are made several times a year , especially o n the birthday and the anniversary of the death .

To an enlightened Chinese , this might be only a way of paying respect to the memory of his p a rents : and a few very intelligent missionaries have 1 48

THE L T OF EVO U ION NEW CHINA.

But Confucius left the whole problem of the con scious future state in such ambiguity that con sistent Confucianists are agnostics upon this ques

tion . In a collection called Chia Yu ( the authority

of which , however , is not above suspicion , accord

ing to Doctor Martin) , when a disciple asked whether or not deceased ancestors were conscious o f the worship paid to them , the sage is reported “ to have replied : If I should say the soul survives

the body , I fear the filial would neglect their living parents in their zeal to serve their deceased an ‘

cestors . If , on the contrary, I should say the soul unfilial does not survive , I fear lest the should throw away the bodies o f their parents and leave ” them unburied . Doctor Martin is right when “ he says o f Confucius : He ignored , if he did of a ll not deny, those cardinal doctrines religion , the immortality of the soul and the personal ex re istence of God , both of which were currently ” 4 So o f ceive d in his day . that a careful study the ancestral worship feature of Confucian teach ing does not require us to modify our generali “ z ation that Confucianism deals with the visible

present life . It was impossible that the Chinese nation should rest in Confucian agnostici sm regarding the

of . Ta oi sm invisible things life , present and future It “ ” o f so- did not . A school called Rationalists o f grew up , calling themselves followers the great

e e l om n 1 0 1 . f t . 1 6 , 9 4 The Lore o Ca hay, p 7 , R v l C pa y 1 50 ’ CH INA S TRIUNE REL IGION .

L . contemporary of Confucius , aotze He left one “ short book of five thousand words , called the Tao ” o f L Teh King , which Doctor egge informs us , “ There is not one word that s avors o f either su ” e rstition 5 p or religion . This book is so full of ambiguity that it served the purpose of the “ ” who Rationalists , could read into it anything a they wanted to teach . Taoism grew up in Chin to fill a void left by Confucius . That great sage found superstition ri fe in his time . He sought to counteract it by evasion . This was a fatal mistake . Nature abhors a vacuum . The human mind must have a s olution of the mysteries of li fe , or it will invent one . The visible world is moved m onothe and controlled by invisible forces . The ist attributes these to God , the polytheist creates his own gods . It is the attempt of the finite mind to account for the things seen in nature . So this “ Rationalism ” has become the most irrational F scheme of thought held by civilized man . rom the Taoist root has sprung the necromancy, by which Taoist priests and fortune tellers o f various kinds terrorize the people regarding the lucky or unlucky sites for graves . The invisible spirits of ancestors and the gods , who are the forces in nature , must be appeased by proper locations , or calamity will come upon the living . The famous “ ” n - shui or a nd fu g spirit of the wind water , that has such a large space in Chinese life , is a part

6 f e i ions o i n . 1 6 . R l g Ch a, p 4 1 THE L EVO UTION O F NEW CHINA. o f their Taoism . It settles where they shall build s e a hou , how it must face , and its height ; the dead are buried according to its demands ; roads are made and temples are erected . It is the cause of lawsuits innumerable , and village o r clan quarrels by the thousand . Taoism has peopled the air with numberless spirits which keep the

' s Chinese in con tant terror . That is why the

no s Chinese bedroom either has out ide window , o r the window is kept shut ; f o r it is plain that the evil spirits will come in and destroy the son “ ! L : and heir Again , to quote Doctor egge The dread of spirits is the nightmare of the China ’

t o s . man s life , and thi dread Taoism panders It encourages it by its teachings , and lives in a great measure by it . This is the prevailing characteristic ” 6 o f the system at the present day .

A dozen years ago , we rented a large old building for a school . It had been built by a wealthy man . There was an inner court , stone paved , into which a large part of the roof drained .

But the water did no t run out . We opened the covered drain , and found that it had filled up , because it made two or three sharp angles before getting out o f the house . Inquiry brought out the information that it was so in all such buildings , in order that the good fortune of the family might not run ou t of the house along with the drainage , through the occult influence of the evil spirits .

“ 6 Th e i ons of n . 1 e R l gi Chi a, p 97 1

THE EV OL UT ION O F NEW CH INA.

o r three years half a dozen or more o f the literary men of the neighborhood won degrees in the civil s ervice examinations . We found ourselves very

popular among them . We learned that an im portant element in this local favor was that the hourly beating of ou r musical gong had so pleased the dragon that he greatly bestirred himself in behalf of the local celebrities and brought them their good fortune ! Thus for five centuries these two schools of

philosophy developed in China , and sought to sup

Buddhism ply this great nation with all it needed in religion .

They had Confucius , the moral materialist , with his doctrine o f the present vi sible world ; and there were the Taoist philosophers vainly endeavor ing to explain the mysteries o f the visible world ’ s s m ostl m a l evo by peopling it with invi ible pirits , y

lent , t o be appeased with the arts by which these

charlatans flourished . It all began and ended with

the present world , visible and invisible . Here

Chinese religious leaders stopped . But the

Chinese mind could not rest there . Not only “ What am I ?” but Whither am I going ?” was

a query that would not down . Confucianism and Taoism did not even try to answe r this vital ques t o tion , and they also failed suppress it . 6 o f In the year 5 our era , more than five o f centuries after the death Confucius , the Chinese Emperor Ming- ti sent an embassy abroad

in search of a new religion . It is said that this 1 54 ’ CHINA S TRIUNE REL IGION . was in consequence of a dream in which he saw re the image of a foreign god . The embassy turned in the year 67 with a group of Buddhist priests . An Indian prince , who was a zealous

Buddhist , had received the embassy with royal honors , and sent back with them a carefully se l e t e c d group of his own monks . The time was ripe f or the spread o f such a religion in China . The Chinese had been trying to content themselves with these two schools o f thought that only a t tempted to deal with this present li fe . No such religion can permanently satisfy any people . The mind and heart both crave light upon the problems of immortality . Buddhism was an attempt to penetrate the veil of the dim unknown . Vain and mistaken though it be , yet it was the best the embassy found . One can not help wondering what would have been the result had these seekers after the U n P one o f s known God met aul , or the apostle of 66 Christ , in that year of our Lord , instead of finding disciples of the Buddha ? Is it not prob able that the Chinese would have been the first o f the nations to accept Christianity ? P erhaps Chinese missionaries would have evangelized the E heathen tribes of northern urope , and the march o f civilization might have been reversed .

They tell us that this is a materialistic age , and that high moral standards and modern science have left no place f o r a spiritual religion that 1 55 THE EVOL UT ION O F NEW CH INA.

dwells upon a future life of the soul . Never ! so long as men are men . The most materialistic people in the world tried the high morality of o f Confucius , and the vain attempts Taoist necro m a ncers in lieu of real science ; and after five t centuries of experiment , they sen to the hated foreigner for a religion that tried to tell them

how to gain eternal life . They did this , not be cause they rej ected their own materialistic philos hi E op es . ighteen centuries later they clung to

these same systems as tenaciously as ever . But because they wanted what these religions did not

attempt to give , they sent to a foreign country for teachers to tell them how to find life beyond ff the grave . Jesus the Christ has o ered the only

rational solution to that problem . There may be fluctuations in the interest men take in this supreme

question of li fe , but never will they be able to

g et away from it . The history of religious

thought in China , most materialistic of all coun

tries , proves this The world will tire of preachers o f Christianity only when the preachers themselves grow weary o f their great message

ru cified of immortality through faith in the C , and l give the mu titudes stones for bread . not Buddhism spread rapidly in China , as a old new religion to displace the , but as its adjunct,

the third serpent swallowed by the other two . Buddhist temples and priests are found every where , and the people worship Buddha as the 1 56

’ S L CH INA TRIUNE RE I GION .

greatest of their multitudinous gods . There are many who take the vegetarian oath and practice

Buddhism more rigidly than the ordinary Chinese . These are usually found to be more earnest and thoughtful about religious things than the average o f o f their countrymen , and many the most zealous converts to Christianity are from among those who diligently sought salvation by this mistaken but only road they had known before .

THE F T RE T E IGIONS II . U U or HE THREE R L

We have traced their past history . What now of their future ? The missionary is told that he is attempting the impossible when he goes into this most ancient civilization proposing to over throw systems o f religion hoary with age and entrenched in the life of the people f or thousands o f years . What are the prospects of overthrowing Con

nism ? S . f uc ia urely , that is impossible Yes , it

The Future is . Doctor Gibson calls attention to the fact that after twenty- five hundred years you will seldom

hear any Chinese , even Christians , admit that Confucius was wrong in any o f his moral pre

c ep ts . They agree with us that he omitted much

truth ; but , with the exception of ancestral worship a cknowl and a few minor doctrines , they do not U edge that he taught falsehood . ndoubtedly the New E ra 1 n China will gradually put Confucius in a relatively lessprominent position than he has 1 1 1 57 T HE L F EVO UTION O NEW CHINA.

s occupied ; indeed, thi is already apparent . Yet it is probable that Confucius will be revered and believed in China so long as the present race of men lives here . But what o f that ? It is only by a severe stretch of the word “ religion ” that

it is made to cover Confucianism at all . The sage was a philosopher . He was not an idolater

in the usual sense of that term . The great moral truths taught by him are a part of the heritage o f the past for all men . We missionaries are not in China for the purpose of persuading the Chinese to turn their backs upon the truth found in the a teachings of their great s ges , but to show them that there is more and better truth that these men did not have . The Christian scholar of the Occident is not asked to reject Plato when he a c P c ep ts aul . No more must the Oriental student entirely discard Confucius to embrace Christ . ff The claims o f the two are altogether di erent .

The one is a philosopher, the other a Redeemer .

By sending to a foreign land for Buddhism , China two thousand years ago admitted that Confucian ’ a s ism as a religion is inadequate . Gotam dreary failure opens a wide door to Christ . Their ancestral worship is confessed by all missionaries to be the greatest diffi culty . There is so much that is praiseworthy in the filial piety o f these Orientals that it is di ffi cult to draw the line between the harmful and the good . Rev erence for the dead is a virtue . Worship of them 1 58

T HE EVOL UTION O F NEW CHINA. have been created to account for the phenomena o f nature , which otherwise would be left unex plained by Chinese ignorance of the simplest laws o f and facts science . One night we were awakened by a frightful o f noise beating pans and blowing horns , coming

from the barracks about a mile distant . We

noticed that the moon had a strange appearance , a nd e then rem mbered that a lunar eclipse was due .

The soldiers were making night hideous , in order t o frighten the dragon lest he swallow the moon . Their efforts were successful ; as they have always been for centuries ! How shall we deal with that foolish superstition ? Would a sermon upon the B eatitudes be effective ? What those soldiers and all the masses of China need in order t o rid themselves of the dragon and all that class o f r i dolatry , is a knowledge of the simplest t uths of m astronomy, geography , and other science pri ers , that are familiar to every American and European es schoolboy . Indeed , the schoolhouse is just as sentia l as the church for the overthrow of Chinese

idolatry . The mysteries of nature once explained, will quickly clear the atmosphere of these spirits

ou r embodied in idols . In campaign against idolatry we have to - day an immeasurable a d vantage over the ancient Jewish prophets o r the early apostles : for we can give a rational account of the things which the heathen nations have i created their dols to perform . The ancient 1 60 ’ S L CH INA TRIUNE RE I GION . prophet could only declare that all these phe nom ena o f were the work one great God, instead of many little gods . The modern prophet can explain these mysteries so that any child can un derstan d o f and must believe . When the spirit the modern educational movement breathes t he ’ breath o f li fe throughout China s four hundred millions , this feature of their idol worship , which is by far the major part and the most destructive

o f . as well , will fall like a house cards

In all this , the government educational move E ment is a powerful adjunct . very Chinese news paper helps to undermine the vast structure . One o f the most V igorous and effective assaults upon Chinese necromancy that we have ever seen pub lishe d , appeared as an editorial in a Chinese secu

n - h lar newspaper o f Shanghai . The f u g s ui super stition is constantly being held up to ridicule by these papers . Indeed , every candle that is lighted at the altar of knowledge will help to dispel this o f e form darkness in benighted China . O f thes three systems , Taoism , having the least of truth fi in it , will be the rst to surrender to the conquering hosts training under the banner of Him who is the Truth .

Buddhism appears to be even more formidable . Certain it is that in the countries where Buddhism

_ has full sway, as Siam and Burmah , it is very 0f 3 u 4 di m”? diffi cult for Christianity to make headway . But Buddhism in China is in its weakest and most 1 61 T HE L T O F A EVO U I ON NEW CHIN .

diluted form . The reasons for this are fundamental and can never be materially changed . P robably the most important o f these causes of comparative imbecility is the low character and quality of the priesthood . No religion can powerfully and per ma nentl y influence a strong nation , unless it is represented by an intelligent and educated priest o f hood a moral character to command respect .

This is scarcely less true of the non - Christian faiths than it is of Christiani ty. Burmah is the great Buddhist stronghold, and the reason f or this is not far to seek . The monks are the school o f masters the nation . The Rev . Julius Smith “ tells us that Every Burmese boy is taught to read by the Buddhist priests . Of course the devotee does not lose this opportunity to indoc trinate the youth o f the land . But in China there are no such schools . The powerful literary spirit o f the nation is neither used nor aided by the s priests o f this ystem . The reason is obvious . The monks are among the most illiterate o f the o f people . No Chinese father would think em ploying one of them as the tutor of his children . While there are isolated cases o f Chinese literary

t oo men becoming monks , yet the instances are rare to be counted as even modifying the general description of the priesthood as being ignorant in E the extreme . ven the prayers he interminably repeats , the votary does not understand . The o f S s ritual is simply a paraphrase the anscrit , u 1 62

THE L OF EV O UTION NEW CHINA.

live in abundance and idleness . But the doctrine o f h ancestral wors ip , the deepest o f Chinese re

l i iou s g beliefs , goes directly against the practice of Fe celibacy . w Chinese are willing to give up the o f hope legitimate descendants . Hence , the num ber of Chinese parents who consent to give their

sons to live this celibate life is very limited . They f or are equally anxious grandsons as for sons . Frequently boys are bought as novitiates by the priests from parents in time o f financial di stress ; but the adult ranks of the Buddhist p riésthood

in China are recruited , not wholly but very largely,

' o f from the shady side society . Of necessity, the influence of such a priesthood is the least possible for a religion recognized and patronized by the

state . A prominent American clergyman was witnessing a service at the great Buddhist m on

a ster F . y on Kushan , near oochow The abbot kept

chanting his prayers with the others , but much

s faster , and between paragraph talking to the

visitor . The tourist was asking questions through

his interpreter while the service was going on . S t “ aid the foreign religious eacher , That is not a — ” good way to p ray so irreverently ! The abbot “ replied with a grin , It is a good way to get all ” I want t o eat That represents the spirit o f nearly all his class in China . The doctrine has

little hold upon him . He is simply getting an

easy living . O f these same ignorant , and often immoral Buddhist priests we are told “ The 1 64

THE EV OL UTION OF NEW CHINA. comes to the Chinese with the story of the Loving F P on E ather, rather than of the rodigal S . very one o f is a child God , and may enter into his

o r inheritance by repentance , faith , and love . F the ghost of the earthly father, shivering in some

f or dreary cavern , hungry the rice and cakes and pork which its son must offer at least twice a or year incur its wrathful punishment , Christianity “ F I s brings the loving care of a ather , who asks , ” there anything too hard f or Me ? For the mil o f lions invisible spirits , great and small , that s cau e the thunder and floods , the pestilence and famine , the prosperity and misfortune of each S on Go d life , the of tells this and every nation o f o ne S F o f s the pirit and ather all pirits , who created all , and through His own established laws works ou t His will in nature and in life . o f Above all , the power Christianity to satisfy the instinctive longing for immortality has no ’ old counterpart in China s religious system . An man of wealth and intelligence living in Hinghua

City , was a very zealous idolater . His son had been a Christian for many years , but the father would not permit either wi fe or daughter to a t F tend Church services . inally , however , through the son ’s influence both mother and sister were won to Christ . The father held out for a long to time , but at last yielded the prayers and en o f treaties his entire family , and himself became a Christian . Very soon a fter this , his wi fe took 1 A’ S T L CH IN RIUNE RE IGION .

h the drea d bubonic plague . S e died in two or

- three days , happy in her new found faith . We ff of feared the e ect this blow upon the old man , but young believer . How his neighbors would “ taunt him with , This is the revenge of the idols ” for your forsaking them ! Could this babe in Christ endure such a test ? How anxiously we S looked for him the next unday morning . He was in his usual place . What could one say to comfort him ? Going to him a fter the service was over, I did not need to speak . He grasped m y hand in both of his , and the tears ran down “ : over a shining face Yes , my wife is gone ; but She I know she is saved . left a testimony that ‘ She none of us can doubt . told us , Jesus has

to f o r . come take me home . Do not mourn me

In a little while we will all be happy together, ’ To on be forever with Him . the ambassador

o f half Christ , one such testimony is worth a whole library of treatises upon comparative religions . It S ’ is the Holy pirit s seal , witnessing that only the Son of God can satisfy the deepest longings of re the human heart . It is a prophecy that the ’ li ion o f s g the Triune God. will yet displace China triune religion . P E CHA T R VII .

THE EAR LY M S SI NS OF CH NA I O I .

THERE are unauthenticated traditions that the Gospel was carried to China in a very early Th : 1 . e period even that the doubting Thomas himself

was their first missionary . However , proofs are not in evidence o f such early conquests o f the “ ” cross among the Celestials . But we do know that Nestorian monks first brought the eggs o f the silk- worm from China t o Constantinople a s early t o as the year 5 5 1 o f our era . As they seem have o f been long residents China , and it is not likely they were the first of their order in the land o f

Sinim , it is safe to place the introduction of Chris t ia nity into China as early as the close of the fifth

century . n The most i teresting , ancient and authentic record of that early period is the famous Nestorian

l i- S n a b et at S ngan , in hensi province , in North ”m or hl i Ch1 na . T S Ta b/e, west c ty has been made famous of recent years by the' empress dowager and her court

fleeing there from the foreign armies , after the

1 Whe re no t ot h er wi se s t at e d t h e au t h or it y f or t h e fact s r egar ding th e " e s t or ns n d o m n t ol s i n t s t e r i s Th e M e n om N ia a R a Ca h ic hi chap iddl Ki gd , ' l m r ! I ! . W l o Dr s S r ne r s N e w 1 00 . . by i ia , c ib , Y k , 9 , chap 1

THE L OF EV O UTION NEW CHINA.

