New Forces in Old China

Part 7 out of 8

or what? How could the workhouse system
be started throughout China? How to fortify
Kwang-tung province? How to get funds and
professors for the new education? How to pro-
mote Chinese international commerce, new industries
and savings-banks, versus the gambling houses
of China?

Hunan--``What is the policy of Japan--only following other
nations or what? How to choose competent diplomatic
men? Why does China feel its small national
debt so heavy, while England and France
with far greater debts do not feel it?

Hupch--``State the educational systems of Sparta and Athens.
What are the naval strategic points of Great Britain
and which should be those of China? Which nation
has the best system of stamp duty? State
briefly the geological ages of the earth, and the
bronze and iron ages. Trace the origin of Egyptian,
Babylonian and Chinese writings.''[97]

[97] Report of the Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General
Knowledge Among the Chinese, Shanghai, 1903.

The result of these edicts is that the Chinese are buying
Western books as never before. Examinations cannot be passed
without them. The mission presses, though run to their full
capacity, cannot keep up with the demand for their publications.
Dr. Timothy Richard of Shanghai reports that a quarter
of a million dollars' worth of text-books were sold in that city
in 1902, a single order received by the Presbyterian Press
involving a bill of $328 for postage alone, as the buyer insisted
that the books should be sent by mail. Mission schools that
teach the English language are thronged with students, many
of them from the higher classes, and every foreigner who is
willing to teach Western learning finds his services eagerly
sought.

China cannot be reformed by paper edicts even though they
are written by an Emperor. Many reforms have been solemnly
proclaimed in former years that accomplished little except to
``save face'' for the Government. We need not therefore
imagine that the millennium is to come in China this year.
But it is impossible to doubt that the reform decrees that have
been issued since the Boxer uprising mean something more
and are achieving something more than any other reform movements
that China ever saw before. Dr. Arthur H. Smith, who
knows China and the Chinese as thoroughly as any other living
man, writes:--

``We behold the kernel of the reforms ordered by His Majesty, Kuang
Hsum in 1898, and which led to his dethronement and imprisonment,
substantially adopted less than three years later by the Empress Dowager and
her advisers. . . . The bare notation of the tenor of these far-reaching
edicts gives to the Occidental reader but a vague notion of the tremendous
intellectual revolution which they connote. Never before was
there such an order from any government involving the reconstruction of
the views of so many millions, by the study of the methods of government
in other nations. . . . It is obvious to one who knows anything of the
Chinese educational system of the past millennium that the introduction
of the new methods will involve its radical reconstruction from top to bottom.
Western geography, mathematics, science, history, and philosophy
will be everywhere studied. The result cannot fail to be an expansion of
the intellectual horizon of the Chinese race comparable to that which in
Europe followed the Crusades. This will be a long process and a slow
one, but it is a certain one. . . . All signs indicate that China is open
as never before.''

Undoubtedly the most powerful present factor in the policy
of the Empire, and at the same time one of the best types of the
educated Chinese, is Yuan Shih Kai, Viceroy of Chih-li and
Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese army. He is not a Manchu,
like many of the high officials of China, but a pure Chinese
like Li Hung Chang. Born in the Province of Honan,
he quickly developed unusual abilities. After a brilliant record
for a young man in his native land, he was sent to Korea as the
representative of the Emperor of China and for nine years he
was a conspicuous member of the diplomatic corps of the
Korean capital. Returning to China in 1895, he was made
commander of a division of the ``New Imperial Army''--a
post in which he manifested high military and administrative
qualities. He organized and equipped his troops after the best
foreign models and they speedily became so effective that, if
they had been more numerous and if he had been given a free
hand in using them in Peking, the history of 1900 might have
been different. I have had occasion elsewhere[98] to give some
account of the soldiers who escorted me through the interior.
December, 1900, he was appointed Governor of the great province
of Shantung. It was here that I met him, residing at Chinan-fu,
the capital of the province. As soon as possible after
my arrival, I sent my card and letters of introduction to the
famous Governor, and he promptly replied that he would receive
me at one o'clock the following day. At the appointed
hour, we called. With true courtesy, he met us at the entrance
of the palace grounds and escorted us into his private room,
which was neatly but very plainly furnished. He impressed
me as a remarkable man. He was then forty-one years of age,
of medium height, rather stout, with a strong face, a clear,
frank eye, and a most engaging manner. He would be considered
a man of striking appearance anywhere.

[98] Chapter VII.

He was very cordial, and we had a long and interesting conversation.
He surprised me by his familiarity with America,
especially as he spoke no English and had never been out of
Asia.

Partly at this interview and partly from other sources, I
heard more of his plan to start a daily newspaper, a Military
Academy and a Literary College. His idea was to have in
each institution two students from each of the 108 counties in
the province, and thus train a body of men who would be able
to carry ``light and learning'' into their respective districts.
He appeared to feel that the only hope of averting such catastrophes
as the Boxer uprising lay in enlightening the people.
In answer to a question as to the teaching of foreign languages,
he said that English, French and German would be taught, but
that German would probably be the most useful of the foreign
tongues on account of the number of Germans in the eastern
part of the province.

The Governor had shown the breadth of his intelligence, and
at the same time his appreciation of the high character of Protestant
missionaries, by inviting one of them, the Rev. Dr. Watson
M. Hayes, then President of the Presbyterian Mission College
at Teng-chou, to become the President of the Literary
College. I may anticipate so far as to state that Dr. Hayes
accepted the invitation and began his work with every promise
of large success. But unfortunately the rigid requirement of
the Government that each student should worship the tablet of
Confucius at stated intervals and the refusal of Yuan Shih Kai's
successor to exempt Christian students made Dr. Hayes feel
that he had no alternative but to resign. Whether Yuan Shih
Kai, if he had remained in Shantung, would have been more
lenient, it is, of course, impossible to say. I cherish the hope
that he would have been, for he is a large-minded man and he
discerns the signs of the times more clearly than many of his
countrymen. But he is nevertheless a loyal disciple of Confucius
and he might also have felt that questions of state policy
were involved. It is suggestive, however, that in the spring of
1898 Yuan Shih Kai had selected a Protestant minister, the
Rev. Herbert E. House, D. D., (now of the Canton Christian
College) as the tutor of his own son, Yuen Yen Tai. Dr.
House says, by the way, that he found the youth ``wonderfully
pure in his thought, high in his ambition and intense in his
passion for knowledge--the most patient and diligent student I
ever knew.''

But to return to the interview with Yuan Shih Kai. The
only other Chinese present was Tang Hsiao-chuan, a man of
about thirty-five, who was in charge of the Provincial Foreign
Office with the rank of Tao-tai. He had spent two years at
Columbia University in New York City, spoke English fluently
and impressed me as a fine man. Like the Governor, his manners
were courtly and refined. He appeared to be a man of
the diplomatic type and worthy of the promotion that he will
doubtless receive.

Early the next morning Captain Wang came on behalf of the
Governor to return our visit. He was the translator of the
Foreign Office and the tutor of one of the Governor's sons whom
he was teaching English grammar, arithmetic, geography and
history. I was interested to find that he had spent eight years
at Philips Academy, Massachusetts, and that he spoke English
with the grace of a cultured gentleman.

The policy of Yuan Shih Kai during the Boxer troubles indicated
the wisdom and the courage of the man. Disturbances
had already begun when he assumed office. It was not far
southwest of Chinan-fu that Brooks, the devoted English missionary,
was murdered by the Boxers. Yu Hsien was then
Governor of Shantung but about that time was transferred to
Shan-si, Yuan Shih Kai taking his place. If the notorious
foreign-hating Yu Hsien had remained in Shantung, probably he
would have massacred the Shantung missionaries as he did
those of Shan-si, where he invited them all to his yamen, and
then began the butchery by killing three missionaries with his
own hand. But Yuan Shih Kai foresaw the inevitable result
of such barbarity and determined to restrain the Boxers and
protect foreigners. He succeeded with the foreigners, not one
being killed after he took control, and all being helped as far
as possible to escape. As soon as the storm had passed, he
officially wrote to the missionaries who had taken refuge at the
ports:--

``Everything is now quiet. If you, reverend sirs, wish to return to the
interior, I would beg you first give me word that I may most certainly
order the military everywhere most carefully to protect and escort.''

This apparently pro-foreign policy brought upon the Governor,
for a time, no small obloquy from the fiercely-fanatical
conservatives who wanted to murder every foreigner within
reach. Indeed the fury of the populace was so great that he
was bitterly reviled as ``a secondary devil,'' and his life was
repeatedly threatened. But despite the clamour of the mob
and the opposition of his associates in the government of the
province, he maintained his position with iron inflexibility.
Afterwards, however, the people as well as his official subordinates
realized that he had saved them from the awful punishment
that was inflicted upon the neighbouring province of
Chih-li, and his power and prestige became greater than ever.

During my visit in Chining-chou, in the remote southwestern
part of the province, an incident occurred which illustrated at
once the power of Yuan Shih Kai's name and the heroic devotion
of the missionaries. The day after our arrival, a friendly
Chinese official brought word that Governor Yuan Shih Kai's
mother had died the day before. Chinese custom in such circumstances
required him to resign his office and go into retirement
for three years. Now Consul Fowler and all the foreigners
whom I had met in the ports had declared that the safety
of foreigners in Shantung depended on the Governor, that as
long as he was in power white men were safe, but that his death
or removal might bring another tumult of anti-foreign fury.
On the strength of his known friendship, mission work was
being resumed and the missionaries were returning to the interior.