Much every way . It was under the patronage of this best and greatest of Chinese rulers that Chris tia nit y was first widely promulgated in China . Hear the unimpeachable testimony of the writing on the famous granite slab at Si-ngan : “ In the time of the accomplished Emperor Ta itsun g , the illustrious and mag nificent founder

R ti on o f ecep the dynasty , among the enlightened and holy

IO un Na fffl f; men who arrived was the most virtuous O p , Bil / m e o f S . I from the country yria . n the year

- A . D . 63 5 he arrived at Chang a n the sacred books were translated in the imperial library ; the sovereign investigated the subject in his private apartments ; when becoming deeply impressed with the rectitude and truth of the re l i ion g , he gave special orders for its dissemina ” E Ta itsun lo n tion . The mperor g received O pu

with distinction . He was evidently coming under f appointment o f the head o the Nestorian Church , as archbishop of China : for the missionaries of that Church had been laboring there already for t more than a century . The emperor gave hem the facilities o f the imperial library to translate

their sacred books . He took their translations

into his own apartments , and there examined them

personally with great care . The account on the tablet then goes on to tell ’ the result o f the emperor s study o f these Christian “

s o f . . books . In the eventh month the year A D ” l n 63 8 ( three years after the arrival of O op u ) , 1 7 0 THE L Y M SS S O F EAR I ION CHINA.

the following imperial proclamation was is ‘ - Ol o un sued The greatly virtuous p , of the o f S kingdom yria , has brought his sacred books

m r i a l and images from that distant part , and has pre I pe sented them at our chief capital . Having ex a mine d o f the principles this religion , we find them t o be purely excellent , and natural : investigating find its originating source , we it has taken its rise from the establishment o f important truths : its ritual is free from perplexing expressions , its principles will survive when the framework is for got : 1 t 1 s beneficial to all creatures ; it is a d L et va nta g eous to mankind . it be published a u throughout the empire , and let the proper th rit S o y build a yrian church in the capital , in the

I - ning Way , which shall be governed by twenty ’ o ne priests . The tablet then informs us that the emperor ordered a fine portrait of himself to be made and hung upon the walls o f this new

Christian church . The new religion was called the “ ” Illustrious . The speaking stone goes on to narrate that under the Emp eror Ka utsung ( the son and suc Ta itsun S ubsequent cessor of g ) , the new faith prospered PM “ m ”! greatly , and was favored by the government . “ To quote the exact words o f the record : In every province he ( the emperor) caused Illustrious churches to be erected , and ratified the honor con

l o n ferred upon O p u , making him the great con servator of doctrine f o r the preservation of the 1 . 1 7 THE EVOL UTI ON OF NEW CHINA.

State . While this doctrine pervaded every channel, S the tate became enriched , and tranquillity f . wa s o abounded Every city full churches , and

the royal family enj oyed lustre and happiness . S hortly after this time , the Buddhists , becoming

alarmed at the growth of the new religion , stirred

up active opposition , and for a time succeeded in

checking it . But later the imperial favor was

s restored . As late as in the time of the famou P Venetian traveler, Marco olo , in the last quarter o f the thirteenth century, six hundred and fifty ’ lo un s l s years after O p arriva , the Nestorian were s numerous and respected . Indeed , this Ne torian period extends over not less than eight hundred

years , and probably from first to last a full mil l i enn um .

s Tb, “ There are three very important inference for ta nt I mpor us to draw from this long- buried bit of Church I nf er ences h i story . It was no accident that the golden age o f modern Chinese history was the period when

Christianity most flourished in that empire . We Fir“ have found that China during the seventh century was the most highly civilized country in the world : and this was the time when China ’s and the world’s m ost enlightened ruler was studying the recently

translated Nestorian Christian books , issuing

proclamations of approval , and building churches f or the worship of the true God and of His Son

a itsun Jesus the Christ . It is not claimed that T g 1 7 2

THE L O F EV O UTI ON NEW CHINA.

’ a dying Christianity . Had God s Word been given

- a fair chance then , China to day might be a Chris

tian land . Dependence was put upon ritual , bap ’ t ism , formalities of worship . It is not God s way, S and His pirit was withdrawn . The modern P rotestant missionary has learned this lesson well ;

and wherever the Cross is preached , the Word is the foundation upon which he builds the temple God o f of among men , and the gates hell shall

not prevail against her . The Nestorians preached a defective Christ

ology . Their Church was born o f bitter doctrinal i d not Th r controversy . It was unorthodox so much a s

su erorthodox : o f p the extreme opposite Arianism ,

the ancient Unitarianism . The Godhead in Christ was exalted until it was made a separate nature from the human : Go d simply dwelling in a human o f being . The divine humanity the Christ was

o f . lost sight , and then denied The preaching of Christ that conquers men must exalt the Son of

Man . The Nestorians brought to China a doc trine of the God- man : the modern missionary

must bring a Divine P ersonality . That divine

humanity must be revealed in concrete form, by “ ” working out the humanities of Christian , moral , s and social reforms . Nestoriani m died of inertia

because it ignored the dynamics of the Ch rist life . ”

So . He went about doing good . must we No Christian evangel has ever been permanently suc cessf ul that in its Christology has exalted the 1 7 4 THE EARL Y MISSIONS OF CHINA.

o Hu Divine at the expense f the Human , or the

L et man to the disparagement of the Divine . us take deeply to heart this lesson of the final ex tinction of Nestorian Christianity in China . The P ersonality we bring is both divinely human and humanly divine . We must not only preach Him , but illustrate Him in o ur individual lives and in our m ethods o f work . The divinity in these mul t itu de s will rise to meet the Son of Go d when they see Him : their humanity will be transformed into His likeness when the Son of M an appears in all His radiant beauty . the f Toward close o the Nestorian period , as M arco P olo was about t o leave the land o f his

s - a n adoption , the first Roman Catholic mis ionary ar 1 1 . Rom / —a o rived in China monk , John of M ntecorvino , iii ill; ordinarily shortened to Corvino . It was just as the thirteenth century was drawing to a close .

The great Mongol conqueror , Kublai , was on the thr one . He patronized the new cult , and it pros pered . Corvino seems to have been a very good man , and he labored faithfully and wisely . But his work Wa s confined almost wholly to the Tartars or M ongols , the then dominant race in the em pire . He translated the whole New Testament w a s and the P salms into the Tartar language . It claimed that he had thirty thousand converts whe n 1 2 8 o f he died, in the year 3 , at the age eighty, greatly beloved and venerated by all the people . But forty years later the Mongols were expelled 1 7 5 THE EVOL UTION OF NEW CHINA

from China , and the great Chinese Ming dynasty

established imperial sway. The Roman Catholics had so identified themselves with the reigning tribe that they had obtained little hold upon the Chinese

people themselves . The expulsion o f the Mongols o f meant the destruction the mission .

Here , again , we see how disregard for the of fundamental principles Christian work , as laid

down by the Master Himself, leads to ultimate

failure . The uniform custom of Romanism to seek to ally itself with the secular power made

for a temporary success , but in the end, and that

in less than half a century, a complete failure ’ o f s was the outcome thi good man s life work . For of more than two centuries , the two hundred

- five o f and seventy years the Ming dynasty, neither Nestorians nor Roman Catholics were a c

tive in any part of China . The long period of inactivity was broken by

the Jesuits . Francis ! avier attempted it . He

s a rte d f or . Afl iw l of t China , but failed to reach its shores W ”W" He died on an island near the P ortuguese colony o 1 2 f Macao . But thirty years later, in 58 , Matthew Ricci and a companion succeeded in obtaining permission from the governor of the

Kwangtung Province , in which Canton is located, ’ - to live at Shau king, at that time the governor s

place o f residence . The manner in which they

accomplished this is o f interest . It is characteristic

o f the work of the Jesuits in China ever since . 1 7 6

TH T E EVOLU ION OF NEW CHINA.

1 6 1 0 f fi in , at the comparatively early age o f ty

eight , but he had given thirty years o f labor to

- China . His Jesuit co laborers followed his ex

ample , and gave themselves actively to litera ry

. 1 work We are told that by the year 63 6, only - five thirty years after Ricci arrived in P eking, these Jesuit scholars “ had published no fewer than

s three hundred and forty treatise , some of them o religious , but mostly n natural philosophy and ” mathematics . It is impossible not to admire the a mazing industry and talent of these men . It seems hardly possible that this actually occurred i a o P . three centur es g , and in eking When the M anchus overthrew the Mings in 1 6 44 and established themselves in P eking, the

The ts J esui , as usual , put themselves upon the winning

£ 353; side . They prospered greatly during the first

reign , but under the succeeding regency they fell n under disfavor, and were impriso ed and severely

persecuted . Relief came in a characteristic way . f The great Emperor Kanghi became o age , and

assumed the reins o f power . At that time the leader among the Jesuits wa s a man named P Verbiest . He resided for thirty years in eking,

1 1 . o from 65 8 to 68 8 This man , als , was an as

t ronom er. While in prison he studied the Imperial

Almanac , and discovered important and gross

errors in it . He succeeded in getting the ear of

the young emperor, and pointed out these errors . The resul t was that the native imperial astron 1 78

T HE EVOLUTION OF NEW CHINA.

lated cases . The work of that kind , during the

past century , has been done more generally by

P rotestant missionaries . In both cases the o ut come has fully justified the wisdom of these cul

ture d and laborious men . The fact that both Romish and P rotestant missionaries sometimes ex

of aggerate the importance and value such work,

and place upon it a disproportionate emphasis ,

o f making it a substitute for, instead an adjunct o f not to , the preaching Christ crucified , should blind our eyes to the immense value of this form

o f mission work .

un In spite of this brilliant early history, prejudiced and careful observers claim that the Fi na I Out - leavening influence o f this great Catholic com come Di sa p n poi nti ng munity in li fting its pagan environme t is ex old t rem ely small . The priest at their station near Antau in Hinghua claims that their church rec ords in that station extend back into the Ming

dynasty , or at least over a period of two hundred not en a nd seventy years . But they have lifted or

lightened that region appreciably in all that time , a f or so far as we can observe . The re sons this

are easily apparent . They do not give the Scriptures to their

people . The Chinese are a literary nation . Their of Scriptures Confucian books are in the hands and minds Withheld to all who can read at all . They are loyal Con

f u cia nism , because they are brought up upon it S from childhood . To withhold the criptures from 1 8 0 THE E L Y M S AR IS IONS OF CHINA. the hands of any people is destructive of spiritual : life but in China it is doubly fatal . No illiterate

o r church can command respect influence here .

Ricci , in the rules laid down for the guidance of his followers , plainly permitted ancestral wor en ship . He even allowed image worship and Id ol a try Ca m c oura g ed it . The Chinese call the Roman if; olic images and their own idols by exactly the same i shed no ff name . They see di erence , nor is there any essential distinction between the pagan idolatry o f and theirs , in the minds of the mass uneducated ffi followers . The di culty with Moses was over come in true Jesuitical fashion . They simply cut the second commandment out of the Decalogue , and divided one of the others to make up the ten ! There is a department of the Roman Catholic propaganda that devotes itself to the baptism of

De end dying infants of the heathen . The work is done p

- l 01 1 1 11 b o d . y zealous or well paid women Their 4335535, o f is a few innocent sugar pills , and a bottle holy water . They hear of a family where there is a sick child , and ingratiate themselves into the family by claiming to have m edicines that have great efficacy. They use these methods only where it seems almost certain the child will die . Before administering their remedies , they ask permission to cleanse their hands with the holy water . With their hands still wet , they give the the sug ar pills , and thus surreptitiously administer 1 8 1 THE L OF EVO UTION NEW CHINA.

h rite of baptism upon the dying child . It as been customary to make calculations of the number o f

souls thus saved , and the expense , and upon that basis to issue appeals to the home churches for

gifts . Twenty years ago the annual reports o f all the Roman Catholic missions in China gave some times more than one hundred thousand of such baptism s every year ! This illustrates the implicit reliance of these missionaries upon sacraments f o r

salvation . Hence , with the average adult convert,

on e baptism , mass once or twice a year , and c f s s iona l a s often , fulfill the minimum conditions of a cceptable membership . With the pagan ancestry

and environment , such means are wholly imade

quate to uplift a community . Some people think doctrine does not amount o r so to anything , be it true false , long as the

e s s difli cult p olitim zm otiv are incere . The y with that P Fo r theory is that conduct grows ou t of belief .

S eri ou: example , the Roman Catholic missions have num bered among them some o f the most saintly men

: - abne who ever lived in private life , pure ; in self .

a tion . g , complete But the spiritual fruit of their

labors is extremely disappointing . Their doctrine of the relation of Church and State is largely

responsible f or this . It makes their church a

political organization first , last , and all the time .

Of all countries in the world , China is the last

that can be genuinely evangelized in that way . P olitical entanglements are wha t Protestant mis 1 8 2

THE V L T F E O U ION O NEW CHINA. this as a providential opportunity to reach these

people with the Gospel . He would not hesitate t o a moment to take the case the magistrate , and

s fight it as a persecution case . If he win the suit , he has great prestige in that neighborhood f or a

while , and hundreds flock into the church . Some times P rotestant and Roman Catholic communities not have dwelt together in harmony . The poli c ies of the two missions have such fundamental f di ferences , that it could scarcely be otherwise . In Hinghua we have been peculiarly favored in t his respect . During all these sixteen years there

has been no serious breach o f the peace . One form of policy we have found t o be especially conducive to this most desirable state of tran on quillity . Their doctrines naturally make them , principle , very industrious proselyters They sometimes hold out inducements to disgruntled P rotestants to come with them and they will do

For : P them good . example a group of rotestant to m embers , usually recent inquirers , claims be suf

in . U f er g persecution pon examination , the mis siona ries are satisfied that it is only a private f or h quarrel . They ask elp of the missionaries in the courts , which is of course refused . The o f ff Roman Catholics hearing it , o er sympathy and

so- P promise help , if the called rotestants will come to them . Then these people hunt the missionaries , to and threaten become Catholics in a body, if their

demands are not acceded to . To all such , we in 1 84 THE L Y M SS EAR I IONS O F CHINA.

Hinghua have invariably replied : You not only

our . have ou r consent, but blessing , in going I f you are staying with us f or the purpose of using

ou o ff us in that way, the sooner y go the better ” Tw o not we will be . or three such experiences do need to be repeated . ’ It is no part o f the writer s purpose to go into details regarding the faults o f Roman Catli S f re P olic missions in China . The hanghai papers rea ch quently have elaborate accounts of most serious 53 ,52 n

Not Per ~ troubles , in which apparently the priests or their m m ”

o r . converts , both , seem to be in error But these conditions can not be permanent . The patronage o f the French government , for purposes of s political aggrandizement , eems to have been one o f the chief factors in making such things pos sible ; for without the backing of a foreign govern ment it would be impossible t o carry out such a

policy f or any great length of time . It would seem probable that the recent radical changes in F rance , separating Church and State , will soon result in a marked change o f French policy in respect to protection o f Roman Catholic missions

in China , regardless of strict treaty rights . More

- over , the results o f the Russo Japanese war destroy o f F the prospect rench aggression in the Orient , and make the alliance between priest and diplomat no longer profitable to the State . The final out come is likely to be greatly to the benefit o f the highest interests of these widely extended and 1 8 5 THE L O F EVO UTION NEW CHINA.

numerous missions . The time is not far distant

when China , as a modern state fully controlling own ff her internal a airs , will not brook interference

or P in her judiciary by priest rotestant missionary . The church that is built upon that sandy f ounda

tion will then fall ; but the work that abides , will

stand forever . The really sincere missionaries among the Roman Catholics will rejoice that they do can then genuine work for Christ . Doubtless

much that is now visible will come to naught, but

the remnant shall be saved . At the New England Dinner given in New a o York several years g , a noted editor gave a 1 ” Ea rlim o f definition a saint , which he rightly claimed had Pr otei ta nt Mi n i on not yet gotten i nto the di cti onari es : A sa i nt i s not a o a person who lived less than a century g , ”

now . who is canonized , and was cannonaded then P o f If rotestantism had a calendar saints , Robert Morrison would be added to it by universal con sent during this centenary year o f his arrival in t oo China . He had his share of the cannonading , ; en proving his fitness f or canonization . An appr o tice b y learning to make lasts , as Carey his con f f S temporary o India made shoes , o humble cotch o d parentage , he studied during d hours when

other boys amuse themselves , and became a scholar 8 0 L . 1 in atin , Greek , and Hebrew In the year 4 , he was appointed by the London Missionary So c iet E y , corresponding in ngland to the American

Board or Congregational Society in America , as 1 8 6

H L T E EV O UTION O F NEW CHINA. offend their commercial friends and the Chinese ” 4 offi cials . But after two ye ai‘s of quietly enduring social

ostracism and open and secret hostility, the sky

Tra m /4 , 0, cleared . His great learning made him necessary ” t o E Lizeven the ast Indian Company , and he was Compa ny asked to become their offi cial translator on a ‘ liberal salary, with ample time to pursue his lit c rary labors . He held this position f o r the re

- five o f maining twenty years his life . This com pany made abundant amends f or its early mistreat ment of their distinguished servant by furnishing the seventy- five thousand dollars necessary to cover the cost o f publication in the year 1 8 2 1 of that ’ s monumental work , Morri on s Chinese Dictionary ,

the key that has unlocked China t o the world . When we look for what is technically called . ” fruits o f religious work in the life o f this heroic

Mea ” t! . missionary , we find very little to reward our search Vi sibl e to Remit; We learn that : He was never permitted con

duct an open service f or all Chinese . On the

contrary, it was necessary to hold the meetings o r behind closed locked doors , for fear lest the few attending might be arrested for their interest

in Christianity . If as many as ten were pres ” ls

on S . ent the abbath , it was a good attendance P After seven years of . toil , the first rotestant

4 P r n e M e n of th e e e n n om r n P . e Ci n i c ly H av ly Ki gd , by Ha la B ach , i c i n n a t 1 6 . x8 1 . , 9 3 , pp , 9 5 P r n e Me n e t c . 2 6 2 . i c ly , , pp , 7 1 8 8 THE L Y M SS EAR I I ONS O F CHINA.

A- ko Chinese convert , Tsai , was baptized . This man was only a servant , and not a very good one either , as Morrison at one time dismissed him . Nevertheless he continued faithful to his bap

i m a l . t s covenant until his death , fiv e years l ater Surely God hath chosen the weak things o f this world to confound the mighty ! From such a be P ginning has grown , in one short century , the rot esta nt Christianity of China . ’ Morrison s only colleague , Doctor M ilne , was of still more humble origin , and so uncouth that f one of the members o the London M issionary Dom , Society committee suggested that he would better Mil “ be sent out as a servant o f a regularly appointed

missionary . The young man did not even take f of ense at this proposition , but said he would gladly

go in any capacity whatever , even as a servant .

However, he was sent to China as a regular mis siona r y, and gave ten short but full years of val ua ble service , rendering his senior colleague ex ceedingly important aid in Bible translation ; and also founding the first P rotestant school for

Chinese boys . This was located at M alacca , in S S the traits ettlements , where many Chinese lived , and where there was much more freedom to prose

cute mission work than was possible in China . To Doctor Milne was given the joy and the honor of baptizing the convert who developed into the first

n P L A- f a be Chi ese rotestant preacher , eang , and

came a mighty power for good , preaching and 1 89 L OF THE EVO UTION NEW CHINA.

writing tracts . Some of these writings are used

and useful , even to the present day . When Mor rison finally succumbed under his severe labors after twenty-seven years of service with only one

furlough , he left in China a P rotestant Christian

Church , consisting of two foreign missionaries and f a r three Chinese Christians . As as statistics go, ’ Doctor Morrison s twenty-seven years o f s elf sacrificin g toil seemed to have little , almost noth

ing, to show .

e s Thes two colossal men , the founder of Chinese Roman Catholic and P rotestant Chris

Ricci q nd tlm lt y respectively, Ricci and Morrison , have

much in common , and yet they are str iking in

. in contrasts They were both terribly earnest , they counted not their lives dear unto thems elves ; tu they were intellec al giants , and their mental

strength was that of the trained athlete . The

c ontrast was in their point of view , which directed

all their action . Ricci had in view the bringing o f as many men as possible to accept certain dog

m as, and to submit to certain rites through which

they were to obtain salvation . Morrison had en strong beliefs , too , but he saw that m must first

be enlightened to perceive the truth , before they

c an accept it in any way to do them good . With

‘ Ricci , literary activity was simply a means to an n end, and that end was not to spread enlightenme t to to benighted China , but to secure access the ’ of ear of China s leaders , that the dogmas Rome 1 90

E CHAPT R VIII .