Now this man, on whose continuance in office so much depended,
was apparently to retire and the future made all uncertain
again. The Empress Dowager might give the post to a
foreign-hater. An indifferent or even a weak pro-foreign Governor
would be little better, for a strong man was needed to
hold the population of Shantung in hand. The Chinese quickly
take their cue from a high official and even a suspicion that he
would not interfere might again loose the dogs of war. True,
we had seen no signs of enmity, but appearances are deceptive
in Asia. The smile of the mighty Governor meant a smile
from every one. But what fires were smouldering beneath no
one could know. Even in America, there are lawless men who
would mob Chinese in a minute if they knew that the police
were weak or indifferent.

I did not fear for myself, for my plans compelled me to
journey on to Ichou-fu anyway. But I did not like to leave
Mr. Laughlin and Dr. Lyon, who had come with the intention
of remaining to reopen the mission work at Chining-chou.
But with the true missionary spirit, they bravely decided to
stay. A week later, they learned that in view of the importance
of the province and his confidence in the great Governor, the
Emperor had by a special dispensation shortened the period of
official mourning from three years to one hundred days. During
that time, the Fan-tai (treasurer) would be the nominal head
of the province, though it was quietly understood that even
then the Governor would be the ``power behind the throne.''
But as this was not known when the decision to remain was
made, the heroism of the missionaries was none the less
striking.

The attitude of Yuan Shih Kai is fairly indicated in the regulations
which he caused to be widely published after the Boxer
outbreak. Some of these were as follows:--

``In order to protect foreigners from violence and all mission property
from burning and other destruction, all civil and military officials with all
their subordinates (including literati, constables, village elders, et al.),
must use their utmost endeavours to insure their protection. Persons refusing
to submit to officials in these matters may be instantly executed
without further reference to the Governor, and any one who rescues foreigners
from violence will be amply rewarded.

``Any persons having been found guilty of destroying mission property
or using violence to foreigners shall be severely dealt with according to
the laws which refer to highway robbers, and in addition to this their
goods and property shall be confiscated for the public use.

``If injury to missionaries or destruction of property occurs in any district
whatever, both civil and military officials of said district shall be degraded
and reported to the Throne.

``The elders, constables, et al., of every village shall do their utmost to
protect missionaries and their property. If in the future there occurs in
any village destruction of property or violence to a missionary, the headmen
of such village shall be dealt with according to the edict issued
during the twenty-second year of the present Emperor. And, in addition
to this they shall be required to present themselves to the yamen and
make good all losses. The constables of such villages shall be severely
dealt with and expelled from office forever.

``All civil and military officials in whose districts none of these offenses
named above occur in one year shall be rewarded with the third degree
of merit, and three years of such freedom shall entitle the same officials to
promotion.

``Rewards will also be given to village elders and constables in whose
district no disturbance occurs.''

These are rather remarkable words from a high Chinese
official. Now their author occupies a position of even greater
authority, for after the death of Li Hung Chang, he was appointed
to succeed him as Viceroy of Chih-li in November,
1901. Chih-li is not only one of the greatest provinces of the
Empire with a population of 20,937,000, but it includes the
imperial city of Peking and the ports of Tong-ku and Tien-
tsin, the gateways to the capital. The Viceroy thus controls
all avenues of approach to the Throne and is, in a sense,
charged with the protection of the royal family. He has free
access at all times to the Emperor and the Empress Dowager
with whom he is a prime favourite. It was this position of high
vantage which enabled Li Hung Chang to become well-nigh
omnipotent in China. Yuan Shih Kai is not such a wily
schemer as his distinguished predecessor and he is not likely to
use his position for self-aggrandizement to the extent that Li
Hung Chang did. But he is quite as able a man and more
frank and reliable. He has enemies, as every public man has,
especially in Asia. Some can never forgive him for his supposed
part in the virtual dethronement of the Emperor several years
ago. It is alleged that the Emperor counted on the army of
Yuan Shih Kai to support him in his reform policy, but that
Yuan consulted with Jung Lu, who was then the Viceroy of
Chih-li, and that that worthy promptly laid the whole matter
before the Empress Dowager; the result being that the young
Emperor awoke one morning to find himself practically stripped
of his imperial power.[99] Yuan has been freely charged with
treachery in this coup d'etat. Others hold that he did not intend
treachery but only consultation with his superior officer
as to what ought to be done in a grave crisis which was in
itself revolutionary in character. Yuan was far from being a
reactionary, but he was wise enough to see that China could
not be suddenly transformed, and he naturally hesitated to lend
himself to an enterprise which he believed to be premature and
to be destined to result in certain failure. The soundness of
his judgment is now generally recognized, and the Emperor himself
is said to be almost as friendly towards him as the Empress
Dowager, who counts him one of her ablest supporters.

[99] Cf. Imperial Decree of Sept. 22, 1898, quoted in Pott, ``The Outbreak
in China,'' pp. 55sq,

In the present critical condition of far eastern politics, much
depends upon the policy of Yuan Shih Kai. With exalted
rank, the ear of the Empress Dowager and the command of the
only real soldiers that China possesses, he can do more than
any other man to influence the course of the Empire. Of
course, one official, however powerful, cannot absolutely control
national conditions. The forces at work both within and without
the Empire are too vast and too complicated. Nevertheless,
the fact that such an able and far-seeing man as Yuan
Shih Kai is now the most influential Viceroy in China, the
Commander-in-Chief of the Army, and the trusted adviser of the
Empress Dowager may be fairly included among the hopeful
signs for the future.

Most significant of all is the development of missionary work
since the Boxer outbreak. Not only have all the destroyed
churches and chapels been rebuilt, but they are, as a rule,
crowded with worshippers. In the Wei-hsien station field in
Shantung, where every missionary was driven out and all the
mission property destroyed, 569 Chinese were baptized last
year. In Peking, the large new Presbyterian church, though
erected near that great cistern in which nearly 100 bodies were
found after the siege, is filled at almost every service and the
churches of other denominations are also largely attended. At
a single service, Dr. Pentecost preached to 800 attentive Chinese
young men. Even in Paoting-fu, where every remaining
missionary and scores of Chinese Christians were killed, and
where one might suppose that no Chinese would ever dare to
confess Christ, even in bloodstained Paoting-fu, the missionaries
are preaching daily to throngs of attentive Chinese in the city,
while at the spacious new compounds outside the walls the
schools and hospitals and churches are taxed to care for the
hundreds who go to them. In the Canton field, long known
for its anti-foreign feeling, 1,564 Chinese were baptized last
year by the Presbyterians alone and the missionaries are importunately
calling for reinforcements to enable them to meet
the multiplied demands upon them. Even the province of
Hunan, which a decade ago was almost as inhospitable to foreigners
as Thibet, now has half a hundred Protestant and Catholic
missionaries developing a prosperous work. Bishop Graves,
of the Protestant Episcopal Church, returned recently from an
episcopal visitation with this inspiring message:--

``The condition and outlook of the Church's work in the province of
Kiang-su are more encouraging than ever before. Hitherto we have had
to persuade people to be taught. Now they come to us themselves, not
one by one, but in numbers. . . . That there is a strong movement
towards Christianity setting in is evident.''[100]

[100] ``The Spirit of Missions,'' July, 1904.

Not only has the old work been resumed with vigour but much
new work has been opened. Within a year and a quarter after
the relief of the Legations by the Allies, twenty-five new mission
stations had been opened and 373 new missionaries had
entered China, and each succeeding year has seen considerable
additions to the number. The Rev. Dr. George F. Pentecost,
who visited China in 1903, writes--

``The outlook seems to me most encouraging. I find the more thoughtful
missionaries enthusiastic in their forecast for the future. My own
judgment is that the cause of missions, so far as foundation work and increased
power for work, has been advanced at least twenty-five years by
the massacres of 1900. I think the common people are thoroughly convinced
that missions cannot be destroyed, and I am equally convinced
that the authorities are also convinced that it is vain for them to rage and
set themselves against Christianity. The one thing which an Asiatic
recognizes is power and facts accomplished, and in the rebuilding of our
missions and the awakening already begun and the reinforcement of the
missions in men and material means they see and recognize power. Their
own temples are falling into decay and ruin and our new buildings are
rising in prominence and beauty. Their ignorant priesthood is sinking
deeper and deeper into degradation, while our missionaries are every
where known and recognized as men of `light and learning.' . . .
It seems to me from all I can learn that there is no fear of another anti-
foreign outbreak.''

And these are but a few of the many illustrations that could
be given. Everywhere, the doors are open and Chinese are
now being baptized by Protestant missionaries at the rate of
about 15,000 a year, while a far larger number are enrolled as
inquirers or catechumens. The interdenominational conference
of missionaries at Kuling, August 7, 1903, declared:--

``It is now a fact that there is not one of the more than nineteen
hundred counties of China and Manchuria from which we are shut out, and
before the hundredth year of our work begins, we can say that if the gospel
is not preached to every creature in China, the reason must be sought outside
China. The opportunities of work are varied in their kind, vast in
their extent. Never before have men crowded to hear the gospel as they
are crowding now in the open air and indoors; in our chapels and in our
guest-rooms we have opportunities to preach Christ such as can scarcely
be found outside China. Never before has there been such an eager desire
for education as there is now; our schools, both of elementary and of
higher grades, are full, and everywhere applicants have to be refused.
Never before has there been such a demand for Christian literature as
there is now; our tract societies and all engaged in supplying converts
and inquirers with reading material are doing their utmost, but are not
able to overtake the demand; and the demand is certain to increase, for
it comes from the largest number of people in the world reading one language.
The medical work has from the first found an entrance into hearts
that were closed against other forms of work. Its sphere of influence
grows ever wider and is practically unlimited. Unique opportunities of
service are afforded us by the large number of blind people, by lepers,
and those suffering from incurable diseases; by the deaf and dumb, the
insane and other afflicted people. In China the poor are always with us,
and whensoever we will we may do them good.''

Not least among the hopeful signs for the future is the new
treaty between the United States and China which was signed
at Shanghai, October 8, 1903, and unanimously ratified by the
United States Senate December 18, 1903. It not only secured
an ``open door'' in China for Americans, but, if the veteran
``most favoured nation'' clause is again pressed into service, a
priceless benefit to the whole civilized world as well as to
China herself. For this treaty abolished the exasperating
``likin'' (the inland tax heretofore exacted by local officials on
goods in transit through their territories); confirmed the right
of American citizens to trade, reside, travel, and own property
in China; extended to China the United States' copyright
laws; gained a promise from the Chinese Government to establish
a patent office in which the inventions of United States'
citizens may be protected; and made valuable regulations regarding
trade-marks, mining concessions, judicial tribunals for
the hearing of complaints, diplomatic intercourse, and several
other matters which, though sanctioned by custom, were often
abridged or violated.

The treaty, moreover, called for the opening of two additional
treaty ports, one of which is at Feng-tien-fu, more generally
known as Mukden, important not only as a city of 200,000 inhabitants
but as the capital of Manchuria and with both rail
and river connection with the Gulf of Pe-chi-li and the imperial
province of Chih-li. The other is at An-tung, which is important
because of its situation on the Yalu River opposite the
Korean frontier. Of course, the Russia-Japan War has post-
poned the opening of these ports, but the recognition of China's
right to open them by treaty with the United States is none the
less significant.

Most important of all, the treaty removes, so far as any such
enactment can remove, the last barrier to the extension of Christianity
throughout China. In Article XIII of the English treaty
with China, September 5, 1902, Great Britain agreed to join
in a commission to secure peaceable relationships between converts
and non-converts in China. But the American treaty
goes much farther, as the following extract (Article XIV) will
show:--

``The principles of the Christian religion, as professed by the Protestant
and Roman Catholic Churches, are recognized as teaching men to do good
and to do to others as they would have others do to them. Those who
quietly profess and teach these doctrines shall not be harassed or persecuted
on account of their faith. Any person, whether citizen of the
United States or Chinese convert, who, according to these tenets, peaceably
teaches and practices the principles of Christianity shall in no case
be interfered with or molested therefor. No restrictions shall be placed
on Chinese joining Christian churches. Converts and non-converts, being
Chinese subjects, shall alike conform to the laws of China, and shall
pay due respect to those in authority, living together in peace and amity;
and the fact of being converts shall not protect them from the consequences
of any offense they may have committed before or may commit after their
admission into the church, or exempt them from paying legal taxes levied
on Chinese subjects generally, except taxes levied and contributions for
the support of religious customs and practices contrary to their religion.
Missionaries shall not interfere with the exercise by the native authorities
of their jurisdiction over Chinese subjects; nor shall the native authorities
make any distinction between converts and non-converts, but shall administer
the laws without partiality, so that both classes can live together in
peace.

``Missionary societies of the United States shall be permitted to rent
and to lease in perpetuity as the property of such societies, buildings or
lands in all parts of the Empire for missionary purposes and, after the
title-deeds have been found in order and duly stamped by the local authorities,
to erect such suitable buildings as may be required for carrying on
their good work.''

This gives new prestige to American missionary effort and
legally confirms the opening of the Empire from end to end to
missionary residence, activity and toleration. All that France
harshly obtained for Roman Catholic missions by the Berthemy
convention of 1865 and by the haughty ultimatum of M.
Gerard at the close of the war with Japan, the United States
has now peacefully secured with the apparent good-will of the
Chinese Government.

XXVIII

THE PARAMOUNT DUTY OF CHRISTENDOM

IT would be unwise to underestimate the gravity of the
situation, or to assume that the most numerous and conservative
nation on the globe has been suddenly transformed
from foreign haters to foreign lovers. The world may
again have occasion to realize that the momentum of countless
myriads is an awful force even against the resources of a
higher civilization, as the Romans found to their consternation
when the barbarian hordes overran the Empire. We do not
know what disturbances may yet occur or what proportions
they may assume. It may be that much blood will yet be
shed. Inflamed passions will certainly be slow in subsiding.
Men who are identified with the old era will not give up without
a struggle. It took 300 years to bring England from pagan
barbarism to Christian civilization, and China is vaster far
and more conservative than England. The world moves faster
now, and the change-producing forces of the present exceed
those of former centuries as a modern steam hammer exceeds a
wooden sledge. But China is ponderous, and a few decades
are short for so gigantic a transformation.

Meantime, much depends on the future conduct of foreigners.
It is hard enough for the proud-spirited Chinese to see the
aliens coming in greater numbers than ever and entrenching
themselves more and more impregnably, and a continuance of
the policy of greed and injustice will deepen an already deep
resentment. The almost invincible prejudice against the foreigner
is a serious hindrance to the regeneration of China.
``This fact emphasizes the need for using every means possible
for the breaking down of such a prejudice. Every careless or
willful wound to Chinese susceptibilities, or unnecessary crossing
of Chinese superstitions, retards our own work and increases
the dead wall of opposition on the part of this people.''[101]

[101] The Rev. Dr. J. C. Garritt, Hang chou.

The proper way to deal with the Chinese was illustrated by
the Rev. J. Walter Lowrie of the Presbyterian Mission at
Paoting-fu when, as a token of appreciation for his services to
the city in connection with the retaliatory measures of the
foreign troops shortly after the Boxer outbreak, the magistrate
raised a special fund among wealthy Chinese, bought a fine
tract of sixteen acres and presented it to the mission as a gift.
The tract had been occupied for many years by several
families of tenants who had built their own houses, but who
were now to be evicted. Of course, Mr. Lowrie was not
responsible for them. But he insisted that they should be
dealt with fairly, and be paid a reasonable price for their homes
and the improvements that they had made so that they could
rent land and establish themselves elsewhere. In addition, he
was at pains to find work for them until their new crops became
available. Their affectionate greeting of Mr. Lowrie as
we walked about the place clearly showed their gratification.
There is not the slightest trouble with the Chinese when they
are treated with ordinary decency as brother men.

At any rate, in the name of that civilization and Christianity
which we profess, as well of common humanity, let foreign
nations abandon the methods of brutality and rapine. If we
expect to convert the Chinese, we must exemplify the principles
we teach. It is not true that the Chinese cannot understand
justice and magnanimity. Even if it were true, it does not
follow that we should be unjust and pitiless. Let us instruct
them in the higher things. How are they ever to learn, if we
do not teach them? But as a matter of fact, the Chinese are
as amenable to reason as any people in the world. Their
temperament and inertia and long isolation from the remainder
of mankind have made them slow to grasp a new idea. But
they will get it if they are given reasonable time, and when
they do once get it, they will hold it. Whether, therefore,
further trouble occurs, depends in part upon the conduct of
foreign nations. Justice and humanity in all dealings with the
Chinese, while not perhaps wholly preventing outbreaks of
hostility, will at least give less occasion for them.

But however trying the period of transition may be, the issue is
not for a moment doubtful. Progress invariably wins the victory
over blind conservatism. The higher idea is sure to conquer
the lower. With all their admixture of selfishness and
violence, the fact remains that the forces operating on China
to-day include the vital regenerative element for human
society. It is futile to expect that China could ever regenerate
herself without outside aid. Spontaneous regeneration is
an exploded theory in society as well as in biology. Life always
comes from without.

The spirit of China's new system of education shows that
there is imminent danger of the misuse of modern methods,
even when they have been adopted. All her institutions are
conducted on principles which virtually debar Christians
either as students or professors. Infidelity, however, has free
entrance as long as it conforms to the external forms imposed
by the State. ``Anti-conservative but anti-Christian,'' the
educational movement has been characterized by Dr. W. M.
Hayes of Teng-chou. Dr. W. A. P. Martin, so long President
of the Imperial Chinese University, declares that ``if
Christians at home only knew what a determined effort is being
made to exclude Christian teachers and Christian text-books
from Chinese Government schools, from the Imperial University
down, they would exert themselves to give a Christian
education to the youth of China.'' A single mission institution,
like the Shantung Protestant University, with its
union of the best educational methods and the highest ideals
of Christian character, will do more for the real enlightenment
of China than a dozen provincial colleges where gambling,
irreligion and opium smoking are freely tolerated and a failure
to worship the tablet of Confucius is deemed the only
cardinal sin.