A TYPICA I FI L L MISS ON E D.

WI LL it be too much trouble for you to take a parcel of books to Shanghai for me ?” said the treasurer o f the Foochow Mission o f the Meth - A Form “ E fl a re Fi nd odist piscopal Church to the writer, as he was about to embark recently for the Gateway of

China . Of course it was no trouble . The books proved to be a gold mine of interest on the voyage , and the fact that the little steamer took fou r days , instead of the customary forty hours f or the voy age , did not trouble the traveler in the least .

They were the early records o f the mission , and among them was a chronicle o f important and in t eresting events noted at the time by the offi cial historiographer, elected from time to time by the missionaries . No historical resource could be more authentic, and the records are packed full of facts o f the deepest interest and significance . The writer realizes that the limits of his space , time , and resources of information are such , to say ’ nothing of the bounds o f his readers patience , that nothing approaching to a centennial survey of

China missions is possible in these pages . More over , that work is being done by far more compe 1 93 T HE L T F A EVO U ION O NEW CHIN .

tent hands , and will be available to the public as s oon as these brief messages may be read . Our ’ purpose here is simply to trace a typical field s

development . The details o f the cultivation o f o f f each corner the vineyard di fer, but the genera l

principles are essentially similar . If the reader W ill take this attitude toward the following sketch , he will get a more vivid View of the whole o f o f China as a mission field , and how it has grown , than i f a fleshl ess skeleton of the historical facts o f each mission were placed before him .

The three pioneer missionaries , Rev . Moses

C . White , M . D. , and wife , and Rev . Judson D . Fim S 6 i 8 Collins , arrived at Foochow eptember , 47 , . Arr' w l ’ a f t er a voyage from Boston of one hundred and

- forty six days . Now the trip can be made in

- - twenty three days , or less than one sixth of the one time . Had the voyage been day longer , they w ould have reached Foochow upon the fortieth ’ anniversary o f Morrison s arrival at Canton .

After five years of service , Mr . Collins returned

t o America v ery ill , and soon went to his reward . F The first Mrs . White died in oochow in the

spring of the year 1 8 49 . The second Mrs . ’ White s ill - health made it necessary f or her bus 1 2 to leave the mission field in 8 5 , the same year

that his colleague was invalided home . a nd Eight months after Messrs . Collins White

reached Foochow , the mission was reinforced by

o f . the arrival in April , Rev Henry Hickok, 1 94

THE L OF EVO UTION NEW CHINA.

. . Mrs James Colder In less than two years , May, 1 8 f 53 , they left or Hongkong during the serious

unrest caused by the Taiping rebellion , and did not return . During the first decade two more

1 8 — e families arrived , both in the year 55 R v . and M r E s . . Wentworth , and Rev . and Mrs . Otis

Gibson . Mrs . Wentworth died in less than four

' . 1 en months after their arrival In 8 59 Dr . VV t P P worth married Miss hoebe otter , and remained 1 6 1 until December, 8 , when they returned t o ’ America on account of M rss Wentworth s serious

illness . Dr . and Mrs . Gibson gave ten full years o f splendid service . While on furlough he wa s assigned to the mission to the Chinese in Sa n F rancisco , where his work during the anti o f Chinese agitation , and the unique character the

s man , made him known far and wide as a Chri

tian hero . The close of the first decade is a good place

to pause for a survey . The first thing that must

Rea m impress every reader is , that this was a costly of Fin d . Dem de service The alabaster box of precious ointment

was broken over and over again . Of the eight o f men , one died ; of the equal number women ,

three were laid away in the cemetery . One man

- left the field because of his own ill health , and

two on account of the illness of their wives . One ’ returned to America because his wife s death laid

upon him the care of two little children . Only o ne family departed from the field for reasons 1 96 A TYP IC AL MISSION FIEL D .

other than the most imperative . Two families rendered a full term of ten years of service , and but one returned t o China after the first furlough .

o f - fi e A mortality twenty v per cent , and break

o f . downs nearly as many more , tell their own story It was so during the early stages of nearly all mis in sion fields in China . It was very difficult those days to secure suitable building sites . The Chinese government did everything possible to prevent the missionaries from securing a foothold . Being able

t o only rent ground , the missionary societies and the missionaries did not think it good business to F I expend much money upon buildings . ebruary , 1 S P it 8 0 . . . 5 , Rev J D Collins writes to ecretary : f or h man The dwelling house myself , for whic now com we last quarter rented the site , is nearly p let ed at a cost o f something less than Four hundred and fifty dollar missionary residences are eff ective instruments for filling missionary graveyards . These facts make superfluous any comment upon the ignorant talk about extra va gance in missionary parsonages . There were other inconveniences in those early

. 1 8 days A letter dated January 9 , 49 , from the chairman of the China committee to the sup erin- Pm a ge tendent of the mission , rej oices in the ratification o f a treaty between America and England by which letter postage between the two countries was reduced to twenty- four cents How the missionaries lived and worked is re 1 97 THE L OF EVO UTION NEW CHINA.

Fina nm fl ected in the estimates f or expenses for the year 1 8 0 to 5 , sent the missionary society .

l ri White l S a a es Re s . Co li ns and Ma l a , v , c y, S al aries three Chine se tea he rs , c ,

Rent a nd re a irs three dwe llin p , gs ,

Three s hools re nt a nd tea her c , c s ,

Chinese tra ts fo r dist ributio n c ,

Rooms tra t distribution a nd re a hin , c p c g ,

Chinese S ri tures c p , Medi ines for dis ensa r c p y ,

Itineratin e enses g xp , Traveling to mo uth o f River Min fo r selling

s f e ha n e bill o xc g ,

P ostage , h i s in ident a ls ex ha n e tc Hea lt tr p , c , c g , e . ,

Total , 00

Salaries of five hundred dollars each left little

margin for missionary luxuries . In this early budget we see the germs o f nearly all future de distrib velopment : Medical work begun , tract u

tion , schools , and preaching . 2 2 1 8 September , 55 , we note this momentous “ record : Mission decided to recommend to the of nu Unma rr ied Board Missions the sending out of three WW W" ” married ladies t o teach in our missions . And “ 6t h : the following April , it is recorded Received news that Bishop and Board approve of our a p

plication f or three female teachers , and that they will send them out by first convenient opp o r ” tunity . This action anticipates the organization ’ f o f the Woman s Foreign Missionary Society o 1 98

THE L OF EV O UTION NEW CHINA.

ginnings has grown in just half a century the

largest Christian community , including all the mis

s iona r a y societies , in any province in China , g g re to gating close one hundred thousand men , women ,

and children , baptized and inquirers . At the session o f the General Conference o f the Methodist Episcopal Church held at L os e 1 0 Angeles in May, 9 4 , there sat upon the rear goufgg a f /m - y of the platform a white haired , clean shaven , neat MW “ little man , who quietly came and went day after

day . No one thought of presenting him to that

t o august body, and giving them a chance honor “ by a Chautauqua salute the founder o f the mis f sions o that great church in three empires . That

old . . S . saintly man was Dr R Maclay , the only one of the eight missionaries arriving at Foochow his during the first decade , who returned after first o f furlough . Doctor Maclay was superintendent 1 8 2 the Foochow mission from March , 5 , until he was appointed in 1 8 7 1 to superintend the organi

z a t ion o f the new mission to Japan . Here he 1 labored until 8 8 5 , when the veteran pioneer was again chosen to organize the new mission to

Korea . The great success that has characterized the work in all three of these fields attests the

- f ounda wisdom of the master builder , who laid the

tions . Some time this modest man , who quietly o f took the lowest seat , will receive the summons “ F the Master o f a greater feast , riend, come up ” higher . 2 0 A TYPICAL MISSION FIEL D .

The Opening Of the second decade was made memorable by the baptism o f the man who be came the first Chinese preacher or evangelist . The First ’ “ Ch i : 1 1 8 8 . Here s the record January 7 , 5 A man ”3 52 2 , o f commonly known by the name Hu, a soldier by profession , was baptized , taking the name of ” “ P - O . F Hu mi Again , ebruary 7 , Brother and Brother Ting commence to speak in public on S I n ta f or the undays at o g u , taking their subjects

Ten Commandments in order . Brother Hu bids fair to make a useful and powerful preacher . He

o f speaks boldly, is a man considerable education , good family, and makes a good impression upon ” the people , commanding the respect Of all . " - 1 1 1 8 . u P O October , 58 H mi is licensed to ” - exhort . Following this epoch marking event the work began to spread into the interior , especially

ok- south , down the coast in H chiang, and toward

- Hinghua . Hu P O mi was the first of a family Of three brothers who became preachers , presiding elders , and pioneer evangelists of the infant

Church . Five years after this baptism is recorded an “

. F 1 equally important conversion ebruary 8 , 8 63 .

TO- . . l e day Rev S L . Binkley administered baptism fi for the rst time , and to the first convert at Ato Li ng chapel . The name of the candidate is Ling Ching

- ting, and he lives in the Hok chiang district . We hope that he may be useful in carrying the Gospel ” there . Most nobly and fully were those hopes 2 01 T HE EVOL UTION O F NEW CHINA.

: realized . Twenty days later it was noted The

- L mi ssion—to day authorized the employment of ing . to Ching ting as a native helper He is study, and do all he can besides in preaching , and the f ” regular work O a helper at Ato chapel . This m a n was singularly qualified to be the pioneer Of evangelist all this southern region . He was L am it a native of the island of y , inhabited by

- Hinghua speaking people , but divided between the tw o s Of - civil di tricts Hok chiang and Hinghua , he belonging to the Hok-chiang side ; but he was o f Amoy- speaking ancestry : so that he spoke with equal facility the dialects of Foochow (Hok He I n h n . chiang) , Hinghua , and g c u g or Amoy became the pioneer evangelist of all three of these

- regions , where fully two thirds of all the Chinese

- Christians of this mission are found to day . Two

Mr. o f his sons were presiding elders after him .

Ling had been a heavy Opium smoker, and a

professional gambler . He was the terror Of his

family and the neighborhood ; but , like the de

moniac , after the legion Of devils had been cast

o u t , he went home and told his kindred and friends

what great things the Lord had done f or him , and

. F it many believed rom this island Of L amy , the n otorious headquarters Of the pirates who terrorize

and victimize this whole coast, the Gospel story spread to the two neighboring peninsulas Of Hok chiang on the one side and Hinghua upon the

other . 2

A TYPICAL MISSION FIEL D .

But let us go back to the missionaries . It is impossible for us to name all Of them : but we

Dr 3 4 1 4 could not omit the first to arrive during this second ; w ”

S . . decade , Dr . L Baldwin , of blessed memory , 1 6 1 8 6 1 whose wife died at sea March , , on the return voyage , taken in hope of saving her life just two years after their arrival . Dr . Baldwin gave twenty years of service to missions in China , and twenty years more in the Office at New York . Few missionaries have rendered greater service to the cause of China than this man , whose youth seemed perennial , but who burned himself out at

- last in zeal for the cause of world wide evangelism .

With Dr . Baldwin arrived the M isses Wool o f ston , the first unmarried women missionarie—s the h - Women mission , w o labored for twenty four years from “ W ” I — S59 till 1 8 83 chiefly in the education of girls . o f The pioneers a great company , whose work is beyond praise . In those early days no foreigner lived in China “ ” beyond the limits of treaty ports , except Roman Fim Catholic priests . These men , without families - and in the native dress , went where they pleased , xfzfd P but the rotestant missionary , with his wife and ff F children , was di erently situated . The oochow missionaries determined to try a cautious exp eri ment by opening a station only twelve miles in “

. 1 2 . land The record reads ; November 8 , 8 6 Tod ay Brother Nathan Sites and family went to

- P re Ngu kang to ta ke up their residence there . 03 THE L O F EV O UTION NEW CHINA.

viousl y to their leaving , the families Of the mission

assembled and appropriate religious exercises , con ” ducted by the superintendent , were held . The

o f : end this episode is described later April 5 ,

1 8 6 . 5 Return of N . Sites and family from Ngu

kang , where they had lived f or two years and five

months . No molestation . Recalled because o f ” reduced force of missionaries . In spite of this

successful experiment , strange as it may seem , it

- five l was not until full twenty years ater , in the 1 8 0 autumn of 9 , that any family of this mission F took up a permanent residence outside of oochow . The physical health of the missionaries who arrived during the second decade is in most strik ’ ing contrast with that of the first ten years . Of gxgl i Cm — I m rov ed p men , eight arrived the same number that we found during the first decade ; five o f these ren dered service of from twenty to more than forty One years , as against two in the previous period . died ; one returned to America ; one left f or an

unknown cause . The comparison regarding the who women is even more striking . Of the twelve com came , seven lived to give full service , as d pared with two the first decade . One ied as

- against three , or as eight and one half percent is

- - not to thirty seven and one half per cent . It was

a change in climate , but in conditions . The mis sion had succeeded in purchasing a suitable site for “ ” a compound , and had erected commodious , sani tary dwellings ; This was before the sanitarium 2 04

THE L T OF NEW EVO U ION CHINA.

; . S . by the brethren , namely , Dr Maclay , L . Bald win S . . . , N ites , L N Wheeler , and V . C . Hart . All came to the conclusion that extension is de

sirable , and as a church we ought to do more

for China . Kiukiang was considered a favorable

place to take up . Dr . Maclay was authorized to write to the Board stating the action of the mis

sion , and urging upon the Board the necessity of

immediate action . Also to appoint one member

Of the mission to pioneer the work . The utmost

harmony prevails in the mission , and God is ” s miling upon us . In May Rev . V. C . Hart

was appointed by Dr . Maclay to open the work “ Y - . 1 . at Kiukiang, on the ang tse River June , 8 67 l\ ' r I . Hart made a trip to Kiukiang and Hankow o gone about six weeks . N hindrance t o the project ” in View . The second decade closed with the sky

reddened by the glow Of the coming sunrise . To the outside Observer the darkness was no less inky than of yore ; but these men Of vision saw the day

dawn and were glad . It was not until the first month of the third decade Of the history that mention is made o f

pi”, any part of what is now the Hinghua Conference . ”‘m “ 1 . S 1 8 6 . . October , 7 Dr Maclay and N ites visited am g / ma - L a m i t i Hok chi ang and our work at y , an sland

Hok- some forty miles from chiang City , down the

coast about ten miles from the main land . An Sev interesting work is in progress at this place . ff eral baptized . The converts have su ered some 2 06 ' A TYPICAL MISSION FIEL D . g

O u from persecution . The island is not p p of lous , but several thousands hardy people dwell fish here , and make a livelihood in farming and ing . The work has Opened into the populous

Hinghua prefecture ; prospects of a good work . Thus the shield o f the L ord is ever over His ” people in that region . A few days later , in giv ing an account Of the annual meeting Of that “ : 1 6 1 8 6 . year , is this important entry October , 7

The mission proposed to occupy two distant fields , ” besides de ter mined to open Hing hua . Forty years have passed since that action Of the Foochow mission ; and the little one hath become ten thousand . “ Expansion was the watchword in those days .

0 1 8 6 . June 3 , 8 A very important step was taken

- in the regular mission meeting to day . The Peki ng brethren unanimously passed resolutions calling P upon the Board to establish a station at eking . The following year this action bore fruit in the appointment Of the Revs . Wheeler and Lowry to pioneer that great work . Dr . Wheeler had spent F two years and nine months in oochow , and Dr .

L owry had been f or a year and one - half a member F w of the oocho mission . The selection proved one to be a most happy , and f ew missions of any church in any land have had a history o f more unbroken prosperity than that which these mission aries , under God , founded nearly four decades ago . 2 T HE L T O F EVO U ION NEW CHINA.

But this lavi sh liberality in men and means brought about a condition Of aff airs that was in f o r F deed critical the oochow work . January 2 , Rezgg 5 1 8 0 . 5 . L . , 0 Tw o 7 , Rev Baldwin and family started for America on account Of the very delicate state Of ’ Mrs . Baldwin s health . This left on the field

only Dr . Maclay and Rev . Nathan Sites and “ - family . Yet the log book reads : Some of the ‘ native preachers seem indeed to be full Of faith ’ a nd of the Holy Ghost ; and it is with much 1 8 0 j oy and great hopes that we enter upon 7 , notwithstanding the feebleness of ou r foreign

force . Surely this is the faith that removes

mountains . The third decade witnessed the arrival o f only five four men and women , including the first lady ’ s F Rei nf m e physician Of the Woman oreign Missionary m T o 3 Society . w of these men and their wives ren y];2 2 ; d Deca e dered permanent service , while one returned upon ’ o f s account his wife s illness , and another becau e o f o f his own broken health . During much this ten years there were only four o r five men on the

field at a time , and sometimes fewer . The work

was almost wholly evangelistic itinerating, the higher educational institution not yet having been

s born . It was for this reason that the mis ion ,

in spite o f its reduced numbers , not only did not

feel keenly the pressure Of overwork , but actually off ered to give at least one o f their number to

- open a new mission o n the Yang tse at Ichang, 2 08

THE L T O F A EV O U ION NEW CHIN .

Of re The second cause change Of policy, quir

ing a much larger force Of missionaries , is found Til e l y in the modern growth of the institution Of higher of Higher . Ed uca ti on education In the earlier days , when a man Of even very limited education became a zealous con

vert , after instruction in the doctrine f or a few

months by the missionary, he would be sent out t o tell the story . These lay evangelists did very f ef ective work . It has been so in a ll such move ’ ments . Wesley s helpers were largely Of this

class . The early pioneer preachers o f America

were thrust out in the same way . But the standard Of education among the masses of the people has

advanced . These men , even in England and

America , were generally intellectually the supe to riors of the people whom they ministered . O S it was in the early days o f mission work . But a new generation of Christians has grown up in

the West and also in the East . The Christian college and the university have developed to meet in the need , lest the Church should become more

tellig ent than its ministry . Woe to the pastor and oe t o o w his flock, when the shepherd can not g before his sheep l Of these twenty men in the

Fuhkien to- Methodist missions day , six are wholly absorbed in the institutions o f higher education ;

three are in medical work , which thirty years ago had not been begun ; two are devoted entirely to the supervision of primary education ; and two are

engaged in training young men for the ministry. 2 1 0 A TYP ICAL MISSION FIEL D .

It is the institutional and special work that has absorbed thirteen out of the increase Of fifteen five men , since the above mentioned missionaries

1 8 6 , thought , at the close of the year 7 that they ”

F . had too large a force concentrated at oochow

From their point of view they were right , but

they had not begun to see visions . The fourth decade ( 1 8 7 8 - 1 8 8 7 ) was char a cteriz ed by unusual freedom from sickness or

om !, death among the missionaries . Of the five men p who arrived , one soon became discouraged and

quit the work in six months . The other four, c Doctors Smyth , Wilcox , Worley, and La y, are all still in the active service of the missionary S e society , though Dr . myth is engaged in the hom

field work . Of the eleven women , one broke one down , one left the field with her husband ,

married, and eight are still in the active work , including the wives of the above mentioned four r men and Misses Jewell , Carleton , and Ha tford,

F . . r and Miss isher, now Mrs Brewster That afte o t twenty years , u of sixteen recruits twelve should

be still in the service is a most remarkable record , a nd one ffi which it might be di cult to duplicate .

No doubt the fact that during the previous decade , 1 8 in 7 5 , the sanitarium at Sharp P eak at the

mouth of the River Min was completed , has had something to do with this unusual record of

longevity . In this connection the following entry “ Of 1 8 S 1 will be interest 7 5 , eptember 5 . The 2 1 1 THE EVOL UTI ON O F NEW CHINA.

ss or o f mi ion , excepting one two the brethren ,

ho w in turn remained in the compound , have been spending the ho t season at the sanitarium at Sharp P eak , which was completed in June last . We are persuaded that we have all been strengthened ” our by temporary residence by the sea . It was not until twelve years later that the now popular

mountain resort near Foochow was first occupied .

s The sanitarium at the seaside , built for six familie ,

( O t has been long outgrown , and many have built on tages the cool mountain top . This movement

was pioneered by two of our Foochow veterans . “ 1 S P 8 8 7 . Brother and ister lumb spent their first K li n S P summer at u a g , harp eak not having proved ” o beneficial t o them . N w there are more than two hundred who find the cool breezes and mutual s fellowship during July and August , a help phy

ical , intellectual , and spiritual . It was about the middle of this f ourth decade that the radical new departure was made in higher

Of - Ag gl o education . The origin the Anglo Chinese Col be is indeed unique . A Chinese merchant

came a Christian . He prospered . He closed up o his great store n Sunday, and was more pros

p erous than ever . The story Of his connection with the college is vividly told in the mission “ - 1 1 8 8 1 . diary . January 9 , The Anglo Chinese

College wa s announced as established . This had Of been preceded by a donation , or promise the

same , Of ten thousand dollars for this purpose by 2 1 2

A TYP ICAL MISSION FIEL D.

b Es . T . A ok , q , a very generous sum for one NO Chinaman to give for such a purpose . 1 1 The vember, 8 8 . Conference , Bishop Bowman on i 8 th presiding, convened the , and adjourned d on the 2 3 . During the visit of the bishop the b ten thousand dollars promised by Mr . A ok for the college were paid , and plans made for the S purchase of suitable property. ubsequently the

fine property, residence and grounds , adjoining our mission compound were off ered for sale , and it ” was purchased for fourteen thousand dollars . b of Of Mr . A ok stands at the head a long line

Christian Chinese merchants who , in the genera tions to come , will build and endow Christian col leges and all sorts of philanthropic institutions for the benefit of their fellow countrymen . NO nation will excel the Chinese in this regard , when Christ

. b reigns in their hearts M any will give more , e cause better able , than this pioneer ; but the name Of T Abok will ever stand at the head Of the long list Of Chinese Protestant Christian philan hr t opists. During the fourth decade the evangelistic work made steady but slow progress . The missionaries “ F ” were still concentrated at oochow , and the t e Fif th De a de inf orcements were absorbed largely in the new c 1 888 -1 897 college work . It was not until well into the fifth decade that two country stations were opened , Dr .

M . C . Wilcox and family moving to Kucheng in O 1 8 0 ctober, 9 , and the writer occupying Hinghua 2 1 3 T HE E L T F VO U ION O NEW CHINA.

in November , immediately after his marriage with E F Miss lizabeth isher, a missionary of the ’ F 1 Woman s Board, who came to oochow in 8 8 4 .

The writer sailed from New York in November, 1 8 8 8 , with Bishop Thoburn , fully expecting to spend his life in India . He was sent to Singapore to relieve Doctor Oldham Of the pastorate of the

E - nglish speaking congregation . A year in that mid-tropical c l i m a t e seriously impaired his strength . He found both health and a wi fe in 1 8 0 a trip to China in the spring of 9 , and dur ing the summer of that year he was transferred F at the request of the oochow mission , doubtless because they saw they must either take him or lose the lady whose work they knew they could not spare ; although they gave as the reason that a vacancy had just occurred in their ranks by the

o f . breakdown M r Donohue , and that Hinghua

' needed a man immediately . This decade was characterized by a marked forward movement in the work of evangelization . There was an increase o f one hundred and fifty 1 8 of per cent, making a total in the year 97 members , and probationers , All the other features Of the work advanced in much the same proportion . The health record o f this period falls far below : that of the previous decade . Ten men arrived

One died, one broke down , two left because of ’ - one r their wives ill health , did not retu n after 2 1 4

TH L OF E EV O UTION NEW CHINA.

ing a Christian community aggregating in 1 9 06

a total of However , in these totals there

are Of adults baptized , in Hinghua only F and in oochow , There is enough in these figures to encourage our faith that the next genera tion will count converts by the hundreds o f thou

f nda sands instead Of tens of thousands . The ou

tion laying has been slow , the superstructure will

rise with great rapidity .

Of the nineteen men who have arrived , fifteen re on one to a still the field, was transferred India ,

- two . Rei n one broke down , and have died Of the

- thirty five women recruits , thirty are still here , only

Si th - x one has left becau se Of her own ill health , the other Deca de four have departed f or causes related t o the i r ’ husband s illness , death , or transfer ; and one left o f the field not t o return . It is a matter the

gravest moment that , within a very short time , three young men of the Fu hkien missions died on

. the field , right at the opening Of their career These young men apparently were all physically

perfect when they arrived . They were college

athletes . They did not neglect their exercise , or — Yet live carelessly . within sixteen months from — L . F . 1 0 1 0 B. F . July , 9 4 , to October , 9 5 Marsh ,

Simest er , Guthrie , and James died on the field Within one Of as many as fell in the other fif ty- eight ’ years O f the mission s history , including Nathan

- Sites , who had rendered thirty four years of P t . . lumb , who had labored wenty service , and N J 2 1 6 A TYP ICAL MISSION FIEL D .

nine years . Mr . Collins died in America shortly

P . after his return from China . Rev . C . Martin 1 8 6 died of cholera at Foochow in 4 , four years

after his arrival . These four were the only

deaths among the men , except the three who e died so near together and so recently . A lif insurance company would study such a phenome S u n non to find the reason why . urely it is no

accountable accident . All three of these young men were given heavy administrative work very

soon after their arrival . They were college presi

dents before they had been two years On the field .

It is one thing to teach a certain number Of hours , or o f to travel a number days , and preach occa siona ll f y, and it is another and a very dif erent thing t o be responsible , day and night , for the conduct and the training of one or two hundred boys

and young men , with the diffi culties o f a half learned language and unfamiliar Eastern customs

ever keeping the nerves upon the rack . It requires years Of experience to carry such responsibilities without a nervous strain that few constitutions are

able to bear . The exigencies of the work seemed t o demand putting these institutions in charge o f h t ese splendid young men . The Church had been so tardy in sending reinforcements , that there were not enough veterans to take these administrative

responsibilities , and it cost the terrible sacrifice Of of three her best sons . M ay the lesson not need to be repeated ! T HE L T OF EV O U ION NEW CHINA.

But statistics do not tell all the results , or

indeed the largest outcome , of these sixty years Of toil and sacrifice . The writer recently had oc i Unta b c a s on to call at the book depot Of the Commer c ia l P S £ 21522 ress in hanghai , the publishing house that is furnishing most of the school books of the new é r gime . Upon learning that his customer was Fuhkien P from the rovince , the manager said “ More than half o f our publications are going “ into Fuhkien How do you account f or that ? “ asked the astonished visitor . The missionaries

have been there the longest, and Chinese Chris ” tians are most numerous there , was the significant

reply . It was a plain business matter with this No Chinese publisher o f school books . t that the so Christians purchase many books ; indeed , but a small proportion o f the sales are to them ; but the mission schools and colleges all over the prov F h ince , radiating from oochow on the nort and on s Amoy the south , have sent out scores and cores r of teache s , who are being employed in day and

- boarding schools everywhere . It is the leavening

power of the Truth . The new education in this province has had little encouragement from the old provincial government . An ignorant Manchu Tartar- General has been acting- viceroy for several m so years , ever since the reform ovement became

popular . He has done practically nothing to aid

the reformers . The educational movement in this

province is from the people almost entirely, and 2 1 8

THE EVOL UTION O F NEW CHINA.

E P t e center , and by the nglish resbyterians , h L on S don Missionary ociety , and the Reformed Church

o . Of America , working ut from Amoy That most

dely read author on China , Doctor Arthur H . S mith , recently prefaced a speech to an audience “ Of Christians in Hinghua with the remark : In the Fu hkien P rovince you have the largest Prot esta nt Christian community in the empire ; and in m S y home province , hantung, we have the next l argest . I bring to you , representatives of the most numerous body of Chinese Christians , the greet ings Of the next in numbers . May your continued prosperity stimulate us all to greater faith and more earnest endeavor , until all your fellow coun trymen brought Christ . CHAPTE R I! .

S P RIT AL F I U OR CES .

IT was no accident that the dispensation of the Holy Spirit was ushered in when “ the day P t of entecost was now come . Jesus came no S ymbolim “ of Pem ‘“ to to ll destroy the law , but to fulfill it ; that is , fi ” 1 to it full . The symbol was become in Him a reality . That the sacrifice upon Calvary was syn chronou in s with the feast Of the paschal lamb , was the plan Of redemption from the beginning . Less apparent , but no less true , was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit a fulfillment of the symbolism f P O t . entecost . It was the Jewish harvest feas

Nations civilized and savage , Christian and

o pagan , ancient and modern , generally have b served a harvest feast . It is written deep in the nature o f mankind that the life - sustaining forces are in some way divine , and it is becoming that ’ men give thanks . The world s spiritual harvest began on the day Of all days in the Jewish calendar most fitting to typify it . But there is a real danger o f misreading the significance o f P entecost . Good men have taken it to mean that the harvest is ripe

1 P s roo s in er mon r e e a t Tr ni t r oston in th e hillip B k a s p ach d i y Chu ch , B , e r 1 8 8 y a 4. 2 2 1 THE L T OF EV O U ION NEW CHINA.

everywhere , and it is only necessary to put in the sickle and reap . When years pass by without one s ingle sheaf gathered , as it was with Carey , Jud n son , and Morriso , faith is staggered ; and the question is raised : Did these good men have the faith that removes mountains ? Wherever Paul went , right in the midst of heathenism , within a few months or even weeks he founded a Chris tian Church . Have the modern apostles to the Gentiles lost the primitive faith and Pentecostal ? W power ithout question missionaries , as other men , have accomplished less than they might have done had their faith been perfected , their wisdom unerring , and their lives wholly blameless . The missionaries themselves are the last to claim that all has been done that might have been . The treasure has been in very earthen vessels , often

Nev ertheless the a re a te leaky and defective . , g g g r es ul ts of the la s t c entury of missions ha ve been i n ha rm ony wi th the symbolic a l pr ophecy of P ente c os t no l ess tha n the thr illin s tor o the rst , g y f fi s f in c entury . The whole philo ophy o missions is P volved in this proposition . Peter at entecost, bringing three thousand converts into the new-born s Christian Church ; and Morrison , toiling for even long years before baptizing his first convert ; both equally illustrating the symbolism Of P entecost ? Incredible ! But if we can not establish our propo s sitiou , then the modern mi sionary propaganda is

not God . of man , Of , and it will come to naug ht 2 2 2

T HE EVOL UT ION OF NEW CHINA.

der o f it is made up of brief comments upon and a p

plication of the pa ssages quoted . These thousands ’ o f P agreed with the premises eter s sermon , and

they naturally accepted his conclusions .

Such results would be psychologically imposa

sible with a Hindu or Confucian audience . Peter Modern was too wise a preacher t o have preached that c omma “ sermon to a pagan multitude . As well go with a modern Mc Cormick harvester into an unbroken

wilderness . When the hardy pioneers crossed the A ppalachians into the Ohio Valley, they not only

brought their seed grain and their sickles . They u sed first of all their axes , and then their spades

and plows . They cleared the forest before they f sowed their grain . The pioneers o the pagan

wilderness were no less practical in their methods . Morrison ’s Chinese Dictionary consumed as many years in its compilation as Jacob spent f or love ’ o f Rachel . Half of that mighty man s life in

China went into that one work . But every mis

siona ry since Morrison has been beholden to him . He furnished the key that unlocked the door of

that sealed land . The century just closing has seen a little harvesting in China ; but the real work of this one hundred years has been one of clear ing the wilderness and breaking up the fallow

ground . Carey, Judson , Morrison , Maclay, men f or of little faith , because a week o f years o r more they saw no visible fruit of their labors ! These were the men before whose faith ours seems to 2 2 4 SP IRITUAL FORCES

shrivel into nothing . Anybody can believe in the L ord of the harvest when he is in the midst o f . the joyful labor of gathering in the golden grain . They who can toil on with cheerful heart and buoy S S ant spirits while ydney miths sneer, and wise “ ” acres wag their heads and say Aha , aha ! while the daily message delivered f o r more than two thousand times falls upon dea f ears : these be the men whose faith rebukes our petty impatience that the harvest is so long delayed . They were content t o so w , that a later generation might reap . They endured as seeing Him who is invisible . The greater part of the first century o f modern mis sions has been in the nature of clearing the forest and preparing the wild virgin soil for the seed of the Word , rather than harvesting the ripened grain : but that makes the labor no less P ente costal , if it be less dramatic . The foregoing chap ters have been , in part , devoted to an attempt to make clear the work o f the axe and the plow . The axe of literature has cleared much of the dark forest , letting in the light of day . The edu cational plow has been one o f the mightiest inst ru ments . in the hands of the great Husbandman to break up the fallow ground . The industrial plow has been of use , but too often it has been o r s left in the furrow , unappreciated un kilfully one used . The medical plow has been of the most diligently and effectually used o f all . But While the great P entecostal harvest in China is 2 2 5 T HE EV OL UT ION O F NEW CHINA.

L still in the future , yet the ord of the harvest has not kept all the husbandmen waiting or simply

clearing the ground and sowing the seed . There r has not yet been the sound as of a ushing,

mighty Wind, but the still small voice has often s poken , and even the tongue of fire has not P been altogether silent . Taking the entecostal

power in its broader , deeper , and truer sense as e mbracing all the work of the Holy Spirit in pro duc in g a spiritual harvest in the world, every f or e ig n mission field abounds in modern chapters in

the Acts of the Apostles . P erhaps in no one line of action is this more apparent than in the P rovidential guidance and

Guida nce care given to the Spirit- called men and women ”W W " who toil in these distant fields . It is a fundamental “ principle of science that like conditions produce of like effects . Because the development modern civilization and the spread of education in Western lands have produced fundamentally different con m dit ions from those that existed in Biblical ti es , the tendency is for us to discredit or look with suspicion upon many o f the ways that God is represented as teaching and leading His people in

prim itive ages . This seems to be hardly according

to the accepted principles Of our boasted science . In “ the changeless E ast ” we have still a repro duction o f many of the conditions o f ancient L is not Israel and of the times of our ord . It unreasonable to expect like primitive workings of 2 2 6

T HE EV OL UTION OF NEW CHINA.

Via o r river and sea to u Hinghua port , Antau, whence they could be brought t o Hinghua City by canal boats . It was a new thing under the sun , and with many misgivings the plan was

“ finally agreed to . A junk was chartered at FOO chow , and a large part of the money advanced .

The goods were put upon two large lighters , and started down to the river to where the junk wa s lying . Doctor Sites went with the lighters to see everything carefully transferred . To his amaze ment the junk was not there . That morning it

off had quietly weighed anchor and put , no one knew where ! Disgusted and mystified with such

e rfid p y, there was no alternative but to order the

- S flat boats back to Foochow . carcely had Doctor on ac S ites disembarked the j etty , when a man costed him, introducing himself as a Christian

- on from Hok chiang , the county lying the sea coast between Foochow and Hinghua . This is ’ “ the substance of the man s story : I own two S o r three junks . everal days ago , while I was who asleep at night , I saw a white robed visitor ‘ t o F said to me , Take your boat oochow as soon as you can , and bring the goods of the Hinghua ’ m s t o . is ionaries Hinghua When I awoke , I was much distressed because my boats were all at sea , five and I could not obey the summons . But after d ays one returned , and I immediately went of aboard ; and here I am , to take the goods free ” charge . 2 SP L F S IRITUA ORCE .

’ You can imag ine the good doctor s amaze ment . The two lighters were unloaded upon this ’ Christian s boat : and a safe passage landed all at

Hinghua City . The story spread among our “ . one Christians They said , to another : These o f new missionaries are surely sent God . We must ” rally around them . And they did . It was a physical impossibility for that man in Hok- chiang to have received any information as to our plans for transportation . The most reasonable explana tion is the simplest , that the almost universal belief in visions among the primitive people in these P lands , as in ancient times , caused a wise rovidence to use similar means to impart in the most effective way an important spiritual lesson .

The Holy Spirit is given for guidance , as well ’ as for inspiration . This is manifested in God s t providential care over His servants in carrying ou A Hea p on SW His will , while harvesting the ripening grain . One instance may help to strengthen the faith of the find reader, and honor Him whose ways are past ing out, but who numbers the hairs of our head . 1 8 0 When we went to Hinghua in November , 9 , there was no other foreign family living nearer n than Foochow . To secure a physicia in case of F urgent necessity, a messenger must go to oochow overland , a journey of two days and nights , and an equal time would be consumed by the physician in coming . Living in Chicago with the nearest c physician in San Francisco , one would be loser in 2 2 9 T HE L T O F EV O U ION NEW CHINA.

time than we were . Good friends remonstrated f or with us being so rash . Our second child was born there , attended only by a Chinese woman who had taken a course at the Woman ’s Hospital F in oochow . We lived there f or nearly five years before we had any resident physician , and in all that time only once did we imperatively need a doctor , and then one was on hand more promptly than if he had resided half a mile away. 1 One day in January , 8 94 , a servant rushed “ in with the news , There are two foreign men ” out in the front yard . Hastening out to wel of come the strangers , as a door the court opened ’ a tall , slender young man almost fell into his host s “ ” arms , saying , I am sick . His companion, a much older man , was recognized as Doctor Kipp , a veteran evangelistic missionary of the Dutch

Reformed mission o f Amoy . The sick man was

Doctor J . A . Otte , a medical missionary of the Foo same society . They were on their way to

f - chow from their station O Chang chau , a five ’ days journey south o f Hinghua . Doctor Otte seemed to have an acute attack of what was then ” called the Grippe . We took the best care Of him we could , and he improved rapidly . The second day he thought himself able to proceed on his his journey, and they were about to start , when hostess asked our faithful Chinese nurse to bring F the baby boy rancis , ten months old , saying that he had been restless during part of the night , and 2 3 0

THE L T O F EV O U ION NEW CHINA.

coward to step out of the path of duty . The ’ way of duty is the way of safety . The Father s

care is the essential thing, not the external con dit ion ’ s . In doing the Master s will any place is ’ s afe . It is this that makes the lif e of the foreign

missionary , even in the interior Of China , one of

j oy and peace . He hears the assurance from the “ lips that never deceived : Let not your heart be ” troubled, neither let it be afraid . 1 8 l It was in June of 93 , ess than three years “ a fter our arrival in Hinghua , that our first P ente Q W ’ costal Meetings were held . This ten days Home Fi rst Remi t-va l Camp - meeti ng i n H i nghua C i ty marked a new era P in the work . robably the most eff ective and accurate account o f it will be made by rep roduc ing a letter written to our then missionary secre

Mc Ca be 1 tary , the late Bishop , dated June 9 ,

1 8 s . 93 , and published by him in the Church paper My Dear Brother : Last Wednesday night ’ we closed a ten days Home Camp -meeting in

P . Hinghua City . It was a entecostal time We f or had been waiting, preparing, praying , working S 1 E it for a long time . unday, May 4th , was p

: P worth anniversary day . The subject was rayer

‘ o L Sun f r the Holy Spirit . At the eague meeting

day night the spirit of prayer fell upon us . When t the time came o close , we dismissed the little chil

dren and those who did not care to remain . The Biblical and Women ’s schools both stayed in a n d body. We k elt in prayer , and everybody seeme 2 3 2 SP T L F IRI UA ORCES .