In view of all these things, the regeneration of China becomes
a question of transcendent importance, a question demanding
the broadest statesmanship and the supremest effort; a question
involving the future destinies of the race. ``On account of its
mass, its homogeneity, its high intellectual and moral qualities,
its past history, its present and prospective relations to the
whole world, the conversion of the Chinese people to Christianity
is the most important aggressive enterprise now laid upon
the Church of Christ.''[102] It would be a calamity to the whole
world if the dominant powers of Asia should continue to be
heathen. But if they are not to be, immediate and herculean
efforts must be made to regenerate them. Sir Robert Hart
declares that the only hope of averting ``the yellow peril'' lies
either in partition among the great Powers, which he regards as
so difficult as to be impracticable, or in a miraculous spread of
Christianity which will transform the Empire. Beyond
question, Sir Robert Hart is right. It is too late now to avoid
the issue. The impact of new forces is rousing this gigantic
nation, and Western nations must either conquer or convert.
Conquering is out of the question for reasons already given.[103]
The only alternative is conversion. In these circumstances
``the yellow peril becomes the golden opportunity of Christendom.''[104]

[102] Smith, ``Rex Christus,'' p. 237

[103] Chapter XXV.

[104] The Rev. Dr. Maltbie D. Babcock.

And by conversion is not meant ``civilization.'' Here is
the fundamental error of the pseudonymous writer of ``Letters
From a Chinese Official.'' He evidently knows little or nothing
of the missionary force or of the motives which control it. He
writes as a man who has lived in a commercial and political atmosphere,
and who feels outraged, and with some justice, by the
policy which European nations have adopted towards
China. From this view-point, it was easy for the quick-
witted author to satirize our defects and to laud the virtues,
some of them unquestionably real, of his native land. But it
does not follow that his indictment holds against the Christian
people of the West, who reprobate as strongly as the author
the duplicity and brutality of foreign nations in their dealings
with China. The West has something more to offer China
than a civilization. As a matter of fact, the best people of the
West are not trying to give China a civilization at all, but a
gospel. With whatever is good in Chinese civilization, they
have no wish to interfere. It is true that some changes in
society invariably follow the acceptance of Christianity, but
these changes relate only to those things that are always and
everywhere inherently wrong, irrespective of the civilization to
which they appear to belong. The gospel transformed ``the
Five Points'' in New York not because they were uncivilized
but because they were evil. It will do in China only what it
does in America--fight vice, cleanse foulness, dispel superstition.
Christianity is the only power which does this. It has
transformed every people among whom it has had free course.
It has purified society. It has promoted intelligence. It has
elevated woman. It has fitted for wise and beneficent use of
power. Of those who deny this, Lowell says:

``So long as these very men are dependent for every privilege they enjoy
upon that religion which they discard, they may well hesitate a little
before seeking to rob the Christian of his faith and humanity of its hope in
that Saviour who alone has given to man that hope of eternal life which
makes life tolerable and society possible, and robs death of its terrors and
the grave of its gloom.''

No degradation is beyond the reach of its regenerating power.
Witness the New Hebrides, Metlakatla, the Fiji, Georgia and
Friendly Islands. Even England, Germany and America
themselves are in evidence. Christianity lifted them out of a
barbarism and superstition as dense as any prevailing among
the heathen nations of this age. It can effect like changes in
China if it is given the opportunity.

But it is said that the Chinese do not want to be converted.
A distinguished General of the United States army declared,
after his return from Peking in 1900:--``I must say that I did
not meet a single intelligent Chinaman who expressed a desire
to embrace the Christian religion. The masses are against
Christianity.''[105] It is pleasant to know that it is so common
for unconverted Americans to go to that army officer for
spiritual guidance that the failure of the Chinese to do so
disappointed him. Most men would hardly have expected a
people who were smarting under defeat to open their hearts to
a commander of the conquering army. But hundreds of other
foreigners in China, myself included, can testify that they have
heard intelligent Chinese express a desire to embrace the Christian
religion, and the fact that there are in China to-day over a
hundred thousand Chinese, to say nothing of myriads of enrolled
catechumens, who have publicly confessed their faith in
Christ and who have tenaciously adhered to it under sore persecution
is tangible evidence that some Chinese at least are disposed
to accept Christianity.

[105] The Christian Advocate, New York, June 11, 1903.

Do they want Him? ``It would please you,'' a missionary
writes, ``to see these poor people feeling after God, and their
eagerness to learn more and more.'' It is not uncommon for
converts to travel ten, fifteen and even twenty miles to attend
service. The Sunday I was in Ichou-fu, I met a fine-looking
young man, named Yao Chao Feng, who had walked sixteen
miles to receive Christian baptism, and several other Chinese
were present who had journeyed on foot from seventeen to
thirty-three miles. In Paoting-fu, I heard of a mother and
daughter who had painfully hobbled on bound feet thirteen
miles that they might learn more about the new faith. In
another city, 800 opium-smokers kneeled in a church and
asked God to help them break the chains of that frightful
habit. Surely He who puts His fatherly arms around the
prodigal and kissed him was in that humble church and answered
the prayer of those poor, sin-cursed men. It would
be easy to fill a book with such instances.

But suppose the Chinese do not want Christ. What of it?
Did they want the distinguished General? On the contrary, he
had to fight his way into Peking at the mouth of the cannon
and the point of the bayonet, over the dead bodies of Chinese
and through the ruins of Chinese towns. Do ``the masses''
desire Christ anywhere? Mr. Moody used to say that the
people of the United States did not want Christ and would
probably reject Him if He came to them as He came to the
Jews of old.

The question is not at all whether the Chinese or anybody
else desire Christ, but whether they need Him, and a man's
answer to that question largely depends upon his own relations
to Christ. If we need Him, the Chinese do. If He has done
anything for us, if He has brought any dignity and power and
peace into our lives, the probabilities are that He can do as
much for the Chinese.

``Be assured that the Christ who cannot save a Chinaman in longitude
117'0 East is a Christ who cannot save you in longitude 3'0 west. The
question about missions would not be so lightly put, nor the answer so
lightly listened to, if men realized that what is at stake is not a mere
scheme of us missionaries, but the validity of their own hope of eternal
life. Yet I am bound to say that the questions put to me, on returning
from the mission field, by professedly Christian people often shake my
faith, not in missions, but in their Christian profession. What kind of
grasp of the gospel have men got, who doubt whether it is to-day, under
any skies, the power of God unto salvation?''[106]

[106] Gibson, pp. 11, 12.

It passes comprehension that any one who has even a superficial
knowledge of the real China can doubt for a moment its
vital need of the gospel. The wretchedness of its life appalls an
American who goes back into the unmodified conditions of the
interior or even into the old Chinese city of proud Shanghai.
As I journeyed through those vast throngs, climbed many hilltops
and looked out upon the innumerable villages, which
thickly dotted the plain as far as the eye could reach, as I saw
the unrelieved pain and the crushing poverty and the abject
fear of evil spirits, I felt that in China is seen in literal truth
``The Man with the Hoe.''

``Bowed by the weight of centuries, he leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back the burden of the world.

``What gulfs between him and the seraphim,
Slave of the wheel of labour, what to him
Are Plato and the swing of Pleiades?
What the long reaches of the peaks of song,
The rift of dawn, the reddening of the rose?
Through this dread shape the suffering ages look;
Time's tragedy is in that aching stoop.''

This is the need to which the churches of Europe and
America are addressing themselves through the boards and
societies of foreign missions. These boards are the channels
through which the highest type of Christian civilization is
communicated to pagan peoples, the agencies which gather up all
that is best and truest in our modern life and concentrate it
upon the conditions of China. From this view-point, foreign
missions is not only a question of religion, but a problem of
statesmanship, and one of overshadowing magnitude. As
such, it merits the sympathy and cooperation of every intelligent
and broad-minded man, irrespective of his religious affiliations.
Its spiritual aims are supreme and sufficient for every
true disciple of Christ, but apart from them its social and educational
value and its relation to the welfare of the race justly
claim the interest and support of all. In this work the Church
is saving both individuals and nations, and for time as well as
for eternity. It holds no pessimistic views of the future. It
denies that the development of the race has ended. It frankly
concedes the existence of vice and superstition. But it believes
that the gospel of Jesus Christ is able to subdue that
vice, and to dispel that superstition. So it founds schools and
colleges for the education of the young; establishes hospitals
and dispensaries for the care of the sick and suffering; operates
printing-presses for the dissemination of the Bible and a Christian
literature; maintains churches for the worship of the true
God, and in and through all it preaches to lost men the transforming
and uplifting gospel of Him who alone can ``speak
peace to the heathen.''

But some are saying that the Boxer outbreak has destroyed
their confidence in the practicability of the effort to evangelize
the Chinese. They are asking: ``Why should we send any
more missionaries to China?''

I reply: ``Why send any more merchants, any more consuls,
any more oil, flour, cotton? Shall we continue our commercial
and political relations with China and discontinue our
religious relations; allow the lower influences to flow on unchecked,
but withhold the spiritual forces which would purify
trade and politics, which have made us what we are, and which
alone can regenerate the millions of China?''

Is disaster a reason for withdrawal? When the American
colonists found themselves involved in the horrors of the Revolution,
did they say that it would have been better to remain
the subjects of Great Britain? When, a generation ago,
our land was drenched with the blood of the Civil War, did
men think that they ought to have tolerated secession and
slavery? When the Maine was blown up in Havana Harbour
and Lawton was killed in Luzon, did we demand withdrawal
from Cuba and the Philippines? When Liscum fell under the
walls of Tien-tsin, did we insist that the attempt to relieve the
Legations should be abandoned? Or did not the American
people, in every one of these instances, find in the very agonies
of struggle and bloodshed a decisive reason for advance? Did
they not sternly resolve that there should be men, that there
should be money, and that the war should be pressed to victory
whatever the sacrifice that might be involved?