. F to forget the flight of time orty minutes passed , the spirit of prayer seemed universal , incessant ;

even then I had to ask them to arise . All felt

God was leading . We must have special meet

ings . This we did every night that week , with no abatement of interest . The following Sunday ou r - Chinese presiding elder , Rev . L i Diong cui , said he thought all the preachers and workers should be called together to share the blessings r we were eceiving . Most of the preachers and

o r others , except five six who were educated in F oochow , had never attended a series of revival meetings . “ We sent out word for all to come f or a ten ’

th . days meeting , beginning M onday , June 5 t o They came , not knowing what expect , but all

- fi e except one of the twenty v preachers were here ,

- and he was detained by sickness . The day school ’ in iu teachers , the Bible women , the S g Women s —in one schools , and a few others came all about hundred men and women who , with the students in t o the city , made up a congregation of over w hundred at every service . In the afternoon the men and women had separate services , and at four ’ o clock the men went to hold street meetings . Now I wish to give you a plain account Of just what happened . At the beginning , I was appar ently strangely led to preach as to an unconverted

. congregation . This was not my planning These c were Christian workers . But I ould prepare 2 3 3 THE L OF EV O UTION NEW CHINA. — nothing else , and repentance the new birth, the judgment to come , were the themes . For two days there was a stubborn resistance , while conviction

. one one was deepening Then , by these preachers , students for the ministry, and Bible women began to confess , either that they had never had a clear S witness of the pirit to pardoned sin , or they had lost it ! By Thursday nearly the whole company were completely broken down ; such repentance , such confession , and such pleading prayer I have seldom , if ever , witnessed . We could not invite them forward f or prayers ; there was not enough room . At several services the whole house was

. F an altar On riday the Comforter came . They were converted in their rooms , at the services , in the after meetings . That night we gave up to t o the meeting the people tell the glad news . The diffi culty was t o get a chance to speak ; four r o five wanted the floor at once . “ Do not think that these men were hypocrites before . Most of them were hard workers , and were doing much good . No doubt many were living as near up to their light as the average

- o f pastor in the home land . Think their heathen surroundings , barren literature , and generations of heathenism behind them , and you can understand how it came about . The last three days, from Monday till Wednesday, we sought to lead them to take Christ as their full Savior from the t o power of sin , and be baptized with the Holy 2 3 4

T HE L O F EV O UTION NEW CHINA.

within : the only place where it reasonably could be

expected . It is a serious mistake to suppose that this previous cultivation must all be done by human

The agents , and that it must extend over a long course 7 . To 0552 2 2 :of years the Jew and to the average Chris

tian of his time , Cornelius was a heathen soldier ; “ but in reality he was A devout man , and one God w that feared ith all his house , who gave to much alms the people , and prayed to God a l

. way He was not a Jewish proselyte , though no doubt he had read the Old Testament Scrip

tures , and worshiped God as therein portrayed . Always there have been such men in the midst of

paganism . They have been the salt that has kept

the whole body from hopeless putrefaction . It is the common experience Of missionaries that their most exemplary and spiritual converts are those

who were most zealous in their idolatry . Very f “ few o the devout in China , like Cornelius , pray ” to God alway . His contact with Judaism had

taught him this . In China these genuine seekers o after G d usually practice idolatry in some form, but to them the idols are symbols of spiritual be S a o o f En ings . everal years g a missionary the g S lish Baptist mission in hantung , told in the “ ” f or Chinese Recorder , among other reasons the

unusual success of their work in that province , that there were scattered over their territory small bands of zealous religionists usually gathered 2 3 6 SP U L F IRIT A ORCES .

o ar und a leader , who was like a priest to them . It has been the policy of the mission to ou t search these leaders and preach t o them Christ .

Many of them had accepted the truth , and in most cases they had been able to bring with them into the Christian Church many of their followers .

Doctor John Ross , of Mukden , gives valuable testimony upon this important feature Of the work

- o f the Holy Spirit in non Christian lands . Doctor “ : ho Ross says Numbers of men and women w , before they knew Christianity , were earnest zealots , laboring by asceticism and endless ritual to work out peace for themselves , have entered our Church . As might be naturally expected , these are the most zealous and the most effi c ient preachers of Christianity to their fellow country men . We have here , then , the remarkable fact that many thousands in monasteries and in f e the homes o common life are , as w put it , con vinced f or of sin , and yearn and strive after some For way of deliverance . many years we have made a special point of becoming acquainted with the more earnest of the Buddhist sects into which this class finds their way . Not only does Chris tia nity open the prison doors of these prisoners o f o f despair , and exchange their moans for songs glad deliverance , but in these delivered ones we have incomparably the best agents for the extension of Christianity among all classes o f the people .

One such man , well instructed , is of more value 2 3 7 THE L OF EVO UTION NEW CHINA. in bringing the influence of Christian teaching to bear upon those who are without , than any f or eigner , however able , however willing, or however ” 2 zealous . i We have had similar experiences in H nghua , though upon a much smaller scale . In the year 1 8 w 93 , hile attending a quarterly meeting at

P o - io , a native seaport, I noticed among the men one o f baptized remarkable purity of face . His was a real saintly countenance . The impression was deepened by a brief conversation that thi s

s was a most unusual convert . He eemed t o under a t stand spiritual thing s once , without a long of To process training . him prayer seemed to U be as natural as his very breath . pon inquiry it was found that he had been the leader o f a group of religious zealots in his home neighbor hood , who had practically discarded the ordinary o f idolatry the region , but burned incense to the “ ood ' a nd L unseen spirits , g bad , and to the ord ” of heaven and earth . They prayed as best they knew, and sought to live exemplary lives . He had spent many years in search of the Truth , “ ” s g oing to visit all the shrine , and the holy men , “ living Buddhas , and whomsoever promised help to the sin- sick soul and held ou t hope for salvation

L y in the future life . ater he had joined a ege “ ” tarian sect called the Three Religions , founded

2 d M s s o n Me t o s i n M n r o n os s . o e e a n i i h d a chu ia, by J h R , p s , R v ll

om n 1 0 . C pa y, 9 3 2

THE L T O F EVO U ION NEW CHINA.

Whose headquarters are in Boston claims as a new “ ” “ discovery, the Christian Science or Mind ” - cure doctrines . Hong bau had cured many people in this way . But he found that those whom he had helped, instead of being grateful , in many cases became enemies rather than friends , and soon went back to their sinful habits . In his deep dis tress he called upon GOd to explain to him ( 1 ) “ Why are these people whom I helped so un ” grateful ? ( 2 ) Should I permanently organize a Three Religions society ?” After three days Of S o f od agonizing prayer , the pirit G , as he believes , to revealed him the truth . Regarding the fi rst mystery , the Spirit led him to understand that “ The sicknesses o f these people are because of their sins . It can do them no good to cure their bodies if they do not repent o f their sins . Their physical pain is deserved punishment . Seek first to turn them from their wicked lives , then help heal their ” “ : bodies . The second question was answered I have already established the Christian Church.

Christ is the only Savior . Believe Him , and bring your followers into His Church .

S - Immediately, this pirit taught man went to the nearest Christian Church and j oined it, with o r eaf s his whole family . F many y he has been a remarkably useful lay preacher . He keeps our

' mission book- store with great effi ciency and scru l p u ous honesty . All day long he preaches the great truths that he prizes so highly , because he sought 2 40

THE L T F EV O U ION O NEW CHINA.

from shrine to shrine , from teacher to teacher ? Who would not count it all j oy to bring to such the message that there is One who has invited all the weary and burdened to find rest in Him ? Sometimes the modern prophet grows weary and discouraged at the apparently unequal and losing conflict with heathen Ahabs and Jezebels . He sits down under a juniper tree and can scarcely “ refrain from saying with Elij ah : It is enough ; 0 L f or now , ord , take away my life ; I am not better than my fathers . I , even I only, am ”

. who the s left But God , knoweth heart of all enli ht eneth men , comforteth and g the Elij ahs of every age by reminding them that there are still “ seven thousand in Israel , all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal , and every mouth which hath n ot kissed him . As China presents the best type o f o r s paganism in ancient modern time , it is altogether probable that this class of Spirit- pre pared minds are more numerous amongst the

Chinese than in other lands . It is the business o f the Christian missionary to search out these struggling souls , feeling after God , if haply they might find Him , and tell them that He is not one o f far from each them . Let the conviction become general in any section—of China among this class o f seekers after God and they seem to — ’ be everywhere that Christianity is inde ed God s t o final and complete revelation men , and ere long P entecost will be repeated there in power . It 2 42 SP T L F IRI UA ORCES . will not be merely the work of the Holy Spirit at that particular time , but the outcome of years “ o f L preparation , when the true ight that light eth every man that cometh into the world was shining dimly , but yet truly shining , into the souls f of men yearning o r the Truth . As John the o f Baptist was forerunner the Messiah , preparing the way before Him , so the Holy Spirit is making straight the paths before the modern messengers L et o t of the King . us get u from under the t he f juniper tree , and in mount o God listen to the still small voice bidding us throw ourselves with fresh courage , and zeal , and faith , into the mighty world forces , be they kings and potentates o r L et be great social and religious reforms . us n t S lieve His assurance that we are o alone . even thousand times seven thousand humble , unknown , Spirit- taught men and women in the midst o f the mass of pagan idolaters are awaiting the prophet ’s call on Carmel . P E ! CHA T R .

THE INDIGENOUS CHURCH.

THE average man who thinks about missions

to the Christless nations at all, regards the work

The as more or less Q uixotic. It is a benevolence , Fa il ure ” F P of Mi ssi ons just as the ive oints Mission , whose aim he supposes to be not to abolish or even to revo

lutioniz e the slums , but simply to save an occa

sional soul that would otherwise perish . To him the missionary societies are merely great charity of organizations , whose objective is worthy all

praise , but the most that can be expected is that they will persuade a few tens of thousands of pagans to turn from their idols to worship the

only true and living God . It is easy enough to d raw a truthful , yet very dark and discouraging picture o f what has been accomplished and seems un likely to be attained , as compared with the

s not done task . From thi point of View , it is diffi cult to prove that missions can never be other

I - than a failure , since there are more non Christians

now in the world than there were a century ago ,

When Morrison came to China . The inadequacy o f the eff orts we are making to evangelize these myriads is Often vividly pictured by showing that 2 44

THE L T OF EVO U ION NEW CHINA. and assert that it is not only impossible to Chris tia niz e these nations in that way , but it is un

desirable as well . Nothing is more certain to ln Not De sure failure in this huge undertaking than for the “ f a bl e l ordly Caucasian to be imbued with the idea that do he is to it all . If he could , it would be the s worst thing po sible for the intellectual , moral , and spiritual development o f the people to whom

. W he goes We ould then have an exotic , not an e indig nous Church , and an exotic is always an

expensive and puny thing . At a missionary con vention in America a missionary from the tropics saw a number of plants in large pots around the

communion rail . He asked one of the attendants

what they were . His informant , amazed at the ’ “ !” poor man s ig norance replied, They are palms Palms ? That much- commiserated retu rned exile had spent his all too infrequent vacation days in the mid-tropics upon the seashore in a grove o f palms that towered fifty to one hundred feet into ot on the heavens . And these p plants the edge of the platform were palms ! No wonder he had

forgotten how a North American palm looked .

Yet these cost more than those . They required a

furnace and a glass house all winter, and care that

cost time and money just to keep them alive .

F ? . ruit No , they were only for ornament In

Singapore they are a source Of great revenue . These convention plants are exotics ; those in

Malaysia are indigenous . 2 46 THE IN DIGEN OUS CH URCH .

Have you ever eaten a fresh le it che e ? Or a ling eng ? You will not find these words in your “ ” o f S latest edition the tandard Dictionary ; nor From are you likely to get any light upon these fruits Exoti c to I ndigenou s from any books of reference at your command . And i f you do find them mentioned in more than one place , almost certainly they will be spelled dif f erentl y . Yet they are two of the most delicious ’ fruits to be found anywhere . Beecher s familiar “ remark that , The Lord doubtless could have made a better fruit than the strawberry, but

He never did , is excusable upon the ground ground that the great preacher never ate a fresh l i h e t c ee . This fruit grows upon trees ; when ripe , it is about the size and color of a strawberry ; the skin is a rough , brittle bark , that covers a

— ho white meat with a black pit . It tastes but w ever described a taste ? A taste is like a religious — experience you must try it , to know it . That is h P “ W y the salmist said , O taste , and see that the ” lin en Lord is good . The g g is round ; its bark is smooth and yellow ; the meat looks like that of '

ut . its earlier sister fruit , b is sweeter Not a few

l itc he e prefer this to the e , but the foreigner usually likes the l e itchee better . Neither can survive heavy frosts , so that they do not grow north of

Foo chow on the China coast . They are dried and shipped all over China , being a luxury at the feasts o f the rich . But the dried article is very insipid , a s compared with the fresh fruit . 2 47 THE L OF C EV O UTION NEW HINA. Having long coveted this delicious fruit for his fellow countrymen , when planning for a fur

1 0 ha d lough in the autumn of 9 3 , the writer two o f each variety carefully planted in large tubs , and crated . He looked after watering them himself . F They were carried overland to oochow , shipped

S - P to hanghai , and then trans shipped to the acific liner . The problem o f care upon the steamer was a di l very fli cu t one . It took fees to the steward and deck hands . Whenever the returning mis siona r t o y was in a mood look after anything , he gave them almost daily personal attention . They arrived at the port o f Sa n Francisco in good con dition . The inspector Of horticulture , whose duty it was to burn them up if they had any strange a s insects or fungus growth upon them , w pleased

ou r that he could spare them . Before we reached hotel , Mr . Dorsett , an agent of the Agricultural

Department at Washington , had been there to see i f he could get possession o f those trees . He had

s just arrived from Wa hington , appointed by the Department to open in Southern California a

- nursery for foreign , tropical , and semi tropical fruits and plants . Mr . Craft , the inspector at the “ ”

o f . port , had told his friend Dorsett his find With alacrity and relief those trees were turned over to the man best qualified in all the country to care f or them . The trees have done well ; and two years later the Department requested a further shipment of plants from Hinghua for propaga 2 48

THE L T EV O U ION OF NEW CHINA.

stages of the work , just as the first fruit trees

must be imported , no matter what the cost . But i f the fruits Of the Tree of Life are ever abundant

enough to feed the famishing multitudes of Asia ,

the tree must become indigenous . The Young Men ’s Christian Association is one of the best organized and most effective forces

Forei n g for the redemption of the Oriental peoples . It " Helpers

i s i n i E . S . led Ch na by Mr . Brockman , the gen

. L eral secretary for China , Mr . D . Willard yon ,

the editorial secretary, and a very carefully selected

- body of young men . The key note to their policy is found in a newly coined name for their mis “ ” s iona ries , foreign helpers . We have heard from the beginning the expression native ” f r helpers . It was natural o the missionary to

a s dopt thi term , applying it to the men whom he trained f or service and then employed and

directed in all their work . But While this View o f the relation o f the foreign to the native agent m a y have been inevitable in the initial stages of t the task , yet it is plain o any thoughtful observer that these great empires can never be won f or Christ until that attitude of the foreigner to the

native is radically modified , if not indeed reversed .

M r . Brockman and his associates boldly declare to the Christian young men o f China : We are ‘ ’ to s the helpers . You are the men who are ave China ; and we are here only to help you get the ” m work started . The foreign issionary is a John 2 50 THE INDI GENOUS CHURCH .

the Baptist Of this movement . At best he can but prepare the way for the mighty host whom Go d will raise up to lead their fellow countrymen t o Christ . Other qualities being equal , that mis s iona ry will be the most effective who has the grace and the vision to say of the native apostle ” He must increase , but I must decrease . And he must say it as John said it , not in sullen regret , “ but with the ringing note of victory, This my ” im j oy therefore is fulfilled . It is especially portant that this be the attitude of the missionaries

o f to the strong , proud , Virile , M ongolian races

Japan and China . Anything that flavors of the patronizing or domineering spirit will be quickly and justly resented, and those who might become the most effective workers are disgusted and a lienated .

However , so long as the native worker is paid ’ or supported by the foreigner s money , and the / bfi iJ M o f will f relation is that employer and employee , it yndt g enou s i i i h ? be i mposs ble to real ze th s i deal . The term Churc

native helper, with all that it implies , will con tinne to color all the dealings of the missionary Ari with those who look to him as paymaster .

- indigenous Church must be self supporting , self

- not propagating , and self governing . This does mean that the Church of Christ in China must be able to do all that is necessary f or the re demption of its own land before it can be con sidere d indigenous . May the time never come 2 51 “ THE EV OL UTI ON OF NEW CHINA when it desires to cut Off all outside aid and build around itself a Chinese wall of exclusion . Cereals are indigenous to America , but the Agricultural Department searches all lands for improved va rieties , that there may be constant progress . The i deal is a Church strong enough to walk alone , but glad to avail itself of every genuine aid that will accelerate its advancement without weakening

- its power of self help . Such assistance will be especially needed and appreciated in the higher educational institutions , long after the evangelistic work throws away its crutches and finds it can

not . run and not be weary, can walk and faint

Students all over the world , and nowhere more so o f than in the United States America , receive free S education from the tate , or have the cost reduced to a mere nominal tuition through great endowments . Many generations will probably pass away before the Christians of America justly can be relieved o f the obligation o f helping their poorer neighbor across the P acific by making it possible for Chris tian Chinese youth to secure the best education . hOS itals or S o with the eleemosyn ary work in p , hana es f or p g , institutions the blind, the lame , the a fflicted of all classes . China will be as generous in its giving when the Gospel Of the humanities on : pervades the land, as any country earth but t the multitudes are so great , he needs are so wide

spread and terrible , that her richer neighbors will find here an abundant outlet for their super 2 52

THE L T OF EV O U ION NEW CHINA.

To give a summary of the whole China field from

statistical tables is the part of an appendix, and

does not belong here . Moreover , the problems

not involved can be shown in mere figures . We are dealing with a living organism ; the only way to understand it is to see it living and growing

in concrete form . The field Where the writer has spent a ll his China life is of necessity more familiar an d to him than any other, there is no alternative but to take our experience here to illustrate the

thoug ht of this chapter . Upon our arriva l in Hinghua in the autumn Of 1 0 c the year 89 , we found eighteen prea hers S el - in k on f the district , wor ing more or less dilig ently ’ l : a, f iiéfii:very poor pay . The scale per month was three

dollars for the preacher ; if married , an additional one dollar and fifty cents ; and seventy-five cents

for each child . All were paid at the same rate ,

whether ordained or not , whether in charge of exami a circuit, or junior preachers . A careful nation of necessary living expenses convinced us

that the allowance Wa s inadequate, and that these

men must eke out a living by other means . No wonder they sold medicines and took fees for

various services . After consultation with the

Chinese leaders , both clerical and lay , a plan was adopted with the consent of the missionaries at

Foochow , according to which the Church members

ne 1 The followi ng s ums of mone y a re all in Me xican Or silver dollars . O t e e Mexican d ollar is wort h ab ou t fi ft y c e nts U ni d S tates curr ncy. 2 54 THE S INDI GENOU CH URCH . were allowed to increase their subscriptions to pas toral support , for ordained men up to four dol lars for the man , two for his wife , and one for each child . The response was that in one year the native contributions for pastoral support in creased from one hundred and eighty- two dollars to four hundred and ninety, or an advance of nearly two hundred and seventy per cent . This far more than paid the small increase of about

- fiv e twenty per cent in rate of salaries . Clearly , a fairly liberal support f or workers is as good economy in China as it is in America .