And shall the Church of God weakly, timidly yield because
the very troubles have occurred which Christ Himself predicted?
He frankly said that there should ``be wars and
rumors of wars''; that His disciples should ``be hated of all
men''; that He sent them ``forth as sheep in the midst of
wolves,'' and that the brother should ``deliver up the brother
to death and the father the child.'' But in that very discourse
He also said: ``He that taketh not his cross and followeth
after me is not worthy of me.'' ``Go, preach,'' He commanded.
``Woe is me if I preach not,'' cried Paul. Hostile rulers and
priests and mobs and the bitter Cross did not swerve Him a
hairbreadth from His purpose; nor did the rending of the early
disciples in the arenas of Nero, the burning of a Huss and a
Savonarola, the pyres of Smithfield, the dungeons of the
Tolbooth and the thumb-screws of the Inquisition quench the
zeal of His followers.

And in the like manner, the ashes of mission buildings and
the blood of devoted missionaries and the tumult of furious
men have led multitudes at home to form a high and holy resolve
to send more missionaries, to give more money and to
press the whole majestic enterprise with new faith and power
until all China has been electrified by the vital spiritual force
of a nobler faith. God summons Christendom to a forward
movement in the land whose soil has been forever consecrated
by the martyrdom of the beloved dead. Instead of retreating,
``we should,'' in the immortal words of Lincoln at Gettysburg,
``be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that
from these honoured dead we take increased devotion to that
cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion;
that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died
in vain.''

It may be said that this is a purely sentimental consideration.
But so may love for country, for liberty, for wife and children,
be called a sentiment. God forbid that the time should ever
come when men will not be influenced by sentiment. The intuitions
of the heart are as apt to be correct as the dictates of the
head. I candidly admit that as I stood amid the ruins of the
mission buildings in China, as I faced the surviving Christians
and remembered what they had suffered, the property they had
lost and the dear ones they had seen murdered,--as I stood with
bared head on the spot where devoted missionaries had perished,
I was conscious of a deeper consecration to the task of
uplifting China. And I am not willing to admit that such a
dedication of the living to the continuance of the work of the
dead is a mere sentiment.

We are not wise above what is written when we declare that
the eternal purpose of God comprehends China as well as
Europe and America. He did not create those hundreds of
millions of human beings simply to fertilize the soil in which
their bodies will decay. He has not preserved China as a nation
for nearly half a hundred centuries for nothing. Out of
the apparent wreck, the new dispensation will come, is already
coming. Frightened men thought that the fall of Rome meant
the end of the world, but we can see that it only cleared the
way for a better world. Pessimists feared that the violence and
blood of the Crusades would ruin Europe, but instead they
broke up the stagnation of the Middle Ages and made possible
the rise of modern Europe. The faint-hearted said that the
India mutiny of 1857 and the Syria massacres of 1860 ended
all hope of regenerating those countries, but in both they ushered
in the most successful era of missions.

So the barriers which have separated China from the rest of
the world must, like the medieval wall of Tien-tsin, be cast down
and over them a highway for all men be made. No one sup-
posed that the process would be so sudden and violent. But
in the Boxer uprising the hammer of God did in months what
would otherwise have taken weary generations. Some were
discouraged because the air was filled with the deafening tumult
and the blinding dust and the flying debris. Many lost
heart and wanted to sound a retreat because some of God's
chosen ones were crushed in the awful rending. But the wiser
and more far-seeing heard a new call to utilize the larger opportunity
which resulted. Up to this time we have been playing
with foreign missions. It is now time for Christendom
to understand that its great work in the twentieth century is to
plan this movement on a scale gigantic in comparison with
anything it has yet done, and to grapple intelligently, generously
and resolutely, with the stupendous task of Christianizing
China.

But we are sometimes told that the churches should not be
allowed to go on; that one of the conditions of good feeling
will be the exclusion of missionaries from China. On this
point, I venture three suggestions:--

First,--No administration that can ever be elected in the
United States will thus interfere with the liberty of the
churches. It will never say, in effect, that arms' manufacturing
companies can send agents to Peking and distilleries send
drummers to Shanghai, but that the Church of God cannot
send devoted, intelligent men and women to found schools and
hospitals and printing-presses and to preach the gospel of
Jesus Christ. It will never say that American gamblers in
Tien-tsin and American prostitutes in Hongkong shall be protected
by all the might of the American army and navy, but
that the pure, high-minded missionary, who represents the
noblest motives and ideals of our American life, shall be expatriated,
a man without a country.

This is, however, a problem for the nation, rather than for
the boards. The American missionary went to Asia before his
Government did, and until recently he saw very little of the
American flag. European nations have protected their citizens,
whether they were missionaries or traders. In the United
States Senate Mr. Frye once reminded the nation that about
twenty years ago England sent an army of 15,000 men down
to the African coast, across 700 miles of burning sand, to batter
down iron gates and stone walls, reach down into an
Abyssinian dungeon and lift out of it one British subject who
had been unlawfully imprisoned. It cost England $25,000,000
to do it, but it made a highway over this planet for every common
son of Britain, and the words, ``I am an English citizen,''
more potent than the sceptre of a king. And because of that
reputation American missionaries have more than once been
saved by the intervention of British ministers and consuls who
have not forgotten that ``blood is thicker than water.'' Shall
we vociferously curse England one day and the next supinely
depend upon her representatives to help us out when our citizens
are endangered?

This is not a question of ``jingoism,'' whatever that may be.
It is not a question of making unreasonable complaints to home
governments. It is not a question of religion or of missions.
It is a question of treaties, of citizenship, of national honour
and of self-respect. Let the nation settle it from that viewpoint.
The missionary asks no special privileges. He can
stand it to go on as before, if the nation can stand it to have
him.

Second,--If China should ever make such a demand in
repudiation of the treaties which she herself has expressly
acknowledged to be valid, and if all the Powers should support
her in that demand, does anybody doubt what the missionary
would say? We know at any rate what he has said in similar
circumstances. When Peter and John were scourged and forbidden
to preach any more in the name of Jesus, friendless and penniless
though they were, they ringingly answered: ``Whether
it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than
unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things
which we have seen and heard.'' When Martin Luther was
arraigned before the most powerful tribunal in Europe, he declared:
``Here I stand. God help me. I can do no other.''
When the Russian Minister in Constantinople haughtily said to
Dr. Schauffler, ``My master, the Czar of all the Russias, will
not let you put foot on that territory,''--the intrepid missionary
replied: ``My Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, will never
ask the Czar of all the Russias where He shall put His foot.''
Scores of missionaries have not hesitated to say to hostile
authorities: ``I did not receive my commission from any earthly
potentate but from the King of Kings, and I shall, I must go
on.''

Some will say that this is madness. So of old men said of
Christ, ``He hath a demon''; so they said of Paul, ``Thou
art beside thyself.'' If magnificent moral courage and
unyielding devotion to duty are ``madness,'' then the more the
world has of it the better.

The effort to minimize the significance of the missionary
force in China will be made only by those who, destitute of any
vital religious faith themselves, of course see no reason for
communicating it to others, or by those who are strangely blind
and deaf to the real issues of the age. In the words of Benjamin
Kidd, ``it is not improbable that, to a future observer,
one of the most curious features of our time will appear to be
the prevailing unconsciousness of the real nature of the issues
in the midst of which we are living.''

``No more did the statesmen and the philosophers of Rome understand
the character and issues of that greatest movement of all history, of which
their literature takes so little notice. That the greatest religious change
in the history of mankind should have taken place under the eyes of a
brilliant galaxy of philosophers and historians who were profoundly conscious
of decomposition around them; that all these writers should have
utterly failed to predict the issue of the movement they were then observing;
and that during the space of three centuries they should have treated
as simply contemptible an agency which all men must now admit to have
been, for good or evil, the most powerful moral lever that has ever been
applied to the affairs of men, are facts well worthy of meditation in every
period of religious transition.''[107]

[107] Lecky, ``History of European Morals,'' Vol. 1, p. 359.

Does any sane man imagine that the Church could cease to
be missionary and remain a Church? It has been well said
that the Christian nations might as well face the utter futility
of any hypothesis based upon the supposition that they can
remain away from the Orient. The occurrences of recent years
have made changes in their relation to the world which they can
no more recall than they can alter the course of a planet. It is
idle for doctrinaires to tell us from the quiet comfort of home
libraries, that we should ``keep hands off.'' We can no more
keep hands off than our country could keep hands off slavery
in the South, no more than New York could keep hands off a
borough infected with smallpox. The world has passed the
point where one-third of its population can be allowed to breed
miasma which the other two-thirds must breathe. Both for
China's sake and for our own, we must continue this work. If
this is true in the political and commercial realms, much more
is it true in the religious. Chalmer's notable sermon on the
``Expulsive Power of a New Affection'' enunciates a permanent
principle. When a man's soul is once thrilled with the
conviction that he has found God, he must declare that sublime
truth,

``To doubt would be disloyalty,
To falter would be sin.''

I confess to a feeling of impatience when I am told that all
missionary plans for China must be contingent ``upon the
settlement of political negotiations,'' ``the overthrow of the
Empress Dowager and her reactionary advisers,'' ``the reestablishment
of the Emperor on his rightful throne,'' ``the continuance
in power of Viceroy Yuan Shih Kai,'' ``the mainte-
nance of a strong foreign military and naval force in China,''
``the thwarting of Russia's plans for supremacy,'' and several
other events.