But a serious difli c ulty soon presented itself . New places began to call f o r the appointment o f preachers . The regular appropriation of the mis The Prob 1 m ”New siona ry society was about the same from year to year , and it was all needed f or the support o f the men already appointed . When a call comes re to open a new Village , if it is not quickly sp onde d to the probability is that opposition will arise , and the smoking flax will be quenched . To plan in the sp ring to wait for the appropriation of the next year , and that with a very slight proba bilit t y of getting the money even then , meant tha the workers who branched out to thes e new places e un would soon becom discouraged , and the calls responded to ere long would cease . Why not open these new places upon a self supporting basis from the start ? Not a few mis siona ries believe that this is the best plan : and 2 55 THE L F EVO UTION O NEW CHINA. argue that if the Christians never know any sup p ort but their own , they will develop quickly, and be indigenous from the beginning . There may be parts of China where this is practicable ; and there may be missions that can do thorough work upon this basis : but in Hinghua we find that it is not a safe plan . There is the constant danger of

‘ being drawn into political affairs . Any shrewd preacher with a little experience , untrammeled by supervision and unhampered by conscience , for a ’ while at - least can make several times a catechist s salary in South China by using his position c c clesia stica l to help his constituents in matters political . This is the temptation that must be guarded against most strenuously by every mis siona r y, especially in new stations at a distance from the foreign center . To put a Chinese preacher down in the midst of a multitude , in ca n a new place , without salary except what he get from these new inquirers just out of and e s many o f them scarcely yet free from h atheni m , is to put t oo great a strain upon even regenerate human nature . We have found it best not to solicit subscriptions for pastoral support from new or t o inquirers , receive contributions from them until they have been regular attendants upon wor f or ship at least three months . After they are known to have no political motives , they are per mitte d to have a share in the support of . the nm Gospel . When China has a modern gover ent, 2 56

T HE L OF EVO UTI ON NEW CHINA.

aries had been brutally murdered by members Of

Ku - a vegetarian society in cheng , about one hun F dred miles northwest of oochow . The consul peremptorily ordered all Americans still in the in

t erior Foocho to proceed to the vicinity of w . We

made hasty preparations , and started the following

Monday, fully expecting to be permitted to return S early in eptember . But the negotiations dragged

into months . There was no prospect of consular permission to return before the Conference session

early in November . Having this unwelcome leisure forced upon us we decided to improve the opportunity to vi sit S k hanghai , and also to see something of the wor

a a tion i n that V c Central China . Most people seem to think the missionary lives in the pleasant prospect o f s getting a vacation after a while , and he endure the exile and labor in the hOp e that he will be

able t o leave it for a furlough in a few years . The fact is that the missionary ’s hardest trial is

his o to leave work , and his greatest j y is when he o f can return to it . The first fortnight that vaca tion this missionary was carrying about with him

a burden that gave him no rest . He thought that o f c the labor years was going for naught , be ause f Of this enforced absence o all the foreigners . One

n - night o the Yang tse , it seemed that the burden

was greater than longer could be borne . Kneeling

down by the hard , narrow bunk in his steamer E cabin , his prayer interpreted into plain nglish 2 58 THE IN DI GENOUS CHURCH .

: 0 was about thus Lord , I do not see how You are going to take care of all those people ” down in Hinghua without me ! It seems foolish , and even amusing , now ; but it was real enough then . But a Voice came out of the silence , as “ real as if human lips had spoken it : Are they not as dear to M e as they are to thee ? Have they not cost Me more than thee ? Is there any thing too hard for M e The burden rolled Off

- into the dark, murky waters of the Yang tse , and it did not return . The remainder of that vaca fi tion was a genuine rest . We were con dent that the work , so dear to us , was being watched by E e a sleepless y , and cared for by a tireless

Hand . E Foo arly in October , upon our arrival in one Of chow , the first to greet us was a young

Another preacher. from Hinghua who had heard the time o f our expected arrival , and seemed to have no 53s ’ ha other business there , but d made the two days j ourney just to tell us the news . He did not “ have to wait long for the opportunity. As cold waters to a thirsty soul , so is good news from ” a far country . He began by telling us how , about three weeks previously, a litt le group of Chinese preachers had come together in Hinghua

City, burdened with their unusual responsibility and not knowing what to do . They prayed and “ : counseled together . They said We have been depending too much upon the foreigner and for 2 59 THE L F . EVO UTION O NEW CHINA.

e i n . Now s ee g money we how weak we are .

re- They dedicated themselves to the work, and solemnly covenanted together that they would give

of their substance , as well as their strength , as ' f they had never done before . One member o the

ff ih- sta in the city , Rev . Hu Ca hang , was very ill a t the time , but they adjourned to meet in his

bedroom , where all could be together, and there ’ around his sick- bed they all entered into Jacob s Bethel covenant : Of all that Thou shalt give

me , I will surely give the tenth unto Thee The

sick man began at once to recover. Then followed a characteristically Chinese o f scene . A group American preachers , when on

1 m ra nsfi r the mount of t g u a tion as these men were , 1 6 ; 1 , if? would have sung the Doxology several times , while

- Of - they shook hands . But these matter fact

Orientals did more than that . One Of them “ quietly took out his pencil and said, How much ” is it ? Each man frankly told the amount o f his income that year : calculating the tenth was benevo simple enough , and after subtracting the o f n lences already given r pledged , they ou d they

had eighty silver dollars . That was as much to

them , with an average salary of less than one

hundred dollars , as eight hundred dollars gold would have been to a similar group of Methodist

preachers in America . The next night was the regular Thursday evening prayer- meeting : and

these men , full Of their new joy, one after another 2 60

THE L OF EV O UTION NEW CHINA.

fully nurtured through more than a decade , and

it has grown with the passing years . The following May the General Conference of 1 89 6 constituted the Hinghua Mission Con

Tf] ference , giving its boundaries the following de i n /i f; H g “ scri pt i on : The Hinghua Mission Conference Cm f m ’m" P shall consist of the Hinghua refecture , and of such adjoining territory as may be set off with it by a vote of the maj ority o f the members of the Foochow Conference present and voting at the ” ensuing session . The Foochow Conference voted that the Ing- chung district should be a part of the

Hinghua Mission . The new Mission Conference celebrated its creation by contributing t o the now thoroughly organized Home Missionary Society

one - one thousand , four hundred and thirty silver

- f dollars . The next year the special thank of ering o f 1 8 6 1 8 8 9 was nearly duplicated, and in 9 the

people gave sixteen hundred and three dollars .

Then followed the two years of severest test . The “ ” Boxer outbreak was preparing . Evidently , a

crisis was approaching . The clouds that broke 1 0 0 over China and a startled world in June of 9 , were not a thunder- shower that gathers in a few

minutes while the sun still shines . To those who

had ears to hear , the mutterings of that storm 1 8 extended over many months . The year 99 showed a sharp decline in our Home Missionary

collections of three hundred and thirteen dollars , but this was largely made up in the total volume 2 62 THE S H R H IN DIGENOU C U C . of self- support by an advance o f tw o hundred and forty- four dollars in contributions f or pastoral sup port . A year later , and the fiery furnace was

‘ tim es hott er heated seven than its wont . The Home M issionary thermometer registered the lowest in our history , with a decline of one hun

- dred and seventy three dollars , leaving a total one f of only thousand , one hundred and fi f not teen dollars . But the marvel o all was that it was so little , but that any collection ! was taken at all While the heathen raged , ou r Chinese pastors quietly stayed at their posts , going about among their people with word and o f f or example comfort and encouragement . The eigners were permitted by their consul at Foochow ,

S . . Doctor L Gracey , to remain in Hinghua if o f they saw fit . Toward the end July it was thought best for the ladies and children to be taken t o o h the vicinity of Fo c ow , and they found a com f ort a bl e and safe refuge at the sanitarium on P Sharp eak , an island at the mouth Of the River of Min , while several Of the men both our mis S sion and of the Church Missionary ociety , most o f whom were unmarried , stayed on the field all

no . summer , and there was disturbance The fact that the usual work was being carried on with ou t interruption tended to counteract the effect of a nd the wild rumors that were going about , the presence of foreigners made it incumbent upon the local magistrates to bestir themselves to prevent 2 63 THE EVOL UTI ON OF NEW CHINA.

end . an outbreak, which would in the injure them selves as much as any one else. So that every preacher came up to Conference in Oct ober re “ ” porting, All the collections taken . The total receipts showed a shrinking of only about ten per

cent from the previous year. The form of the S n Fourth , which was like the o of God, was

with His own in the midst of the furnace , and they came out without so much a s the smell of fire upon them . It is not strange that t he next year was one a n of special thanksgiving , d the Hinghua Church b mt e celebrated its marvelous deliverance in a very “ W i g practical way . They started out to reach for the Home M issionary Society the sum of two thou It sand dollars . seemed like an impossible thing,

except to the believers . It meant an advance of

nearly eighty per cent . But the preachers came

up to Conference with two thousand , three hun

- dred and twenty two dollars , or an advance of one hundred and eight per cent .

However , that was under the inspiration of a

special call , and it was in a prosperous season for

1 - the farmers . The year 9 0 2 was a semi famine For t he season . first time w ithin the recollection “ ” o of the oldest inhabitant, ne c ould walk dry on shod across irrigation canals the first of May, d which is normally in the mi st of the wet season .

Crops failed , and prices of food advanced from t six y to one hundred per cent . Could we hold 2 64

THE S INDI GENOU CH URCH . ou r own under such conditions ? We dared not ask for more , and it seemed presumption to ex ect p that . We told the people to do the best “ they could , and reported the results in the Re ” viva list as the summer went by . The preachers actually came to Conference with only twenty o f three dollars short three thousand , an advance ’ - . L of twenty eight per cent It is the ord s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes . The years ’ ’ ’ 1 0 O o 0 6 9 3 , 4 , 5 , and showed . a steady annual e growth of almost exactly five hundr d dollars ,

1 0 i - reaching, in 9 6 , f ve thousand and forty three silver dollars . Of cours e the regular contributions to pas toral support are made , in addition to the Home f M issionary of erings , and year after year these two collections about equal each other . The reasonable expectation is that these contributions will ulti

" mately cover all the needs o f ministerial support . There is in the constitution o f the society a pro vision that one- fif th of all the collections shall be used as a contingent fund for the opening of new work , and other unforeseen needs . In this way, for several years past , all new work. has been

Opened by funds locally raised . This makes the

- work self propagating . The foreign missionaries have contributed liberally to the Home M issionary

Society, partly as an example , but chiefly because they have seen in it the best place to invest their e t ithes . Of late years , the foreign money includ d 2 65 THE L OF EVO UTION NEW CHINA.

in these above mentioned sums would be about

ten per cent of the entire amount . In the pas

toral support contributions , the proportion is much

less . In the two collections this foreign money

may reach seven per cent . The little group of pastors in whose hearts the society was born at

that ever memorable prayer- meeting have set their r pate nal mark upon their child , and from the be ginnin g nearly all the Chines e preachers have put a tithe of their salaries into this and other benevo o lences f the Church . This example of the pastors has been the real secret of this self- support move

. f or r ment But their voluntary libe ality, nothing

of the kind would have been possible . Surely,

the saved life is to him that loseth it . It may be several years before the evangelistic work in this little corner of the Master ’s Vineyard is entirely

- self supporting . It will come , not by cutting Open

the tightly closed buds , but by cultivating around

the roots . Nothing is gained by undue forcing

in this direction . When the fruit is ripe , it will drop without any one shaking or clubbing the

tree . Several years ago at a quarterly meeting at

- o f P o - io the native sea port , during the early testi

The mony meeting, a man arose and gave the following “

ni u e : F . gi ffgzxu q experience riends , you all know me

I have been a Christian less than a year , but I

have much to be thankful for to God . You know

I own a seagoing junk , and yesterday we came 2 66

THE EVOL UTION OF NEW CHINA.

church fund . They needed the church badly

! i n enough . They were worsh ping in the receptio o f o f hall o f the residence one their own number . o But that did n t seem to occur t o them . They said , We need a few new benches , for so many inquirers have been coming o f So they took

f or ten dollars buying backless , narrow seats , and then turned over the remaining forty dollars to the Home Missionary Society .

Of all the Christless nations , it seems probable that the Chinese will ' be the most liberal in con t ribu tions to the work of their own evangeliza tion . They are good at making money, and they are not at all miserly in the use o f it . They have been accustomed to spend large sums upon f or in their idolatry . It is natural them to give a similar way t o their new faith . The newly awakened national spirit will materially aid the missionary cause in this respect . The commercial opening o f t he country will improve the social

willin O- conditions , so that the t do will become

- - the well t o do . Take away from the Gospel herald the reproach among the heathen that he is an his hireling o f the foreigner, and you double

. power . The sickly exotic has become indigenous CHAPTE R xi .

CENTENARY UR RE C NTS .

THE colored sister quaintly and aptly described o f n the situation Christia ity in China , when she criticised the Church choir with the remark : “ urr nt Dem young folks , dey sings mighty fine ; but de C e ’ ’ ” e trouble is dey blends too fa apa t . A keen r a liz a tion that ou r multitudinousness is the tap of our root weakness , is the most noticeable cur rent in the thought o f the missionary body o f “ - Re China t o day . The pages of the Chinese ” o f corder, the missionary magazine China , are crowded with articles and news items upon this subject . Convention programs are full of it . A national organi zation has been effected for the sole purpose Of promoting Christian federation . The leaders o f this movement have been chiefly missionaries of North China , but the interest is

Widespread ; indeed , practically universal . One whole day of the Centenary Conference is to be devoted to the question of “ Comity and Federa ” o f tion . In the light the constant and favorable discussion that has been going on f or several years past , there is reasonable hope that in this direction 1 8 2 69 THE L T OF EV O U ION NEW CHINA.

the results of the Centenary may be definite and

- far reaching . There is no question in the minds of most o f

the experienced missionaries in China , that over rea r m “? lapping of territory is very harmful to the spir fit rua l Sect: i tua l o f results of the work all concerned . The ffi t di cul y is that to the Chinese mind, these

Churches are rival sects . They are unable to un dersta nd how it can be otherwise . The mystifica tion of the non - Christian public will become g reater as the country opens by means of im Of p roved methods travel . When he can journey “ ” by rail , the Chinese man in the street will go

- abroad into other provinces . The seventy two ff one or di erent missionary societies , a new more

W . in each locality he visits , ill puzzle him When

the missionary attempts to explain it all away , he fi nds himself in an embarrassing position . “ The Chinese gentleman asks : Why do you have these many different Christianities The missionary hastens to explain: There

is only one Christianity . These are simply dif

f erent organizations , with the same faith in the ” same Christ . “ Then why do you have all these little so c ieties ? Why not unite into one great and har ” monious Church ? The missionary rejoins We agree upon ff essentials , but we di er upon minor doctrines , ” which keep us from uniting . 2 7 0

THE L T OF EVO U ION NEW CHINA. clearly demonstrated from the correspondence re ported and the action of the Conference , that the missionaries as a body long f o r the time when the Body of Christ in China may be one . But it is clear that these questions , with the exception of the fourth , are only preliminary . A union hymn - book might be more convenient and eco nomica l ; but hymnology in China is still too young

- is to be put into a strait j acket . It in its in I fancy . t needs plenty o f fresh air and nouri sh ment and liberty to grow, if it ever reaches a ” healthy maturity . As to the terms question , it

one s is an academic , which really will settle it elf in time by usage rather than by show of hands . Schemes f or division of territory and union edu c a tiona l institutions , all are important , and help t o f oward the goal , chiefly by removing sources local irritation . Then there are the movements e a s t o unite into on the various Church families , o f P the numerous bodies resbyterians , the Baptists , the Methodists . All these currents are in the one right direction , and every disciple of the

M aster wishes them success , but they do not strike P at the real root o f our diffi culties . rotestant Christianity in China has two main sources o f weakness

e ivisio ns wi thin i tsel . First , th d f

S the ul ca use d b the a c t tha t ea ch econd , g f y f Churc h owns a more or less domina ting foreig n a ll eg ia nc e . Y CENTENAR CURRENTS .

As long as these Churches are foreign in be name , origin , control , and resources , they will looked upon with suspicion by the average Chinese . The movement toward Christianity can not take on national proportions until the Church is na ri l 1 ona . This is but a corollary to a previous ’ no chapter s proposition , that tree can flourish until

it becomes indigenous . To do away with the d a l many ivisions , without remedying the foreign l e ia nce g , would not materially improve the situa tion . The Roman Catholics have not the first o f s these disabilities , but they have the econd in

t o o e its worst form , and we know well the intens P antipathy it causes . lainly , any solution of the problem must remove both o f these disadvantages . f o r o r However , this fact need not disturb us ,

a nic o f g union seems hopeless attainment , except upon the basis of a wholly new organization es t a blishe d upon national lines . Very seldom does any small denomination Consent to be absorbed

one . i by a larger Vested interests , h storic memo

s ries , and too often less commendable rea ons , make such marriages exceedingly di ffi cult o f con S summation . till more impossible is it to unite t o w large bodies , unless it be in an entirely new organization .

The solution , then , if we admit the above “ premises , is the organization of The Church of ” Christ in China by a union o f all the P rotestant

t t r l Th e t e rm nati on al i s not u se d i n t h e s e ns e of a S a e Chu ch . THE L OF EV O UTION NEW CHINA.

bodies . Nobody would be absorbed ; none would be perpetuated ; all would come in upon an equal The h footing . W y should this seem like an imp os Church i ? ee of Ch, , th ng S what i s happen i ng ri ght before i n CM” P our eyes now in Canada . The resbyterians ,

the Methodists , and the Congregationalists are

actually consummating organic union . If they can

unite in Canada , what is there to hinder these three groups from becoming one in China ? And h i f three , then W y not thirty ? or threescore and ? To ffi ten be sure , there are real di culties in the

way, and we dare not make light o f or ignore

them . These diffi culties fall into three groups the first , creed ; second , ecclesiastical polity ; third,

s foreign upplies . to As to the first , the most important fact bear in mind in its discussion is that no creed need

The Creed state all that any one believes , even in religion . ’ I f we remember that in Christ s picture o f the

judgment , He that sitteth upon the throne has no word whatever to say about the orthodoxy of or o f those upon His right hand , the heterodoxy ffi those upon His left , we will have little di culty

in agreement upon the confession o f faith . The

admittedly essential points are few and simple , and enlightened Christians everywhere practically

already agree . m is The second , the problem of govern ent ,

Polity probably a more di ffi cult one than that of creed .

At best, any adjustment must be a compromise , 2 7 4

THE L T OF H EVO U ION NEW C INA.