All these things have been said and more. Is the Church
then despairingly to resign her commission from Jesus Christ
and humbly ask a new one from Caesar? Not so did the
apostolic missionaries, and not so, I am persuaded, will their
modern successors do. They cannot, indeed, be indifferent to
the course of political events or to their bearing upon the
missionary problem. But, on the other hand, they cannot
make their obedience to Christ and their duty to their fellow men
dependent upon political considerations. For Christian men
to wait until China is pacified by the Powers, or ``until she is
enlightened by the dissemination of truer conceptions of the
Western world,'' would be to abdicate their responsibility as
the chief factor in bringing about a better state of affairs. Is
the Church prepared to abandon the field to the diplomat, the
soldier, the trader? How soon is China likely to be pacified
by them, judging from their past acts? The gospel is the
primary need of China to-day, not the tertiary. The period
of unrest is not the time for the messenger of Christ to hold
his peace, but to declare with new zeal and fidelity his ministry
of reconciliation. To leave the field to the politician, the
soldier and the trader would be to dishonour Christ, to fail to
utilize an unprecedented opportunity, to abandon the Chinese
Christians in their hour of special need and to prejudice missionary
influence at home and abroad for a generation.

But the numbers at work are painfully inadequate. To say
that there are 2,950 Protestant foreign missionaries in China is
apt to give a distorted idea of the real situation unless one
remembers the immensity of the population. A station is considered
well-manned when it has four families and a couple
of single women. But what are they among those swarming
myriads? The proportion of Protestant missionaries to the
population, which is commonly quoted, needs revision. There
is one to about every 144,000 souls. But that, too, requires
modification, for it counts the sick, the aged, recruits who are
learning the language, wives whose time is absorbed by household
cares, and those who are absent on furloughs, the last
class alone being often about ten per cent. of the total enrollment.
The actual working force, therefore, is far smaller than
the statistics suggest.

Of China as a whole, it is said that ``some of the missionaries
and some of the converts are to be found in every one of
the provinces, both of China and Manchuria. But in the
1,900 odd counties into which the provinces are divided, each
with one important town and a large part of them with more
than one, there are but some 400 stations. That is to say, at
least four-fifths of the counties of China are almost entirely
unprovided with the means of hearing the gospel.''[108] Of all the
walled cities in the Empire, less than 300 are occupied by missionaries.
There are literally tens of thousands of communities
that have not yet been touched by the gospel. Plainly, the
missionary force must be largely augmented if the work is to
be adequately done. The home churches have gone too far to
stop without going farther. ``Those who undertake to carry
on mission work among great peoples undertake great responsibilities.
We have no right to penetrate these nations with a
revolutionary gospel of enormous power, unless we are prepared
to make every sacrifice and every effort for the proper care and
the wise training of the organization of the Christian community
itself which, while it must become increasingly a source
of revolutionary thought and movement, is also the only body
that can by the help and grace of God give these far-reaching
movements a healthy direction and lead them to safe and happy
issues.''[109]

[108] ``China's Call for a Three Years' Enterprise,'' 1903.

[109] Gibson, p. 277.

Grant that the work of evangelization must be chiefly done
by Chinese preachers; there is still much for the missionary to
do. Allowing for those who, on account of illness, furlough or
other duties, are temporarily non-effective, 10,000 missionaries
for China would not give a working average of one for every
50,000 of the population. In these circumstances, the union
conference of missionaries at Kuling, August 7, 1903, was
surely within reasonable bounds when, in urging the Protestant
churches to celebrate in 1907 the one hundredth anniversary
of the sending forth of Robert Morrison, it declared:--

``. . . In view of the vastness of the field that lies open before us,
and of the immense opportunities for good which China offers the Christian
Church--opportunities so many of which have been quite recently
opened to us and which were won by the blood of the martyrs of 1900--
we appeal to the boards and committees of our respective societies, and
individually to all our brethren and sisters in the home churches, to say if we
are unreasonable in asking that the last object of the Three Years'
Enterprise be to double the number of missionaries now working in
China.''

The time has come to ``attempt great things for God, expect
great things from God.'' When in 1806, those five
students in Williamstown, Massachusetts, held that immortal
conference in the lee of a haystack, talked of the mighty task of
world evangelization and wondered whether it could be accomplished,
it was given to Samuel J. Mills to cry out: ``We
can if we will!'' And the little company took up the cry and
literally shouted it to the heavens: ``We can if we will!''
``A growing church among a strong people burdened by a
decadent Empire--the spirit of life working against the forces
of death and decay in the one great Pagan Empire which the
wrecks of millenniums have left on the earth--surely there is a
call to service that might fire the spirit of the dullest of us.''[110]
The obstacles are indeed formidable, but he who can look beneath
the eddying flotsam and jetsam of the surface to the
mighty undercurrents which are sweeping majestically onward
can exclaim with Gladstone:--

``Time is on our side. The great social forces which move onward in
their might and majesty, and which the tumults of these strifes do not for
a moment impede or disturb--those forces are marshalled in our support.
And the banner which we now carry in the fight, though perhaps at some
moment of the struggle it may droop over our sinking hearts, yet will
float again in the eye of heaven and will be borne, perhaps not to an easy,
but to a certain and to a not distant victory.''[111]

[110] Gibson, p. 331.

[111] Speech on the Reform Bill.

In a famous art gallery, there is a famous painting called
``Anno Domini.'' It represents an Egyptian temple, from
whose spacious courts a brilliant procession of soldiers, statesmen,
philosophers, artists, musicians and priests is advancing
in triumphal march, bearing a huge idol, the challenge and the
boast of heathenism. Across the pathway of the procession is
an ass, whose bridle is held by a reverent looking man and
upon whose back is a fair young mother with her infant child.
It is Jesus, entering Egypt in flight from the wrath of Herod,
and thus crossing the path of aggressive heathenism. Then
the clock strikes and the Christian era begins.

It is a noble parable. Its fulfillment has been long delayed
till the Child has become a Man, crucified, risen, crowned.
But now in majesty and power, He stands across the pathway
of advancing heathenism in China. There may be confusion
and tumult for a time. The heathen may rage, ``and the
rulers take counsel together against the Lord.'' But the idol
shall be broken ``with a rod of iron,'' and the King upon his
holy hill shall have ``the heathen for `his' inheritance and the
uttermost parts of the earth for `his' possession.''

For a consummation so majestic in its character and so vital
to the welfare not only of China but of the whole human race
we may well make our own the organ-voiced invocation of
Milton:--

``Come, O Thou that hast the seven stars in Thy right hand,
appoint Thy chosen priests according to their order and courses
of old, to minister before Thee, and duly to dress and pour out
the consecrated oil into Thy holy and ever burning lamps.
Thou hast sent out the spirit of prayer upon Thy servants over
all the earth to this effect, and stored up their voices as the
sound of many waters about Thy throne. . . . O perfect
and accomplish Thy glorious acts; for men may leave their
works unfinished, but Thou art a God; Thy nature is perfection.
. . . The times and seasons pass along under Thy
feet, to go and come at Thy bidding; and as Thou didst
dignify our fathers' days with many revelations, above all their
foregoing ages since Thou tookest the flesh, so Thou canst
vouchsafe to us, though unworthy, as large a portion of Thy
Spirit as Thou pleasest; for who shall prejudice Thy all-governing
will? Seeing the power of Thy grace is not passed
away with the primitive times, as fond and faithless men
imagine, but Thy kingdom is now at hand, and Thou standing
at the door, come forth out of Thy royal chambers, O Prince
of all the kings of the earth; put on the visible robes of Thy
imperial majesty, take up that unlimited sceptre which Thy Almighty
Father hath bequeathed Thee; for now the voice of
Thy bride calls Thee, and all creatures sigh to be renewed.''[112]

[112] Milton, ``Prose Works.''

INDEX
{Raw OCR from here to the end, needs proof-read and formatted}

ABRAHAM, 39
Abyssinia, 363
Academy, Military, 339
Achievements of Chinese, 39sq.
Africa, 16, 19, 102, 106, 107, 108,
126, 128, 175, 314
Agnew, Rev. Dr., B. L., 288
Agnosticism, 73
Agriculture, 136; implements of,
129
Alaric, 315
Alaska, 17
Alexander the Great, 16

Allied armies, 1900, 207sq., 273,
320 C~.

Altai Mountains, Little, 104
America, 19, 20, 30, 355
American-China Development Co.,
134
American Board, 201sq., 290, 292,
293, 295, 296, 299, 300

American Christians, 281sq.

American manufacturers, lo5, 106,
114, 133
American mobs, 43
American troops, 207, 327, 328,
329
Americans in China, 25, 26, 27,
87, 88, 114, 115, 124-126, 131,
134, 154sq., 182, 305, 348
Amoy, 150, 221
Amur, valley of, 153
Anatolian railway, 105
Ancestral worship, 72sq., 138, 340
Andrews, Bishop, 41
Angel1, Pres. James B., 264
Anglo-Chinese railway syndicate,
132
Anglo-Italian syndicate, 132
Anglo-Saxon, 35
An-huei, 336
Annam, 152

``Anno Domini,'' painting, 369
Anti-foreign sentiment, 136sq.
An-tung, 348
Arabia, 16, 107
Arch, 39
Area of China, 17, 36
Armies, Allied, 207sq., 273, 320ch.
Army, Chinese, 92sq., 305, 306,
316, 333, 338, 339, 345
Arrow War, 151
``As a Chinaman Saw Us,'' 25
Asia, 15, 16, to5, 106, 107, 111;
changes in, I l lsq.; religions of,
119
Assyria, 16
Astronomical observatory, 325
Astronomy, 39
Attila, 315
Attitude towards foreigners, 231,
258-267, 270, 320ch., 328, 330,
335Sq., 341, 3429 344, 35 1
Australia, 106, 107, 108, 174
Austria, 41, 172, 212, 316
Awakening of China, 7

BABCOCK, REV. DR. MALTBIE, 276
Baby house, 60
Babylon, 16
Bagnall, Mr. Benjamin, 201, 206
Baillard, General, 208
Ballard, Walter J., 106
Bangkok, 42, los, 107
Banks, 40
Baptists, 62, 63, 296-299, 300
Barrett, Hon. John, 237
Batavia, 42
Bayard, Hon. Thos. F., 159
Beirut, los
Belgians International Eastern Co.,
133
Belgium, 133, 171, 175~ 212
Bells, 39
l
372 It

Benares, 32
Benevolence, 72
Beresford, Lord Charles, 306
Bergen, Rev Dr. Paul D., 67,
23lsq., 236
Berlin Conference, 102, 175
Bible translation, 220
Bicycles, 114
Bishop, Mrs. Isabella Bird, 27
Black Sea, 16
Blind asylum, 223
Boards, mission, 243, 247, 249,
281sq-, 290, 349, 358
Boats, 23
Bogue forts, 149, 154
Boma, 107

Books on China, 195, 196, 224
Boston, 20, 157
Boughton, Miss Emma, 60
Bougler, D. C., 7
Boxers and Boxer Uprising, 52, 59,
60, 62, 63, 98, 131, 187, 193 ch.
202sq,, 240, 249 ch., 259, 261
265, 273sq., 330, 331, 339, 341,
345. 359, 362
Brazil, 172
Brewer, Hon. David J., 163
Brice, Senator Calvin S., 134
Brinkley, Capt. Frank, 125, 322
British-Chinese corporation, 132
British in China, 130, 131, 134,
135, 140, 208
British Government, 234
British Museum, 40
Brockman, Mr. F. S., 287, 289
Brooke, Rev Dr. Stopford, 33
Buddha, 15
Buddhism, 29, 66, 74sq., 258, 259,
271
Bulgaria, 21
Burial, 138
Burlingame, Hon. Anson, 155, 160
Burma, lo5, 107, 151
Byron, 49
CABLES, 108, log
Calcutta, 103
California, 22, 102, 157
Cambodia, 152
Canada, 19

Canals, 39, 68

Canton, 20, 22-24, 32, 41, 132, 134,
138, 146sq., 152, 220, 221, 337,
346

Canton-Hankow R. R., 134

Cape to Cairo R. R., 104, 106
Cape Town, 104
Carts, 53-55, 84
Cash, Chinese, 61, 139

Cassini Convention, 153
Cemeteries, 70, 74

Chairs. 53, 54
Chaldea, 15, 16 .

Chalfant, Rev. Frank, 53, 59, 60
Chalmers, Rev. Dr. James, 126
Chang Chih-tung, 189, 195, 335
Chang Pei-hsi, 335

Chao Chu, 43
Charity, 33, 34
Chedor-laomer, 16

Chefoo, 3, 13, 30, 48, 49, 138, 177s
186, 187, 225-227

Cheh-kiang, 21

Chester, Rev. Dr S. H., 75
Chieng-mai, 107

Chih li, 21, 196, 293, 308, 342,
344, 348

Children, Chinese, 19, 23, 38, 72,

China, 107; achievements, 3gsq.;
area, 17, 36; army, 316, 345;
attitude towards foreigners, 35 sq
ch., 69, 145, 147, 148, 231, 258,
267, 270, 320, 328, 330, 335Sq341-344,
351; awakening, 7,
changes in, 112, character of
people, 2Ssq. ch., 35sq. ch., 47;
civilization, 23, 2Ssq. ch., 35sq.
ch., llo, 112, 116, 119, 315;
climate, 18; colonies, 42, 44
, 154 ch.; conservatism, 35,
19v; customs, 2Ssq., 73, 8Ssq.;
defects, 27sq.; fertility, 136; foreign
trade, 1215q.; future, 305sq.,
331, 332, 333 ch.; Government,
28, 29, 41, 47, 48, 130-145, 333
338 ; history, 39; language, 8
25; learning, 40; life in, 358,
opening, 102; partition, 307sq.;
peculiarities, 25sq.; people of,

2sch., 38, 97, 98, 157, 228sq-,
314, 352, 353; population,
18-22, 36, 135, 315; prejudices,
317; religion, 31, 137, 138, 315;
resources, 18, 315; scenery, 22,
80; scholarship, 40; society, 40,
41 soldiers, g2sq., 222; treaties
with, 17Isq.; vices, 27sq., 46

China Inland Mission, 201, 239,
3oo

China and Japan, 309, 314
China-Japan War, 179, 180, 189,
Chinan-fu, 45, 53, 63, 132,296, 339
~' China's Only Hope,'' 189, Igo
Chinese abroad, 42, 141

Chinese in the United States, 41,
44, 1545q., 331, 343

Ching-chou-fu, 30, 6Isq., 277, 296
Ching-ting, 133
Chining-chou, 47, 67, 68, 261, 343
Chin-kiang, 132
Chou-ping, 63
Christendom, duty of, 351
Christians, American and European,
286sq
Christians, Chinese, 63, 116, 117,
167, 198, 220, 222sq., 228,
268 ch., 280 ch., 294, 346, 347,
risti 356, 361

167sq, 219Sq., 222sq. Part IV.,
259, 264, 268 ch., 287, 292, 349,
Christianity vs. civilization, 126sq.
Chung Hui Wang, 43
Chung-wan-tao, 182
Church, Chinese, 268 ch., 280 ch
294, 368
Church, Greek, 311, 312
Cities of China, 20, 21, 47, 124,
292, 367
Civilization, Chinese, 23, 25ch
35ch., llo, 112, 116, 119, 315
Western, 26, 27, 31, 39, 40, 43,
88, 328, 351, 354

Civilization vs. Christianity, 126sq
Civil power, 236 ch.

Civil War, American, 359
Classics, Chinese, 25, 40

Classics, hall of, 71
Climate of China, 18, 84
Clocks, 113
Coal, 18, 47, 130, 132, 136
Cochin-China, 152
Coffee, 146
Coffins, 25, 38, 59, 138
Colleges, 296, 339, 340

Colonies, European, 145 ch., 174 ch.
Colonization, Chinese, 42, 44, 141,
154ch.

Colquhoun, A. R., 44
Columbia University, 340
Comity, 290

Commerce, 40, lol, log, 117, 121,
126, 136, 305

Commercial Pacific Cable, 108, log
Compass, 39
Conceit, 42
Concessions, 348
Concubinage, 72

Conferences, Kuling, 347; Shanghai,
295

Confucius and Confucianism, 15,
30-32, 382 47, 65 Ch., 328, 334,
34o

Conger, Hon. Edwin H., 207, 265,
329

Congo, 104,107; International Association
of, 102; State, 173

Conservatism of Chinese, 35, 191
Consuls, 154, 236, 245,262, 263,316
Conveyances, 53
Coolies, 23, 41, 50
Cooper, Rev. Wm., 202, 206

Cooperation, mission, 290, 2g4sq.

Cowright laws, 348
Corbett, Rev. Dr. Hunter, 225,226
Corruption, official, 27, 28, 3z
Corvino, John de, 219
Cost of living, X l lsq., 280
Cotton, 122
Counties, 367
Coup d'etat, 192, 338, 344, 345
Courses, ten righteous, 72
Courts, 28, 228, 234, 348
Crickets, 23
Cruelty, 29, 30
Crusades, 194, 361
Cuba, 312
374 I
Customs, 2Ssq., 73, 8Ssq.; mari
tlme, 191, 317
Czar of Russia, 18
DALAI LAMA, 19
Dalny, 131, 180sq.
Damascus, lo5
Danube, 16
Darwin, Charles, 129
Davis, Hon. J. C. B. 156, 238
Deaf and Dumb Asyium, 223, 225

Decrees, imperial, 335-338
Defects of Chlnese, 27sq.
Degrees, 335sq.
Denby, Hon. Charles, 264, 290
Denmark, 171
Dewey, Admiral, 306
Dickens, Charles, 34
Diedrich, Admiral, 176
Diffusion Society, 189
Diplomacy, 145, 16Ssq., 236ch.,

246, 262, 348
Discoveries of Chinese, 39sq.
Dishonesty, 28
Donkeys, 53, 84
Drunkenness, 46
Dutch in China, 146, 147, 175
Dye-shops, 23
EAST INDIA COMPANY, 102, 147
220
Economic revolution, I I I sq.,

280 ch.
Edicts, imperial, 335-338; reform,
190, 191; Yuan Shih Kai's, 343
Education, 190, 191, 335-338, 339
Egypt, 16, 107
Electricity, 103, 1075q.^ 114
Elephants, 107
Elgin, Lord, 166
Eliot, George, 33
Elterich, Rev. W. 0,, 48
Embezzlers, 28
Embroidery, 23-61
Emperor, 72, 80, 113, 190, 197,
198 317 3264, 325, 326, 338, 343,