L tive in China than his own . ike new shoes , they

might pinch a bit at first , but in the end they would

wear longer and better than the easy but worn- out

old pair . But how about the missionary societies ? This ffi third point of di culty, at first sight , really seems

Forei n g to be the insurmountable one of all . Few of S ”P us will not agree that it is sheer nonsense to talk o f organizing such a Church , and then leaving it to evangelize China without the aid of foreign P money . robably all agree that f or a good while to come these appropriations from the missionary societies will need t o be increa sed rather than

diminished . Yet it is Clear that there would have t o be very radical changes in the present relations

s of the missionary ocieties to the work in China , To c on i f organic union should be consummated . t inue the minute supervision and control of all fi i l ' ff nanc a matters by the di erent society boards , E with headquarters in urope and America , would S cause confusion worse confounded . uch union

would be only nominal , and in the end probably

shortlived . The simplest solution of such knotty problems ne S is usually the best o . uppose the first and “ A S ug second stages of the evolution of the Church of Christ in China were successfully passed : the

creed agreed upon , the constitution adopted , and the organization completed—what would be the next step that the new Church should take ? What 2 7 6 Y CENTENAR CURRENTS. would be done in any other part of the world ? Would it not organize a missionary society ? In this day a Christian Church without a missionary not society is an anomaly , i f a monstrosity . Being led by a body Of men and women whose lives have been given to missionary work, it is reason able to assume that the “ Church of Christ in China ” would organize its missionary society upon

ex eri the most approved lines , profiting by the p ence of all the societies working from Europe and

America . Naturally, its headquarters would be

' in S China , and probably at hanghai , the metropolis Of the empire , for the same reason that English societies generally have their head offices in Lon don , and American societies in New York . “ ” But how about the money ? is asked . Under such conditions , would the Churches of Western ’ lands continue their contributions f or China s evangeli zation ? Why not ? Is not the union for the sake of more effective service ? What i f P Anglicans , resbyterians , Methodists , Baptists , and Congregationalists , as such , cease to be in ? China There will be more Christians than ever, and the money given will be used far more e ff ec tively than is possible under the existing condi tions of long range , overlapping , and rivalry . What good reason can be given why the mis siona ry soc ietie s should not grant their former appropriations f o r China through the missi onary f society O the one Church , as readily as they have 2 7 7 THE EVOLUTION OF NEW CHINA given to support their own denominational organi z a tions ? At first, the new society would be much

like a missionary clearing house , through which these more than seventy foreign societies might have their funds administered with greater no economy than is w possible . Of course , the wishes of the societies contributing to the work

in China would be carefully conformed to , just a s all philanthropic organizations receive gifts , which they administer according to the wishes of

the donors . Gradually a division o f territory

might be arranged, by which a given society would become responsible for the evangelization o f a

or . certain province section of it Of necessity, the China Missionary Society would have its secre E re re taries or agents in America and urope , to p sent the cause to the various societies and before o f co the public , and with joint committees the Operating boards to supervise the exceedingly im portant work of selecting suitable missionary can d t e di a s . But the resources of the China Missionary Society would not stop with lump appropriations

ow ing from existing missionary organizations . The larg Rm m “ est society working in China , the China Inland

t - Mission , with eight hundred and for y nine mis

one- siona ries, fully fourth of all the missionary

force in China , never solicits money contributions , and it has no organized Church constituency ; yet “ the barrel Of meal does not waste , nor the cruse 2 7 8

THE L O F EVO UTION NEW CHINA.

would be equally true in any land . The time

will no doubt come when the unevangelized, or

less evangelized , parts of China will be mission fields for Chinese Christians in the more favored

Fuhkien provinces , as and Shantung . They will send their own missionaries into the regions be P yond, and support them . resumably, Chinese representation and control in the aff airs of the

s society would gradually increase , at lea t in the

ratio of their contributions , as compared with the

foreign income . When foreign money is no

longer needed , the work o f the foreigner is done . What a jubilee that will be ! Will not the next Morrison Centenary see this glad consummation ? s e This propo ition is no Utopian scheme . B

ing the largest mission field , China of necessity

x is difli cult most to move . Our little neighbor , fifi rifi s Korea , has not so many Obstacle to overcome

fewer societies , less men , shorter distances . In 1 0 June , 9 5 , a joint Conference of the missionaries of Korea at Seoul unanimously adopted a reso lution that The time is ripe f or the establish f P ment o one Korean rotestant Church , to be ‘ ’ ” 2 called The Church of Christ in Korea . The carrying out o f this resolution will be delayed until General Conference action can be secured for the

tw o Methodist Churches , but indications are that

it will not be opposed by those governing bodies .

2 e o rt of T rteent on e ren e of orei n Mission o r s 1 06 R p hi h C f c F g B a d , 9 , 2 1 page . 2 80 Y CENTENAR CURRENTS .

At the Nashville Conference o f Foreign Mission o f Boards , in speaking this prospective union in F “ Korea , Dr . John . Goucher said : But i f they become independent Churches , who shall say no ?

s It is progres ive , and it is very mani fest from the indications that this is the objective , though it is not to be hastened by legislation . The M ethodist

Church , I think you will find , thoroughly welcomes “ f in union in Korea . The development o the

o f c on dependent Churches , independent foreign trol , is the ideal towards which these nations are hastening ; the whole tendency is towards unity .

Therefore , Whether it will be in the very near

o r on not future , a little later , I doubt that the ” 3 unity will be realized t o the glory o f God . Will not organic union in Korea be the forerunner of in a similar consummation in Japan , and also China ? These people o f E astern Asia are de n v elop ing a strong national spirit . I f the foreig s missionaries do not move , the native Christian in each country will probably take the matter into n their own hands . Abortive attempts have bee made already in China , and though failures , they ’ n fi are very sig i cant straws , showing the current s direction . Conversation with some of the leaders of the Chinese Church has convinced the writer that the undercurrent is strong toward an inde

not S . pendent National , though a tate Church

8 t f T ir t eent on ere n e of or e n Miss on o r s 1 06 Repor o h h C f c F ig i B a d , 9 , e pag a s. 2 THE L T O F EVO U ION NEW CHINA. Better far that the missionaries and the missionary societies j oin with and give sympathetic direction

to the movement , than that they resist it until

no the tide can be stemmed longer . In that event,

disastrous results would follow . But there are no indications that this tendency

to - union will be opposed by the broad minded ,

- S Attitud, catholic pirited leaders of the missionary move 0 6 ment in the homelands . At the Haystack Meet 01 412 71 35;

i n . s g Centenary, Dr Arthur J . Brown , who stand t o of - second none amongst these leaders to day, gave as his conception of the work of the f or ei n To h g missionary society, plant C ristianity

and help it get started, and then educate it to L et take care o f itself . the Asiatics accept f or f or Christ themselves , and develop themselves the methods and institutions that result from His “ teaching . The most frequently repeated ques tion that the writer heard from thoughtful friends

of missions , while he was on a furlough recently , “ was : Do you not find that the many Churches in China cause confusion in the minds o f the Chinese as to your real purpose ?” It was im

possible to give a negative reply . The opposition

t o the movement towards organic union , it seems , s will be neither from the givers to mis ions , nor from the administrators of mission boards ; no r will it be from the party by far the most deeply U concerned , the Christians of these lands . nion

A ot t . t Dr . m n 4 h e t oo Oc t . 2 0 1 0 6 . . o e T Ou l k , , 9 , p 3 97 Qu d by Ly a bb 2 8 2

THE L T O F EVO U ION NEW CHINA. terior , you shall neither grant them offi cial regis tra tion , nor bestow government rewards or prefer ments on the students , even after they have com l et e d p their course . This is to safeguard the edu c ationa l o f rights China . As regards the foreign

o schools in this province already in existence , y u can allow them to exist as they are at present , ffi but no o cial registration shall be made . The foreign ministers will soon be informed of this ” 6 action . Why this almost fierce and manifestly unjust treatment of missionary schools ? It is not Oppo sition to Western learning , for at about the time the above quoted orders were i ssued thi s same Board o f Education was conducting an examina tion of students returned from studying in for ei g n countries . These candidates were awarded the very highest degrees , without paying any a t

s tention to their Chinese scholar hip , and indeed in most cases they were known to be distinctly deficient in their Chinese education . The examina tion p apers were written in any language , at the option of the candidate , and eighteen out of

- Not forty two were in English . the slightest distinction was made between Christian and non s Christian candidates . In fact , the religious belief o f the men were never made a matter of inquiry, and nothing was required Of the candidates which

' m r 1 0 6 6 ne s e S t ents o r n No. o em er a nd e e e , , Chi ud J u al, 3 , N v b D c b 9 page 6 . 2 Y CENTENAR CURRENTS. would enter into conflict with their religious f scruples . The credit for this exhibition o Wise toleration is due to the examiners and the o fli ce rs o f the M inistry of E ducation . Of

- all the thirty two successful candidates , nine were ” P one . Christians , eight rotestants and Catholic Yet this same enlightened M inistry of E ducation excludes graduates of Christian colleges in China from even entering the government ex Why T1 ") 1 a mina tions ! E not vidently the objection is to the 2 2 52 6 i rel gious doctrines taught in Christian schools , nor is there fault found with the quality o f the schol S ” a rship imparted . The outh China Journal , a

Shanghai Chinese daily with an English page , o f 1 1 0 6 October 3 , 9 , explains editorially that the

‘ above cited action of the Board o f E ducation was “ taken on the ground that China does not wish to encourage foreign interference in her educa ff o f tion , as it may have the e ect hindering the ” - E i attainment of extra territoriality abolition . v dently the fear is that the foreign - controlled

Churches which conduct these schools , will fail to impart to the young men they educate a patriotic spirit , which is essential to the strengthening of the empire , in order that China may at an early date re - establish full control of her territory upon an equality with other countries . We know that these fears are groundless , but that they exist to

M Y e n him 7 i n e se e or e r n r 1 0 . r . N . W. Ye n i n P ro f. Ch R c d , J a ua y, 9 7 ( “ s He i s s on of t e m nis ter of the Ame r s e lf s too d s e con d i n th e h onor li t . a a la i i can Epis copal Chu r ch . ) 1 9 THE L OF EVO UTION NEW CHINA. the great detriment to all kinds of mission work no 8 in China , is less certain . Is it not probable that these disabilities under which the missionary labors before the Chinese government and the Chinese public , would be largely removed by shifting the center of control o f the Church from Western lands to China ?

s This would disarm uspicion . The people of China have suffered enough from foreign a g g res sion to have a right to question the sincerity of

foreigners . E ach mission being a part of a for ei n g organization , the missionary seems to be the

o f Put agent a foreign power . the entire ecclesi a stica l u a thority in China itself , right under the eyes o f the offi cials and populace ; give the Chinese Christians large representation in all Church

councils ; make it manifest to every fair- minded

not to critic that the missionary is here , build up a society that owns allegiance to some mysterious to power across the sea , but to aid the Chinese

8 I t is ge n erally b eli eve d by foreigner s a nd i n te llige n t Chi ne s e alike w n n s n r l in a n t t t e s e n s t r e t o ns ot o t n . M s te o ha h u j u gula i ill l g a d i i R ckhil , offi e tte r t e e e m e r 2 2 1 06 s e in t h e o rn of t h e Amer cial l da d D c b , 9 , publi h d J u al n Ass o i t on o f n of n r 1 0 s i n r e e r e n e to n es e ica c a i Chi a Ja ua y, 9 7 , aid f c Chi G ove rnme n t r e cogni t ion of d e gre e s confe r r e d by Ch r is t ian In s ti t ut i on s i n W n t e r e is r e s on t o e e e t t or e t o n m a b e t e n . e Chi a, h a b li v ha fav abl ac i y ak " ' ' a r e n e te to th e n e s e Wor s S t e n ts o r n l of o e m e r 1 06 i d b d Chi ld ud J u a N v b , 9 , f o r th e in for matio n that one of th e m ost i nfl u e n tial s e cr e t aries of t hi s boar d h a s had th e C ou rage t o lodge a prot e st against t h e e n for ce me nt of s uch le gi s “ f s n t es e t on . T s s e r e t r e r e : Our o e rnm en t ns t e o la i hi c a y d cla d G v , i ad u i g h s t e nt s r e e ts t e m a n d r e s t e m t o see e m o me n t n e r o r e ne rs . ud , j c h , d iv h k pl y u d f ig Th u s w e r es ol u te ly s l a m ou r door s a g a i ns t th e f a ces of t he only m e n w h o a r e "

ha e r . a t p r e s e nt ta be t r u s te d f or h on es ty of p urp ore a nd up r zg ht nes s of c r a c t t W t i e r om ime nt o b e i t o t he wor of ris ( I alics o u rs . ) ha h gh c pl c uld pa d k Ch t ian co ll ege s in Chi na ? 2

T HE L T O F EV O U ION NEW CHINA.

are equipped f or . Technical training can be made profitable only after a general education as a

foundation has been broadly laid . This f ou nda

tion laying is the function of the college . Nor are the st udents who go out from the schools to be blamed f o r accepting and continuing in clerica l

positions . Their education has fitted them only

for such employments . The existing Christian educational institutions in China drop their students at the point where they are prepared to

learn to do something worth While . If these schools are to turn out men who will lead the

empire , evidently Christian educators must ex tend and specialize their work into the various departments of useful knowledge and technical f or skill . What a limitless opportunity Christian p hil a nthrOpy l One- quarter o f the human race Without a single well- equipped university for the professional or mechanical training of its sons l A population equal to that of all Europe com n d o f ob bi e , yet wofully lacking in the means taining any of the technical knowledge that makes L et a rticu a modern civilization possible . us p l a riz e a little

( I ) L AW. Constitutional government is promised by imperial decree ; but how can this

Needed pledge o f the emperor be fulfilled without trained f ? mmfiffg;Chinese lawyers Who will organize Chinese courts ? Who will be the justices ? Who frame modern legislation ? As far as China ’s political 2 8 8 T Y CEN ENAR CURRENTS .

future is concerned , this seems now t o be the most essential need . 2 EN IN RI ( ) G EE NG . Railroads are not being built , rich mineral deposits are lying un

f or o f touched , not primarily lack money , but “ ” for want of men . No engineers is the lament everywhere . Ignorance o f how to use it is the only ’ limit to the possible water power o f China s great E rivers . lectricity has boundless possibilities ; but all are latent . To the Western mind , the situation is scarcely conceivable . Nowhere in China is it possible to obtain a thorough training in any of these lines of practical technology . I ( 3 ) AGR C UL TURE AND FORES TR Y. The Western world is sending money to China ; P resident Roosevelt ha s issued an appeal ; the American Government is loaning its transports all t o help the starving millions in Central China . F loods have ruined crops , because the mountains are denuded of vegetation . The per capita value o f the product of all Americans engaged in agri 2 1 8 0 8 culture increased from $ 8 7 in 9 , to $ 5 5 in

It nearly doubled in fifteen years , largely because of the work of the Government ’s Depart ment o f Agriculture and o f the agricultural col one leges throughout the land . No wonder American can cultivate as much rice as one hun dred Chinese ! It is a Christlike work to help feed these famishing myriads , but shall we stop

9 m n e e w of e ie ws e e m e r 1 06 . R H. on s i . Ed d R vi R v , D c b , 9 2 8 9 T HE L OF EVO UTION NEW CHINA.

? here It may be less spectacular philanthropy, but it is certainly far more practical and econom ical to give money to produce conditions where

s famine will occur no longer . When the wealth producing and wealth- conserving forces are let

loose in China , by the opening of mines and by the multiplication of modern transportation f a c ilities , and when these mountains and plains are treated scientifically by highly trained Chinese ex perts in forestry and agriculture , famine , even in ’ this most populous of the world s empires , will o f h be only a matter istory .

M I omt ed out ( 4 ) E CHAN CS . As p in the on E in chapter Industrial ducation ( V) , unlike stit t i s u ons o f higher education in the We t , an all- embracing scheme for China would require a department where the mechanical arts and sciences

are taught in the most thorough manner . China can never have waterworks until she has plumbers ; r electrical appliances , until the e are Chinese elec t ricia ns ; wagons , before there are wheelwrights ; and so on through the long list o f appurtenances o f our boasted civilization . Here is where the chasm between literatus and laborer may be abridged . R f or D TIS T Y. ( 5 ) EN Here is , China , an entirely new and much needed profession . If , as i scientists claim , unsound teeth are one of the per al

o f ties civilization , then China must rank high up in the list of civilized nations . Four hundred 2 90

THE L OF EVO UTION NEW CHINA. o f ? it After a century of missions , a real the ological school in China is yet to be established .

There are training schools for Chinese evangelists , which have been very useful ; and there are a few small institutions of a higher grade ; but there is no school where what would be regarded in Europe or America as a full staff of professors are giving their undivided time and attention to the work of thoroughly educating Chinese young

is men for the Christian ministry . It idle to ex p ect the graduate to g o from the mi ssion college to the training school for the ministry, unless that school is equipped to give really advanced, post graduate work . One such theological seminary , s with at least half a dozen of the ablest teacher , equal to any theological faculty anywhere , giving

t o their whole time it , would attract many of the devout young men from all the Chri stian colleges o f to enter the ministry . The standard culture f or the entire body o f Chinese evangeli sts would F o f be raised by it . rom the feet its Gamaliels P f would go forth the auls o China , to win their native land to Christ . Its graduates would change these many feeble training schools into real theolog ical seminaries . It would give the brightest minds among the Christian young men a broad culture in modern scholarship that would prepare them to meet the attacks of materialism from without ,

and o f destructive criticism within the Church . The Titanic struggle that is now on in China 2 92 Y CENTENAR CURRENTS.

o f between the forces light and darkness , calls for giants . If Christianity dominates China , it must have leaders intellectually equal t o any in political or commercial life . To train such lead S ers , the chool of Theology must equal that of L a w E . , or Medicine , or ngineering What better way o f commemorating the first century o f P rotestant Christianity in China could be devised than f or all Christendom to unite in A Fitti ng Centena ry i i i i nt erdenom ma found ng one great , nternat onal , Memoria l tiona l university f o r the highest post- graduate education in the learned professions and in tech nology of every description ? To be sure it would take at least ten million dollars , gold , to do it ; but that is not half o f what has been invested in U S or Chicago niversity , or in tanford , at

Berkeley, California . It is reported that half of that sum was expended upon the buildings alone o f the recently opened Harvard Medical School . ” One battleship of the Dreadnaught type rept e S o f sents an equal outlay . hall we put the price a first- class man - ma ker lower than that of a first class man- kill er ? The only reason that this sum seems large f or such a purpose is that we have been accustomed to look upon missions as an aff air “ S ff ” i o f penny collections . ilver o erings f ll up the traditional measure of our obligations to the “ ” Ho Christless nations . w prone are we to repeat the ancient questi on , And who is my neighbor As though geography o r ethnology had anything 2 93 THE L T OF I EV O U ION NEW CH NA.

to do with it ! “ My neighbor is the man toward

whom I have the Opportunity to be neighborly,

Mr . Bryan , in his great Fourth of July speech L 1 0 6 in ondon in the year 9 , enumerating the blessings which the Christian nations are bound Brig; on tIze to o f carry to the rest the world, specified five : V f ‘ Lféf E duc a t ion ; knowledge of the science of govern

Burdf ” ment ; arbitration as a substitute f o r war ; a pp re c ia t ion o f the dignity o f labor ; and a high con 1 ° c e t ion p of life Mr . Bryan had just returned o f t he from his tour world , where he had studied deeply the problems of the relations of the E ast

- s . and the We t Thoughtful , well informed men everyw here will accept this statement o f our debt

Fo r s to the Orient . China , at thi time , it is the ’ writer s conviction that the Chri stian nations can fulfill the se obligations i n no way so surely as by

founding one such great university . What good would it do ? To p ut it upon

o f - : the lowest plane , that self interest the Wha t o il great railroad magnates , the iron , , flour , Good ? i o f and cotton k ngs Western lands , could not

inve st a few millions in better paying stocks . E very civil engineer, every electrician , indeed

every graduate from any department , wherever

he went , would widen the market of each American

and European manufacturer and farmer . But it is immeasurably more than a c om ”

m erc ia l question . The university would help

1 “ 0 Th e O t oo 1 1 06 . u l k, July 4, 9 2 94

THE L O F EV O UTION NEW CHINA.

z ation , by ignoring the key to the cipher . A great Christian university would put that key into

- the hands of every fair minded, intelligent Chinese . The consequent mutual understanding and good will between Orient and Occident would be a better g uarantee o f international peace than a score “ ” of Dreadnaughts could give us . And what would the university do for China ?