Emperor, German, 318
Empress, Dowager, 188, 193, 324,
338, 344, 345, 365
England and the English, 16, 17,
21, 41, 117, 128, 1465q., 166
171, t72, 173, 174, 175, 181, 182
212, 239, 307, 308, 309,349,351
355, 363; soldiers of, 321324
Essays, examination, Igo, 335sq.
Etiquette, Chinese, 37
Euphrates, 16
Europe, 17, 30, 39, 106, 107, 108,
307, 308, 309, 318
Europeans, 26, 87, 88, 124, 126,
145 ch.
's Ever Victorious Army,'' 222
Examinations, Igo, 212, 335sq.;
Grounds, 325
Exclusion laws, 158, 184
Exposition, St. Louis, 160
Extra-territoriality, 150, 184-186
FACE, 37, 38
Fan-tai, 48
Fares, railway, 140, 141
Faris, Rev. W. W., 81
Farmers, 40; farms, 18, 21, 46
Favier, Bishop, 199
Fay Chi Ho, 161, 322
FFeasts, 6r, 69, 81, 8Ssq., 95
Fei-hsien, 96
Fenn, Rev. Dr. C. H., 28, 31
Field, Rev. Dr. Henry M., 247
Firearms, 39
Fitch, Rev. J. A., 60
``Five Points,'' 355
Five-story Pagoda, 23, 24
Floods, 191, 192
Flour, 122
Foochow, 150, 182, 221
Food, 8Ssq.
Fong-king, 153
Forbidden City, 197
Foreigners in China, 23, 26, 27,

3Ssq., 69, 97, 124-126, 142,
145 ch., 151, 156, 162, 167sq.
175sq., 184 ch., 264, 320 ch.,

327, 328, 351
Formosa, 146, 312

Foster, Hon. John W., 102, 166,
265

Fowler, Consul John, 52, 91, 329,
342

France, 16, 21, 117, 171, 172, 173,

174, 175, 180, 181, 182, 186,
212, 236, 251, 350

Franco-Chinese Convention, 135
Freight, railway, 141
French in China, 44, 134, 135, 140,
151, 152, 153, 208, 307, 308,
309, 334; soldiers, 321, 323,
324
Fruit in China, 226
Frye, Senator, 363
Fuel, 47
Fukien, 21, 336
Funerals, 74
Fnng-shuy, 75sq.
Fusan, lo5

Future of China, 331, 332, 333 ch.
GAMBLING, 28, 124
Gardens, 46
Gaselee, General, 208
Gelatine, 39
Genseric, 315
Georgia, 21
Gerard, M., 350
Germans, 40, 44, 54, 58, 60, 82,

93, 97, 132, 139, 140, 321, 323,
331, 334, 339, 340

Germany, 16, 41, 117, 118, 172

173, 174, 175, 176, 179, 180
182, 208, 212, 307, 308, 309,

Germany, Emperor of, 318
Gibson, Rev. Dr. J. Campbell, 28

71, 75, 269, 270

Gin, cotton, 103
Gladstone, Wm. E., 369
Gleaning, 46
Glue, 39
Goatskins, 123
Golden Rule, 184
Goodnow, Consul-General, 123,
Gordon, Charles George, 222, 306
Gorst, Harold E., 124
Goths, 315

v,,
Gould, Miss Annie A., 201, 206
Government, 48, 236 ch.
Government, Chinese, 28, 29, 41,
130, 145, 231, 333, 334, 338;
Church, 300; constitutional, 120
Governments, foreign, 362sq.
Governors, 48
Governor of Canton, 147sq.
Gracey, Rev. Dr. J. T., 20
Grain, 46
Grand Canal, 68
Grant, General, 41
Graves, Bishop, 31, 138, 139, 346
Gray, Willls E., 134
Great Bell Temple, 39
Great Britain, see England
Greek Church, 169, 183, 311, 312
Griffis, Rev. Dr. William Elliott,
32
Guatama, 15
Gunpowder, 39
HAMLIN, REV. DR. CYRUS, 364
Hai-fong, 135
Haight, Hon. H. H., 157
IIainan, 22
Hall of Classics, 71
Hangchow, 132
Hankow, 133, 134
Harrison, Hon. Benjamin, 266
Hart, Sir Robert, 193, 230, 243,
316, 3179 332, 334, 354,
Harte, Bret, 43, 44
Harvest, 46
Hawaiians, 127
Hawes, Miss Chnrlotte, 60
Hay, Hon. John, 183, 188, 238,
33o
Hayes, Rev. Dr. W. M., 340, 353
Haystack prayer-meeting, 368
Health precautions, go
Heard, Hon. Augustin, 309, 310
Hedin, Sven, 18, 19, 40
Hill, James J., 109
History of China, 39
Hodge, Dr. C. V. A., 201-211
Holcombe, Hon. Chester, 43, 160,
H 116129 187, 308, 314, 315
Honant klt 133, 335
376 In

Hongkong, 22, 122, 150, ISIsq.
Hong merchants, 148, 149
Horrors Temple of, 74
Hospitaiity, 95, 96, 98
Hospitals, 82, 223, 265
Hostility to foreigners, 35sq. ch.
House, Rev, Herbert E., 340
House-boats, 23
Houses, 31, 39, 47, 61, 62
Hsiang-tan-hsien, 20
Hsi-an-fu, 219
Hsi-an-tai, 59
Hsiens, 367
Hunan, 22, 337
Hungary, 21
Hung-Wu, Emperor, 40
Huns, 315
Hunter, Rev. Dr. S. A., 261
Ilupeh, 21, 337

ICIIOU-FU, 132, 229, 356
Illinois, 21, 22

Immorality, 28, 29, 124
Imperial Railway, 131

Indemnity, 59, 69, 155, 159, 211,
212, 330, 334

India, 28, 29, 102, 105, 107, 114,

117, 1 19, 307, 313, 314, 361;
Churches in, 299

Indiana, 21, 22
Indus, 16
Inns, 69-88. 95
Intemperance, 124, 126, 128

International Eastern Co., 133
Inventions, 112

Inventions of Chinese, 39sq.
Iron, 18, 136

Irrawaddy, 105

Italy, 172-174 175, 212; soldiers

ofw 325

JAPAN, 17, 36, 101, 105, log, 111,
114, 167, 172, 173, 179, 182, 194,
212, 307, 308,309, 314, 337, 350;
Churches in, 299, 301

yapan WeekEy MviS, 125, 322

Japanese, 29, 44, 117, 118, 119,

305, 306, 312, 313, 317, 320,
321, 328, 329.

Jenghiz Khan, 318

Jerusalem, 105
Jewelry, 23
Jews, 4xsq., 217, 218
Johnson, Dr. Chas. F., 68, 91~ 229
Jones, Mr. A. G., 62
Junks, 130
KAI PING, 130
Kameruns, 108
Kansas 22
Kan-su 22, 66
Kao-liang, 46
Kaomi, 57
Kassai, 107
Khartoum, 104
Kai-feng-fu, 133, 217
Kentucky, 21, 22
Kerosene, sr3
Kiang-si, 21, 336
Kiang-su, 22, 336
Kiao-chou, 53, 57, 97; Bay of, 176
Kidd, Benjamin, 33, 364
Kien Lung, Emperor, 80
King of Siam, 114, 119
Kitchener, Lord, 104
Korea, 102, 105, 107, 108, x 16,
117, 1 19, 132, 172, 284, 312,
313, 338; Churches in, 299
Kowloon, 134, 135, 151
Kuang Hsii, 317
Kuang Hsum, 338
Ku-chou, 82
Ku-fu, 6gsq.
Kuling, 347, 368
Kung Hsiang Hsi, 161
Kwamouth, 107
Kwang-si, 22
Kwan-tung, 22, 41, 336
Kwei-chou, 21
Kwei Heng, 209
LAMA, Dalai, 19
Lama Temple, 29
Lamps, 113
Land-tax, 28
Lane, Rev. Wm., 162, 261
Language, Chinese, 8, 25
Laos, 102-107, 108-117, 284
Lao-tse, 15
Lassa, x9

Laughlin, Rev. J. H., 53, 68, 261,
343
Laws, 336
Lawsuits,228ch., 251,257, 3X2,349
Learning, 40
Lecky, W. E. H., 365, 366
Legations, 212, 326, 327; Seige of,
193sq.
Legge, Dr., 71
Letters of a Chinese Official,
31sq, 327, 354
Li, 57
Llao-tung, 179
Liberty, Religious 119
Li Hung Chang, 41, 76, 338, 344
Likin, 348
Lincoln, President, 360
Liquor, 128
Litters, 54
Liu Kan Ji, 41
Liu-kung, 181
Liu Kun vi 41, t95
Living, Cost of, Illsq.
Livingstone, David, 102
Locomotives, 103, 104sq., 123, 133,
136, 142
Loess, 45
London, 32
London Missionary Society, 220,
292, 296
Looms, 103
Looting, 324
Louisiana, 22
Louisiana Purchase Exposition,
160, 161
Lov e, Henry P., 104
Low, Hon. Frederick F., 155, 185,
Loweil, James Russell, 120, 128,
Lowrie, Rev. Dr. John, 103
Lowrie, Rev. J. Walter, 201, 203,
208, 209, 352
Lucas, Rev. Dr. J. J., 285
Lu Han Railway, 133
Lumber, 123
Luther, Martin, 364
Lyon, Dr. C. H., 53, 68, 343
MACAO, 134, 146, 147, 220

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