Without dogmatism or compulsion , the white light S from the inless One , the Ideal Man , the Brother o f all men , would pervade every department, would shine into every mind and heart that crossed ’ its portals . Thousands of China s best minds would

o s read their tro hies at His feet G , p p , ” im ord of a ll And crown H L .

From these halls would go forth the men who would equip similar institutions in each province

a nd establish colleges throughout the empire . In of less than a generation , in every department

state , in every calling in life , its graduates by sheer force o f merit would easily lead their

countrymen . These men in the highest places ,

with Christian ideals and with Christian character, would pave the way for the speedy coming of a

Chinese Christian civilization . CHAPTE R ! II .

CENTENARY CALLS .

IT is a good cure for pessimism to consider f or an hour the difference one century ha s wrought

Morrison , alone , friendless , suspected and hated by his own countrymen and the Chinese alike , landing upon a hostile shore ; and the parties of missionaries arriving at Shanghai and other ports almost weekly in the great mail steamers o ff f Europe and America . Think of the di erence in the reception they receive ; the contrast in the

work they find awaiting them ; the open doors , i the outstretched hands . But the signif cance of this change is not primarily in its encouragement

to us . It is pleasant to contemplate . what has been done : but if the China Centenary is simply

a jubilation over past achievement , it will be worse o than a failure . All honor t the heroes into whose labors we are entering ! But were they here to the join their voices in double jubilee , they would “ F urge us to orget the things which are behind , and stretch forward to the things which are be ” “ fore . It is the Centenary Calls that we need

to hear . The past victories are useful only as ur they strengthen our faith , stimulate o zeal , and 2 97 T HE L W EVO UTION OF NE CHINA.

our add to wisdom , that the future triumphs may

be far greater than any victories of the past . The friends of missions have every reason for

encouragement , in view o f the great missionary revival that is sweeping over Protestant Christen dom MM WW , ; and we believe the awakening is just Remi v‘ a ’ begun . But there is one feature of this a g g ressive campaign that seems to the writer to be

defective , and which weakens our power , both dis ro or with men and with God . There is a p p t iona t e emphasis placed upon the financial side of m the missionary proble , as compared with the “ ” persona! element . The word disproportionate

is used advisedly . The money side of the question

is essential . It must be emphasized strongly and sine ua non constantly . But to make it appear the q our that is so general in these days , puts entire plea upon a lower plane than it is placed in the

New Testament , or by the facts of experience . The personal equation is too often ignored en

t irel . y, or at best given a secondary place Do

w e not thus grieve away the Holy Spirit, and lose our power to move men at their deepest depths ? When ou r Heavenly Father planned to

redeem the world , He put into it the best He o had . Nothing short f His most precious pos

session would meet the case . He gave His only ’ S to begotten Son. We have the on s own word His Father : As Thou didst send Me into the ” world , even so send I them into the world . It 2 98

THE EV OL UT ION O F NEW CHINA.

record . The great thing that occurred that day was that P aul started out to preach the unsea rch

able riches o f Christ to the Gentiles . You can not put any commercial value upon an event like

that . It is priceless .

Nearly eighteen centuries rolled by, and ah

- other little prayer meeting was held . It was in ’ - the Widow Wallis back parlor at Kettering,

E . Modem ngland The Holy Spirit had moved a band W W W ” of Baptist preachers to organize a foreign mis si ona ry society . They were not disobedient unto

. too the heavenly vision They took a collection , ,

S and raised thirteen pounds , two shillings , ixpence . But the great event t hat made that meeting

memorable was that here the Holy Ghost said, “ Separate unto Me William Carey for the work

whereunto I have called him . That meant more to the evangelization o f pagan lands than if the offerings had reached one hundred thousand pounds We recognize the preponderating force of “ personality in other things . We call money the ” Per rona I- S IHCWS of war , but the muscles of war are the / “ fax35;courage and skill o f the man behind the gun . In the recent great Oriental war the personal

equation won every victory . It was because of their skill in handling ships and guns that the s Japane e sunk , or put out of action , the whole s Rus ian fleet sent against them . The land battles

were decided by the same element . The Russians 3 00 Y CENTENAR CAL LS .

had more resources , but the Japanese were more resourceful . Whether in peace or in war , the victory is to the resourceful man , rather than to the man with great resources . The resourceful

- man creates his own supplies . The call to day then , as it was at Antioch and at Kettering , is first of all a call to individuals to give themselves . We must dwell upon the financial needs frequently and emphatically , but we should have ever in mind ’ “ Paul s position when he took a collection , We ’ seek not yours , but you . The loudest call to- day to the disciple of

- Christ is to give himself to world wide evangelism .

Til e Uni It is not primarily that he go in person . That duty and privilege comes to few . But to every “ rim” Christian there is a personal call , that is far more than an annual subscription to the missionary so ciet ff y, even though the o ering is fully up to his “ " P . ou . ability We seek not yours , but y aul longed for a sympathetic hearing for his mes “ o f sage . He wanted diligent examining the ” Scr t res p u daily, as the Bereans gave , to see ” whether these things were so . He came for ward for prayers in every one of his epistles not f or himself but for his work , that the doors might be opened , if shut ; and i f wide open , that he might be able to enter in and take possession . One of the most hopeful features of the missionary revival now going on is in the study classes among the young people : but why confine them

2 0 3 01 THE EV OL UT ION O F NEW CHINA.

to ? o the young Why not the wh le Church ,

ol - young and d and middle aged , all give them selves to intelligent study o f this most fascinating

theme , that throws light upon nearly every branch

o f s a s modern cience , as well of ethics and t e

li ion ? P g rayer will follow knowledge , and gifts L “ will follow prayer . Our ord said : Where ” o your treasure is , there will your heart be als . The reverse is equally true : Where your heart

is , there will your treasure be also . The gifts will

follow the prayer . U There is also , to the minister , the niversal

C a ll . There was a popular way of putting the

universal call a few years ago , in the beginning

o f Mi ng m the great Student Volunteer Movement, that ’ m o and was , in the writer s judg ent, very errone us “ E one harmful . It was proclaimed that very who is called to preach the Gospel should assume

that he is to go to the foreign field . The special

call is the one to stay at home to preach . It ‘ was argued : The commission was to Go into ’ and all the world . The need is greater abroad , presumably God wants His workers in the most

needy place . Such arguments are very plausible ,

and have misled not a few . and It is true that there is a call universal ,

there is also a call personal : both are Vital . The former is the call o f Go d to every preacher of d His Wor , to make the evangelization of the L E L WHO WOR D the passi on o f his life , the 3 02

F T HE EVO L UTION O NEW CHINA.

A Tr i pl e ba ssa dor of Christ who comes to his people filled Ad m m g e w it h this message from his King .

F be tter r ea cher irst , he becomes a p . He gets

the larger vision . Themes for his preaching have a breadth and sweep of thought that is impossible with the path of the preacher ’s life running in

the valley instead of treading the mountain tops . Such was the passion for humanity that made

L . D . M oody the most powerful evangelistic S force of his time . It made purgeon the greatest L pastor evangelist . ess apparent , but no less real, was this true o f that idol of the Boston theological ”

o f P . student the eighties , hillips Brooks The strongest human force in molding that most colossal figure o f the pulpit of his time was his “ mother . Of her , his biographer tells us , The subject that most absorbed her imagination was in foreign missions , about which she kept herself formed and for whose success she hungered and P n prayed . hillips Brooks drank in this inspiratio ’ and with his mother s milk . He visited Japan n India . His Church carried on foreign missio m work upon a large scale . He had the vision fro

childhood . No preacher can attain to his largest

growth who walks another, and a lower path . A second great gain to the preacher who

' makes the salvation of the whole world the key

er note to his ministry , is that he will have bett

hea r ers . Good hearers have much to do with

making preaching good . What is the trouble with 3 04 Y CENTENAR CAL L S. the average twentieth century Christian ? Is not the one word that describes it most completely “ self—centered ? ” We are engrossed in this mad o f race for wealth . The very multiplication the comforts and conveniences of " life stimulates the

‘ E ou r desire to possess them for ourselves . ven education and ou r culture tends to develop this altogether too human tendency . It is the root how problem of the Christian ministry , to stem U this tide o f selfishness in our Churches . nless ” this can be done , Ichabod will be written across o f our portals . It is the Opposite the Christ spirit ; and If any man have not the Spirit o f How m od Christ , he is none of His . shall the ern ministry deal with this most subtle foe of genuine Christianity ? Exhortation and denuncia

tion will be equally ineffective . It will more likely ’ n empty the pews . Chalmers great sermon upo “ ” the Expulsive P ower o f a New Aff ection gives us the philosophy of how this demon of selfish

ness may be exorcised . A more worthy, a mightier ff center of a ection must come into the li fe , or it

will continue to revolve around self . The motive

must be put in the concrete , or it will never take hold of the average life and dominate

it . That concrete motive which has all o f the elements to lift the believer in the Christ to

a life of lofty vision and holy enthusiasm , is found

in the great modern movement of , Christendom

for world evangelism . The theme is inexhaustible 3 05 T HE EVOL UT ION O F NEW CHINA.

i it s . in variety , and boundless n its horizon Let a congregation once get this visi on of Christ as the world conqueror, and never again can it settle

- sa tisfie d - down into the self , self indulgent , self

- o f centered , religio social club life so many churches called Christian . A congregation of ’ on f or eager listeners , fire the world s redemption, will give wings to the message o f any genuine

preacher of the Gospel .

A better pre a cher, with better hearers , is sure to bring the third benefit of this larger vision

a more fru itful minis try . A few years ago there went to his reward one of the most useful

men of his time . He was not a great man , as

the world reckons greatness . He was not a pulpit

orator , though he always preached sermons that

were the result of careful thought and prayer . But during his long ministry o f more than half

- a century there were many epoch making revivals ,

the fruits o f which remain unto this day . Bishop Foster was an intimate friend of this saintly man from boyhood : and the bishop in the Introduc F ’ “ tion to Mr . ee s autobiography , Bringing the “ s Sheaves , expresse his judgment that It is doubtful i f any man o f his generation will have m ore stars in his crown o f rejoicing ; or more

happy souls to welcome him t o his heavenly home, ”

Fe e . than William I . Ten years before his pass

. Fee ing away , M r told the writer that he had been counting up the men and women who had 3 06

HE L OF T EV O UTION NEW CHINA.

man , every herald of this evangel , though placed the in smallest parish in the narrowest field, may “ say as truly as John Wesley, The world is my

parish . His own people will climb the mount

o f t ransfi u ra t ion g with him , and distant continents

will feel the uplifting power o f his life . But there is a call of God to go a nd bea r His ” message far hence unto the Gentiles , that is no

The I n less real , though generally less dramatic , than that d zwt d ua l HI Ca l/ W CHarrested the persecutor of th i s New Way

on his j ourney to Damascus . There is nothing more supernatural about this than the call that

every true Christian should have to his life work .

God has a purpose concerning each one o f us . The fulfilling o f that purpose is attaining our own

highest good and greatest usefulness . It is reasonable to assume that we can find out His t o will concerning us . The call comes the young o man t preach , the young woman to become a

deaconess . There may be no vision , no over

whelming manifestation of any kind, but there is

a clear, settled conviction that admits of no ’ doubt , that this is the will of God . That is God s

o f . call , as much as the vision Isaiah

But the general call to preach , or to teach , is n ot enough to justify the offer to go to the foreign

mission field . The writer believes it not advisable f or any one to go who is not as clearly called f or this special foreign work as he was in the

- first place to his work in the home land . The 3 08 Y L CENTENAR CAL S.

manifestations of such a call are largely a matter of temperament and of circumstances that are be es yond the individual control , but the result is sentia lly the same : a settled conviction that it is ’ God s purpose concerning me that I labor f or

Him in some distant mission field . The young person who is vague and uncertain upon this point will almost certainly find seemingly impera tive reasons why he should return to his native S land before many years have passed by . ooner

or later , almost every missionary is baptized into his work with some real or imaginary trial that

tests his or her purpose to the straining point . The missionary who never has a “ juniper tree ex perience ” is either singularly blessed by a kind P rovidence , or he lives on the outskirts of the great conflict for the conquest of the Christless

nations . And when that experience comes , he re col needs the solid rock of a conscious call , the

lection of a time when the Lord said unto him , “ out o f as unto Abram , Get thee thy country , ’ s and from thy kindred , and from thy father s hou e , ” unto the land that I will show thee . The experience o f one may be misleading to

others . The danger is in causing the young candi o r he date to expect similar manifestations , else A Ca ll

is in doubt of the reality of his own call . But

with the above safeguards in mind , the reader no should t be misguided , and may be helped , by an account of a ca ll which the writer knows to 3 09 L T O F N W THE EV O U ION E CHINA.

be authentic . The story illustrates the value to

o f . the young missionary a clear, unmistakable call in meeting the tests of the early years upon the field . This missionary went through the the one ological school , and spent year in the pastorate, without having seriously considered the question i of service in the foreign field . He d d not know in l di g y resist duty in this respect . He simply d

not debate the question at all . His work was in a large home mission district in a great city, and the first year was bless ed with an almost con t inuous revival .

At the sessi on of his Conference 1 n September, 1 8 8 7 , Doctor Thoburn , soon afterwards elected

missionary bishop , spoke with great power at the ic missionary anniversary . He drew a graphic p ture of the comparative needs and extent of the

home and foreign fields . His plea was for men

to go . As he spoke , the young preacher believed ’ that it was God s voice speaking to him , and that

he must either go , or consciously disobey. He was seated in a part of the house away from

intimate acquaintances or friends . He said noth

ing about it that night . The next day he went to the building where the Conference was in ses find sion to his father, who had been a member he o f that Conference for over thirty years . T simple request for an interview in one of the small rooms seemed to move the elder preacher in an t unusual way . The son began o tell of his new 3 1 0

THE L T O F EVO U ION NEW CHINA.

L harbor , watching the iberty Light fade away in the gray morning . The novitiate was sent to re lieve a famous missionary of the pastorate of an English-speaking congregation that had grown up under his fruitful and manifold labors . The mid tropical climate and other causes rapidly under ’ mined the young missionary s health, and in fifteen m f or onths he was sent to China a vacation . In 1 8 0 M ay, 9 , while attending the great Decennial Mi ssionary Conference of China at Shanghai , he “ r eceived a cablegram which Father

. Ofli cia l o paralyzed Board wants y u . Come . ” M other . His father was serving his second pas tora te in a beautiful country town in Ohio . Three happy boyhood years had been spent there . Those terrible words brought out the vivid picture father stricken with paralysis in one room ; an i nvalid brother , prostrate with incurable spinal abcess , requiring constant care , in another ; mother, a semi - invalid ever since her son could remember ; a younger sister, still in school , the only help . That ofli cial board cabled three hundred dollars to pay the young missionary’s passage expenses of to America . The superintendent the mission was in America at the time , visited the stricken family , and wrote that he did not see how the son could do otherwise than return to them . The missionary society’s secretary wrote in a similar to vein . Every earthly call seemed be the Oppo ” site of the heavenly vi sion of eighteen months 3 Y CENTENAR CAL LS .

before . With heart almost torn asunder with the o f apparent conflict duties , the young missionary wrote to that precious mother in her furnace of o hi affliction . He reminded her of h w clear s call had been to give his li fe to the nations in heathen “ : ou darkness , and then said Mother , i f when y receive this letter you still think that my presence ne in America is necessary, cable me the o word, ‘ ’ Come ; and I will return and stay with you until our affa irs are so arranged that I can leave ‘ ’

ou . S . y If you can do without me , cable , tay

After more than a month of waiting , the reply o came , to him two f the sweetest words ever “ ”

: . spoken or written Stay Mother . Another five weeks , and the letter , written the day of the

- cablegram , told of the all night struggle , the ’ o f Gethsemane that little mother s life , when in the early dawn of that midsummer day peace and “ victory came . Nevertheless , not my will , but Not Thine be done . often is the young mis siona ry brought face to face with such apparently u opposite d ties ; but when he is , he looks back along the p ath over which he has been led , t o see if he could have been mistaken in his call . God knew that such a time would come to this young missionary, and in His loving wisdom He gave at first such indubitable proofs of His will that , like a great sheet anchor with steel cable , it held steady in the storm .

Here and there , God calls a William or a 3 1 3 THE LU O F EV O TION NEW CHINA. Hudson Taylor to some extraordinary work out o f side the regular channels ; but , as a rule , the The c a ll of the Church is one of the signs to be de Ga ll of

Chum, pended upon to confirm the call of God . The

spirits are to be tried , John tells us , lest we be deceived by t hem ; and one of the ways of trying

ex eri the spirits is by consultation with devout , p enced men and women , and by the authorized agencies that God has raised up for carrying on t His work . The call o g o is first a call to pre

pare to go , i f preparation is not already thorough

and reasonably complete . There is a widespread misconception o f the kind of workers who can be

useful in the foreign mission field . Many really

think that good people , who are not particularly

useful or successful at home , are the kind to send

abroad , like the merchant who ships his surplus ’ to last year s stock foreign lands , and sells it at

a greatly reduced price . This misconception has been fruitful of much harm to the cause of mis on o f o sions the one hand , and c mmerce on the a o f other . It has deterred m ny the best qualified from seriously considering the foreign field as the p l a ce for them to do their best work ; and it has no doubt led not a few poorly qualified to think that they might succeed in what they sup

pose to be the easier work abroad , when they had

partially failed at home . In Northwest Iowa there is a big estate of

f . ten sections o land, a great corn ranch Among 3 1 4

H E L T O F ’ NEW T E V O U ION CHINA.

Do you not hear that youthful Jonah , strug “ gling with the call to go to that great heathen Ho city , murmuring , w can I go to bury myself ” in China ? And well- meaning but foolish “ friends are telling him , It would be a great waste of your brilliant talents and rare culture t o be ” “ ” sepulchered like that . Buried , did you say ? That is just what they do with all that magnificent c orn . That is what they pick it out for . It is worth burying . In a little While there is a great resurrection and then a glorious harvest . Did not “ the L ord of the harvest tell us : Except a corn

of wheat fall in the ground and die , it abideth

a : ? lone i f it die , it bringeth forth much fruit Here is the great spiritual paradox that all nature “ joins with the Author of life in declaring : He

that saveth his life shall lose it , and he that loseth ” his life f or My sake , the same shall save it . It

makes no diff erence where your life is spent, if

fru itful , it must be buried . The only question is , Where ? In what soil ? The virgin soil o f the Has Orient is the . richest in potential harvests .

the Lord of the harvest picked you , as a large f or s full ear , fit seed in the great field of His planting ? What higher honor can you ask of Him ? It is not death for which He ha s chosen

: you , but life life perpetuated, life multiplied , life

infinitely enlarged .